Feudlings (21 page)

“She’s just a Normal, Shane. She has no idea how serious this is,” Hunter snapped, not stopping until he was toe to toe with Shane.

Ari wedged herself between them, which wasn’t easy. “Excuse me, I’m right here. And who exactly do you think I’m going to tell? You guys are the only ones I talk to!” she said, throwing her hands up.

Hunter finally acknowledged Ari as he sighed and cast her a frustrated sideways glance. "Ari, it isn't you."

"Oh I know. It's not me, it's you, right? Please, Hunter, don't break up with me like that," Ari said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes and dropped her hands to her hips.

"That isn't—” Hunter started, turning bright red.

Ari interrupted him. "Whether or not you agree with Shane telling me anything, it's already done."

Shane looked from one to the other, his arms folded, waiting. Hunter and Ari locked gazes, a battle of wills, each waiting for the other to break and look away, but they were both too stubborn. Even the forest seemed to be holding its breath. Everything was silent, the birds watching quietly. It was Charity, arriving on silent feet and walking right between them that broke their staring contest.

Ari turned her attention back to Shane. "So can you, like, turn meatloaf into pizza?"

Hunter growled.

Shane cracked a grin. "No. I mean, there might be a spell for it, but I don't know it. Mostly our magic is used for war. We produce spells that heal or block or…"

At his hesitation, Ari finished for him. "Kill?" The word hung in the air between them all.

"Sometimes," Charity answered. Her silver eyes were huge, staring up at Ari.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise. I wouldn't do anything that puts any of you in danger." Ari tried to put every ounce of loyalty she had into those words. “Even you, Hunter,” she said, bumping him with his shoulder.

"It isn't that we don't trust you, Ari. It's just that this is life or death for us. If you aren't living it, you don't understand," Hunter said flatly.

"Most people are stressed about tests or being popular. We worry about whether our friends survived the latest battle or not." Charity’s voice was soft and sad.

Ari looked at her in surprise, her dark eyes widening. Hadn't she thought that exact same thing a thousand times? Again she had the strongest urge to tell them who she was, but Will's voice, sharp and insistent in her head, stopped her.
Don't be an idiot, Ari.
Instead she changed the subject. She watched Charity shiver. Apparently, Seers could feel the cold.

“Have you… ever fought? In a battle? Do they use Seers to fight?” she asked.

Charity shook her head, but Shane spoke up, pride evident in his voice. “Not in the actual battle. She saved us yesterday though. She saw us fighting and knew we were in trouble and she got us out of there.”

Hunter’s head whipped toward him, but Charity stepped in front of him, shoving him toward the trail. "Mr. Greene is about to come out and yell at us for missing the bell. We'd better go."

Hunter cast a last long, searching look at Ari, and turned on his heel. Charity followed him, but Shane didn't move. Ari paused as she trudged toward the trail, looking over at him when she realized he wasn’t following. "I don't regret telling you," he said. She was caught in his eyes, trapped, and she couldn't look away, couldn't breathe. "Ari, I—"

"Delyle! Delacour!" Mr. Greene's bellow echoed through the woods. Shane swore under his breath as they both turned and jogged down the trail.

"Isn't it convenient how our last names are so close in the alphabet?" Shane asked with a bright grin at Mr. Greene as he squeezed past him in the doorway on their way into the school.

"You are late!" he snapped.

"I'm so sorry, sir," Ari murmured, taking him by surprise as she, too, slid past him. As he stood there staring at them with his mouth open, they both hurried off in opposite directions.

It was raining by the time school got out. All the students ran to their dorms with bags or jackets over their heads. Their weekly football game was cancelled, so Ari went to her room and dumped her bag on her desk. Brittany followed her, slamming the door behind her. She threw her bag on her side of the room and stood with her arms folded, glaring at Ari.

"Is there a problem, Brittany?" Ari asked with a long-suffering sigh. Rain pounded against the window, drowning out all the other students in the hall. It could have been just Ari and Brittany left in the world, for all Ari could hear. That was an unpleasant thought.

"I know where you were at lunch. When you were late for art I asked around." Ari stretched her neck, listening to it pop while she had idle thoughts about blasting Brittany with a silencing spell. She knew one existed. Her grandfather used to use it on her when she was younger. It didn't hurt… much.

