Monster Mine Read Free Page A

to
remember.
    “ Thad knew where you were
days after you disappeared. Days , Ollie. We all
knew.”
    My fingers flexed on the bed. The cuts
all over my body, from the places where Max had cut too deep,
flared to life. My heart beat so hard I knew Lauren could hear
it.
    “ We waited,” Lauren
whispered. “We waited so he could break you. We wanted you in a
million tiny pieces. The order to leave you there came straight
from the top. From who, you ask?”
    I hadn’t asked. I hadn’t even taken a
breath.
    Lauren smiled, a wet cracking of her
lips. “We waited because Hex told us to. Your own father left you
there to fall apart.”
    She leaned in and kissed my cheek. Not
sweet. Mocking.
    “ We waited , Ollie.”
    I reared off the bed and slammed my
forehead straight into her nose. It broke, cracking wet like her
smile. The blood splattered over me, and she flew backward,
screaming and clutching her nose. Blood gushed between her
fingers.
    Her wild, light-colored eyes found
mine. Mascara ran down her cheeks from her tears, her pretty dark
hair disheveled from the tussle. She screamed again, this one
muffled against her hands. She spat blood onto the floor beside my
bed.
    I swung my legs over the edge,
ignoring the dizzy tilt of the room and the warning heat in my
chest. A trickle of blood ran down between my eyes.
    Lauren staggered back as I
stood.
    The door crashed open. “Ollie! Ollie,
hang on. Stop.”
    Thad .
    I swiped the blood off my face,
smearing it across my forehead like war paint. “I’ll kill you,” I
told Thad, who barely flinched at the threat. My gaze swung back to
Lauren. “And you too.”
    She spat at me. “Fucking
bitch.”
    “ Where am I?” I fired the
question at Thad, who was still standing by the door, a wave of
people at his back, craning their necks to see around him. I
recognized none of them. The bedroom we were in was minimal, with
white walls, a gray bed, and a geometrical rug. A little sitting
area was positioned beneath the only window, which took up most of
the wall. The ceilings stood high, the ductwork exposed. Faded
brickwork took the place of paint or wallpaper.
    “ Reece!” Thad shouted over
his shoulder. “Get in here and get Lauren. Now .”
    A second later, a young man shoved
through the crowd and past Thad, tossing a sharp glare my way. I
noticed the familiar black scars running down his neck, his tanned
skin, and his surfer-boy blond locks as he took Lauren’s hand and
led her from the room. He’d been in the backseat staring down at me
while Thad tried to push my heart back inside my body.
    My heart. The tightness in my chest. I
glanced down at myself and spotted the black stitches holding my
skin together, holding my heart inside.
    “ We’re in Anchorage,” Thad
told me once they were gone.
    “ What the hell for? Why
didn’t you take me back to the base? To the university? When we
spoke about leaving Barrow to meet up with the other halflings, I
agreed because it was on my terms. Things have changed since
then.”
    “ Maybe we should talk when
you’re better.”
    I turned around, my eyes landing on a
purple crystal sitting on the bedside table. Hefting it up, I
weighed it in my hand.
    “ Or we can talk now, if
you want,” Thad said. He was already closing the door by the time I
turned back around.
    I flicked my chin toward
the door. “Were those
halflings?”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Like me.”
    “ Like us.”
    My chest pulled again, straining
against the stitches. I didn’t like those words, which might have
meant I didn’t like myself, since, technically, I was like the
other halflings.
    “ Where are Sunny and Luke?
How long has it been?”
    Thad leaned back against the door and
crossed his arms, keeping half his attention on the crystal in my
grip. “I don’t know where they are. Probably still in Barrow for
the rest of the Killing Season. You’ve been asleep for nearly a
week. We had to sedate you.”
    “ Why?”
    “ You kept trying to tear
out your