My skin itched. I had to wonder if just being near my aunt had caused some sort of allergic reaction. She reeked of mothballs and that awful old lady perfume she always wore to try to cover it up. My eyes felt puffy from it. Definitely allergic to her.
“Why do you put up with her?” Grey asked, following behind me to grab a tray and fill it up with what remained of the breakfast buffet and the start of lunch items being brought out in the cafeteria.
Ahead of me in line, Brianna picked at a bowl of grapes, sneaking glances at me from the cover of her lashes. I wanted to stuff her face into the potato soup, but that would only render it inedible, and it was my favorite.
“AJ?” Grey hedged when I didn’t reply right away, drawing my attention back to him.
“Because her aunt is paying for her tuition here,” Corvus replied for me, and I rolled my eyes at him. Not even a little bit surprised that he would know that. He’d done his homework. I’d done mine too. At least as much of it as I could. His history had been the most unattainable of the three. With almost no information whatsoever anywhere in the state or the neighboring ones.
“Is that it?” Grey asked, confused. “You’re a Saint now, AJ. If you want to go to school here, we’ll cover it.”
I didn’t know how to explain it to them: the deal I had with my aunt. Maybe the whole thing was a moot point now.
My aunt promised me tuition to a good college or university plus my own apartment in the city and a monthly stipend. I could have all of it if I graduated Briar Hall with good grades and got accepted into college. It was her guilt-wrapped gift to me for not being around when my dad was still alive.
But what did any of that matter now?
I’m a Saint.
No matter how many times I repeated that to myself, it didn’t ever sound any more true. But it was a fact. And I couldn’t see Diesel St. Crow being chill with me going away to college and renting an apartment in the city. What good was my aunt’s money now?
I couldn’t explain it to them because it didn’t make sense why I was still dealing with her bullshit other than the one thing she said that struck a nerve; we’re the only family we have now.
It was true.
Mom was gone, and I hoped she never came back. Dad was gone now, too. Mom’s family was never around and Dad’s sister, Viola Humphrey, was the only living relative he had left.
The only one I had left now that he was gone.
They didn’t get along, but he mentioned her sometimes. How he worried about his older sister alone in her big house after her wealthy husband passed away.
How he wished he could’ve seen eye to eye with her so that I could have grown up with a rich aunt to spoil me.
It felt like spitting in his face to say to her what I really wanted to: to fuck off and never contact me again.
She’s right, Dad would tell me. I was a shitty dad. A liar. Always gambling our money away.
My dad was a lot of things, but he knew exactly who he was and what he was doing to us. He was just powerless to stop himself. Like my darkness, something greedy and morally gray writhed within him that he couldn’t purge.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to purge mine, so how could I be angry that he couldn’t do the same?
“You going to ladle that?” Grey asked, and I blinked, realizing I was standing with the soup ladle poised over my bowl. Empty.
I shook my head.
“Sorry,” Grey muttered as I went back to filling a bowl of soup. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. Family’s…a tough subject. I get it.”
Something told me he really did get it, and I was glad at least one of us did.
We went to join Rook and Corvus at the table, one of only three still occupied by students this late in the morning.
I knew Brianna transferred out of homeroom sometime last week, the fucking coward, so I wasn’t totally surprised to see she’d opted for an open period instead of enrolling in a new class this late in the term. But the others, her little posse, seemed to have joined her, and I knew for a fact they were still in homeroom with us.
The other table was just two guys studying. More students with an open first period.
Fuck, if I had an open first period, I’d be spending it sleeping.
I slid into a seat at the table beside Rook, and Grey slid in next to me. Corvus drank a smoothie, scowling at his phone. Rook drank a glass of orange juice that suspiciously didn’t look or smell to be spiked. Surprising.
Grey started with his glass of water as I munched on a stick of celery and set about getting my new phone operational. I added all the necessary apps, checking for any Corvus may have added before giving it to me, and signed into my email and all socials. I needed to keep that shit open in case Becca needed me.
I checked the phone’s system settings to get the number and pushed through an email to Becca containing it. Telling her to only text from a burner, and change burners every few days. Better safe than sorry.
Corv set his phone down with a clatter on the table.
“Max again?” Grey asked him.
“Yeah.”
“She still pissed you canceled those shows?”
“She’s threatening to fire me as a client.”
Grey laughed. “Yeah, right.”
“She won’t. You’re her number one, Bro,” Rook agreed.
Corvus’ brows drew together. He looked so tired, I realized. The hollows beneath his eyes dark and purple hued. When was the last time he’d slept?
“Why did you cancel the shows?” I asked. “You only had two others lined up this season, and they weren’t far. All in NorCal, right?”
He shook his head. “Too much heat right now. I need to be here.”
Not for the first time, I wondered how he’d managed to juggle his gang life and a secret music career. But the answer was staring me right in the face the entire time. He wasn’t juggling it. Either one suffered or the other did. Right now, his alter ego of The Bone Man needed to take a back seat so Corvus James could do what his father expected of him. What his makeshift family needed.
Was it what he wanted?
His steely gaze flicked up to meet mine, lips tight as he considered saying something else.
