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Frowning, I took the paper and quickly scanned it It was a class schedule--a boring class schedule full of psychology and sociology classes "Okay And what exactly am I supposed to do with this person?"

"Keep them alive"

I exhaled noisily "No shit, Apollo"

"You will both need to go to the Covenant in South Dakota-- to the University there"

My spine straightened as if soo There were people there I didn’t want to see "Why? Who is this person?"

Apollo’s sone Just like that Poof There one second and gone the next Son of a bitch, I also hated that More than just a little annoyed, aze dropped to the slip of paper There were initials on the schedule

JB

Sounded like a dickhead na of curses directed toward Apollo, and as the wind lifted the shorter hairs that had escaped the leather thong holding the hair back froh

I couldn’t say I was surprised that Apollo hadn’t givenlittle to no infor out what he did know in doses at the most inopportune moments, usually after the infor for sure; whoever I was supposed to keep safe really got the shittier end of the deal, considering the last person I’d been tasked with protecting had ended up with a titaniuh, causing the connection between us to crackle in my ear "Baby, I wish you weren’t so far ahere I can’t help you or be near to you when you need me"

My mom was mentally unstable

Not in the "ha ha, your mom is so cray cray" kind of way, but in the way she was one hundred percent convinced that, twenty years ago, an honest-to-God angel had visited her in the nant withokay the last couple of years because she’d stuck to her h, so

It didn’t help that Monant, barely seventeen, and in the s, unwed mothers And the co of her o," I said intoopened Erin Fore sashayed in, practically glowing froe Mountains She preferred to do her runs outside even though we had a fitness center in our residence hall I preferred to lollygag on an elliptical -outside crap--that required effort

"I really wish you’d come back hoht the urge to sigh This was hard for Mo myself that "It’s not ‘all the way across the world’ You’re in Missouri I’inia It’s not that far, Moht aze We’d been roomies for the last three semesters, almost two years She knew all aboutin psychology Because of my mom’s illness, I was fascinated with how the hu with it Growing up dealing with iven me a unique perspective on the ripple effects on other family members I wanted to help those with the illness, and I also wanted to help those ere caregivers

But it was more than that Maybe if I understood how the mind worked, I’d be able to avoid the same fate as my mother

"I’d feel better if you just came hoood colleges here When you left after this sus aren’t right"

I froze as I was slidingstrands of light brown hair hanging inthe al with the more normal color I hadn’t put those blonde streaks there They’d formed when I was in race showing up That sounded cool, but theymy summers outside by the lake For some reason, they’d never faded, and since I kind of liked them, I never dyed ht the sae I shouldn’t have left her But the town had been slowly killing randparents had supported that need They wanted me to have a normal life, so much so that they had saved every red penny to send otry and the soul-consuhter

"Josephine," she whispered

No one called me Josephine except for my htened, turning away froold bangle I lowered h it was pointless to do so in our craht?"

"The world is in its last stages" While her hushed words were dire, the tension seeped out of otten what happened last year"