Chapter 21
Chapter twenty-one
Jack
After my mom left, I crawled out of my bedroom. My stomach complained loud enough that I made going to the cafeteria my first priority.
I maneuvered through the school, anxious to see if Tabby was in the cafeteria since I couldn’t find her yesterday.
A part of me worried I’d be accosted by fans of my family again, and that definitely wasn’t something I wanted to deal with right now, especially after my mom’s visit earlier.
Who knew what poor bastards were subjected to my dads’ full attention?
Thankfully, when I pushed the cafeteria door open, no one immediately rushed me. It was past breakfast and not quite lunch yet, so most of the tables were empty. There were a few that looked like they were nursing hangovers while hanging their heads over oatmeal and eggs.
“Seems like they had fun last night,” a voice announced next to me.
I turned to find Iris with a half-asleep Xinyi on her arm. “I could say the same about you.”
“Ugh, what?” Xinyi blinked at me.
I raised my voice and leaned in close. “I said, it looks like you had fun last night.”
“Oh, God. Fuck. Why?” Xinyi whined, burying her face into Iris’s shoulder. “I don’t know why we couldn’t have just stayed in bed all day.”
“Because you need food, and I have a meeting.” Iris gentle pried the woman off her side. “Go with Jack. I’m sure she can help you find something that will soak up all that witch’s brew.”
Before I could protest, I had the smaller woman hanging off my arm.
“Alright, let’s find you something to eat.”
I dragged Xinyi over to a table, sat her down, patted her on the head, then headed to the cafeteria line.
I grabbed a variety of things because everyone handled a hangover differently.
While I preferred black coffee and sleep, others wanted grease and sugar.
Xinyi seemed like the latter type of person.
“Here we go,” I said once I’d paid and sat down next to her.
Xinyi groaned, not lifting her head from the table. “Just let me die. Iris will move on. She’s hot. She’ll find someone else like that.” She half-heartedly snapped her fingers.
I shook my head, grinning at her dramatics. “I find it hard to believe you’d just give up like that. I thought you were made of stronger stuff than this.”
“Not giving up,” Xinyi grumbled, turning her face so her cheek pressed against the table. “Just the inevitable ending of all human servants. We die while they go on, mourning us for a short while before time makes us nothing more than a memory.”
“So hangovers make you morose,” I chuckled. “Good to know. And not every human servant dies before their masters. She could die first and then you would go with her.”
“Oh great,” Xinyi threw her hands up, “so we’ll die together.” Her hand clapped down on my arm. “Jack, I’m too young to die. Look at this face. Look at this body. I might make a beautiful corpse, but I’d still be dead.”
Shaking my head, I took a cup of coffee and a small plate for myself before shoving the tray of food toward her. “Then eat.”
Reluctantly, Xinyi took the tray and picked at the food, taking small bites and sips while she glanced around the cafeteria.
“This place is dead. Where is everyone?”
“Well, it’s already eleven, so I’m guessing they’ll start wandering here shortly for lunch.” My eyes caught on a familiar witch walking through the door. “Tabby!” I stood and waved, gesturing for her to come over.
Tabby said something to her friends before approaching us, a smile on her face.
“Hi, Jack. Xinyi, right?”
Xinyi nodded her greeting, her mouth full of food.
“Some party last night, huh?”
“Yeah,” I drew out and then decided to just get down to it. “I was looking for you, but didn’t see you around? Did you leave early?”
“No?” Tabby cocked her head to the side. “I did have to head back to the tower for a bit because I forgot an ingredient for the fireworks. Maybe we missed each other then?”
“Maybe,” I mumbled, sipping from my cup. I’d been at that party until dawn started to break and hadn’t seen her the entire time. So, either she was lying or we really had just missed each other.
“What did you want me for?” Tabby continued, not at all bothered by me not catching her. “Did you decide to let us study you?” She almost squealed, bouncing a bit in place. “I promise it will be completely professional. You won’t feel like a lab rat or anything.”
“Uhhhh… no. Sorry.” I winced, then pulled my phone out and showed her the sigil. “I was hoping you could tell me which coven this belongs to?”
Tabby leaned over my phone, her brows pinched together. “Where did you find this?”
