by W. J. May
“Yes, I would.” She slipped her hand into his. “I promise.”
He glanced down at her, then gave her fingers a quick squeeze. “Let’s get inside. Before they charge me for property damages.”
BY THE TIME THEY STEPPED inside the cottage, the idea of coffee had been abandoned and Jason was sitting on the sofa by the fire. Surprisingly enough, he wasn’t alone. A statuesque woman was sitting in the opposite arm chair, eyes flickering in the light of the flames.
“Aunt Angel!”
At first Aria was surprised to see her, then she wasn’t at the same time. Gabriel might have been the one to adopt Jason, but Angel had always felt responsible for him as well. He’d come to think of her as a second mother. She’d come to treat him as a son.
Angel’s eyes flickered up and she smiled faintly in welcome. But she’d been witness to the rage-fest in the kitchen, and was quietly bracing for whatever was to come.
As it turned out, she didn’t have to wait long.
“I want you to tell me about my parents.”
Gabriel froze in the doorway, still in the process of taking off his shoes. However he’d imagined this conversation going, that certainly wasn’t the opening question.
There was a moment of silence, then he pulled up a chair.
“What would you like to know?”
Aria let out a silent sigh of relief.
That’s exactly what she loved about her uncle. He may have just caught them sneaking around campus with the one person they were supposed to avoid. He may have been angry enough to rampage around the kitchen himself. But he was somehow able to see past all that. To set his own feelings aside and do whatever needed to be done in the moment to help his son.
“Everything.”
The others were sitting, but Jason now stood in between them. Gaze jumping from person to person as he paced furiously in front of the fire.
“My father,” he turned to look at Angel instead, “you knew him best?”
She nodded slowly, legs tucked into the chair. “I dated him off and on for years. We basically grew up together.”
Jason stopped his pacing for a split second.
“Then what happened?” he snapped.
She glanced swiftly at Gabriel before returning her eyes to his son.
“I broke it off with him when Cromfield sent me after Julian.”
Jason nodded quickly and the pacing began anew. Aria watched carefully, twisting her fingers in her lap. So far, none of this was new information. The gang had often teased that Angel could have easily been his mother instead. But they were on the brink of something, coming up fast.
“...and my mother?”
There it is.
Aria gripped the edge of her chair as the others froze. Jason’s pacing had taken him straight up to Gabriel’s chair. He stood there now, staring down with fire in his eyes.
“Tell me about my mother.”
The seconds ticked by, too many to count. At first, Gabriel was simply speechless. Then he shook his head slowly, weighing each word. “Jason...I don’t know anything about your mother.”
Wrong answer.
Jason took a step back and something between them died.
“I went to the apartment,” he said softly. “I saw the initials.” His eyes burned with anger as the words he’d been keeping in for so long finally came pouring out. “E.H. Who was she??”
There was a quiet pause, then Gabriel let out a sigh.
“E.H. stands for Elaine Hobbs.”
The name rang out between them.
“She was your mother.”
Chapter 10
The four of them sat in the living room for ages, but no one dared to speak. No one dared to even move. They were simply frozen, listening as the fire crackled.
Then finally Jason took a step back.
“Elaine...”
The name barely made it past his lips. It was one he’d been searching for all his life, yet now that it was in his possession he couldn’t think what to do with it. He turned to his father instead.
“How could you not tell me?”
There wasn’t even much anger in his voice—they were somewhere past that. And to be fair, he had a point. No matter how many times Gabriel had tried to shield or protect his son in the past, one thing remained consistent. He was always honest. And of all the things for him to withhold?
Gabriel leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes in a moment of sheer exhaustion. “You went to the apartment,” he repeated quietly, raking his fingers through his hair. “How many times have I debated taking you, and in the end you go there on your own.”
Angel shot him a look, but said nothing. Aria was wishing she’d gone back to the dorms.
“Dad,” Jason’s voice rang out sharp between them. “How could you not tell me?”
Plenty of anger there now. And hurt. Lots of hurt.
Gabriel gazed up at him, sad as the children had ever seen. “I didn’t tell you because there was nothing to tell. I went to the apartment. I saw the initials. I thought it would only be a matter of time before I tracked her down...but I couldn’t.”
Jason shook his head, refusing to be dissuaded. “But you knew her name—”
“There was a woman’s name on the lease,” Gabriel interrupted softly, “Elaine Hobbs. Right there next to Wyatt’s. The day after we brought you home, I started looking. Did everything I could to find her. I checked hospitals, DMV records, birth certificates for every county in England.”
Jason stood in front of him, frozen with an uncertain expression. “...you checked?”
“Of course I checked,” Gabriel replied gently. “Even if I hadn’t found the initials, I would have launched a search. The woman was your biological mother. Wyatt had no will. I had no legal claim to you. And as much as I would have wanted—”
Angel flashed him a quick look and he caught himself.
