Chapter 20 #2
“Thank fuck. I thought—” Knox grits out through a clenched jaw. “Dammit! What were you thinking?”
What was Grayson thinking? Good fucking question.
He hadn’t been, not really. But he has never ignored his pre-cog, and he hadn’t been about to start now. If The Plain said he had to move, Grayson moved, and he has never regretted it.
Knox moves closer, and the scent of his cologne and patchouli floods the place between them.
It’s stronger than it usually is, even when he’s trying to encourage Grayson to cut loose in class.
He must have been drawing hard on The Plain for it to be still sticking around through that breeze and outdoors.
He has a hard hand on Grayson’s shoulder so he can give him a tiny shake. “I thought they’d taken you. After all that’s happened, you try to throw yourself into the back of the van all on your own. How stupid—”
Before Grayson can process that his teacher knows about the threat Kirwan posed or the mysterious van, his professor is pressed up against the building, feet off the ground, with Rowan’s narrowed gaze clocking every surprised twitch.
It’s a testament to how scary he looks that Knox doesn’t even have a second to draw on his power.
“I have had enough. Don’t fucking touch him. Why can’t you fuckers show some respect?” Rowan gives the smaller man a shake. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?” It’s growled out, and Grayson can see his mate shimmering as he fights off his Wolf’s transformation
“It’s okay, Ro,” Grayson murmurs, but doesn’t move an inch.
“No, it fucking isn’t. These magical assholes think that they can treat you like a dumbass kid. Like being Were isn’t good enough, and they’re fucking rude about it.”
Knox wisely says nothing, but he doesn’t hesitate to meet Rowan’s eyes. Brave, but stupid, as eye contact with a dominant Were meant a challenge, but maybe his teacher already knows that.
Before Rowan loses his grip and shifts—or worse, renders Grayson’s favorite teacher unconscious with a fist to his face—Grayson lowers his voice to say, “He’s my friend, baby. My teacher and—”
“I’d rather speak for myself, if that’s okay with you?” Knox interrupts. “He’s right, Grayson. I was rude.”
Rowan narrows his eyes suspiciously.
“I’m sorry. It’s not an excuse, I overreacted, but I am…uh…” He tilts his head to the side, carefully choosing a word that won’t set Rowan off again. “I am fond of your mate.”
“Fond,” Rowan repeats with a growl.
“Er, yes…we’re friends. I am his teacher, but have learned to respect and admire—”
Another growl, and Grayson sees this going to shit before his very eyes.
“Sorry, Professor,” Grayson interrupts what is surely going to be an admiring description of all the things he and his friend have in common, but will ping Rowan’s possessive jealousy while he’s in the heightened pre-wolf-out state.
“What he’s trying to say is that I am a good student and he’s trying to keep me safe.
You want that when I’m here without you, right? ”
He’s close enough now to run a hand down Rowan’s spine; it often works to calm him in wolf form as well as when he’s a giant, almost-seven-foot person.
“Yes, I was worried.” Knox catches on, thankfully. “We can’t underestimate Kirwan and her connections.”
The mention of her name sets Rowan’s wolf off again, and he slams Knox back against the brick.
“Rowan Foster.” Gideon has pushed open the door so he and Grayson’s pack can exit the building. “Drop that teacher.”
It’s such a familiar tone, even if the command isn’t, that it breaks Rowan’s fixation on Knox.
“Drop him,” Gideon says again. “Gently.”
“But he was rude. He’s fond of Gray…” He whines the words, but he sets Knox down gently as if he were a toddler after a fall.
“I only wanted…fine. But he should remember to be nice.” Rowan makes a final pointed glance at Knox before crossing his arms and almost stomping over to Gideon.
“And he should stop being fond, too, while he’s at it. ”
“Good idea. What did you mean when you said you were fond, exactly?” Luca adds in solidarity with Rowan. “He’s mated, you know? Like forever.”
Knox wisely doesn’t chuckle out loud, but he does widen his eyes where only Grayson can see.
