Hillcrest Academy

by Cassie Pierce

  A shudder works its way across his features before he closes his eyes. His mouth moves, but I don’t think I hear him right.

  “You don’t need to go shopping, because you don’t need a dress,” he says softly. A laugh burst out of me as I swat his chest. Rolling my eyes, I start to step around him again.

  “Silly boy. Girls always need new dresses. Besides, the only things I have here are my uniforms and yoga pants, and I doubt that you want your date showing up in yoga pants and a yolo tee. So see...I need a dress.”

  “You don’t need one, because you aren’t going,” he says softly.

  Oh. Not going? Well, now I feel dumb. I just assumed he wanted to go. That’s fine though. I would have loved to dance the night away with the boy that I love, but it doesn’t matter what we do, as long as we are together.

  His eyes slam shut as pain twists his features. He shakes his head, his voice off as he says words that shatter me.

  “I didn’t say I wasn’t going. I said you weren’t,” he says coldly, turning away from me. Confusion floods me as I try to understand his bipolar tendencies. Last night he told me he loved me. He built me a damn library. He........

  “Who?” I ask, as it all clicks into place for me. He is going, but not with me. He wouldn’t go alone, which means he has a date. Probably has had a date for a while.

  “Me,” she says, appearing out of nowhere. Her perfect body and her perfect hair slinking up to my man like she has the right to be there. Jaxon’s entire body locks up when she speaks, and I can’t help but notice that he retreats from her touch.

  Something....something isn’t right. He would never go to the dance with her. Not after everything that she did to me.

  Not after she tried to have me killed.

  “Her?” I ask, pointing at her like I must be hallucinating. There is no way. This...this is either a sick joke or a really bad dream.

  “Yes,” he says sadly. “Bianca is my royal match, as decreed by the council this morning. We are to be paired.”

  “What? What does that mean?” I ask frantically, stepping forward and clutching his arm like my touch can somehow snap him out of this.

  “It means that he belongs to me now,” queen B says snidely, and it takes everything in me not to break her face.

  “But what about our bond......” I say, cutting myself off before I give us away. Bianca can’t know about our Moirai bond. It would get us both killed, so as much as I want to yell to the world about the sacred bond that Jaxon and I share, I clamp my mouth shut.

  None of this makes sense. Jaxon wouldn’t do this to me. He wouldn’t. He shakes his head slightly, anguish crossing his face as he clenches his knuckles tightly at his sides.

  “We have nothing,” he snaps, taking Bianca’s hand and walking away.

  I tell myself that I won’t cry. That I will not shed a single tear, but I have always been a horrible liar. He barely makes it out of sight before pain wrenches a sob out of me that echoes across the space. I think I see Jaxon stop through the haziness of my tears, but when I look up, he is gone. My legs fold in on themselves as grief drags me to the ground. Someone crouches down beside me, but pain is all that I can see. All that I can feel. It is everywhere. In every cell and hair follicle, as I try to understand what just happened.

  Last night was perfect. He said he loved me. He held me all night, talking about the future with me until the early morning rays broke through the window. Why? Why would he do that if he was just going to leave?

  More sobs rack my body as three shadows fall over me. I can hear them arguing amongst themselves, but it is just background noise. Drowned out by the splintering of my broken heart. That is what I am.....broken.

  Broken on a scale that I am not sure can be fixed. All my pieces too shattered to be put back together. I know it makes me look weak, and all kinds of pathetic, but I can’t stop crying. My heart won’t let me.

  Hands, feminine hands, rake the hair from my eyes as Ashlee wraps her arms around me. Her hug settles me, feeling familiar and safe in a world that isn’t. I swallow, and words fail me, so I try again. Sobbing the question into the material of her shirt. Snot and saliva pouring out with my words.

  Not my sexiest moment.

  “Why? Why would he do this?” I cry, before words turn into heaving sobs again.

  “It wasn’t his choice,” Ryker says sympathetically from above where we are sitting. He runs a hand through his dark hair, crouching so that we are eye level. Braxton grumbles a string of curses before bending down as well.

