Page 44 of The Honor Society

Leaving the Death heir, a Brody Hanson, sitting in a seat that does not belong to him, but, someone else instead.

I flip it back.

I stare at the father’s name.

The mother’s.

“No. Fucking. Way.”

“Twenty-two seconds, boss.” Jenner walks over to the wet bar. “Cheers, and you owe me 10K.” He’s pouring whiskey but I’m staring at the family tree.

At her.

“That’s not strategy.” Comes Rhodes voice.

Everything clicks into place.

“That’s succession.” He continues.

Realization hits me so hard I can’t breathe. The entire time I thought I was the master manipulator when every pawn was set around me from the beginning.

Tracing back to Jude’s mom and her handing me The Dean’s List, forcing Charlie into my orbit, forcing Jude and Lilah back together.

The Four Horsemen.

The heirs.

Are already together.

Because Death, is none other than. “Lilah, Fucking Quinn.”

13

Thirteen Days Until The Convocation

CHARLIE

Normally, I’d wait for Axel. I hated this awful class. Sociology was one of those annoying requirements I kept putting off until I couldn’t anymore. He signed up for credits he didn’t need just to keep me out of prison, he knew how much I loathed this professor, to be fair it was a shared loathing. I thought the class was stupid and said so on the first day within earshot of him and he’s never let me live it down. I swear even my well thought out essays land wrong with him, he finds reasons to lower my grade and I have no choice but to keep showing up.

It sucks that my eyes instantly lock on the chair next to me, the one his body normally fills. The amount of times I’ve been tempted to text him in the last twenty-four hours is unreal. I pick up my phone only to set it back down.

How is it that in the craziest of scenarios we’re all involved and the one who somehow started it all isn’t? That’s what bothers me the most I think. When I voiced it to Jude he said it was again, the reason his mom gave everything to Axel. Nobody notices him, he’s good at hiding his true colors, like a chameleon, nobody assumes the funny good-looking guy has dirt on them or isn’t afraid to use it.

In the end Jude brought us all together without even realizing it. Famine, Conquest, War…so who’s Death? Who’s the lucky individual? And why do I wish it was him? Stupid, because it’s probably the person who keeps either trying to kidnap me or brought me into the fold and warned me about The Proctor in the first place in hopes to get me confused, to force me to choose them, their side? Who knows. We’re all sitting ducks, better not to add more ducks to the circle aka, Axel. Besides, he’s too sweet for this world. And part of me thinks, too naïve to even know how to navigate it.

There is also the whole getting shot thing.

I wince when I plop down in my seat. Axel, sweet Axel, I wonder what he’s doing now? And like I conjured him, I look up. Dark charcoal sweatshirt, messy hair, he’s the most unkept I’ve ever seen him, like he hasn’t slept in days. All I get is a blank stare before he pulls out his chair and sits. No textbook. No notes. Just a pen in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. He used to bring me one.

I wonder if that’s on purpose. The single coffee as if reminding me that the perks have officially ended. All of them. His presence. His laughter during the hard times. His body. His generosity. His loyalty. His love.

“You hate this class.” I keep myself from looking at him. It’s painful not to see his reaction or even a hint of a smile on his face who am I kidding he’s probably scowling and ready to stab me with his pen. My hearts in my throat, swelling, taking up all the space of the air I should be inhaling and exhaling like a normal human.

“I’m aware.”

“Then why are you here?” I whisper the last part of the sentence as professor McDonald turns on a depressing clip about overpopulation. The hell sort of doom does he want us to study this time?

The classroom goes dark. He’s talking like he just crushed two Adderall’s into his coffee, wow I guess whatever gets you off. End of the world prophecies so be it. You’d have to like it to teach it right?