Bleeding Rose

10. Ella

Chapter 10

Ella

A knock on her office door yanked Ella away from the notes she’d been scribbling about her encounter with Jamie. She’d only had three minutes of peace before the next crisis arose, though that was standard procedure in the life of a school counselor.

“Come in,” she shouted, then closed her leather notebook and tucked it safely inside her desk drawer.

Headmistress Dyer peeked into Ella’s office, adjusting the red spectacles on the bridge of her nose. She only poked her head through the small opening she’d made in the doorway, the rest of her body remaining hidden in the hallway.

“I have a student here who needs to speak with someone,” Headmistress Dyer explained, a strange twinge of tenseness in her tone, conveying emotion Ella didn’t know the Headmistress was capable of expressing or feeling. “This kind of thing is way past my level of expertise, so I brought him to you.”

“Sure.” What the hell does that mean? “Bring him in.”

Headmistress Dyer shoved the door the full way open, gesticulating with her hand for the student to go to Ella. A gangly young male who appeared no older than twelve inched his way inside her office. There was something oddly familiar about him, though they’d not been formally acquainted. The young boy slid the red beanie off his head, raking his fingers through his short, black curls, and yanked at the tendrils, then lowered onto Ella’s couch and proceeded to stare blankly at her wall.

Headmistress Dyer locked Ella’s door. Ella rose from her chair, circling her desk to meet them by the couch.

“This is Jarion Ates,” Headmistress Dyer introduced, then lightly kicked Jarion’s calf and mumbled, “Can you say hello to Ms. Rose, Jarion?” Jarion said nothing. Just continued staring vacuously at the wall. Headmistress Dyer huffed at the lack of response, then turned back to Ella. “Mr. Park, the middle school dragon-shifter instructor, brought him to my office this afternoon. Jarion, would you like to tell Ms. Rose why?”

“I’d rather not,” he spat in a flat, emotionless voice, still refusing to look at them.

“In what universe do you think it’s acceptable to take that tone with me, Mr. Ates?” Headmistress Dyer barked, her volume making even Ella jump. Jarion peeled his smoldering green eyes off the wall and pinned them on Headmistress Dyer, the pupils thinning into the slender slits of a dragon.

“You asked me if I’d like to tell Ms. Rose what happened. I answered the question. You should choose your words more wisely next time.” Ella should not have found his insolence amusing, but instead struggled to suppress a smile. A furious flush raged through Headmistress Dyer’s cheeks.

“Just like your brother,” she hissed in a way that implied she didn’t mean it as a compliment.

“Don’t fucking mention my brother.” Plumes of steam puffed from Jarion’s flared nostrils.

“Alright,” Ella interrupted, stepping between them. She’d been around enough dragon-shifters now to recognize those eyes and that steam as indicators of flames brewing in their throat. If she didn’t intervene, her office would soon drown in dragon fire. “Someone tell me what happened.”

When Jarion steered his frown back to the wall, Headmistress Dyer explained, “During Power Practice, Mr. Park noticed that there was blood on the back of Jarion’s shirt. He made Jarion lift it so he could see what was there. Then, he called me.”

She wrenched Jarion to his feet by fisting the back of his shirt and spun him around so his spine faced Ella. Then, she tugged down on the material around his collar, exposing Jarion’s upper back.

Ella sucked in a harsh breath.

Along his trapezius muscles were a series of staples nailed into his dark brown flesh with dried blood crested on the metal legs. There were empty holes around the same area that suggested other staples had been there and fell out, now replaced with a new set. Mixed in with the tiny marks were faded scars with a squared-off edge, the welts in the shape of neat, thin triangles, the kind left from the point of a knife’s blade.

Images flickered across Ella’s eyes, choppy and incoherent, blurred through the eyes and memory of a terrified child.

Her mother. A hanger. Pain. Darkness. Her back splitting open. Her mother. A belt. The crack of her cheekbone shattering. More pain. The taste of metal in her mouth. More pain. Oblivion beckoning her forward.

Shut it down, Ella. Not here. Not now.

Jarion shook Headmistress Dyer off, fixing his shirt to conceal the staples, and plopped back down on the couch. Once Ella no longer looked at the injuries, she was freed from the clutches of her cruel memory, regaining the ability to breathe. Headmistress Dyer swung her eyes to Ella, silently pleading for some assistance.

“Jarion,” Ella started, taking a seat on the couch beside him. “You’re not in trouble here. Headmistress Dyer and I only want to understand so we can help you.” Jarion flung a glower at her from the corner of his eye.

