Page 139 of Devils' Day Party
Holy shit, is this it? I wonder as I glance down at the black handgun clutched in Raz's tense fingers. Is his jealousy going to end the night in bloodshed?
Pearl appears just a moment later, coming over to stand beside me.
“Don't you dare bully her about her pregnancy,” she hisses, and I realize just how out of control this has gotten. I started the day with good intentions, but my lie is becoming twisted. I don't like it. I don't like it at all.
“Yeah, and what are you going to do about it?” Raz retorts, stepping closer. The thing is, regardless of the mistakes I've made, today is for Pearl. Just Pearl. She's owed that, at least, a single day.
I push Raz back, desperate to keep him from saying something to her that he might one day regret.
“Please don't drag her into this. You're mad at me, and I know why.” Calix and Barron are coming closer, and I really don't want to have this conversation with them around, so I rush on. “You love me and you're jealous. Well, guess what? I love you, too.”
“What the … what?” Raz asks, rearing back, his fingers loosening on the gun. “The hell is wrong with you?”
“I'm in love with you,” I choke out, my heart aching so fiercely that I'm afraid I might have a heart attack and wake up at the gas station before I get a chance to finish this day. Pearl must live, that's my only goal right now. “So please don't do this.”
Raz just stands there, dumbfounded, as one of the other Knight Crew lackeys steps close and grabs the gun. It takes me a second to realize that it’s Erina fucking Cheney.
“If you're just going to stand there and chat, I'll take a turn,” she says, and bile rises in my throat. That girl, with a weapon in her hand … this can’t be good.
“You're telling me this now that you're pregnant with Calix's fucking kid?” Raz asks, just as Erina lifts the gun to point it at the target. The thing is, when she goes to take her shot, something about what Raz has just said makes her startle. She fires the gun nearly forty feet to the left of the target, and I watch in sick horror as the bullet hits April right in the chest.
Red blooms on the white of her dress shirt as her eyes go wide and she crumples forward, almost in slow motion. Her brunette braids trail behind her as she falls into Luke's arms. My best friend catches April before she can hit the ground, but I can already tell this is going to end poorly for everyone involved.
“She's been shot!” Luke screams as Sonja helps her lay April on the forest floor. “We need a fucking phone; get the gatekeeper!” Luke turns back to April, sobbing and shaking as I stand there, thunderstruck.
Clearly, the universe hates me.
Why else would it do this to me? All I was trying to do was help. I just wanted to fucking help.
Barron takes off at a full sprint, clearly heading back to grab the phones. Raz stumbles a bit before seeming to shake himself out of a stupor.
“Give me the fucking gun, Erina,” he says, moving toward her slowly. Erina just stands there, ignoring him and clutching the gun in two hands as she stares at April's still form with wide eyes.
Pearl takes off, dropping down to the ground in her new emerald gown and leaning down to put her ear near April's lips, already flecked with pink spittle.
Calix isn't looking at Erina. Instead, he's staring at me, like he knows this moment is going to destroy me, like he’d do anything to change that.
He must’ve heard Raz shouting about me being pregnant, but obviously, he won’t believe that, considering we haven't had sex in a year. The expression on his face says that maybe he's already forgotten about that part of the conversation though. I sure as fuck have, all of my attention focused on April.
“Karma,” he says, his voice almost … tender? Calix takes a step toward me, reaching out for my hand.
“Don't touch her,” Erina says, and my attention snaps over to Erina and Raz. He has both hands raised in surrender and a deep frown etched into his handsome face. As I watch, Erina swings the gun from him and over to me and Calix.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Sometimes I forget that I go to a school full of delinquents and psychopaths. Sometimes, but not often. I mean, they don't let me forget often enough.
“Erina, give me the gun,” Calix says, frowning as he holds out a hand, his imperious attitude making me extremely nervous. This isn't going to go well if he cops the dark faerie prince of the forest bullshit. “You made a mistake; don't turn it into a crime.”
