Defying Destiny (Afterword Academy #3) - Katie May Page 0,1
but I can’t fucking look at her. I can’t see her as this shell, this broken, unmoving thing, when the Hadley I know is so vibrant and full of life. I can’t stand to see her like this.
Her skin is pale, black tendrils of magic snaking through her veins. But it’s her eyes that are the most unnerving, staring blankly ahead. Lifeless.
Caius swings back into my vision but stays away from where Auston and I are. “Look. I know I’ve done some things in the past that are questionable.” I scoff at that, but he holds up a smoky hand to stop any retort I might say. “Hear me out. Please, Brax. For Hadley.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “I’m listening.”
His smoke drifts around the perimeter of the room. “You trust Hadley implicitly, right?”
“With everything I am,” I respond. “What’s your point?”
He pauses, the smoke giving him the illusion of a body—broad shoulders, tapered waist, hair that is no doubt as black as pitch, despite currently being a murky shade of gray. “The point is she trusts me, and if after all that I’ve put her through, she can look past my mistakes and see how good my intentions are, then why can’t you? Don’t you trust her judgment?”
“He has a point, Brax,” Karston reasons from beside me. “Hadley trusts him, and as hard as that is, we should too.”
Sighing, I stand up and walk to the far wall, resting my wings against it as I lean back. “You know what they say—keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
And then, when you have the chance, stab said enemy in the back.
Caius’s smoke form disperses before becoming the image of a phantom man again, his form nearly indecipherable. “I’m not your enemy, Braxton. And I’ll prove it to you, if you just give me a chance.”
“We’ll see,” I growl out. Karston is right. What choice do we have?
“Like it or not, we’re stuck together now,” Preston says as he studies the statue. “We have to do this together, or we might as well not do it at all.”
“Where do you suggest we start, baby bro?” Auston asks Preston.
Preston’s eyes grow wide at the question, and he chews on his lip. “I think we need to rest for a little bit. Then—”
“Like hell I’m resting!” Auston protests with a scowl. Apparently, he didn’t truly want to hear our Reaper brother’s opinion. From the very second Hadley was injured, Auston had a plan in place, one he’ll do with or without us. Stubborn bastard. “Each second we wait is a second lost with her by my side. I’m not fucking waiting another moment.”
“We have to find a portal and go into Hell,” I announce, knowing that none of us will sit idly by while the woman we love is in this condition. “That’s where her essence is. That’s where we’ll go.”
“You make it sound like it’s going to be a walk in the park, Brax, but I don’t know the first thing about Hell,” Karston admits. “Got any CliffsNotes I can read?”
Weak, humorless chuckles fill the room, though it’s hard to find any true amusement at a time like this. Still, the tension suffocating us all eases marginally as we plaster on fake ass smiles. “Just go to Auston’s closet. He’s the one that hoarded those things like candy,” Preston teases. “Remember how Auston would cheat on his tests by sticking a piece of masking tape to his pencils with answers on it?”
Auston pretends to be offended. “I’d never!”
“Or how about the time he glued a piece of paper under his watch?” Karston adds with a laugh.
“Or the time when he pretended to have a henna tattoo but it was all the spelling words for English class?” Preston can barely speak, he’s laughing so hard. And fuck, it feels good to hear that sound. I know that our bubble of amusement will pop at any second, once we remember the truth of our situation, but for these brief moments, I’m freer than I can remember being since I first saw that dagger in Hadley’s chest.
I laugh with them, the noise strained, even to my own ears. It’s as if I’m playing a part on stage, attempting to be jovial when I want nothing more than to punch my fist through the cave wall. “Auston should've been a hacker. Too bad he’d rather chase girls than study.”
Auston scowls. “You were chasing them with me if I remember right, Braxton.”