Page 20

The elevator dinged, opening to reveal a long hallway lined with doors on either side.

“Level three, Veritas,” a calm female voice uttered.

Zane bounded out like an excited puppy before anyone could point out the obvious need for caution.

Noah and I just shook our heads as I looped his arm over my shoulders, and we tentatively followed.

Ace strode out behind us with his typical permanent scowl and moved to take up residence leaning against the right wall.

He wasn’t about to leave himself exposed in this new room, which was smart.

But I had the growing feeling we couldn’t afford to wait around for long.

I dusted the sand out of my hair and shifted awkwardly on my feet, because yes, I would never admit it to the merman but there was definitely sand in my butt crack.

I was used to the baked red soil from my homeland, but I’d had more than enough of this crap to last me a while.

Especially as Zane shook himself in front of me and a stray grain landed smack bang in my eye.

“Fuck’s sake, Zane,” I growled, pawing at it.

“Sorry, Kitty Kayden.” He turned and gave me the biggest doe-eyes I’d ever seen. I rolled my own and brushed past him, getting a good look down the hallway.

“Well, it doesn’t take a genius to know what the Masters want us to do now,” Noah said as we stopped a little way ahead of the others.

I read the name engraved on the golden plaque before us.

“Noah Hawthorne.” I frowned and looked from his name on the door to its owner beside me. “They want us to split up now?”

“A name for every Potential in the academy,” he answered with a vague gesture at the numerous doors with their shiny gold nameplates. “My guess is this is the last room we need to endure. A last special test for each one of us. They made sure no one was given the advantage of an alliance.”

“Fuckers,” Ace spat as he came up beside us. “Can’t wait to be done with this shit.”

“But just think,” Zane piped up as he slung an arm around Ace and Noah’s shoulders, connecting the four of us. “Once we make it through to the other side, we’ll get to see our girl again.”

I raised a brow. “ Our girl?”

We all turned to look at him then.

Zane huffed and glanced between us sternly.

“Yes, you sea sponge. Our girl. Don’t you think it’s time we stopped pretending we aren’t all in on this?

Starfish doesn’t know it yet, but she is fully down to ride this polyamorous wave with all of us.

Even our little sea dragon over here is willing to share, he just won’t admit it. ”

Ace’s expression was all thunder at that ridiculous nickname, and it took everything in me to hold back my laughter as our eyes met. The memory of Ace and I sharing Fallon flitted across my mind. As if the same thought had occurred to him, we both just as quickly averted our gaze.

Shit, there was no denying how hot that moment was.

I had no sexual interest in men whatsoever, but with Fallon, it was like there was a chemical reaction in my head that made me lose all sense of myself.

It went against all my instincts to share anything.

Growing up in a poor city where you fought tooth and nail for everything had that effect.

But, gods, if it made her happy, I could learn to.

And I’d be lying if I said a part of me hadn’t enjoyed doing so already.

These three guys and I… we’d bonded somehow.

Maybe it was the threat of death constantly lurking at our backs that had done it, but there was no denying a kinship now.

Even with the angry twig, who I’d not so long ago have happily throttled.

I couldn’t explain it, but something was shifting, and I wasn’t mad about it.

Hell, being part of Zane’s ridiculous pod didn’t sound so bad anymore. Not even a little bit.

“He’s right,” Ace said quietly. Those steely eyes of his sliced between our faces like glass. “The princess likes to think she’s a free spirit, but that girl is mine.” Zane opened his mouth to protest, but Ace just lifted his bionic hand. “Yet maybe—”

“Oh. My. Gods.” Zane lit up like a Christmas tree. “This is happening. The pod is officially supercharged. We’re like the four horsemen of Fallon. The four freaks of the sheets. The sausages to Starfish’s sweet, sexy buns. The—”

“Stop talking,” Ace said sharply, shrugging out of Zane’s hold. He uttered a long-suffering sigh and squeezed the bridge of his nose with his bionic hand. “For the record, there will be no snuggles or stupid coupley shit.

“Snuggles?” Zane whispered to me, leaning in with heavy breathing.

“Shut the fuck up, Merman! I’m not done,” Ace barked. “If one of you assholes even thinks about touching my dick I’ll fucking break yours off, understand?”

Zane bobbed on his feet, making a weird, excited noise from between his closed lips. It was obvious he had something he desperately wanted to say.

