I've never been afraid of death.

It's always surrounded me with its dark embrace, hovering above me like my own personal cloud of doom and stealing away those who got too close to me. It took my parents when I was ten, killing them in a car crash that almost took my life too. Six months later, it took the most important person in the world to me, through the most horribly contorted way possible. And only eighteen months ago, it took one of my best friends, donning the guise of cancer. Death was a cunning, twisted snake, and for some reason seemed morbidly obsessed with my life.

So, I wasn't unfamiliar with the heart wrenching, gut twisting pain that death delighted in handing out like candy. Despite that though, I wasn't afraid of my time: the time when death finally decided to stop knocking down the people I loved and take me instead. It sounds bizarre, I know, but I liked to convince myself that I needed to face my fears and not let them conquer me into blind submission. Being the obsessive person I am, I even took it one step further and often allowed myself to daydream about life after death, refusing to believe that we just stopped existing after our bodies gave up. We all had to go somewhere after we died, whether it be heaven, or hell, or purgatory. I refused to believe that death was the final, ultimate full stop to the end of our stories. Instead, I convinced myself that no matter what happened, no matter how or when I died, in this Heaven-esque world I would be happy. I would be happy, I would be with the person I loved, and the pain of life finally wouldn't be able to get to me. I would be free.

Little did I know, those daydreams would become a reality much quicker than I ever expected them to.

— — —

"Evie!"

I bob my head in time to my music, crossing my ankles and tapping my toes as I stare at the book in front of me. As determinedly as I stare at it though, the words on the page don't diffuse into my brain as easily as the words streaming into my ears do. Before I know it I'm humming along to the music, the page as good as blank to me.

Who would've guessed that reading a book for university wasn't as easy as reading a book for leisure? I guess the pleasure really is taken out of it when your whole university career depends on you reading that book.

"Hey! Autumn!"

My eyes snap up at the sound of my last name. I whip my head from side to side, my gaze already narrowed to scold the person who yelled out, and quickly spot the culprits striding through the row of trees behind me, grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh that's typical, now you hear me."

"It's hard not to when you bellow like that." I retort. "Seriously, do you think you could've yelled any louder? I don't think America heard you."

The one on the right snorts. "Do you really want to encourage him? You do know Spencer, right?"

"Is that a challenge I hear, Olly?" Spencer smirks, cheekiness twinkling in his blue eyes. I don't miss the gut-punch he aims at the dirty-blonde standing next to him.

"You hear everything as a challenge, Spencer."

I shake my head with a smile, pulling my headphones off my ears and letting them rest on my collarbone. "What are you doing here, boys? Don't you have a lecture, like right at this very moment?"

Spencer shrugs his broad shoulders, plopping himself down on the grass next to me. "Not anymore. For some reason, the lecturer seemed more than happy to oblige when we suggested they cancel today's lecture."

"Suggested or coerced?"

"What's the difference?" Olly snaps a twig off the tree behind me and hurls it into the lake glittering in front of us. "Either way, she was extremely receptive to our proposition."

"You two are despicable." I inform, my nose wrinkling in disgust. "Just because the lecturer is young doesn't mean you can flirt with them. Have you seen yourselves? You probably gave the poor thing a heart attack."

"What's wrong with that?" Spencer grins, gesturing to himself. "How can one not flirt with others when they have been blessed with a body as gorgeous as mine?"

"Could you be any more narcissistic?" I laugh. He, unfortunately, wasn't wrong, though. Everything about my best friend was perfect, from his golden, sunkissed and artfully ruffled-up hair, to his shining cerulean blue eyes, to his lean athletic stature, and he knew it. Oh boy, did he know it. Even though he was probably the most genuine person in the world — the kind of person who would literally stop what he was doing to help an old lady cross the street — he was also the biggest player that I knew, and spent the majority of his time getting drunk at parties and wasting his education away. I'd say something to him about it, but all the times I've tried in the past he's just ended up laughing in my face and walking away. I'm pretty sure it just floats in one ear and keeps going out the other.

Like all other sensible and logical advice.

"Oh please, Spencer. Have you seen these guns?" Olly flexes his biceps. "You're kidding yourself if you think you're the hot one."

