“I’m hoping they all heard about Drake’s class this morning, surely they won’t expect me in after my near-death experience?” She smiled at her exaggeration as she lay her head on his stomach and stared up at the clear blue sky. Christmas was fast approaching and it was freezing, but Thornton had insisted they stay outside because the grass was wet. Normally, Jaycen loved being outside, but it was just so cold, and the grass being wet just didn’t seem like a good enough reason at all when everything was dry inside. But he had insisted, so outside they stayed.
Freezing.
She breathed in deep, letting the calm wash over her. She always felt like that when she was with him. The pain that always seemed to be there dulled when he was close, her smile wasn’t fake. She hoped she brought him the same amount of peace because he’d lost people too. Her mind drifted then to Jose, Thornton’s best friend that had been killed when her family attacked the school. She shivered at the memory, her eyes flicking to the memorial wall that had been put in place with the names of all the students they had lost. Jose’s name was on that wall, the third name down in the second row to be precise. She went to that wall every chance she could, yet it was never enough.
“Do you want to talk about what happened earlier? Or how it happened?” Thornton finally asked.
That was so the last thing Jaycen wanted to talk about. “It was just a mistake.”
“That was some mistake. That spell could have killed everyone in your class.”
And cue the quaking feeling in her stomach.
“I’ve been trapped inside for what felt like days, let me just enjoy it here a second, then we’ll go in,” he said as if he would hear her thoughts.
“You were hardly trapped. You were at the parliament, not a prison,” she corrected lightly, rubbing the tops of her arms, trying to create heat. “You could have left any time.”
“Try telling my Father that. We went from one meeting to another, day after day. Shaking hands, meeting people, small talk, business dinners. I have no idea who I even met towards the end. They all just blurred into one.”
Jaycen turned her head, so she was looking up at him, “Oh, you poor little rich man,” she fake pouted, sticking out her bottom lip. “Dinners and hand-shaking? What will they make you do next? Huh? Eat breakfast with these monsters?”
His stomach moved with his silent laughter, and that made Jaycen smile. It had been a week since he’d left for The Cure, and they’d barely spoken while he was away. She had missed his laugh.
“Okay smartass, it wasn’t the worst week. Just boring. I hate being inside all day, talking constantly about change, but not implementing any of it. It’s just a waste of time.”
“I think that’s just politics.” She sat up and rubbed her legs. “I get that you like it outside, but I promise if we go inside, I’ll open all the windows for you? How about that? It’ll feel like yourself outside and I’ll be able to put on more layers.”
Thornton sat up and shrugged off his black coat, revealing a simple black t-shirt that clung to his muscles. Thornton was ripped, there was just no other way to say it, and sometimes Jaycen felt like giving herself a pat on the back for catching him. She’d done a great job.
“Here take this, it’ll keep you warmer.” He handed over the coat that Jaycen refused to take.
“Are you kidding? I couldn’t risk the chance of making The Cure’s future leader sick.” She joked, standing up. “I can just see it now, Jaycen Reece tries to blow up school and on the same day gave Thornton Krull pneumonia.” She shook her head, still smiling. “They’d kill me. Burn me at the stake or something.”
“Hardly, what are you doing now?” he asked as he put his jacket back on and watched Jaycen do star jumps on the grass.
“Dude, I gotta keep warm somehow without making you sick. This is it.” She stopped the star jumps and started running on the stop. “This my friend is survival.”
“Please never call me dude again.” He stood now, lifting her bag with him.
“Why?” She smiled, while still running on the spot. She had started it just to annoy him, but now it was working, and she didn’t want to stop. “You are a dude.”
“Does that mean I get to call you dudette?” He smirked, handing over her bag.
Jaycen stopped running and took it from him. “You can if you don’t want me to ever find you attractive again.”
Thornton grinned then. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He motioned to the dorm buildings with his head. “Come on, I better get you inside and warmed up.”
