Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 178117 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 891(@200wpm)___ 712(@250wpm)___ 594(@300wpm)
I’m antsy, and my nerves feel like they’re on fire as I march out the door, ready to beat up whoever’s trying to sneak her away from my sight. If some Phantoms got in, I’ll pummel them into next year.
I make my way through the club, past all the dancing people, but when I spot Lana coming out of the bathroom, I shove my way through. Some people throw me angered glares and frowns, but I don’t give a shit. I’m the owner’s son. They don’t like it? They can leave.
“Get out of my way,” I growl.
When I finally get close enough, I grab her arm and turn her to me. “Where’s Penelope?”
“What? Why should I—”
“She was in that bathroom with you,” I interject.
She frowns. “I don’t know where she is. She ran off.”
“Tell me why.” My grip on her arms tightens. “What happened?”
“Get your hands off me.” She tries to shake me off, but it’s not happening. “I was just talking to her.”
“What did you say to her?” I bark.
She glowers at me. “I told her about you and your boys and Eve, and that you’d been fucking around with her.”
My pupils dilate.
Fuck.
Why the fuck would she tell her that?
“I thought she knew,” she mutters.
I shove her away.
“Jesus Christ, Felix,” she cries, but I’m not listening.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
I don’t even fucking care what Lana is saying anymore. I need to find Penelope. Now.
“Felix!” Dylan calls from the back as I push through the sea of people. “Where are you going?”
“Penelope’s gone!” I yell back.
His eyes widen, and he immediately beckons Alistair, then follows suit. But I’m far too busy trying to get out of this crowded club to care if they’re coming or not. Every second is another one wasted.
She could be halfway across town by now.
If I don’t find her soon, things will go south pretty quick.
“Fuck!” I yell out loud when I finally get to the door.
“Everything okay, sir?” one of the guards asks, popping open his umbrella to hold it over my head because it’s raining.
“Did you see a girl with purple hair run past?” I ask him in a hurry.
“Um … I think so. Maybe,” he mutters.
I grab him by the collar. “Tell me where she went. Now.”
He points in the direction of a one-way street that leads to the outskirts of Crescent Vale City. “That way, sir.”
Fuck. That’s exactly the direction I hoped she wouldn’t take. It has only one remaining point of interest she could possibly go to.
I don’t even thank him before running off directly into the pouring rain. I can’t waste any time.
“Felix, wait!” Dylan yells behind me, but I can’t fucking wait for them. “Where are you going?”
I glance at him over my shoulder. “The cemetery.”
His eyes widen. “What, the one—”
“Where her sister was buried,” Alistair fills in as they finally catch up with me. “But why?”
In front of my car, I stop and look at them both. “She knows about Eve and us.” I unlock it. “Get in.”
Penelope
Raindrops trickle down my face, mixing with the tears as I stare at my sister’s headstone. Her name is carved out onto the slab the same way it’s carved onto my flesh.
I pull away my dress sleeve to look at her name so beautifully drawn in ink.
Beautiful, just like her.
Unlike this sullen grave.
“Eve …” I mutter as my knees begin to buckle. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”
I can’t believe it. It can’t be fucking true.
My sister … being in a foursome?
With the Skull & Serpent boys?
Imagine her walking around with them on campus, touching each other, kissing, and making out in secret. I shiver at the thought.
That was not the Eve I knew.
My Eve was unwavering in her convictions. She wanted to make the world a better place. She hated people who did others wrong. She was the spitting image of my mother with my father’s soul.
Yet why do I find it hard to dismiss Lana’s words?
Why do they make me obey?
When my knees hit the mud, more tears roll down my cheeks.
“You wouldn’t keep this a secret from me,” I mutter to Eve’s grave. “You’re my sister. Sisters tell each other everything.”
I wish more than anything she could talk back to me. That I could hear her voice one final time, whispering to me that it’s all a lie and that she’s okay.
That she didn’t die, she just slipped away.
I bury my face in my hands, unable to look at her name without feeling destroyed.
All of the clues were right in front of me.
And whatever you do, don’t ever get involved with those boys of the Skull & Serpent Society.
Over and over, the note’s words repeat in my mind.
I should’ve known. It was right there in front of me all this time.
I wish I could read her texts right now. Just one last time.