Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Everyone knows.
Whether they’d heard about Friday night or simply recognized a new face, I couldn’t tell. Either way, I wasn’t invisible in the way I’d hoped. Reaching into the pocket of my blazer, I unfolded the campus map I’d been given with my admissions packet.
Labeled in tiny lettering were Administration Hall, the East Wing, the West Wing, and so on. Most of the names were creepy, like Chapel Hall, Mausoleum Manner, the Catacombs, and the Vault. There were also buildings named after what I assumed were families, including the Devereaux building.
I frowned, gazing up. Every building looked the same.
A blond guy walked past me. “Excuse me?”
Nothing. Not even a glance.
Maybe he didn’t hear me?
A girl with a stack of books crossed the path.
“Sorry… could you tell me where Administration is?”
She looked directly at me, then kept walking. I watched her disappear into the crowd.
What the hell?
Another student, the same question, the same response. A knot twisted in my stomach.
Has news spread this quickly?
I opened my backpack, pulling out a few books to see if my admissions packet had a number I could call or something to help me find my way around.
When a loud giggle captured my attention, suddenly, a gorgeous blonde walked toward me.
“You’re asking the wrong people.” Her arms folded over her blazer, amusement skimming across her warm honey-colored eyes.
She couldn’t have been much younger than me.
Maybe nineteen?
It was then that I remembered her. Her blond hair spilled down her back, and unlike everyone else, she’d rolled the sleeves of her uniform to her elbows like rules were merely suggestions to her.
She was one of the girls I’d first seen at the party by the bar.
Once she was standing in front of me, she openly shared, “They’re not ignoring you because they don’t know where the Administration building is.” She smirked. “They’re ignoring you because they’re pretending you don’t exist.”
“Oh.” I blinked. “That’s comforting.”
She actually laughed. It wasn’t polite or forced. It was natural. Instantly, I liked her. I appreciated her honesty. She was the first person who’d actually told me something straight without turning it into a game.
When out of nowhere, she proudly stated, “You’re the girl who embarrassed the Devereauxs at their party the other night. A defeat that’s never been done by the way.”
I licked my lips, my mouth dry. “All I did was climb a tree.”
“No…” she coaxed. “You declared war.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think I understand.”
“What’s not to understand?”
I accentuated the word, “Everything.”
“Let me make it a little clearer for you then.” Extending her hand to me, she greeted, “I’m Deja.”
I shook it. “Hennessy.”
“I know.” She smiled. “Hennessy Belladonna, right?”
“Mm-hmm.”
We stood in silence for a second. She was investigating me with her eyes, and I allowed her to, hoping she’d actually answer some more of my questions. She seemed defiant in the same way I was. We shared that immediate connection.
There was also something really familiar about her, like we’d known each other from another life. My soul recognized hers.
For one quick moment, the rest of Graves Academy disappeared, along with everyone in it. All the noise, the students, the questions no one answered, none of it existed. There was only this strange feeling of certainty that we were supposed to meet. This encounter wasn’t by accident. It wasn’t a coincidence.
It was fate.
It wasn’t until she broke whatever spell had settled between us that she unexpectedly declared…
* * *
“I’m Deja Devereaux.”
Chapter
Eight
Hennessy: The rules no one was taught.
Her name settled between us, and she didn’t stop smiling.
“You’ve met my brother.”
My breath caught. “Not exactly.”
My gaze searched hers again. The resemblance between them wasn’t obvious until now. It was their eyes. They shared the same honey color.
“So,” I rasped, “Onyx is your brother?”
She snorted. “Unfortunately. Although he did used to tell me they found me in a trash can.”
“Oh…”
“That’s okay.” She shrugged. “I’ve spent years telling him we adopted him from the zoo. It’s why he acts like a feral animal all the time.”
“Right…”
She caught the skepticism in my tone, chuckling, “What?”
“I guess you just don’t seem anything like him.”
“I know.” She sighed, setting her hand on her chest. “It’s my family’s biggest disappointment.”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking.
“You’ve been walking around looking like you’re headed straight into your own demise.”
“Really?” I countered, taking her in. “I thought I was doing a better job at hiding it.”
“You can’t hide anything from a Devereaux. It’s how we’re made. It truly is a curse.” She stepped beside me, grabbing the crook of my arm to start walking, linking hers into mine.
My backpack was still slightly open, and now I was walking with some books in my grasp.
Wanting to see how much information I could get out of Deja, I led with, “Onyx is your older brother?”
Without hesitation, she spoke, “Our mother wanted identical twins. She got Irish ones instead. We’re in the same grade, though. Onyx likes to say it’s because she wanted him to protect me, but the truth is, it’s just because he’s dumb as fuck and I’m smarter than him.”