I lifted a brow. “What?”
“I might’ve promised Max you’d work on a new track with me, and we could unveil it at the next show after Christmas.”
“You did what?”
Corvus lifted his hands in a placating gesture. “Before you say no—”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I’ll do it. But I want fifty percent of all royalties earned on it plus a cut of the ticket sales from the Lodi show. Only fair since you recorded me without my knowledge and used said recording on stage.”
He stared at me dumbfounded.
“What? A girl’s gotta earn a living and… I didn’t sound half bad.”
“Ha!” Grey balked. “You were incredible, AJ. There’s a reason every music blogger on the West coast is trying to figure out who you are.”
I flushed and tried to hide it by taking a bite of bacon. “I want vocal training too, though.”
“Done.” Corvus grunted. “I’ll train you myself. Best I can do. We can’t take you to a professional vocal coach. It’ll draw too much attention.”
“What do you think my name should be? I’m thinking something epic like…”
“Sparrow,” Corvus interrupted before I could finish my train of thought. “Obviously.”
“Bone Man and Sparrow?” I groaned. “That’s lame.”
“How about Ghost?” Rook interjected, sipping his OJ.
“The Bone Man and The Ghost.” I rolled the titles around in my mouth. “Has a better ring to it, don’t you think? More…ominous?”
“So you think Rook’s nickname is better than mine?” Corvus asked, a slight curl at the edge of his lips. He was playing.
I didn’t know if I wanted to join the game just yet, though.
“Maybe,” I acquiesced, putting an end to the conversation for now as I got ready to dig into the food that was going cold on my tray.
Grey’s tray rivaled my own in terms of how full it was, and he smirked at me as he set into eating a massive pile of scrambled eggs, eyeing my tray right back.
“There’s no way you’re going to finish all that,” he said between mouthfuls, indicating my mountain of food.
“Wanna bet?”
“Fifty.”
“Make it a hundred,” I replied cheerfully, ditching the spoon for my soul to lift the bowl to my lips instead.
“You’re on.
Rook snatched the bowl before it reached my lips and hot soup sloshed over my hands and the rest of the food on my plate.
“The fuck, Rook?” I hissed, shaking soup off my hands.
He held the bowl to his nose, smelling it.
“If you wanted some you could’ve just got your own.”
He didn’t reply, and something in his dark eyes made my frustration wane. He dipped his index finger into the soup and put it in his mouth, tasting it.
A growl ripped from his lips.
“What is it?” Corvus demanded.
“It’s been tainted,” Rook spat back. “Drugged.”
Um…what?
“Are you sure?” Grey asked.
Corvus’ hand curled around his smoothie cup until his knuckles turned white. “What’s in it?”
“I can’t tell, but it’s something. Pills. Crushed up. I know that smell. I know the taste.”
The sanatorium…
What the fuck had those people done to him there?
Without another word, Grey shoved his tray away and lifted the dripping bowl of soup from the table as he stood, walking away.
“Grey, where are you…” Corvus started, but trailed off, and I spun on the bench seat to see that he was carrying the soup to Brianna’s table.
My food-deprived brain caught up to where his had already gone, and I remembered Brianna ahead of me in line. How she kept peering back at me. The fucking cunt.
I followed Grey, the others rising from the table with me as I stood, my vision tinted with crimson.
I thought I’d made myself fucking crystal clear. I warned her.
Grey dropped the bowl in front of Brianna and what remained of it slashed over her shirt, splattering the two other girls crowded in at her sides, making them squeal.
“What the fuck did you put in this?”
Brianna went a shade of sickly white, but kept her expression impressively neutral.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Grey,” Brianna said, her brown eyes following me as I approached with a raised chin. “But you just ruined a three hundred dollar shirt and—”
Brianna gasped as I grabbed hold of her blonde ponytail, dragging her from her seat. She screamed, manicured nails scratching at my arm as I hauled her from the cafeteria. Not even feeling the shallow cuts she was digging into my forearm.
She tripped, screeching like a banshee all the way to the kitchen.
My spine tingled as I entered, a rush of power going straight to my head.
“Get out,” I barked at the cooking staff, and they hesitated before seeing my entourage follow inside behind me and scattered like rats.
“Stupid bitch,” Brianna was shrieking between some very unattractive sounds as I hauled her size-two ass to the row of gas burners and switched the closest one on.
I put her face to it. So close the peach fuzz on her cheeks would be singed off. “What did you put in the soup?” I demanded.
She screamed.
“What did you put in it?” I repeated, my darkness surging in full now. Demanding blood. Demanding pain. My arm holding her to the burner shook with it.
Soon, I wouldn’t be in control anymore. Any second now.
I pushed her closer still, and she let out a cry. Her hair came loose from the ponytail, and I curled a fist into it, the long strands almost in the fire now.
“Laxatives,” she managed and I brought her back an inch. “They were just laxatives! I was trying to make you shit yourself. Fuck!”
My face screwed up.
Laxatives?
That was the best she could do?
Christ.
So pathetic.
