Page 51 of Splitting Secrets
27
Sonny
Raze has a bright red minivan parked outside. I’d laugh if we weren’t in such a dire position. And if Ava wasn’t shooting eye daggers my way.
As we each file out of the cabin, he presses a button and the trunk opens.
“He’s going to kill us,” Jonah mumbles.
“You need to stop saying that,” Raze tells him as he rounds the front of the van and opens the driver’s door. “I wouldn’t be so obvious if I were going to kill you.”
“But we don’t get to sit in a seat like real people?” Beatrix whines.
“Not unless you want to risk being seen. I’m not often spotted driving through town with four students.”
We each share a look.He has a point.With that, Raze gets into the car and waits for each of us to climb in. Ava makes sure to get in last and sits the farthest away from me.
“Lay down and use the cloaks to cover yourself,” he instructs over his shoulder before gently taking off.
“You have no reason to be mad at me,” I whisper to Ava across Beatrix and Jonah.
“Of course, I do,” she hisses back. “Once again, you’re found to be lying to us.”
“It wasn’t a lie,” I whisper-shout. “He first did it in the dungeons back at Ravenshurst, and I had no idea if it was him or me.”
“Don’t you think that’s valuable information to share?” she bites back. “Dr. Whitlock is supposed to be aNull.”
“Iknowthat,” I say back, this time not even bothering to whisper. I peek out to see that Raze has started driving through a narrow trail in the woods, the sounds of the van hitting branches and bumps drowning us out.
“So it would have been nice to know that the man who could kill us all in one swift movement also possesses some sort of gift.”
“Probably Valerian,” Beatrix offers.
“We can’t talk about this here,” I reprimand, tilting my head toward Raze, who could also have freakish hearing or something on top of mind reading gifts.
“I may not have control of a lot of the stuff happening to me right now, but Icancontrol whether I place any more trust in aliar,” Ava spits.
“I didn’t lie,” I insist. “I just didn’t know how to explain it. I’m adjusting to all of this, too.”
“That’s still a lie by omission,” Beatrix mumbles.
“And how about the fact that you shouldn’t be able to doanyof the things you’ve been doing?” Ava continues, ignoring Bea’s commentary. “There’s clearly something we’re missing here, and keeping secrets isn’t going to help us figure it out.”
I roll my eyes in the dark. This is such a ridiculous conversation to be having under a pile of coats in the back of aminivan. “I guess it’s a bad time to admit I’ve been seeing ghosts too...” I scoff sarcastically without thinking.
“Sonny,” Ava and Beatrix hiss my name in unison while Jonah clicks his tongue and throws his hands up dramatically, tenting the fabric.
“Let’s table this argument for later,” I suggest.
Their silence must mean they all agree, and none of us speaks for the next ten minutes. Raze takes a sudden sharp left and we all roll into each other.
“You got me in trouble.” I throw the thought toward him, initiating the conversation for the first time. I have no idea if it will work, but I still send a mental middle finger his way, just in case.
His low chuckle fills my mind. “You didn’t tell me you were being visited by spirits,” he retorts.
“Oh, yeah. Bane says hi.”I wince, immediately regretting the words as soon as I think of them.
Bane’s message was supposed to be delivered with a lot more grace and instead, I’ve weaponized it.
