2. Raegan
Chapter two
Raegan
Six Years Ago on the Island…
Tick. Tick. Tick.
I fidget under the covers while keeping count with my bedside clock.
9:57. 9:58. 9:59.
A smile spreads across my lips.
Ten o’clock.
I sit up slowly, careful not to disturb my roommates who are already asleep. Tara is still awake in the corner of the room with her flashlight shining on her book. She doesn’t acknowledge me when I slip out of bed. Only she knows where I’m going and so long as I keep stealing books from the library for her, she’ll keep my secret safe.
The hallway is dark and eerily quiet. There are no windows or lights on in this corridor at night. I’m not sure if they think that’s somehow a strong enough deterrent to keep us all in our beds at night, but I’ve never been afraid of the dark.
Besides, I’ve been here long enough that I could get anywhere with my eyes closed.
Instead of tip-toeing to the door directly across from mine, I creep down the hallway to the stairs.
I promised the guys I’d bring us snacks from the kitchen tonight.
I move my bare feet quickly, but methodically, down the stairs. I know just where to step to avoid the creaks and groans that would give me away and force me back in my room.
I had to do that a lot in the beginning of my time here, but now, I’m a pro. The master ninja of the manor. Only the guys know of my skill because I’m always the designated kitchen thief.
Jackson would obviously be a better choice in staying quiet and collecting things, but we’ve found that I get off far easier on punishments if I’m caught. At most, I’m chided and escorted back to my room where the door is locked to keep me in. Sometimes, the staff lets me keep one of my prizes before returning me to my room.
The guys are given chores or something like that. They never cared to really talk about it, so probably something boring.
I’m halfway down the first-floor hallway to the kitchens when a hushed moan breaks the silence. I freeze and look behind me.
No one's there.
Another moan erupts, louder this time, and curiosity turns me around. I keep myself on the uppermost pads of my feet and sneak closer to see who’s going at it so I can tell the guys.
There’s a door that’s partially open, and I press myself against the wall to listen .
I hear a smacking noise and then a crash. “Shut the damn door first.”
My heart leaps into my throat, and I debate running to the kitchen before I’m seen, but a familiar voice makes me abandon that idea.
“Whoops, sorry!” A soft, but slightly nervous laugh follows.
I’d know that voice anywhere.
I have to look. To see it with my own eyes.
Vera, Dane’s sister, is in a staff member’s room at night. And now I’m freaking out about what that crashing sound was. I can’t leave now. Not until I make sure she’s okay.
I move in front of the door and put my hand against it, getting ready to open it all the way when it pushes back against my hand. Vera steps around the door, and her eyes widen when she sees me.
My expression probably matches hers as we stare at each other, wondering what the other is doing here.
“Vera—”
She steps into the hallway, forcing me back while she tries to close the door enough behind her that I can’t see into the room. “Are you spying on me?”
“What? No. I heard something and then I heard you and wanted to make sure you were okay—”
“You heard something from all the way upstairs?”
I thumb toward the kitchen. “I was going for a snack.”
Her eyes narrow at me like she has an internal bullshit-o-meter that can tell whether I’m lying through my teeth or not. But I don’t know why she would think I was following her around. Well, not that I wouldn’t if I thought she was in trouble .
“What are you doing?” The door is yanked from her hand and flies open, as do Vera’s eyes when she looks back over her shoulder.
Gordon, one of the scientists who’s been training us and studying each of our gifts, scowls when he sees me. “Get in the room.” Vera scurries inside and when I hesitate, he adds in a commanding tone, “Both of you.”
This time, I do as he asks, and he closes and locks the door after me.
There are rules he has to follow with disciplining us for stepping out of line. I’m confident that he’s only trying to avoid any other intrusions until this is sorted.
The room is the same size as mine, but for one person rather than four. The bed is nearly three times the size of one of ours, and there’s enough room for an entire living area. My gaze sticks on the broken lamp and knocked-over side table.
“She saw us,” Vera confesses. She closes the distance between her and Gordon and fists his shirt. “She knows.”
He grabs her wrists and pulls them away. “Then fix it. Or I will.”
Vera sets her determined gaze on me. “Look, Rae. This isn’t what you think it is.”
I look between them. What do I think this is?
Extra training? Or is it like how I sneak to the guys’ room at night to spend time with them? But the crash. The moaning . Were they…?
Vera had been offering to give me advice on boys and kissing, and I wondered how she knew about all of that. I never saw her hanging out with the boys in her class.
Unease churns in my gut at the direction of my thoughts. She’s only a year older than me at seventeen. And Gordon…well, he’s got to be at least twice my age in his thirties, if not pushing his forties because of the silvering of his dark hair.
“What is it, then?” I ask hesitantly.
