Page 110 of Catching My Dreams

Brett tore the knife free. Ella could only stare at him in shock as pain ripped through her and she felt a warm liquid pour down her skin. She lifted a hand to the wound and let out a choked gasp when her fingers met the torn and blood-soaked edges of her cheerleading uniform and the similarly slashed edges of her skin.

Ella’s knees buckled, but she felt no gratitude when Brett was there to catch her. He slowly lowered her to the ground, and Ella wasn’t sure if the nausea turning her stomach over and the bile rising in her throat were reactions to her injury or his touch.

She tried to move, to get away from him, but her limbs didn’t seem to work. She was so cold. Too cold. And all she could think about was Noah. About the fact that the last three weeks had been stolen from them, and she wouldn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.

Tears spilled from her eyes, rolling down her skin and into her ears and hairline.

“Shit,” Brett swore as he used his shirt to wipe the blood from the blade of the hunting knife. “It’s going to be okay,” he lied, brushing his fingers over her clammy forehead.

He started muttering something, but Ella couldn’t understand the words he was using, and she realized why when an engraving she hadn’t noticed before on the knife’s blade started to glow a faint blue. He was casting a spell.

The rune on the blade dimmed when he stopped speaking, and Ella knew she needed to get away. Only her legs and arms still wouldn’t work. She tried to press her hands into the cold and dirty concrete beneath her, but all the strength had left her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t escape.

“I’ll be with you soon,” Brett said gently, lovingly. “We’ll never have to be apart again.”

He lifted the knife again, this time pressing the tip to her chest, and Ella knew whatever life she was clinging to would be taken from her as soon as he pushed down into her flesh.

32

“You sure you don’t want to come with?” Brady asked, gesturing with his head to where his parents stood waiting for him.

They had plans to celebrate the Hoya’s win with dinner at some Mexican restaurant close to campus.

“Not tonight,” Noah replied. All he wanted to do was go home and lock himself in his room like the sulking, pathetic man he’d become.

“Much as I don’t want to spend the next thirty minutes alone with old jerkface over here, I’m out too,” Chris added.

Noah scoffed. Despite their argument, Noah hadn’t stopped picking Chris up, and Chris hadn’t stopped getting in the Jeep. But they hadn’t called a truce, which Chris didn’t hesitate to make clear every single day.

“Are you two going to kiss and make up, or what?” Brady asked, looking between the two of them with pursed lips.

Chris snorted. “In Noah’s dreams.”

“In my nightmares, you mean,” Noah corrected.

Only one person starred in his dreams in that capacity, and it certainly wasn’t the friend he’d barely said more than three words to in the last week.

“My question remains,” Brady said with an impatient sigh. “What the hell is going on with you two?”

“If Noah could get his head out of his ass for a second, maybe I’d be more pleasant,” Chris said.

“And if Chris would stop sticking his head into my business, maybe I’d be a bit less of an ass,” Noah retorted.

“Dick,” Chris muttered under his breath.

Brady tipped his head back like he was seeking patience from above. “You know what? Forget I asked.”

“Gladly,” Chris chirped.

Noah shook his head and hiked his gym bag higher up his shoulder. “We’ll see you on Monday,” he told Brady.

“Yeah.” He started backing away to where his parents stood next to their car. “Try not to kill each other in the meantime.”

“No promises,” Chris replied, and without another word, he strode off down the sidewalk.

Noah held his tongue and caught up. They were nearly at the parking garage where his Jeep was waiting for them, but it may as well have been miles away, given how tense the atmosphere was.

He spotted Olivia and Drew walking ahead of them, their hands linked together like the love-sick tweens they were. At least they seemed happy.

---