"I said I know…"

"I know what you said, Brittany. I just didn't realize there was something for me to respond to. Did you want me to applaud you for your efforts?" Rolling her eyes heavenward, Ari lazily clapped her hands.

Brittany stomped her foot, her face reddening. "You were with Shane!"

"Yes. I usually am at lunch. So?" Ari leaned a thigh against her desk and eyed Brittany. The silence spell was becoming more appealing by the second.

"You were with him in the woods. And Charity and Hunter weren't there!" Brittany yelled. Her face matched the red sweater she wore over her uniform.

"Actually," Ari drawled, "they were there. They just left before we did."

Brittany looked to be on the verge of internal combustion. Ari watched her with interest. She hadn't seen someone internally combust before.

"I
told
you Shane wanted to date me! Why were you alone in the woods with him?" she screeched.

"Hmm.” Ari pursed her lips. “Well, if Shane wanted to date you, don't you think it would have been you he was alone in the woods with?" It was mean. But she couldn’t help it.

Her phone buzzed and she reached for it, keeping an eye on Brittany, still waiting for that combustion.

"You said you don't date!" Brittany replied hotly, the pitch of her voice even higher. Pretty soon she'd be squeaking so high only dogs would be able to hear her.

"I don't." With a sigh, realizing there was a good chance Brittany wasn't going to explode from the inside out to entertain her, Ari said, "Brittany, I'm not dating Shane. We're friends. If you want him, go after him, because right now you're just one of a hundred other girls who are drooling over him. He can't even differentiate between any of you because you’re all the same."

"I am not!" Brittany was loud. And very high-pitched. Ari resisted the urge to rub her ears. She glanced down at her phone. A text from Shane.
Library
. So, they were meeting in the library. She thought about showing Brittany and sticking out her tongue, but instead she shoved the phone in her pocket. Picking up her jacket and her homework, she brushed past the still-fuming blonde on her way out the door.

But she paused in the doorway, tipping her head to consider Brittany, who only glared. "You're right. I think most girls don't look like the tooth fairy dresses them every day." She turned with a smirk.

The door slammed behind her.

Chapter Sixteen

She was almost to the library, shaking rain from her jacket and wiping her shoes on the rug when words floated through the air, attacking her ears. "So you're Ari's brother? I can tell. Good grief you look like you’re twins!" Livi's voice.

Ari froze mid-swipe.
Will
? Nearly dropping her bag, she raced around the corner, sliding to a stop in confused horror. Will was leaning against a table; every eye in the library watching him like a cobra watches a mouse. And the library was packed because the kids all had nowhere else to go.

"I'm ten years older than her," Will said casually, as if he wasn’t in huge amounts of danger.

Ari's eyes swept the table in panic. Shane was leaning back on two chair legs, frowning slightly as he studied Will. Hunter was regarding him much the way he had regarded
her
when she had started here. Like a threat. Which Will was, but Hunter couldn't know that. He stood next to Shane, his big arms folded across his chest, his face menacing.

Charity's bright silver eyes, on the other hand, were open and friendly as she slid into a chair next to Shane. Nev and Livi were both standing close to Will, and if Ari hadn't been in such a complete panic, she would have acknowledged how amusing the situation was. If Will had ever had a chance to be a normal teenager, she would guess he'd have been similar to Shane. Girls everywhere, and him loving every minute of it.

She opened her mouth. Croaked. Cleared her throat. "Will?" she asked, trying to make her voice sound normal. She winced when she heard it shake.

His brown eyes swept up to hers. "Hey, baby sister. You told me so much about your friends I thought I would come say hi." But there was worry in his eyes. He was checking up on her because she had stupidly told him about Shane and Hunter being Carules. She mentally smacked the palm of her hand against her forehead.

"Uh, Will, what about your accident? You're supposed to stay in bed. Where you are
safe.
" She stressed the last word at him, the pitch of her voice rising so she sounded alarmingly like Brittany.

"The doctor said I was fine as long as I take it easy. I have been. Very. Careful." He enunciated each word, nodding.