“Someone left a weird note in my room with this sigil on the wax seal,” I explained, watching the witch’s face.
“A wax seal?” Xinyi laughed. “That’s so old school. What’d it say?”
“Nothing important, but they didn’t say who it was from. Do you know whose it is?”
Tabby straightened, frowning. “No, sorry. I don’t, but I can ask around.” She looked up suddenly, her eyes darting around the cafeteria. “Look, I hate to cut and run, but my friends are waving me down. I’ll talk to you later?”
She didn’t wait for me to answer before she was walking away.
“Yeah, sure,” I said to myself, staring at the picture for a long moment.
“Well, that was weird,” Xinyi commented, shoving a piece of bacon into her mouth. “Are you going to finish that?” She pointed at my coffee cup.
I pushed it toward her, not paying much mind. Then I stood, tucking my phone into my pocket. “You’re good now, right?”
“Uh, yeah but…”
“Great.” I patted her on the shoulder and stalked toward the cafeteria door. I needed to find Julian and tell him about Tabby’s weird behavior. He said he was going to check the guild’s database. Maybe he found some answers.
My mind was completely focused on finding Julian that I didn’t notice the crows watching me as I circled the courtyard until one of them squawked at me.
Irritated by the constant surveillance, I stomped into the courtyard, only to find that the handful of trees near a bench held half a dozen crows.
“I don’t know if my dad sent you to spy on me or if you have some misguided notion that I need your protection,” I argued, hands on my hips as I talked up into the trees. “Either way, I’m tired of it. I don’t need you stalking me. I can take care of myself.”
Six sets of black beady eyes just stared at me, cocking their heads to the side but showing no evidence of having heard me or caring if they did.
“You know,” I huffed, getting even more annoyed than before, “this is just typical. Ever since I came to this stupid school, someone has either been watching me, telling me what to do, or threatening me. And I’m tired of it.
I’m a grown-ass woman. I can make my own decisions.
I don’t need my dads, Julian, or you,” I pointed a finger at the crows, “making me feel like I’m some irresponsible child. So… you can all just… drop dead.”
I huffed and panted, having worked myself up into a frenzy. To the outsider, I probably looked crazy, telling at crows. But for me, it was a natural occurrence, and I was just sick of it.
The crows didn’t respond to my rant, their bodies still as they stared at me, not even blinking their little eyes. Then one by one, they dropped out of the tree and onto the ground.
Gaping at them, I didn’t believe what I’d seen at first. They were there. In the tree being all creepy. Then I was yelling. Then… they just…
I walked slowly toward where the crows laid, their eyes wide and unblinking, their little chest not moving.
Dead.
They were dead. All six of them.
How? Why?
Then what I’d said made me cover my mouth with my hand in horror. I’d told them to drop dead. And they had.
Why? Why, why, why? No one has ever just done what I wanted because I told them to. That’s Antoine’s power. Not mine.
That’s it. This was Antoine. He was watching through their eyes and saw that I was upset so he killed them to show me that he heard me. This wasn’t me. I didn’t do this.
I swallowed and stepped back from them. A sick feeling in my stomach. But that would be out of character for Antoine. He didn’t do sudden violence for no reason. He wouldn’t kill his crows because I was throwing a fit.
I had to call him. I had to know.
My mind whirled as I pulled my phone from my pocket. Fingers clumsy while I tried to pull up the keypad to hit the speed dial. When I hit his number, I put the phone to my ear, my heart pounding in my ears, pacing back and forth in front of the crows.
“Come on,” I muttered to myself as the phone rang and rang. “Pick up already. Pick up!”
“The person you have called cannot be reached. Please leave a message for — Antoine — after the beep.”
“Ugh!” I growled, hanging up the phone.
“Woah, what’s with all the dead birds?”
I spun around to face Tate, his face a mixture of confusion and disgust. Not wanting to or willing to admit that it was me. Which it wasn’t. It had to be Antoine. I took several deep breaths trying to calm myself.
“Hey…” Tate closed the distance between us, placing his hands on my shoulders, rubbing soothing circles. “It’s okay. They’re just birds. Breathe, princess. That’s it. Breathe.”
I nodded, matching my breath with his.
