Sever (The Ever Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

does a double take. Yeah, I get it. Normal seventeen-year-old girl getting into a Maserati with perfection incarnate. It doesn’t make sense. But I’m paying for it. The choices I’ve made, all these things I’ve done—they’ve put everyone around me in danger. Ever appears in the driver’s seat, and I look over at him numbly.
    “Just when I finally think I’m going to be able to stop looking over my shoulder, I find out that I’ve been putting my mom’s life at risk this entire time. How can I just saunter off to college next year and pretend that everything’s all right? Damn,” I mutter. “You should have just left me in a bunker on Antarctica.”
    I look out the window as Ever pulls out onto the street.
    “Wren,” Ever says sharply.
    Blowing out my breath, I turn to face him again.
    “You’ve looked beyond my past, what I am, the killer I was—and yet you still hold yourself accountable for events set into motion eons ago in another dimension?”
    “Yeah. Because I stupidly keep trying to pick up my life like nothing’s changed, thinking that I can get away with it.”
    My friend Ashley could have lost her life when Alex took her—if he hadn’t turned out to be more good than bad. And after that, Alex paid for my life and freedom with his existence.
    “Someone I respect very much told me once, ‘ No more guilt ’—and you would do well to take your own advice,” Ever says.
    I smirk at him.
    “Don’t you forget things sometimes?”
    “I will never forget a single moment spent with you.”
    My cheeks turn pink.
    “All right. Well, you’re not allowed to use things I’ve said during moments of clarity against me. … Wait. Where are we going?”
    “To the house.”
    I nod and start trying to catalog the questions I’ve been bottling up, the ones I couldn’t bring myself to ask because I was afraid that speaking them aloud would tempt fate. But there’s one question that’s been burning in my mind since that day on West Street Beach—a question I’ve kept buried for the past year.
    “Why didn’t you tell me what you were planning—with Alex, I mean?”
    Ever takes a wrong turn, and I frown. Then I remember: he doesn’t make mistakes. He pulls off the road, and a second later he opens my door and offers his hand. When I step out, there’s a trail only steps from the road.
    “Forest Park?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “Now?”
    Ever nods. I’ve passed through the park dozens of times since arriving in Oregon, given it’s essentially what separates our little corner of the suburbs from Portland proper. But I’ve never actually stepped foot in the park, which is kind of sad.
    “Hiking in Forest Park in the rain is your rite of passage as a Portlander,” he smiles.
    As if on cue, a middle-aged couple appears out of the trees, and I almost believe him. When we step onto the trail, my shoes stick to the muddy, uneven ground. The green above us is even more striking in the grayish light. Ever holds out his hand and helps me over an enormous puddle.
    “Thanks.”
    “Wren, you continue to believe that you are making missteps rather than choices . Look at my actions before meeting you. They were dictated by a simple doctrine: maintain our freedom at any cost. When I saw you for the first time, I defied everything I knew, but it wasn’t wrong . I made a choice, and it changed my existence. You changed me and how I view this world. My purpose finally became more than obligation.”
    “But that doesn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you at least tell me what you were planning?”
    “We made a pact to keep you safe. Beyond that, very little was planned.”
    I repeat his words back in my head. We. He and Alex made a pact. Suddenly I’m furious.
    “Then you knew what Alex was going to do that day?” I demand.
    “There was no other way,” Ever says gently.
    “But why didn’t we get sucked in with them?”
    “Because you are a human, and I was connected to you, which kept me