"You can't possibly know what might happen away from home," she said shrilly.

Shane's eyebrows rose in surprise. This was a whole new side to her that her friends were getting the privilege of seeing. She cleared her throat, realizing that everyone in the room was still staring at them. She hid her shaking hands behind her back. This was so dangerous. If anyone found out he was here, there would be Edren head hunters everywhere. Or Carules warriors. Either way, Will was in danger.

"So I've kind of met everyone. Can we just hang out for a while before I have to go? I can't stay long. Doctors orders," Will said, his dark eyes, so like her own, pleading with her.
Let me do my duty, Ari
. She could read it in his gaze.

And she relented. "Of course. I'm sorry, I just worry." She pulled him into a hug. "But I might just kill you myself," she muttered next to his ear.

He grinned as he pulled away. "So you three are from Texas you say?" he asked, sitting in an empty chair and making himself comfortable. Ari paced behind him, her eyes darting around the room, toward all the exits, looking for threats.

"No. Hunter's family is from Texas, but they moved to New Mexico when he was small and we've been friends ever since," Shane said, leaning forward so the front legs of his chair smacked the floor. On cue, the rest of the library turned back to their own affairs.

"Do you guys come from big families?" Will asked. "I mean, Ari and me, we're the only kids, but I left home a long time ago so we've both been raised as only children. It's lonely," he said.

"No, I'm an only child," Shane answered.

"Me too," Charity said, her voice soft and melodic. Ari paused in her pacing. She hadn’t known this.

"Hunter has three kids in his family. But the rest of them elected to stay home and go to regular public school. Probably so they could stay away from him," Shane answered with a sly grin when Hunter made no move to answer for himself.

Will looked at Nev and Livi, waiting. Well, at least he wasn't obvious about interrogating her Carules friends.

"I've got one brother. And Livi, of course," Nev said with an adoring smile at her tiny friend.

"You guys are related?" Will didn't even try to hide his surprise.

"No, but our moms have been friends forever. We've lived together for the last eight years." Livi went on to explain their complicated situation, and Ari watched Will covertly studying the Carules.
Yes Will, they're dangerous. But not as dangerous as me.

Of course, Will didn't see her as dangerous. He saw her as his baby sister, and no matter how many people she killed, he would never see her as a monster.

"Ari, your brother is fine. The doctors said he was okay to travel. You said yourself this morning that he was okay, remember? Sit down and enjoy his visit," Charity said softly, watching Ari prowl around the library with concern.

Ari hesitated, her eyes flying across the room one last time, and then she sat stiffly on a chair beside Will. She tried to appear relaxed as she watched him laugh with her friends, but she couldn't do it. The rain pounded on the roof, distracting her, and she gave up trying to follow the conversation, instead focusing on
feeling
. She could usually tell if there were many Carules in an area, but she had never tried with Edrens. And with Will, Edrens would be the bigger threat. Didn't he know they watched his colony, waiting for him to leave? Didn't he see how stupid and dangerous his trip here was?

"So, Charity, Ari said your laptop is giving you issues?" Will asked. At hearing her name, Ari turned and blinked at Will.

Charity blushed. "Yeah. Ari said you might be able to look at it."

"I happen to be a computer genius," Will answered with a grin, buffing his nails on the front of his shirt.

Hunter growled low in his throat and Ari half-wondered if he was maybe part wolf. They all got up and Ari leapt to her feet in panic. "Will." Her voice was shrill, even to her own ears. "Walking… um… out in the open… I mean out, out that far isn't good for you at all." She tried not to shriek at him. He glanced at her with a frown.

“Hey, Ari. Protective much?” Nev asked. They were all looking at her like she had lost her mind. She met Shane’s eyes and winced. He was looking at her like she had two heads, and she felt like an idiot. But it couldn’t be helped. She didn’t care what her friends thought of her as long as Will was safe.

“It’s okay, I can run and get it.” Charity put a gentle hand on Will’s shoulder as she passed him. Will thumped back down at his seat, giving Ari a look.

“Will, can I talk to you?” she asked, dragging him back up from his seat and out of the library. After checking the hall to make sure they were alone, she fired angrily, “What are you doing?”