School of Broken Dreams: Academy of Souls Book 3

by C. R. Jane

  I had barely finished when he's on me, gripping my collar with both hands and shaking me so hard that my neck snaps back.

  "Listen you little asshole," he snarls. "You're going to do what I tell you on this. I don't care what she looks like, what she's like, if she's dating someone else… You are going to win her over. If she doesn't do it willingly, you will force her to come to me. There’re too many eyes on her right now, we can't make any moves until Christmas break when we can get her off campus on the premise that she’s going to visit her parents. You have until then to get it done. You will not fail me on this." He seems desperate, as if his very life depends on Adeline.

  “Why do you need her so bad? What if you’re wrong...which you are. And you end up kidnapping a human whose disappearance will actually matter,” I tell him, keeping that same disdained tone in my voice.

  His face shifts for a second and I can see the fear that my words evoke that he could be wrong. The fearful look is gone when I blink.

  “I’m willing to take that chance,” he says coldly as we pull up to the front of Raven Academy. “You have until Christmas break, Dante,” he reinforces again as he finally lets go of my shirt collar. He pulls out his cell phone, furiously typing on it as he ignores my presence.

  Seething anger hits me so hot and thick that it’s hard to see past my rage. The monster inside of me is itching to come out and attack him. Only the worry about what would happen to Adeline if he ended me in a fight right now keeps me at bay.

  I leave the car without another word to him. I obviously need to start looking into what my father’s been up to. I understand the lure an angel has from a feeding perspective, but the desperation that I just saw from him was more than just that.

  Anxiety threads through my gut. We’re operating in all unknowns right now. Sure, we know that Adeline is an angel, but we still have very little knowledge of what that means as far as her abilities, the danger she’s in, anything really...And now I have to worry about my father’s intentions as well. Panic joins my anxiety.

  Adeline.

  I have to tell her what happened tonight. I don’t want her to ever doubt my intentions. I know that Braxton and Alexander still don’t trust me, and I can live with that. What I can’t live with is Adeline thinking that I want her for the wrong reasons.

  I should probably go immediately to gather the guys to talk about what just happened. But I just want to see her. Beyond the shitshow that just happened, disappointment is still curling in my insides about how he had acted at the start of tonight. It had been my wishes coming true at least for a few hours.

  I was such a fucking fool.

  I realize that it's after midnight as I stand in front of her door, and I’m oddly nervous all of a sudden. It also strikes me that one of the other guys could be with her right now. Is it even worth knocking if she has one of them in her bed?

  Yes, I decide. For this clusterfuck to work we will all have some moments when one of us will need her at an inconvenient time to one of the others. Right now, I need her, and the rest of them will just have to deal with it.

  The door opens before I can even knock and Adeline is standing there, looking like an ethereal princess in a gauzy nightgown.

  “Dante?” she asks sleepily. Looking beyond her into her darkened room, I’m relieved to see that her bed is empty. I know that one of the guys will be nearby standing guard to her room as we’ve been doing every night, but at least I’ll be the only one in her bed.

  That is, if she even wants me in there after I tell her about the fact that my family is one of her hunters.

  “Dante, what happened to you?” she practically screeches suddenly, looking much more awake than she had been a second ago. She reaches out a hand to gently brush my face and I’m reminded of how bad I must look from my dad’s hit. I’m tempted to lie to her for a second and say that I got it in gym or something like that, old habits die hard after all, but I choke the truth out. I don’t want to lie to her. I just want to love her.

  “Had dinner with my father tonight. It didn’t go great.”

  She takes my hand and leads me inside her room, shutting the door closed behind her. It smells like her, a mixture of vanilla and honey, the result of her favorite lotion at the moment, and I breathe in the scent, letting it relax me.

  She leads me by the hand to her bed and gently has me sit down. She touches my face, tracing the injury lovingly. I lean into her hand, closing my eyes as I soak up her touch. I pull her wrist briefly from my face and kiss it softly.

  After a moment she pulls away from me and walks to the small mini fridge she keeps drinks in and pulls out a cold can of Diet Dr. Pepper. She walks back towards me and holds it against my face as a makeshift ice pack.

  “What happened tonight?” she says softly, stroking my hair with her other hand.

  I laugh bitterly. “It was a shit show, how every second I spend with my father is,” I contemplate not telling her about everything that happened, but there’s a part of me that wants her to know. Can she handle the worst part of me and still want me? There’s only one way to find out.

  “We’ve talked about this, but my father and I have had a terrible relationship for a very long time. The last time I was home...it didn’t go very well. We had a huge fight that ended with a brawl basically. He did his usual thing where he threw Alexander in my face and I just snapped. We hadn’t spoken since then. He texted me out of the blue today and apologized…” I pause, feeling ridiculously choked up rehashing it.

  “There was a little bit today when I actually thought that things were going to be different, that somehow he had softened towards me. That we might actually have a relationship.” I looked at her brokenly. “Isn’t that the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever heard? What kind of idiot am I that I would forget years and years of total bullshit at a couple of nice lines from him?”

  “The kind of idiot that just wants to be loved by his father,” she says gently. “Anyone would want that.”

