Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,244

peaceful place that I knew it was somewhere he would have liked to visit again.

Saint drove us there in under five minutes and we all spilled outside, hurrying through the gate then I ran ahead toward one of the bridges that crossed the river. I made it to the middle and looked down into the water just as the dying sunlight poured through the sky in huge strokes of pastel colours. The clouds were so still they looked painted onto the colourful canvas of the atmosphere. It was picturesque and painfully perfect.

My boys moved to stand either side of me as I held onto the box, afraid to open it and let go. But I had to. I couldn’t hold on forever.

“He won’t ever leave you,” Nash said in a low voice in my ear as tears burned my eyes.

“I know,” I whispered as my heart began to ache. “It’s still hard though.”

“When I said goodbye to Michael and then to Mom, I made myself say it out loud so I could process it better, I guess. Do you think that would help?” he asked gently, his arm sliding around me as Blake pressed close to me on my other side.

I sniffed as I held back my tears, knowing they were inevitable, but Nash was right. I needed to say this out loud. And I didn’t want to do it while I was crying.

I brushed my fingers over the box, gazing down at it and taking in a shaky breath. “I never pictured my life without you, Dad. You were the only constant I knew. My rock, the man who taught me to be brave and strong and to never back down from a fight. No matter how big the enemy.” Nash laid a kiss in my hair as a razor blade seemed to lodge in my throat. “You said once that the kind of man you wanted me to choose as my own would look at me like he’d kill for me. I just happened to choose four who literally would, and they got the chance to prove it too.” I released a breath of amusement as my guys chuckled.

I looked to the sky, knowing in my heart that my dad wasn’t really in this box. That it was just what remained of him on Earth. But somewhere, somehow, I felt sure he was watching me with Jess at his side. And they were smiling.

“Goodbye, Dad,” I breathed to the box, pressing my lips to it as the first tears began to fall.

I opened the lid, holding it out over the railing as a fierce wind picked up, blowing from behind us. Then I turned the box upside down and released the ashes into the air, an arc of grey dancing away from us through the sky, scattering in the river, the trees, the sky.

Dad was free. And finally, so was I.

FOUR YEARS AFTER THAT

"Well, shit," Blake said, reaching out and flipping the tassel of my graduation cap out of my face. We were headed out of the ceremony and looking for Tatum and Kyan in the crowd of people who had come to watch it. "We actually did it. And you don't even look soooo much older than the rest of us dressed up like this."

"Fuck off," I said, shoving him so that he stumbled away a step and his own cap fell off.

Saint caught it before it could hit the ground and turned it over in his hands thoughtfully. "This means everything is going to change again," he said seriously, though he didn't seem as thrown by that as I would have expected.

"There's a huge party being held tonight on the far side of campus," Blake began, but Saint cut him off.

"We won't be attending."

"Why?" I asked as we stalked through the crowd and everyone got out of our way as fast as they could. Even here, everyone knew who the Night Keepers were - including the staff and parents. Maybe I should have felt bad about causing fear wherever we went, but there was something about the power in it that was kind of a rush.

"Like I said: everything is going to change." Saint placed Blake’s cap back on his head and turned away like that was all he would say on the matter. Fucking power hungry asshole. Not that I minded that so much these days.

He strode ahead of us and me and Blake exchanged a look which encompassed our feelings towards him pulling that