Defying Destiny (Afterword Academy #3) - Katie May Page 0,44
“I love you too.”
Before he can respond, I feel the familiar tendrils of pain sparking on my skin. My stomach clenches painfully as my body is engulfed in flames, a kaleidoscope of bright red, pale orange, and iridescent yellow. I scream at the top of my lungs as the flames of Hell leave my body, making me feel oddly bereft. Pain continues to cascade through me as I shake uncontrollably, knowing without any doubt that I just lost Brax’s fire power.
And the third essence.
We’re running out of time.
Chapter 18
Auston
I know what he’s doing to her in there, and I can’t fucking listen to it another second. Standing guard outside her bedroom, looking at the faded photographs in wooden picture frames lining the upstairs hallway while the smog monster brings Hadley pleasure, is just too much for me.
Abandoning my post, I scurry down the stairs, each step groaning under my feet as if I weighed five hundred pounds. Downstairs, Preston guards the front door. I can see how stiff he holds his body, knowing the terror that must be flowing through him.
He’s no fighter, and without his Reaper power, he’s more scared than he’s ever been. I hate seeing him like this. It was a whole new experience, seeing him with magic. Confidence alighted his face when he wielded that weapon, when he fought with it beside us.
Now, he’s just a man—a dead man—terrified of every unknown noise, of every shadow, even his own.
I try to make it to the back of the house without being seen, but of course, the hard wooden flooring has other ideas. A board cracks, and I turn back to see Preston practically jump out of his skin.
“Where are you going?” he asks, voice trembling slightly.
“Out back. I just…” What do I tell him? That I can’t stand hearing Hadley be satisfied by someone other than myself? That picturing the Darkness invading her body fills me with so much anger that my body begins to shake with it? “I need some air,” I decide to say and turn back to head through the tiny living room.
“Auston, wait!” he calls, but I ignore him, walking through the small, galley kitchen and out the screen door at the end of it. Hard to imagine Hadley growing up here, in a normal farmhouse, even though I witnessed it myself as her Guardian. It’s hard to believe any of our lives were ever normal, not after everything we’ve been through.
The screen door slams shut behind me, and I step down the cement stairs, heading towards the woods behind her house. In the backyard, a firepit is set up, and five Adirondack chairs surround it. A rusted beer can sits near the leg of one chair, and a skewer for s’mores rests across the arms of another.
I can picture the fire that blazes in this pit. I imagine it reaching four feet tall, the heat warming your limbs, cooking your marshmallows perfectly each time. I can hear the laughter that probably rang out as old stories were told and new ones were made, with Hadley and her family, and probably Ocean too.
Jealousy rears its head because I never had anything like that growing up. My father was either dead or just absent, and my mother struggled to actually be a parent. She was too consumed with her own life to really give a shit about us. And once she started dating…well, it was all over for us.
We were basically abandoned.
Completely on our own.
Living on frozen pizza and chicken nuggets, on peanut butter sandwiches and water from the tap. I would never have survived without my brothers to rely on. We depended on each other for everything.
Glancing longingly at the fire, I walk around it, heading for the trees, when a new sound reaches my ears. Eager to check it out, I quicken my steps, ducking around tree trunks until I come across a stream. Immediately, I can tell that this spot must have been a favorite for the Jamison family, because a wooden bench is perched just in front of the embankment.
So I sit down and recline back, watching the waters flow. The stream is more like a creek, I guess. It’s maybe ten feet wide and only a few feet deep, by the looks of it. The water is clear, and I can see through to the bottom. A variety of rocks rest along the bottom, and a tiny school of fish swims by.