Cade
Dust flewfrom the inside of my book when I slammed it shut with one less-than-steady palm. My chest was tight with the questions buried deep below, and the second Journey was tucked away inside her room, I stepped out of the small cavity at the end of the hall that was blanketed in moonlight and whispered my best friend’s girl's name. “Gemma.”
A half-silent shrill left her as she spun around. “Cade! What are you doing?”
I snickered as I passed by Journey’s room, forcing myself not to bang on her door. She is so close, yet so fucking far away.
I shoved the bent and worn paperback in my back pocket, not really in the mood to share my newfound hobby that I’d hidden away from prying eyes, and began walking in stride with Gemma. It was after curfew, but that didn’t really seem to enter either of our minds—and I knew she was headed in the same direction I was. Gemma was basically my third roommate as of late, and most of the time, I had to go stay in Brantley’s room because Isaiah and Gemma didn’t hold an ounce of respect of not fucking with someone else in the room.
I take that back. Gemma tried to be respectful. Isaiah did not.
And he didn’t take no for an answer in most aspects of his life. I could only assume it was hard for Gemma to deny him. Head Rebel and once the heir of the biggest gun-running business on the West Coast, he didn’t like to be told no. Although, Gemma was the only one that got away with it.
I stared down the long, dire-looking girls’ hallway, knowing I’d spent way too much time here in the last few months, trying to rid someone else from my mind. My question came out fast, like I was racing for an answer I wasn’t sure I wanted. “What was Journey just referring to?” Gemma didn’t talk much about being at the Covens, and I didn’t blame her. When the Rebels and I entered those doors just over a month ago, it wasn’t my first time in there. I knew what that place was: hell.
Gemma stopped dead in her tracks and angled her dainty little chin up to me. “It shouldn’t surprise me that you were spying.”
“Then, why do you look so surprised?” I countered, peering down at her.
Gemma rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide the little grin on her mouth. “You Rebels are so invasive.”
“Only with those that we love.”
“I thought that word didn’t exist for the rest of you.”
I rubbed my jaw together, feeling the muscles in my temples hinge back and forth. “It didn’t exist for Isaiah a few months ago, and now look at him.”
Gemma stopped walking and turned to face me just a couple feet from the break in the hall. The light from the staircase that separated the boys’ and girls’ dorms shined on her face, and the pity lingered. Gemma was the only person at this school, other than the Rebels, that knew me well enough to know that I was completely fucked in the head over Journey. Her memory haunted me when she was gone, and now that she was back, I was pretty certain the Grim Reaper was the one haunting me now. Death from one glimpse of her gray eyes was what awaited me in the morning when she walked into the dining hall for breakfast—I just knew it.
“It’s not my place to tell you, Cade. If Journey wants to discuss what happened at the Covens, then she will.”
My heart thumped one hard, thundering beat. “She wasn’t at the Covens. She was on the top floor, remember?” Please tell me you haven’t been fucking lying to me. It wouldn’t shock me in the slightest if Isaiah had withheld some of the truth from me regarding Journey. He knew I was a smidge unstable when it came to her, but it still bothered me, nonetheless. He didn’t like to be kept in the dark, and neither did I. Although, there was a burning truth in the back of my head that singed me from the inside out, knowing I wasn’t exactly brimming with honesty.
“Answer me,” I said in a low voice as I thought about Journey in that place. The Covenant Psychiatric Hospital was an actual psychiatric hospital on the outside. There were people there that needed psychological help for numerous reasons, Journey being sent there for a suicide attempt, which was hard to even fathom. But the bottom floor housed criminals that were viciously turned into black-market killers, amongst other things. As far as I knew, Journey wasn’t a part of that, but looking down at Gemma and the nervousness she was eliciting, I was starting to get antsy.
“Gemma,” I warned. “She was on the top floor, right?” My throat began to squeeze, like a rope being tied around my neck. The knot dug deeper and deeper, cutting off my air supply every second that Gemma stayed silent.
She shrugged as my ears began to ring. “I don’t really know, Cade. Yes, I think she was truly just a patient on the top floor.” She glanced away, but I continued to stare down at the curve of her left cheek. “But she knew my brother, and he wasn’t on the top floor—ever.” Gemma’s eyes flicked to mine, and anger coursed just at the mention of her brother.
I had no right to be jealous of him and his friendship with Journey, but fuck, I was jealous. Foaming-at-the-mouth jealous. I wanted to rip him to pieces, which was completely and utterly fucked up, because from what I had learned from Isaiah, Journey and Tobias had escaped that place together. He helped her, and for that, I was thankful.
My skin was hot to the touch, and my ears burned with an impatience that was close to panic. “What was she talking about, Gemma? What did you see while at the Covens that had to do with her?”
“Cade.” Gemma rolled her lips together, fear and remorse drowning her green eyes. “Don’t make me betray the trust of a girl who has no one on her side.”
I was quick to step forward. “I’m on her side.”
Her shoulders dropped. “I’m not sure she wants you on her side.” She nibbled on her lip. “I’m not sure she wants anyone on her side.”
Gemma and I stood in the hallway together, staring in silence. A wave of something crashed over me, and I clenched my jaw tight. No one had been able to understand why I’d been torn to pieces since that night. No one but Journey knew that I was supposed to meet her on that warm night and that I had stood her up. Not a single soul in this school understood the dark, raging guilt and confusion I’d been stewing in for the last eight months because Journey ended up severely hurt, and I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, but regardless, I knew it was my fault.
“Hey.” Gemma’s soft hand landed on my arm, and I flinched out of my thoughts. “Just give her some time, okay?”
“Babe?” Gemma kept her hand resting on my arm, and neither of us moved. Isaiah rounded the corner and stopped in his tracks. “There you are. You know I don’t like you wandering the halls alone.”
“Relax. Bain hasn’t even glanced in my direction since being back, and plus, I’m with Cade.”
Isaiah stepped forward, placing his hands in his pockets. His eyebrow flicked. “Yes, I see that. Brings me back to that time you were panicking in the forest after running for your life, and Cade had to bring you back down to the present.”