Sheila smiled at her, and one of the other girls in her group covered her mouth, biting away her laugh.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Brie replied. Her mind raced through all the possible things Sheila could be referring to. This was no doubt a reference to whatever story was posted to Zoey Fromme—but what was the story? What had the online gossip site printed about her now?
“I think you do know,” Sheila said. “My mom had it done a few years ago. She still has the scars, and they look completely disgusting.”
The 3-minute warning bell rang. Brie shut her locker, ensuring that the lock clicked into place.
“I better get to class,” she said, ducking her head and side-stepping Sheila.
She walked away, her back facing Sheila. She resisted the urge to look back with each step… one… two… three…
“Nice to meet you,” Sheila called out in a singsong voice. “We’re all really excited to have you at the academy.” A few students throughout the hallway chuckled, which put Brie over the edge.
They weren’t just gossiping about her behind her back; they were actively trying to embarrass her and make her feel uncomfortable. Outrage flooded her body; when there were so many terrible things in the world already, when she had already lost her mother, the one person she loved above all… she couldn’t take it anymore. Emotions coursed through her—anger, resentment, ferocity, disappointment, hurt, embarrassment, pain—
Something behind her burst and someone—possibly Sheila—squealed in surprise. Brie’s stomach knotted up as she spun around slowly, hearing more exclamations, swearing, shouting and movement. All through the hallway, the fire sprinklers had activated, spraying water from the ceilings onto the students below.
Most of the students looked like wet dogs, soaked completely through. Several teachers poked their heads out from their classrooms to see what the commotion was about. Upon seeing the disaster, they ushered students into classrooms, adding their shouting voices to the chaos.
The lavender-eyed twins stared at her, mouths slightly open. She couldn’t tell them apart anymore; they shared the same shocked expression.
A small part of her felt responsible, though she didn’t know why. It didn’t make any sense; she hadn’t set off the fire sprinklers.
Or had she?
Chapter 3 - Pilot
Pilot re-entered the boys’ locker room just as his phone buzzed with another text message. He dug for the phone in his pocket, figuring he couldn’t ignore it much longer.
Before he could reach it, Justin rushed past him, slapping him on the back. “Your sister’s on fire today! Front page of Zoey Fromme.”
At Justin’s words, his stomach turned into a roller coaster ride; metal scraping against metal, sudden drops, twists and loops when he least expected them. He groaned. “Not again.” Zoey Fromme was the biggest gossip website on the planet. Anything it had to say about his family couldn’t be good.
Justin handed him his phone. “Read it and weep.” He glanced over the headline and image on the screen, his stomach riling in disgust. He recognized the clothes Brie was wearing.
“This picture is from today. How did they get these up so fast?”
Justin smirked. “So, is it true?”
He handed the phone back to Justin, shooting him the deadliest look he could muster. “My sister did not get a boob job.”
“You gotta admit, bro, they do look a lot bigger in those afters.”
“I don’t have to admit anything,” he replied, his nostrils flaring. Honolulu was supposed to be his sanctuary from the media circus that had engulfed his family since his mother’s death. The last several weeks had been a blissful reprieve from the drama, the texts, and the phone calls, but he should have known that it wouldn’t last.
Especially now that his dreams had started again.
“She definitely had something happen to her,” Justin said. “Brie van Rossum, on her way to becoming a woman. I could help her out,” he added suggestively.
Pilot stood up on pure adrenaline, no plan in place for how he would shut Justin up, only knowing he needed to.
“What are you going on about now?” Rykken asked as he walked in, thankfully interrupting them. He stopped in his tracks, his eyes locked on Pilot. He turned to Justin. “What did I just walk into?”
“We were just talking about Pilot’s sexy little sister.”
“Stop,” Pilot warned.
Rykken’s shoulders visibly tensed as Justin strode toward him. “Come on,” Justin said. “Tell Pilot I’m right. Her rack definitely looks bigger in those afters.”
