girl had three impossible boys who tugged her in all directions, and all she wanted to do was save them all. But saving them meant pushing them away, and just the thought of it made my heart ache.
If Brutus is after me, this can only end in blood. I had to make sure it’s his blood and no one else’s.
I have more to lose than ever.
But Mackenzie Malloy doesn’t go down without a fight.
36
Mackenzie
I look forward to school on Monday with a mix of trepidation and excitement. On Sunday, Tiberius calls to tell me a package has arrived for me. I go to the front gate to collect it from him and find a brand new iPhone inside, with a note from Eli and his, Gabriel’s, and Noah’s numbers already programmed in.
Eli and Gabriel blow up my phone all weekend. Eli sends videos of his cat, Gizmo – a black-and-white tuxedo mix who loves sleeping in boxes – and Gabriel sends me links to bands and albums he loves. I make a playlist of Gabriel’s recommendations and listen to it while trying not to swoon.
A couple of times I find my finger poised over Noah’s name, the insane itch to message him twinging under my skin. I don’t succumb.
On Monday, Eli picks me up at the rear of the property. When we pull into the student parking lot, I notice Alec leaning against the columns in front of Stonehurst, sans jacket, a handful of his jock friends and cheerleaders surrounding him in a tight circle. The gaggle of bears and vipers who usually sit on the periphery of the group is nowhere to be seen, and other students seem to be taking a wide berth to avoid them. Alec’s face is stormy as hell.
He’s lonely up there on his pedestal.
Eli notices me watching. “We spent the weekend putting the word out. Alec LeMarque is canceled at Stonehurst Prep. No one except a few loyal fuckheads will go near him now.”
My hands curl into fists, and I miss the satisfying weight of my knife against my leg. I lost it in the desert, along with my phone and the last thread of my humanity. “I’m still going to claw his eyes out.”
Eli’s smile warms me from the inside out. “I’d like to see that.”
Walking to my locker with Eli is a new experience. It takes us three times as long because he keeps stopping to talk to people. Unlike Gabriel and Noah who breeze past anyone they deem beneath them, Eli always has time to comment on a teammate’s performance or wish the Theatresports team good luck for their upcoming competition.
Who knew popular boys can be so damn nice?
Who knew basic human decency is so fucking hot?
By the time we reach our lockers, I’m ready to jump Eli’s bones, consequences be damned. Then Noah leans against my locker door, and I’m momentarily stricken by the contrast. Whereas Eli is all Southern charm and fashion-magazine good-looks, Noah’s the bad boy with the fuck-you attitude and haunting eyes. Those coal-orbs fix me with a devastating glare. “5PM, library. Don’t be late.”
“What’s this?” I raise a perfectly-sculpted eyebrow.
“Your tutoring session.” Noah gives me one final, penetrating glare, then storms off.
I glare at Eli, who bursts out laughing. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t make him tutor you. Grumpypuss must’ve decided for himself you’re worth the effort.”
Intriguing.
Eli walks me to homeroom, where Gabriel waits to escort me on his arm like I’m the queen. He does this between all my morning classes, keeping up an easy conversation in an attempt to distract me from the eye-daggers Cleo’s throwing at my back. I could get used to this.
Cleo I can handle, but when we step into third-period English and Alec LeMarque glares at me from a seat in the second row, my body recoils against Gabriel. It’s this visceral sense of wrongness, like space bends around Alec’s body, and he not a person so much as a portal into a dark void where a cosmic god devours souls.
Okay, that might just be my imagination recalling this reverse harem book, Kings of Miskatonic Prep, that I read last night, but still. Alec’s assault left a mark on my psyche that all my bravado and vengeance cannot heal.
My mind flicks back to George, and I wonder again if this is something she feels, if the hurt Alec has done to her runs deeper than just bullying. It’s enough to make me wring his neck right there. Gabriel senses