by Jaymin Eve
It was Tuesday, which meant I was stuck with them for five more days. I wasn’t sure I could handle five more days of this. I needed answers. I needed them now.
I leaned in so as not to be overheard by the dozen or so students fixing their gazes on us: “Is there anything we can do? Places we can search? Surely there’s a way to track my guardians’ last movements.”
The Darkens had been pretty confident in their abilities to keep information off computers and the internet. If they were that good, surely they could trace Michael’s last online activities. He would kill me if he found out I let anyone touch his computer, but I’d deal with that. As long as he was alive, the rest was inconsequential. There was very little I wouldn’t do to get my family back.
He patted my arm. “I’ll talk to Lexen. We might be able to try something on our own.”
I sensed Jero was just placating me. And … it worked. For now.
“So … what happened to your parents?” He blindsided me with that question.
I swallowed roughly, took a few deep breaths, and when the tears were under control, said, “They were killed in a fire … last New Year’s Eve.” I kept it to basic facts, which was an additional help with the tears. “I must have crawled out into the yard, even though I don’t remember a thing before waking up on the pavement out the front.”
I had tried to go back in, screaming for my mom and dad, but some of my neighbors who had arrived to help held me back. They’d seen what I refused to: there was no way anyone was still alive in there. The house had been fully alight, and by the time the firefighters finished there was nothing but death and ash remaining.
“I’m really sorry, Emma.” He used my name. He sounded sincere. My chest tightened. I pressed my hand to it to ease the ache.
“It’s o—” I choked on the word. Because it wasn’t okay. There was not a single okay thing about what had happened to me and my family.
“I’m dealing,” I finally managed.
Jero sat a little straighter in his chair as he whipped his phone from his pocket and slammed his fingers against the keys. “We’re going to find your guardians. You’ve lost enough.”
It was still hard to talk around the lump in my throat. “Why are you being so nice to me?” My words were shaky. “I’m not … one of you.”
He dropped his phone back into his pocket, shrugging. “I know what it’s like to be dragged into a world you don’t want to be part of. I know what it’s like to lose someone. I understand the burning hellfire of pain and regret which are no doubt churning within you right now. We’re not as different as you think.”
All conversations around us died off then as Mr. Perkins entered the room. Jero and I both faced the front, but my mind was roiling with everything he’d just said. Before I could stop myself, I reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it firmly and quick. I wanted him to know that I appreciated his kindness, his support. I was probably only dealing as well as I was because of the Darkens. All of them, even Lexen. Last night he had offered me comfort I’d sorely needed.
Something I never expected from the elite. In fact, most humans I met were far less kind than these … supernaturals or whatever they were.
Mr. Perkins drew my attention then. “Today is a very exciting day. It’s one of my favorite parts of the curriculum. House of Darken.”
I heard the low exhalation of breath from Jero, but I was too busy listening to turn to him.
“We will learn much about this magnanimous house, about its illustrious leaders, and the generosity of their family. We will spend the rest of this week, and some of next week, on Darkens, and then you’ll have a small assignment to complete, a paper summarizing your thoughts on their lives, charitable works and such.”
A lot of the class was looking at Jero now, and it hit me that he was really a Darken. Literally part of this legacy that we were learning of. That was more than a little cool.
“Don’t go painting me with a halo yet, sweetheart,” he whispered to me from the corner of his mouth. “This is history, not current events.”
I was still trying to figure out how it all worked. Why were these supernaturals here at all? I mean, why would non-humans want to draw attention to themselves? Did they want people on the ground, so to speak, to curtail any rumors before they even started? I mean … did they get rid of humans who stumbled onto the secret? Was that still an option the council might decide on for me?
I had so many questions, and I was almost too impatient in my quest to find the answers.
Mr. Perkins moved to the board then and wrote “1875” at the top, underlining it multiple times. “This is the year the first Darkens immigrated to America. Tatina and Gregori Darken were the clan leaders. They brought across their people. They were extremely private, even back then, so information on those early days is scarce, but many believe they were part of a pilgrimage from Norway. They brought with them riches, and knowledge beyond anything anyone had seen in this area, and Astoria was extremely blessed to be chosen as their original settlement site. Our tiny fishing village found itself under the care and protection of these early settlers.
“You have a fan,” I side-whispered to Jero. His lips twitched into a half-smile, but he didn’t comment.
One of the girls at the front raised her hand. “Why did they choose Astoria?” she asked.
There was a slight pause, as if the teacher was surprised by this question, but his answer came readily enough: “It was a great area for northern trade.”
“Wrong,” Jero muttered. I knew he hadn’t been talking to me, but I was still desperate to ask him to explain. Of all the places in the world, why had they chosen Astoria?
“What about the other houses?” another student asked. “How do they work with Darken?”
Mr. Perkins grinned so broadly that his ruddy cheeks were practically around his eyebrows. “I’m so glad you asked this. We will of course go more into the Houses of Royale, Imperial, and Leights at another time, but in general reference to Darken, they arrived almost twelve months to the day after the original founders. The history books tell us that they were allies, families who had ties back in Norway. This was the reason for their settlement here also.”
