Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82415 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 412(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Gasping desperately for air, he says, “The…fucking…hell?”
“Cody’s okay,” Seth calls from the other side of the room.
Thank fuck everyone’s alive.
Matteo’s gaze shifts around frantically, his body trembling. He looks so vulnerable, so frightened. I haven’t ever seen him like this, and it makes me want to put my arms around him and protect him.
“Why can’t I move my arms?” he asks.
“It’s okay,” I assure him. “You’re tied up. We’ll get these off you. You’re fine, though. I got you, man.”
Brad and I untie Matteo, then help him to his feet and into a chair by a desk. I grab one of the blankets the guys keep here and throw it over Matteo, who’s still pale and shaking. Luke pulls a thermos from one of the bags and brings water over in the cap to Matteo.
Both Cody and Matteo are recovering from trauma, Matteo suffering from shock, while Cody lies limp, barely able to speak as Seth holds him in his arms, whispering to him, “I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry.” Unlike the tension from before, this is more what I’d expect from Seth and Cody—unwavering loyalty.
Matteo takes a few sips from the thermos lid. As he sets it down, it trembles in his grip against the wooden desktop. He swallows, his gaze on the black goo pooled by the pentagram. Then he looks between Luke, Brad, and me.
“What the hell is going on?” he asks, looking slightly out of it still.
Throughout all this, I’ve been worried, but there’s also been a hint of guilt in the background. Now it’s switched, my guilt taking center stage because I know if he hadn’t helped me with that spell, none of this would have happened.
Brad tells him how he found him, and I explain that they brought him here and how Cody laid his hand on him and did something…not sure what.
“What did Cody do?” Matteo asks.
I look to Brad and Luke. If I say what I suspect, they’ll know just how much I’ve learned about the Sinners, but this is the least of my worries right now.
“Cody can reach into people’s minds,” Luke says. “Access memories. He did something like it to me when I first started here. He can activate these painful memories. I think he did that to this…Farras.”
Even with what I’ve shown him already, the way Matteo is glancing around makes it evident he thinks we’ve lost our minds, that this is a hard pill to swallow.
“So…I think now’s a good time to ask what you guys were doing with this spell,” Brad says, which catches Matteo’s attention.
“Really? Because Alexei and I are both curious to know what you guys are up to here.”
It’s clear by the way the accusation comes out that he’s not just upset about what went down. He’s hurt, I imagine because he considered himself and Brad friends.
“Well, maybe you and Alexei need to explain why you guys were spying on us,” Brad claps back.
“Wait, no, I was spying on you,” I explain. “Matteo, I showed him what you could do once because he thought I was making this shit up or was in a cult. Then we wound up agreeing to do this spell… It’s a long story.”
And we have so many other things to deal with right now without me having to recap everything.
“We have plenty of time,” Seth snaps. He’s a few feet away. While we’ve been talking, he’s fashioned a makeshift mattress out of the blankets for Cody, and places another over him. “Considering you nearly got Cody and Matteo killed, I figure it’s important for us to have all the facts.”
“You’re one to judge,” I say, “after what happened last semester.” I avoid mentioning the monster, since I left that part out with Matteo, but also wondering if he might’ve heard something when I brought it up while Farras was inside him.
“We were told we didn’t have anything to do with why that thing got out of the Rift,” Luke says.
“Wait, what thing?” Matteo asks, squinting like he’s straining with all the new information coming at him at once. “The Rift? I’ve seen that before, in that spell. And what do you mean thing?”
Luke glances between us. “You remember but didn’t tell him?”
All these goddamn secrets are catching up with me.
“Didn’t tell me what?” Matteo presses.
“How do you know about us?” Brad follows. “And why were you watching us?”
I jump in. “I love how you want all these answers from me, but what about you? You gonna tell me what you guys have been fucking around with for the past few years? How Seth can manipulate people’s minds, and Cody was able to heal me that night and tonight, and how Luke was able to lock my arm up like that?”
“I want to get to all that, but I’d like to know more about this thing,” Matteo asks.