Pretty Misfortunes (Cruel Boys of Raven Oak Prep #2)

~Chapter XVIII~

~Makoto~

I SHARED A LOOK WITH THE ONE NAMED Ridley. He regarded the question marks in my eyes as his girlfriend chased invisible voices the rest of us were not able to hear. I understood what that look meant as her brother did the same whenever the ghosts of his past started to creep up on him, stealing him away from reality and into a world shaded in wilting souls of the dead.

"What the fuck is she talking about, Ridley?" Simon, the tall brunette I fought, asked his vice president looking as lost as a newborn babe.

"Yes. Do tell us what she means?" I goaded, earning a sharp slice of silver.

"It's none of your concern." He snapped at me.

"Uh...Ry?"

"What?" The vice president tried to reign himself in, but there was still an undertone of anger left his voice that no one decided to speak on.

Travis pointed towards Madelyn. We followed his finger to where she stood above the girl's dead corpse. From where I propped against the wall I noticed her eyes appeared to be staring off at nothing, as if lost in some kind of trance until her head rolled back. I ran ahead, anticipating the moment Madelyn started to collapse, and caught her in time before she made contact with the floor.

"Maddy!" Her conniving friend raced towards us, kneeling beside me.

I stopped myself from snapping at her to fuck right off with her pretending, but it wasn't the right time. Regardless of what I found out about her and the Sparrows, my best friend's sister was my priority right now. There would be time to rip off their pretty masks once Aydin and his father finally reveal themselves to the world and their names cleared.

To do that we had someone to find. Although, it seems he found us first.

I realized the moment I found Sarah Normack the Charlie was sending a message to Tobias. He wanted my best friend and his father to know he was pissed. I saw the dark promise of their imminent deaths predicted in the delicate stitching on the girl's mouth and neck.

This was personal to him. He wanted reconciliation for past sins.

The only choice he deigned righteous was to kill the children of his enemies and watch as they drowned in their own ill-fated grievance.

"Where the fuck is Kieran and the others?" Ridley raised his phone to his ear for the third time, cursing again when it went to voicemail.

"Mallory went to find him. Your brother went to grab your father."

I pulled Madelyn against my chest, her head lulling to the side as I swept her into my arms. She hummed behind closed lips, and a hand reached out to clutch the forefront of my shirt as if to bring me closer and not let me escape. Though, I didn't want to escape her. She needed me more than anyone I ever met in my life, and I was going to stay by her side no matter the looming danger hanging over all our heads like a wicked noose.

"Put her here." I lifted and set her down on the loveseat in the small drawing room where Sarah's young witness once sat in mumbling terror.

"What happened to her?" A boy I never met before asked, a clear descendant of Asian, standing above the dark haired actress with equally dark eyes and soul.

"She obviously fainted." The boy with a matching face of the first stated the obvious.

"Seriously, Hwan. Not the time to be an ass." His twin brother scowled.

Madelyn gasped unexpectedly in her sleep. Mouth open wide and struggling to breathe as though someone had their hands wrapped around her throat. Then her enchantedly, mismatched eyes widened the second she managed to wake. She shot up like a rocket with a desperate cry of a girl's name leaving her lips, spluttering in a coughing mess to regain oxygen in her lungs.