Page 131 of Three to Fall

The woman grabbed a knife from the block and hurled it in our direction.

Scythe and I stared as the sharp blade sailed between us.

The woman screamed, plucking another knife and sending it our way.

Scythe and I scattered. Knives continued to fly.

“Oooh, I fucked up,” I shouted to Scythe. “Didn’t I? What the hell am I going to do now?”

Sharpened steel sailed past him, just an inch from his head. “Duck?”

EPILOGUE

GRAYSON

Helium balloons on strings bounced around in the warm summer breeze. Families sat shoulder to shoulder on white chairs, some spilling over and forced to stand on the grass at the sides. Cheers filled the air as each graduate walked across the stage, proudly wearing their caps and gowns.

“Here she comes!” I whisper-shouted to Hayden beside me.

He put two fingers into his mouth and wolf whistled loudly. “Yeah, Hayley Jade!”

She glanced up at his shout, waved her little hand excitedly, then practically ran across the stage to the school principal, who was handing out their kindergarten graduation certificates.

“This is so over-the-top but so fucking cute,” Hawk muttered from the other side of Kara. He pushed up onto his feet when Hayley Jade shook hands with the principal. “That’s our girl! Yeah!”

Everyone turned to stare at him, but we all quickly joined in, hooting and hollering and making fools of ourselves.

Hayley Jade’s laughter was infectious as she waved her certificate at us and yelled, “I got my award. Can we go to McDonald’s now?”

The crowd all chuckled to themselves, but the four of us grinned like lunatics. The sound of her voice never got old, even when she was chattering a million miles a minute and nobody else could get a word in. She’d spent months more than making up for all the time she hadn’t uttered a sound.

We all sat down, and Hayden reached across me to squeeze Kara’s leg. “Are we going to have to bribe you with McDonald’s when it’s your turn to get up on that stage?”

She shook her head. “Not me. I can’t wait. Might have to bribe Hawk though.”

He screwed his face up. “I’m not wearing a fucking gown and having everyone stare and clap at me. Plus, I have to actually pass the GED before I can even think about enrolling in anything more than that.”

I glanced at him while other people’s kids continued crossing the stage. “You’re not still worried about that? You’re going to pass. You studied so much. You both did.”

Hayden leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms. “Pretty sure you both studied so much even I could pass it now, just through secondhand osmosis.” He paused. “I think I learned that word in one of your study sessions, actually.”

Hawk didn’t seem convinced. “I’ve failed it before.”

I glanced at my watch. “Only an hour until they release the results and put you out of your misery.”

He nodded, but we could all see it was worrying him. An hour at McDonald’s watching Hayley Jade run around on a sugar high would probably do him good. At least it would distract him.

Half of Hayley Jade’s classmates’ families seemed to have had the same idea as us, multiple families all pulling into the restaurant at the same time. I ordered for the five of us whileHayley Jade ran off to the playground with her friends, and Kara chatted with one of the school mom’s she’d gotten to know. It was noisy and chaotic, but there was a celebratory vibe in the air I just knew we’d be continuing when we got home and Kara and Hawk’s results came out.

It took forever to get Hayley Jade to leave, and when we finally got back to the clubhouse, Hawk paused the van at the gates. Fang ducked his head, so he and Hawk were even heights, and passed over some mail for us to drive down. But his gaze was pretty firmly on Hawk.

“You get your results yet?”

Hawk’s huff of nervous impatience was all he got in reply.

Kara answered as she took the mail from Hawk’s fingers. “Don’t mind him. They’ve just released so we’re driving down now to get our laptops. He’s nervous.”

Fang hit the button on the gates that set them to open. “You’ve got it this time, Hawk. Quit stressing yourself into an early grave. And if you don’t—”

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