I roll my eyes. Olly was hardly any better than Spencer. He was the Tweedledum to Spencer's Tweedledee; sure, he was significantly taller than Spencer, his hair was more on the brunette side of blonde, and he clearly went to the gym more, but he was just as exuberant as Spencer was when it came to living life. If you ever had to describe a stereotypical jock, Olly was your guy, but he had a heart of gold, despite the way he went about it. I was always slightly reassured by the fact that whatever mischief Spencer was causing, Olly wasn't that far behind. Hell, Olly was probably the mastermind behind said mischief, but he always knew when to reel my best friend back in. It's almost like he'd been born to simultaneously cause mischief and worm his way out of reaping the consequences for said mischief-causing.

"I take it back. You're both narcissists."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Spencer replies haughtily. He latches his hands behind his head and lies back in the grass, closing his eyes. "But I know for a fact that there are many, many people in the world who would disagree."

"People?"

"People." Spencer shrugs casually. "I'm not picky. That's far too much effort."

I smack him with my book and repeat my earlier statement. "You are despicable."

"Yet you love me." Spencer teases in a sing-song voice. I smack him again. He catches my book and rips it out of my grip. "What are you reading?"

"Probably yet another nerd book in Latin." Olly teases, throwing another stone into the lake.

"Oh please. Don't act like you're not fluent in Latin, Oliver." I snort. I snatch my book back out of Spencer's hands. "It's Herodotus' The Histories."

"So, a nerd book." Spencer smirks. I narrow my eyes at him.

"It's for my Greek History class. I thought I'd read a little bit of it before the lecture."

"You're such a nerd, Evie." Olly scoffs. "When is the lecture?"

"3pm."

"In four hours?" Spencer sits up just so I can see the look of disbelief on his face. "E, tell me you're not going to spend four hours reading that mumbo jumbo?"

I nod. His jaw drops.

"Why?"

I sniff, turning my nose up in the air haughtily. "Because I actually enjoy reading it? That's a thing, Spencer. People enjoy reading."

There's a skip of silence. Spencer stares at me. Olly turns around, his expression just as grave as Spencer's.

Oh boy. Here we go.

"It's not a 'thing', Evie," Spencer starts.

"It's an obsession, and it's unnerving." Olly continues without missing a beat.

"You already know all the stuff in that book," Spencer pipes up.

"You're just reading it for fun." Olly finishes, his nose wrinkling up in mock horror.

"Stop that. Stop that right now." I retort dryly. "What is your point?"

"That you need to get your nose out of mumbo jumbo like that every once in a while!" Spencer exclaims, stabbing my book with his finger. He flashes me a pearly-white smile when I give him an unconvinced look. "Because really Evie, you and I both know that you enjoy our company so much more than your silly obsession. You just need to start acting like it."

"I do act like it, Spence. I just prefer the company of my obsession over the company of your drunk selves, which you're letting out and about more and more every day. My obsession smells less." I glance at my watch and start shoving my book into my satchel. "I have to go."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do." I raise my eyebrows at him. "I just told you I had a lecture, Spencer."

"In four hours!"

Olly snickers, returning his attention to throwing stones into the lake. "You tell her, Spencer."

"That's not the only lecture I have today, you muppet." I snort. "Not all of us are able to skip every lecture and still get A grades, you know."

Spencer pulls a face at me. "What if I told you I was going to see the twins? Is that enough incentive to make the nerd in you skip your lecture?"

My eyes light up. Just like that, all thoughts of attending my lecture abandon my mind. "Are they back already? I thought they weren't meant to return until Friday."

"Flew in this afternoon." Spencer informs me, twirling the keys around his fingers. "I'm going to go pick them up now in preparation for their surprise party. Wanna join?"

"Hey!" Olly whines. "Where's my invitation?"

"I choked on it." Spencer deadpans. "You have that thing anyway."

"Maybe I don't want to do that thing."

"Trust me. You do." Spencer gives him a look. Olly harrumphs and plasters a wide-eyed pout on his face. "Oh, go shove that look up your arse, you know it doesn't work on me."