“I’m not saying shit to you,” he growled.

“Alright then,” Headmistress Dyer said, a threat fermenting in her tone of voice as she entwined her arms across her chest. “If you don’t want to speak to us, I’ll call your brother down here and you’ll speak to him. Those are your two options. Either you speak to Ms. Rose, or you speak to Kellen.”

Kellen? This is Kellen Kilic’s brother?

Ella forced herself not to flinch or verbally react. She glanced at Jarion again, really drinking him in this time. Now she understood why he seemed so oddly familiar. So many of his features were copied and pasted from Kellen, starting with his burnished complexion, to the hue of his eyes, to the sharp bone structure and those same heated glares she was all too intimate with at this point.

Jarion’s eyes widened at the mention of Kellen.

“ NO,” he exclaimed, finally some emotion leaching into his speech. “Please, don’t. Kellen can’t know about this.”

“Why not?” Ella asked gently. Jarion finally looked at her, pain wrought in his emerald stare.

“It will break his heart,” Jarion whispered, his throat vibrating in conjuncture with his swallow.

“Whether you tell us exactly what happened or not, Kellen has to know what we saw,” Headmistress Dyer said. “It will be better for you if when we tell him, we have all the information.”

“I am begging you not to tell Kellen.” Jarion’s voice cracked in the middle of his plea. “ Please, Headmistress Dyer . I’ll…I’ll tell Ms. Rose why I did it. Just please don’t tell Kellen. Please.”

Headmistress Dyer let loose a heavy breath. Ella prayed that the law in Cavale was the same as it was on the Earthly Plane, that they were legally obligated to share this with Kellen. No matter how she felt about Kellen personally or professionally, it was wrong to withhold something of this magnitude from him, especially since it appeared he was Jarion’s legal guardian, information she’d gleaned from the fact that no one had mentioned a parental figure besides him.

“Alright,” Headmistress Dyer relented much to Ella’s horror. “I won’t tell him, as long as you explain the staples to us right now. So start talking, mister.”

Jarion squinted his eyes at her. “ Only Ms. Rose,” he asserted. “I will only share it with Ms. Rose.”

Headmistress Dyer’s mouth opened to argue.

“It’s okay,” Ella insisted before another quarrel supervened. “We can talk alone. Headmistress Dyer, can you step outside for a moment? I’ll call you back in when we’re finished.”

Headmistress Dyer scoffed in surprise at Ella giving out a directive, but didn’t argue. She stomped out of Ella’s office with a distinct grunt, slamming the door behind her. Whether or not she remained in the hallway or headed back to her own office was unclear.

Once they were alone, Jarion shut his eyes so he didn’t have to face Ella’s possible judgment and exhaled a tattered, unsteady breath. Then, he confessed, “My wings are starting to emerge.”

That was the extent of his explanation.

Ella waited for more, but nothing else came. She paused for a moment to devise a response.

“And you don’t want them to,” she extrapolated from what little information he gave. Jarion opened one eye to look at her and bobbed his head in a stiff nod. “Why?”

“You asked me to tell you why I stapled my back,” he snapped. “That’s why. What else do you want from me?”

“I want to understand why you don’t want them to emerge.” Jarion clenched his fists at his sides, seeing that Ella wouldn’t just fold over and let him walk out that door without revealing some hard truths. “So you stapled your back to keep your wings from emerging. Have the staples been working?”

“No,” he grumbled, his nails biting into his palms. “My wings keep budging them out, so I have to reapply.”

“I saw there were also marks that look like knife cuts.” Jarion cringed.

“Those weren’t from me,” he whispered in a barely audible voice, just loud enough for Ella to catch.

“So all you’ve done is staple your back.” She didn’t need to address that comment right now. They could circle back to it after she earned Jarion’s trust. “Does anyone else know you’ve been doing this?”

“No. I didn’t tell anyone, not even my twin sister, though she knows now. She was in the class when Mr. Park saw the blood.” Jarion’s shoulders deflated before he sunk back against the cushions.

“How do you think she felt seeing that?” Jarion’s cheeks depleted of color. His bottom lip trembled.

“Sad,” he answered, his voice growing hoarser. “I would feel that way if it was the other way around.”

“You mean, if it was your sister who had stapled her own back?” Jarion nodded. He just gave me an in. “If it was your sister who had done this and you found out, what would you say to her?”

