School of Broken Hearts: Academy of Souls Book 2

by C. R. Jane

  “Was I just not good enough?” I ask, watching his reaction intently.

  It takes him a moment to understand what I’m talking about. I can see when the realization hits because a look of shame crosses his face.

  He sighs. “It was nothing like that,” he says. “If I’m being honest, I’d never heard a voice I liked better in the whole world.”

  He bites his lower lip as he stares off at the building behind me, deep in thought.

  “So…?” I prompt him.

  “I just didn’t think you needed any more attention,” he finally admits. “I knew at least a little of the bullying that had been going on and the pressure that Alexander and the others were giving you...and I just didn’t know if it was a good idea to cast an even brighter spotlight on you.”

  A myriad of emotions crashes over me. Anger is the first to come. Sadness quickly follows. What’s left...resignation.

  “I see,” I finally say, tears gathering in my eyes.

  “Hey,” he says softly, lifting my chin up so that I can look at him. “I was wrong. I’ve messed up with you a million times over. I shouldn’t be the one to decide how much you can take.” His eyes crinkle up just then as if he’s thought of something funny. “Unless we’re in the bedroom of course and then that is my role.”

  I scoff and punch him lightly, wiping my eyes.

  “You need to be in the group,” he murmurs more seriously. “Every time I hear them sing, all I can think about is how I wish I was hearing you. How much better they would be if you were there.”

  I look at him. “Are you just saying that because we’re kind of together now?”

  “Kind of together?” he asks.

  “We’re at least very complicated,” I say with a smirk, knowing that he won’t be able to argue with that.

  He smiles wryly. “I promise that no matter my feelings for you, I won’t just give you something without you deserving it,” he says, his face growing solemn.

  “So, am I in the choir?” I ask, holding my breath slightly with anticipation.

  Braxton’s handsome face looks conflicted for a moment before he clears it.

  “You have to be,” he finally says.

  (Braxton)

  I know it’s a mistake as soon as the words come out of my mouth. But she’s looking at me like I’m her hero, like I’ve just saved her, and I can’t bring myself to take the words back. And besides, her being on the choir is the last thing I’m worried about at the moment considering that the fucking Council is now in possession of her blood. If she is an angel, they’ll be finding that out quite soon and then all bets will be off.

  At least if she’s in choir I’ll have more of an excuse to be around her, watching over her. She manages to evade Alexander more often than not.

  I’ve always prided myself on control, but this girl...this wonderful, beautiful, mysterious girl, has knocked me off my feet. I’ll do whatever I can to save her from the fate that I know awaits her once the Council finds out.

  But even with my best effort, we may be really and truly fucked.

  Chapter 17

  There’s something invigorating, almost explosive in my chest, and it beams every single time I replay Braxton’s words in my mind. I have to be in the choir, he said, like there’s no other option. I’ve always loved singing so to be accepted means the world to me. Means I’m not the loser I felt when I was first rejected from the class.

  I do a twirl in the hallway and someone sees me and stares with an arched brow. I push into a quick rush to the food hall where I’m supposed to meet up with Mercy. I can’t wait to tell her the news, which reminds me to ask her about her baking competition.

  The room is full of students, and my gaze sweeps over everyone, finding no Mercy. Alexander and his gang aren’t here either, but Clarissa is and when I catch her staring, she flips me the finger.

  I turn away, refusing to let her ruin my day. Not today. But where’s Mercy?

  “Hey you,” a husky voice calls out, and I glance over to a bench I pass. Connor is lounging there, sitting with two girls I don’t recognize from any of my classes, but they’re throwing me daggers with their glares. What’s their problem?

  “Who are you looking for?” he asks.

  “Mercy.” The delicious aroma of pizza hits my nostrils. They’re serving her favorite-pepperoni. She wouldn’t miss this.

  “Haven’t seen her,” he says. “You got time to chat?”

  Except, I can’t focus. With two deaths now at school, fear loops around my mind and there’s no room for anything else. Earlier this morning she complained about a headache, and she looked like death in all honesty, the heavy bags under her eyes returning. I’ll have to recommend she sees the school nurse and find out what is going on. Maybe she’s just headed to her room for a rest.

  “Adeline?” Connor says my name again, louder, and I flinch.

  I look over at him, and he studies me with intensity like he might be reading my thoughts, but I shake my head. “Not now. Plus, looks like you already have plenty of company.” I regret my words at once, hating that I somehow sound jealous. The guy is extremely easy on the eyes and I’ve seen how girls at school stare at him, how they giggle in his presence while innocently touching him. But I can’t go back there, not with our past. Not when my heart already flutters for five other men.

  Yeah, great idea, Adi. Add a sixth one in the mix.

  I almost laugh out loud, but instead I pivot and rush to the food counter. After piling a plate high with pizza, I leave behind the food hall and balance the mountain of pizza as I zigzag my way past students and then walk outside where the sun is beaming down on my shoulders.

