Page 19 of A Blackened Bond

That didn’t make sense.

Seria was the type to take any chance she could to play the role of ‘hero’. Showing offThe Banes’ability and prestige was the sort of thing she relished in—all while pretending to be humble.

She was the all-powerful Bane heiress. What reason would she have or give for not stepping up and helping during an attack?

Also, Kane and Xander never liked to back down from a fight, and Anders and Knox could never turn their backs on someone in need.

So why weren’ttheyat least here?

I’m dragged from my thoughts as Ezra takes my hand in his before lacing our fingers together, a gentle smile forming on his lips as my gaze meets his.

Why was I worrying about what Seria and those asshats were doing anyway? I shouldn’t be focusing on anything other than what’s happening right now.

“So what do we do?” Questions Morgan as she takes the spot next to Ash and Grey, wrapping her arm around Ash as he grins down at her. Her gaze flickers toward Creed and then me, waiting for an answer.

“We stay together…and on guard. Whoever did this or was involved could still be here.” Creed glances around before turning his gaze toward the faculty. “Anyonecould be involved.”

Annex nods. “I say we wipe em’ all out.” A sinister grin forms on his lips as he scans the area and the students around us. “You can never be too sure.”

Ezra rolls his eyes. “You can’t go on a killing spree in the academy, Annex,” he sighs, a more serious expression taking over his features as he looks around us. “The clean-up would be a disaster.”

My head whips around to Ezra, my eyes widening with the serious yet casual look on his face. It's almost like he didn’t just mention massacring the entire student body.

He meets my gaze, a dark grin tilting his lips as he leans closer toward me. “I would be the first to join Annex on a killing spree if there was a threat to my family or those I caredfor, Micai. Getting my hands bloody is an easy price to pay for the safety of those I love. It’s without a question or doubt.” Something flickers across his eyes; it’s there and gone in the flash of a moment before his playful grin returns to his lips.

Annex claps Ezra on the back, the motion making Ezra wince slightly.

“And that’s one of the many reasons I love you, brother. You’re not quite as dark and deranged as me, but your cute little black soul calls to my own.”

Ezra grins at Annex’s words before scoffing.

“I’m darker than you think, Annex.” A strange look forms in Ezra’s eyes before Annex slaps him in the back again.

“Not true, you scaly ass.”

Ezra shakes his head, the look from earlier gone as his smile grows.

“Didn’t think you were the sentimental type,” I call to Annex as a grin pulls at my cheeks.

These boys.For some strange reason, they thought they were some type of dark monster, something evil and irredeemable.

But they couldn’t be further from it.

I’ve seen evil. Stared into the dark and bottomless pit of it and into the depraved eyes oftruemonsters. Ones that looked back at me with a gentle smile.

Real monsters don’t call themselves dark, or evil, or even ‘monsters’. They try to portray themselves as ‘good’ so they can lure you in before devouring you whole.

I shake my head as I gaze at my two lost boys. They may be crazy and psychotic, they may enjoy the chaos and carnage, butreal monstersthey are not.

Maybe they have sides to them I don’t know about yet. Maybe we haven’t told each other everything, and maybe their dark or painful pasts have twisted them so that they are a bit more lost and broken than before.

But they weren’t evil. They weren’t bad.

They were just lost in their own pain and surviving the best way they knew how to.Like I have been.

But it’s time we all break free of our pasts and the pain shackling us there.

Mr. Heinley calls over to us as a slight bit of sun begins to break through the sky. It pulls me from my thoughts as I watch the groups of students around us moving toward him.

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