She takes a breath and then lays it all out. “When we were doing our one-on-one sessions for training, we started talking about the goals of Gifted Enterprise and what we’re going to be doing in the future. He told me about all the horrible things happening in the world today and how we’re going to stop it. We’ll be saving lives once we’ve mastered our gifts. We just need to try harder and do what we’re told.”
She shoots me a look, as if she thinks I haven’t been trying with my gift. I give her one right back because I freaking do try. Hers doesn’t hurt her like mine does.
“I asked him to give me more training so I could start helping more. I don’t want to waste any more time when we could be helping. So, we started spending more time together, figuring out more things I could do with my gift and…well…”
It’s weird seeing her so embarrassed. Vera’s always strong and confident. Nothing rattles her. I looked up to her when she and Dane first arrived, before she was moved up into different classes from us.
“What?” I push, the unease getting heavier the more she continues. But I have to know what’s going on. For her. For Dane.
Vera looks to Gordon before her gaze snaps resolutely to mine. “I kissed him. He stopped it, of course, and told me why we couldn’t. We tried to stay away from each other for a while, but we couldn’t do it. We fell in love.”
I bite my lip to keep my face from showing the discomfort and ick that I’m feeling. I can’t pin down the reason, but something doesn’t sit right.
Gordon’s watching me with a neutral expression. I can almost see the wheels turning through his stare, but I have no inkling as to what it’s about or how he feels about this admission.
“Does Dane know?”
Vera shakes her head and grabs my hands. “No, and he can’t know.”
“But—”
“ Please . He won’t understand.”
“Ver, I still don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to,” she snaps back. My eyebrows shoot up with surprise at her tone, and she softens it before she continues, “This isn’t about you or Dane. It’s about me finding someone and not wanting anyone else to get in the way of that. You get that, right? I see how you are with my brother and his friends. They may be a bunch of blind idiots, but I know you have feelings for all of them.”
I press my lips together and don’t answer.
She nods like I’ve agreed with her. “Exactly. None of my business. I need you to keep this quiet for me. I’ll be eighteen soon and then it won’t be such a big deal to everyone. I’ll also be done with training and classes here and I’ll get my clearance to leave the island.”
Her turning eighteen doesn’t make me feel better about any of this.
Can I keep this from Dane when I have such a bad feeling in my gut?
I consider it for half a second before I know that I can’t do that. But I can at least give her the chance to do it herself first.
“You have to tell Dane.”
“I will. After I turn—”
“No,” I cut in. “Tomorrow. He deserves to know what’s going on with his sister.”
Vera frowns and drops my hands. She looks back to Gordon for support, but he just looks at her like he’s expecting her to make the decisions on this. It should be a good sign that he’s not trying to control what happens with this, right?
My gut tightens in disagreement anyway.
“A week. Give me a week to figure out how and when to tell him,” she finally replies, though, she doesn’t sound happy about it.
Tough luck, because it will be hard enough for me to keep a secret from Dane for a whole week when it’s about his sister doing who-knows-what with one of the people keeping us here. Hopefully, she rips off the Band-Aid and does it tomorrow.
“A week,” I confirm.
“And just Dane. His friends don’t need to be in my business either. He’s the only one who can know right now. And he doesn’t even need to know that you know either.”
I don’t understand why she’s making such a big deal out of this if she planned to tell him once she turned eighteen in a few weeks anyway. But I drop it. If she’s happy and her brother knows about what’s going on, then it isn’t my business to get involved any further.
I nod reluctantly and then glance back at the fallen furniture. She follows my gaze and then rolls her eyes. “You’ll learn when you get older. Now, are we good here? If you don’t mind, I’d like to pick up where Gordon and I left off before you poked your nose in.”
My nose scrunches before I can help it, and she glares at me. Well, gross.
Gordon unlocks the door and opens it so I have to duck under his arm to leave.
“No snacks on the way back,” he tells me just as I’m between him and the door. “Straight back to your room.”
I scurry out and almost forget to watch my steps on the stairs until a faint creak snaps me out of my head. I re-focus on where my feet land on the stairs until I’m back on the second floor. I debate returning to my own room to avoid seeing Dane or the others. I haven’t even seen them yet and I already feel the burning need to tell them what just happened.
But if I don’t show up, they’ll come looking for me anyway to make sure I didn’t get caught.
I push and pull at my cheeks, smushing my own face around to remove any sign of whatever expression that whole encounter left me with.
Okay. I can do this. Just act normal and not like I have a huge secret that belongs to one of their sisters that they should definitely know about.
I swallow and turn the door handle slow enough to keep from making any noise. I step into the room and turn to softly close it.
“Where are the snacks?” Dane asks, peering over my shoulder.
I jump on reflex and fall forward into the door with a thud that’s loud enough to send me into a panic.
