by Megan Curd
Jaxon wedged his way between us and faced Legs. I couldn’t see Jaxon’s face, but his tone made it clear that he wasn’t pleased. “And I went for her before you, and succeeded. Respect that.”
“You kidnapped her from her home,” Legs said evenly as he pushed himself off the bed and stood toe to toe with Jaxon, their chests pressed against one another as they sized each other up. “There’s no pride in committing a felony, Mr. Pierce, although for some reason you seem to think that makes her your property.”
“So you coming to get her on orders from your government is supposed to be any more altruistic?” Jaxon snorted. “Please, save your words for someone who believes them.”
I pushed around Jaxon and wiggled in between them. I extended my hands in either direction and pushed, but they barely moved.
“Okay, enough.” I huffed as I grabbed Jaxon’s hand and pulled him toward the door. “We’re leaving now. I’ll be back soon, Xander, Legs.” I hoped my emphasis on the word I made it clear that Jaxon was not invited to the next little pow-wow.
It probably didn’t. Jaxon seemed to only listen to the information that pleased him. Anything he didn’t want to hear rolled off him like oil on water.
Jaxon took my hand and pulled me toward the door, but Legs called out.
“Before you go, Avery, can I have a word?”
Jaxon looked like he’d swallowed a lemon.
His eyes found Xander’s, and Xander gestured to the door. “A little privacy for the two of them, then?”
“There is no such thing as privacy in this Academy,” Jaxon said.
Legs chuckled darkly. “Privacy isn’t something I’m used to, anyway. I’m more interested in having a moment with Avery that doesn’t involve you.”
My insides squirmed uncomfortably. Xander went to Jaxon’s side and shepherded him out of the room. With a backward glance to me, Xander gave a simple command. “Five minutes.”
When the door open and closed behind Jaxon and Xander, Legs put his human hand on my shoulder. “I never answered your questions the last time we talked. You’re probably wondering how I knew where you were.”
“There are a lot of things I’m wondering about, but that’s one of them, yes.”
He smiled. Unlike Jaxon, there was no bitterness anywhere in his features.
“Well, as you’ve seen, Riggs has a following behind him. He wasn’t hard to track down. I assumed the giant buggy that trashed downtown was a contraption of his.”
“Jaxon made it, actually.” I felt my face grow hot after correcting Legs.
“Either way,” Legs said as he let his hand drop from my shoulder, “it was related to Riggs. You’re hard to keep up with, Pike, but the Polatzi are just as clever. They never wanted me in their ranks. You were who they wanted, and I was the one they needed to get rid of. Two birds with one stone: get rid of me, find you. They didn’t even give me proper training. They didn’t think I’d live. I’m glad I found you, even if it ends up killing me.”
Legs smiled at me. There was comfort in his presence; he was a small sliver of home. I leaned in for a hug, glad he was here, even if the situation wasn’t great.
“Five minutes are more than up.”
I turned to watch Jaxon cross the room to us. Xander followed behind him in silence and watched from the opposite side of the room as Jaxon stood beside me and intertwined his fingers with mine.
While Legs felt like home in the sense of a brother, Jaxon set me on fire in a completely different way. I wondered if they could tell.
I hoped not. Jaxon didn’t need any more encouragement than his own reflection seemed to give him.
As we walked to the door, Jaxon called out behind us. “Xander, I’ll see you soon.”
“Of course,” Xander said, somewhat amused. As we entered the dark hallway, he gave one last comment. “Be a gentleman tonight, Jax.”
I stole a glance at him.
“Always am—in my own way.”
Xander laughed. “Avery, Jax is hell to chase and heaven to catch. Just keep that in mind.”
With that, Jaxon shut the door behind him and we were plunged into near complete darkness. He huffed, annoyed. “Well that was certainly fun, walking in to see Gimpalicious putting moves on you.”