Ace sighed and waved an impatient hand. “Speak, Merman.”

“I’m just so stoked this is happening.” He put his hand out and waited for us to pop ours in the middle, like some kind of preppy cheerleader squad.

“No,” Ace said, looking at Zane’s hand like it would bite him.

“By all that is merciful,” Noah said as he put his hand in. I had to admit I hadn’t expected that from him. Noah had seemed more… conservative than the rest of us. But I guess it was always the quiet ones you had to look out for.

“May the Gods take pity on us,” I agreed as I put my palm in.

We looked at Ace and waited. “For fuck’s sake,” he growled after a moment, then reluctantly followed suit.

“To our sexy starfish and our super pod,” Zane cheered. “Now let’s go get all up in these rooms and dominate the shit out of them.”

“Not something I needed to visualise,” Noah said as he turned the handle on his door. “But I appreciate the sentiment, nevertheless. See you on the other side.”

“Give ’em hell,” I said, releasing him and watching him limp inside before the door clicked shut. The sound of it closing was obnoxiously loud in the long hallway.

I walked down the corridor until I found the door with my own name. I turned to give Zane one of my biggest grins and nodded at Twiggy. This was it. The moment of truth. I squared my shoulders, heaved the door open and charged in.

The breath rushed from my lungs as I came face to face with a lone figure.

“Flynn?”

He threw me a shit-eating grin. “In the flesh. Ya miss me?”

I blinked. “But… how? I saw those goons drag your body through that tower. I saw the blood. They slit your fucking throat, bro.”

No one survived a wound like that. I remembered the frozen look on his face. The way his eyes were flat and dead and the way his head flopped as Victoria rolled it over.

Flynn’s smile widened, but his eyes lost that humorous spark, turning as empty and dark as they had been that day. My spine prickled and I took a small step back. Was this real? Was I imagining things? I scrubbed a hand over my eyes. Gods, Kayden, get your shit together.

Flynn tilted his head and eyed me, still smiling that creepy fucking smile. Then his fingers moved and unzipped his jacket, revealing a nasty scar across his throat.

Bumps formed over my skin. No. This was definitely not the real Flynn. I looked for an exit, finding nothing but the door I’d entered into. Another careful step backward, then another, until I was close enough to jiggle the handle.

Locked. Not that I’d expected any less.

“You left me to die, Kayden,” Flynn said softly, advancing a step. “You left your best friend to rot in that tower, just like all the other things the marsh devours.”

Regret rolled over my tongue, bitter and sour. “I had no choice, Flynn. You were gone. I swear to all the gods, that I would do anything to bring you back. I couldn’t even take your—” The word ‘body’ stuck, so I tried again. “I couldn’t take you home.”

He tilted his head a little too far and, as he did, a spurt of blood gushed from the now seemingly open wound on his neck.

“You may as well have used the blade yourself. What happened to having each other’s backs? You didn’t care about me. You just cared about the game.”

“That’s not true,” I protested. “You’ll always be my best mate. Nothing could ever change that.”

“But that’s not true, is it?” His voice dropped and blood began dribbling ever so slowly from his lips.

“I’ve already been replaced. First Fallon, then Dick, and now you have your merry band of foolish Potentials.

You’d even chase after Victoria’s attacker when it should have been you who ended her miserable existence. You should have avenged me.”

“That’s not the same, I—”

“You left me, Kayden. No one was there when they jumped me or when that bitch ran me through with her knife. It was slow, you know.” Blood began rushing from his throat now, and his voice was distorted as he spoke around it. “She took her time, slicing inch by inch across the sensitive skin.”

“Stop. Stop this!”

He advanced, and I pressed back into the cold metal of the door.

“It hurt so badly, Kayden. The blade went so deep. And the blood… I was drowning in it.” At those words, more blood gushed from his neck, coating Flynn entirely. Gods, it was everywhere. The air was ripe with the metallic scent of it.

I looked away, sickened by that gaping wound and the emptiness in my best friend’s eyes.

“Look at me,” Flynn said softly.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out his face, the sound of his voice, the memory of that day.

“Look. At. Me!!”

I flinched as the voice screamed in my ear. Wet droplets sprayed over my face. He—it—leaned against me, gasping for breath. A rasping mixed with the sound of wet choking noises filled the air, and my stomach turned violently. “You’re not real. You’re not real. You’re not real.”