Wings & Roots (The Scions Book 3)

by Gemma Weir

  This is why books are better than real life. In my books, the world is full of magical beings and unknown latent powers. Every boy is beautiful and every love story has a happy ever after. Friends last forever and betrayal is left to villains. What college to choose isn’t exactly important when the fate of the world is in your hands.

  Sometimes I wish my life was more like the plot of one of my books, but I suppose to someone else, the life I lead could be fictional. My family are bikers, my dad the president. There are literally thousands of romance novels dedicated to MC’s and the people who are a part of them. Only I’m not a character in a book and my life isn’t a story.

  My family is great, my friends are great, this town is idyllic. But I yearn for something else. I want to live in one of my books. I want my soulmate to rescue me from a bad guy and for it to be love at first sight; for them to take me on adventures. I want an epic love story, full of new experiences.

  Sighing wearily, I watch the sun sink lower and wonder if one day I’ll slip so far into my imagination that I won’t be able to get out. Would it really be so bad?

  My door swings open and Griffin strides into my room. His eyes search for me, and when he finds me on the floor he chuckles, shaking his head, his eyes glimmering with amusement. When we were kids we used to spend so much time together, just the two of us. We’d joked that as Nova and Zeke had each other, Griffin and I had to have each other’s backs.

  At eight years old, that made complete sense, and so he would beg his brother to drop him off at my house and then we’d play together, do our homework, and tell each other secrets. There was a time when he and I knew everything about each other. Things started to change around the age of twelve or thirteen. Puberty hit and the boy/girl divide got wider. All of a sudden it was easier to tell my secrets to Nova and so his secrets stopped being mine too. When Griff and Zeke found girls, the divide got even wider. He never stopped being my family, one of my best friends, but our friendship changed.

  When Nova’s illness brought me back to our group, it mended something between Griffin and I too. I can’t be sure when our relationship became more like it was when we were younger, but over the last several months he’s become an even bigger part of my life: my comfort, my protector, my safety net.

  More than anything, our rediscovered closeness has only confirmed that I’m not prepared to lose the most important people in my life. I need my best friends, I need him.

  “What you doing, shortcake?” He asks, his one brow arched in question.

  “Cooking pasta,” I deadpan.

  “Sweet, I could go for some spaghetti,” Griff replies brightly, as he lowers himself to the floor and lies next to me. “We plotting world domination?”

  “Something like that,” I murmur, my head tilted toward his now; my gaze half on him, half on the sunset painting the sky outside.

  “You okay?” He asks, his eyes crinkled at the corners in concern.

  “Yeah, just thinking.”

  “That’s dangerous stuff. Probably better you stop doing that shit. Go with the flow instead, face things as it happens.”

  Rolling my eyes, I offer him a small smile that I know doesn’t make it to my eyes.

  “You worried about this weekend?”

  “A little,” I admit.

  “The drive or the school?”

  I inhale, wondering how honest I should be. Griff tries to understand, but he doesn’t really get it. He likes it here. He loves our town, our lives, and I think deep down he just doesn’t understand why I wouldn’t pick this place as my future.

  “Come on, Em. Just tell me,” he urges, rolling fully to his side and resting his palm beneath his cheek.

  “Once we’ve seen Hayhurst, we have to make a decision. I’m worried that I’ll make the wrong choice,” I admit, laying it all bare for him.

  His eyes widen slightly and then wilt into a sadness that makes my chest hurt.

  “I’m not changing my mind about us all going together,” I say quickly. “I’m just not sure what my future looks like and because I can’t see it, I have no idea if whatever school we pick will be the right one. Does that make any sense?” I ask.

  His head slowly moves up and down in a small nod. “Yeah, I think I get it. But you don’t have to pick a future this weekend; we’re just picking a college. Where you go to school doesn’t have to define you. It’s just the first step on the path. We’re still kids. We don’t have to be adults for years, so try to enjoy it. Make choices without thinking of the consequences. Be reckless, be brave, and have some fun. That’s what being a kid is all about.”

