Wednesday, I wake up with a little dread swirling in my stomach, and I’m achy from the fall. After my shower, the mirror in the bathroom shows a ring of bruises around my upper arm from Alden jerking me around yesterday and skinned knees from the fall. My ragged outward appearance echoes how I feel on the inside.
Thankfully, when I made it to the house yesterday, I was able to go straight to my room without having to explain why I looked like a twelve-year-old who just learned how to ride a bike with no hands.
My palms are still sore, but landing in the grass meant I didn’t have to pick gravel from the small scrapes and cuts, so I’ll take it as a win.
I have a meeting with Mrs. Quade at ten to discuss my class options, so I dig through my closet to find something to wear that won’t show the aftereffects of yesterday or be too tight on my legs, but I come up empty, which means I can’t ignore the clothes Tabby dropped off any longer.
My hands bump over the velvet hangers, wishing I wouldn’t look like an absolute fool in the flirty skirts and maxi dresses. It’s what a lot of the girls here wear, but I’ve never really been a dress girl, not to mention I’d probably end up with my butt on display when I fall or get tripped, so it isn’t a chance I’m willing to take.
I opt for a super soft pair of army green, wide-legged pants with a belted waist, then tuck in an old Universal Studios ET shirt I got at a thrift shop. It makes me feel more like myself, even when I slide my feet into a pair of simple brown sandals she left for me. Thankfully, you can’t really see my feet unless I’m walking, because I can’t remember the last time I painted my toenails.
Rory meets me in the hall near the front door, and I pause when he gives me his full attention. “Astrid said you are refusing to allow Alden to accompany you.” So it’s not a coincidence we ran into each other.
“Yes.” I hold my ground, telling myself this is not about me being selfish and just trying to get what I want, though that’s what it feels like now.
“Do you have a problem with him?”
“No,” I answer quickly in an effort not to get him in trouble. Just because I think he’s a little bit of a jerk doesn’t mean I want him to lose his job. “I don’t want a bodyguard. It just makes me stand out more than I already do, and you don’t have to worry about me taking off.” I’m hoping the last part will help.
“It was always for your safety, Nova,” he tells me, and I almost believe him. “Please be careful. Trusting the wrong person could cost you more than you know.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem, since nobody really even talks to me. Plus, and I mean no disrespect, but I didn’t grow up like this. I know there are very real dangers.”
“You mean like a spoiled brat?” He actually smiles at me when he says it, and it tells me Alden repeated what I said about Lucian.
“Yeah, a bit,” I admit, knowing there’s no point in denying it. I wonder if Alden told him everything I said.
“If Alden is a deal breaker, I have a compromise, and I’m hoping you will indulge me.” Rory slides his hands into his pants pockets and leans back a little on the heels of his loafers, waiting for my reaction.
“What would that be?” I’m leery, but I’m willing to listen.
“I don’t want you walking to and from school anymore,” he says as his gaze turns a little shrewd. Is there nothing this man doesn’t know?
“You want me to call for a ride.” I nod once, thinking it’s definitely better than getting chased down the road and eating dirt.
“Close,” he says, walking over to the front door and opening it. There’s a small black SUV parked at the front of the circle drive. “It’s more practical than your mother’s car, but that’s in the garage when you’re ready for it.” Rory extends a key fob to me. “There’s a remote for the gate inside.”
“This is for me to drive…by myself?” I question slowly.
“It’s yours, even if you were to leave.” He maintains eye contact with me as if he’s telling me something important. Does that mean he wants me to go?
“I—”
“Just take it, Nova,” he interrupts me.
“Oh, I’m going to take it.” I hold the key to my chest, and a small chuckle escapes me. “I was just thinking I might be a little bit of a hypocrite now for that spoiled comment, but I don’t even really care.”
Rory smiles again, seeming much more relaxed than the other times he’s been around. Maybe he just needed a little time to adjust to me. “Smart girl, just like your mother.”
“Thanks,” I tell him, feeling like I’m missing something again, but I’m not sure what.
“Be safe, and please let us know if you’re going to the mainland.”
Twenty is a little old to have to check in, but I think I can manage to do that without too much trouble, at least for now. “I don’t really have anywhere to go, but okay,” I agree.
Rory looks down at his watch. “Don’t you have a meeting in a little while?”
“I do, thanks for the reminder. I’m going to go.” I start walking slowly toward the SUV as if to give him time to change his mind, but he just slides his hands back into his pockets and watches me.
The interior still has that new car smell, or I think it does because I’ve never really smelled it, only heard about it. Everything is leather and shiny. I don’t know what half the stuff does, nor do I have the time to figure it all out now, but I search for the ignition, coming up empty.
A knock on the window has me jumping, then I feel around for the door handle to open it. I feel a little silly when I say, “I don’t know how to start it.”
