by E. M. Moore
I swing my legs over to the carpeted floor. I briefly glance out the dirty window. Yeah, it’s her.
I undo both locks and swing it open. It takes a second for my eyes to adjust from the shitty motel grungy light to the bright light of the sun from outside. I haven’t kept the curtains open since I’ve been here, but when my eyes do adjust, I want to slam the door back in place.
“There you are,” a sickeningly sweet voice says.
She bounces right in, throwing her arm around me tight. Too tight.
“Thanks,” she calls out to the owner of the motel before kicking the door shut in her face. She yanks her arm off me as soon as the door’s closed, tugging some of my hair out in the process that got wrapped around her bracelets. “You’re so dumb,” she sneers.
I glare at Sasha, wondering how the hell she found me, but maybe even most importantly, why the hell she found me.
She takes her phone out and wiggles it in front of my face. “Do you think you actually had an online boyfriend named Ezra? You think because you were smart enough to turn your old phone off that no one would find you, but what was one of the first things you did after buying a burner phone? Contact me.”
I blink at her. I feel like my brain has already caught up to something my body doesn’t want to admit yet. “What are you talking about?” I ask, but there’s another question there that I want answered first. Another one that’s burning me up from the inside even though I know it might hurt to know.
She walks close to me and laughs in my face. “I’m Ezra, Briar.” She smirks. “That friend, the only one you think you had in the world? Yeah, that was me. When you were touching yourself in that picture? It was me. When you were bleeding your heart out in messages? It was me. And I think you already know this, but I was laughing the entire fucking time. Your pain is funny to me.”
I feel sick. My stomach wars against the idea. It revolts, sending bile up my throat. Ezra is Sasha? When I bought the burner phone, he was the only person I told I’d run away again. It was a moment of weakness. A moment of uncertainty. I just wanted one person to know, so I picked the safest one. The one I knew wouldn’t come looking for me because he already proved he didn’t care that much. He already proved he could talk to me or not. Either way was fine with him.
And it was Sasha the entire fucking time.
I have nothing in my stomach, so there’s nothing to heave up, but my stomach tries to do it anyway. I cover my mouth and Sasha looks so disdainfully at me that if I had any feelings left, I might actually be hurt by that look.
I sent her a boob picture. She saw my nipple. She pretended to care. She pretended to be interested.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Sasha says, her black eyes zeroing in on me like she’s the devil himself.
I know I’m not going to like whatever comes out of her mouth next. I know I’m going to hate it. I know that what I’ve just done is throw myself into the path of the enemy with no life vests. I’m on my own. Truly, this time, I have no one.
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About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author E. M. Moore loves everything paranormal--especially witches. She's visited Salem more than a few times and can't get enough of their ghost tours and witch museums. She's written in every major genre, but fantasy is her first love. She currently has books out in Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Witch Cozy Mysteries and Contemporary Romance.
Pre-order Rock On, E. M.’s next bully romance!
A Sky So Dark: Safe Haven Academy Series, Book 1
Safe Haven Academy Series Blurb
Macie Davenport’s life is over.
The girl who has everything is reduced to an empty black hole of nothing they call Safe Haven Academy. It’s where bad souls go for reform, but end up getting worse until they’re shipped out to another “sheltered place” with an equally uninspired name. It doesn’t matter what they dress it up as, Macie knows places like this are for people like her—people everyone wants to forget.
The screwed up part? Macie’s not bad. Torn with grief and living in a fantasy world? Yes. A psychopath? Not likely.
Worse yet, she can’t forget. Not even a little. Not even trying with all her might, she’ll never forget the consequences of the night the sky turned dark.
Then, they force themselves into her life. A shining light in the bleakness around her, three boys irrevocably change her fate. Can she allow the sun to shine through? Or will Macie give up before giving them a chance?