I rolled my eyes at him. “How long have you been out of high school?”
“I’m twenty-five, angel. I finished my degree last year.”
“From MIT, no less,” Tabby chimed in from behind us, sounding proud.
“Well this is what the kids do these days.” I waved off my own surprise and tugged on the iPod cord hanging between us.
“I see.” Silas’s lips twitched. I considered it a victory, and glanced sideways at Noah, who gave me a short nod.
I scrolled through the songs—most of which I didn’t recognise—and clicked on “Cool Kids” by Echosmith, almost dragging a full smile out of Silas. He stole the iPod off me after a while and I leaned over to see what he chose. “Protocol” by Leon Else. Didn’t know that one. I sat back and listened to the song, deciding it oddly fit with Silas. I pulled my legs up, planting my chameleon shoes onto the edge of the seat, and tilted my head back, letting the music wash over me.
The song churned up unwanted feelings in my stomach as I sat there, and when it finished, I reached out and snagged the iPod from him. I played the song again. I couldn’t figure out why, but the fact that Silas had played it at all made me strangely want to cry. Melancholy would have been the best way to describe it, but there was also something desperate about it, without even listening to the words, it threatened to hurt my heart. I had somehow managed to nod off on his shoulder by the time we arrived, and Cabe shook me awake as he passed my seat. I awoke with a start, and only briefly glanced at Silas—he was stiff, and leaning away from me—before I stood and followed the others. We all spilled onto the platform and pressed through the busy crowd of people. Someone brushed past me and something slipped into my palm. I closed my fingers around it reflexively. When I glanced down and saw the cell phone, I clamped my lips shut. Now wasn’t the time. The messenger knew we were here, and one of his people was in the airport, but I knew better than to make a scene right there. I turned around, but didn’t see anyone suspicious.
I slid the phone into my pocket, terrified that it would vibrate with a message, and followed the others outside. We grabbed two cabs, with Cabe, Noah and Tabby getting into the first, and the rest of us getting into the second. It wasn’t until we were in the car that I said something.
“He found us.”
“He can’t have.” Silas sounded sure. “I dismantled everyone’s phones and booked our tickets under fake names.”
In answer, I pulled the second phone out of my pocket. Quillan sucked in a breath. I tapped the phone. It lit up, saying I had one unread message. I scrolled to it.
I hope this isn’t too forward, Miss Black, but I hoped to make your acquaintance sooner than the Adairs or Quillans are willing to share you. I understand your hesitation, but if you would like to know more about the Zevghéri, you need only contact me.
Sincerely,
Dominic Kingsling
“Who signs off text messages like that?” I wondered aloud, my panic already receding.
“How long have you had that?” Quillan asked.
“Someone slipped it to me at the station. Who’s Dominic Kingsling?”
“Spokesperson for the Klovoda.” Silas spoke lowly so that the cab driver couldn’t listen in. “They’re the rule-makers and the bone-breakers working under the Voda. I wouldn’t reply to that message if I were you. They can’t force you to talk to them, but they’re sneaky sons-of-bitches. Things are complicated enough right now, but if you bring them into it…”
“The Voda? The Klovoda?” I spoke up when he trailed off, trying to keep my voice even and low like his.
Quillan answered. “The Voda is the leader of our society, the patriarch, the patron, the dictator… if you will—” Silas snorted lightly, and Quillan’s lips quirked at the sides—“The Klovoda are his council, and they do his dirty work, more or less. Since Kingsling is their spokesperson, he’s the second most important person in our society. He only answers to the Voda.” He stopped whispering when the cab driver glanced back at us curiously.
The Zevghéri were reaching out to me, and I wasn’t surprised. I had almost been expecting it. After the valcrick boy warned Noah and Cabe, I had been waiting for someone to say something about it. Now Dominic had slipped me a phone, and Silas and Quillan were sharing glances over my head. I wanted to know more about the Zevghéri, but they kept warning me away from questions whenever I asked them anything to do with pairs or bonds, and I knew that the bonding thing was part of the reason they were keeping me away. Was our bond different to the normal bond? Or were they trying to change the normal bond? They had already made up rules of their own; they weren’t supposed to do a lot of things with me, but then again, those rules might have been standard rules when a bonding happened. The connection brought us closer, and they probably laid down the rules to stop feelings from getting involved.
