Page 5 of Volatile King (The Kings of Wayward Academy #6)

N ash

Now I understood why cops ate donuts and drank coffee like it was their job.

I took another sip, but it had gone cold, and gagged before I shook my head to stay awake.

A few cars had come and gone while I watched, and three times an ambulance had taken off, lights flashing, and returned a little while later with a patient.

I’d started making up stories about what happened to them to need an ambulance. One cut a limb off or maybe had a heart attack. Another was a robbery victim, or maybe one of those special types who loved to stick weird things up their ass and get it stuck.

Whatever the reason, my box of sugar, tray of caffeine, and the insane stories in my head were the only things keeping me awake. My eyes started to feel heavy again.

“Shit. I really need to get some sleep,” I said.

Getting out of my car, I walked around the back to relieve myself. The fucking gallon of coffee was going through me, and I had to piss like a racehorse.

I had no idea what the hell my next move was.

My mind had been scrambled since the accident.

I couldn’t concentrate, didn’t bother attending class, not that Dean Henry cared about that, but…

I felt aimless. All my usual focus and drive had taken a back burner to an uncontrollable restlessness that I couldn’t shake, even with massive amounts of coffee.

“Maybe you just need to get a good night’s sleep,” I said, turning around just as someone pulled up to the E.R.

There was nothing special about the car, but when the passenger got out, I blinked and shook my head, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. No, there was no way.

“Mya?”

My stomach dropped as I stared at what looked like an apparition from my past. I stepped forward as I watched her turn and smile at whoever was driving before the car pulled away. She was wearing pink scrubs with her dark hair pulled up into a ponytail, like always.

Feet heavy but heart running wild, I marched across the parking lot as the woman walked through the doors.

She disappeared out of sight, and I worried I would lose her in the hospital.

Jogging after her, I burst through the doors of the emergency room and looked around.

I caught the back of her pink scrubs rounding the end of the hall on my left.

Taking off again, my sneakers squeaked on the shiny floor.

When I turned the corner, I searched the large open lobby of the hospital. I checked all the offshoot hallways, but she wasn’t there.

Thump, thump, thump.

My heart pounded out of control. I needed to find her. I had to know for sure. Just as I was turning to go, I spotted her in the glass elevator. I sprinted for the stairs, watching it as I took the steps two at a time.

She glanced over her shoulder, and it was only a second, but the similarities were unreal. Memories of our first meeting and how she had smiled just for me flooded my mind as I reached the second landing and kept climbing.

The elevator stopped on the next floor, and she stepped out of sight.

An old dread filled me. The same feeling from the night my father had dragged me to her house and forced me to watch him kill her parents.

He had staged it to look like a murder suicide.

Mya had cried and begged me for help. She’d reached for me and asked me to save her and our baby, but the guards had held me down.

All of it, every one of our shared moments, including the night when we were each other’s first, flashed before my eyes. Our love had resulted in her death, I was positive of that…or was I? He wanted me to know what I’d caused and who was to blame, but…

When I reached the third floor, I sprinted toward the elevator, hoping to spot her. She was already gone, so I kept running, straight into the maternity ward.

I peeked in every room that I passed, including the nurse’s station. Pink was the uniform color of choice, but no one looked like Mya. A woman with a dark brown ponytail stepped out into the hallway, and I grabbed her arm. She jumped, looking terrified.

“Shit, sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

I kept searching the ward, but it was pointless.

Pulling my phone, I glanced at the time. Fucking witching hour, fucking lack of sleep. On my way back to the elevator, I passed the newborn area. A thick glass separated me from the infants. Only three of the cribs were occupied, and a nurse sat in the corner, gently rocking a fourth baby.

Was it possible that the thought of moving forward, failing Ren, and almost losing her was pulling on the pain of my past? The pain of a time I’d tried hard to forget.

Chubby little bodies, wearing either blue or pink outfits, were in the clear beds.

Each one had a card with information, which I could only assume was the baby’s name.

It had been months since I’d thought about my son.

He would be two now. I’d dreamed of a small child with black hair and blue eyes waving at me, but no matter how hard I ran, I never made it in time before they disappeared.

“Is one of them yours?”

One of the nurses had come up beside me. She had dark brown hair and a similar smile to Mya, but it wasn’t her. This was who I’d seen, it must be, and in my sleep-deprived state, I had conjured a ghost.

“No,” I said, and then figured that must sound extremely creepy by the look on her face. “I’m here with a friend,” I quickly added, and she smiled again and nodded. “I better go.”

Turning away from the woman I’d tracked down like an insane person, I shoved my hands in my jeans pockets and walked back to the exit.

The mind was a wondrous and terrifying thing. How could something that allowed people to do open-heart surgery also be the same thing that had me chasing a ghost through empty halls?

I didn’t know, but one thing was for sure…no matter how deep I had buried the demons of my past, they would find a way to come back. No one wanted to think about dying. Fuck, most of the time I denied its existence. The clock wasn’t ticking, and I was invincible. But I wasn’t, none of us were.

One second you were breathing, the next you were nothing but a memory, and the world didn’t blink. It simply moved on without you. I’d moved on without Mya or my child, and not a single person missed them but me. I went to her grave and left flowers, but no one else mourned them. Here, then gone.

I’d already given everything to my father, to his stupid order, and to this family. I’d bled for it, but it was never enough. It wasn’t enough for those who collected souls. Not enough for my father. And, definitely not enough for the ghosts that refused to shut the fuck up in my head.

I’d lost the girl I loved once, and I swore that I’d never love again. Instead, I almost let the cycle repeat like a bad movie.

Glancing over my shoulder before I walked outside into the night, I saw nothing.

The ghosts had gone back to sleep, done tormenting my brain.

At least the ones from my past. Princess was inside this hospital, and she had systematically attached and then pulled on my heartstrings with her puppeteer fingers until I was dancing with the rest of my brothers.

I hated this ache in my chest. Hated it and hated the fear that accompanied it.

I already knew what hell looked like. But this...this felt like praying for something I was never meant to have.