Page 89 of Muse (Fighting Fate)

My eyes flashed open at the sound of Mom’s voice. The worry in her eyes almost broke me. God, what was it about mothers that could make you revert to the fucking state of a child just by saying your name?

“Mark raced home as soon as he could. What happened?”

She came to stand right before me, gently resting her hand on my arm, her fingers moving in reassuring swipes. I swallowed. “I really don’t know. There was some sort of fight in the gym at school. Somehow Mia ended up in the middle of it and got knocked over and hit her head.”

Her hand tightened on my arm, her eyes clearly showing her distress. “Is she okay?” She whispered the words, afraid.

I blinked slowly, willing the tears to stay away. I didn’t want to break down in the waiting room for all to see. “Apparently she has some swelling on her brain, so they’ve put her in a coma until it goes down.” I drew in an unsteady breath, my voice only a whisper when I spoke again. “There was so much blood, Mom. That’s all I see when I close my eyes.” I met her gaze, scared. “I can’t lose her…”

She pulled me into her arms, holding me in a way I hadn’t needed in years. “You have to stay positive, sweetie.” Pulling back, she took my face in her hands and gave me a hard stare. “She’s tough right? She’ll get through this.”

I nodded and clenched my jaw hard. That was a lot easier said than done.

Movement over Mom’s shoulder caught my eye and I looked over to see one of the Grunge Guys walking in. From what I’d heard, they’d been the ones responsible for the fight breaking out, going on some fucking spree of destruction in the gym. I was instantly filled with fury.

Without another thought, I broke away from Mom and charged straight for him, grabbing him by his shirt and shoving him hard against the wall. “You motherfucking piece of shit scum! It should be you and your fucking loser friends in a coma. You and your waste of space friends just don’t give a fuck about anyone but yourselves, do you?!”

The fucking loser just smirked at me, his eyebrow twitching with amusement. I was going to fucking kill him.

A set of hands clutched onto my shoulders, and another came to press against my chest, trying to push me back. “Come on, man,” Dean’s voice rasped in my ear. “Don’t do this here. If they throw you out, you won’t get to see Mia.”

I felt scuffling beside me as more bodies surrounded me. The scum’s smirk grew wider. “Yeah, Jace…walk away.”

That did it. I was going to punch him. I leaned back, ready to give him one, but then a hand reached over my shoulder and grabbed the loser by the neck. “You fucking asshole!” Aiden’s voice was full of hate.

More shoving came from behind me as the guys tried to move Aiden back, but his desire to flatten the scum bag only urged me on. I could hear Mom’s voice somewhere behind me begging me to stop. I wanted to listen to her, but my fury was too much to contain.

Swinging my elbow around, I smashed it into the side of his jaw. The jostling became more forceful, pulling me back away from him, but I resisted, shoving harder, my thirst for revenge turning me into a fucking animal. I wanted him to pay for what happened to Mia.

Mr. Thomas was beside me then, forcing his way between me and the scum of the earth, his voice loud and commanding. “Jace, stop! This isn’t the way to fix things.”

I growled. “Yeah, but it’ll make me fucking feel better.”

“Walk away!” He barked.

Giving in, I surrendered to their shoving and let them guide me to the far side of the room. Aiden shook Matt off and stalked off back to his seat. I watched him rub his hand over his face, his expression empty.

Moving over to sink down beside him, I leant forward and rested my forearms on my knees, my breath coming fast with adrenalin. We sat in silence for a little while, the both of us staring at nothing on ground, trying to calm down.

“I’m glad you at least got one good hit in,” he said quietly.

I grunted. “Wasn’t enough.”

He nodded in agreement.

“Do you feel anything?” I asked, not knowing if I really wanted the answer.

His jaw clenched slightly before he slowly shook his head. “Nothing.” He swallowed hard, fighting the emotion like I was. “I just feel lost – kind of empty…”

My heart contracted painfully. Mia had told me their twintuition thing was scary accurate. I hoped to fucking god what Aiden was feeling wasn’t what Mia was feeling.

Chapter 41

Jace

As soon as I stepped into Mia’s room I knew my chances of holding myself together were slim to none.

I literally could not fucking breathe as I took in all the monitors, tubes and wires. I’d been told putting her into a coma more or less shut her brain down, so I knew the machines were necessary to keep her alive, but seeing the tube down her throat like that, rhythmically pumping air into her lungs, almost crippled me.

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