“Woah, what’s wrong?” He grips my shoulders and guides me to face him. His golden blond curls fall in a messy tangle across his forehead and at his temples, but his original brown color is coming back in at the roots. He’ll likely be dyeing it again within the week to match his sister’s natural golden blonde.
There’s concern in his amber gaze as he looks me over. He doesn’t drop his hand from my shoulder, which would be comforting if he wasn’t the exact person I’m trying not to spill the beans to.
I duck my head and skirt around him further into the room before my face can betray me until I get a handle on it. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
Kellan drops from the bar Aiden mounted in the middle of the ceiling and lands in front of me. He wipes his face with the bottom of his shirt so I get a clear view of his naturally tanned and sculpted abs.
I swallow.
I mean, I’m pretty sure his body and metabolism already gifted him with what would make any girl fan herself. Why he continues to work out and make it even more droolworthy is a continuous point of concern between me and my hormones.
Then he’s covered again, and I blink back to reality. His blue-green eyes twinkle under dark brows while he smirks knowingly at me. “She seems good to me,” he drawls.
I shove playfully at him, but he grabs and yanks me in for a hug. My body instantly sinks into his warmth and the safety behind his arms. Not only is he tall and broad, but he’s impervious to my terrifying gift .
I’m safe in his arms because I could never truly hurt him with it.
“She looked spooked when she first came in.” Dane’s voice is still laced with worry.
I try to wriggle my way out, but Kellan tightens his arms and refuses to let me go. “Did someone catch you trying to get the snacks, beautiful?”
My fingers tickle along his inner elbow, right where I know he’s sensitive. He jolts at the contact, and I slip out of his reach. “Something like that,” I tease back with a grin. It’s not that far off base, really.
Kellan laughs and shakes his head at me. “Well, aren’t you being mysterious tonight? Aiden’s been the same way. You guys sneak off together to do something we should know about?” He waggles his eyebrows.
Dane scoffs and folds his arms. “Of course not.”
Rather than getting involved in that conversation and the possibility of me giving away that something had happened between Aiden and I, just not tonight, I ignore them to seek out Aiden in the room.
He’s sitting on his bed, one leg bent and his arm dangling over it. He’s facing us, but it’s almost as if he’s looking through us. Like he’s so lost in thought that none of us are in the room with him. Or he isn’t in the room with us.
“Hey.” His head jerks up as I approach his bed. “Are you okay?”
He gives me a look that I’ve never seen before. Icy tendrils curl around my heart and squeeze. “Yeah,” he mutters, then turns his head so he’s staring at the side wall.
Um, okay then.
I try to remind myself that we’d been fine in class earlier today. That this has nothing to do with what happened between us last night. Something else must have happened tonight.
Even as I repeat that reminder in my head, it doesn’t stop the heart-shredding fear and pain from this blatant rejection.
I touch my lips the barest amount as I remember his blistering kiss and how he’d left me breathless. My heart pounds at the memory and then crushes when he doesn’t so much as look my way again.
Is he regretting it? Or did I mess it up somehow?
Fingers entwine with mine and close in a gentle squeeze. Dane’s giving me the same look as when I first arrived. “Are you?” he echoes my own question back at me.
I force a smile on my lips. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Vera better talk to Dane soon. Really freaking soon, because I can’t keep this secret about his sister when I have such a bad feeling about it. We’ve all been there for each other for years growing up in this place. We were taken from our families at a young age to keep us safe and train us to use our gifts. But we still missed our families and had times where we tried to escape and get home together. It’s always been us against them.
And now one of us is with them.
And it feels like I’m with them the longer I know about it and Dane doesn’t.
I pull my hand gently from his and make my way over to the last one of our group. The one who’s usually quiet and keeps to himself, but watches everything all the same. The one who won’t question or push me on anything.
Jackson has both knees up with his arms and chin leaning against them. His sky-blue eyes follow my every movement across the room until I stop next to his bed. He pulls the sheets back and holds them open for me in invitation.
He knew exactly what I was coming over for. I smile at him and climb in on the side against the wall. He has a thing about always sleeping on the outside of the bed, which is fine by me.
Dane and Kellan murmur quietly to each other, but thankfully they don’t press me on anything else. For tonight at least. Tonight, I want to curl up with one of them—Jackson in particular—and relax enough to sleep.
The lights flick off, and I curl on my side, facing the wall. Jack’s breath is warm on the back of my neck, but he’s careful to still give me space. I share their beds for comfort, but there’s no spooning or funny business.
His fingertips graze across the fabric of my pajamas. Up and down. Down and up. Long, soothing circles I can still feel even as sleep takes me under.
The last thing I remember is his voice in my ear. “I’m here,” he whispers. “Whatever you need, little one. I’m here.”