Kings of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #1) - Caroline Peckham ,Susanne Valenti Page 0,150

he was like a freight train as he shoved me back against the wide trunk of a tree and my heart leapt into my throat.

“I hate you!” he roared in my face, spittle peppering my cheeks. The roiling depths of his hatred blazed through every part of his flesh, shining there like diamonds. It made me shrink and my heart crush. I knew they all hated me and yet I’d never felt the pure intensity of that hate from one of them until now. “I hate that I touched you, hate that I fucked you. I hate myself for ever wanting you,” he spat and I realised I wasn’t breathing, I was holding my breath, waiting for him to hurt me. I could feel how much he wanted to by the way he was leering at me, the way his palms were slammed either side of my head and his arms were straining against the inside of his sleeves.

Words fluttered to my lips and I feared saying them, but I had to. I had to.

“It’s not my fault your mom died,” I whispered as fat tears slipped from my eyes out of nowhere. I didn’t know if I was hurting for me or for him.

He roared again and I flinched as his fist came at me, bracing for the impact of knuckles against flesh. But his fist collided with the tree beside my head. Then he shoved me to the ground and I scrambled backwards, watching as he punched and punched and punched. His knuckles splitting, bleeding, staining the bark red.

“Stop!” I cried as he lost it, hitting and hitting until I feared he was gonna break bones. “Blake stop it!” I screamed. I didn’t know why I cared, but I did. I stupidly did.

I got to my feet and caught his arm, trying to pull him back.

He shook me off with a snarl, but he finally stopped hitting the tree. Blood coated his hands and he stood there panting, looking murderous as he glared at me.

I took a shaky step forward, reaching out as more tears spilled from my eyes. I knew his pain. I’d felt it, drowned in it. And I wanted to heal it for him because I’d always wished someone would come along and do the same for me. I placed my palm against his heart and felt the powerful thrum of it against my skin.

He swallowed, unmoving as he stared at me, his dark green eyes flickering with a thousand emotions. All of them bad.

“Don’t let this make you into a monster,” I breathed as a tear dripped from my jaw to land on the dead leaves at my feet. The wood was so quiet, I heard it hit the ground.

Blake pulled away from me, shaking his head. “It’s too late for that, Cinders. It already did.” He turned, heading away into the woods and I knew he didn’t want me to follow.

The world seemed to lighten around me as he disappeared, his presence as heavy as a shadow. I reached up to wipe my tears away, drawing in a shuddering breath before turning back down the path.

Blake would probably be gone a while so I didn’t head back to The Temple. I went back to the main path and sat on a bench that overlooked the lake. I watched the trees bow in the wind and the lake ripple. I listened to the mournful tune of a hawk as it swept across the still water. And I let my heart break for Blake Bowman. Because his hate was dipped in so much pain, that it hurt me too.

Tatum swung her foot around and caught me in the side just beneath my ribs, knocking the air from my lungs in the process.

I backed up and she lunged forward, her gloves striking my chest, once, twice, three times before I managed to switch from defence to offence and throw a punch into her stomach.

The grin on her face told me I’d fallen for her trap a moment before she twisted with the motion of my strike, making it into the space on my left. She was so damn quick that I couldn’t defend against her kick to the backs of my knees even though I saw it coming.

She was fucking brutal in her strikes and my knees buckled.

Tatum followed with a blow to my gut before leaping on me and taking me to the floor.

I slammed onto my back with her straddling my hips and she