Read Online Evernight (The Night Watchmen Series Book 2) by Candace Knoebel - Free Book Online Page B

not.
    By the time the woman on the screen appears, telling me it’s time to wake up, my eyes are already open, pinned on a distant spot on the ceiling. My thoughts are like broken records playing over and over and over until I can’t take it. Until I want to cover my ears and scream to make the sound go away.
    What is Jaxen hiding? What does my premonition mean? What is Jaxen hiding? What does the premonition mean?
    There’s no end. No answer to be found. Not in the darkness of my room. Not under the comfort of my blanket. Monsters seem to have found me even in my safe haven.
    I roll out of bed with a groan, making quick work of showering and getting dressed. When I leave my room, I find Jaxen waiting for me by the elevator. His hands are tucked in the pockets of his jacket, his hair disheveled. He’s leaning one shoulder against the wall, his eyes distant in thought.
    But my heart doesn’t flip the way it usually does when I see him.
    He doesn’t look up until I’m right in front of him, and I’m not sure if it’s because I was that quiet, or if it’s because he was so lost in thought.
    “Hey, you,” he says when he sees me. “You’re getting good at that quiet walk.” The grin he wears could reach the moon. Maybe even dance with the stars, but there’s something in his eyes, a small reflection of sadness, that can’t be hidden.
    Not from me. Not when I know sadness so well.
    “I learned from the best,” I say, trying to make my smile authentic, believable.
    He stares at me for a moment. Opens and closes his mouth like he’s on the verge of saying something. “Faye—” He looks away. Curses under his breath.
    “What is it?” I ask, trying not to sound too pushy.
    He looks back at me, and the fear and pain in his eyes is enough to choke the air from my lungs. Enough to freeze me in place. “I just… I want to…” He plunges his hand through his hair, and I don’t understand what he’s trying to say. What there is to tell me that could be this difficult to spit out.
    A million possibilities pass through my head, all of them pointing to something awful. Something that I’m not so sure I could survive. My imagination has turned against me, and I don’t know how to shut it off. It has corrupted my ideas, turning them into nightmares that all involve this ungodly secret that could rip us apart before we even really begin.
    “Jaxen?” I whisper, hating the fearful quiver in my voice. Doesn’t he know his truth has the power to eradicate the hell my mind has created? Doesn’t he know that no matter how heavy the truth is, it’s still a thousand times lighter than any lie?
    When he looks at me again, I swear I see tears in his eyes, but then someone groans behind me. Jaxen’s gaze shifts past me and, all at once, his face is composed. His posture straighter. His emotions neatly tucked away behind his four walls.
    Gavin comes slothing down the hallway, looking sleepy and unready, with Cassie only a few steps behind him.
    “Five am. She’s out of her friggin’ mind,” Cassie says, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
    “I feel like we’re back in school,” Gavin mutters, wrapping one hand around her waist and using the other to rub the sleep from his eyes. His hair is matted to the left, and his crystal blue eyes are half-open.
    “We are back in school,” Jaxen says pointedly, dragging a hand down his face.
    “Ready for your first day in hell?” Weldon asks, only half dressed. For some reason, he hasn’t zipped the top half of his suit, leaving his chest exposed. Of course, he’s looking at me when he asks this, as if I’m the only one out of all of us who will suffer.
    This sort of irks me, and my annoyance rushes past my lips before I have the chance to stop it. “Hell has always been on my list of places to visit. If you’re not careful, I might stab you with my pitchfork on our way down.”
    He grins like the devil himself. “There’s my spitfire partner. Just wanted to make sure she