God of Malice

Glyndon tries to bargain and fight back as the man chokes her and tries to assault her. She realizes that he wants power over her and will make things worse if she fights back, though she keeps trying anyway. After violently assaulting her, he takes another picture of her and then effortlessly pulls her away from the edge. He calls Glyndon by her name before contentedly walking away, leaving Glyndon dazed and confused.

Glyndon contemplates dying or going to the police as she drives home. She decides to keep the secret to herself as she thinks about how her family would react to her covering for a predator. Glyndon returns to the imposing King family estate. She comes from a family of renowned artists yet feels out of place among her parents and older twin brothers. Glyndon is a painter like her mother yet doesn’t believe she’s as talented and is unsure about her own style. She enters her studio and begins to paint a dark picture of her emotions, which shocks her. Her brother Brandon finds her and compliments the painting’s raw passion, but Glyndon makes him promise not to tell their mother about it. Brandon tells her that the family is worried about her after Devlin’s death, but Glyndon believes she needs to keep all her emotions hidden and refuses to talk about it.

The next morning, Glyndon texts her two best friends, Ava and Cecily, with whom she plans to leave for the next semester of college. Ava and Cecily are both sad to leave their families, but Glyndon is happy to leave hers. At breakfast, her family wonders where Glyndon has been all night, and they reference the possibility of her being attacked when she admitted she was roaming around outside at night. They also talk about her other brother, Landon, whom Glyndon and Brandon avoid at school because he acts pompous and superior around them. Just before leaving, Glyndon gets a text from an unknown number reading, “Maybe you should’ve died with Devlin, huh? After all, that was the plan, wasn’t it?” (40).

Glyndon returns to school at Royal Elite University (REU) on the secluded Brighton Island, where she was the night before. In addition to REU, a prestigious and exclusive British university, Brighton Island contains an equally prestigious American college, The King’s University, which is rumored to have ties to the Russian mafia. Students from the two colleges feud together over their old and new money statuses, and REU students are warned to stay away from King’s U students. As Glyndon, Ava, and Cecily walk up to campus, they’re stopped by an American student named Annika and are surprised to learn that she’s enrolled at REU rather than King’s U. The women playfully bicker with their charming friend Remi and Glyndon’s apathetic cousin Creighton—two close friends in the business college. However, Glyndon can’t engage in their friendly banter because she keeps feeling as if someone’s watching her. Feeling her vision going blurry and anxiety taking over, Glyndon begins to back away from the group. She’s suddenly stopped by a strong hand clamping over her mouth, and she hears the voice of her attacker from the cliffs.

Glyndon thinks she’s having a panic attack as she looks into the eyes of her attacker, who tells her not to scream when he removes his hand. He keeps his hand around her throat to maintain power over her, and Glyndon threatens to report him to the police, but he isn’t scared. He admits that he isn’t sure what he wants with Glyndon but that he’s unusually interested in her and will be keeping his eye on her.

When he leaves, Ava and Annika find Glyndon, and Annika tells them that the man is Killian Carson, a fourth-year medical student from King’s U who is best friends with her brother. Glyndon is unsure how someone from King’s U would know of her; the only person she knew from that school was Devlin. She thinks about two notorious secret societies at King’s U—the Heathens and the Serpents—which supposedly have mafia ties. Both groups are exclusive, secretive, and hate one another as well as REU’s secret society, the Elites. Annika’s brother Jeremy—who is rumored to be a murderer and the leader of the Heathens—has warned Annika to stay away from Killian, a warning she passes on to Glyndon.

The narration switches to Killian’s perspective. He discusses his need for control and claims to keep his murderous desires in check by performing smaller acts of evil, knowing that if he let himself do what he actually wanted, he’d upset his parents. He recalls showing his parents animals he dissected as a child and how their horror led to his undergoing various psychiatric treatments. From that moment at age seven, Killian knew he wanted to kill. As an adult, Killian has given up psychiatric treatments for his malicious tendencies while maintaining a perfect facade for his family and others to see.

At the mansion his family bought, Killian attends a party with his brother Gareth, his cousin Nikolai, and Annika’s brother Jeremy, and feels superior to all the people he sees. Killian teases his brother about tampering with his car brakes and killing him, as he sees Gareth as the perfect child his parents always wanted. Killian’s narration reveals that much of King’s U and its donors are connected to the mafia and that the rivalry between the Heathens and the Serpents links to power plays in the larger culture of the mob. Killian thinks about Glyndon as he almost assaults another woman. He reveals that he feels more powerfully about Glyndon than others who have experienced his cruelty, and he mentions that he came across her only because he was investigating Devlin’s death.

At Ava’s insistence, Glyndon, Cecily, and Annika go to an underground fight club between students of REU and King’s U—in which many believe the chancellors of each university are involved. Glyndon’s brother Landon is the president of REU’s Elites club and is attending the fight along with their other cousin, Eli, to support Creighton, who is fighting for REU. Annika is afraid her brother, Jeremy, will be mad if he sees her there, so she wants to leave, but Jeremy soon arrives with Killian. Jeremy forces Annika to leave, and Cecily and Ava go after her in protest, leaving Glyndon alone with Killian. Though still terrified of him, Glyndon worries about the attraction she has started to feel toward Killian. She’s shocked when he asks her to go for a drive with him, and he threatens to take her with him with or without her consent. To prove that he’ll return her afterward, he offers to fight in the next round and lose; however, he says he’ll put Creighton in the hospital if she leaves.

As Killian prepares to fight Creighton, Ava tells Glyndon what she learned from Annika about the Heathens’ hierarchy and links to the mafia. Despite his promise to Glyndon, Killian doesn’t go easy on Creighton, quickly bloodying him, though Creighton doesn’t cede. Only after Glyndon shouts his name does Killian give in and let Creighton beat him. After the match, Glyndon walks outside, intending to call an Uber to go home, but Killian arrives and reminds her of their deal (in which she had no say).

Though he’s dripping with blood, Killian forces Glyndon into his car. Glyndon realizes that Killian must have antisocial personality disorder—which she knows about because of people like Landon and Creighton—and that he rarely experiences a “single socially acceptable emotion” (93). Killian molests Glyndon again while lecturing her about how it’s something she wants. Glyndon feels shame as she’s brought to orgasm, and her shame increases when Killian guesses that she’s a virgin.

Killian taunts Glyndon and pries out personal information before taking her to a secluded spot in the woods. Though he jokes about bringing bodies to this place, he really goes to a lake surrounded with fireflies to be alone. He takes a picture of Glyndon among the fireflies and worries about how much he likes talking to her.