  We probably look ridiculous, sitting on the ground in the middle of the student parking lot, but I don’t care. Sometimes you just have to rock your mental breakdowns. This is one of those times.

  “Was—wasn’t...hi....his...choi.....choice?” I manage to choke out between cries, really trying to get myself under control. My hand rubs at my heart frantically, but the dull pain that started when Jax broke me is now a deep ache. A physical pain that goes beyond explanation.

  To my surprise, Braxton pushes Ashlee out of the way, taking her place in front of me and wrapping his arms around me. His voice drops to a whisper, and even in my hysterical state I understand that he doesn’t want the others to know what he is about to say.

  “Trust me,” is all that he says. It is the only warning I get, before he hauls me up into his arms. I gasp as he stands, clutching me to his chest. Ryker and Ashlee jump up as well, startled by the sudden movement.

  “What are you doing Brax?” Ashlee snaps. “Put her down. She isn’t a child.” Again her voice is off. Cold...and indifferent....and wrong somehow. Ryker says nothing, tilting his head as he studies his brother.

  “What the....” I start to say, but my words die in my throat as wings almost as glorious as Jaxon’s sprout from Braxton’s back. He stretches them wide, and I don’t even have a chance to draw in air before he pushes off the ground in one powerful leap. His wings beat once, taking us away from the parking lot and the stunned faces of his siblings.

  “Ummmmm Pinky?” I stammer nervously. “Why did you fly me away?”

  “Do you trust me?” he asks again, and I want to laugh at the irony of that question. Trust is sort of irrelevant at the moment. I am hundreds of feet in the air, and despite being half angel..... I cannot fly. So yeah......irrelevant.

  “Since you are the only thing keeping me from plunging to an early death,” I say with a laugh. “I am going to say yes. At this second I trust you. Now care to tell me what in the hell is going on?” I demand just as our feet touch down.

  I look down, gasping as I see the ground beneath my feet. Ground isn’t really the correct word. Cloud is better. Yes. That is right. I am standing on a freaking cloud! That would be awesome if I wasn’t still terrified of falling to my death.

  “Maybe I can answer that one,” a new voice says, and my heart reacts to that voice against my will. Slowly I turn, my eyes locking onto his grey ones from across the distance. Hurt and anger flare to life inside of me, but so does something else. Something stronger.

  Love. Despite everything I still love him.

  Which is the only reason that I haven’t pushed him off of this cloud yet.

  He laughs, taking another step closer to me. “You do know that I can fly right?” he teases.

  “What do you want Jaxon?” I demand, crossing my arms and giving him a look that could freeze hell.

  “To explain,” he says sadly, clearing the distance between us. He reaches for me, but I step back. I bump into a solid chest, and I am surprised to see that Braxton is still here. I figured he would have ditched me by now.

  “Explain what? Your new girlfriend? How you lied to me? How you said you loved me, and clearly don’t?” I fume. “Where would you like to start?”

  I know I am being petty. That he deserves for me to hear him out, but emotions are rarely ever rational.

  “How about I start with how I did what I did to save your life.”

  Ok. Now that shuts me up. A
s far as reasons go, that seems like a pretty good one. “I’m listening,” I say, raising a brow at him.

  “The council meeting I went to yesterday...they asked about you. All about you. I think they know that we have the bond. They warned me that if any member of angelic blood completes the triad, they will be killed. They asked about the fates. About your linage. They knew. Then, this morning, they proposed a solution.” He says, eyes downcast as he explains.

  “Bianca,” I guess, not liking where this is going at all. His eyes rise, meeting mine and holding on.

  “Bianca,” he nods, saying her name like it tastes bad. Which brings me more joy than it should. “They said that if I agreed to a royal marriage, they would leave you alone. That you would be safe.”

  Anger stirs like hot coals in the pit of my stomach as nausea swirls. This isn’t his decision! I don’t need him to save me. This is the twenty first century. I can save my damn self. If I die trying, at least I tried. I would rather die for something I love, then live an unhappy life.

