Page 109 of Cruel Elite (Princes of Ravenlake Academy 3)

I can’t let that happen.

“Do you want any gum?” Noah reaches across the car and pops open the glove compartment just as we pass under a streetlight. The yellow light fills the car and reflects off of what looks like a gun.

Noah shuffles through the compartment for a few seconds until he returns with a pack of cinnamon-flavored gum.

I shake my head. I’m not ready to lose the taste of him in my mouth.

He pops a piece in his mouth and closes the glove box.

It’s so normal. So natural.

Driving around, chewing gum, being together.

It feels so right that it’s almost hard for me to remember there were years where we didn’t do this.

Where we didn’t even talk to one another.

We’ll go back to that if I do what the Hell Princes say.

If I lure Noah into their trap, he’ll never forgive me.

I’m so lost in my own head that I don’t realize we are in my neighborhood until Noah shifts into park in my driveway.

The lights inside are off. Even the porch light is dark. My mom must have been hoping I wouldn’t come home tonight.

Unlike most moms who actually care about their teenage daughter’s wellbeing, she’d rather hear I fucked a future millionaire.

I’m going to tell her the night was a bust. She doesn’t need to know a thing about Noah.

“Fun night.” I can’t tell if Noah is being sarcastic.

No matter if he is or isn’t, it’s not exactly the way I’d choose to describe what happened.

I look over at him, trace the profile of his face against the ambient light coming through the window, and consider my options, which feel achingly few.

Then, a light flicks on behind him.

It’s faint, but enough to cast him in silhouette. I lean forward and see the light in Delanie’s room is on.

Not her night light, but her overhead light. The one she requests be turned on after she has bad dreams in the middle of the night.

To scare the monsters away.

Delanie’s talking about imaginary monsters, of course.

But I know better than she does there are real ones out there.

And unless I do what I’m asked, they could come after her.

No amount of light can keep them away.

In that moment, my decision is made. No matter how much I want to protect Noah, Delanie needs me more.

My only hope is that Noah will understand.

No matter how he may feel, she’s his little sister, too.

Noah glances up at the window and then back to me, eyebrows raised. “Are you waiting for a goodnight kiss or something? Because I think I more than handled that earlier.”

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