Pilot watched his best friend glance at the phone, sigh, and shake his head. “Haven’t noticed anything,” he said evenly. He looked up and met Pilot’s eyes, before looking away again.
“Tell me the truth,” Pilot said. He didn’t know why he was pressing his best friend, why he was pushing them into uncomfortable territory.
Rykken tossed his bag aside and turned to him. “Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, something’s… changed about her.”
He glared at Rykken.
Rykken held his hands up, shrugging. “What? You asked.”
Justin’s curly black hair fluttered as he shook his head, laughing. There were few things Justin loved more than pitting people against each other, and he seemed to take extra pleasure in causing discord between Pilot and Rykken.
“Either way,” Justin said, “she’s a lot hotter than I remember her.”
Pilot pitched a wadded damp towel at Justin, which he deflected lazily.
Rykken caught the towel and whipped Justin square across the back of the head with it.
Justin yelped and rubbed the back of head.
“Why do you have to say it like that?” Rykken asked him. “Have some respect.”
Justin’s grin grew wider, though he moved far out of range of Rykken’s towel-snapping abilities. “I ask because I care. I don’t want to see anything happen to the hottest sophomore in the entire school.”
“Give it a rest,” Pilot barked. He was trying not to take Justin’s bait, but the slight boom of his words probably wasn’t convincing anyone. He pulled a soft white polo shirt over his head, deciding not to care if he seemed a little overprotective. He wasn’t going to stand for any locker room talk about Brie.
“Why should I back off?” Justin leaned against the lockers with a thumb in the front of his pants, like he was posing for an Abercrombie catalog. “She’s my type. She’s got those green eyes…” Justin sauntered over to Pilot. “I need you to put in a good word with Brie for me, bro. We’re friends, right?”
“Exactly,” he said, masking his annoyance by matching Justin’s playful tone. He patted him on the back. “That’s why you need to stay away from my sister—no unnecessary complications in our friendship.”
Rykken chuckled as he combed through his long, dark hair. Pilot’s warning didn’t faze Justin though. He merely grinned, clearly enjoying teasing him about this.
“You know what else we shouldn’t make too complicated?” Justin asked. He pulled some pills out of his pocket, holding them out to Pilot, not bothering to hide the fact.
Pilot snatched the pills out of Justin’s hand. “Real classy.”
Rykken watched the bag of pills travel between them, his jaw set.
“You don’t have to pay me,” Justin said. “Consider it my gift. Or maybe we can make another deal—I keep supplying you and you let your sister decide for herself who she wants to date.”
Pilot’s entire body tensed. Justin was a dick, no question. He knew Pilot needed those pills, he knew Rykken wouldn’t approve, he knew Pilot’s sister was off limits.
He stuffed the pills deep into his locker and slammed it shut, facing Justin. “You want to date my sister?” he asked. “My 15-year old sister? Fine. She just lost her mother and she barely eats anything or talks to anyone, so she’s probably not all that fun to date right now, but sure go ahead.”
&nbs
p; “Hey, I can work with that,” Justin said. “I’ll show her how to have fun again.”
“You’re a dick,” Pilot said. He could easily have thrown a punch, he was so pissed—but he knew that Justin would do or say anything to get a rise out of him. The more he seemed bothered by it, the more Justin would push.
But Justin wasn’t getting near his sister; he would make sure of it, whatever it took.
Pilot took a deep breath and forced himself to shrug it off. “Whatever,” he said in the calmest voice he could muster. “Good luck with that.”
“Don’t egg him on,” Rykken warned, walking to his own locker. “And definitely don’t wish him luck. He’s gotten lucky in the past. Didn’t turn out so nicely for the girls, though.”
Justin shot Rykken a nasty look, the same one he reserved for those moments when their coach praised Rykken. Over the summer, their coach had named Rykken water polo captain instead of Justin, even though he was only in his junior year at DeRosa Academy. Since then, Justin had been the worst version of himself. He seemed determined to one-up Rykken in any way he could.