“Wrong again,” Jero said, his voice still no louder than a whisper. “And we’re certainly not all allies.”
I leaned in closer to him, keeping my eyes locked on the teacher so he wouldn’t catch on to our conversation. “Imperials are your only enemies, right? What about Leights? How can they be neutral?”
Jero shrugged. “They choose sides as they see fit. Royale are our only true allies.”
If my math was correct, and since I was a senior one would hope it was, the Darkens were still the strongest house. They had a solid ally. Two of them together versus two lone wolves.
I was of course telling myself this to make this new world I’d fallen into seem less dangerous for me. Because I was on the stronger side.
Yeah, right. As if life was nice and simple like that. Good. Bad. Right. Wrong. Strong. Weak. Nothing was ever that black and white.
The teacher was back at the board now. He had drawn three columns; above each he wrote, Starslight Prep, Darken Exports, and Daelight Crescent.
When he turned around, he clapped his hands together. “For the rest of the week we’ll look at this house’s initial contributions to Astoria. Firstly, they started a world-leading education institute, making sure our young folks received the very best learning they could. A vast majority of government leaders, business people, scientists, and revolutionaries in modern America did their schooling right here. We have ties to the top colleges – as most of you know.”
I found my hand in the air before I could stop it. Mr. Perkins called on me.
“Have there been students in this school from these four houses since 1875?” I asked, deliberately not looking at Jero.
“Yes, more or less,” he replied, “there have always been representatives from the four houses in Starslight.
They’re very proud of this school. There’s no other place they would send their children.”
I knew Jero was staring at me, but I didn’t look his way. I had no idea why I asked that question. It slipped out, but I just had this weird feeling that the Darkens I knew were fairly new to this world. Like Star only coming across yesterday. From wherever.
I hadn’t been sure if “supernaturals” being here was a new thing or not. Apparently not new in general, just for the few I’d met only.
The rest of the lesson was spent on the many ways Darkens now ruled this world. Their exports business seemed to have interests in multiple industries, and I was amazed at how many of their products I had heard of.
When the bell rang, students jumped to their feet as conversations sprang up around us. “We’ll continue on with House of Darken tomorrow,” Mr. Perkins yelled over the departing students.
Jero followed me from the room, his giant frame towering over me. An added benefit of him as security detail was that students tended to get out of our way as we walked along. It made getting to class so much easier.
“What’s next for you?” he asked when we were standing near one of the moving sidewalks.
I glanced at my schedule and let out a groan. “Gym. Seriously?”
“Not a fan?” he asked, watching me closely.
I shrugged. “Honestly, I suck at physical activities. I’m great at knitting, reading, sewing. Cooking, even. I make a mean apple crumble and double-choc brownie. I also jigsaw puzzle like a pro. And I’m great at shopping … for shoes and clothes. But never … I repeat never have I chosen to exercise.”
“No sports? Jogging? What about … gymnastics?”
I snort-laughed. “Almost broke my cheek on the balance beam. After that my parents finally started accepting me as an indoors kid. Puzzles and books showed up in my room the next day.”
His laughter boomed out around us and we drew even more attention than we already had. “Of course you would like puzzles.” He continued to chuckle. “Think I might just call you the crazy cat lady from now on. Get in early.”
I nodded with all the seriousness I could muster. “Oh, definitely, that’s in my ten year plan.”
“I’ll bet it is.” He grinned. “Well, I don’t have gym, but I can walk you to that section of the school. Lexen will be in that class with you.”
Well, that’s just great. He was definitely the one guy I wanted to make an absolute fool of myself in front of. Because he didn’t already think humans were stupid and pathetic enough.
“Why does Lexen hate me … or humans?” I lowered my voice on the human part. “I mean, the rest of you don’t seem to feel the same way.”
Jero’s face closed off; all of the open happiness he had been showing faded in an instant. I sucked in a deep breath, wondering if I had hit on a sore point. “Never mind,” I said, forcing fake cheer into my tone. “Not my business.”
I turned and jumped on the closest moving path, not even caring if it was going in the right direction. I didn’t look back to see if Jero had followed me. Why did I ask that? Why was I allowing my emotions to get involved, allowing myself to get attached to these Darkens? I mean, I didn’t know them at all, and I no doubt meant nothing to any of them.
Plus, I had an actual family to find, so it was time for me to pull myself together and stop acting stupid.
“He doesn’t hate you.” Jero’s voice startled me, and I spun around to find him right behind me. Dammit, did they have to be so much more stealthy than me too? “Mostly he’s not happy about being forced to come here. And your question in class … there have always been representatives from all four houses here, but it was voluntary. Usually those from the lower echelons of our society, those wanting to enjoy the treaty between our people. Now there are some new laws … let’s just say he disagreed with the council on this new order. His future is not working out how he expected. He’s trying to deal with it in his own way.”
I turned back to face forward. “I know how that feels,” I murmured. My entire world went up in a ball of flames. The future I’d imagined, gone in an instant.
