Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to kill someone…on accident.”
Kellan stiffened. I grew wary as fury formed in his eyes.
“You have something you want to say?” He grew quiet. Too quiet.
A chill slithered down my spine. “You’re right, Kellan. We don’t do nice things. You’re a demon. We’re all demons.”
His eyes pierced mine. “We’re not demons, Shay.”
“No, we just come from demon blood. There’s a big difference, isn’t there?”
Kellan pulled me from the wall and against him. “Our mother was conceived by a demon. Yes, we have demon blood in us, but that doesn’t make us demonic or evil or murderers. It just makes us not nice people, but we’re not demons, Shay.”
I kept quiet. He was reassuring himself, too.
Kellan took a breath, brushed some hair away from my face, and tried to compose himself. He added, forcing a lighter tone, “And you’re wrong. This isn’t what I wanted last night. I want you to stop denying who you are. It’s dangerous. You snapped just now. You altered those guys for the rest of their lives. If you’d stop denying yourself, you wouldn’t have done that by accident. You need to control yourself.”
Holding my breath, I unwound Kellan’s grip from my arm and pushed him back a step. He teetered backward, then took another step away.
“Fine, you’re right.” My voice was unsteady in the wake of such intensity. “I’ll…practice my powers. I won’t do something like that again. I promise.”
Kellan didn’t say anything. He turned and nodded once, with his back slightly turned from me. He ducked his head and pushed his hands into his pockets.
I knew what that meant when he took that stance. He was off, and he needed to re-center himself. I shook my head, more to clear my thoughts than to deny what had happened. But then again…what had just happened?
Kellan shook his head. “I’m not really sure.”
“What?” I looked up, confused.
“You just asked what happened. I don’t know why you snapped. What were you feeling?” He swung those composed sapphire eyes to me again. The old Kellan was back, smooth, controlled, and oh so dangerous. He wasn’t riled any longer.
I narrowed my eyes at him, thinking it hadn’t been hard to push Kellan’s buttons.
He doesn’t get that pissed with me.
Gus was right when she’d said those words.
“Shay?” Kellan prompted.
“Oh yeah. Uh…what was I feeling?” I shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess…I wasn’t sure actually. I just wanted—I was frustrated. I wanted to help that kid, but I knew I really couldn’t. Those guys would be beating him up later this afternoon and then you were there…I don’t know. I just ‘snapped,’ I guess. It won’t happen again.”
Kellan nodded and pulled me in for a hug.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against his shoulder for a second. He was a lot of things, probably none of it was good, but he was my brother. And I knew that Kellan would do anything for me. Anything.
“Anyway,” I pulled away and muttered awkwardly.
“Go ahead.” Kellan read my mind and gestured around the corner. “I’ve got some things to do. I’ll see you in humanities.”
Humanities it was. That wasn’t until seventh period, the only period I shared with Kellan and my other siblings. Kellan was a senior. I was a junior, where Gus and Vespar were both sophomores—twins. We tried to share one elective class a semester, and humanities was the chosen class this time.
I turned and left. I didn’t want to ask what he’d be doing the entire day. I didn’t want to know. And really, a big reason why I snapped was the pressure I always felt from Kellan. It was for the best if he was gone, for right now.
“That’s new,” Giuseppa drawled as she stopped by my locker.
I turned and looked. Sure enough—Scott, Luke, and Pete were walking down the hallway. Both Scott and Pete had their arms on Luke’s shoulder, leaning in as if sharing a joke.
We weren’t the only ones watching. Everyone in the hallway stopped to stare.
“It’s the talk of the school,” Gus informed me. She flipped her golden curls over her shoulder and hugged a book against her blue tank top. She eyed me, knowingly. “It’s almost like someone magically told them to be friends.”
Rolling my eyes, I retorted, “Shut up. I already got an earful from Kellan this morning.”
“Yeah, well, you should listen to him. You changed their lifelines permanently. That’s serious, not something I could pull off. I know that much. But still, Shay, there are others who are tuned into that stuff. They’ll know a big player’s in town now.”
I scoffed at the idea of being a ‘big player.’ “I’m hardly that, Gus. I just… It’s not that big of a deal. He’s not getting his underwear stuffed into his mouth anymore.”
“Whatever. It’s kind of funny, though.”
“What is?” I was wary.