  “That’s bullshit Jax! You don’t get to decide that for me!” I fume, stepping forward and jabbing a finger into his chest. Hurt and regret dance across the handsome planes of his face. His very resolved face.

  “Too bad. It is already done. Sometimes when you love something....”

  “I swear on all things holy! If you say that if you love something you have to set it free— I WILL HIT YOU!” I yell, pushing him. He staggers back a step, probably more out of surprise than anything else. “That is crap! If you love something you FIGHT FOR IT Jaxon! You fight!” I scream.

  “Did you even fight for us?” I demand, and his silence is all the answer that I need. “UHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I scream in frustration, turning and stomping away from him. My feet catch on empty air, and I realize my mistake at the same time that I hear his frantic cry.

  “MMMMAAACCCIIIII!!!!!!!”

  Then I am falling............

  ∞

  ~ Chapter 24 ~

  What they say about dying is a total crock of crap. Your life does not flash before your eyes like a pretty movie. Everything gets hazy, and panic sets in. Stealing your last precious seconds and filling them with fear. Falling to my death is not the way that I pictured being taken out, but then again....I guess we don’t get to choose.

  I close my eyes, accepting what is to come, and hoping that the afterlife will be kinder to me than this one. I brace myself for the impact with the ground that I am fairly certain is going to suck. Jaxon never told me if I was immortal. Looks like I am about to find out.

  Wind stings my cheeks as my velocity increases. The ground approaching rapidly during my descent. I close my eyes. Moments before I become a nasty stain on the sidewalk, wings swoop in. A massive form wraps around me with a muffled curse, as we become a tangled mess of arms and legs. Our descent slows, but the momentum cannot be completely stopped.

  We crash to the ground, but thankfully at a much slower speed. Those glorious wings wrap around me, shielding me from the force of the impact as we connect with the surface. Strong arms steady me, folding me into the safety of his chest as we slide across the rocky earth below.

  “Hold on,” he grunts, pulling me further into him as we slow to a stop. My nose buries itself into his neck, and I inhale his citrusy scent. He has always smelled like the beach to me.

  I cannot see anything through the shelter of his wings, but I do as I am told. Feeling like a total idiot for getting us into this. I mean come on! Who falls off of a cloud?

  Me. That is who.

  We slam to a stop, Braxton releasing a grunt of pain. His wings unfurl as daylight filters in. Trees greet us from every side. A forest. We must be in the forest that surrounds the school. Another grunt of pain snaps my attention to the angel beneath me. I quickly jump off of him. My eyes running over him to assess the damage.

  Braxton Lux looks like the definition of a fallen angel right now. His short blond hair caked in mud and dirt. His wings dirty and the left one bent at an odd angle. A huge gash above his right eye that is healing before my eyes. A perfect specimen of fallen grace.

  “Braxton!” I shout, kneeling at his side. For the first time since meeting him he looks almost human, and that scares me. Braxton is a badass of the highest order. He isn’t supposed to bleed. Especially because of me.

  His only answer is a grunt of pain. No smart ass remarks. Nothing. That is how I know that this is bad. Where is Jaxon? Why isn’t he here? He would know what to do. How to help. I know first aide, but I somehow don’t think that is going to help.

  Band-Aids don’t fix broken wings.

  “Jaxon!” I shout, thinking that he must be right behind us. That they probably both jumped after me, and Braxton just got to me first or something. “JAX!” I shout, louder this time and with an edge of panic.

  Braxton is hurt...because of me. I need to help him.

  “He isn’t coming,” he grunts out, speaking for the first time since the ground made us her bitch.

  Isn’t coming? Why isn’t he coming? He wouldn’t ......he........

  Braxton’s hand latches out, catching my wrist in a grip that is surprisingly gentle. His eyes are open now, and they soften when he speaks. “He can’t come. So.... it is just us. We can fix this. It is fixable. Trust me.”

  There is that phrase again. Trust me. Trust isn’t something that I would normally associate with Braxton Lux, but since he did just save my life, I guess that I could try. I nod, tears falling as my hand reaches out. It shakes as it hovers over his broken wing. That has to hurt, but Braxton’s face does not show an ounce of pain as he looks at me.

