Page 55 of Cruel Academy (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 2)

We haven’t spoken of it or repeated it since.

Plus, if I really wanted a fight, I would’ve gone across town to the wood-paneled pool hall so many of the Hell Princes use as their headquarters. I’d knock a few of them out and finally release some of the energy zinging under my skin.

But not all of it.

Because no matter how hard I want to deny it, some of that energy isn’t my own. It belongs to Haley.

She slipped it to me like an invisible sprinkle of powder in an unattended drink. She drugged me with her presence and made it so damned hard not to think about her.

I know Haley is trash. Anyone who can date a jockstrap like Bumper is beyond redemption. A new zip code can’t change who she is at the core.

But she’s changing something aboutmeat the core.

I need to nip that shit in the bud.

Before it’s too late to stop it.

“Is something wrong?”

Her voice is soft and pulls me from my jumbled thoughts.

She is standing in the middle of the living room where we usually do our training. The furniture has been pushed to the edges of the room for a few weeks now, but I can still see the impressions in the thick carpet where the feet of the couch and the coffee table were sitting before.

Haley looks small in the large, open space. Vulnerable.

It doesn’t make me feel more protective of her. In fact, quite the opposite.

How can this small, helpless girl be the cause ofso much? It doesn’t make sense to me.

I’ve spent my entire life being the strongest and the fastest. Physical dominance rules in my world, and now I’m pinned to the mat over some big blue eyes and a soft skin?

Fuck that.

Not if I can help it.

“I thought you had plans today,” she says. “Did your plans get canceled? Is that why you’re…?”

She doesn’t finish the thought. Good.

So many questions. More importantly, so many questions I don’t need to answer.

I don’t owe Haley anything except what I agreed to. “My schedule opened up, and I thought we’d train. The sooner you can fight, the sooner this is over. Right?”

She flinches slightly at the words but manages a smile. “Right.”

I clap my hands together, the sharp sound breaking through the heavy silence of the otherwise empty house. “Then let’s fight.”

21

Haley

Something about Caleb is more volatile than usual. His energy crackles like sparks leaping from a fire. I feel like I’ll get burnt if I move in too close.

His usually graceful, measured movements are harried and rushed as we move through some of the basic defensive moves he has taught me.

After the kiss, I worried things wouldn’t be the same, but he showed up to training the next day like nothing had happened.

Which made sense, I supposed. That’s what he said right after.

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