They were quiet for a second as they walked across the field before Thornton reached for her hand and gently pulled her closer to his side. “Are we not going to talk about what happened with Drake?”
Oh, she had been hoping that they didn’t have to talk about this. “Do we have to?”
Thornton stared straight ahead and shrugged. “Not if you don’t want to.”
She didn’t reply straight away, and when she finally did, they were off the well-cut grass and into the main court area of the school. “I don’t know what happened. I honestly don’t. But it scares me.”
“Why? Everyone makes mistakes.”
“Thorn.”
Caleb Ravensmith waved over at them, Benedict’s younger brother. Jaycen had seen him many times now, she still couldn’t quite believe him and Benedict were related. It wasn’t just their appearances, as Benedict had dark brown hair and a dark brown beard, where Caleb was a dirty blonde and clean-shaven. No, it was more than that, the way they spoke and how they held themselves maybe? Benedict was always tense, always ready, ready for what she didn’t know, but he was. Caleb always looked relaxed, like nothing in the world could bother him, Jaycen liked that.
“Caleb.” Thornton nodded in a greeting that was returned with a grin.
“I was just about to come and find you, Thorn, Benedict’s come back from The Cure, he wants to see you. Jaycen, shouldn’t you be in class?”
Jaycen could literally see Thornton’s shoulders drop at the mention of Benedict, his face masking over, and he nodded and agreed to go up and see him.
“I’ll go up and see him now,” Thornton promised, squeezing Jaycen’s hand.
Caleb looked down at Jaycen pointedly.
“And I’ll go to class?” She wouldn’t, she was going back to her dorm and taking a nap. It had been a draining day and it was barely eleven in the morning.
“Good. I’ll see you guys later.”
Caleb left and Thorn closed his eyes, letting his head drop and rest on Jaycen’s. “Duty calls.”
“Yeah, you better go, go and learn how to lead our people.” She pulled her head back and pressed a quick kiss to his lips.
“I know you’re joking, but this is honestly what they are trying to do.”
“Oh I know, and don’t worry about me. I’ve been practising my royal wave, I’m completely ready for power.” She winked and grinned, wanting to see him smile again. Recently he always looked tired, even when he smiled. She wondered if The Cure saw that. She wondered if they even cared.
“That’s good to know.” He leaned forwards and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll come up and see you later, yeah? We need to finish this conversation.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Jaycen watched Thornton leave before turning around and heading to her dorm. The halls were completely silent as most were in class, and Jaycen relished in the silence. Something she deeply missed when she started going to a boarding school. You were never alone, and it was never silent, not even at night. She threw her bag on her bed and pulled her journal from the bedside drawer, she sat on the floor and noted down everything about her vision of Isabella. She put it all in there, the feeling of losing control of her magic, of her seeing her ancestor, of not being able to perform a spell when needed. Her hand hurt when she was finally finished. She dropped the pen and flicked through the pages before it, counting all the other incidents that had happened in the past two months. Twelve. It was
becoming a problem. That was very clear. And she needed to talk to someone about it, she needed help before she hurt herself, or worse, someone else. Without thinking, she reached into her and pulled out her phone, her fingers dialling the number she knew off by heart.
Only when the disconnect tone hit did she realise what she had done. How many times had she tried calling her mother in the past two months since she had been murdered? Now that was something she should have written down, she pretty sure it was a lot more than twelve. The unbearable pain in her chest resurfaced, the hurt excruciating. Jaycen gripped the bed, her fingers digging into the mattress, and she took several deep, long breaths. Tears burned her eyes until her pain went away. Now wasn’t the time to mourn. No, not now.
Chapter 4
Jaycen woke up to her phone ringing. Sleepily, she opened her eyes, her room now getting dark. She had fallen asleep on her bed fully clothed and curled into a ball.
“Yeah?” She tried sitting up, her body aching from her sleeping position.
“Are you sick?”
