Page 58 of Their Will be Done

“It’s about your father. I—”

A cell phone rings. I yelp at the unexpected sound, and Gabriel lets out a soft chuckle that sounds forced. “Sorry, dear. Let me just take this.”

The fuck? No!

I whip my head around to stare at him as he walks away, already putting his cell phone to his ear.

My eyes latch onto the big wall clock hanging beside his window.

Eight o’clock.

Righton time.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Zach

“I’m starting to think you don’t like me anymore.” The mischievous gleam in Cass’s eyes belies the questioning tone in his voice.

“What tipped you off?” I pull the rope tight and give it a yank for good measure.

Cass gags theatrically before slipping the noose off his head. “I’d say forcing me to fake my own suicide, but we both know it goes back further than that.”

We laugh. It’s sad that we both sound genuinely unfazed.

I sent Reuben and Apollo to watch Gabriel’s hallway. They’ll message me as soon as he leaves his room. Then they’ll keep an eye on both stairwells to make sure Trinity isn’t surprised half-way through her scavenger hunt.

“Ready?”

“To die? Yeah, I guess. I mean, I’d hoped for another few years or so, but fuck it.” Cass sends a toothy grin my way and climbs up on the chair. “Tell Mom I love her and Dad that he’s a cunt.”

We chose to stage this shit show in his English class. He hates Sister Sharon anyway, and I don’t agree with her disciplinary methods, so it’s a win for both of us. It’s been difficult doing all of this with nothing more than the glow of a cell phone screen to work with, but we didn’t want anyone to happen to look out a window and see a fluorescent lamp shining in a classroom that should only have souls in it tomorrow morning.

“May I state again, for the record, that there were easier, less lethal ways to create a diversion?”

“Cass—”

“I mean, we could have pulled the fire alarm—”

“Dorm doesn’t have one,” I cut in.

“Or flooded the bathroom—”

“Then I’d have to phone Miriam, not the provost. Keep up, Cass. It’s this or broke. Why the fuck else would I be calling him, and not one of the other staff?”

“I could snap my neck, you know.”

I snort at him. “I doubt it. But just in case—” I hold out my hand, and he glares at me before clasping it. “I can’t say it was a pleasure knowing you, but at least we both know you’ll be happier in hell.”

“Damn straight I will,” he says, showing me his teeth as he holds onto the rope and rocks the chair back on its legs. “Lucifer had me at succubus.”

I check the time on my cell phone. “Thirty seconds.”

“Jesus, just make the call,” he grumbles as he slips the noose around his neck again. “Gonna take the old geezer like a century to get down here, and that’s if he doesn’t break a hip on the way.”

I hop onto a nearby desk and peer out one of the small windows set into the top of the wall. “Fucking storm’s turning the lawn into a swimming pool.”

“Hope fuck face can swim.”

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