Jarion stuffed his fist into his mouth to impede either a sob or fire from toppling off his tongue. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he bit down on his fingers, imprisoning a scream in his throat. Without saying a word, Ella crossed the room, grabbed the tissue box on her desk, and set it down next to Jarion before reclaiming her spot on the couch. Jarion wordlessly leaned forward and grabbed a tissue.

“I would tell her…that I wouldn’t want her to suffer,” he whimpered, smudging the tears on his cheeks with the napkin.

“Don’t you think you deserve the same?” He hesitated, then shook his head. “Why not, Jarion?”

“It’s complicated, Ms. Rose I don’t want to get into everything right now.”

“That’s okay. You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to, Jarion. I’m not here to force you into speaking if you’re not ready. If and when you choose to share these details with me is up to you. I’ll be here for you regardless.” Ella rested her cheek in her palm, positioning her elbow on the back of the couch so she could twist her whole body to face him. “Look, I’ll be honest with you, Jarion. If we were on the Earthly Plane right now, I would be legally obligated to tell your guardian that you’ve been self-harming.”

“I’m not self-harming,” he growled, rolling his eyes.

“You are stapling your back to keep your wings from emerging, which is literally fighting against your being. I can only imagine that not releasing your wings hurts you in some way, but even if it doesn’t, you are injecting staples into your own back. That is, by definition, causing harm to yourself.”

“Are you going to tell my brother?”

Ella sensed that if she said yes, Jarion would march out that door and never come into her office again.

“Since it doesn’t appear to be a rule in Cavale that I need to share self-injury with your legal guardian, no, I won’t tell your brother. All I can do is encourage you to either talk to me or talk to your sister or brother yourself. Again, I will not force you to speak to me if you don’t want to. I don’t feel comfortable, however, allowing you to leave this office if you continue to use the staples on yourself. Even if you don’t want to talk to me about what’s going on with you, we need to establish a plan together to ensure that you stop these behaviors.” Jarion vibrated with the intensification of his tears.

“I can’t release my wings, Ms. Rose. I can’t.”

“One thing at a time. We can discuss that more later, but right now, my biggest concern is getting you to stop using the staples on yourself. Here’s what I propose. We will have daily check-ins. You report to my office first thing in the morning and show me your back so I know you haven’t stapled yourself and I can keep you accountable.”

“Seriously?” he groaned.

“ Seriously ,” she asserted, narrowing her eyes at his tone. While she’d taken a gentler approach with him, he needed to remember that she was an authority figure here at Delmarth and deserved to be treated with the same respect he should be granting all his instructors. “You are more than welcome to come to my office at any time during the day if you ever wish to discuss anything with me further, or if you ever need a place to just sit and be alone for a moment. If you’re not ready for any of that yet, for right now, we’ll start with this. Please trust me when I tell you that this is not a punishment, Jarion. You’re not in trouble. This is meant to help you. Okay?”

“Fine. Can I go now?” Ella sighed.

“Yes. You can go.” Jarion grabbed his beanie, slipped it back over his curls, and headed for the door. “I’ll see you first thing tomorrow, Jarion,” she called out to him when he crossed over the threshold, not turning back to look at her.

Ella raked her fingers through her hair with a wearied sigh just as Headmistress Dyer stepped back into the room.

“How did it go?” she asked Ella.

“Okay, I think. He doesn’t trust me yet, so it’ll take some time for him to warm up to me, but I’ll keep working at it.”

“Great. What did he tell you?” Ella dithered.

To support her students’ rights to privacy, she needed to maintain confidentiality with her students even against the wishes of her principal and fellow educators. She already knew this would not go over well with the Headmistress, but she was determined to continue to act in this role as she’d been taught, even with all the different rule changes in Cavale and her needing to adapt so much of this job to their customs.

“If there is anything shared in our sessions together that I believe is pertinent for you to know, I will share it with you. Otherwise, I must maintain confidentiality with my students.” Before Headmistress Dyer could object, the fight building in her eyes, Ella added, “What I can say is that Jarion agreed to come to my office at the start of each day and show me his back so we can be sure the behavior doesn’t continue. If he does this again, I will immediately update both you and Kellen, if it’s a behavior Jarion can’t stop doing on his own. I encouraged him to tell Kellen what happened today, though I don’t think he will.”

“I bet Laya already told him.” Laya must be the sister, Ella thought to herself. “Thank you for speaking to him, Noella. I feel for Jarion. He and his sister have been through so much. Their mother and father are dreadful people.”

You should not be telling me this right now. It should be Jarion who tells me if and when he wants to.

