Darkness Deceives - Katie May Page 0,3

clenched fists. “Or I’ll make you, halo boy.” An overwhelming need to slam my fist into his face drives me forward, and I pull up my scythe as he raises his bow. I take a breath to utter explosio when Karston crashes into me. I let out a surprised shout before colliding with the floor.

As I crash into the ground, a weight lifts off me, and I can see clearly once again. Literally. The rage has dissipated as quickly as it had come.

“You okay?” Kars asks, pinning me down by the shoulders.

“I’m-I’m okay. I don’t know what happened.”

“The two of you were about to kill each other, that’s what was about to happen,” Brax calls from a similar position as Kars, restraining the almighty Auston.

Karston offers me his hand and pulls me up. “I was so angry at him. I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s the Darkness,” Brax announces ominously. “It doesn’t want us to work together, which should tell us something.”

“It’s scared of us,” Auston offers.

“Exactly,” Brax responds. “There’s something about our quad that’s special, and whatever that is, the Darkness can sense it. It wants us to fight each other instead of it.”

“Makes sense,” I say, scrubbing my hands along my cheeks. “Our weapons became one twice now. That’s not fucking normal.”

“No, it’s not,” Karston agrees, pulling Brax and Auston to their feet. “There has to be more to the puzzle—something we’re missing.”

“Hadley.” Her name is painful to say amidst the fervent loss I feel inside me. “She’s the final piece of the puzzle. I just know it.”

“Then we get her back. Together.” Auston offers his hand to me, a silent apology between brothers. Without hesitation, I place my hand in his, and he yanks me to his chest, pulling me into a one-armed hug with a few pats on the back. The gesture says more than words ever could. I smack his back too, then pull away.

“Where the fuck did Jake go?” Auston exclaims suddenly, swiveling his head back and forth as he surveys the now empty hospital room. Jake’s soul is noticeably absent, a single mask on the floor where he once was. Body thrumming with uncontained fury, Auston bends down and grabs the plastic mask. “The asshole torturing Hadley was wearing this in my vision,” he hisses, jaw clenching.

And if Jake had the mask…

“Fucking Jake was the one who took Hadley!” Braxton seethes, coming to the same conclusion as me.

“All this time, it was him. The one who tied her up on that slab. The one who touched her. The one who hurt her…” Auston trails off, face contorting with murderous rage. I’m usually the calmest of my brothers, but even I can’t control the incandescent fury that courses through me at the thought of that cumtwat hurting my girl.

“But where did he go?” Brax questions, conjuring his sword as if Fucking Jake is lurking behind a door.

“Maybe he’s still alive and crawled off somewhere,” Karston suggests, but even he doesn’t sound convinced. Was the Darkness able to steal Jake’s essence completely? Or did the asshole somehow survive and leave before we could stop him?

I know he’s going to be a problem, but right now, our sole focus is Hadley. We need to get her back, the Darkness be damned.

“We’ll focus on Jake later,” Brax states firmly. “If he’s still alive, we’ll find him eventually. Right now, we need to work together to get Hadley back.”

Auston gives Brax a nod of agreement then turns to me. He opens his mouth to say something when his face grows slack, blue eyes turning white.

A premonition.

Auston drops to his knees as his eyes turn white. My brothers and I crowd around him. Every second that ticks by feels like an eternity. The sound of my pulse thrashing in my ears keeps me company as the emptiness inside me grows with each passing minute.

“What the fuck is happening?” Karston growls impatiently. “I’ve never seen a premonition take this long.”

“Then it must be important,” I say with a shrug. “It’s not like he has control over these things. They just…happen.”

“I knowwwww,” he gripes. “But did he have to pick this exact moment to have the longest fucking premonition of his entire Afterlife? I mean come on! Every moment wasted is one step further we get from Hadley.”

“You’re right,” Brax agrees. “But what can we do about it? We have no leads, no idea how to fight the monster inside her even if we found her—”

“So we wait,” I cut