Page 111 of Liars

I needed to, but it was getting harder.

The Raven Crew had taken up so much space in my life this semester that I felt like I was drowning. My parents’ deaths were already heartbreaking enough, and now them? Kreed, with his maddeningly cryptic stares and touches that lingered too long. Maddox with his possessiveness. Mason with his sharp-edgedamusement. They weren’t just in my head. They were creeping into my very existence, and it was wrecking me.

I wasn’t just losing focus on school. I was losing myself.

When was the last time I even talked to Carson or Kenny? When had my priorities shifted from wanting to see my friends to just…forgetting about them entirely?

I opened my locker, shoving my books inside, and grabbed my bag when I heard my name whispered so quietly I almost thought I imagined it.

“Kaylor.”

The voice barely registered, a hushed breath beneath the chaos of students moving past. I stiffened, scanning the hall and looking for a familiar face. Other than Poppy, I hadn’t made many friends at Public. What was the point? I graduated in three months. The Raven Crew didn’t count. They weren’t friends. More like annoying stepbrothers I’d never asked for and barely liked. Kreed excluded.

Nothing about him or the way I felt about him was brotherly.

I slammed my locker shut, the metallic clang cutting through the noise of the hallway.

“Psst, Kaylor,” someone called again. “Over here.”

This time, my ears tracked the source, and my eyes fell on a girl with dark hair streaked with pink highlights. Her chocolate eyes were on me as she waved her hand, indicating that I should come over to the bathroom, where her head poked out from the slightly ajar door.

I had to be seeing shit. It couldn’t be. Yet my eyes weren’t mistaken. “Josie? Is that you?” What the hell was my cousin’s girlfriend doing in the girls’ bathroom at Elmwood Public?

It had been months since I last saw her with my cousin. They were away at college, which made it even stranger that she was here at school. She had zero reason to be here.

Before I could ask, she reached out and grabbed my wrist, yanking me into the bathroom and shutting the door behind us. “Quick. Get in here.” She blew out a breath, her eyes darting toward the door as if she expected someone to barge in at any second. “I don’t think anyone saw you.”

“What are you doing here?” I asked, confusion tightening in my chest. “Did something happen? Is Brock?—”

“I’m fine,” a deep voice cut in. “It’s you I’m worried about.”

I froze, turning so fast I nearly lost my balance, but nothing could have prepared me for the sight before me.

“Brock?” My throat closed.

My cousin leaned against the sink, arms crossed over his chest, his usually easygoing demeanor absent. His jaw was tight. Tense. And when his dark eyes landed on mine, something inside me cracked.

I launched myself at him. “Oh my god.” My arms wrapped around his solid frame, my breath hitching at the sheer familiarity of him. “You’re here. It’s really you.”

For months, I’d been surrounded by the Corvos. By strangers who acted like they knew me, by people who looked at me like I was a chess piece in some game I didn’t understand. But Brock?

His grip was firm when he hugged me back. “Who else were you expecting?”

I let out a shaky breath, stepping back. “Pretty much anyone but you.” Brock was a few years older than me, but his reputation at the academy still circulated the halls. Everyone knew the Elite, and others had tried to step into his shoes since he graduated, but my cousin and his friends were irreplaceable. No one had the skill set or reach the Elite did. My confusion only deepened. “How did you find me?”

His eyes darkened. “It wasn’t easy. But I have my ways.”

“Of course, you do.”

His lips pressed together. “You have quite the security detail, cuz.”

I scoffed. “Tell me about it. My godfather took his role as guardian literally.”

Brock flinched. “Are you okay?”

I hesitated. No. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

His stare was unwavering. “Kaylor.”

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