“P-Please, I won’t ever—”
The smell of burnt hair reached me and I recoiled from it, releasing her a second too late as her head burst into orange flame. Her hairspray drawing the fire to her like spilled gasoline.
She howled like a dying cat as she stood there, rooted to the spot in shock as the flames engulfed her head in a golden crown. Not the kind she wanted, but the kind she deserved.
“B!” someone cried, and I saw blondie numero uno rushing past the guys and into the kitchen, the other one hot on her tail. Blondie numero dos fumbled to get the extinguisher loose from the wall as the other one slapped uselessly at her friend’s fiery hair.
Brianna continued to blare like an air raid siren until she passed out, slumping to the floor. Blondie doused her with the fire extinguisher, covering her in plumes of white until she came to again, coughing and rubbing at the chalky residue on her face. Struggling to sit up.
I pushed the blonde on the floor away to kneel next to Brianna, grabbing her by the shirt to haul her to her ass. Her hair was gone, all except for a few tufts of blonde still clinging to her scalp. Mild red burns crisscrossed over her flesh, but they would heal. Probably wouldn’t even scar. Too bad.
Brianna clutched my hands holding her shirt, blinking past tears to stare into my eyes. Fear. She reeked of it. She was so terrified I was sure she’d piss herself. I’d be impressed if she didn’t.
“P-please,” she started, her lips quivering, but I didn’t want to hear another word out of her mouth. She needed to shut up before my darkness clawed its way up my throat and ate her for fucking breakfast.
“If you ever come after me again, I’ll end you, bitch.”
She began to shake.
“Nod that you understand.”
She nodded.
I released her shirt, throwing her to her friends. “Get her out of my sight.”
They dragged her pathetic ass from the cafeteria and my darkness snarled, rebelling at my mercy. But she wasn’t worth it. Fucking laxatives? What a joke.
I closed my eyes, cracked my neck, and rolled my shoulders back, inviting a foul smelling breath into my lungs.
When I opened my eyes again it was to see the guys standing near the entrance to the kitchen.
Corvus stared openly, analyzing my loss of control.
Grey’s mouth was gaping.
Rook had his ringed fingers clasped to his mouth, dark eyes glittering. He looked like a deranged kid with fifty bucks in a candy store.
“Dibs,” he said, biting on his lip ring as he strolled forward, tugging the plain silver ring from his pinkie finger.
“Rook,” I warned as he bent to one knee.
“Marry me?”
I shook my head, ignoring the way my belly flipped.
“You’re an idiot,” I said, but I plucked the ring from his fingertips as I walked past him, slipping it onto my index finger since it was the only one it’d fit. “But thanks for the ring.”
I got three steps past them before my phone chimed, making my darkness make a resurgence to the surface. It could only be Becca. I’d just emailed her. She must’ve replied to…
“Fuck,” I said on an exhale, my insides twisting as I stared at the blemish on my very new phone.
An email gleamed on the screen in vivid color.
To: Ava Jade Mason
From: [email protected]
Subject: Miss me?
Why’d you let them put her out? You should’ve let her burn, my love. She deserved it.
P.S. I see you haven’t been listening. Perhaps you thought my warnings were only idle threats. That was your mistake. Now you’ve forced me to do what you should’ve from the start. Say your goodbyes, Ava Jade.
Ice skated down my spine.
A hand on my shoulder had me tensing up, dropping low, widening my stance, on the offensive.
“Whoa, AJ, it’s me,” Grey said, his eyes searching my face. Falling to the phone clenched tight in my hand. “Is it him?”
Slowly, I scanned the kitchen, finding what I was looking for. The blinking red light of a security camera in the corner across the room. I’d thrown a blade before I was even consciously aware I’d drawn one. It embedded in the glass lens of the camera and sparks dripped down to the tile floor as a little puff of smoke curled up from the ruin.
“He has access to the cameras,” I spat, my skin crawling so badly I wanted to soak in boiling water.
Grey took the phone from my hand, and I didn’t stop him as Corvus and Rook rushed to crowd him, reading the email with murderous stares.
“He’s alive,” Rook growled while Corvus stormed out of the kitchen with his face set in a myriad of hard lines, pale, with a vein pulsing in his neck.
“Grey,” Corvus hollered back over his shoulder. “With me. Now.”
“Stay with her,” Grey told Rook before handing my phone back and rushing to follow Corvus. Likely to interrogate the office staff and fingerprint the security office.
“Come here, Ghost,” Rook said, but I didn’t want his comfort.
“He needs to fucking die,” I gritted out past clenched teeth. I wanted to stay angry at the Crows, but I wouldn’t just sit here and let this piece of shit threaten them. They were mine to be angry at. And I protected what belonged to me.
Rook nodded solemnly, his dark eyes looking almost black now. He curled a hand over my shoulder, and the small contact made me flinch and sag, needing more. No matter how much I didn’t want to admit it.
I let him pull me close, closing my eyes against the hollow of his throat as he trapped me in his arms. “I know,” he told me, squeezing tight. His scent filled my nose, setting my soul alight and soothing it all at once. I couldn’t get enough of it. “He will. I promise you that.”