“I am very mated, baby. Thank you for reminding him.” Grayson can’t help but join in the silent laughter when he knows Knox is well aware of his deep bonds with his mates.
“Why were you out here?” Luca asks, slipping his hand into Grayson’s. He’s not asking Grayson but Knox. “You sure left in a hurry.”
“Me? I was concerned Gray was going to chase her down. He’s too curious for his own good. Although I expect he’s wondering why she’d been so sure he was the—” He breaks off abruptly.
“The One?” Finn asks.
Knox looks surprised. “Yes, and pushing her would have only put us right back in the fire.”
“But he’s not, right? The Truthseeker let him go.”
It takes a second for that to settle, and then Knox huffs a breath. “She let him go because Percival asked her to tell him if Grayson lied. He hasn’t been.”
Grayson hadn’t told his family about Verity’s reliance on semantics.
“Sure, he’s been holding back.” Knox raises an eyebrow in Grayson’s direction. “Which we will be speaking about tomorrow, but he’s never outright lied about it.”
“Ohh…” Leo says quietly. “So, she could answer honestly.”
“Are you saying that if Percival had asked if he was holding back or if he was hiding something, she would have had to say so?” Nimue asks, shocked.
“Under normal circumstances, yes.”
“Whoa. That was close, then.” Leo runs a hand over his face, wiping a bead of stress sweat from his cheek.
“Wait. I’m confused,” Jay says. “What are you talking about? You make it sound like you knew the Truthseeker would exonerate him.”
Knox sighs. “Look. This isn’t the place to have this conversation.”
Nix appears beside them, looping his arm through Knox’s as if they’re old friends. “Then let’s go over there, Professor.”
They gather around two picnic benches in the shade of a large weeping willow. It must be a hundred years old, its long feathery leaves shielding the pack from the waning afternoon sun.
Nix takes up a spot on the grass near Gideon, where the alpha leans against the trunk. “Okay, spill. What do you mean by ‘under normal circumstances?’”
“It’s complicated, and most of it isn’t mine to tell.” Knox sighs, rubbing a hand over his mouth. “But hear me clearly before any of you decide to go hunting people in black SUVs.”
That gets everyone’s attention.
Gideon doesn’t move. “We’re listening.”
“Kirwan is not just a petty professor with a grudge. She’s tied to something larger, and she is not the one in charge. She is—was—purely reconnaissance.”
“Percival was persuaded to hire her for her other Talents, but we know she was placed in Nashville because she can locate others who have Time Talents or Affinities.”
The details of a teacher’s specialties weren’t often offered to students, and while they might know she was a Time Affinity, exactly how that manifested itself wasn’t always clear. As with regular people, all powers are not created equal, even within the same specialty.
“So, she can’t actually impact Time like Gray or Nimue or anyone else?” Finn asks. “That must be—”
“Awful,” Nix agrees. “I mean, how terrible to know everyone is always more talented than you.”
It’s so like Nix to feel sympathy for someone like Dahlia Kirwan, even after all she’s put them through. Grayson isn’t sure he could say the same.
“So, she hunts kids down, sends them to this Aeternum Academy, and then what?” Rowan asks from his spot on the grass near Gideon’s feet.
“Essentially. There aren’t that many people with Time in their skill set, so she’s been working with her other Talent before Grayson arrived.”
“Mind Manipulation?” Leo asks, unable to keep the bitterness from his tone.
“No, Earth. Metal, to be more specific—wait. What?”
“Professor Kirwan has been manipulating Grayson these past few months. I don’t expect her Talent is strong, but she has not been forthcoming, I assume?” Ignatius says. He has a handful of ladybugs, and they’re all sitting unexpectedly still.
Knox grits his teeth and his hand twitches at his side, the wind picks up, and the heavy branches creak and sway above them. “Not at all. Dammit. I’m sorry, Gray. We didn’t know.”
“How could you?” Grayson shrugs it off because what’s done is done, even if he’d been pissed at the time.
“It’s our job to know. She’s been part of a bigger problem, and we should have expected they’d have sunk this low. We should have been watching closer—been on guard.”