When I’d finally calmed down, Tate ushered me away from the birds to another side of the courtyard where I couldn’t see them. But I still knew they were there no matter how far away we got. I would always know they were there.
He brushed my hair back from my face, his voice low and soothing. “Want to tell me what’s wrong?”
“No.” I swallowed the thick lump in my throat. “Not really. Just trying to get a hold of my dad.”
“Yeah, I get that. Family drama is the worst.” Something in his tone of voice made me look at him. His usually happy-go-lucky demeanor wasn’t quite so bright, and there were bags under his eyes.
I was such a jerk. Here I was freaking out over some dead crows when Tate was clearly going through something, something that I didn’t even know about. That hurt more than I expected.
While we had been keeping our distance because of Kyren, I realized I hated it. I wanted him around all the time. I wanted to know why he had such a sad look in his eyes. To hear him vent about his family the way I vented about mine.
“Does this have anything to do with the thing you had to do last night?” I placed my hand on top of his, trying to show him that I was here for him.
Tate gave me a lopsided grin, but I could tell his whole heart wasn’t in it. “Kind of. My brothers want me to come back and rule the pack.”
“And you said…?” I didn’t want to get my hopes up one way or the other.
If Tate decided to go back to Utah, I’d be devastated, but I’d understand.
It would also mean that Kyren would follow him.
Could I do that? Say Kyren wanted to get back together.
Could I leave my family behind to be with them?
I wasn’t sure, and it wasn’t something I wanted to think about right now.
“I said no!” Tate gripped my hand firmly in his, his eyes searching my face. “Of course, I said no. Everyone I care about is here. My life is here. I love my family, but…” He shook his head and blew out a breath. “They never understood me. I can’t be their alpha.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” He grinned at me, this time a real smile. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t leave you even if I wanted.”
“But Kyren…?”
Tate cupped my face with his hand. “Kyren or not. He’ll come around. Maybe not this week or this year, but eventually. I love you. And I love Kyren. Why can’t I have you both?”
I placed my hand on top of his, looking off to the side. “What if one of these days you have to choose?”
“I won’t.”
“But what if,” I implored, trying to get my worry across. “One of these days, Kyren could come up to you and say, I want to move to Timbuktu and I want to stay here near my family. Who would you stay with?”
“Timbuktu? Really?” He smiled, his amusement at my choice clear. “That’s never going to happen.”
“But say it does?”
He sighed, pausing for a moment. “Then I’d choose you. Kyren and I will live forever. You’re human. I only get you for a short time, and I won’t lose a minute of it because he’s being a big baby.”
I wanted to believe him, I did. But it was hard to believe someone would want me so much that they’d split themselves in half just to be with me. That was what it would be like for a human servant to be away from their master.
My mind wandered to what had just happened with the crows. Then there was the fact that I might not be just human. If I’d caused what happened with the crows, then maybe I’m more immortal than I thought.
This could mean all kinds of other things I didn’t know before. I could be a human with vampire powers. A human with no blood ties to a vampire who lived as long as one.
People would want to study me. Tabby’s coven already did. I’d be different… and not in a good way to some. Instead of being hated for my family, I’d be feared and hated for what I was. Some might even see me as dangerous.
“Jack? Princess?” Tate murmured, lifting my chin with his finger. “Talk to me. Your heart is racing.”
“I just…” I swallowed, trying to suck in air. I couldn’t breathe. The possibilities of what this could mean was just too much for me to bear. I’d spent all my life telling my mom I wanted to be a human servant, too, or even a vampire, and now I might be both and neither.
I just… I needed a minute. I needed space.
“Jack?” Tate reached out for me and I snapped.
“Stop!”
Then just like the crows, Tate froze, his eyes wide. I could still hear his heart beating in his chest, but his entire body had frozen in place. His hand was still up as if to reach for me.
If there was any question that I was responsible for the crows before, it was completely gone now.
I stumbled to my feet, my eyes burning my chest aching. I shook my head, hands over my mouth.
“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… I can’t… I have to…”
Not waiting to see how long my command would last, I ran. My feet pounded on the stone pathway as I raced through the hallways. I shoved past students not caring if they were looking at me.
I just needed to get away. To be alone. Where I couldn’t hurt anyone else.