“Wha?” Jaycen answered, her brain taking a second to catch up.
“Food. Dinner. It’s about to end soon and you haven’t come down. So you’re either with Thornton, which you’re not because he’s just walked in, or you’re sick,” Gemma asked, a light teasing to her tone.
Now Jaycen shot up, trying to blink away her tiredness. “No, no, I’m coming down. Make sure they don’t close. I’ll be quick.”
“It’s burgers, and they are almost gone, just FYI, so you better hurry up, Goku.”
Jaycen rolled her eyes, hating Gemma’s nickname for her as she disconnected picking up her shoes while running out the door. There were a few high points about The Cure Academy, the classes were interesting, and the surroundings were beautiful, but it was the food that made the place amazing. It was to die for. It was like being at a world-class restaurant night after night and Jaycen was in heaven. How the school afforded it she didn’t know, she had asked once if it was made by magic and Benedict had laughed, telling her that she was funny sometimes. So apparently not.
By the time Jaycen made it to the food court, the lights were being turned off and the doors were closed. Jaycen stopped, throwing her hands in the air and tossing her head back.
“Oh, come on!”
“Wow, you’re so dramatic.”
Jaycen looked over to her left at a smiling Gemma who stood near the wall of the cafeteria.
“I’m not dramatic, I’m hungry. They are two very different things,” Jaycen noted rubbing her hands up and down her arms, trying to create warmth.
“Good thing I saved you this then isn’t it, Goku?” Gemma walked over to her, holding out a wrapped-up burger.
Jaycen put her hand over her heart. “You see this, this is why we’re friends. Not the crappy nickname, but the food.” She took the burger and dug in, moaning so loud that a few people passing stopped and stared.
Gemma snickered. “I love that nickname for you. It’s perfect, you’re small and powerful just like him.”
Jaycen took another huge bite from her burger, and said with a full mouth, “I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”
“It’s from a cartoon I used to watch. You know, it’s a mystery to me how you have such a great body.” Gemma shook her head. “If I ate like you I’d be twenty stone.”
“I work out a lot don’t forget,” Jaycen cut in, her mouth full of food. And she did work out, mainly because Thornton worked out a lot. It was something that Jaycen had realised very early on in their relationship, if they wanted to spend a lot of time together, they would have to fit each other into their schedules. Luckily for her, she loved working out, especially once she became fitter.
Gemma motioned to a set of seats in the main court area of the school, the night sky starting to dim. There were a few students milling around in small groups, but most had gone up to their dorms, ready for the night-time bell to ring.
“So, what’s everyone saying about earlier?” Jaycen finished the burger and scrunched the foil into a tight small ball. She knew she wouldn’t have to elaborate further; Gemma would know exactly what she was talking about.
“Do you care what everyone thinks?” she said simply.
Jaycen thought about that for a minute. “No, not really. But it’s nice to know I guess.”
“Someone’s started a petition, they want you off the campus. They think you’re too dangerous.” Gemma bit her bottom lip, staring down at her shoes. “I wouldn’t worry about it though, it only had like fifty signatures when I saw it.”
Fifty? Jaycen’s gut tightened:, that was a lot of people, and all of them wanted her out of the school, she couldn’t even name fifty pupils in the school. She smiled a little, trying to hide her dread. She doubted Benedict would even look at the petition, let alone act on it. But what about the student’s parents? What if one of them decided to take it higher and The Cure forced Benedict to act? What then? Where would she go?
“I can see you’re worried,” Gemma stated, her eyes sad. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you. But I mean, It’s not even a legit petition, it’s just a piece of paper with a bunch of random names on it. No one’s going to take it seriously,” Gemma rushed out.
Jaycen’s smile turned genuine. “What if they do? Do you think I could make a living as a magician?” She was only half-joking too.
Gemma rolled her eyes and was about to say something when a group of girls giggling interrupted them.