  “But…” I try to interrupt him.

  “No buts. Stop thinking so hard, shortcake, and just see what happens. Do what feels right, what makes your heart beat faster and your soul sing. Life can be over in the blink of an eye. Make the time you have the best possible.”

  When his lips stop moving, I roll toward him and wrap my arm around him, hugging him tightly. Sometimes I forget that Griff’s parents aren’t here, that they were ripped away from him when he was far too young to lose them. It’s only in moments like this, when he reminds me that things can be gone in a split second, that I see the pain that’s always there beneath the surface with him.

  He acts like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Laughs the loudest, parties the hardest, and lives to the fullest, but he also feels deeply. It might have been ten years since his parents’ deaths, but he’s still sad, still grieving.

  I have everything in the world and yet I’m so desperate for something new that I’m agonizing over if picking the wrong college could ruin my chances of getting away from this town. I’m so selfish.

  “You’re right,” I say into his neck.

  “Of course I am,” he snickers.

  “This weekend is going to be great and whichever school we pick will be great, because we’ll all be there together and at the end of the day that’s what’s important.”

  Griff pulls back and rests his forehead against mine. “We’re Sinners, Em, and Sinners take care of their own. Staying together is right. We need each other. You were right and I get it now. I still think you should go to Dartmouth, but I’m so fucking glad that you’re not. My world wouldn’t be whole without you in it.”

  “Mine wouldn’t be whole without you either,” I say quietly.

  I can’t do it. I can’t be the type of guy who sacrifices his happiness to give someone a chance at their own. Emmy is my best friend. She’s too fucking important to me, to let her leave and go to a school across the country.

  Maybe a different kind of man could do it, but apparently I’m too fucking selfish for that. It’s time for plan B. I love this girl. She’s in every single one of my happy memories, and Nova, Zeke, Valentine, and I need to do whatever it takes to keep her in our lives.

  We’ve visited two out of three of our shortlisted schools. Wilson Hill was too busy, Addington, too remote. Fingers crossed Hayhurst is perfect, it needs to be.

  We’re the Scions, our futures are intertwined. Emmy untied a few of those knots, but between the rest of us we can tangle them back up again. We’re family and family is everything.

  I can see her glancing at her dead Kindle next to her on the floor, but I have no intention of letting her charge it and then losing her to the pages of a story again today. Fiction is great, but real life will always be better, even if it’s not as simple and it doesn’t come with a guaranteed happy ever after.

  She needs to spend a little more time living, instead of watching other people live through words. I chuckle to myself as I think about all the ways I can stop her from reading and keep her in the here and now.

  I’m gonna drive her crazy, but she’ll thank me for it in the end.

  The next morning, we all pile into Valentine’s truck, loading our bags into the back. Looking out of the window I smile at the row of adults who are stood together at the curb to see us off, like we’re actually leaving for college, not just visiting for
the weekend.

  “Do you have the address for the hotel?” Auntie Brandi calls.

  “Yep,” Valentine replies.

  “And you have enough gas and your credit cards?” Auntie Liv asks.

  “No, Mom, we decided to only put in enough gas to get us to those cornfields where all the serial killers hang out.” Zeke deadpans.

  Auntie Liv’s eyes narrow and she purses her lips.

  “We have a full tank of gas, and five credit cards as well as some cash,” Nova tells her mom.

  “Griff, don’t get anyone pregnant,” Duke offers with an amused smirk.

  Griffin salutes him, laughing, while Auntie Brandi, Auntie Liv, and my mom all turn and glare at Duke as he holds his hands up in surrender.

  “Valentine,” Brandi calls, taking a step up to the driver’s window.

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t forget your way home,” she says quietly.

  “I won’t,” he says. Then he glances to Nova, before turning back to Brandi. “Plus, we’re gonna need to sign those adoption papers when I get back.”

  I watch as Auntie Brandi’s mouth falls open and tears fill her eyes. She leans fully in through the window and pulls a slightly stunned Valentine in for a hug. He awkwardly pats her back until she releases him, her lips trembling. “You still need to work on that hug.”

