Chapter 51 – Wave #2
By the time Friday rolled around, Wave was thoroughly sick of the Powerhouses. It had been a week since she woke up and she had expected some fussing, sure, but she hadn’t expected thirteen pairs of sharp eyes on her all the time.
Her hand trembled a little? Someone told Ilijas.
She burned her tongue on a too hot coffee? Ilijas got a text.
She blinked a little too long? Ilijas was notified again.
Her classes hadn’t been any better. Diana, Chrissy, Ginny, or Salis shadowed her every step. Sinister walked her to the class, Marc picked her up, Grant hung out with them at lunch. They were everywhere.
And when she had swung by the library, with Salis shadowing her, Mrs. Riverson had forbidden her from coming to work until she was fully healed. When Wave tried to insist that she was fine, the woman had actually called Ilijas. Wave had no idea how she even had the healer’s number.
Ilijas took it all with good humor as he checked Wave over every evening. There weren’t any noticeable effects of the poison lingering. Not beyond persistent fatigue. She was too tired to argue about the fussing and Ilijas said it was a normal side-effect of lalwe root.
Irishen had sent his spy digging about any information about her father. Wave was thankful because she barely had energy to get through her classes. And she still couldn’t show weakness on campus. By some miracle, the attack on her room was talked about as a prank.
No one knew she had been the target of the attack.
Hellion stomped around the mansion, muttering about Hell and politics. There were still no trials scheduled over the Academy’s attack and from what Wave could gather, no news on what was going on in the Hell Realm.
Wave tried to avoid him the best she could, but he always seemed to be there. The mansion could feel small when the demon slammed a door every time he caught her kissing Irishen. Her mate just rolled his eyes and muttered something about spanking.
The only positive she was ready to admit was her bond with Jarred was starting to settle with all the time they spent together. Enough that she wasn’t zapping everyone who raised their voice around him. She still couldn’t go into the basement when he was training, though.
So far Ilijas hadn’t cleared her for the shielding practice either. When Wave had complained about it to Grant while he picked up her lunch yesterday, the man had actually patted her head.
“You are Jarred’s Claimed, shrimp. Think of anyone you don’t want to fuck like an annoying, overprotective big brother and you’ll start to understand a lot of things we do.”
“Big brother?” Wave had spluttered.
Grant nodded. “Yeah. I don’t want to fuck you.” He actually shuddered at that. “And you don’t want to fuck me.” Now it was Wave’s turn to shudder and Grant grinned. “But I still want to smash that nymph’s nose in for calling you a slut.”
The last part he said loud enough that the people at the table next to them glanced their way and then at the nymph in question.
“Then why don’t you?” Wave asked before attacking her lasagna, or the feyling version of it.
“Paperwork,” Grant said. “And it wouldn’t really help. They won’t stop until you put a stop to it yourself.”
“I don’t mind,” Wave had muttered.
That was yesterday. Today, she did mind. Not about the whispers about her, but they were making comments about Irishen and Elena.
“How much trouble would I be in if I punched that dryad’s tit?”
Salis choked next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, guiding her in another direction. “Probably not much, but I would be, since I’m supposed to keep an eye on you and make sure you don’t overdo it.”
“Fine. But I really need Ilijas to tell the rest of them that I’m fine. The only one who’s not constantly fussing is Jarred,” Wave bemoaned, knowing full well she sounded ungrateful.
“That’s because he can sense you in the bond, so he doesn’t need to rely on you telling him when you are tired.”
“What?!”
“Yeah. That’s what he said when I asked,” Salis said with a grin. “For some reason, none of them trust you to rest when you need to. I don’t have any idea where they might have gotten an idea that you might push past your limits.”
“Very funny,” Wave groaned.
“It hasn’t been even a semester and you’ve been rendered unconscious more than once, apple pie.
In case you didn’t know, that’s not normal.
” When Wave rolled her eyes, Salis stopped them and turned her to face him.
“Way, they are worried. We are worried. You just got poisoned and you keep acting like it’s no big deal. ”
“I don’t know what else to do,” she whispered furiously. “If I dwell on it, I’ll drive myself crazy, looking over my shoulder every second. I could run, but Jarred and Irishen… They have a life here. I can’t ask them to run and hide.”
“They would go with you,” Salis tried to say, and Wave shook her head sharply.
“I know they would. I won’t ask them to do that. It never ends, Salis. I’ve been running from shadows my whole life. I’m not safe anywhere. They have a life here, friends… and for the first time, I think I do too. So, I will pretend that it’s fine as long as I can.”
“Oh, lollipop.” Salis sighed and ruffled her hair. “You are stuck with me. And the girls.”
“So can we let this drop now?”
“Yeah. As long as you know that you can always talk to me when you get too tired to pretend.”
“Maybe someday I can,” she replied. “But that would include unofficial information, and…”
“I won’t ask, Way. But I’m here if you need me.”
“Thanks, spice cake. I really appreciate it.” Wave allowed Salis to guide her toward the curb where Jarred was waiting with his bike, ready to take her home. Her friend was the best.