I thought about everything on the drive, and was quiet when we reached the house. It had taken around twenty minutes up a mountain to reach from the closest town, and it felt very isolated, but secure at the same time. It was nestled at the base of an outcrop looking down into a viridescent gully with a short stretch of wilderness scattered over the plain behind it. The house itself was four stories high, with two glass rooms on either end poking above the rest of the house, looking like sentry towers. There was a huge wooden deck out the front, set beneath the second story of the house, and there were lanterns dropping like stars down from the roof to light up the space. We dragged our suitcases to the deck and a man came out to meet us.
“Welcome back, Mrs. Adair!” He was enthusiastic as he grabbed Tabby’s hands, pressed a kiss to each of her cheeks, and then moved onto the boys. He greeted each of them by name, though his reception was considerably less warm, and he finally paused when he got to me. He swept his eyes all the way down to my shoes and then back up again, pulling his bushy eyebrows high. “A girl.”
I immediately looked to the deck beneath my feet, feeling uncomfortable. The guys didn’t exactly seem like the types to bring girls back to their mountain home… but then again, it wasn’t that far-fetched.
“A friend, Abe,” Quillan said sternly, his hand touching my elbow, drawing me forward.
I blushed, walking into the house at his gentle insistence, and Tabby seemed to take pity on me. She wrapped her arm around my shoulders and steered me off from the others. “Cabe, bring her suitcase will you, darling?” Behind us, Abe began to grumble about having to clean up after an extra person.
I kept looking at the ground as we moved up a staircase, and then another, and after the third, I started peeking around. The house was mostly glass, with gorgeous wooden accents, and the windows were heavily tinted, so walking by them almost seemed like walking by a mirror. When we reached a bedroom, I found myself staring at the reflection in the glass instead of the furniture. Tabby was half a head taller than me, which wasn’t too surprising since most people were taller than me. My hair fell in sluggish waves to the small of my back, shaping my small, heart-shaped face like a cloud of black smoke, the wisps shorter in places to brush over my forehead or curl to my chin. My mismatched eyes stood out too much. The blue-green was a dark shade, the colours merging with striking emphasis while the blue-purple of my other eye boasted a shadowy film; the colours seemed to shift as I moved my head, like there were ghosts within, dancing about and peeking out from some hidden place within my mind.
I flinched back from my reflection, and forced myself to take in the room instead. There was a big four-poster bed with a thick mattress and piles of soft yellow bedding. Billowy cream curtains hung from the frame and I loved it immediately.
“Are you sure you want to put her in here, Tab?” Cabe sounded uncomfortable. I glanced back at him and caught him shifting nervously on his feet. “Maybe she would be more comfortable in one of the guest rooms?”
“Nonsense.” Tabby clucked her tongue, her expression set. It felt forced. “The top rooms have been empty for too long. It’s about time someone made use of t
hem.” Her tone was distinctly disapproving now, and Cabe flushed.
“Easy, Tab,” he mumbled lowly. “Don’t get the wrong idea.”
She huffed, and almost marched out of the room, but caught herself at the doorway. “Come down to dinner soon, sweetie. Don’t be shy.” She was speaking to me, and I nodded to her after I had recovered from my surprise at Cabe’s words and Tabby’s reaction to them.
Cabe set my suitcase onto the bed and threaded a hand through his hair. “Sorry about that. They had these two tower rooms done up…” he trailed off and shook his head. “Never mind. Anyway, this is your room.”
“Thanks, Lucifer.” I smiled at him, finding his nervousness endearing.
He flashed a smile back, relaxing a little bit. “Come on, let’s go find Clarin, he’s going to fall all over you, just wait.”
“Um.” I resisted, planting my feet. “I’d rather nobody fell all over me, if that’s okay.”