"What thing?" I ask curiously. Then I wave my hands in the air, jumping to my feet with a grin. "You know what, I don't care. I'm going to ignore the fact that they asked you, and not their own sister, to pick them up, and say yes."

Who am I kidding; Spencer was right. I knew the majority of the content taught in my lectures, so I wouldn't be missing out on anything anyway. That's what happens when you have an overly obsessive nature and a ridiculous amount of spare time; you find something interesting and suddenly you need to know everything and anything about it. I never knew whether to bless or curse my addictive nature.

I bid a hasty adieu to Olly and head to the university car park with Spencer, excitement fizzling in my veins. Despite the trip to the airport being relatively short, the drive seems to drag on in the unnaturally warm day. I didn't mind that at all though; we hardly got those in England, so one tended to enjoy it when the sun finally decided to smile down on us.

I wind down the window and lean my head against the car door, my hair flickering around my face in the breeze. It had almost been a month since I'd seen my older foster siblings. They were two of the best competitive archers in the world, and travelled everywhere their archery skills took them, sometimes spending months away at competitions. It didn't come as much of a surprise to me anymore though; they were crazy good at whatever they set their minds to. Just like everyone else in my foster family.

I blow out my cheeks, letting a long sigh flutter past my lips. Even though I loved my foster family as much as I'd loved my biological family, I couldn't help but sometimes feel like the bumbling rabbit stumbling around a group of elegant, insanely talented swans. Not a single member of my foster family was normal; every single one of them was internationally recognised for at least one skill or sport, and it was maddening. For the twins, Selene and Axel, it was archery; though my foster brother, Axel, was also widely recognised in our little township for being an incredibly talented musician. My foster mother, Minnie, on the other hand, was insanely smart, and could craft the most incredible items out of thin air. And then there was little, plain old me, whose biggest claim to fame was the number of Oreos I could fit into my mouth at one time. That's one of the reasons I obsessively pursued my knowledge of ancient civilisations; I felt like I needed to be good at something in order to keep up with the rest of them, and Oreo stuffing just didn't cut it.

"What are you thinking so hard about, E?" Spencer asks me, his warm tones cutting through my internal monologue. "It's giving you more ugly wrinkles, you know."

"That I'm a rabbit." I tell him truthfully. His face scrunches up in confusion.

"Not the weirdest thing I've heard from you, I have to say. But you're a beautiful rabbit, so that's okay." He chuckles, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel as he gazes around the airport carpark. He clicks his tongue in annoyance. "Do you want to head in and try to find them? I don't think I'll find a free park here."

"Yeah, sure." I unbuckle myself and jump out. I lean in the open window and wave my phone. "Text me your park?"

He nods and peels away from the sidewalk, belting out along to his music at the top of his lungs. I giggle at his antics and head into the airport, his voice echoing through the carpark behind me.

It doesn't take me long to find my foster siblings in the cool, air-conditioned building: I just follow the attention of literally every single person in the airport. The twins chat animatedly to each other as they stroll along, completely unaware of all the people ogling them. I'd grown up around their ethereal beauty, so I wasn't fazed by it anymore, but it was always a weird feeling seeing other people openly staring at them.

"Evie!" Selene cries as soon as she spots me, a bright beam spreading across her lips. "Long time no see!"

"Hey Selene!" I grin, waving at her. My grin falters slightly when I notice the spot to her right is unusually vacant. "Where's—"

Strong arms suddenly sneak around my middle, and I'm launched high into the air. I squeak in surprise, hastily grabbing hold of the person's shoulders as the world starts spinning.

"Axel! Put me down!"

A deep laugh reverberates through my body. I'm set down to the ground by a grinning green-eyed brunette. "Still as fat as ever, I see."

I scowl at him in pretense offence and cross my arms. "Still as big of a prat as ever, I see."

Axel's grin widens. He clutches at his chest like I've shot him. "Your words are deadlier than bullets, dear sister. You wound me greatly."

I stick my tongue out at him. "Keep up that sarcasm and I might just wound you greatly."

Rolling her eyes at our dramatics, Selene wraps her arm around my shoulders and starts steering us towards baggage claim. "Not that I love seeing you Evie, but where's Spencer? He was supposed to pick us up, and we were kind of going to surprise you."

