Free The Honor Trilogy: Books One, Two, and Three of the Honor Trilogy by J. P. Grider Page A

approach him first.
    If only I hadn’t felt anything from Storm. For Storm? I wish I knew for sure.
    Go, from Boys Like Girls, is playing on my iPod. I close my eyes and let Martin Johnson’s voice pacify the hollowness in my chest. My rising anxiety.
    Sleep must have found me after all, because when I wake to a tapping at my window, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is playing Cat and Mouse, which is near the end of my playlist.
    The tapping continues, and as I make my way across the room, it gets louder. In spite of the trembling, I still push aside my curtain. A rejected Ethan sits on a tree branch outside my window.
    “Ethan.” I say, surprised to find him there.
    He escalades the window sill and enters my bedroom – in the middle of the night.
    “What are you doing here?”
    Ethan sits on my bed. “Is this okay?” He motions with his finger to the mattress he’s already sitting on. I close the window and turn back towards him.
    “Yeah it’s fine. Why are you here? It’s late.” I don’t want to sound callous, but all day I got the silent treatment. Now he shows up outside my window. Though I’m thrilled to see him, I don’t want him to think I’m some kind of pushover.
    He falls back on my bed and rests the crook of his elbow across his forehead. “Oh, Honor. He worries me.” Ethan drops his arm to his side and looks at the ceiling. “And I’m scared for you.” He sits up again and holds his hand out for me to go to him. At first, I only allow my fingertips to graze his, but he grabs my hand and pulls me between his legs at the edge of the bed. He stands to embrace me. “I’m sorry, Honor,” he whispers in my ear. “I’m so sorry I’ve been ignoring you. It was so immature of me.”
    “Why did you though?”
    Ethan moves me to arm’s length to look me in the eye. “Because…I was upset about what you told me.”
    “That I feel his pain?” I ask, though I know exactly what he means.
    “Yes. You feel his pain…and soon enough, it will affect your feelings for him…and…that scares me.”
    He’s perceptive. “Do you have feelings for everyone you…take on? I mean…do you….” I trail off, unable to form the sentences properly.
    Ethan runs his hand through my hair, sending a tingle through my body. “Not in the way you think, but yes, when I’m not ignoring the pain…there’s no way to not build a bond with them.”
    “So, what? You think I will like him-like him?”
    Both his hands slip through my hair when he holds my head close to my neck. “I sure hope not.” He pauses. “Because I’m falling for you . Hard.”
    Not only does my blood trickle through my veins like droplets of hot lava, but my knees are weak and unable to hold me up for long. Fortunately, Ethan pulls me close and presses his lips to mine. Warm and velvety, his mouth feels wonderful on mine and after making his way down my neck with his lips, he pulls me down to my bed, sits me on his lap, and stops kissing me. “Oh, Honor. I never expected this. When I came here looking for you, I never intended…to fall in love with you. It just…makes things so much more complicated. Y’know what I mean?”
    “No. Not exactly. What do you mean? How does…that…complicate things?” And did he really just say he fell in love with me?
    “Because we’re empaths. We take on too many bad things. When an empath falls in love with another empath, nothing good happens. They die. They do good for everyone else, and then…for each other…they die.” His explanation stops short.
    “Why do we have to die?”
    Ethan’s eyes pop out of his head. “Have you listened to anything I’ve said about being an empath, Honor?”
    “Yes. Of course. But didn’t you say that we can ignore the pain?”
    He springs up from the bed and begins pacing my room. His hands run through his hair in some nervous attempt to think things through. “That’s just it. The pain…the aches…the hurt…it’ll all be too much.” He stops pacing and