“I will keep a close eye on him and make sure he’s alright,” Ella promised, hoping to terminate this discussion before she learned anything more about Jarion and his family without their consent.

“Perfect.” Before she left, Ella took advantage of having the Headmistress there to ask a question.

“Just so I know for the future…do I need parental consent before beginning counseling with a student?”

“No,” Headmistress Dyer replied. “If you ask any parent, they’ll automatically say no, since you’re a human. We have no rule that states you need it, since we have no rules attached to having a school counselor in general, so don’t bother trying to get consent. Just start counseling with the students you need to see.”

“Alright.” This was one rule change she was pleased with. “Thank you, Headmistress Dyer.”

“Keep me informed on any changes with Jarion.”

“Of course.” Ella watched the Headmistress exit her office.

The minute the door clicked shut, she blew out a sigh of relief, then dropped her cheek onto the cold surface of her desk.

I need a fucking nap.

“Markus Loewe,” Kellen bellowed when he spotted the Cerebri passing by his office. “I need to speak to you.”

Markus came to a halt, staring down at the floor as if weighing the choice to defy Kellen’s order and keep walking. When he determined the end result of disobedience would be ugly, a correct supposition, Markus turned back around and scampered to where Kellen leaned against the doorframe of his classroom, gesturing for the Cerebri to enter. Once Markus plopped down at his desk, Kellen shut the door, then took his sweet time crossing the room to take a seat on his own desk, purposefully dragging the moment out to promote unease in the student. He positioned himself so he towered over the seventeen-year-old, his shadow dousing Markus’s face in murky disappointment, not that the Cerebri seemed to care, his amber eyes filled with boredom.

“You haven’t handed in a single reading log since the start of the semester,” Kellen began. “In case you didn’t know, you’re supposed to read the assigned myths in Chronicles of the Cavalian Gods and write a paragraph with your thoughts and questions about each lore. You’ve made it to your senior year, so I imagine that means you possess some scrap of intelligence that you can use to manage your workload.” Markus gulped, fidgeting in his chair, but provided no verbal response.

Soften your tone, Kilic. Don’t be so harsh with him. The voice in his head who uttered this didn’t sound like him—it sounded like the female he despised, the human who haunted him in his waking hours and in slumber.

“Why haven’t you handed in any of your assignments?” Markus shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know. I forgot.”

“You forgot? ” Kellen bit his tongue to try to hamper the flow of vitriol that threatened to spill out of his mouth. In the end, he lost the battle of wills against the venom. “You do realize that’s an unacceptable answer, right? You’re a senior. You’re supposed to be graduating in June. Do you need to have your hand held through every assignment like a fucking three-year-old? Should I send you back to Kindergarten?” Markus flinched. Kellen felt it in his gut, as though Markus had punted him.

Don’t be a dick, Noella’s voice hissed in his head.

Get out of my head, Rose, he hissed back at her, but found himself heeding her warning by taking a different approach.

“I don’t understand, Markus.” It pained him to speak in a gentler manner. “You’ve always been a good kid. You’ve never been top of your class, but you’ve never struggled to keep up with coursework like this before. I see you in the hallway with your friends, and you seem fine. Is something going on that I should be concerned about?”

“No,” Markus insisted, now appearing chagrinned, unable to meet Kellen’s eye. Maybe I should bring him to Ms. Rose.

Terrible idea, Kellen. We’re trying to limit our contact with that woman, not increase it.

“Look, I wouldn’t normally do this, but I’m giving you a chance to make up the missing logs. You won’t get full credit for them, but you can receive partial credit if you get them to me by Wednesday. Think you can handle that?” Markus bobbed his head yes . “Good. Get them to me by Wednesday.”

“Okay.” Markus rose from his chair. “Thanks, Mr. Kilic.” Kellen waved his hand in response, his eyes glued to the screen of his phone as he read the message waiting there from his sister.

Laylie: I need to talk to you. Are you in class right now?

Kellen: I just finished speaking with a student. Are you okay? His mind ran rampant with possible reasons for her urgency.

Laylie: I’m fine. It’s about Jare. Kellen called her immediately.

“What happened?” he spluttered, fumbling to pack his briefcase in case he needed to sprint over to them.

“Please try, and I really mean try, not to freak out about this, Kellen. I’m only telling you this because Jare won’t and I think you should know, but he will kill me if he knows I’m talking to you about this right now. I need you to promise you’re not going to storm our room and hunt him down or anything. I’m serious.”

That did nothing to assuage his anxiety. “You know I can’t promise that. Just tell me what happened, Laya.”

