by J Bree
“Now, now, you can’t pass TT without going up against the worst of what our kind can do. You did good, kid. If you didn’t have so many of your own enemies, you’d be free and clear for the rest of the year.” He sounds a little too gleeful at this and I’m about to mouth off at him again, when Felix shifts to reset my broken rib and I find myself completely unable to think, breathe, or function, let alone speak.
Sage stops glaring at everyone around us for a second and rubs at my back, slow, soothing strokes that avoid all of the scrapes and cuts. There’s even a couple of thorns still imbedded there that I don’t want to think about, because I’m sure they’ll feel fucking peachy coming out.
Vivian clears his throat and grumbles a little under his breath before finally speaking, “You should be proud of yourself, everything you did in there was perfect. Half the others didn’t make it past their first room. Only a handful made it through a second. And only one other student has made it past the pond girl on their first try. She feeds on fear and you barely gave her anything to work with.”
Well.
Okay, that does make me feel a little better, I guess. The pond girl looked horrifying but she wasn’t really that bad to get past, just so long as I don’t think about whatever diseases she has in her mouth that are now in my foot.
Eww.
Vivian glances around at the other students and then drops his voice a little lower, “Thirty years in a TacTeam taught me that what your gift is doesn’t mean shit about who you are… it’s what you’re going to do with it. Look at Gryphon, with his career trajectory you’d be thinking he was a shifter or some other physical gift, but he proves every day that you don’t need it. If you’ve got nothing but your backbone, kid, you’re going to be fine out there.”
That’s too fucking nice and sweet for me today and now I feel shit about how much I cursed the old man out in my head while I was in that hellhole of a maze of his.
I sigh and press the ice to my temple a little firmer, wincing when Felix digs one of the thorns out of my back. “Shouldn’t you hate me for rejecting your favorite student?”
He shrugs. “The best things in life don’t come without hard work. If he wants you, he should prove himself to you. I’ve known a lotta bad kids in my time here, you’re not one of ‘em.”
Then he turns on his heel and stalks off, barking orders at the other students around us. He’s not even a little nice to any of them and that makes me feel better for all of a second before Gabe shows up and collapses on the ground in front of me. There’s mud and dirt on him but otherwise he’s untouched, which is annoying, especially as Felix finds another thorn in my back to dig out.
“How far did you get? I heard Zoey sabotaged you and she missed out on the flag because of it.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Don’t come here to rub it in, I’m not in the mood for it and if you think I’m a bitch to you normally, you have no idea of what I’m capable of when I’ve had a passing grade snatched away from me.”
He straightens and blinks at me, the asshole exterior melting away in an instant. “You got to the flag?”
I grit out from between my teeth, “Yes, asshole, I made it there first and then you’re little girlfriend—”
“She’s not my fucking girlfriend. You made it to the flag and Zoey knocked you out there? Are you fucking kidding me?”
Oh, of course, because a Gift-less brat couldn’t possibly beat all of these amazing and Gifted athletes. Of course I couldn’t possibly control my fears and work through my pain like the others. Of course fucking not.
So I smirk and shrug at him, the picture of a smug bitch. “What, like it was hard? I’m honestly a little disappointed in your abilities if you couldn’t get through without help.”
Felix snorts and then glances at Sage for a second, like he’s gauging her response to whatever he has to input here. When his eyes finally flick back to me, he gives me a lopsided grin. “The bones are all set and the thorns are out. If I can put my hand on your chest, then I can fix all of the cuts and scrapes at once… is that okay?”
Gabe’s eyebrows pull down tight and I just fucking snap, “What, you’d rather me heal slowly and painfully after getting through two rooms and the entire fucking maze by myself?”
I don’t give him the chance to answer me. Instead, I yank the neckline of my shirt down and snap, “Thank you, Felix, I appreciate you helping me for no other reason than our friendship.”
Sage coughs like she’s now the one smothering laughter and Felix snorts at the look on Gabe’s face as he presses his palm to my chest, his gift flowing into me and healing everything it touches.
I feel the moment it touches my own gift, skirting around it respectfully.
Felix’s eyes snap to mine.
I give him the smallest shake of my head that I can manage and, bless him, he presses his lips together firmly in silent reply. I decide that I’ll back him with Sage if she ever asks my opinion because that right there is a truly good man.
The moment I’m healed and Felix steps away, my entire body checks out for a good nap time. Sage squeaks a little as she catches me, my body slumping down into hers, and my last thought is about how lucky I am to have found friends like her and Felix, with his magic healing hands of gold.
I wake up in my tiny, uncomfortable bed in my dorm room.
I’m still dressed in the rags of my TT workout gear but a blanket has been thrown over me and a glass of water left on my tiny bedside cupboard. I guzzle the whole thing down and then check my phone for the time, finding messages from Sage, Atlas, and North waiting for me.
Gabe carried you the whole way back to your room. Felix and I came too, and I tucked you into bed, call me if you need anything. x
Sage is my favorite, and while Gabe gets points for physically getting me home, he’s still an asshole.