He rolled his eyes and tugged on my hand again. “Not like that. He’s gay. Although if there was anyone who could turn a gay man’s head…”
I shook my head at him and he looped an arm around my waist, half dragging me down the stairs. We reached the first floor and I knew from the look Noah shot me that Quillan or Silas had already filled him in about Dominic’s phone. He stood there alone, his arms folded tightly. I reached out and snagged his shirt, pulling him after us. He let out a resigned breath.
“Yo!” Cabe called out as we entered another room with a cold stone floor and a fireplace crackling away.
There was a pool table in the middle of the room and Quillan and Silas leaned on either side of the fireplace, taking up identical poses with right legs bent, feet planted back on the stone behind them, and their arms folded. They each had a pool cue resting on the inside of their bent legs. I paused, confusion slamming into me. It was the first time they had ever looked identical. As soon as they spotted me, the differences became apparent again; Quillan smiled gently, Silas’s left eyebrow quirked. It was almost a relief.
There was another boy in the room, probably around my age. He had close-cropped black hair and he was covered in tattoos, his arms inked right down to the wrists, some crazy design stretching up over his neck. There was a mark on his cheek too, like a half-moon. I was staring, unable to help myself. He was simply beautiful, with soft lips—minus the black ring pierced in the corner of his bottom lip—and deep green eyes. He was staring back at me, his head tilted slightly to the side.
“I think I’m interested in girls,” he decided.
Quillan tipped his head back and groaned, and Silas whipped up his pool cue so quickly that I barely saw it happening. He smacked it across the back of the boy’s head with a crack. “Shut the hell up, Clarin.”
Clarin laughed, rubbing the back of his head. “Just kidding!” He stepped over to me, drawing me into a one-armed hug that had me stiffening. A cold and jarring feeling swooped into me, and I waited for the hug to be over. “So this is the mysterious female houseguest. Stephanie, right?”
Noah pulled me back, extracting me from Clarin’s grip, and I immediately relaxed. Even the scratching feeling was better than that. “We call her Seph, and stop touching her, man. She hates being touched.”
Clarin rolled his eyes. “Relax, Noah, or you’ll have your work cut out for you. Me and her? We’re gonna be tight.”
I quickly dropped my eyes to the ground and stepped back, uneasiness rolling through me. I had been surrounded by my pairs and Tariq for too long. I had almost forgotten how my usual interactions with people felt. Noah’s grip on the back of my shirt slackened, and he allowed me to partially hide behind him.
Perhaps this situation should have concerned me.
“Aw, did I scare the little mouse?” Clarin asked, leaning over to take a shot on the table.
I burrowed into Noah’s back and didn’t move even when Tabby came into the room. I needed to feel one of them close to me, and despite what little sense there was to be found in the notion, I was unable to combat it. It was a need. Clarin didn’t seem to notice, and the guys acted casual enough, but Tabby was throwing me strange looks. Abe entered the room at one point and handed her a glass of red wine. She smiled and thanked him quietly, and he retreated again, still grumbling.
“So how have you been, Clarin?” Tabby asked.
“Pretty good, Tab. You know how it is.” He flicked his hand. “The Klovoda are all over the Washington branch right now, trying to get anyone to reach out to—”
Quillan cleared his throat, and Clarin paused. I peeked out from behind Noah, and he caught my eye, looking confused.
“I thought she was… I mean, her eyes—”
Quillan cleared his throat again, and Clarin’s confusion doubled. So did mine.
“Reach out to who?” I asked, my voice barely audible.
Nobody answered me.
“So nothing much has changed,” Clarin said, switching back to a casual tone and grinning at Tabby. “How’s the school treating you?”
“Good.” She smiled. “The kids are adorable, as ever.”
As Clarin and Tabby spoke about the primary school that Tabby worked at, I gradually pulled away from Noah. I found a chair by the window, on the opposite side of the room to Tabby and Clarin, and tucked my legs beneath me, fiddling with the hem of my shirt. Noah picked up a pool cue and Cabe sat next to me. I was thankful that he didn’t reach out to touch me, even though I leaned toward him to feel the press of his arm. The scratching feeling was there, but muted, the more insistent need to be close to one of them overpowering it.
