Page 55

Chapter fifty-three

Forest

L eaves scatter the grounds, blanketing the sidewalks in shades of orange and red. After a great deal of effort put into figuring out an alternative commute back and forth to the Academy, Kai finally convinced me to get back on the tram, asking Mark several times if he was doing alright. The old man had managed to get away from the Shifter attack unharmed, and when he saw me for the first time since that night, he nearly touched me to check and see if I had been hurt. As far as we know, the Officials had disposed of the Shifter, urging everyone to get home before burning the body to a crisp in a fire at the edge of the sector.

Colton and Josh sit next to Rae and Max, the twins bitter toward us ever since the Solstice dinner. Max’s Academy uniform had been replaced with Official attire. As far as Kai knows, he’s already started his training. He scoffs as we walk by, turning to our classmates who surround him and whispering loud enough for us to hear that he’s appalled by “the corruption” in our family. Both Kai and I bite our tongues.

“Here comes the vermin,” Josh says, nudging Max.

Feeling his familiar energy buzz through me, I gaze forward, taking our usual seats toward the back. I manage to hold my typical facade in place. Leaning into my brother, I watch Fallan and Valerie move by, both silent, taking their seats behind the line in the back of the bus.

Glancing at our old friend group, I see their eyes are already on us, analyzing our every move. Clenching my hands, I focus on each one of them, imagining their heads flying back, hitting the glass behind them.

“Don’t,” he whispers, forcing me back into rational a rational mindset

I turn to give him a look, sneaking a small smile his way as I watch Valerie fidget with her blazer.

Fallan leans back, watching me back with playful eyes.

“ What?”

“You look beautiful,” he says, my cheeks igniting with a rosy blaze at the compliment.

“Raven boy does it, and we love it, but Blondie boy does it, and we hate it,” It whispers, my head snapping to my reflection in the bus window.

It looks annoyed, pressing Its head to the glass.

“What's your issue today?”

“You and our utter stupidity,” It spits, shaking Its head at me.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sure you'd love to know, but sadly, you are continuing to lock me away like a cowardly bitch. I’m sure I could have aided you against that Shifter,” It says, Its image slowly fading away from the tram window.

Note to self: figure out how often Marked have hallucinations that won't seem to leave them.

Giving Fallan one last look, I ease myself into Kai again.

“Today is just another pointless day,” Kai says, slumping, leaning the glass behind him with a huff.

“Why does that feel so far from the truth?” It says.

It is a question I can't even begin to answer.

Kai and I trail next to Rae, her silent treatment still in effect. We follow behind Fallan, moving closer to the art room. This whole building suddenly feels constricting after the last few weeks. Four months ago, had you told me where my loyalties lie now, I’d have called you insane. Fallan keeps his distance, his hands buried deep in his pockets, scowling at everyone, including me. I almost forgot it’s all act.

“Do you plan on giving me and Kai the cold shoulder for the rest of the year?” Rae’s icy blue eyes find mine, giving me a frigid stare.

“You seriously want me to act like we’re friends after all of the shit you and your brother have been up to? Everyone is convinced you and your family are Unfortunate sympathizers, Forest,” she begins, looking over to Fallan as he nudges open the classroom door.

“Some people are even saying you’re hooking up with him. ”

I scoff. “Everyone is concerned with what I’m doing and who I’m doing it with lately, it seems.” I move past her and through the classroom door.

As I make my way into the classroom, I notice how anxious Mrs. Auburn is. She barely acknowledges me as I move toward the back of the classroom. Josh is settled in his seat, watching me through narrowed eyes. He raises a hand in my direction, ready to mess with me in any way he can. Slamming his wrist into his desk, I make a point, locking eyes with his skulking face.

“I'll break it,” I hiss, squeezing his wrist, only letting up once I feel his pain sharpen.

My classmates observe me as I back away from him. Rae and Mrs. Auburn remain deep in thought, lost in their artwork.

“I suggest you all stop watching me,” I say to anyone willing to listen.

A few heads turn away, some lingering once they think I’m not paying attention.

“You'll regret that,” Josh whispers under his breath.

Fallan adjusts himself in his chair, ready to pounce at any moment.

Ignoring his empty threat, I grasp the desk beside Rae, shoving it back several feet. Moving past the red tape, I position myself closer to Fallan, ignoring Mrs. Auburn’s quiet attempt to urge me to keep the desk where it belongs.