  “When we get home on Monday,” Valentine agrees with a small smile.

  “Okay, drive safe, love you,” she says, cupping his cheek before looking at the rest of us. “Take care of each other.”

  “We will, Auntie Brandi,” I say, as the others all agree.

  She takes a step back, straight into Uncle Sleaze’s arms, then Valentine starts the truck’s engine and all of the adults move forward to surround her as they wave us off.

  “Road trip, baby!” Zeke cries the moment we turn the corner and our parents are out of sight.

  “Road trip,” we all chorus back and I throw my hands in the air and laugh with excitement.

  By the time we reach Alabama that night we’re all exhausted. “Oh my god, longest drive ever,” Nova cries as we climb out of the back seat of the truck.

  Stretching my arms into the air, I tilt my head from side to side, trying to crack my stiff neck back into place. “Whose stupid idea was it to drive? It’s less than a two-hour flight; we could have been here hours ago.”

  “Duh, it’s not a road trip unless you drive,” Zeke says, ruffling my hair as he moves past me to grab our stuff from the back of the truck.

  Our parents insisted on booking us into a suite at the hotel we’re staying in this weekend. It’s extravagant, but they excused the expense saying something about us being safer if we were all together. Honestly, I’m not complaining because the thought of a soft hotel bed is looking pretty good right now. Griff grabs my bag from the bed of the truck, while Valentine grabs Nova’s and we all head for the hotel’s front entrance.

  It doesn’t take us long to check-in and fifteen minutes later I’m dropping my bag to the floor of a beautiful bedroom, off a large sitting area and kitchen. Falling backward onto the bed, I groan with pleasure as I hit the marshmallowy hotel comforter and sink into the soft, white cotton.

  The suite has three bedrooms and I know Auntie Liv and Uncle Echo assumed that Nova and I would be sharing a room, but really that was never going to happen. Something else I’m not complaining about as I make the most of the huge King bed and starfish, spreading my arms and legs wide, giggling to myself as I do it.

  “I’m starving. Room service or out to eat?” Zeke calls from the sitting room.

  Forcing myself off the bed, I kick off my shoes and pad barefoot out into the sitting room. “Room service. I’m hungry and I want to finish my book, because someone.” I glare at Griffin. “Wouldn’t let me read in the truck.”

  Griff smirks at me completely unashamedly from his position on the couch. “I’m good with room service.”

  “I vote room service too,” Valentine says, when he and Nova emerge from their room.

  “Room service it is,” Zeke says, reaching for the menu and reading it. “Anyone know what they want?”

  The menu’s passed around and we each pick, relaying our order to Zeke who calls it through to the reception desk. “Food’s going to be twenty minutes, so we have some time to talk about what the plan is for tomorrow. There are no official campus tours this weekend, so should we just head over there and have a wander about?” Zeke asks, taking charge in the way he so often does.

  “Sounds good to me. At least this way we can get a feel for the place, then we can find a party to hit tomorrow night so we can see what the nightlife is like.” Griffin says, getting up and crossing the room to the fridge in the suite’s kitchenette.

  My gaze drifts to Nova and I notice that her eyes are crinkling a little at the edges, her teeth worrying at her lower lip. “We don’t have to go to a party,” I say, knowing that she hates them almost as much as I do.

  “What? You’re not gonna just sit—” Griffin starts to say, looking at me before glancing at Nova. “Oh shit, Nova, I wasn’t thinking. Don’t worry about the party thing, we can just play it by ear and see what’s going on once we’re done looking round.”

  Nova’s smile is small and a little sad. “We can find a party, Griff. I’m getting much better with them.”

  “Don’t even worry about it, sis,” he says. “We can find trouble some other way.”

  We chat about what we want to do and see while we’re here until a knock on the door ends the conversation. Zeke jumps up and opens it, and I watch as a hotel employee pushes a cart into the room, resplendent with several plates of food. He quickly unloads it onto the table, accepts the tip Valentine offers him and closes the door as he leaves.