Laya sighed, her heavy breath vibrating through his ear, before she finally confessed, “Jare has been stapling his back to keep his wings from emerging. Mr. Park saw blood on the back of his shirt and made him lift it in front of the whole class. Everyone saw.” Kellen’s blood ran cold.

He felt it freeze in his veins. An avalanche of shudders surged down his back, coating his flesh in tiny bumps of horror. Oxygen was unattainable, refusing to make a home in his lungs, his ribcage tight.

“Kell?” Laya squeaked when he hadn’t spoken in several minutes. “Are you—” He hung up the phone.

Kellen dashed through the hallway and lunged out the open window as his wings split past his back, ripping through his flesh and razing the flimsy material of his button-down shirt. He beat his wings against the pressure of the wind, shredding the current apart so nothing could hinder his flight, and flew across the Varmin quarter to student housing, locating his siblings’ shared dorm on the third floor. Then, with no preamble or warning, he burst through their window.

Glass spewed everywhere.

Laya screamed from where she’d sprawled out on her bed, scrambling to sit up and flatten herself against her wall, shielding her eyes from shards of glass by covering her face with her hands. Jarion toppled out of his chair, ripping his headphones off and darting to stand in front of his sister, in case the intruder was a dangerous threat.

When he realized it was just Kellen, Jarion groaned and skulked back to his desk, sinking into his chair.

“Kell,” Laya gasped, jumping off her bed. “Don’t—”

“Show me your back.” Kellen hovered over Jarion, letting his shadow swallow Jarion’s scrawny figure. When Jarion didn’t move, he snarled, “Show me your back right fucking now, Jarion.”

Jarion turned to stone. His cheeks paled. “Who told you? Was it Ms. Rose?”

“ Ms. Rose?” If Kellen was angry before, he was furious now. “You spoke to Ms. Rose about this before me?!”

Jarion didn’t acknowledge that. “Who fucking told you, Kellen?!”

“I DID!” Laya squeaked, threading her fingers in her hair. At the look of utter betrayal devouring Jarion’s features, at the way his shoulders wilted, she cried, “I’m sorry, Jare, but Kellen needed to know.”

“How could you do that to me?” he snarled. Laya fragmented into tears.

“Don’t be angry at Laya, Jare,” Kellen interjected. “Don’t be angry at either of us right now. We’re trying to be here for you, but you won’t let us!” Kellen paused when he felt a sob grind inside his throat. In a grief-stricken tone, weighed down by love and devastation, he whispered, “You’ve been stapling your back? Why? Why are you fighting against what you are, Jare?”

“I don’t want to talk about this with you,” Jarion stammered in a voice so divergent from the strong, charismatic boy Kellen knew and loved. The kid in front of him now sounded fragile, lost, terrified and angry at both himself and the world.

“Do you know what will happen to you if you don’t release your wings? Have they explained it to you in Power Practice yet?” Jarion’s lips knit shut to show they had, but Kellen still recapped it for him. “Your dragon will eat you alive from the inside out. Your flesh will be consumed by fire. You could die, Jare. This is really fucking serious, way beyond you injecting staples into your back, which is a whole other issue.”

“I really don’t feel like being judged by you, Kellen,” Jarion snapped, causing Kellen to double back.

“Judged?” Kellen gasped. “I’m not judging you, Jare. I’m concerned about you. I love you. I’m scared for you. But I’m not judging you.” Jarion scowled at Kellen, giving him nothing back.

Come on, Jare. Fucking talk to me!

Kellen exhaled in defeat, then chose a different tactic. “I need to know what you said to Ms. Rose.”

“I didn’t say anything to Ms. Rose,” Jarion insisted. “She mostly talked at me and tried to get me to tell you.” Interesting. She was on my side? “She now wants me to stop by her office first thing every morning.”

Kellen jerked his head back. “Why the fuck does she want that?”

“She wants to check my back every morning to make sure I’m not stapling myself anymore. Something about keeping me accountable or what the fuck ever.” Kellen fought the feeling of gratitude he felt swell inside him at hearing how Noella handled Jarion, reminding himself of what would happen if their mother caught wind of Jarion sparking a relationship with Ms. Rose.

“You will not begin counseling with her in any capacity.”

“I don’t want to begin counseling with her in any capacity,” Jarion spat out, while Laya took a step forward in protest.

“Good,” Kellen said. “Keep it that way.”

“Why?” Laya asked. “Ms. Rose seems nice. My friend, Claudia went to speak to her the other day about an issue she’s been having with a kid in our grade, and she said Ms. Rose was really helpful.”

