Reckless Souls (Saints Academy, #1)(62)

face, not the ground beneath my feet. Nothing. I just see the mixture of surprise and fear on my

brothers’ faces as three words pass Khaos’ lips, changing my life forever.

“He fucking shifted.”





Chapter 19

Rhea

I step out of the shower, my sensitive flesh burning from the high temperature of the water, but it

still does little to alleviate the stress bubbling beneath the surface of my skin. As I wrap my

fluffy cream towel around my waist, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror again, and the

biggest problem I’m dealing with stares right back at me.

Red.

My eyes are still fucking red. It’s never a good color to wear, and for me, it’s even worse because

my blue irises have been replaced with crimson. Why can’t they be a less aggressive color? Maybe

gold or amber like Xander’s.

Fuck.

I swipe a hand down my face in exasperation as I march back into my room, making sure to lock

the bathroom door behind me just in case Adonis attempts to make an appearance. I don’t need to deal

with any of the drama he might bring so I move straight to the closet, eyeing my options, before I settle

on a plum colored two-piece lounge set.

There’s no denying I feel different. I just don’t know why or how, apart from my eyes, there’s

nothing else physical to go on. Just the bliss still coursing through my body.

I check my body over once more as I slip into the yoga pants and thin, long-sleeved tee, before

running the towel through my hair, still coming up with nothing different inside of me.

The stark reality is that I need to talk to someone about what happened, and my options are

limited. I have Harmonia, Thalia, Cassandra, or in these desperate times, I could always reach out to

Dante, but I haven’t spoken to him since I got angry at him on my first day here. Besides, I don’t really

want to have to explain how this happened with him either way.

Harmonia it is.

I don’t want to spoil her holiday plans, but fuck it, this conversation is not one that can wait until

she returns. I need her help right now.

Flopping back on my bed, I grab my phone off the nightstand and quickly hit her number before I

change my mind. The phone barely rings three times before her voice filters through the room.

“Hello?”

“Hey, how’s your break going?” I ask, not wanting to blurt my crazy shit at her straight away.

“It’s been fun so far, although I’ve definitely missed you being around,” she replies, when my

phone buzzes, and the buttons flash up for me to accept her face time call. I stall a moment

considering if I want her to see my eyes. “Girl, you’re randomly calling me so I want to see with my

own two eyes that you’re okay. Besides, you hate small talk, and you literally opened the

conversation with it. What’s wrong?”

I gape in surprise at the phone, caught off guard by her correct analysis of my semi antisocial

behavior, before I hit the accept button, rolling on to my front as her face fills the screen. It looks like

she’s sitting on a bed, white hair framing her face as she gives me a pointed look, until the moment

she sees my eyes, hers going wide in shock.

“Rhea. What the fuck?” she says with a gasp, hand rising to cover her mouth and I cringe,

squeezing my eyes shut as I take a deep breath before blinking them open and refocusing on the phone.

I look down at the small screen to still see my irises are still red. I sigh.

“They’re that obvious, huh?” I try not to let the hopelessness I’ve been feeling creep into my tone,

but I’m just dumbfounded and have no idea what the fuck this means.

“Just a little,” she replies with a gulp, wetting her lips before clearing her throat, a failed attempt

at trying to smother the shock on her face. “I’ve barely been gone five minutes, and you got into

trouble already. What on earth has happened?”

There’s no way I can explain without giving her all of the details, so with a heavy inhale and a

rough exhale, I do just that, spilling the past couple of hours to her without stopping for breath. I try to

process what felt like a sudden change in the Elites, the attentiveness from Zen, the truth easily

slipping from Adonis’ lips, the hint of need and overall less angry vibe from Khaos, before

everything with Xander.

I went from barely saying two words to the guy, to feeling my body shatter around him. It was like

a magnetic force, pulling us toward one another, uncontrollably, and all consuming. I don’t regret it,

not a single ounce. It felt right being with him. I just couldn’t stay in that room with them for one more

minute as they stared at my glaringly different eyes. Their reactions made me feel like a science

project, trying without words to decipher my heritage.

Coming up for air, I realize I’m almost panting as I wait for Harmonia to respond. It takes a

moment for her to lift her jaw up off the floor, but when she still says nothing, nerves start to get the

better of me.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” I blurt, hand clenched in my lap as I grip the phone with the