Broken Knights (Gifted Academy #4) - Michelle Hercules Page 0,35
prefer if you stayed during working hours, at least. Especially considering Bryce’s condition.”
Ellen narrows her gaze, no doubt not buying my mother’s change of tune. A few minutes ago, she wanted me to start working on the Fringes who are currently waiting in the bigger room next to ours. They can’t be comfortable there. There are at least thirty of them, mostly lower levels whose families don’t live in Saturn’s Bay. The vast majority who escaped took off from campus.
“Sure, that sounds fair.”
“That’s settled, then.” She whirls around and walks out.
“What’s going on with your mother?” Ellen asks. “She’s acting weirder than usual.”
“She’s sour because Daisy didn’t come back to school.”
“She had the right idea.” Toby pulls up a chair and drops into it like he’s carrying all the weight of the world on his shoulders. “I wish I had gone with her and Rosie.”
I yank my hair back in frustration. “Ugh! I hate that I’m stuck here.”
“Maybe I can sneak you and Toby out, so you can see your girlfriends,” Ellen suggests.
Toby sits straighter in his chair. “Would you do that?”
“Sure. Spending one night out of this place isn’t going to change anything.”
“Can I come too?” Renata asks, and immediately, I reject the idea. She might have helped me, and Toby vouched for her sincerity, but I’m not ready to trust her or even be friends. I won’t forget so easily that she tried to kill Daisy by giving her Silver-voltage.
“No offense, but I don’t think either Daisy or Rosie want to see you around.”
“Oh.” She drops her chin. “I understand.”
I sense Ellen’s hard stare burning a hole through my face. “What?” I snap. “Do you want me to simply forget everything?”
“No, but you could have been kinder. We could use more of it.”
“It’s easy for you to say. Miss Regretful there didn’t attempt to murder your girlfriend by giving her Silver-voltage.”
Ellen’s face twists into a grimace. Thanks to Phoenix’s big mouth, we know her girlfriend is a Norm. She turns to Renata. “Is that true?”
Renata’s eyes become wider right before she breaks down into an ugly cry. “I did. There’s no excuse for that. I followed along with Drusilla’s plan, even knowing what she wanted to do was vile. I was blinded by senseless hate.”
“What made you change your mind?” Toby asks.
“It didn’t happen right away. But I began to question everything when Drusilla went mad and turned against me.”
I can’t tell if she’s truly sorry, or if now that her friends are gone, she’s looking for another group to blindly follow. She could have joined the Neo Gods instead. I can’t think about it now. Tiredness hits me all of a sudden. I sink against the leather couch and close my eyes.
“That’s what happens when you let people walk all over you. Drusilla treated you like dirt,” I say.
“I know,” she replies in a meek voice.
“I’d better go check on the other students,” Ellen declares in a somber tone. Her mood has definitely changed now that she knows what Renata did.
Renata continues to cry, but I’m not in the mood to listen to her pity party, so I tune her out. Glancing at my phone, I press the button to call Daisy.
It rings until it goes to voice mail. What the hell? Why isn’t she picking up the phone? I try Rufio, Phoenix, and Morpheus, getting the same nonresponse.
“Toby, can you get a hold of Rosie?”
“I texted her not too long ago, but she hasn’t replied yet.”
Vises of worry tighten around my heart. “Okay, we aren’t waiting until nightfall. We’re leaving now.”
“But we don’t know where the safe house is,” Toby argues.
“I don’t care. I’ll drive all over town until I can pick up Daisy’s signature.”
“Drive what car? And how are we getting out of here without your mother noticing?”
“You can borrow mine,” Renata chimes in. “And I’ll distract her and Nurse Ellen.”
“Okay, that could work,” I say.
“There’s only one problem. My car is still in the school’s garage.”
Shit.
“We can’t fight the Neo Gods, but I can tell if the coast is clear or not. I can pick up brain waves from pretty far,” Toby says.
Not ideal, but I’ll take it.
“Let’s do it.”
14
Daisy
My heart is racing as I stare at the cruel face in the clouds. It vanishes after a second, but the terror it caused in my heart lingers. It’s the same nauseating feeling I felt when I dreamed about the island where Chaos branded the loves of my life.