Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 150546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 753(@200wpm)___ 602(@250wpm)___ 502(@300wpm)
My hand catches the back of his neck. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“And with everything else going on between us all, you couldn’t find a better way to tell us?”
Saliva burns my throat when I swallow. “I know. The EKC comes first. I know.”
“That’s not what I mean,” he growls, and I know he’s fighting with himself. He wants to yell at me. “I mean, you’ve been dealing with this on top of that.”
“Oh.” I blink, as we finally get to the top.
I tap at his neck to let me down, but his eyes snap to mine with a harsh snarl.
My eyes roll.
His arm tenses around me. “Roll your eyes like that again, Halen, and I’ll toss you off this cliff myself. This time leaving you there to fucking drown just to teach you a lesson.”
We reach the car and he holds me with one arm while using the other to open the door. He slides me inside as Priest shuffles out of his hoodie and throws it to my lap. As soon as I’m nestled in warmth, I sigh.
“The girls filled us in on a little, but not all.” Priest leans forward, just enough that I can feel him close. His eyes soften around the edges for a moment. That one percent that still exists inside of him is the only reason why he isn’t locked up in a padded room. “We need to know everything, and you need to talk right now.”
My throat crackles when I try to clear it as Stella hands me a bottle of water, her thigh pressing against mine. I relax knowing she and River are close.
A sip just enough to coat my voice, before holding the plastic in my hand. There are moments that happen in your life that you’re met with one of two options. Kind of like a crossroads. If you take one side, the road is bumpy, and you’ll get lost. You may even get a little scared when you can’t see around the tight bends. There’ll be times where you’ll want to turn around and wish you took the other way, but when you look around, you have the most important people in your life beside you.
Then there’s the other. A narrow, flat road with no bumps or hurdles. You’ll reach your destination quicker because the surface is smooth and straight. There are no sharp corners to fear, wondering what you’ll find on the other side, because everything is out in the open. But when you look beside yourself, not everyone will be there.
Because they’d be dead.
I’d decided what road I chose.
“It started when I was fourteen. I remember waking up in a place I don’t remember going to.” Arms snake around my belly. “I came to in a field. I don’t remember how I got there, just that I was—”
“You were with me,” War says gently. “We were at the chapel in the town center. We were all talking, and you were tired, so you went to the bench to chill. None of us thought it was weird since you had started pulling away a lot.”
A smile touches my mouth, but I don’t want it there. I want to carve it off my face and throw it away. “I remember turning around and War was standing on the other side, staring at me. He was mad. I don’t know why. I didn’t think anything of it.”
“So you just black out?” Vaden asks with a curved brow. “This curse makes you black out?” He’s staring back at me with an empty void, one I’d never seen on him before. Speaking of changing…
I shake my head. “Not so simply. I guess I get sleepy, and then I see figments in my mind.”
“What are you trying to say?” Priest leans back in his chair. “That you’re hallucinating?”
If only.
Forcing away my tears, the muscles in my body tense when everything closes in around me.
“I’ve been trying to work it out, and then I found—” I flex my fingers when the words don’t find me. “—some help. It came in the way of a palm-sized notebook.”
“This is sounding familiar,” Priest muses, a jab at our mother.
I shake my head. “No. It wasn’t Tacet a Mortuis, or a family grimoire.”
Priest tilts his head. Oh God.
“This one is different. For one, it’s tiny, and the words written inside are in a different language, not Latin. I’m not even sure I recognize it.” I stare between them, and just before I’m about to continue, Priest’s eyes flick to War before quickly resting back at me.
That was something. I don’t bother to touch on it. “It’s formatted like a recipe book, I think.”
War’s thigh tenses against mine.
“Where did you find this book?” Vaden asks, not stupid enough to look at anyone else but me. Probably honing in one of his many creepy skills.