  “I’m weak,” I choke out. “Just like he always tells me I am.”

  “I think being able to forgive and love takes a lot more strength than hate does,” she tells me, surprising me with a soft kiss on my lips. A rush of warmth filters through my senses. Closing my eyes, I savor the sweetness of her lips while my heart beats rapidly, an effect she’s had on me from the very beginning.

  “So how did tonight end with your face looking like that if it started with him apologizing,” she asks.

  I’m silent as I prepare myself for her reaction to my dad’s plan. “He knows you’re an angel somehow,” I tell her softly. “He was trying to butter me up so that I would try to get close to you in order for him to use you.” I’m braced for her disappointment, not able to look at her face, so it’s a shock to me when she tilts my head to look at her. There’s so much love pouring out of her that I can barely believe it.

  “You were afraid to tell me that, weren’t you?” she guesses. I just nod. “Dante, you aren’t responsible for your father’s actions, just like Alexander isn’t responsible for your father’s actions.”

  “You aren’t worried at all that I’m just trying to get close to you to help out my father?” I ask her incredulously. “How could you even trust any of us after everything we put you through when you first arrived.”

  She laughs. “Maybe I’m a fool, but I feel like I know your heart. And it would never betray me.”

  A sound that’s a mixture of a sob and a laugh bursts out of my mouth as I bury my head against her neck, breathing in her perfect scent. “I think you’re the first person in my life besides my mother to ever believe in me,” I mutter against her neck. “Why does family have to be so hard?”

  “There’s the family that we’re born with and the family that we choose. But I think the family we choose will always be better at knowing our hearts,” she answers as she softly strokes my hair.

  “I choose you, Adeline. I’ll choose you every time. Until the end of time I�
��ll choose you,” I tell her, the promise burning into my heart, never to be broken.

  “I choose you too, Dante. Always,” she whispers to me.

  And in that moment, I know that I don’t need my father...I don’t need anyone but her. I’ll always have a home. It will be wherever she is.

  I pull her to me urgently, pressing my lips against hers like I need her touch to survive.

  Fuck.

  Every kiss I’ve ever had before this one is a hollow, false version of what a kiss should be like. Nothing compares. I crave her. The passion between us spikes higher and higher. I have no control of the flames overcoming me. It takes everything in me to gently, but insistently break our kiss. My first time making love to her isn’t going to after I’ve spent the evening with my father.

  “Why?” she asks in a raspy, out of breath voice.

  “We’ll have our perfect moment, and when I’m sporting the black eye that he gave me isn’t it,” I explain, and she ruefully nods.

  “I’m falling in love with you, Dante,” she whispers softly.

  “I’ve already fallen,” I respond.

  There’s nothing I won’t do for this girl. Nothing.

  Chapter 9

  (Adeline)

  “Your assignment is due next week. Two-thousand-word essay,” Mr. Dusk announces to the class who respond in groans. “Gargoyle architecture was meant to scare away evil spirits, but where did the concept of such statues coming to life come from?”

  I frantically make notes, already planning out the essay in my head, and I’ve decided to head to the library during a free period I have coming up for research.

  Mr. Dusk breaks into a discussion about where the first gargoyle is recorded on buildings. Egypt, Greece, and China have the earliest versions, but the gothic ones I’ve seen commonly in movies comes from Europe.

  I take more notes, but my mind keeps returning to Alexander and Dante, to memories I will never forget. My stomach is tingling with the reminder of how my body hummed beneath Alexander. The way he made love to me was primal and filled with hunger, but the tenderness in his eyes had me melting. His words still linger in my mind. He opened up, showed me a part of himself that touched me, left me desiring him endlessly. My face warms at the memory of what he did to my body, and small jolts of the euphoria I experienced the night before zip to the pits of my stomach. I also can’t get Dante out of my head. It felt like we took a huge step in our relationship last night. I’ll never forget him telling me that he was choosing me. I choose him too.

  I lift my gaze to Mr. Dusk still waffling on, noting Clarissa sitting in the front row, eyeing him while her hand grazes over her breast, catching his attention. He stumbles over his words, and I roll my eyes that she harasses me while she’s having an affair with a teacher too and flirting with him in plain sight of everyone.

  Hypocrite.

  As she shifts in her seat, I see she’s wearing a mini school skirt, her legs not exactly closed, and she’s got on white gold hoop earrings and a matching delicate bracelet. Did Mr. Dusk gift them to her? They look expensive. I still don’t understand why she hates me so much because to me it seems she has everything she wants.

  When class ends, I notice she lingers behind, so I quickly scoop up my books and rush out of the class, making my way to my locker to dump them.

  My stomach is growling, the hunger deepening. After a quick detour into the food hall where I eat a chicken salad sandwich in record time, I sneak out an apple and make my way to the library, biting into the crisp, green fruit as I walk.

  A buzz vibrates in my pocket and I pull out my phone and see a message from Mercy. I smile instantly and tap it open.

  Hope you’re not getting up to anything perverted with the hot squad while I’m not there. Miss you so much.

  If only she knew the half of it, and I frantically type my response as I stroll over the lawn.

