“Only boys would mess her around like this. I'll call you a man when you start acting like one,” she snaps, and Meadow chuckles from beside her.
“I think you're pretty awesome,” she breathes, and my mother winks.
“I am nice, dear.”
“I promise you seem like a force to be reckoned with to me, wise beyond all,” she insists, and my mother’s confidence falters for the first time since she stepped through the door.
“Do you think she'll think so too?” she asks, glancing down at Ivy, worrying her lips as Hugo clears his throat.
“She's going to love you,” he promises.
“Who's going to love who?”
The room erupts in chaos as everybody's attention turns to Ivy's wide eyes and parted lips.
My mind swirls as everybody talks at once, and I see her eyes dim as confusion takes over.
“Be quiet,” my mother snarls, and the room pauses. “It's okay, dear. Do you know who you are?” she asks, and I watch Ivy gulp.
“Where am I?” Ivy asks nervously.
“You're in the medical center,” my mother says, speaking in a tone that is so far from the snap that just passed her lips that you'd be certain it wasn't the same woman.
“Why am I here?” Ivy asks, and my mum glances at my fathers across the room as worry builds inside of her. “I don't think it's best for me to give you that answer, honey, but somebody will.”
“What's going on?” Ivy panics, her voice hitching slightly as her gaze tilts to the right. “Hugo?”
“Ivy?” he breathes in response, and she nods slowly.
“Hugo, what's going on?” Her hand instinctively tightens around my mother's as Hugo parts his lips, but before he can say a single word, I lurch from my seat, striding toward her with determination, blocking him from her view as I steal her attention.
With her gaze penetrating mine, I speak.
“You are Ivy Hayworth, also known as the Angel of Heaven's Ridge, or as I prefer it, a total pain in my ass. Not to alarm you, but you're at Neverbound Academy. You are a phoenix, which has some great bonuses going for you, but right now, that means that somebody killed you, and you have just completed a resurrection cycle.” Her eyes widen, but I push on. “The fact of the matter is, you keep dying, and it keeps killing me every time you do.” I lift my hands in surrender, my words clogging my throat as I struggle to breathe. “Don't be misguided by my words. You hate us, deservedly. Well, not your brother, my mother, or Meadow. You probably will hate my sisters when you get to know them, but the rest of us, we fucked everything up, okay? We fucked it up so bad, but the last time this happened, we omitted all of this. We welcomed you back into a world where you were fine because you didn't remember, and we thought we could make the best of a bad situation, which only fucked it up more and gave you the opportunity to be even madder.”
I exhale for the first time, my face red as my pulse rings in my ears.
She blinks at me rapidly.
“Why are you telling me all of this?” she breathes, running her tongue along her bottom lip.
“So I don't have to relive that same pain again. Soyoudon't have to relive that same pain again.”
She nods slowly, her eyelids drawing a little heavy as she rubs her chest.
“Did I sleep a lot last time?” she asks, as if she hasn’t slept for four damn days, but I hum in agreement.
“You’ve slept a lot already.”
She nods, another gulp bobbing her throat. “Do I have to sleep alone?”
I tilt my head in confusion at her.
Slowly, she slips her hand from beneath my mother's palm as she reaches for the edge of the sheet, pulling it back to make room for me.
I shake my head, blindly pointing my thumb in Archer’s direction.
“Archer did that last time, and it didn't bode well for him,” I admit, dragging my other hand down my face.