“The longer you stayed with me, the more I lost the ability to be objective,” he admitted. “I had Carter run her through the system. Had Julian and Natasha work with trackers to see what they could find. I even called the Minister of Immigration at the Home Office to see if there were any records. A woman by that name has never lived in London. Or Italy. Or America. Or France.”
Aria was clutching the edge of her seat, feeling so light-headed she had to remind herself to breathe. She had only distant memories of the time when Jason joined their family. Most of those memories were of the adults talking in hushed voices, while she and Benji were sent to play outside.
She had no idea they’d been searching. She had no idea how Jason would feel about it now.
“So you were trying to return me,” he finally managed, eyes searching the floor as he tried to make sense of it all. “Trying to take—”
“I was relieved.”
Jason’s eyes lifted in confusion and Gabriel gave him a little smile.
“I didn’t want to give you back, put you in the hands of some random woman. I wanted to keep you. I wanted this place to be your home. I wanted you to be my son.”
That same uncertain emotion swept over him before Jason’s eyes hardened once more.
“Then maybe you didn’t check hard enough.”
“Jason,” Angel chided sharply. “Your father did absolutely everything he could.”
There was something about the way she said ‘your father’ that was as much a comfort as it was a warning. But Jason could heed neither. His head was trapped in a burnt-out apartment.
“Everything except tell me,” he said suddenly, turning to Gabriel once more. “You knew my mother’s name. You found her initials. How could you possibly not tell me?”
Gabriel let out a quiet sigh, then pushed to his feet. “For thirteen years, those letters haunted me. I used to live in fear, staring at the front door, thinking she might show up one day and take you away. Thirteen years with no answers, no closure, just those bloody letters carved into the wall. I guess... I guess I wanted to spare you from that.”
&nbs
p; Jason stood there for a moment longer, looking like some part of him was about to break. Then he spun on his heel and stormed from the living room.
“That wasn’t your decision to make.”
The front door slammed a moment later.
Aria glanced around nervously as a heavy silence enveloped the room. Angel and Gabriel didn’t seem to notice it. They had been raised in such vacuums. But she was finding it hard to breathe. After a few seconds of restless fidgeting, she spoke up in a trembling voice.
“That could have gone worse. I mean...the cottage is still standing.”
That’s more than you can say when my family fights.
The adults looked over at her slowly, like they’d almost forgotten she was there. Angel looked faintly amused, but Gabriel was unreadable. It was impossible to tell what was going on behind those green eyes. But he had to be hurting. And it tore at her heart.
“He’s just in shock,” she continued tentatively. “He’s going to come round—”
Gabriel waved her silent with a sad smile. “You don’t need to apologize for him—he’s right to be angry.” He looked like he was going to say more, then shook his head. “And you were a good friend to stay with him tonight.”
Aria bowed her head with a blush, wondering what Natasha might have told him. Wondering if he knew that she and his son were more than just good friends.
“You should get back to the dorms,” he continued, glancing out the window at the darkened school. “I don’t know how you snuck out...but sneak back in the same way.”
She blushed again, quickly pushing to her feet. The trip down memory lane might have been mildly excruciating, but at least it had saved her from an interrogation about that night.
After giving both Gabriel and Angel a quick hug, she hurried to the door—wondering which tatù to use when climbing back up the wall. She’d just settled on a set of panther ink she’d come to favor when she turned around suddenly, one hand still clutching the door.
“Uncle Gabriel...why did you tell my dad what we talked about in the Oratory that day?”
She certainly wasn’t complaining. The only reason she’d gotten to go on a mission to New York was because Gabriel had somehow managed to change her father’s mind. But it did strike her as strange. He would usually speak with her mother. The two had a special connection.
Angel laughed shortly and pushed to her feet, going to salvage whatever was left of the coffee-maker, while Gabriel lifted his eyebrows with a faint smile.
“You want me to tell your mother to let her teenage daughter leave the nest and fight crime?”
He shook his head and returned his eyes to the window.
“Devon married Rae. He gets the honor of telling her things like that.”
THE NEXT DAY, THE GANG attended classes as usual. Or rather, some of them did. One of their members was suspiciously absent—holed away in his dorm, carving the letters ‘E.H.’ into the wall.
Aria pretended she didn’t notice and dodged the others’ questions about what had happened back at the cottage. For the most part, it worked. The only time she had trouble was in Dorian’s history class, when she and Alexander found themselves sitting alone in the back of the room.
“Where’s your boyfriend?” he asked as the rest of class began talking amongst themselves.
Aria’s eyes flashed up, but she kept her cool. “Probably laid up in bed recovering from a tiger attack. Why?” She glared at him across the desks. “Would you like to talk about that?”
He stared at her a moment, then chuckled and began unloading his supplies. “You know, my sister was right about you. You’re hard to dislike.”
Aria’s head jerked up in surprise. “Sofia said that?”
After their confrontation the other night, she wouldn’t have thought the girl was a fan. Then again, they shared a secret. And that was a difficult bond to break.
“Mmm-hmm.” Alexander pulled out a piece of paper and dropped two pencils onto his desk. “At first, I didn’t agree. Now, I’m not so sure.”
