Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
I take another swig.
“Don’t be mean,” she replies. “You know I’ve been busy, trying to get my things in order.”
I stare at her. “Weren’t you supposed to go back to your old college right around this time?”
She laughs. “And you ask me that now? We’re already more than a month into the new year.”
“Right, sorry. I’m not really aware of time.”
She grabs my glass of wine. “Maybe drink a little less.”
I snatch it back. “Excuse you. That belongs to me. Thank you very much.” I swirl the wine around. “Besides, I need it to feel … something.” I groan to myself.
“Something bothering you?” she asks.
“The usual. Lack of stimulation.”
“What you need is a girlfriend.”
I nearly spit out my wine. “Preposterous.”
“Is it?”
“My heart can only handle one muse,” I say, rolling my eyes.
She leans onto the palm of her hand. “Ooooh … Who is it?”
Shit. I said too much.
“Death,” I reply, and she rolls her eyes.
Full-blown panic mode subverted.
“But tell me, what made you decide not to go back there? I thought Mom and Dad had shipped you off on purpose.”
She throws me a damning look while putting a bunch of grapes in her mouth. “Ha-ha, very funny. It was actually my own choice. But I didn’t really like it there, to be honest. The boys were insufferable.”
My brows rise. “And you think they’re better here?” I burst out into full-blown laughter.
“I know people here,” she adds, staring at Aspen’s little group of girls across the cafeteria, which is all women right now.
I take another sip. “Uh-huh. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with your new friend.”
“What?” Her eyes widen. “I wasn’t even looking at them.”
I narrow my eyes. “Sure, you weren’t.”
“There’s nothing happening. What do you even see?”
“Everything.” I wriggle my brows.
She chucks a grape at my face. “I’m trying to make friends after switching colleges. Is that so wrong?”
“Nothing wrong if you ask me,” I muse, smiling like an idiot.
“Grow up. It’s not like you’re so innocent either. You’ve been gawking at Sunny for months on end now. When are you going to make a move?”
“How do you know I haven’t already?”
Her jaw drops. “Oh my God, Orion. You did not.”
“I have a death wish. I thought you already knew about that.”
She leans forward with both hands on the table. “Did you ask her out?”
“Oh, it’s gone way beyond that already.”
She giggles all giddy and stuff. “I can’t believe it. Orion Navarro and Sunny Reed are dating?”
I smash my fingers onto her lips. “Don’t. Don’t say it out loud. Besides, we’re not official.”
“Or she’ll kill you?” she whispers.
“If only,” I lament, taking another sip.
“You are weird. You know that, right?”
“Wanting to die by the hands of a goddess is not weird. It’s devotion. Commitment. My life, my fortitude, my being, belongs to her entirely.”
She snorts. “All right, all right, I get it. You’re nearly drooling over your wine.”
I snatch one of her crackers and stuff it into my mouth. “I just don’t want to disappoint my only muse.”
I pull my notebook from my pocket as well as my pen and write down more words.
“Lemme read those.” Cecelia steals the paper right from underneath my nose, and I wince.
“Hey!”
She reads through them at a crazy speed. “Wow. Obsessive, but wow. These are good.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah,” she says. “But you need to start writing about something other than death.”
“Impossible.” My curly blond hair slowly forms a curtain around my face as I lower it to the table so I don’t have to look at her. “I yearn to be relinquished from the bond that ties me to this earth.”
“Melodramatics will not land you the girl, Orion.”
“Neither will sharing her, but here we are.”
She frowns. “Sharing?”
“You thought I was her only plaything?” I laugh. “The sun gets easily bored with games.”
Suddenly, several police officers swarm the cafeteria, and almost all students stop talking as they crash our lunch breaks.
“Everybody out. Head back to your dorms, quietly and orderly. Those who live off campus must report to our temporary station outside. You must all vacate the property now.”
“What?” I mutter, staring at the cops, whose voices blast through the cafeteria.
“Spine Ridge University is going on lockdown. No one gets in, no one goes out.”
CHAPTER 32
Xavier
The doors to the Skull & Serpent library are slammed closed by the dean, and I jolt up from my seat just from the way he waltzes in. The noise instantly dies down between the Carusos, Riveras, Torres, Navarros, Reeds, Prestons, and Fletchers. All the kids are gathered here, because it’s one of the very few places left where the cops don’t dare to march in unannounced. But being inside the Skull & Serpent Society still gives me the creeps. I fucking hate this place, though not as much as the Phantom Society.
“What the fuck is going on, Dad?” Silas says, scratching the back of his neck. “The cops have swarmed everywhere, and it’s all closed down now.”