Rooming with the Wicked

12 | pawn

Kenas cared about his father. The anger and pain had been clear as day on his face. So clear, that it not only caught me off guard but made me feel strangely uncomfortable and...angry. He was upset, understandably so, but never in a million years did it cross my mind that I could have seen this coming. Kenas didn't blame me—he'd said so—but he should. Not for my father's doing, but for being so damn oblivious that it bordered on downright stupid.

Distancing myself from Dad's actions was one thing, ignoring them, something else entirely. Something that bothered me way more than I would have thought. I was smarter than that.

Or apparently not.

The possibility that all this wasn't even about me, that I was just some pawn, felt even worse. I didn't want to die for him. Why should I? Hell, the mere thought of Clarence's death would probably upset Dad more.

But Clarence wasn't here. Besides, who would think that my own father loved my asshole stepbrother more than me?

These thoughts had kept me up most of the night again. When I had finally managed to sleep, I'd woken up a few hours later with the same strange weight on my leg. Maybe I should ask Professor Flamel about the long-term side effects of soporis, just to be safe.

But first things first, time for some more research.

I pushed through the library doors and inhaled the familiar scent of old pages and dust. The low hum of quiet conversations surrounded me as I made my way to the unoccupied front desk. If anyone could shed a little light on what was going on in Ardua, it was Leyn.

Kenas and I weren't friends but pretending that I didn't know what was happening around me wasn't an option. He had a genuine reason to want revenge on my father and I couldn't ignore that. Sure, his weirdly distant and reclusive behavior didn't spell raging sociopath and kind of made sense now, and he had openly told me about his father, but that didn't make him any less likely of a suspect.

A group of humans sitting a couple of tables away threw me curious glances. I didn't know them, but one of their faces looked familiar. It took me a moment but then I remembered where he'd seen him. He'd been the first to glare and roll his eyes when Jaydis had laughed a little too loud for his taste in the courtyard yesterday.

I was about to flip him the bird for refusing to drop his gaze—didn't he know it was rude to stare?—when the group was joined by three familiar but no less unpleasant faces. My ex-roomies look just like they always did, happy—like they didn't have a care in the world. Well, you know what they say about being oblivious...

Too bad Queen B wasn't entirely unaware. After exchanging a few inaudible sentences with the others, she sauntered over to me with a self-satisfied smile.

Great, just what I needed.

"Hiding in the library again, are we?" she asked.

Naturally, she didn't come alone. Eloise and Jasmine mirrored Ri's pose almost in perfect synchronization as she put her hands on her hips and sized me up.

"This isn't how hiding works, Ri." I gave her a pointed look and gestured at the open space around us. "Besides, who would I be hiding from? You?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be silly. As far as I'm concerned, we're cool."

The moment her followers exchanged an uncertain glance behind her back, I knew she was lying. Whatever this was, it wasn't over.

"Then what are you doing here?" I asked, no longer attempting to hide my annoyance.

With a practiced flick of her wrist, she flipped a caramel lock behind her back and giggled. "Oh, I just came by to let you know that you can shove your meaningless threats up your ass." Her sickly-sweet smile turned triumphant. When I just continued to blankly stare at her, it faltered and she hissed, "What you think you saw in the biology hallway."