She rolled her eyes and snatched a pencil for herself. “If I’m coming off as likable to you, then I’m clearly doing something wrong.”
His eyes flickered to hers with a fleeting grin. “Well, I wouldn’t call you very likable. Then again, it helps when you take your top off.”
The pencil snapped in half.
“Are you serious?” she hissed, almost forgetting to keep her voice down. Dorian’s attention drifted their way and she forced a quick smile. “You walk up on me kissing some other guy, claw him to pieces with your demented tiger claws, and still, for reasons unknown to man, he decides to save you. All that...and you’re going to sit there making these jokes at me?!”
There was a pause.
“...who says I’m joking?”
THAT’S IT!
“Miss Wardell!” Dorian’s voice suddenly sounded from across the room, and those students sitting closest turned their way. “I believe I asked you not to light my classroom on fire?”
Aria looked down with a start to see smoke rising from her hands. She extinguished them quickly, sliding them into her pockets for good measure.
Alexander watched the entire thing with a smirk. “Speaking of Jason,” he began innocently, “I couldn’t help but notice the whole kissing thing felt...rather new. Maybe even the first time?”
She blushed in spite of herself, flashing an incriminating look at Benji. Normally, the guy would be shamelessly eavesdropping with his ink. However, given the fact that, at the moment, he was sitting across from a beautiful and equally passive aggressive shifter, he was rather distracted.
Alexander smirked again.
“I thought so. And your little band of warriors...they don’t know?”
They certainly WILL if you keep talking about it!
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” she answered coolly, picking up both halves of her pencil and melding them together with a flick of her hand. “I don’t even see why you’d care, given that I’m apparently not that likable.”
“Things change.” He gave her a smile, flashing every one of his pearly teeth. “People change.”
She pulled in a steadying breath, trying to control her temper. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means most new relationships don’t tend to last. And that’s when things are easy.” His eyes flickered around the classroom. “This place doesn’t strike me as very easy.”
She tilted her head with a cold smile. “Well, maybe he’s up for the challenge.”
Alexander smiled back evenly. “We’ll see.”
THE REST OF THE CLASS period was like slow-walking backwards through a nightmare. Aria did everything she could to keep her head above water, but every word Alexander said had wormed its way deep inside her mind. By the time the bell rang, she was in a full-on tailspin.
Were she and Jason doomed from the start? Two seconds after they decided to get into a relationship, one of them almost bled out on the grass. They hadn’t talked about it since. She wasn’t even sure he remembered they’d done it. And why did it take them so long to get together in the first place? They’d known each other since they were five years old. But it wasn’t until this year—
“Arie.”
She looked up to see Benji standing beside her desk, staring down with a strange expression on his face. Alexander was already gone. She wondered how long he’d been standing there.
“Class is over. You okay?”
The rest of the classroom was empty. Even Dorian had wandered off to the faculty lounge to refill his coffee. She crammed her things into her bag then leapt to her feet.
“Yeah—sorry. Just lost track of things.” She flashed a quick smile, hoping he wouldn’t overthink it. “How did things go with Sofia?”
Sure enough he let out a sigh, rolling his eyes.
“She isn’t speaking to me. The whole time. Not one word.”
Aria forced a laugh as they swept through the d
esks. “What did you expect?” she quipped. “One second you’re playing footsie with her in history class, the next you’re cutting her out of our top secret plan. I’d be pissed, too.”
Rather predictably, Benji ignored all the relevant information and focused on a single detail. “I was not playing footsie.” He spat out the word like it was something foul.
“Uh-huh.”
They breezed into the hall, only to find it in full swing. The campus itself may have still been on a bogus lock-down, but the teachers were making every effort to keep things running the same as usual. Benji headed towards the science building but Aria stayed where she was, hesitant to follow.
After a few steps he glanced back, realizing she wasn’t with him for the first time.
“Are you coming?”
Am I?
The practical part of her said ‘yes’, but a dozen half-formed questions raced through her mind and she found herself backing away.
“I’m going back to the dorms—feeling a little sick. You’ll tell Professor Galton?”
Benji nodded, looking a little confused. “Yeah, sure.”
He was still staring as she raced in the opposite direction—heading not towards the women’s dorm, but to the men’s. Those questions weren’t going to answer themselves.
And she’d been waiting long enough.
Chapter 11
Several years ago, Rae Kerrigan had picked up a handy set of ink that allowed her to unlock any door with a touch of her hand. While she and her friends had jokingly complained it took all the fun out of cracking open a bank vault, the real problem was yet to come.
Because the day Aria turned sixteen, she picked up the ink as well.
Open—NOW!
It was hard to work under the best of circumstances but, like most forms of magic, it helped when there was a strong emotion behind it. Right now, Aria had that in spades.
The door not only cracked open, it swung right off the hinges—flying into the room with a crash. A muffled profanity rose up from all the dust and she froze guiltily in the frame—wondering whether it was better to cut and run, leaving him to blame it on a particularly aggressive wind.