“Oh my gosh, there she is. Did you see the petition? Did you sign it?” One of the girls made a show of covering her mouth, even though Jaycen was sure she knew they could hear them.
“We can hear you, you know,” Jaycen called out.
Both girls looked taken aback as they looked over at Jaycen and Gemma before one of them straightened and shouted back. “Are you threatening us?”
“What? How was that a threat?” Jaycen asked incredulously. “A threat would be me saying that if I see either of your names on that petition I’m going to come to your dorms in the middle of the night and shave your heads. Now that’s a threat, the other was just me saying I could hear you.”
The girl that happened to speak grabbed her brown plait and pulled her friend away. Jaycen chuckled as she watched them go.
“Threatening people probably isn’t the best idea right now,” Gemma said when the girls were out of earshot.
Jaycen snickered again. “If they were smart they’d realise I don’t even know their names, never mind their dorm numbers.”
“It was such an odd threat though, I mean, why would you shave their heads?”
Jaycen shrugged. “It just came to me. And plus, it’s scary as hell. Could you imagine waking up bald?” She shuddered at the thought, running her hand over her long dark brown hair.
“Still, you should probably hold back on any kind of threat. Just until it all blows over.” Gemma reached into her pocket, pulling out a folded-up piece of white paper. “Here look at this, my parents sent me this last night, they want me to apply.”
Jaycen took the paper, her eyebrows raising as she read, “An apprenticeship? Can you do those while you’re in school?”
Gemma nodded quickly. “Oh yeah. Especially in the last year. But my parents think that with my grades I could get one earlier. This year maybe.” She shrugged then, getting embarrassed. “It’s probably stupid, and it’s not like they’d put me in anywhere exciting, not with how violet my blood is. Or isn’t I guess.”
Jaycen was about to protest Gemma’s claims, stating that they couldn’t discriminate her because of her blood, but they both knew they could, and most likely would.
“My dream placement would be The Cure.”
Jaycen scrunched up her face. “Why?”
She honestly couldn’t imagine anything worse than working with those old politicians who clearly didn’t care about anyone but themselves. She was also pretty sure that if she hit one of them hard enough, dust would fly out.
“Because it’s where all the action happens, all the big decisions. I’d be right there, in the middle of it all.”
“Yeah, making them cups of coffee.” Jaycen laughed, handing Gemma back her leaflet. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of her only friend leaving. Who would she eat dinner with and laugh about her failed spells?
“We should apply together. It might be good for you to spend a few months out of school. You know, see new sights.”
Jaycen couldn’t think of anything worse. “Maybe.”
“And maybe you could put in a good word with Benedict. I bet he could get me in all the best placements. I mean he wouldn’t have to actually do anything, but maybe he could write an e-mail? It would take a minute if that.”
“I really don’t think I have that kind of pull with him, but I’ll ask.” In fact, she knew she didn’t have that kind of pull with him, but she’d ask him nonetheless. Jaycen straightened then as she noticed two men walking across the courtyard, their eyes fixed on her.
“Who are they?” Gemma asked, having followed Jaycen’s eyes to the men.
She shrugged as they got closer, shoving her hands in her pockets.
“Are you Jaycen Reece?” One of them, a tall, thin man dressed in grey asked when he approached.
Jaycen tipped her head to the side. “And, who are you?”
They both look at each other, smirking.
“Yeah, this is her.” The man snickered. “We’re from The Cure, and we just have a few questions we want to ask you.”
“And what If I don’t want to answer them?” she shot back, an uneasy feeling forming in the pit of her stomach as the men towered over her. Her experience with members of The Cure hadn’t been too great at this point, aside from Benedict that was. Her back straightened with a confidence she wasn’t feeling. The phrase “fake it till you make it” coming to mind.
The one that hadn’t spoken yet stepped forward, his smug smirk slipping when he said, “Then we’ll just have to see what we could do to make you.”
Cursed and Crazed Page 2