I called Draven when you missed our usual call, I’m having something delivered for you in the morning. I told your jailer what it is, so he shouldn’t be too much of a dickhead about it.
Atlas has taken to calling North as many derogatory and rude names as he can in our messages and phone calls now that he knows we’re being monitored. I’m a little shocked that he called him over something as small as me missing a call but he always has treated me like I’m something precious.
I still feel horrendously guilty over it.
And then there’s North’s message.
If you are too injured to attend study or classes, I will send another healer to you. There are no excuses for failing your classes.
I reply to Sage and Atlas straight away and leave North on read because he can choke on a dick for all I care, then I make the slow and painful trip to the bathroom to pee and scrub the horrors of the day away from my skin. Felix did an amazing job of putting me back together but there’s a leftover ache in my bones and muscles that make breathing freaking excruciating. Not that I’m complaining, because this is a million times better than healing without the help but, man, do I want to die the second the water hits me like a thousand burning needles into my raw skin.
Showers are usually my safe space, the one enjoyable experience of my day, and having that torn away from me has me cursing Vivian out again. Just because I like the old asshole, doesn’t mean I can’t also hate him at the same time for this bullshit. When I manage to crawl back to my room, I immediately pass out and sleep the day away.
I wake up in the afternoon, disorientated and ravenous.
I pull clothes on, whatever is comfortable, and walk down to the campus dining hall by myself to eat an early dinner. I’m expecting to catch shit from someone for looking homeless in my sweatpants and hoodie pulled up over my head, but either no one recognizes me, or they’re all too hungover from a great Friday night to notice me here.
I eat enough food to fill a football team up.
Being healed by a Gifted always makes you hungry but, fuck me, three plates down and I’m still thinking about grabbing another breadstick and dipping it in the spaghetti
sauce, sprinkling some cheese on it… God, by the time I talk myself out of a fifth plate I think my stomach is in real danger of splitting open.
What a way to die.
My walk back to the dorms is slower now that I’m carrying an extra twenty pounds of undigested carbs and sauces, and there’s a package waiting for me at the desk when I get back to the building.
Flowers from Atlas with a teddy, a card that apologizes for being cheesy even though I’m crying over his thoughtfulness, and a box full of candies and chocolates. It’s honestly the nicest thing a guy has ever done for me and I have no idea of how to thank him without feeling like I’m leading him on.
The guilt climbs back up my spine and I have to push it away again because… well, I’ve been honest with him, as honest as I can be. I’ve told him I don’t want to stay. I’ve told him I can’t be with any of them. Is that enough for me to accept these gifts without feeling like I’m the worst type of bitch?
I’m too freakin inept at dealing with bonds and the emotional baggage that comes with them to navigate this without causing damage.
I get back to my room and binge on the candies like I haven’t just eaten a huge meal at the dining hall, all of my emotions opening up a black hole inside of me that I need the sugar to fill. I send a fumbling thank you to Atlas and then turn my phone off because I’m a coward right now and can’t think of how to talk to him.
I’m seriously considering messaging Sage to whine about the bullshit that is my life, when there’s a knock at my door.
Who the hell is it now?
Because Sage would message first and no one else that I hang out with would show up here without her. When I step up to the door my Bond gives a little tug in my chest, my hand pausing halfway to the door handle because there’s no way I want to face North or Gabe right now.
I’m too sore to verbally spar with either of them, and I don’t want North thinking he’s broken me just because I’m not in my usual full-glory brat mode.
“Open the door, Oli.”
Fucking typical.
Of course it would be Gryphon showing up to mess with my entire freaking day because he’s the Bond that can actually fuck my shit up. The butterflies in my stomach are screaming danger at me, but I open the door and face him anyway.
He’s the hardest of them all to face.
I think it’s the way he hasn’t confronted me, hasn’t tried to verbally knock me down or take a jab at me, he’s just sat back and observed me, the look on his face always saying a lot about how much I don’t meet his expectations.
His eyes flick over my outfit, my cheeks heating as I remember the fact that I look homeless, and then he steps into me like he’s trying to force his way into the room.
It works, I scramble away from him like his touch would burn me, and he shuts the door firmly behind him. The lock is flimsy and he scowls at it for a second before flicking it anyway. I get the feeling, I’m not sure it would work to keep anyone out of here if they put some effort in.
“The healer did a decent job. I thought for sure you’d be bedridden from the pond bitch’s bite.”
I pull a face at him as my ass lands on my pokey mattress. There’s nowhere for him to sit except on the bed with me and I might die if he does. When was the last time I washed the sheets?
Why do I care about his opinion of my shitty room and the little sauce stain on my hoodie? Get a fucking grip, Oleander.
“She wasn’t that bad.”
As he leans back against the door, he stares me down, crossing his arms over his chest, and suddenly I notice just how freaking stacked he is. I knew it when he’d slid between Giovanna and me at Sage’s party but the creaking noise of his leather jacket straining over his biceps is almost obscene right now.
My bond is a horny, needy bitch in my chest.