“I’m joking.” Rykken backed up slightly, just enough to placate the balled fist forming at Justin’s side. “Don’t take things so personally.”
“It’s all personal, isn’t it?” Justin said, still glaring at Rykken. “Friendship? That’s why we’re all here, right?”
“I thought you were here to rip on us,” Pilot said, breaking the tension in the room.
“That too.” Justin released his glare on Rykken. “But it’s getting a little boring, so I’m gonna split. See you two at lunch. If I’m not chasing after a new student, that is.” He shut his locker and strutted out the door.
Pilot tapped his fist against his locker, debating whether he wanted bloody knuckles so early in the morning. Rykken looked up at the noise. “Ignore him.”
He tapped again. He felt broken and pissed as hell. “She didn’t really get surgery, did she? No, I would know if she had.”
Rykken shrugged. “It could be anything.” He moved his fingers across his own cell phone, scrolling through the images on it. “Photoshop, weight gain, growth spurt—”
Pilot moved forward knocked Rykken’s phone out of his hands, onto a pile of dirty towels on the floor. “Don’t. I know you’re joking but I can’t.” He sat down on the bench next to Rykken’s locker, leaning his head back. “She’s only fifteen. Fifteen. God, she shouldn’t be getting attacked on a website. She shouldn’t have senior guys drooling after her.”
Rykken’s brow furled as he made a face.
“What?” Pilot prompted. “Just say it, whatever you’re going to say. It can’t be worse than what I’ve already heard from Justin.”
Rykken shook his head. “You’re right, this website thing is crap and totally uncalled for. As for the senior guys wanting to date her… I mean, she’s a sophomore. A grade younger than us. She’s not exactly your kid sister anymore.”
“She’s fifteen,” he repeated. He thought back to the girls he dated when he was fifteen and felt his face flushing. “Forget it. I don’t want to talk about this.”
“Okay,” Rykken said.
The room fell unnaturally silent.
Pilot sighed loudly. “Say it.”
“It’s just that…” Rykken paused. “It might help her to have some friends. Go to parties. Be normal teenager. Justin’s not wrong in that sense.”
Pilot scowled, pressure building in his chest.
Rykken held up his hands, palms out in surrender. “Just saying.”
“Look, she’s all I have left. And there are people who want to hurt her. Girls who want to tear her down. Guys who want to…” he trailed off, unable to finish his thought. “Well, you heard. I’m not ready for that.”
“Not every guy is going to take advantage of her and not every girl is going to gossip about her.” Rykken got a faraway look in his eyes. “There are good guys out there, you know.”
Pilot shook his head. “Brie is not… not like me. She hasn’t made the same mistakes as me and I want to keep it that way. She’s in a vulnerable place right now, and I just… I have to protect her. I owe that to our mom.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Rykken said quickly. “I know you feel responsible for her, and I’ll help keep the Justins of the world away from her.”
“I know, I know,” Pilot said. Rykken had had his back since they were 12 years old. They had been teammates in their water polo leagues every summer since. And Rykken had been his rock since they moved in with their father.
“Speaking of previous mistakes…” Rykken said. “Are you going to explain the pills, or are we just going to gloss over that?”
“I could ring Justin’s neck for that one,” Pilot grumbled. “It’s not what you think.”
“Okay,” Rykken said. “Because what I think is that he’s supplying you with drugs. I’m glad it’s not that though.”
Pilot frowned. “Look, I’m having the dreams again. I asked Justin to get me something to help make them stop. That’s all.”
Rykken sat down on the bench across from him, facing him. “What dreams?”
“The ones about my mom.” Pilot couldn’t meet Rykken’s eyes. “I haven’t been sleeping, okay? Nothing over-the-counter helps. I need the strong stuff.”
Rykken nodded. “I’m only going to say this once, because I’m not going to be that judgmental friend giving you lectures. And I’m only doing this because you asked me to keep you grounded.”
