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Back Fractured Save as PDF
Chapters (42)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. DEDICATION PAGE
  4. CONTENTS
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  42. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I cut off Malachi as he took a step forward, and the Mazikin’s eyes glinted as his gaze slid to me. “You’d better call Sil, Lela,” he whispered, grinning with bloody teeth. “Or what happens next is your fault.”

TWENTY-FIVE

TWENTY-FIVE

I STOOD IN FRONT of the full-length mirror. “This is not going to work.”

Tegan appeared at my shoulder, looking like a pixie. Her frilly red tutu-like skirt scraped against the back of my hand as she looked me up and down. “What’s wrong? You look beautiful.”

I snorted. “I can’t move.” I shifted uncomfortably. The strapless pink-satin straitjacket she’d stuffed me into clung to every inch of my torso and legs, all the way down to my knees. “I don’t think I can sit down.” And I didn’t think I could run or fight, which was most important. Judging by what the Evan-Mazikin had said before he’d been carted away by the police, none of us could afford a night off, and unless I gave myself up, the Mazikin had every intention of attacking my classmates every chance they got. Prom seemed like the ideal target for them, so here I was, shopping with Tegan, when all I wanted to do was drive to the Guard house and check on my Lieutenant. Raphael had shown up at school, playing the role of Malachi’s host father and promising to take him straight to the emergency room, so I knew he was okay. Physically, at least. But when I thought about how he’d looked this morning, how miserable and hopeless …

Tegan sighed. “I’ll get you something else.” She’d been amazingly patient with me. This dress was like the eighteenth one I’d tried on.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered.

She nudged me with her hip. “Why? This was my idea. I just wish you were having more fun with it. Aren’t you excited? You didn’t go to prom last year. And this year you’re going with Ian freaking Moseley. He’s probably going to be elected prom king, for God’s sake.”

I reached for the zipper on my dress as I shuffled back to the changing room. “You’re making me feel sorry for Ian, that he’s going with me.”

Tegan scoffed. “Oh my God, Lela, you are so blind. You should have seen him at lunch. He’s so excited to go with you—and so nervous that you’re going to change your mind—that I think he ate about four trays of food in less than twenty minutes as he told us about how you’d said yes. It was bizarre.”

“He eats when he’s nervous,” I said quietly. I’d skipped lunch because I couldn’t get my mind off Malachi and hadn’t wanted to face Ian like that.