“She feeds on fear. Most Gifted go up against her absolutely shitting themselves because she becomes the worst nightmare they’ve ever had to live through. You gave her nothing, even after she spooked you. That’s not a normal response.”
Right, so this is an interrogation.
He’s different from North’s blunt commands or Nox’s scathing barbs. Even Gabe’s brooding, moody blowups are lightyears away from this calm, direct conversation and fuck if it isn’t disarming.
I have to choose my words very carefully. “I never claimed I was normal.”
If he doesn’t stop staring at me I might just break down and bawl like a baby. Is this his gift? To just stare people into a complete mental crisis, because I can confirm that he’s pretty fucking good at wielding this power.
“I think you made a mistake and instead of owning up to it and making amends, you’ve doubled down on it. You should have trusted us… whatever happened in that hospital room that made you run away, you should have run to us instead.”
The terror of thinking about that day when I’d woken up in that sterile room is like ice through my veins. If I was facing the pond bitch now she would eat me alive, guzzling down the meal that those memories would make for her.
Gryphon’s eyes narrow at me, the clear jade color of them striking and burning hot into my skin. All of the fight leaves my body at once, the despair and loathing at myself and the hell I’m stuck in overwhelms me until my mouth starts running. I’d say anything to get him out of here before I really lose my shit.
The tears welling up nearly blind me but I ignore them. “Those opinions of yours tell me I did the right thing and I’m not pissed about it. You can hate me all you like because at least you’re fucking breathing, Gryphon. Please leave, I’m still exhausted from the healing and I can’t do this right now.”
Chapter Fifteen
I sleep away the rest of the weekend, waking up every couple of hours to guzzle down some water and hobble to the bathroom, but my body basically shuts down to process the healing Felix did on me. It’s annoying but my brain becomes nothing but the need to survive, so at least I don’t have to think about Gryphon’s little visit.
The moment Gabe arrives at my door on Monday I can feel the difference in the air between us.
I’m still ready to hate him and bicker like the whole world is ending and it’s his freaking fault, but he looks so freaking miserable and sort of like a sad puppy, even I’m not that much of a bitch to be kicking sad puppies.
As we walk across the campus to the dining hall, he stays close to me, his eyes sharp as he takes in all of our surroundings, like he really is guarding me from something. My senses go on high alert right along with him and when my bond reaches out to his, brushing against him for reassurance, he startles and glances down at me. I get it, I’ve kept it on such a tight leash that he’s never felt it before and I curse myself silently for letting it slip past.
His voice is a rough rasp, answering the question I haven’t found the voice to ask yet, “Three more Bonded were taken last night from one of the gated communities about twenty minutes from here. My cousin was one of them.”
Fuck.
My stomach drops so hard that if I had anything in it, I’d probably be puking on his shoes right now.
They’re getting closer to me.
I’ve been meticulous about not letting my gift slip, not even a small burst of power, so I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that they’re inching in on my location, or if that man has found a way to track me without using my gift as the beacon.
I’m too busy freaking the fuck out about the possibilities that Gabe gets us to the dining hall and fills me a plate of eggs before I make my way out of the panic to take the plate from him. It’s rude of me to not offer him condolences but if I open my mouth right now, Lord knows what will actually come out.
Probably me freaking the fuck out and begging for him to let me go, let me run the hell away before we’re all dead and rotting thanks to the Resistance and their never-ending mission for complete dominance.
We sit and eat in silence, Gabe’s plate is almost completely empty before he breaks it. “When yo
u first disappeared… we all thought you were taken. There’d been a lot of clusters in the area and, well, I was too young to know the details but my parents were both on the Council, so I heard enough to be scared for you. Every time we heard about bodies showing up, I thought it was you. Every time there was news about kids showing up brainwashed, fuck, I hoped it was you so we could get you home and save you, and all that time, you were just hanging out in some city, living whatever life you wanted.”
It’s a sad little story but there’s a few very key things he’s gotten wrong. Most of them I can’t correct without causing a freaking shitstorm, but there is one thing I can set straight. “You know I was in the hospital because of a car accident, right? My entire family died in it. I was fourteen and completely alone in the world. I was terrified. It’s not like I just skipped away into the sunset to live a happy and merry life by myself. Maybe you should try to see past your own story for once, and things might go a little better between us both.”
He swallows and glances around the dining hall, but it’s still a ghost town this early in the morning. It’s why we both like it so much I think, neither of us have to worry about who is watching us eat.
“North told my entire family that you’d been spotted in Florida, working in a record shop, and without any markings or ties to the Resistance. He made it clear that all signs pointed to you just running away. How exactly am I supposed to just look past that?”
I shrug. “How would you take it if your whole family died in a single accident? If they were ripped away like that?”
He stares me down and then pushes his plate away from himself. “I don’t have to imagine it. My dad was taken two years ago and we found his mutilated body a week later. My mom stepped down from the council the next day but she’s still never really come home. If you’re asking me to look past my story, then maybe you should look past yours as well.”
There’s nothing really that I can say back to that and I try to focus on finishing my breakfast, the eggs tasting worse than they usually do now that the room is full of our grief.