Free Spearwood Academy Volume Four (The Spearwood Academy Book 4) by A.S. Oren

can’t breathe. I look over his shoulder. The end of an arrow sticks out near the left side of his back.  Red feathers attached as the fletching. “Oh God!” I gasp. “I need to heal you now!”
    He rips open his shirt. A black spot spreads out over his heart. He shakes his head no. “You can’t,” he gasps. “I’ve been poisoned by nightshade. There’s no cure.”
    His body falls forward into me. “I have to try. My Angel powers will cure you.”
    He shakes his head against my shoulder. “No. That will kill you.”
    “I don’t care.”
    “I do.”
    A sob erupts from me. My fingers go into his long black hair.   “Please don’t leave me.”
    “You need to live, Lon.” His gasps are becoming shorter.
    “I don’t want to live without you. This isn’t the end.”
    Maverick uses my shoulders to push himself up to look at me. He kisses my forehead, his lips blue.  “I . . .” He sways and falls forward again. His body convulses in my arms before he goes still.
    “Maverick?” I can’t feel his breath on my shoulder. I lift a hand to check for a pulse. Nothing. “Maverick!”

To Be Continued…
    END OF SEASON ONE: Spearwood
    SEASON TWO: War
    Stay tuned for Excerpts from Author Heather Dowell and Spearwood Boys Volume One.
     
    The Splicing Project: The Challenge by Heather Dowell
    Octavius – Awoken
     
    “Section A18 through Z18, report to the loading dock immediately.”
    The moonlight shines in through the glass wall. I’ll pass on hauling in a bunch of food in the middle of the night. Wait—middle of the night?
    Spider splicers walk out of rooms and into the hallway. I climb up to the top of the pine tree and scale down the wall.
    “Watch it,” someone says as I crash into them. I don’t have time to apologize. I push my hands out and run through the crowd.
    I spot Arrow’s neon blue hair, which resembles an anime character’s. He presses his back against the wall as others walk past. His green eyes dart around until they lock with my four black ones.
    “Where’s Echo?”
    “I don’t know,” Arrow says. “I’m trying to reach out to his mind, but I’m having trouble in all these streams.”
    “I could bite a few and lower the mind count.”
    He shakes his head. “Let’s not use your lethal bite for evil.”
    I roll my eyes. “Save my venom for the guards, right?”
    Arrow nods. “Speaking of guards.” He points at the vertex of the L-shaped hallway.
    Richards, the biggest scum bag of them all, rounds the corner.
    “Gangway. Gangway,” he says.
    We clear a pathway for Richards, who demands the reverence of a god.
    The girl beside me trembles as he walks past and gives her a wink. Her friend hugs her.
    “What’s that about?”
    Arrow gives me a solid stare. “He raped her.”
    I break free of the wall and run toward Richards.
    “Octavius! Get back here!” Arrow yells.
    Richards swings around to face me and pulls out a night stick. I jump forward, ready to tackle him. Large black arms stop me in midair. I elbow the person.
    “Take your friend’s advice,” Richards says. The scars he inflicted on my back heat up as I take in his puny frame. He laughs and continues on his way. “Move along!”
    The arms around me let me go after Richards rounds the corner. I glare at his silver eyes when I face him. “Echo!”
    Arrow holds up his pointer finger. “Don’t, Octavius. Echo just saved your life.”
    I grunt. The girl from the wall walks by. I grab her and cup her face between my hands. Her eyes go wide. “I’ll kill him for you. I promise.”
    She squirms away from me.
    “Octavius, you can’t say stuff like that,” Arrow warns.
    “Yeah,” Echo chimes in. “It’ll get you killed.”
    I cross my arms. “Not if I kill first.”
    They mimic my arm crossing and shake their heads at each other.
    “What?”
    “Nothing,” Echo says. He runs a hand over his bald head and walks around me. “We need to get going.”
    “Fine. Just know that you can’t keep me from