  Liam passes me, gawking at my plate of food, before grumbling and saying, “You’re not allowed to take food out of the cafeteria.”

  “And you shouldn’t be such a douche, but shit happens.” I push faster, one leg after the other, not letting him get to me either.

  With a quick stop in my room, I dump my bag, and head down the corridor to Mercy’s.

  Please let her be in there, please.

  Unease curls in my gut like something bad is about to happen, and all I can picture are the two dead students’ bodies. Lifeless and taken before their time. But it’s nothing more than my paranoia I’m sure.

  Shuffling sounds emerge from inside her room like she’s cleaning. I would be surprised though if she’s doing anything but taking it easy.

  I reach over and push down on the metal handle before nudging it open with my shoulder. The door swings open, and I’m expecting her smile when she sees the pizza.

  Instead, I shudder and freeze in the doorway. My brain shuts down for those few moments.

  Mercy is lying on her back in bed, her shirt ripped open, bra exposed. Her eyes are shut. God, is she breathing?

  Dixon is covering her body, his arms and knees straddling her as he drinks from her. It was the only way to describe it. A wave of white energy rose from Mercy’s gaped mouth and he inhaled it into mouth. His eyes are completely rolled back into his head and I only see the whites. He makes a disgusting slurping sounds that sickens me, makes me want to hurl.

  What the fuck’s going on?

  My heart is pounding. Bang. Bang. Bang.

  Fear pushes against me like a pillow to my face, smothering me, and I can’t breathe. Can’t take a fucking breath. I’m shaking, but my brain is too slow to make sense of what I’m looking at.

  The plate in my grip slides forward and falls out of my hand. It hits the floor and shatters with a piercing snap. Pizza goes everywhere.

  I jump at the sound, terror slicing my inside to shreds.

  Dixon’s head jerks in my direction, and his connection to Mercy lacerates with a popping sound.

  Eyes, vicious red as a demon’s stabs into me. A mouth twisted into a monster’s. This isn’t Dixon, not at all.

  And all I can think is he sees me. He fucking sees me.

  TO BE CONTINUED IN SCHOOL OF BROKEN DREAMS. GET YOUR
COPY HERE: books2read.com/schoolofbrokendreams

  Keep reading for a sneak peek at Bound, Book 1 of the Fallen World Series…

  Bound

  C. R. Jane & Mila Young

  Copyright

  Bound by C. R. Jane and Mila Young

  Copyright © 2019 by C. R. Jane and Mila Young

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review, and except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  For permissions contact:

  crjaneauthor@gmail.com

  milayoungauthor@gmail.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Bound

  They came to Earth. They destroyed my life, took those closest to me, and now they’re set on making me their own.

  Ella Monroe has only one goal in life. To survive. Trapped in a world that’s been taken over, Ella is reminded daily of everything that she has lost because of the Vepar. What was supposed to be a fun night out to celebrate her birthday turns into a nightmare encounter at a Vepar club when she catches the eye of three terrifyingly alluring men.

  Powerful and terrifyingly seductive, the three Vepar make clear they will stop at nothing to possess her. Unable to escape, Ella is plunged into their dangerous and secretive world, where everything is more than it seems. Ella doesn’t know what the future holds as their prisoner, but one thing is for sure. Their obsession knows no bounds…

  Prologue

  They came in the night. There were no gunshots fired. No one’s last breath was given for their kingdom or country. It was just over. And they were in charge. They told us that our governments had no choice...that they did what was best for us by giving in. As I watched the President and the First Lady be frog marched out the front gates of the White House by a group of their armed guards, the President and his wife with just one bag in each of their hands, it was clear to see that life as we knew it would never be the same again.

  Years later, I would think back on that moment and wonder if that was the first time I had seen them. If they somehow sensed even then that I was out there and that I was something that they would want...something they would obsess over. I wondered if there was anything I could have done, any way that I could have run to ensure a different outcome.

  It didn’t do any good for me to think about what-ifs. The simple fact of the matter was that I was never given a choice. I belonged to them. I always would.

  Chapter 1

  Liar!

  “I didn’t steal the money,” I whispered to Greg to avoid the customers in the diner from hearing our conversation. Biting back the fury that danced through me, I curled my hands and stuffed them into the pockets of my skirt, concealing them. How dare he accuse me of theft after I’d worked here for the past year and covered every necessary shift, stayed until midnight to close up most nights, and even cooked the damn food when we were short on staff. I stared at my boss in disbelief. He may only be five foot three and sporting a shaved haircut to cover his receding hairline, but he reminded me of a bulldog with his squished nose, chubby cheeks, and downturned mouth. His brown eyes squinted in an accusatory manner.

  “You were responsible for the register,” he barked, not caring that he was raising his voice.

  My cheeks burned, and I opened my mouth to respond, but no words formed. I was the only waitress on hand today because Sandy called in sick, again, and was most likely having a full day of orgasms with her new boyfriend. Lucky her. The cooks couldn’t have touched the cash since they never came up front. So that left me...

