Act Your Part

Prologue

Will started high school just as everyone else did, with that faint sense that this was it. It might be the best and worst years of his life, but it would lead him somewhere. This was where he needed to be if he wanted the life he had always picked out for himself.

But high school was never what he expected. He didn't expect to find love, he didn't expect to find centuries worth of secrets. And more than anything, he didn't expect to meet Nico di Angelo.

Will first saw Nico di Angelo in Algebra, the boy sitting in the back row with his head resting on his hand. His hair fell around his face, his eyelashes were long and dark. His eyes were darker than the shadows, more full than the moon. Delicate features, almost feminine. His nose and chin were both pointed, his hair curled. He was different than anything Will had ever seen.

And in the end, Nico was alright. He ended up being a good person, once his story had been told. But in the beginning, hidden beneath layers of loathing, Will fell in love with a boy who seemed to hate everyone, and who was hated by everyone. He stuck to himself, let his bad attitude roar. His grades were a permanent zero.

Until drama class, until that play was presented. Until Will Solace saw how much of an actor Nico di Angelo could be. It was his passion, his skill. It was who he was deep inside and out.

And he couldn't escape that. If Will had seen earlier, maybe he could have. But the story ended with this: a girl, a play, a grave. Maybe a crown somewhere in the mix.

And he never saw it coming.