"You were?" I raise my eyebrows at her. "Do you really need to question why that hasn't ended the way you planned?"

"No, not really." She sighs, scrunching up her nose. "He's completely useless, that one. I blame the extraordinary amounts of alcohol that he seems intent on consuming for his momentary lapses in any memory function."

I snicker and point at the baggage claim. "Go grab your bags before the useless one completely forgets about us. I'll bring a trolley over."

"Yes boss." Selene nods, chuckling as Axel mock salutes me.

"You know, one of these days, he's going to drink himself into a stupor and end up dead in a cave again. And between you and I? I am not looking forward to healing him of that endeavour." Axel mutters under his breath as they walk away, cringing when Selene elbows him hard. I give his retreating back an odd look, but don't question him on it. I've learnt that when he says things like that, it's not meant for my hearing. He's just terrible at waiting until I'm out of earshot.

Because the airport is so busy, it takes me several long minutes to navigate my way through the thick crowds to the trolley bay. As I'm about to grab the last luggage trolley in the bay, someone brushes past me, in such a hurry that they rip my feet out from underneath me and send me flying into someone else. A gasp is torn from me as I bounce off someone's back, landing hard on the ground. I groan, my backside throbbing painfully, and glare in the direction of the person's retreating back.

Asshole.

"Are you alright?" A warm, melodious low voice asks from behind me. I glance up to meet the magnetic midnight-blue gaze of a young man, who's watching me with a curious expression. My heart stops. I freeze, staring up at him with wide eyes.

"Um—yeah—uh—I'm fine—" I start to stutter, but before I can finish stammering, he's gone. I blink in bewilderment, staring at the spot the tall, dark stranger had inhabited mere seconds ago.

Well. That was weird.

"Evie!"

The sound of my name jolts me out of my confused reverie. Leaping to my feet, I dust my jeans off and grab the trolley, casting a glance over my shoulder one last time. Unbridled curiosity burns through my veins.

Who was that?

Shaking my head, I quickly locate the twins and head back over to them. We load all their luggage on the trolley, before striding out into the mild warmth of the setting evening.

It doesn't take us long to find Spencer's grape-purple car, haphazardly parked on an angle over two parks. Rolling my eyes at my friend's laziness, I pop the boot for the twins' bags and head round to the passenger's side. My hand pauses on the door when I hear his conversation.

"—damn it, it's too early!" Spencer spits. I blink in shock, taken aback by the venomous anger in his tone. "She's not ready!"

Ignoring the little voice in the back of my head telling me to respect his privacy, I lean closer, unable to repress my curiosity.

"You know that's not fair on her! Think about how it'll affect her!" He growls. "Don't get prissy with me man, I'll speak to you any way I want when it comes to Evie."

My eyes widen. My curiosity grows from a meek little cat into a raging lion. Who's he talking to? What's he talking to them about? And what does it have to do with me?

The person on the other end of the line talks for several long moments. Spencer sighs, not sounding pleased. "Fine. I guess I don't have any other option then, do I? But I hope you're ready to pick up the pieces from the mess—"

"Evie?" Selene speaks up loudly from behind me. I jump and whirl around, cursing inwardly at my sister's impeccable timing. She tilts her head to the side, her expression wavering between confusion and curiosity. "What's going on? Why are you just standing there?"

"I uh..." I falter, hoping to hear more of Spencer's conversation. He shuts down as soon as he hears my name, mumbling a short goodbye and shoving his phone in his pocket. My shoulders slump in disappointment. "Never mind."

Grudgingly, I slide into the car, ignoring the way Spencer stares at me.

"Hey Spencer!" Selene smiles, hopping into the backseat of the car. Axel joins her, folding his long legs up to fit himself in the small car. "Nice surprise seeing you here."

Spencer winces as he starts up the car. "Yeah, sorry about that. I just remembered that small detail."

"You really cannot be trusted with anything." My sister sighs in exasperation. She doesn't lose her smile, though; but that's Selene for you. She's far too kind for her own good, and has never been able to hold a grudge.