“Definitely.” That’s code for he has found someone to get with while he’s there.
“Mmmm. And what’s her name?” I ask, picking up my belongings and making my way out our door to the showers. We could have lived off campus, but neither of us could really afford it right now, which is another reason we settled for a two-bedroom dorm. It’s nice enough to call home.
“Ahhh, you will have to wait until the weekend because she’s coming with us.”
I drop my shit on the counter and shuffle out of my clothes. “Fine. Are you finished? I need to shower.”
“No! What do you want for dinner? That’s why I called. It’s my turn to cook, but I can’t be fucked.”
“Anything. I’m not that hungry tonight. More tired.”
“Oh?” he asks, and I know I’m not getting rid of him anytime soon, so I switch ears and make my way to the showers.
“It’s no big…it’s just—” Do I tell him? My best friend who can read me like the fucking alphabet? He’s going to see my lies all over my face when he digs, so maybe I can give him a ploy for now. I don’t think I’m ready to admit that a certain someone is occupying all my damn time. “—nothing. I’m due for my period, so I’m being extra sensitive.”
“Oh!” he brushes me off. “Need some tampons or some shit?”
“Ben…”
“Maybe some ice cream?”
My Ben, always trying to take care of me.
My smile softens. “Okay, I’m leaving you now.”
“I know, vodka and ice—” I hang up on him, chuckling while tossing my phone onto the counter with my clothes. I rush through the shower, scrubbing up in half the time before stepping out and into my shower slippers. I scroll through Instagram on my way back, flipping through Ben’s story. He’s a ho. A different girl every week will have his attention, but does he ever talk about them with me? No. So who is this one and what makes her different? Maybe he’ll finally settle down. God can only hope.
Kicking my door closed, I toss all of my things into my room and shuffle into one of Ben’s oversized shirts I’ve officially claimed as my own that stops above my knee and some knitted socks. Ben won’t be back for another hour, so I grab my laptop and open up my assignment.
School sucks. I’m here because I’m doing what every other person does at my age, but there’s a lingering ache that continues to pound deep in my gut anytime I think about the future. I can never see it. I’ve tried, but all I see is nothing.
I see nothing.
Dark clouds fall around the bridge like a rainfall of destruction. A loud thumping sounds behind my ears, and anytime I try to look around to see where it’s coming from, I’m met with an empty street shaded by fog. I can barely see three steps ahead of me.
I turn back to the bridge that’s sticking out of the fat clouds, taking a careful step closer. The sound gets louder—so loud I feel the drum beating against my head. I just want to see what’s over it. What’s on the other side of this bridge? It has to be—a dark cloak falls from the sky in a rush and I stumble backward, falling on my back, a loud scream tearing from my lips. I barely finish screaming when I feel something force itself down my throat. My veins ripple from fire and my legs buzz like static.
I think I am dying. This is it. I’m dying…
I shoot up from the bed, sweat sticking my sheets to my clammy body. My heart stammers in my chest as I try to catch my breath. What the fuck is happening? I’ve never had nightmares before, ever, and this marks two in one week. But that’s not the strangest part. It’s the realness of it. I felt the pain. The utter defeat that fell over me when the other side of that bridge grew farther from my grasp.
Squeezing my eyes closed, I rub them with the palm of my hand when the wind’s gentle touch caresses me from around the nape of my neck. Goosebumps break out over my flesh when the sharpness of ice slides down the apex of my spine in the next breath. I shiver loudly but pause when a sense of wonder falls over me. It’s…different. Puzzling. Almost as if it’s right there. A heavy sense of hate and need twisting together into a suffocating tornado, but while I feel it, I also…don’t. Like it’s outside of me. Without touch.
Like it’s not mine…
The thought is troubling, especially since I’ve always been keenly in tune with the emotions of others around me. Everyone has always called me an empath, and I believe it. I know when Ben is upset, sad, happy. It’s never that I can see it and read him; it’s that I feel it, but this? This is stronger, more, in every sense of the word.
With furrowed brows and trembling fingers, I grip the edges of Ben’s shirt, pulling it up my body to wipe the sweat from my brow, and instantly, I’m slammed with a sense of soul-crushing possessiveness, so strong it makes me gasp. The shirt falls from my fingertips and the hairs at the base of my neck stand when I feel the weight of eyes on me.
I jump from my bed, a yelp leaving my mouth slightly as I reach for my bedside lamp, but I knock my phone off instead. Finally, I clamber for it enough to find the switch and light fills my room, blinding me in the process.
An empty spot in my room stares back at me, and for the first time ever, I think maybe I’m going crazy.
Eight
Knight
There have been three times in my life that I’ve known I don’t want to be here. At Rathe U. The first time was when I was told I’d have to come. Naturally rebellious, I hated anyone telling me what to do. My beast hated it too…
The second time was when I was late to my first day. Royals aside, I didn’t want any extra attention on me, and I got it that day.
The third time? Is now. Right the fuck now because I am one hundred percent certain that the seconds here feel like hours, and the hours like days, and the days like weeks, and well, catch my drift. Everything drags on.
My heavy boots slap across the long marble pathway. The front of the school is where the main entrance building and our sleeping quarters are, with the rest of the buildings separated and scattered around into sections. The monsters all stay in one area, as well as the vampires, the Lycan, the Ordinaries, and the Power Banks. All Power Banks, who fall into the Ordinary category, have no true power worthwhile yet. They’re above the catacombs, where the bloodthirsty monsters all reside. Since the blood suckers can’t feed off them, they’re safest there.
The rest of us… on the other hand…
I drop down onto a chair, watching as groups of Gifted walk through. Same shit, different fucking day. Before Sin starts going off about whatever bullshit he’s got on his mind, all of our phones vibrate, and we reach for them to see who it’s from.
Father: Your mother and I will be in town at witching hour tomorrow. Make sure all of you are present.
I glare at my phone. There it is. Legend had warned us at the party they were coming, but tomorrow? That’s earlier than even he expected, if the look of concern on his face tells me anything. Our parents haven’t made a random drop-by at the school since—well, I can’t remember the last time.
Actually, I can.
“What the fuck are we missin’？” Legend takes a bite of his apple. We all know what he wishes it was .