  I descend on the burger I ordered like a wild animal, stuffing fries into my mouth and groaning when the hot, salty goodness hits my tongue. By the time my plate is empty, my belly is full, and after a long day stuck in a car with four other people, I’m desperate for some peace and quiet.

  I head back to my room, strip out of my clothes and step underneath the hot shower to wash away a long day’s traveling. I luxuriate under the water for longer than I normally would, letting the heat soothe the knots in my shoulders, then dry off and put on a cotton tank and shorts before climbing beneath the bedsheets.

  The exhale that falls from my lips is both relief and satisfaction. My door’s closed, it’s quiet, and it’s unlikely any of the others will disturb me. Inhaling slowly, I take a moment to enjoy the calm silence of my room. Even the most social person in the world would need a little bit of solitude after a fourteen-hour truck ride with my excited friends, and I’m most definitely not the most social person. Griff seems to take a perverse pleasure in stopping me from reading. In fact, more and more in the last six months he’s been determined to keep my attention off whatever book I’m devouring. He distracts me the moment I pick up my Kindle at school, regularly texts me to obnoxiously tell me to stop reading when I’m at home, and has even gone so far as to take my Kindle off me at family BBQ’s and parties.

  But he’s not here now and the unsettled butterflies that are jumping around in my stomach can easily be calmed with the distraction of another world, another life to experience. Grabbing my Kindle from where I placed it on the nightstand, I open the new book that only released a couple of days ago and start to read.

  For the first time in ages the story I’m reading is a contemporary romance, rather than the paranormal or high fantasy I usually pick, but it still doesn’t take me long to become completely consumed with the story. Set in college, the heroine meets the hero at a campus tour and sparks fly. The story is sweet, the hero a cute nerdy type and within a few chapters I’m engrossed in the world and watching the story play out from the heroine’s eyes.

  When my door opens, I’m aware of someone standing in the doorway, but I don’t put my Kindle down long enough to acknowledge whoever it is. A moment later my mattress depresses
and I glance down to find Griff climbing onto my bed next to me. He pokes my arm with his finger, but I swat him away.

  “Em.”

  I ignore him.

  “Em.”

  “I’m reading,” I hiss, not lifting my eyes from my screen.

  “Em, Em, Em, Emmy, Emmy, Emmy,” he whines.

  I can’t help it. I giggle, closing my eyes for a second and shaking my head. “What do you want?”

  “I’m bored, entertain me.”

  “Entertain yourself, I’m reading.”

  “That’s boring,” he says with a groan.

  “Not for me,” I reply, focusing back on my eReader. “Go harass Zeke.”

  “Can’t, he’s asleep, and Nova and Valentine are in their room probably fucking, so you’re it.”

  “I’m reading,” I say again.

  Griffin sighs loudly and flip flops around on my bed, before eventually settling on his back, his head next to mine on my pillow. He grabs the remote from the bedside table and switches the TV on, turning the volume down low. The screen flickers as he flips through the channels until he finally settles on something, dropping the remote to the comforter.

  Surprisingly comfortable, I lie in bed and read while he watches the TV. I must fall asleep, because when I open my eyes there’s sunlight filtering through the gaps in the drapes. Griffin’s warm body is next to me. At some point he must have undressed, because his chest is bare and he’s only wearing sweatpants. He’s still on top of the covers, his dirty blond hair disheveled and his face relaxed in sleep.

  Rubbing at my eyes with my hands, I wiggle up the bed until my shoulders are leaning back against the wall. My movement must disturb Griff, because his eyes slowly blink open and he twists his head up to look at me. As his eyes focus, his brow furrows with confusion. “What?” He croaks, his voice rough with sleep.

  “We must have fallen asleep,” I say.

  A faint red blush fills his cheeks and he looks away for a moment, before sitting up, and adjusting his sweatpants. “Sorry,” he says. “I meant to go back to my room.”