“I know what you’re going to say already,” Pilot said. “You don’t think I should take the pills.”
“No, man. Take the pills, don’t take the pills… what matters is how serious are you about changing? When you moved here, you said you wanted to be a better person. You wanted to be a better brother. So how serious are you? And are these pills really about your dreams, or are they a gateway back to the you you’re trying to escape?”
Pilot didn’t say anything. A part of him felt attacked, while the other part knew that Rykken was right.
The bell rang for their next class.
“Think about it,” Rykken said. He stood up, grabbing his gym bag. “I’ll see you at lunch, right?”
“Sure thing,” Pilot replied as Rykken walked out the door.
He stood at his locker for several minutes, just staring at the pills. He knew they were the gateway back to his old life, like Rykken said. But he also didn’t want to keep having the dreams about his mother. He didn’t want to keep thinking about his last few interactions with her, right before he died.
He didn’t want to think about the secrets she had kept for him, for better or for worse.
He unlocked his locker again and put the pills in his bag, not knowing if he would use them.
He only knew he wanted to have the option to make the dreams stop.
Chapter 4 - Thessa
Thessa came crashing through the portal and found herself standing in front of a massive cathedral she recognized—La Basílica de la Sagrada Família. The crowds were faint, only visible when she downshifted her vibration back to the earthlie world. She had no reason to be surprised—work on the cathedral was commissioned by President Vega himself, who had planned to use the building as a safe place above ground for the Hallows to access all of the divine levels.
The building had touches of Roman Catholic tradition, with whimsical pillars at the entrance and statues of saints and martyrs donning the doorways. There were four visible spiraling towers above, with several more still in construction. She looked around to guess where she should go next, but it turned out to be unnecessary; when she turned around, President Mateo Vega was there to greet her.
“Thessa Torres,” he said, standing over her. “We meet again.”
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No. The device I left you transports us both to the location of my choosing when you activate it.”
She touched her throat in surprise. With his blonde, wavy hair and bright blue
eyes, he was handsomer in person than she remembered. “I’m impressed.”
“As an inventor, you should be,” he said. “It’s a useful device. Walk with me.”
They walked through the front doors of the basilica. The inside bordered on gaudy; the style was a stone-cast version of rococo architecture. The support beams ran in unusual shapes across the ceiling, criss-crossing each other in creative arches. There were stained glass windows, but the patterns were not traditional images of saintly persons. Instead, the windows formed an abstract patchwork of glass and color reminiscent of Picasso’s work.
Vega didn’t speak to her as they walked, and after a moment, she couldn’t take the silence anymore.
“Your call surprised me.”
Mateo Vega smiled too politely, almost as if he was mocking her. “Straight to business, is it? It’s okay. I know we’ve never been friends.”
Anger flooded back into her veins. They weren’t friends; how could they be? President Vega was the reason Bes was dead and she was alive. Alive and alone.
Vega glanced down at her, the corners of his smile wavering. “You are angry with me,” he observed.
“It doesn’t matter.” She let the anger leave her body and dissipate all around her, like fumes in an open field. “I have come.”
“Yes, you did. A gesture that pleases me.”
She paused for a moment, searching for the right words to say. “I would ask how your reign is going, but I assume you would not call me here if you weren’t having trouble.”
“My presidential term, you mean?” Vega chuckled softly. “We have enemies on all sides. The Nephilim, of course—we haven’t warred with them in 70 years, so they are likely plotting. The Natural Crown supporters still resist me, though their cries have died out over the years. And despite the efforts of our fertility clinics, our Hallow numbers continue to dwindle.”
She mentally ticked through each of the president’s worries. She wasn’t surprised that the Nephilim, the sons and daughters of the archdemons, would be challenging them soon. Their wars with the Nephilim came in cycles, the Hallows battling for love, the Nephilim for fear; each side attempting to win earthlie souls for their masters.
Instruments of the Angels (Hallows & Nephilim: Waters Dark and Deep #1) Page 18
