Read Online The Gryphon Project by Carrie Mac - Free Book Online Page B

where they normally met Huy every morning. By the time Saul and Tariq got there, Tariq was laughing about the whole thing, and Saul was too. He sounded okay, but when she got closer to him, Phee could see that he was deathly pale and shaking. Gryph must’ve said something to him about meeting him right away, because he let Nadia hug him only briefly, and then he pulled away.
    “I’m okay, Nadia. Really.”
    “I was so scared! I thought you were going to die!”
    Phee wouldn’t have thought it possible, but Saul paled even more, his skin nearly translucent under his eyes.
    “I didn’t though, did I?”
    “But still—”
    “I’ll see you later, okay?”
    “Where are you going?” Nadia reached for him as he turned away. “You’re shaking!”
    “I’m fine. I’ve got to meet Gryph.”
    “Don’t go!” Nadia got hold of his jacket and he stopped. “Saul, please!”
    Tariq kept going, slowing only to toss Saul a warning look. “Don’t be long, man.”
    Saul nodded, prying Nadia’s hands off him. “I have to go, Nadia.”
    “Do you love me, Saul?”
    “I love you, Nadia.” Saul kissed her. “You know that.”
    “Then stay with me now,” she said. “Just this once, choose me over Gryph.”
    “I’ll see you later, you know that.” He kissed her again. “But right now, I have to go.”
    “But you don’t! Not really. Not after what just happened! You almost died!” She grabbed his trembling hand. “You can stay with me! Just this once.”
    “I know you understand, Nadia.” Saul pulled away and walked backwards, toward the school entrance, where Tariq was waiting for him. “I know you do.”
    He turned and jogged away. He caught up with Tariq, and the two of them disappeared into the school.
    Nadia sat down on the nearest bench and cried. “I can’t do this anymore, Phee.”
    Phoenix sat beside her, Saul’s tremors on her mind. She’d never seen him like that, but then he rarely got caught in one of Gryph’s pranks. He was the one who held back, who played safe, who never took sides when any of the guys argued.
    “His brave face is just for Gryph,” Phoenix said. “He wanted to stay with you. But you know how boys are. Especially those boys. It’s all about them. We’re never going to know what goes on with those guys. We can only hope—”
    “That they don’t kill each other?” Nadia wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “That they don’t kill someone else? They’re all going to max out on their recons before they hit twenty! And then what?”
    “Now you’re exaggerating, Nadia. None of them have ever gotten that seriously hurt.”
    Nadia said nothing.
    “I’m right,” Phee said gently. “Aren’t I? You’re exaggerating. None of them have ever even come close to needing a recon.”
    “Not yet, maybe!”
    “They take risks, but they’re smart. No one’s been hurt.” Phoenix found an old tissue in her pocket and dabbed Nadia’s tears away. “Gryph was timing it. He knew what he was doing. They’ve been friends forever, and not a single one of them has had a recon, right?”
    Again Nadia said nothing.
    “Right, Nadia?”
    “Sometimes I really hate Gryphon,” Nadia replied. “Chrysalis’s golden boy. He thinks he’s immortal.”
    “Well, we all are, in a way. To a point.”
    “How can you say that?” Nadia blew her nose. “You, of all people. You should get what I’m talking about. Okay, so if Saul dies, he gets reconned, okay, so he lives. But what if something went wrong during the recon? What then? What if I lost him forever?”
    “And how often does that happen? Next to never, in all reality.”
    “Still, it could! And what if he lost his memory, like you?”
    “Also highly unlikely.”
    “But what if?”
    What if, what if, what if? Phee knew all too well the perils of letting her imagination run rampant. What if, indeed.
    “He’d forget about me! He wouldn’t remember us . He’d come back and I’d be a stranger to him! Just some random girl. What