I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.
~Margaret Atwood
Prologue
Ellis
No one survives the pass on Devil’s Bluff.
It’s one of the first things I learned after arriving at Black Mountain Academy.
A flat plateau that overlooks a scenic view of the lake, the bluff hovers below a rocky outcropping that rises up amid skinny pines and foliage known as the Devil’s Tooth.
It’s as terrifying as it sounds.
A breathtaking, chilling landscape so vastly different than the flat and unexciting terrain below. Farther out, an orange glow emits from a peak tucked behind tall trees and wiry, coarse green wilds.
That’s where lovers meet. Fires stoked to keep bodies warm while intertwined as they create their own heated friction.
You have to climb an unsteady, rock-strewn path off the main trail to reach the pass. Hike through boulder debris. Wind a path up the side of the mountain. It’s a treacherous venture to reach the top of Devil’s Tooth.
My toes curl over the sharp ridge of rock. Tiny fragments break loose and tumble down the ravine. Blackness so absolute surrounds me, the sky absent of light, as if I’m standing on the edge of the world.
I used to believe in angels.
Now it’s the devils I know are real.
With their ethereal, pale-blue eyes, and whispered professions of love, their trickery. They are devious creatures, the boys of my youth.
You know the stories: good boy is seduced by sexy girl. Good boy cheats on good girl, his girlfriend, the girl-next-door type. Sexy girl becomes too attached and she torments good boy. She’s the villain of the story, by the way.
Oh, but good boy learns his lesson.
Back with good girl he goes to run off into the sunset, leaving the villain to suffer for her crimes.
Bullshit.
How come the cheating prick gets off so easily?
There’s a moment in life when you make a decision, a choice, for who you’re going to be.
Good—or the villain?
My choice led me to the edge of this cliff.
I thought I was brave as I took life by the reins on a new path. Brand new career. Brand new school. Brand new life.
Brand new boy.
I became Ellis Montgomery, and Ellis vowed to be an angel. I was meant to save him, protect him. Love him.
A fiery ache builds in my chest cavity, like I’ve swallowed acid. The physical pain registers only slightly above the psychological anguish that burns my soul. Hell fire for the damned.
Everyone is responsible for their own choices. And as I’ve answered for mine, she has to answer for hers.
“It’s time.”
My voice echoes back at me against the stone. The cavernous basin below swallows my cry.