“You’re the one who wanted me to help him catch up,” I say, planting myself down into my seat, our knees only a few inches apart.

I can hear his thoughts revolving around seeing me in my school uniform, each one ending with us finding a bit of privacy for him to appreciate every part of me.

Looking at Fallan, I grab one of his paints, letting its colors trail over my half-finished work of art.

“I don't want to be near Josh,” I whisper. Fallan’s eyes pass over him.

“Any particular reason why? Other than the fact that he is an idiot,” Fallan questions, my hands rolling up my shirt sleeves.

Bruises linger on the skin from that night at the Solstice dinner.

"He gets a bit too handsy,” I admit, surprised to feel Fallan’s fingers graze over my skin when no one is watching.

“I couldn't see this in the dark or else I would have been more careful-”

“I know,” I smile, cutting off him off to shut down that train of thought.

“He managed to do that in the small amount of time you were with him?” Fallan questions, continuing the lazy strokes of his paintbrush.

“He finds pleasure in my pain,” I say, narrowing my eyes at the golden-skinned brute.

Dropping his hand from his position under his chin, Josh’s head collides with his desk, his nose slamming into the wood with a bang. I flinch, all of our peers gasping as his nose runs red with blood. My mark heats, and the power comes alive inside me. Fallan’s eyes are lowered, his gaze dead set on Josh, both hands clenched in his lap. Drawing in several breaths, he relaxes his posture, watching Josh wail as he begins gripping his now broken nose. Mrs. Auburn hauls him up to his feet, urging him to go to the infirmary. His buddies support him, placating his childlike nature with words of affirmation. Smiling, I look at my raven-haired lover.

“I guess he had the urge to break his own nose for some reason,” Fallan whispers, touching his temple with a sigh.

“Maybe he isn't that bad,” It whispers, finally giving me peace of mind.

“How are you feeling today?” he questions after a few moments.

He taps his foot nervously, waiting for me to answer.

“Are you trying to ask me if I regret what happened between us?” I ask through the connection, his head slowly nodding.

“We’d both been drinking-”

“Every moment of it was nothing short of perfect. I regret nothing,” I say, looking at him seductively under hooded eyes.

The smile he gives me is captivating. It's a sight I would pay any price to see, no matter how many times I’d seen it. His knee grazes my own, both of us wrapped in a bubble of blissful solitude for a few moments, satisfied in our moment of peace for only him and me.

His hand slides down his leg under the desk, ready to steal a touch to my knee with outstretched fingertips.

“Forest Blackburn,” a voice booms, both Fallan and I forcing our attention toward the classroom door.

A pair of Officials stand at the door. Max lingers behind them. Looking at me, they point, motioning for me to get up from my desk. “You're needed in the hallway immediately,” one of the men orders, moving toward me urgently. Rising to my feet, Fallan gets up too. Max’s eyes grow hungry with power as he moves past me, grabbing Fallan’s neck and forcing him down and into the desk.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Fallan yells, his head being slammed into the desk.

“Max-” I yell, grabbing his arm.

Before I knew what was happening, Max’s hand flies toward me, striking me across the face. I gasp, holding my palm to the side of my face as the pair of Officials grab my upper arms, motioning Max to follow. Another Official enters the room to aid Max in restraining Fallan after he tries to hurt Max for touching me. He thrashes against the man's grasp, a look of concern flashes across his face when he sees my nose has started bleeding from Max’s blow. Mrs. Auburn covers her mouth in disbelief, urging my classmates to stand against the wall in the back of the classroom.

Dragging us toward the door, I strain against their hold, debating how many necks I can snap and get away with it.

“What the fuck is going on?” I yell, the Official’s grasp only tightening.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” one of them hisses, striking me hard in the neck. I gasp for air, unable to get my throat to fully open.

“Don't you fucking dare!” Fallan yells, forcing Max into the nearest wall in the hallway. He tries to slip away, ready to bulldoze through the Officials holding me.

The man with Max forces a prod into Fallan’s side, watching him writhe in pain as they turn the dial up all the way. Their twisted smiles are horrifying, taking pleasure from how much pain they're causing. I try to move towards him, but the Officials have me restrained. I attempt to clutch my throat, but their grips are unyielding.

“I guess they were right when they said you followed in her mother’s footsteps, you ignorant, Unfortunate loving whore,” one of the Officials holding me whispers into my ear, the sound of a struggle surrounding me as more bodies fill the hallway.