“As long as you have the fob on you, you just need to push in the brake and turn this.” He twists a little knob to the left of the steering wheel, and the car starts with a low hum. “Turn it again to shut it off.”
I look around to make sure I don’t need an explanation on anything else, but the gear shifter seems pretty straight forward, and I think I can figure the rest out. “I’ve never had a car before.” I grin over at him.
His face falls. “You do know how to drive though, right?”
“Yes, I just never had a car of my own.” I dismiss his worry.
“Well, be safe and call if you need anything.” He steps back from the car, and I buckle up before slipping it smoothly into drive and gliding away.
By the time I reach the gate after the long driveway, my face hurts from smiling so much. If I weren’t worried I would be caught on camera, I’d probably be jumping around in my seat, doing a happy dance.
It only takes me a second to find the button for the gate and barely any time for it to open. I ease out slowly onto the road, a little worried Morningstar might try to play chicken with me. My track record isn’t so good, considering I was in the grass yesterday, but thankfully, he’s not around.
I’m still grinning from ear to ear when I park the car in the back lot, far away from any other vehicles, and approach the school from the backdoor. It’s closer to the offices anyway, plus I get to avoid walking past the Union.
When I enter the main lobby of the administration office, the same girl is sitting behind the desk, but this time when she sees me, her lips curl up in a smile, and she drops her gaze from mine really fast, which makes me realize she’s not smiling out of recognition, she’s laughing at me.
“I have an appointment with Mrs. Quade.” It almost sounds like a question because my voice goes high on the end with suspicion. Is she laughing because she knows what my class schedule is like, or is there something else I’m missing?
“I’ll let her know you’re here.” She turns fully away from me and uses the desk phone. “Your ten o’clock is here… I’ll send her back.” She hangs up the phone and announces, “She’s ready for you.”
“Thanks,” I respond out of habit more than any real appreciation.
“Careful, wouldn’t want you to trip.” She sniggers, and I pause mid-step with my back to her for just a moment. At least I’m in on the joke now. Morningstar must have told everyone I biffed it. Great.
I don’t give her the satisfaction of a reaction or a response, instead I head to the same door she led me to last time and politely knock, even though I’d much rather pound my fist on the door, or maybe on a certain pretty boy’s face.
“It’s open,” she calls out, and I twist the knob to let myself in. “Have a seat,” she offers easily.
I lower myself to the edge of the chair, nervous about how the testing went, but it feels weird to ask how I did when I’m sure she’s going to explain everything.
“You got through testing pretty quickly.” She types on her computer, just barely glancing in my direction. “It’s usually something we administer before acceptance, and we give a week to complete all the modules.”
I’m not sure if that’s something I should be proud of or not, or how she expects me to respond, so I just wait for her to divulge more info.
“I’ll go over a few things with you about class requirements, then you can sign into your school account and select the classes available to you from the dashboard. I would suggest doing it today, as many of these classes have already started.” She twists her computer monitor so I can see the screen and starts pointing and explaining about credit hours and the importance of a balanced schedule.
Twenty minutes later, I’m walking out of her office, feeling only slightly overwhelmed and pretty excited. Instead of going home, I head to the library and request a study room. It’s probably not necessary since there aren’t that many people around, but I want to be able to focus, and I’m not sure I would be able to in the main area with people coming and going.
My soft footsteps seem loud on the stairs since this place is so quiet. I find myself looking down the rows of shelves on my way to the study room, but the floor appears to be empty, which makes it feel eerie.
The feeling of being watched, even though I’m alone, makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I glance over my shoulder and see the same empty space I just walked through, but the feeling doesn’t go away. By the time I reach the hall with the sectioned off rooms, I’m about ready to break out into a full run. The only thing stopping me is the fear of looking like a chicken if someone were around to see it.
With one last glance back, I reach forward and pull the door to Room 106 open.
As I slide my hand along the wall for the light switch, someone grabs my arm and jerks me into the dark room. A scream tries to tear itself from my throat, but a hand clamps over my mouth before much sound escapes. Panic freezes me for a single second before I kick, shove, and squirm.
I must surprise whoever it is, because the hand on my mouth gets yanked back before I hear a hiss of a sound and wrench my arm free. It all happens so fast, the door isn’t even fully closed yet. I shove myself through the gap and run back toward the stairs so fast that even when I see someone coming out from one of the rows of bookshelves, I know I’m not going to be able to stop myself from slamming into them.
I try to issue a warning to get out of the way, but it comes out as a weak puff of air instead of the words I intended. His light eyes widen right before I crash into his chest and bounce off, flying backward and landing on my butt.
“What the fuck?” Morningstar barks above me, but I’m too busy looking over my shoulder because I would have bet he was the person waiting for me in the room, but if he wasn’t, then who was?
The hall behind me is empty. I blink a few times before turning over and almost crawling as I get up, then I hobble my bruised body right back down the hall and rip the door to the study room open again, but this time I don’t walk blindly inside.
