HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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London SE1 9GF
www.harpervoyagerbooks.co.uk
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2015
Copyright © Christi J. Whitney 2015
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015.
Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com
Christi J. Whitney asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Digital eFirst: Automatically produced by Atomik ePublisher from Easypress.
Ebook Edition © April 2015 ISBN: 978-0-00-811358-2
Version: 2015-04-02
âSebastian!â
I hear my name, but I canât answer. Iâm trapped by the image in my head.
It flashes again.
Rainbow-scorched leaves. Gypsy music.
Caravans of faded paint.
âSebastian Grey!â
Dark and nothing.
I struggled for words. âYes, sir?â
âAre you joining this group or not? I need to get a listâ¦â
Another flash.
Bonfires. Starless night.
A girl dancing. Ribbons in her hair.
âFor the last time, Mr Grey, wake up!â
My mind ripped free. I jolted, launching papers into orbit. For a split second, I wasnât convinced of my surroundings. Then, as fluorescent lights bored through my skull, it hit me.
I was in the middle of class.
And twenty-five pairs of eyes were staring straight at me.
All my school supplies littered the floor â textbooks, papers, colored index cards. Everything except the pencil that Iâd somehow snapped between my fingers. I coughed and hunkered in my seat. Across the aisle, Avery leaned sideways in his desk, giving me the look Iâd seen way too many times: the one that questioned my sanity.
âCrap,â I whispered.
Iâd done it again.
Mr Weir moved closer. He glowered at me from under spidery eyebrows. I prepared myself for the tirade. But just as he took a wheezing breath, the bell rang. I shrugged and gave him my best smile as the room reverberated with slamming books and screeching chairs.
Mr Weir grunted and waddled back to his desk, my outburst promptly dismissed as more important matters â like the end of the school day â took precedence. I dropped to one knee and recovered my textbook.
âHey, Sebastian, you okay?â Avery towered over me. âWhat just happened there?â
I blinked away the lingering haze. âIt appears I must have dozed off.â
âSeriously, man,â said Avery, his brows shooting up. âWho talks like that?â He knelt and picked up one of my library books, examining it with a shake of his head. âI swear, sometimes I think you read way too many old books. Theyâre messing with your head.â
I snatched it out of his hands. âI donât read old books.â
âYou read Shakespeare.â
âThatâs different.â
Avery laughed, shoving papers at me. âSure it is.â
I stuffed them in my bag, taking care to hide my tattered copy of Hamlet from Averyâs prying eyes. We squeezed into the crowded hall, avoiding locker doors banging open and shut around us.
âYou never answered my question, you know,â Avery continued.
âI realize that.â
We strolled in companionable silence down the hallway. Okay, maybe I was the one who was silent. Avery Johnson â senior superlative and social giant â had something to say to everybody we passed. At the end of the corridor, he stopped.
âOkay, what was it this time?â
âNothing,â I replied. âI fell asleep.â
âYeah, right,â Avery said in an amused huff. âThat wasnât a nap. That was a complete zone out. Same as this morning in gym, when you stood there like a zombie until Alex Graham smacked you in the face with the ball.â