“Gimpalicious? That’s Legs you’re talking about. He’s my friend. And what was that back there? Was that you marking your territory? Because if it was, you need to cut that crap out. I’m unclaimed.”
“Unclaimed? I think I made my position clear in Xander’s office.”
Jaxon’s indignation irritated me. “You don’t get to make that decision. A relationship has two people in it.”
He said nothing, but kept walking. His grip on my hand lessened. Maybe he would have let go if I tried, but I enjoyed the feel of his calloused palms on my hands.
I wondered what it would feel like for those palms to be other places, but immediately chastised myself for going there.
I was a glutton for punishment.
While my footsteps echoed across the quiet central building, Jaxon’s seemed to be silent. He could have been a specter if I hadn’t been holding his hand. His fingers lightly traced a circle on the back of my hand. It made me feel safe.
We took the main stairs two at a time. Jaxon stood silently beside me and gestured over the railing, just as he had when I’d first arrived.
His command was gentle. “Look.”
I gazed out over the room, and the sight took my breath away. The marble that had looked amazing in the daylight was now mesmerizing. Constellations illuminated the floor, casting a gleam that I had mistaken for moonlight.
“This is gorgeous!”
Jaxon’s voice was quiet. “I wanted you to see my favorite piece of work.”
“You did this?”
“It’s a trick of the light, coupled with the concoctions my father passed down to me. The sunlight charges the liquid in the constellations, and at night when there’s sufficient moonlight, they glow. The starry portions — the brighter dots that are meant to be the stars themselves — are actually gold that we plated with the liquid and laid into the marble.” Jaxon said, his eyes far away. “It’s a shame no one really gets to see it. That’s why I wanted to show it to you.”
“It’s beyond beautiful. It looks real, save for the lines that connect the dots.”
Jaxon laughed. “Yeah, I always hate trying to make out the constellations in the sky, so I decided to make these easier to decipher.”
He took my hand and led me to the elevator. In the luminescence cast by his art and the moon, his face looked younger. He was enjoying himself, letting down his walls.
It made me want to let down my own walls.
Made me want to build something with him.
He tugged my hand. “Come on, there’s more I want to show you.”
He was allowing me to see him for who he was: a young man who still had hope buried deep within. “Why do I have a feeling that we aren’t supposed to be doing this?”
His smile broadened. “Technically we’re not allowed…but I am Atticus Riggs’s son, and that has its perks.”
“Such as?”
“Such as having a ‘round the clock key card. My laboratory is outside of academy limits. I need to be able to access it when the feeling strikes.”
My insides gave a little squirm. “You’re going to show me where you work?”
“Well, I thought since you shared with me, I’d share with you,” he said simply, his eyes searching mine. “If you’d rather not, it’s okay. We can go back to the dorms.”
“No, I’d like to see it!”
Jaxon wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. His lips grazed against my ear and pulled in a breath, shocked at the turn of events. When he exhaled, I closed my eyes. “Well then, maybe you should let me know if Gimpalicious is your boyfriend. I wouldn’t want to intrude on someone else’s territory.”
My words came out in a hitch. “I told you, I’m unclaimed.”
“And what would it take for you to become claimed?”
“By whom?”
He ran the back of his hand against my cheek and searched my eyes. “By someone undeserving.”
“Then it would take a lot.”
“Time?”
“Time, and trust.”
His fingers intertwined with mine. I felt on fire. Felt alive.
Felt like I needed so much more of this.
So much more of him.
“I’ll do everything in my power to steal your time, and earn your trust.”
“Stealing isn’t honorable, Mr. Pierce,” I whispered.
His smile was captivating. “But steal I must. And I will. And you will love it.”
“Oh I will, will I?”
He untangled his fingers from mine and traced the line of the small of my back. “Don’t admit it though.”
“I would never.”
“Good. Because that wouldn’t be fun.”
“Or maybe I won’t love it.”
“I haven’t met a woman yet who hasn’t loved me when I put on the charm.”