My bag is on the ground where I must have dropped it, but the room is empty.
“Are you fucking deaf?” His voice finally breaks through the ringing in my ears, and I look over my shoulder to see him looming over me, scowling down at my bloody arm.
The moment I see the long scratches, the burning pain registers. He grabs my wrist before I think to jerk back and twists my arm from side to side, examining the marks.
“What is this?” he hisses as his free hand moves the sleeve of my shirt, lifting the fabric to see how far the marks go up, but he ends up revealing the purplish bruises Alden left on me yesterday when he marched me out of the cafeteria.
Finally, I jerk my arm away from him, but he doesn’t back off.
“What happened to you?” His icy blue eyes search mine, and if I didn’t know any better, I could almost confuse his curiosity for concern.
“Nothing,” I say as I reach down for my bag. The movement reminds me of the other aches in my body, namely my butt, but I don’t wince like I want to because I’m not letting him see that I’m in pain.
My palm burns when I fist the strap of my backpack. I’ll be lucky if I didn’t reopen the small cuts from yesterday. I may not be able to blame him for what just happened in that room, but I can blame him for my hands, since he’s the reason I fell both times.
“Bullshit. What happened to your arm? Why were you running?”
“I’m clumsy, but you know all about that, right?”
He has the audacity to ignore my snide question as he decides to look past me into the dark study room. His eyes scan the small space with suspicion, and I use his distraction to shoulder past him to get the hell out of the library. I’m not sticking around here when I know someone could be waiting to get me alone again.
“Where are you going?” he calls to my back, but I just give him the finger over my shoulder instead of answering. Is it baiting him? Probably. Do I care? No.
When I reach the main floor of the library, it feels like a completely different world. There are a few students milling about, but they are all too busy to even look in my direction, or maybe that’s what they want me to think.
Just as I’m about to walk past the front desk, I double back to the woman seated behind the dark ornate wood. “Is there another exit from upstairs besides those stairs?”
Her eyebrows bunch as her eyes narrow in my direction. “The back stairs are off-limits to students.”
I almost tell her someone must be using them, and it clearly isn’t me, because I just came down the main set, but I don’t waste my breath.
LUCIAN
“What did she say?” I demand as I try to pull my eyes off the new Umbras ass. Her pants are loose on her legs, but the thin material hugs her in all the right places, allowing me to see her ass jiggle with her hurried steps as she flees the library, giving me all kinds of ideas and pissing me off because she’s not running from me.
“She asked if there was another exit from the upper level.”
I finally peel my eyes away from the door once she’s gone and look at the woman behind the counter. Her eyes are wide and fearful as she gazes up at me. “That’s all?” I prompt, making sure she’s telling me everything.
“Yes, sir.” She nods jerkily. “I explained the rear stairs are off-limits.”
I turn my back to her and examine the library and the other people here. “You know who she is, correct?” I don’t bother looking at her while I’m speaking.
“Yes,” she confirms slowly, like she doesn’t know how she should answer.
“Do you really think you have the right to tell her what is and isn’t off-limits?”
“Well, um,” she stammers.
“Where are the back stairs?” I interrupt.
“Straight through there. I could show you,” she offers immediately, demonstrating that she understands perfectly well who runs this place.
Instead of answering her, I just walk away. I haven’t spent much time in the library, but I’m sure I can find it without her simpering behind me. Heads turn as I walk past the few students, but none of them speak to me, which is the way I prefer it.
The wooden shelves rise nearly to the high ceiling, blocking much of the view, so it takes me a few minutes of wandering around before I find the door marked “Restricted.” I try the knob, and it twists freely in my palm.
When I haul the door open, I find a simple wooden staircase that twists up to the second floor. It’s empty, but I expected it would be. Most of these sheep are easy enough to control with simple instructions, which makes me wonder why Umbra was asking and, more importantly, who she was running from, because some thing, or possibly someone, spooked her, and it wasn’t me.
I allow the door to close silently behind me and climb the steep steps two at a time, reaching the landing then the top rather quickly. The door opens to the same hall of study rooms we were in not long ago. I make my way back to the room she entered to pick up her bag and take another look around.
I find a simple black pen under the table with the name Bobcat’s etched into the side and an out-of-state phone number. I slide it into my back pocket, knowing it could be nothing, but there’s a chance it belongs to Charity or the person who was in here waiting for her.
I’m certain that’s what happened. The scratches on her arm were fresh, and she was running from something. I could see the fear in her eyes before she crashed into me. It pisses me off, because it’s been absent in her gaze every time she looks at me, but it was present when someone else was fucking with her. That’s not going to fly.
At least I learned something. I need a different approach with the charity case, and I need to make sure everyone else at this school knows she’s off-limits to anyone but the Morningstars.