Kaiden and Valerie thrash against the Officials blocking their path to us, panicking when they find us down the hallway from them.

“Forest, run!” Kaiden yells, driving his elbow into the Official’s jaw who has been holding him in place. Valerie takes the opportunity to try to fight off the Official holding her back, but the man twists her arm as they struggle. There was no mistaking the sound of a bone snapping, and we could hear it from our position down the hall.

Wailing out, she hits the floor. Kai is unable to stop the men from slamming him into the nearest wall. I try to get to Fallan again, watching him shove Max back. Max shifts the prod into one hand and pulls his pistol free with the other. Max points the weapon at Fallan’s head, and my heart stops.

“If you keep fighting, I swear to god I will put a bullet in his head,” Max hisses, his chip emitting a green, blinking light.

No, not just his chip; all of the Official's chips had been activated.

“They want him alive,” one of the men closest to me says, grabbing my hair and twisting it beneath his grasp. “They want all of them alive. We're going to get hell for breaking the girl's arm and hitting this one's face,” he continues, looking at me with malice.

“I can promise you, the more you resist, the worse it will be for your little friends and anyone else associated with you.”

“Don't push them,” I whisper, trying to look back at Fallan, who’s now fully restrained between two Officials and Max.

All of us are forced to comply, and the Officials move us down the hall, with Kai and Valerie in the front.

“I could kill them all. I could-”

A painful noise fills my ears. The same noise that had infiltrated Fallan’s mind last night. I clutch back, seeing Fallan do the same beside me, both of us yelling out in pain as we’re dragged closer to the front doors of the Academy. Our feet scuff the ground. The noise becomes unbearable, only dissipating when we meet the outside air.

Fallan reaches for me, stopped by a brutal blow to his abdomen and several more to his face. I rush to give him what energy I have through our connection.

“Check her hip, then check his chest-” Adam’s familiar voice booms out from somewhere in front of us. Arms wrap around me, keeping my hands at my side.

“Don’t you dare fucking touch her, you son of a bitch!” Fallan yells, spitting up blood on the sidewalk between words.

Adam’s hand passes over my hip bone, his fingers dragging down my skirt. The mark I’ve kept hidden for as long as I’ve been alive is exposed to him in an instant. Forcing up Fallan’s shirt, they find the mark on his side. Valerie and Kai watch in fear. Max holds back my brother with no remorse for his involvement in all this.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Adam begins, his hand forcing my chin up so I have to look at him. “You’re a fucking dirty Marked, and so is your nasty bed buddy.” He spits on the ground by my feet, twisting his face up into disgust.

“Just like your Daddy.”

He knew my father was Marked?

“Take them to the cars. Upper leadership says the frequency should keep their abilities and energy down for a few hours,” Adam starts, looking down at me with a grin. “It would seem your Judgment Day has come early.”

Scuffing my knees against the ground, I eventually find my footing as I’m dragged towards the Official vehicles. Kai and Valerie are the first to get shoved into the cars, fighting back with violent jabs and kicks before they’re hurtled into the back of one of the SUVs. My brother screams for me, his face eventually disappearing behind tinted glass windows. The vehicle rocked on its wheels for a few seconds before going utterly still.

Shoving me into the vehicle by my neck, I bash against the inside of the opposite passenger door, my shoulder stinging with pain from the impact. Moments later, they force Fallan inside the same vehicle, his hands on me in an instant, pulling me into him.

“The Hold, the Call, try and use anything you can-” he pleads. Two Officials in masks sit in the front seat of the vehicle, watching us with looks of disapproval. They turn around, some sort of plastic mask attached to a metal canister in each of their hands. They move towards us quickly.

“I'm afraid you have nowhere to run.” They pause. “Night night, Ms. Blackburn.”

We fight as they force the masks against our faces. Their fists hit our abdomens, causing us to draw in a full breath. Slowly, I slip away. The scentless gas fills my lungs. I clasp Fallan’s hand in my own, leaning into him, drowning in fear.

“Fight,” he whispers, his voice distant... different from the other one in my mind.

“Embrace me,” It says through the fog, my mind so detached from myself.

“Set us free.”

I try to reach for that otherness inside of me.

I try to grab the power it offers.

But the void of darkness is too vast.

I slip into the abyss.