“There’s always a first.”
He cocked his head, and he reminded me for once of the young man he was. Reminded me that maybe he was hopeful and insecure somewhere within that heart of his. “Please don’t let it be you.”
I closed my eyes, refusing to give him anything. “Weren’t we going on a non-date?”
“Not anymore.”
My eyes flew open. “No? Why?”
“Because I need to earn your trust first.”
I laughed. “And how do you plan on doing that at midnight?”
His eyes were serious, and there was no hint of joking in his voice. “I’m taking you to be with your parents, of course.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
Jaxon weaved through hallways with ease, and after a few minutes, he intertwined his fingers with mine.
I pulled away.
He stopped, a sardonic smile visible even in the dim light. “What, I tell you I’m taking you to your parents and I can’t even hold your hand? The hero can’t catch a break.”
The thought of his standing in my parents’ doorway this afternoon flooded my mind. “I wasn’t aware you were a hero.”
“Well my cape is being washed, but I could have whipped up a mask for you if that would have given a better image.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at him, but I still didn’t hold his hand.
Not that I didn’t want to.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to a mask if that meant you’d quit blathering on about your supposed good looks.”
“Ouch, Pike. You have a cruel sense of humor.”
“The better to keep you in line with, my dear.”
Jaxon continued on in silence but I noticed he wore a smile, all the same. We moved through the corridors until our footsteps echoed off the linoleum tile flooring I remembered from this afternoon.
My parents were down the hall.
“Your brother…” I started.
“Is a crispy critter of the cruelest kind,” he finished. “I know. Aren’t you impressed with my amazing alliteration at this atrocious hour?”
“Your wit knows no bounds.”
“Finally. Someone who appreciates what I bring to the table.”
A shadow moved behind him, and a cold voice froze the air around us.
“You don’t bring nearly enough for what you take from it.”
Jaxon stiffened at the sound of Riggs’s voice. “I tend to take only enough to survive. And, as it seems, you make sure that is well below the livable line most of the time.”
I sucked in a shocked breath at Jaxon’s words, and shrunk behind him.
Riggs noticed.
“It would seem that your girlfriend doesn’t think you’re respecting your father,” Riggs said as he flicked on the main switch and bathed us all in blinding light. He stood in a robe with his initials embroidered onto the left breast pocket. “I tend to agree.”
“I highly doubt anyone who knows the story of what you’ve done to me would agree that you deserve any kind of respect.”
“And so you blatantly try to smuggle the girl down to see her parents. I thought we’d discussed the girl prior to you going to retrieve her. I remember you saying there wouldn’t be an issue on a personal level.”
They were talking about me as though I wasn’t there. Part of me wanted to step in, and the other part wanted to slick backward out of the hall before Riggs could get his claws into me like he had Alice.
“There isn’t an issue,” Jaxon said, extending his arm out behind him to grab mine, “I just imagined she might want to get to know where she would be living if she didn’t do what you asked of her.”
Ice filled my veins. Where I’d be living? Either Jaxon was feinting, or he was telling me what Riggs’s plan was for me. I hoped it was the former.
But what if it wasn’t? What if Jaxon hadn’t cared one bit? I was surprised by the amount of betrayal I felt.
Riggs looked past Jaxon and stared at me. “Have you nothing to say? No input from the girl who seems to have wooed my son? Because you obviously know he’s my son…the prince of Chromelius Academy, as he so thinks. Would that make you his princess?”
His words left me feeling dirty, and I stood closer to Jaxon. A move of solidarity, I hoped. “I want nothing to do with the evil things going on in this place, and neither does Jaxon.”
Riggs laughed. “And you think I’m the evil mastermind?”
Silence lingered between us. I didn’t know what to say. Jaxon took my hand and this time, I let him.
“She just wants to see her parents,” Jaxon said firmly, then moved to push around Riggs. “It might sound like a novel idea, but Avery’s actually love her.”
