Book of Revenge by Abra Ebner Page B

changes, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
    Wes turned on the music, shifting the car into reverse as Emily rummaged through her bag. She turned to me, a smirk on her face. “Here, want these?” She shoved her hand toward me, a set of ear buds and a pink iPod lying in her hand.
    I tilted my head, narrowing my eyes. “No, but thanks.”
    She gave me a sassy smile, knowing how much I hated this. From now on, Max was picking me up, whether he stayed for class or not. This plain sucked.
    “Fine.” Emily shrugged with a satisfied glimmer in her eye.
    Her shrug sent a sliver of her future death toward me—me strangling her. Grinning with vengeance, I took the image and aimed it back at Emily, knowing her clairvoyance would hone in on the signal.
    Her back steeled against the seat in front of me. “Jane! Stop that!” she howled.
    Wes put his hand on Emily’s knee, his face crinkled with pain caused by the pitch of her voice. He was telling her something with his mind. I could see it in the exchanged glances. Emily gawked at him before letting out a sigh of defeat, and then she smiled bashfully, her cheeks flushed.
    I rolled my eyes. Max was definitely on carpool duty from now on. This was worse than death itself.
    Finding things to distract me, I began to stew over my own irritating situation. Max had skipped fifty percent of his classes since his secret came out, leaving me alone. I hated that I had to suffer while he got to float by. The only classes he ever seemed to come to were the ones I was in, so it’s not that things really changed all that much, but it was the principal of it. He’d managed to convince a few teachers to allow him to transfer into the ones with me, but it only caused more issues—I didn’t want to know just how he convinced them. I only hoped it didn’t involve brainwashing, though I suspected otherwise. Mr. Thompson was never the type to give into anything, but he’d been the easiest to convince. That was all the confirmation I needed.
    I sank down as far as I could, my knees leaning against the back of Emily’s seat. Trying to forget school, Winter Wood came to mind. I began to wonder just where it was. Emily turned then, glaring at both Wes and I.
    “What’s Winter Wood?”
    Wes looked at me inquisitively in the rearview mirror.
    I shrugged.
    Wes’s eyes narrowed. “Jane, you know about Winter Wood?”
    Emily looked from Wes to me, awaiting my reply.
    “Yeah. Max told me about it yesterday.” I felt as though I’d been caught doing something bad.
    Emily looked at Wes.
    “Yeah, he told me about it, too,” Wes replied, looking the same way. “On the porch after he brought you home.”
    Emily’s expression perked toward Wes. “You talked to him?” She looked perplexed but happy. “How did you hide that from me?”
    Wes had a proud smirk on his face. “Just because you can hear what I’m thinking doesn’t mean I’m always thinking of things you want to know . ”
    Emily looked discouraged.
    “Think of it as a rare surprise, Em. You should be happy,” Wes reminded her. “That was what you wanted, remember? You told me to talk to Max, so I did.”
    Emily laughed, and I could tell she’d caught wind of the truth in his mind by the sudden smugness of her pose. “You mean he approached you, and forced you to talk about it.” Her smugness only lasted a moment more, then her expression turned sad. “Wes…” She placed her hand on his as it rested on the shifter. He’d clearly told her something more, something he didn’t want me knowing or else he would have said it out loud. “I’m sorry.”
    I sat forward. “Sorry? What did Max tell you?” I didn’t care if he didn’t want to tell me, I still wanted to know because it involved Max.
    Wes turned away from the both of us, his jaw clenched. “I don’t want to talk about it. There was a reason I was trying to hide it.” His voice was bitter, and aimed at us, not Max.
    Emily let go of his hand, looking