Shattered Promises 02 - Fractured Souls by Jessica Sorensen (motivational books for students TXT) 📕

Determined to win, I hold on for as long as I can, trying to watch what’s going on in the cave, knowing that I’m missing something important. As my vision starts to spot and I can feel myself verging to the point of blacking out and probably dying, I give up and blink us away, knowing there’s a good chance I’ll never find out how it ends until I have to go through it in reality.

Whether we’re able to free my mother or not will have to remain a mystery till then.

Chapter 15

As soon as we land in Adessa’s living room, I take off in a mad sprint toward the doorway, but Nicholas grabs onto the back of my shirt and jerks me back. The force gives me whiplash and I trip backwards, landing on the floor hard.

“Don’t even think about it,” Nicholas breathes hotly as he lowers himself down on top of me, trapping me on the floor beneath his body. “You aren’t going anywhere until we get something straight.”

I open my mouth to scream as I buck my body beneath his weight, but he slaps his hand down on my mouth and places his arm over my neck so my airflow is limited. I raise my arm up and elbow him in the ribs, yet he only laughs.

“Nice try,” he says, bending down to bring his face closer to mine “But it’s going to take a lot more effort than that.”

“I hate you! You’re a liar and the cruelest person I know!” I attempt to scream against his hand as I lift my leg managing to kick him pretty hard in the shin.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He releases his arm from my neck, infuriated, and slaps a hand across my cheek. My skin stings and my ears ring while he grins wickedly. “I don’t know about you, but I could do this all day,” he says. “In fact, I think I might take you back home with me and tie you to the bed for a while.” He presses his nose to my cheek and smiles at me. “God, the things I could do to you.”

Panicking, I bite down on his hand, sinking my teeth into his clammy skin. He lets out a high-pitched shriek and his grip loosens enough to allow me to get my leg up a little and I quickly knee him between the legs as hard as I can. He cries out in pain, his face reddening as he falls to the side, grabbing his manly parts.

I slip out from under him and run for the doorway. “Laylen!” I shout.

Nicholas staggers to his feet and chases after me. I feel his fingers graze my back right as I step up the stairs and then suddenly he’s wrenching me back toward him again by the back of my shirt. I fall on my knees on the first stair and slam my head against the wooden step.

“Help!” I scream, clawing my way away from him as my head throbs. “Goddammit let me go!”

Laylen appears at the bottom step as if out of thin air. He takes one quick look at Nicholas lying on top of me as I try to crawl my way up the stairs and grabs Nicholas by the back of the neck, prying him off me. I skitter to the side of the banister as Laylen shoves Nicholas down to the floor on his back.

“If you ever touch her again,” Laylen stands over him, “I’ll fucking break your legs off.”

I could hug Laylen right now and maybe in a few minutes I will. I work to catch my breath as I cup the bottom of my neck that I’m sure is going to have fingertip sized bruises on it when morning rolls around.

“Are you okay?” Laylen glances over my body, shaking his head at the wounds on my neck.

I nod, rubbing my cheek that Nicolas slapped. “Yeah, I think so.”

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Laylen says when he sees my swollen cheek, and then he turns back to Nicholas.

As Laylen reaches for Nicholas he rolls to the side and hops to his feet before running into the living room. He stands in the corner, putting the crystal ball into his pocket.

“Don’t you even think about it!" Laylen runs for him, knocking over the sofa as he leaps over it.

Laylen lands only feet away from him, Nicholas winks at me, and then evaporates from the living room, taking the Ira and my ticket to The Underworld—and my mother—with him.

Chapter 16

After Nicholas leaves with the Ira, Laylen makes us some coffee and we sit down in the kitchen while I explain to him in detail what happened, not just with the vision, but how Nicholas isn’t even supposed to be in The Underworld and he was pretty much playing us all along for God knows what reason.

“I still can’t believe it,” Laylen mumbles, shaking his head. “Why would he go through all that trouble to hang around here if he was never planning on taking you there? It’s such a waste of time.”

“Well, he did get that invisibility powder stuff out of it, but still… he got that in the beginning so why stick around?” I shake my head, feeling so Goddamn frustrated and powerless. My head and cheek are swollen, and I’m so damn jittery it’s ridiculous. “And I never got the Ira… yet I know we get in there somehow…. I saw Alex and myself in The Underworld trying to save my mom, so there’s got to be a way to do it.”

Laylen contemplates while fiddling with his lip ring, twisting it back and forth. “Alex was there…” He takes a sip of his coffee, dazing off into space. “Maybe that’s where we need to start, then.”

“With Alex?” I give him a quizzical look as I take a gulp of coffee from my mug and the warm