  This...this does not look fixable.

  “I have never healed myself before,” he grunts, shifting so that he is in a sitting position. The broken wing hangs limply at his side, and pain flashes across his face before he can mask it.

  Healed himself? That’s right! Pinky is a healer. He has magical pink glowing hands!

  Suddenly I am feeling a little better about everything. Maybe we can fix this. Or...he can. I can be moral support.

  “What can I do?” I ask, unsure if I should touch him or keep my hands to myself. I don’t want to accidently hurt him more. I fold my hands in my lap, rocking back on my knees as I wait for his answer.

  “I need you to channel my power,” he says, wincing as he tries to reach over and stabilize his wing. His arm comes down in defeat, his wing still moving freely. Before I give myself time to really think about what I am doing, I reach out. My fingers grip his flapping wing, stilling his movements. He sucks in a breath at the contact, and my face flushes as I remember what Jaxon told me about touching an angel’s wings.

  “Sorry,” I stammer. A smile lights up Braxton’s face. A rare sight on the broody Lux brother. Which only serves to make my cheeks flush an even deeper shade of red. I should move my hands, but this isn’t sexual. This is about helping someone who saved my life. This is bigger than my pride. Besides.....Braxton is Jaxon’s brother. He wouldn’t go there.

  Focus Maci. You need to focus.

  He nods, his jaw working back and forth as he stares at the ground. “It’s no problem. Thank you. Now. I need you to channel my power so that I can get this damn thing healed. It hurts,” he says with a huff.

  “Yeah. That is going to be a problem. Half-breed untrained angel baby here remember,” I say with a laugh. “I have no clue how to channel my own power. Much less yours.”

  A determined look crosses his face as he lets out a slow breath. Something tells me that he is trying to channel his inner patience. “We’ve got this,” he finally says. He shifts himself, taking me with him since I am basically latched onto his wing.

  “Ummmm....maybe we should call Ryker or Jaxon. Even Ashlee. Anyone has to be better than me,” I insist, one hundred percent confident that I am going to make this worse.

  Brax rolls his eyes, and I can tell that whatever patience that he managed to find just evaporated in a cloud of smoke. It’s a talent of m
ine. Sucking the patience right out of people.

  “No. We can’t!” he booms, and there he is. The scary Lux brother that I met when I first arrived here. The boy that tormented me in gym class just because he could. I swallow, focusing on him.

  “We are in the middle of the woods. I can’t shimmer like this and you don’t know how. Which means that it is time to suck it up and figure your shit out princess,” he growls, using Jaxon’s nickname for me. “Unless you are too scared.”

  Oh. Now he did it. I hate it. Absolutely hate it when someone calls me chicken. It is a downfall of mine. The more people believe that I can’t...the more that I damn well want to.

  “I am not scared,” I grit out between clinched teeth.

  “Then show me,” he challenges.

  I nod, the only answer that I am willing to give him. Satisfied that I am going to at least attempt to be helpful, Braxton tries again.

  “Ok. I want you to hold my hands. I am going to push my power out, and I want you to catch it. Then I want you to draw it into yourself and picture it going into your other hand. To the hand that is on my wing.”

  I close my eyes, smiling when I feel the warmth of his power tickle my skin. It is kind of like a light handshake. I want to open my eyes. I want to so bad, but I refuse the urge to peek at the beautiful pink light of Braxton’s power. Instead I concentrate on the warmth, picturing it coming into my hand and out the other. I smile as the warmth transfers to the hand that holds Braxton’s wing.

  Unable to resist any longer, my eyes snap open. I stare in awe as that beautiful pink light swirls with the soft lilac light that I have come to associate with my power. It funnels into Braxton’s wing. The wing shifts and expands beneath my hand, straightening itself to its full length.

  The once broken and damaged appendage back to its heavenly splendor. “Beautiful,” I whisper, stroking my fingers over the soft white down. Amazed. One hundred percent spellbound at the beauty of his wing that still glows with the pinkish-purple light.