The comment seemed to knock Riggs off his usual swagger, because he allowed Jaxon and I to pass. When Jaxon swiped his access card through the door, though, we heard Riggs speak again.
“You’ll be answering for that, Jaxon.”
“I can’t wait.”
Jaxon slammed the door in Riggs’s face and leaned against it, his eyes closed. His shoulders heaved as his deep breathing slowed, and I could tell he was battling to keep his composure.
There was so much I didn’t know—didn’t understand—about him.
“Why did you—”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, cutting me off. “Just go see your parents. I’ll pick you up in the morning.”
And as quickly as he’d dropped me off, he turned and left the room, leaving me alone, not knowing where his burnt brother might be lurking.
The sound of my knocking echoed through the empty hall, and I prayed Mom and Dad would hear me before Jaxon’s brother.
“Mom? Dad?” I knocked again, this time quieter. “Open up, please.”
Footsteps. The sound caused my stomach to do flips. I still couldn’t believe they were here.
Dad answered the door. “Mr. Riggs, did you forget—” He stopped when he saw me, his face breaking into a smile, then just as quickly became panicked. “Avery! What are you doing here?”
“Jaxon brought me. He’s trying to atone for being a butthead.”
Dad laughed. “Avery, all men are buttheads. The sooner you learn that, the better off you are. And you’re too young to date anyway. No dating until you’re twenty five.”
“The human race may end before then.”
“You wouldn’t have missed out on anything. I’m allowed to say that; I’m your dad.”
Mom looked out of the bedroom, her eyes bright with excitement. “You do know it’s past midnight, don’t you? Aren’t you supposed to discipline her for being out late too, Cole?”
I smiled at her. “A slumber party seemed like fun.”
“Only if you promise to tell me what’s going on with you and Jaxon,” she said lightly, coming to sit down by Dad and I. “And don’t say there’s nothing going on. I’ve seen the way you two lo
ok at each other, and that’s not nothing.”
“Oh, it’s not,” I conceded, “It’s a general distrust on my part and him wishing he could woo me like the other girls.”
Mom leaned in and put her hand on my knee. “You know there are no other girls, right?”
“Not right now, maybe…”
“Not ever.”
I raised my eyebrows, dubious of her proclamation. “How do you know that?”
She smiled. “Let’s just say I’ve been here long enough and interacted with that boy enough to know…and there have never been any other girls, no matter what he tries to tell you.”
“But you don’t have to be the first,” Dad said, butting into the conversation. “Remember what I said. Twenty-five is the new dating age.”
Mom and I laughed.
“He’s just making up for lost time,” Mom said. “Ignore him. Now tell me about your abilities.”
And so I did.
We all talked late into the night, until the sky turned purple, then red, then the brilliance of the sun stole the beauty of cool night sky. Mom’s red hair glowed against the new dawn, and her eyes were tired as she yawned.
“Good Lord, we stayed up all night,” she said, “Well, two of us, anyway.”
She motioned to Dad, who had fallen asleep on the end of the couch, his mouth open and his arms crossed. “He was so excited and heartbroken at the same time when you showed up earlier,” Mom said quietly, her eyes never leaving Dad. “He has hated himself for leaving you. We both have. You deserve a family.”
“I have one.”
“A normal family.”
“Normal is overrated. I like my family as is.”
“Radiation filled and all?”
I nodded. “That’s like the warm, gooey center of a particularly good donut.”
Mom laughed. “Well I’m glad we’re comparable to a donut.”
“A particularly good one, at that.”
She smiled and nodded, but then she grew serious. “You haven’t had an easy life. We haven’t been dealt the cards that I wish we could have given you. But because of that, you’ve overcome. You’re resilient, and that will keep you going. The chance that I may someday get to see you again—get to hug my baby—that’s kept me going. And look, it’s happened. Things don’t always come to fruition the way we think they will, but life has a funny way of working itself out, if we have the patience to wait on it.”