  Me! Yep, I’m an utter angel. But as I hit the send button, I stare at the last word and swallow hard. I wish I could speak to her freely, tell her what others seem to believe after my blood test and have her help me make sense of it all. Though knowing Mercy, she’ll believe it in a heartbeat and find some evidence online on her conspiracy websites confirming angels are living amongst us.

  The phone beeps and I glance down at her message.

  Starting a new school next week. Shitting bricks. Wish you were with me.

  Me too, I type back, wanting to tell her about my time with Alexander. I say nothing and instead write; Clarissa is being a major bitch face.

  Slap her hard, and she’ll back off. LOL

  I laugh at her response and push past the glass door of the library; the stale smell of books is barely masked by the vanilla air freshener scent lingering in the air. Tucking the phone into my back pocket, I toss the apple core into a bin and walk toward the computers.

  After a quick search on the digital catalogues for gargoyles, I make my way up to the first floor and walk down an aisle flanked by rows and rows of books. There’s always something comforting about being surrounded by so much knowledge right at my fingertips. So much exists online, but nothing will replace the feeling of holding a book, the paper between my fingers, the captivating smell. Plus, essays always ask for references, and I know Mr. Dusk frowns down upon online references.

  Running a finger over the spines, I pull out a book titled, Modern Mythologies, and I scan the index for gargoyles, flicking to the page and scanning the text after I find it.

  A hand gingerly touches my shoulder, and I whip around in surprise, the book dropping from my grasp and hitting the floorboards with an echoing thud.

  Connor stands in front of me, smirking, and in that sliver of a second, the light from the window behind me hits him in an angle that has my heart beating faster. I’m seeing him like we’re in our old school where that smile of his used to lift the heaviest troubles off my shoulders. Where my knees would go weak in his presence. Where I craved nothing else but for him to want me as much as I did him.

  “Never seen you in the library before. You’re either hiding from someone or you genuinely haven’t entered the digital age of information.”

  Reality settles in at his statement reminding me of who he really is and his betrayal, and all I can think about now is wanting to smack the smirk off his face.

  I sigh and roll my eyes. “Is that why you’re here? Hiding from someone? You have a tendency to get on people’s nerves, so it wouldn’t surprise me.” I can’t believe I once liked him and wanted to date him. He’s beyond handsome, I’ll give him that. He’s strong and muscular and I’ve seen girls drool over him. Even the way he looks at me now, his gaze dipping over me stirs something in my gut. It shouldn’t and it annoys me that I react with anything but anger toward him. I’m obviously some kind of masochist.

  He doesn’t respond right away, but pins me with his stare, clearly not expecting me to quip back at him.

  “I followed you here,” he says, his voice darkening.

  “Wow, that’s a super creepy thing to do and admit.”

  He shrugs, completely not put off by my comment or how stalkerish he sounds. “It’s the only way to get you alone without one of your boyfriends lurking nearby.”

  I lift a brow, remembering Clarissa’s words about how many guys I want in my harem, about the school talking about me. My heart starts beating faster, hating how quickly everyone judges.

  “What do you care who I’m with? Actually, forget it, I don’t care.” As I turn away from him, I remember he stopped Dixon from raping me, and he might know more about what’s going on at this school. With that comes guilt that I snapped at him. Damn! Great work, Adi!

  Taking a deep breath, I turn towards him with a smile. “Look, sorry, I’m just a bit jumpy right now. I meant to thank you for stopping Dixon the other day. What you did--”

  “I’d do it again and again in a heartbeat. That son of a bitch deserved everything he got.” There’s a sincerity behind his words, and something I
can completely respect and connect with.

  When I look at him, I see the guy from my old school, the one who was kind to me for a while. Who comforted me when my dad fell sick, who made me believe he was a friend and maybe so much more. Until he stopped talking to me or pretending I existed because his ex, Alexia caught us at a cafe. He broke me that day.

  Words teeter on the edge of my mind, but they won’t come. Words I’ve carried with me ever since Connor shattered me. And even now after this long, I can’t bring myself to say them.

  His gaze flickers to my lips, and my heart beats faster under his gaze. The corner of his mouth twitches like he might break out into a smile. He’s so much stronger now, his muscles more defined, his face as handsome as always. I curse myself in my head that I allow myself to even contemplate such things.

  “I better go.” I bend down to pick up the dropped book, laying open on a page about Dracula’s myth starting in Romania, and the word devil catches my attention. I scan the line quickly about the Romanian word, Dracul meaning devil and it’s how the word Dracula came about. The whole myth is based on a Wallachia prince who viciously staked his enemies and gained himself the nicknames, Vlad Dracul or Vlad the Dragon. I can’t help but think of the enormous stone dragon wrapped around the main building on the Academy grounds.

  I feel Connor’s eyes on me, and I stare at his black boots, the tips scuffed and dusty with dirt like he’d been spending a lot of time outside. I stand and push the book back onto the shelf.

  “See you,” I say and turn to leave.

  Connor snatches my wrist and sidles up to me, his fingers feather soft against the tender skin on the inside of my wrist. A zip of electricity jolts up my arm and through my body, the kind that has zero to do with giving me a static shock, but my damn body reacting to things it shouldn’t.