Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154037 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 770(@200wpm)___ 616(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
“Guess so.” He kept his head down when he said it.
A shockwave of pain reverberated the air. She wasn’t sure which of them it originated from because it felt like they both were washed in it. Dragged down to the dark abyss of an endless sea.
“You should go back to bed, Raven,” he said, still not fully looking at her.
“Why?”
“Because you shouldn’t be in here.”
She choked out a sound of disbelief. “But it’s fine for you to come to my room whenever it’s convenient for you?”
He flew to his feet, so tall and imposing she sucked in a shattered breath.
Anguish contorted his face. “No,” he hissed quietly, the sound a mere reverberation. “It’s not okay for me to come to your room, Raven. Think you know that.”
“How can you say that?”
“Because it’s not my place.”
Hollow laughter curled up her throat, and she blinked as she stared at him. Trying to understand why he was doing this. What would have changed. “It is your place, Otto. It is your place because you’re the only one who’s ever made me feel safe. The only one who gives me peace. The only one I want coming into my room.”
His head barely shook. “No.”
She barreled right through the resistance. “Otto, I want you—”
“No.” It whipped off his tongue, a sharp, bitter blade.
It pierced her.
An arrow driven right through.
Then he sighed and stepped forward, and he pulled her into his arms. He was hot. Burning up. He ran his fingers through her hair as he pressed her cheek to his chest. “Please don’t say it, Raven. Please don’t say it. Because I love you. I do. So fuckin’ much.”
The air held, time slipping away between them, his breath shaky before he cast the final blow. “But not like that. Not the way that you’re thinking. I think you got confused along the way. Turned this into something it’s not.”
Confused?
She choked around the statement. She wasn’t confused. She knew. She knew exactly what glowed inside her.
“Otto…” She blinked against the moisture that gathered in her eyes, and he hauled her closer, his lips murmuring at the crown of her head. “You’re amazing, Raven. Beautiful and strong and courageous. Hold onto that. Keep it close. And I know you’re going to find everything in this world you want. Everything you deserve.”
It’s you. It’s you.
But she couldn’t say it.
The rejection he’d cast splintered through her like a thousand fiery darts.
Then he completely finished off. A fatal blow that speared through her heart. “And I’ll be right here, at your side, cheering my baby sister on every step of the way.”
Baby sister.
Baby sister.
Numbly, she backed away, doing her best to staunch the tears that brimmed in her eyes as she turned and fled.
She didn’t let them fall until she fell face down on top of her bed.
“Haddie, please don’t give into him.” Raven nearly begged it where she sat in the front passenger-seat of Haddie’s car.
Haddie cut her a glance as they traveled beneath the streetlamps that glinted above them as they headed toward the house party where Gideon was waiting for her.
“He said he was sorry. Really sorry.”
Worry churned in Raven’s guts, and she blinked out the windshield at the glittering clubs and bars they passed.
“And it’s Hollywood. Like, seriously, this is going to be so much fun.” Haddie reached out and squeezed Raven’s knee.
Raven couldn’t find any excitement. There was only dread. Something deep and dark that lurked in the recesses of her mind.
An omen that crawled over the dense fog that hung from the heavens and blotted out the stars.
City lights shined against it, creating a silvered canopy that covered them whole.
Something about it felt like a prison. A trap.
“He hurt you, Haddie,” Raven whispered.
A shiver rolled through her best friend before she straightened in her seat. “He won’t do it again. He promised.” There was almost an apology on Haddie’s face when she peeked at her. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”
Disquiet pulsed through Raven. There was no way she wasn’t going. Going to a party in Hollywood was probably the last thing she wanted to do.
The faint vestiges of courage she’d been wearing had been demolished by the rejection Otto had inflicted the previous night. Her heart tattered. Her edges frayed.
But this was her best friend.
Her best friend who wouldn’t listen to her no matter how much she begged her.
Haddie made a right onto a neighborhood street. It was darker here, the small houses a bit dilapidated and run-down. It wasn’t like any of the parties she attended with Haddie were in upscale neighborhoods, but something about this felt all wrong.
Off.
Haddie pulled to a stop in front of a single-story house that matched the address. The white paint was peeling, the yard was overgrown, and boards covered the windows.
Only a single pickup truck was parked in front of them.