The Truth About Kian

11. And I discovered that my castles stand

:: C H A P T E R  E L E V E N | AND I DISCOVERED THAT MY CASTLES STAND ::

"You look like you want to murder me and dump my body in a ditch."

"Acute observation," I said dryly. "And it's surprisingly accurate."

"You wouldn't want to kill me," Liam answered confidently. 

"You grabbed me from behind when I was getting my stuff! You don't do that to a have not at St. Benedict! Why couldn't you have waited until I met you in the parking lot like we agreed?"

"We need all of the time we can get. I won't accept anything less than full marks," Liam retorted. "So we actually have to get some work done."

"I never pegged you as a good student," I mumbled, leaning my head against the car window. How Liam had convinced me to climb into his stupid Lamborghini was beyond me. "I thought the money bought the grades."

"It didn't." He tapped one of his hands against his head, and the car swerved wildly towards the centre of the road. "The marks are all me."

"Both hands on the wheel," I snarled. "You're rich. Why don't you buy better driving skills?"

"It's how I impress girls. They think the bad driving is intentional."

"It doesn't make you look like a bad boy. It makes you look like a moron who's a menace to public safety." I wasn't sure why Liam was letting me insult him — any other Inheritor wouldn't stand for it — but I was more scared of dying in a car crash than I was of him.

He glanced over at me, and we clipped the curb as Liam rolled through a stop sign. "You're the only one who thinks that, Reed."

"Eyes on the bloody road, Sinclair!" I yelped, hearing horns blare behind us. "I don't want to spend my seventeenth birthday in a body cast."

"I'm not that bad!" I heard him sigh in exasperation as he made a sharp right turn. I howled in pain as my head slammed into the window.

"Bloody hell! Yes you are!" I snapped, gently prodding the tender skin on my forehead. "How did you even pass?"

"My driving instructor took one look at my last name and passed me."

"No."

"Please don't hate me."

"I already do," I bit out, but I was smiling. It faded from my face when the car screeched to a stop in front of an iron-wrought gate with a keypad on the brick wall beside it. It was clearly not the library. A change of plans never boded well for me, and a feeling of cold, heavy dread settled in my stomach. I'd unintentionally walked into the situation that I was desperate to avoid. Liam was being unusually kind today, and that could only mean one thing: he was setting me up. Would it be eggs this time? Did Meg have something to do with this? Would I find myself cornered like a helpless animal again? But the thing that scared me the most was the knowledge that Kian wasn't alive to save me.

While Liam was fiddling with the passcode, I shoved open the door and jumped out. I landed in a heap on the pavement before scrambling to my feet and taking off down the sidewalk.

"What the hell, Reed?" I heard Liam's surprised shout behind me as I sprinted away. I wasn't naturally athletic, but I was fit from lots of walks around Scire, and I managed to keep running for a few minutes before Liam's arms wrapped around my waist.

I hated basketball players.

"Where did you learn to run like that?" he panted in my ear. "Holy shit, Reed, you could murder everyone in the 100-metre."