I was happy that everyone ignored me—even though I was pretty sure they did it deliberately—and had eased into some semblance of comfort by the time Abe returned and announced that dinner was ready. We followed him out of the stone-floored room and passed into a formal-looking dining room, which had been set up all ready for dinner. Cabe pulled out my chair for me, and sat on one side with Noah on the other. Clarin shot us a few looks, but was much more covert than Tabby. The dinner was amazing; soft, home-baked bread and rich minestrone soup followed by a fancy chicken dish. Dessert was a slice of cheesecake so good that I finished it in five bites.
After dinner was finished, Tabby and Quillan pulled off to the side, talking quietly about the school. I slipped up against the wall, wanting to know more about it since we’d be enrolling there. Quillan noticed me and reached out. His touch was light, barely-there, against my forearm, but it drew me forward none-the-less, and that frightened me. Quillan never drew me. He comforted me, and was kind to me… he never drew me.
“The headmaster of this school is one of the Zevghéri,” he told me. “A very influential one, actually. It means that I’ll be able to get a teaching position easily, and you three will be able to get into the school. I’d like us to stick together as much as possible. I doubt anyone would let Silas in as a teacher, he’s a little too… rough, and he’s too old to be considered a student anymore. He’s going to have to stay back.”
“But I can get in on the staff,” Tabby said, smiling. “I taught music at this same school for about ten years.”
“Ohh.” I made a sound of appreciation before I could stop myself, and then blushed and quietened, focussing on Quillan’s shoulder. “Explains Noah,” I whispered.
“Yes.” There was a smile in her voice. “Too bad Cabe didn’t pick up anything.”
“So it’s settled then.” Quillan shifted, and I drew my eyes back up, looking between the two of them. “You’ll go back to the music department and I’ll find a position in the art faculty. I’ll get onto Bill about it tonight and we should all be able to go in tomorrow. No use wasting time.”
“Will you be alright?” Tabby looked at me. “Starting up at a new school?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
“Good.” She cupped my cheek, and I tried not to flinch away, but I did draw a little closer to Quillan.
She whispered her goodnights, said that she was going upstairs to re
ad a book, and then she turned and disappeared.
“Why does it feel so weird?” I asked, checking to make sure the others had left the room too. “When other people touch me, I mean.”
Quillan looked down, letting me press into his side, before he did that light touch to my arm again and walked me back through the stone-floored room and through another doorway behind it into a media room, where the boys all seemed to have congregated. Cabe, Noah and Clarin were lounging in armchairs and Silas was leaning right next to the door when we entered. Quillan walked through and then turned his body quickly, forcing mine to turn as well. I put my hands up against Silas’s chest, steadying myself as I was pressed between the two of them.
Quillan leaned forward, his body brushing against mine. “The bond,” he whispered so low to Silas that I barely caught it. “It’s straining her.”
Silas nodded, and Quillan backed off immediately, disappearing. My fingers curled into the cotton of Silas’s shirt and he gently extracted the material, keeping my hand in his grasp.
“I’m putting her to bed,” he said.
He walked out, and I knew that Noah and Cabe would follow. I was confused, and my head started to spin. I stumbled on the stairs and someone set their hand on my hip to steady me from behind. There was no scratchy feeling at all, which confused me even more. I walked a little faster and the hand fell away.
I found myself in my bedroom and someone flicked the light off. The door closed with a soft click, and there was shuffling as my suitcase was moved from my bed.
“What’s happening?” Noah asked.
I gripped Silas’s shirt again, brushing my nose against the material. I felt drugged. The room was spinning and it suddenly seemed overtly important that I have my pairs with me. I wondered where Quillan was, and felt an urgent need to call out to him, but Silas’s scent kept distracting me.
“The bond is straining her,” Silas said. “It’s been gradually happening all night.”
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