Chapter 16
Wyatt
Dad
I saw you on the news with the Prince again. I’ll call Alex if I have to
Willow wants to see you
I grimaced.
If Willow wanted to see me, she’d have texted me herself. Or called incessantly. Chances were that she hadn’t actually mentioned anything about me, my dad just liked to guilt trip me about her.
Unfortunately, that was pretty easy to do. I wasn’t the best brother.
I wasn’t a great son either, now that I thought about it. I groaned before scrolling through my shopping apps, trying to find something for my mom. As usual, I’d completely forgotten about the holidays. I hadn’t been home to see her in a while. I’d gone to the Palace with Rafe the last two breaks.
I definitely wasn’t going to my father’s house if I could help it. His attempts to get me home now were related to Skye being my Key, I just knew it.
My father scared me.
Even the people he kept as friends scared me. Minus Rafe’s dad, of course. But the day I’d defended Rafe against his father was the day I became truly afraid of mine.
It was odd, really. I’d been wanting my father’s approval for such a long time. I just never realized what I’d have to do to get it.
The day I’d defended Rafe, I’d been in a Palace dungeon for all of ten minutes before my father was there to free me, because of course my scary dad knew the ins and outs of the Palace dungeon.
Rafe’s mom never would have let me stay locked up for long, but my father couldn’t resist coming to my aid.
When my mother found out what I’d done, she didn’t speak to me for a year.
My father tried speaking to me every day.
My mother was horrified.
My father was impressed. Maybe even awestruck.
He’d been disappointed initially when we learned I’d only be a Link, but after I attacked Alejandro, he’d become slightly obsessed with whoever I’d been fated to.
I was powerful. That meant my Key had to be powerful. And after connecting, we’d be even more powerful together. I was already stronger than anyone in my family before me, and yet he wanted me to do more.
I worried what his plans were. I worried that he’d threaten Willow or her mother to get me to comply with what he wanted.
I quickly reminded myself that he hadn’t actually done anything like that before, so I had no reason to think it now, but I’d never been good at self-soothing. The anxiety remained.
Rafe had offered hundreds of times to keep Willow and her mom safe, but what could he really do? Lauren and my father were connected. She wouldn’t leave him even if he was causing her harm. And Willow would never leave her mother. So that was that.
Not to mention Skye was a goddamn firecracker. My father was often delusional, but if he believed for one second he could control anything about Skye…
I shook my head as if that would rid my mind of the dark thoughts. Giving my father any amount of thought was a one-way ticket to anger and confusion.
I’d managed to walk the entirety of the beachfront during my wallowing. I paused in front of a little shell shop, eyeing some of the trinkets in the window. I hadn’t bought any in a while. And Rafe broke one in my office just a few weeks ago. Surely that meant I could get another to replace it?
A small trickle of awareness brushed up against my spine, and I paused for a moment, glancing around. No one was close to me, or even looking at me, but one of my ominous feelings was teasing at the edge of my stomach.
There was a Telepath nearby, a strong one, and it wasn’t Skye or Rafe. They didn’t give me this feeling of foreboding. This feeling was similar to what I’d felt at that protest with Rafe. But just like then, I couldn’t find the source.
What a waste of an affinity.
I turned back to the storefront, distracted by a polished clamshell.
The inside was a beautiful, bright pearl finish that reminded me of Skye’s eyes.
It wasn’t terribly expensive, and it came with a little stand.
Just as I was fishing out my phone to take a look at my bank account, the door swung open, and out stepped my worst fucking nightmare.
Regina Wilson.
The woman responsible for the Gulf Capitol Massacre.
This Gulf Capitol.
What the fuck was she doing here?
There was no way she was here, in the islands, casually strolling down the beachfront with a few shopping bags.
For a moment, I tried to tell myself I wasn’t seeing what I was seeing. I was hallucinating somehow. Maybe I was back in my father’s office while he tried ‘testing’ me, spinning complex illusions meant to freak me out.
But no. There was a slight bite to the breeze today, the most of winter the islands would see, and it stung my cheek.
My father had never been able to mimic the weather in his illusions. That was what anchored me to reality.
I stared, dumbfounded.
Regina was smiling, and she wasn’t unattractive.