We were silent for the rest of the journey, Jero only grabbing my elbow to assist me on exit. He already knew I was never going to nail one of these dismounts. He left me at the gym door and I reluctantly made my way into the girls’ locker rooms to get changed. Ignoring the stares from the others who were already inside, I focused on dressing in the provided uniform of white shirt, black shorts, white knee socks and tennis shoes, before slinking my way out into the huge gym facility – cursing under my breath the entire time.
It was a circular room, mostly indoors, and there was a running track, courts for a variety of sports, including tennis and volleyball, an Olympic-size pool, weight area … and the list went on and on. It was like I’d stumbled into a multi-billion dollar professional athletes training area. A shit-ton of money that was completely wasted on someone like me.
Joining the back of my class, I attempted to stay out of sight, knowing Lexen was somewhere here. The teacher stepped to the front of the group. I caught glimpses of his white cotton shirt, a whistle hanging against it.
“Today I’m splitting you into two groups.” The whistle jumped up and down in time to his shouting. “One will be on volleyball, the other soccer. First, though, everyone jogs to warm up.”
He blew the whistle, and while I heard a few groans, all of the students started running without much complaint. I wiggled on the spot, contemplating what excuse might work to get me out of this class. I really felt like forced gym classes were a form of discrimination against the eternally uncoordinated.
Was there a protest group against this? I needed to look into that.
“You’re supposed to be running.” The low voice had my chest clenching tightly, goosebumps already sprinkling across my body. How did his voice do that to me? Every single time.
He had at least distracted me from my panic of running, so I pasted a smile on my face when I turned to him. Holy shit, why? Just, why? As if Lexen wasn’t already far too lethal on my hormones, someone had to put him in a gym uniform. The shirt was fitted across his broad shoulders, powerful muscles in his arms and upper body very visible. I forced myself not to stare at his ass, which I already knew was amazing, and would no doubt be clearly defined in those pants.
“I don’t run,” I finally squeaked out, crossing my arms over my chest, goosebumps and nipples saluting the world. Stupid disloyal body. “And aren’t you on the football team?”
He nodded, his eyes never leaving mine. God, he was intense, but not in an overwhelming way. More like a throw him on the ground and tear his clothes off kind of way.
No, Emma! Not human, remember? Why was it so hard for me to readily recall that?
“Yep, but Coach likes us to partake in other sports to keep up flexibility and fitness,” he said, reminding me that I’d asked him a question. “We start football training in the second half of the class.”
I nodded like an idiot. Almost all of the students were on the track now, which made Lexen and me very obvious, standing there, chatting. A lot of them were looking at us, tripping over themselves gossiping. I could see the hard, angry faces of a few of the queen bee type girls at the front of the pack. The last thing I needed was to draw their ire.
Dammit. I started to run. Ten steps in and my chest started to hurt, my breathing already heavy and erratic. This couldn’t be good for you! I didn’t care what anyone said.
Lexen fell in at my side, jogging easily. Actually, he seemed to be mostly walking really fast to keep pace with me. His legs were like twice the size of mine, so … I wasn’t slow. When I was halfway around the first loop, I wrapped an arm around my side to ease the stitch that had already started to dully thud there.
“I think we need to work on your fitness.” Lexen sounded amused.
I, on the other hand, was not amused. And if I’d had even an extra eighth of a breath in my lungs, I would have yelled at him.
I settled for flipping him off.
He blinked at my middle finger a few times, shaking his head. Turning forward, he ignored me and I went back to focusing on not dying. By the time I hit the second lap I was walking. Lexen went on ahead, but I could feel his eyes on me, always keeping watch.
Someone fell into step beside me and I turned to find Kotar there.
“You need to back off the Darkens,” she said without preamble.
Oh, goodie, I had been waiting for the cliché mean girl warning.
“I don’t know you,” she continued. “And while I don’t care if you warm all three of their beds and then move on to Star in the morning, you’d better never forget that you’re not one of us. You’ll never be one of us. If you don’t learn your place, someone is going to teach you.”
I tilted my head to the side. “What house are you from?”
She turned her nose up at me like I was a fly that had flown a little too close. “I’m a Darken. And trust me, I’m not even in Lexen’s league.”
I was confused. “You’re a Darken? So … you’re related to Lexen.”
She smirked, shaking her head. “We aren’t all blood related. When they say House of Darken, they literally meant that. Like a banner title. I am not related to any of the Darkens that you’ve been hanging around, but they’re my house. My clan. I protect what is mine.”
I. Was. So. Confused.
“Look, I’m not going to be a problem,” I told her. “I’ll be out of the Darkens' lives as soon as we solve a little issue which involves my family. Your warning is not needed.”
Bitch, I silently added.
Her dark eyes narrowed on me, like she’d heard that last part.
“I’ll be watching you, human,” she finally spat, before she picked up the pace, jogging away, flaunting her ability to run and breathe.
“I’d listen to her.” The smug voice sent a chill down my spine.
I stopped my lame attempt at power walking and turned to find an Imperial glaring at me, one of the blond, pixie-haired females.