Page 28 of The Honor Society

I look at the raven on her hand again.

Famine is sleeping next to me.

Fuck! Rhodes is right.

I’m replacing them. I didn’t want to admit it out loud but he’s right. I have no choice.

And maybe I should be terrified of that.

But I’m not.

I’m fucking relieved.

Because for the first time, I can see the entire board.

They’re coming for The Proctor?

Fine.

I’m coming for The Four Horsemen.

One by one.

And by the time The Convocation comes, they won’t have an order left to protect.

They’ll have mine.

So I can watch theirs burn.

8

Fifteen Days Until The Convocation

CHARLIE

Iwake up to Axel gone. It’s not like I expected cuddling, but shouldn’t I feel better after all that mind blowing sex? The guy woke me up twice with his mouth at one point I thought it was a dream when I felt his head between my legs. I’d been so tired that I just let him go and since I was so relaxed I had the best orgasm of my life while his laughter buzzed between my thighs.

It should feel normal.

Familiar.

Instead it feels wrong. Partially because I’m lying my ass off and Jude and Lilah are just allowing it. What sane person just lets someone get away with murder even if he did say to let me go? And the more I think about Axel and his bleeding all over the place the more things don’t make sense. How does he keep moving enough to hurt his stitches and what the hell was up with those reflexes last night?

He said he didn’t have to work out and yet the guy always had a six pack and enough lean muscle to put any gym rat to shame.

Was it all a lie?

“I’m a lover not a fighter.” He whispered.

Bullshit.

I mean he’s a great lover but something tells me he’s lying about the fighting part. How else can he explain the scars on his back? The ones he refuses to talk about?

Whatever it is. I can’t solve the world’s problems on an empty stomach and with no caffeine. I jump out of bed and make my way into the kitchen, grabbing one of Axel’s old sweatshirts on the way that he left here a few weeks back and put it on over my bra and underwear. It goes down to my knees. It’s comforting, like him.

God, maybe I am overthinking it. This is Axel we’re talking about. He said he cried when he found out Santa Claus wasn’t real and punched Jude one time for killing a grasshopper. The guy was sensitive to a near fault. I start making my coffee then eye the first aid kit on the counter. Seriously though, I stare down the antiseptic, he caught it in seconds, swiped it from the air, he didn’t dodge it, he didn’t bat it away, he swiped it.

Yup. I’m overthinking things.