“I don’t care if she’s the nicest, most helpful individual who’s ever graced the fucking universe. She’s a human. There’s nothing either of you can say to her that you can’t say to me, that you should be saying to me. Neither of you will speak to her in a counseling capacity or in general. If you see her, you will walk the other way. Stay away from her.”

“ Why?” Laya pressed, her volume rising. “If Ms. Rose could possibly help—”

“You will not speak to her because I asked you not to, Eulaylia. Do not make me repeat myself.”

Laya stumbled back from Kellen as if he’d struck her. She blinked at him before she schooled her features into a mask of dispassion, aligning her posture to disguise the hurt he saw resonate in her eyes.

“Whatever you say, Mr. Kilic,” she hissed, then took a seat on her bed.

“Laya—” His words faded into mist when Jarion began trekking to the door. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going right now?”

“ Out,” Jarion hissed.

“We’re not done speaking, Jarion.”

“I’m done speaking to you, Kellen. You said your piece, and now, I’m done listening to you.”

“ Jarion Ates—” Jarion slammed the door shut behind him.

Kellen had never had such a difficult time grasping for words, but none came to mind after that performance.

“You deserved that,” Laya tossed at Kellen, folding her legs into a pretzel on her bedspread.

“Why are you mad at me now?” Kellen groaned.

“Because you shouldn’t be banning us, especially Jarion right now, from talking to someone who could possibly be of help to him. The big brother I love, the one I look up to more than anyone in this world, he wouldn’t care that Ms. Rose is a human. He would recognize that she’s the only person in Cavale who has a chance of getting through to our brother and helping him to stop hurting himself. You really think he’s going to stop, Kell? That he’s going to open up to either of us about whatever the fuck he’s going through? He won’t. She’s the only person he might talk to, and you just stopped him from doing that. No matter how angry he seems right now, he idolizes you. If you tell him not to speak to her, he will listen to you, even if it’s the worst thing for him. If something horrible happens to Jarion, Kellen, I’m going to hold you personally responsible.”

Kellen felt all the oxygen in the room being cleaved from his lungs, knocking the wind out of him. The blow reverberated down to his knees, almost clouting him to the floor, fire stinging his throat.

“Laya,” he whispered, then tentatively treaded towards her and took a seat at the foot of her bed. She didn’t cringe away from him, but she didn’t welcome him either. She stayed frozen by her pillows. “I want to help Jarion. I’m trying to help him in the only ways I know how. I may do or say things you don’t agree with, but I need you to know that I’m always acting in both of your best interests. I promise, my love.”

“How is prohibiting us from speaking to the school counselor acting in our best interests?”

“Do you know what our mother would do if she found out you’re speaking to the human about our family issues?” he blurted, losing control over his filter. Laya’s eyes almost fell out of their sockets at the mention of their mother. “You know why she came to campus at the start of the year? It was because she tried to have the two of you removed from Delmarth when she found out a human was joining the faculty. Imagine what she’ll do if she finds out either of you are seeing her. I…I may lose you both.” Laya’s expression softened, the anger dissolving from her gaze, replaced by a film of tears glazing over the green hue. “I know Ms. Rose can help him. I’ve seen her with other students. I hate to admit it, but she’s damn good at her job, which is why it kills me to say this to you guys. I would never ask this of you if it wasn’t necessary. I would never normally tell you this, but I’m scared, Laylie. I’m scared of what Mom will do if she finds out. I’m scared she’ll try to take you away from me, and I’m scared she’ll win. Please, Laylie. Trust me.”

Laya stretched forward and slipped her fingers through the empty slots between Kellen’s. She said nothing to assure Kellen that she understood his position. She gave him no promises that she would stay away from Ms. Rose. She simply squeezed his fingers and offered her version of a conciliatory smile.

“I wish you would have told me that sooner,” she whimpered through tears, yanking at the strings of his heart.

“I wish I never needed to tell you,” he replied, smudging her tears with his thumb.

“You should probably go,” Laya whispered contritely. “Jarion will be pissed if you’re still here when he gets back. Give him some space, Kell. I’ll keep an eye on him. I won’t let him hurt himself anymore. I promise.”

That, she could promise him.

“Your soul is too old for a twelve-year-old,” Kellen quipped, stroking her cheek. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I love you, Laylie.”

“I love you more, Kellings.” He glided off the bed, heading to the door this time rather than use the window to exit.

Only one thought resounded in his brain: I need to find Noella Rose.