Her bushy red hair was dimmed, having been dyed a more demure auburn, with her curls pulled into a poofy ponytail at the back of her head.
She didn’t wear much makeup, her freckles on full display, but her piercing emerald-green eyes still stood out against her pale features.
She looked right at me, then her eyes flitted elsewhere.
She…
She…didn’t recognize me?
Zephyr wasn’t wrong. I looked just like my father. How did she not recognize me?
And how the fuck was she here?!
I glanced around quickly, trying to see if anyone else noticed her, but no one reacted.
She brushed right past me, still with a smile.
She was on the arm of an older man, with sharp features and piercing pale eyes.
He looked at me for just a moment, his eyes assessing me slightly before she pulled his attention toward another shop.
They came to a stop in front of a décor shop, where he relaxed against the wall with his hands in his pockets while she slipped inside.
The man didn’t glance at me again. He seemed familiar, somehow, but I couldn’t place him.
Maybe he was one of those dickheads always at the galas Rafe used to drag me to?
I blinked several times, still not quite believing what I was seeing.
I knew Wilson was missing from Azore Penitentiary, Rafe had told me as much during first term. He’d been right to suspect she was behind the weather events, I realized.
Holy shit.
I reached for my pocket, fumbling for my phone so I could call him.
I needed him here, now.
What if she realized she’d seen me? What if she came back out of that shop, and–
And because Wilson had cursed my whole fucking bloodline after the trial, my bad luck only grew, the day getting worse in the only way it could.
“Wyatt?”
I looked up, and I know I didn’t hide my grimace in time.
Carissa.
How the fuck…
All thoughts about Regina and the massacre and her threat on my father dissipated from my mind in an instant. Carissa was clutching her phone to her chest, and I couldn’t fucking believe I hadn’t turned my location off for her.
Rafe was going to lose his fucking mind.
She looked as pretty as always, though much like the last several times I’d seen her since the start of first term, the prettiness didn’t affect me quite like it used to.
Her brown hair was straightened, pulled back into a high ponytail that was suspiciously similar to how Skye wore her hair most days.
She wore her usual skin-tight workout leggings and running jacket, the zipper pulled down so that her cleavage was almost indecent.
It really hit me, then, for some reason, as the indecent cleavage gave me a sensation of…annoyance?
It used to really do it for me, which was probably why she wore it that way. Come to think of it, why was she wearing her hair that way? She couldn’t possibly know I liked that style on Skye.
Except she’s a creep who stalks you, Rafe’s imaginary voice snarked in my mind.
I’d always told him he was full of shit when he implied that Carissa was a stalker, but it takes one to know one, I suppose.
I couldn’t disagree with that argument anymore, not when she was here in front of me because she’d followed my phone location.
“I thought you’d be here,” she said, offering me a soft smile. She tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear –another move that reminded me of Skye– and then took a sip of her coffee. My vision focused on the cup, glad to see it wasn’t from Skye’s shop.
I cleared my throat, not sure what to say. Carissa was on edge, standing on the balls of her feet while she shifted her weight back and forth. I knew that stance. My jaw was already sore from clenching because I knew that stance. My stomach was practically cramping because I knew that stance.
We were about to fight.
“Well, Rafe’s here.” I said, trying to keep my tone friendly.
Was I a coward for mentioning my best friend to my ex-girlfriend who hated him? Maybe. But Rafe would approve. He’d always had it out for Carissa, it’d just taken me too long to see why.
Also…part of me realized I hadn’t actually thought of her as an ex until this very moment. I would have been proud of myself if it weren’t for the sour look on her face.
Carissa scowled. “What’s he doing here?”
I breathed out slowly. “You know I’ve found my Key. Rafe is in our Chain.”
Her face changed, going carefully blank in a way that had my hackles raising. My entire nervous system was already in flight mode to get the fuck away from this conversation.
“Yes, I know,” she said calmly. “The Key who rejected you. A student, right?”
It was my turn to scowl.
Carissa had admitted to me that she’d eavesdropped on mine and Skye’s conversation after the incident with Aiden.
Skye had actually clipped Carissa with my office door when she shoved her way out after rejecting me.
I’d successfully avoided Carissa since then but her texts had ramped back up since she saw my location in the islands.