Free Infamous by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page A

me—”
    She flung out her hand to signal him to shut-up. “Don’t even start that. You take responsibility for your own actions. You hear me? Now why were you late?”
    He ground his teeth as he forced himself not to show any kind of anger toward her. But he was really getting tired of being treated like an idiot who couldn’t tie his own shoes. “I didn’t get to class until after the bell rang.” There, that was the truth.
    “Nicholas Ambrosius … do not test me. Not today. I am not in the mood for your crap.”
    You hear me, he mocked silently in his head. ‘Cause he wasn’t quite stupid enough to do that out loud.
    He forced himself to speak in a calm tone. “I don’t know what to tell you, Mom. I screwed up by not calling and I’m sorry. It was a bad day at school and two of my friends are under fire. I was just trying to help them, and I wasn’t thinking about myself.”
    She frowned. “What do you mean ‘under fire’?”
    “Someone started attacking them publicly and posting awful pictures of them and insults for everyone to see.”
    Anger darkened her gaze as he struck the nerves in her that Grim had mentioned. The one thing his mother couldn’t stand was for anyone to gossip or speculate about someone else. She’d had too much of that done to her when she’d ended up pregnant with him. “Who?”
    “You don’t know Spencer, but Brynna was the other one they attacked.”
    “Addams?” she asked incredulously.
    He nodded.
    Now his mother looked as sick as he’d felt. “Why would anyone attack Brynna?”
    “I don’t know. That’s what I was trying to find out. She ran out of school crying earlier, and I just wanted to help her, you know?”
    Finally his mother hugged him. “All right, Boo. You’re forgiven, but still grounded.”
    Of course he was.
    She gently pushed him toward the small booth where he normally did his homework. “I’ll bring you some food. You get your homework started.”
    Not happy about this at all, Nick obeyed before he got into more trouble. He sat down and started rummaging through his backpack. As he pulled out his math book, he saw that shadow flit across the wall again.
    Turning his head, he tried to pinpoint it. But it was gone so fast, he wasn’t sure he could trust his eyesight in the dim room.
    Suddenly, his grimoire heated up beneath his hand. With a hiss, he snatched his hand back. He blew cool air across his palm to help with the stinging while he opened the book with his other hand.
    “All right, what are you trying to tell me?” He pulled out his pendulum and pricked his fingertip. Reciting the spell to activate it, he squeezed three drops of blood onto the page. For a second, it didn’t react. Then the blood rolled across the page until it formed words.
    Horror. Terror. Nightmares. Dreams.
    Some things are never what they seem.
    Discord. Strife. Shame and Pain.
    Into all lives, they will rain.
    But none of them will cut so deep …
    As the enemy you did not see.
    He was still trying to decipher it when his gaze was drawn to the napkin holder. There in the shiny metal, he glimpsed the future to come.
    It was Brynna, and she was hanging by her neck in her bedroom.

CHAPTER 4
    Nick jumped up and fumbled for his phone. He had to get ahold of Brynna before she let her hurt feelings overtake her common sense. Life was hard for everyone, but pain was transitory and it would eventually leave. He knew that better than most since he’d been spoon-fed a steady diet of shame, humiliation and agony since the moment of his birth.
    Death was forever. There was no undo button on it. Not unless you knew how to summon Artemis, and even then, there was no guarantee she’d take you.
    His hand shaking from his panic, he dialed Brynna’s number and waited.
    She didn’t answer.
    As he was hanging up, his mom returned with a hamburger and fries. Her brows drew together in a worried frown. “What’s wrong?”
    “Ma-m-mom, I got to go.”
    The fury returned to