Page 71 of Ruined Wolfsbane

“What are you smiling at?” Patrick demands.

I shake my head in response, refusing to give him my words. He huffs and begins to pace the room. It takes him around half an hour to come to the same conclusion I did. I’m dying. His grand plan failed.

Serves him fucking right.

“No!” he screams as he flips the metal table like it weighs nothing. He storms toward me. I’d be scared if I could feel anything. Instead, I feel floaty and numb. It’s great.

Patrick grabs me by the scruff of my neck and shakes me. “Shift!” he shouts, spittle flying in my face. When I don’t do anything other than blink, he roars and flings me into the wall under the window.

I land hard on my arm. I hear a snap and brace, expecting the excruciating pain of a broken arm. When I feel nothing other than mild discomfort, I smile slightly. Wolfsbane is apparently a great anesthetic. That or my nerves are beginning to shut down from the poison.

I don’t feel much of anything as Patrick breaks my body with furious kicks and punches. Retreating into my mind, I go over the plans for mine and Ava’s future house. Sadness tries to creep in that I won’t ever get to hold my little sister again, but I push it away.

I’m in the middle of decorating my room in my mind, which conveniently has a bed big enough for four people, when a strange gurgling sound yanks me out of my fantasy.

Slowly prying open my heavy eyelids, I look around the dimly lit basement to figure out what the sound is. On my next inhale, I realize I’m making the sound. It’s the sound of my lungs desperately trying to get air in past the blood seeping out of my mouth.

Glancing down the best I can on my side, I search for whatever injury is causing it. I quickly jerk my gaze back up when I see how ruined my body is. Bile tries to work its way up at seeing my mangled skin, muscle, and bone, but I force it down. I’m morbidly impressed at how many bones Patrick managed to break in his rage.

Casting my gaze around the basement, I don’t see him anywhere. I don’t hear anything, either.

Hopefully he left so I can die in peace.

Air gets harder and harder to come by as I lie there panting. After what could be a few minutes or a few hours, blankness starts creeping in. I flutter my lids shut, ready to let the darkness consume me.

My heart pangs with regret at leaving Ava. I send a quick prayer up to the universe that she’ll be okay. I have everything in place to make sure she is, but a prayer won’t hurt anything—not that any of my prayers have been answered before. Maybe I’ll get lucky this time.

As I let my consciousness slip away, I swear I hear Bastian call my name. That’s impossible. I still try to claw my way back to the land of the living to see him one last time, but I can’t.

Accepting defeat, I let myself drift off into the peaceful embrace of death.

CHAPTER 29

BASTIAN

EARLIER THE SAME DAY

I’m actually looking forward to teaching my class today. I haven’t been excited about my job in, well, ever. Teaching a bunch of spoiled punks is overrated. I’d give it a zero-star Yelp review if I could.

Instead of just being a reminder of the freedom I’ll never truly have, my first class of the day is an opportunity to stare at Briar for sixty minutes. Like a total perv.

Can you really blame me?

She’s a fuckin’ smoke show—all long legs, wide hips, and a tiny waist. It’s like she was made for me.

Oh, that’s right, she was.

Man, I’m such a lucky guy.

But it’s not just her looks that draw me in. It’s her kindness, humor, intelligence, and thoughtfulness. It’s the pain that darkens her ice-blue eyes when she thinks no one is looking. It’s the understanding, not pity, that was written in every line of her face when she found out about my past.

I’m not ready to share everything with her. I’m still ashamed of the angry teenager I used to be. I put my family through hell in my single-minded focus to make the pain stop. But I have hope that she won’t be disgusted with me, and she’ll still want me when she finds out everything.

Shaking my head because it’s way too early for serious thoughts, I pop my headphones in. I start jamming out to “Messed Up.”

It feels like only a couple minutes have passed when Xander, Rory, and Ronan burst through my door. I look up, ready to tease them, when I see the distraught looks on their faces. I’m instantly on high alert.

“Have you seen Briar?” my twin asks me.

---