Ravage by Lacey Andersen (ebook reader online txt) 📕

I shudder as I drink it in, forcing myself to hold back.

“I can’t…I can’t read you,” she says, her smile faltering.

“Sorry,” I say, but keep my walls firmly in place.

After a second, her smile finally completely fades. “Can I sit with you?”

I don’t really want her to, but I also know I can’t find all my information from ghosts, so I nod. She pulls out the chair, then holds her skirts and sits down in the most ladylike way I can imagine. As I study her, she reaches for the necklace again, and I see a familiar etching along the silver that surrounds the stone.

Sitting up straighter, I suddenly can’t look away from her. “That’s a Blood Stone.” And not just any Blood Stone.

Her eyes widen, and her mouth opens, but nothing comes out.

“Where did you get that?” And I know there’s a threat in my voice. My powers sweep out, reaching for her mind. It’s so fragile. It’d be so easy to end her this moment. “Where did you get it?” I ask again, and she jumps a little.

“Esmeray--”

“Blood Stones are found only on our lands. It’s where we got our surname from. And that stone is large, flawless, precious, and…not yours.”

“I know,” she says, lowering her voice. “Rayne gave it to me.”

I jerk. He would never. Stones as rare as that one would be kept in our family lines, not given to some common fae woman. “I don’t believe that.”

Suddenly, an overwhelming sadness spills out from her, so intense that it makes me gasp for breath. Her eyes fill with tears, and I can see her throat working. “I was…dating your brother. He was my mate.”

I stand, my chair scraping the floor, and more than a few eyes turn my way. “I don’t believe you. If my brother had found a mate, he would’ve told me.”

“He was going to. He just wanted to do it face-to-face.”

“No!” I grab his bag and rush from the cafeteria, my thoughts spinning.

My brother was my best friend. We told each other everything. If he found his mate, I’d be the first one to know. It was true he might feel bad with how lonely I was, but… No, he’d still tell me. He’d never hide something that important.

I don’t even care that it’s so early. I head to my first class, then sit in the empty hallway outside the door. I’m angry beyond words when I feel a tear slide down my face. I’m not sad because I think my brother was hiding the truth from me. I don’t know why I’m crying.

In my mind, I replay the moment she told me. I’d felt her...sadness. Overwhelming sadness. Not deception. Not anger. But still, maybe Mary Ann was able to conceal the emotions she didn’t want others to be aware of. All fae could learn the skill, even though light fae rarely needed it.

“She’s on my list,” I tell myself. Maybe the bitch stole the necklace from his throat when she stabbed him.

The thought makes my teeth clench together so hard I’m afraid they might snap. A part of me wants to seek the woman out and use my powers to kill her. But the logical part of me whispers that I came here to know the truth, no matter how twisted in might be, and I couldn’t learn the truth if I went around killing every lead I found.

Time spins away and a few more students enter the hall. I check the time and realize that class will be starting soon, so I stand and try the handle. To my surprise, the door opens with ease. I walk into the dark room and don’t bother turning on the lights. I like the dark.

The classroom looks different than I imagined. All my schooling had been done by tutors in our home, so all I knew was what I’d seen on TV. At the front of the room was a massive green chalkboard, but on both sides of the chalkboard were ominous-looking cabinets. Windows lined one wall, allowing the early morning light to illuminate the space and casting rays along the wooden desks spread out in the room.

I move between the rows of chairs, letting my hand graze the wooden surface. When I come to a desk in the back, I’m surprised to find Rayne’s name carved into it. My fingers run along the lines that had been crudely etched into it, and it’s like my brain can’t make sense of it. Rayne was the star pupil, representing two powerful families. Wouldn’t he have sat in the front of the class? Would he have ever carved his name into school property?

Tossing my bag over the back of the chair, I sit down, my knees shaking a little. Maybe I didn’t know my brother as well as I imagined. The thought guts me, almost like I’m reliving his death all over again. But then I push the thought aside. I knew Rayne. Someone else must have carved the name.

“Your brother sat there.”

I look up in surprise and find the ghost from the night before sitting at the desk next to me. She’s a little more transparent in the light, but otherwise she has the same light blonde hair braided and tossed over one shoulder, and the same almost-pink gown.

“I find it hard to imagine my brother sitting back here,” I confess to her. Because, really, who would she tell? Another random dark fae?

“Why’s that?” she asks, curiosity on her face.

“He was always the golden boy. He was the best at everything he did, and everyone liked him. I would’ve thought he’d sit in the front of the class.”

Her brows draw together. “Rayne was beloved by many, but not all. He challenged a lot of what they taught. And although the lessons seemed easy for him, his ideas weren’t always popular.”

“What ideas?”

She looks surprised. “That the dark fae shouldn’t be treated as less than by the light fae.”

Every muscle in my body tenses. No,