Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184867 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 924(@200wpm)___ 739(@250wpm)___ 616(@300wpm)
I roll away.
Suddenly, Mr. Torres aims his weapon at Ares instead. “HE’S MINE TO FUCKING PUNISH!”
Blaine runs up to us and throws himself between Ares and his father right as he pulls the trigger.
BANG!
CRYSTAL
“NO!” I scream, grabbing Blaine as he sinks to the floor.
Blood pours from an open wound in his chest, and he begins to gurgle.
“You motherf—” Caleb smashes his fist into Mr. Torres’s face and knocks him to the floor. Kai kicks the gun out of his hand and cracks the bones in his fingers underneath his boot. His screams are the only consolation I have as I wrap my arms around both Ares and Blaine, bleeding out in my lap.
“No, no, no,” I murmur at Blaine. “Please, stay with me.”
“GUARDS!” his father squeals. “GUARDS!”
“There are no more guards,” Kai growls at his father, gripping his collar. “We killed them all.”
Mr. Torres’s pupils dilate. “What? No, no, that can’t be true—”
Kai snatches the whip from his father’s hand and starts lashing out, striking him with the whip just as harshly as he did to Ares. “Does it hurt?! Do you think it hurt as much as you hurt Ares?” THWACK. THWACK. THWACK. “The pain doesn’t even come close to the years of suffering you put him through!” THWACK. THWACK. “You motherfucking piece of shit, how dare you hurt my fucking brother!” THWACK!
Kai is out of control, completely unhinged by rage as he whips his own father’s belly and face while he screams in terror from the blood rolling down his body and neck.
“Kai, please!” his father begs.
“Did you stop when he pleaded with you?” Kai responds, only to strike him even harder. “All these years, I thought you were talking with him, getting him to change his mind, to prepare him. And now I find out you’ve been torturing him all this time right under my very fucking nose?”
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
He doesn’t stop.
Not until Caleb grabs his wrist midair. “Enough.”
“He needs to fucking pay!” Kai grits.
“But do you really want to murder your own father?”
Ragged breaths come out of Kai’s mouth. “He deserves nothing less.”
“Kai …” His father groans.
Kai kicks him in the side. “Even now, you can’t even think of Ares instead. You motherfucker, you don’t deserve me.”
“Guys …” I mutter, looking up at both of them. “Please, help.”
I’m cradling two gravely injured men while blood seeps down my back, and I can’t hold on much longer.
Kai and Caleb come to us, and while Caleb rips off his own shirt and wraps it around Blaine’s bullet wound, Kai lifts his own brother off the floor and carries him on his back.
“Call for help,” Kai tells me.
When both boys are off me, I get up and bolt through the door, rushing through the hallway until I get to the others. “Guys! We need help!”
Felix, Alistair, Dylan, Penelope, Lana, Milo, and Nathan run back with me and gawk inside the office. “What happened? Did you save hi—Oh God,” Penelope mutters when she sees the pools of blood on the floor.
“Jesus Christ,” Dylan says when he peers inside. “What happened?”
“Kai’s father tortured Ares and shot Blaine. We need help carrying them out. No time to waste,” I say.
But the moment they run past me to assist Kai and Caleb, I’m the only one who looks at Mr. Torres. He’s reaching for the gun on the floor and aims it at Ares again.
So I snatch Lana’s gun from her belt, aim it at Torres, and shoot.
BANG!
One bullet and everyone’s attention is focused on the body flopping to the floor, the gun still firmly clutched in his stiff hand.
Everyone takes a glance at me, but I can’t take my eyes off the body of the man who murdered my father in cold blood. The burden of my vow to him … has finally been released.
Caleb approaches me and has to pry the weapon out of my hand before he hugs me tight. “It’s okay. You did good. It’s over now.”
I nod a few times and swallow away the tears. “I’m sorry. He was about to kill A—”
Kai interrupts me. “I know.” He places a hand on my shoulder. “Thank you.”
I’m shocked. Completely and utterly shocked.
But he just walks away like I didn’t just kill his father, supporting Ares together with Milo.
I turn around and look at Blaine who’s hanging onto Felix and Dylan for dear life. “Will they be okay?”
Caleb wraps his arm around my waist. “I won’t allow them to leave us behind. So yes.” He briefly smiles at me. “Let’s go.”
Caleb
We race back to school in our cars, ignoring red lights everywhere. Felix, Kai, Dylan, and Nathan help me carry Blaine and Ares haphazardly to the nurse’s office even though it’s already way past opening hours.
I’m already glad most students are in their dorms fast asleep, so they don’t have to witness us dragging in two bloodied people and have their screams fill the campus.