  I exhaled loudly. “I know it looks that way, but it wasn’t me. You know me, Greg. You know I wouldn’t do that to you.” I wished he’d installed cameras as I suggested months ago. Then we wouldn’t be having this problem.

  Greg huffed, his shoulders rising and falling. “The lost money will come out of your next check.”

  “No!” I reached out for him, but he batted me away, scrunching his nose as if I were no better than a fly.

  “That’s a douche move, man,” Cherry’s voice came behind me, my best friend who often came here for lunch and to bug me. She meant well, but this would only get worse if she tried to interfere.

  I turned towards her and shook my head, mouthing the word, don’t.

  She ignored me and climbed out of the nearby booth located right behind the register and strolled toward us in her stilettos. “She’s innocent until proven guilty. So, you can’t dock Ella’s pay without evidence.”

  Greg stood as tall as he was able, his hands gripping his wide hips, his name badge sitting at an angle across his heart. The corners of his lips twitched in distaste as he looked at my best friend. “My diner. My rules. You don’t like it, both of you can leave.” His voice rose and I realized that the rest of the diner had fallen silent, listening to our argument.

  “Well,” Cherry began, but I stepped in front of her.

  “It’s fine.” My heart raced at the thought of losing my job when I was already living paycheck to paycheck. “I’ll cover the missing money.”

  Cherry exhaled loudly behind me, while Greg just grinned.

  “That was never a question,” he replied snottily before he turned and marched into the back office.

  “Fucking ass,” Cherry murmured as she snatched my elbow to drag me to sit in the cushioned booth with her. “He can kiss my ass, that dick is lucky to have you working for him.” She pushed over her half-eaten vegetable fries and I helped myself, deciding I might as well drown my sorrows in food. But the food didn’t sit well in my stomach with all the worry that was churning through me. It also didn’t help that I still remembered how real French fries tasted, and this “healthier” version couldn’t compare.

  I tucked the loose strands of hair behind my ear, but it was a losing battle as it fell right back into my face. “I’m going to lose half my pay, and after paying rent, I’ll have nothing left to live off this month,” I told her as I gloomily stuck another disgusting vegetable fry into my mouth.

  I looked outside the diner window to the blue sky that was growing heavier with clouds. There was supposed to be a storm rolling in tonight and the sky was certainly starting to look foreboding. Just as I had that thought the sound of thunder boomed from outside sending a shiver down my spine. My grandma had always warned me that thunder was an omen, but I’d never given much weight to such supernatural tales. Not when my life was work, earn enough to pay my rent, and save enough for a car.

  I sighed again. I was never going to be ahead. I had dreams once upon a time for how my life was going to be. They certainly didn’t involve working at the Cinnamon Diner forever. I took the job twelve months ago as a quick fix until I found something that paid better. But this city rarely had opportunities and if they did, they filled up before anyone could think twice. A quick glance over my shoulder, and Greg was back at the till, shaking his head, counting the money again. Asshole. As if I’d steal the money. He probably took it and forgot.

  I popped two more fries into my mouth and regretted it at once as my stomach riled up.

  “Are we still up for tonight?” Cherry said, examining her long red nails nonchalantly that she obsessively wore as a tribute to her name.

  My birthday. Right. It was easy to forget about things like that with how my life had been going lately. Or maybe it was how the world seemed to be going lately. Ever since they had taken over. Staring out at the sky again, I saw a jet fly by, a long electronic sign shooting out from behind it reminding us all about registration, as if we could forget.

  February 3, 2017 was when the world fell apart. It was done
quietly. Everyone went to sleep the night before and woke up to an entirely different world. The churches had declared that they were messengers sent from God to warn us to change before the last days, but I was pretty sure the invaders were the gods themselves.

  They told us they had come from a planet called Vepar and that they wished for everything to continue as before...but everything was different. The first thing to change was the required Registration. For some reason, only the women of the world were forced to register every six months. The Vepar wanted to know our names, ages, relationship status, and pregnancy history. Every woman was put on a mandatory special form of birth control that we were told was much healthier than the options we had available to us before. I would never admit it, but there were no terrible side effects with their birth control, and it was no longer a burden to take it. It was the only thing that I could say they had made better for us.

  The next change was a mandatory “clean living” mandate. All food that was processed, fried, or had any chemical in it besides healthy oils was removed as an option. No longer could I pick up a hamburger or a pizza anywhere. Instead, I could have lentils or cauliflower pasta, or something equally disgusting. Everyone was required to enter a gym for an hour a day and we were scanned as we arrived to keep track. The bastards of course didn’t make anything that was mandatory free so my already thinly stretched budget was now non-existent. I had been pulling double shifts at the diner for a year now, which in my opinion should have covered my hour of exercise, but I was barely surviving.

  “Ella?” said Cherry impatiently, annoyed that I wasn’t paying attention to her.