Spearwood Academy Volume Two (The Spearwood Academy Book 2) (8 page)

D
ante puts his hand to my forehead. “You feeling okay,
Fire?”

I
bat his hand away and mock glare at him. “I’m fine, D. You’ll mess up my
bangs.”

“You’re
bangs? Are you serious?” asks Horace. “I didn’t take you for the type of girl
that cared about things like that.”

I
stand and go to the mirror hanging over the mantel. I fix my hair and turn to
give Horace a roll of my eyes. “Me not take my appearance seriously? C’mon,
Horace, we’ve known each other for seven years. You know how psycho my mother
was about being all lady like 24/7.”

"Your mother? Avvi, you don't know who your mother is.
You are adopted," says Amr, as he takes a step toward me.
 

"Dad said you guys would be acting weird
tonight. I didn't think he was serious." My eyes travel to the clock on
the wall. "Shoot, we're late for dinner with Paden. We better go."

I go back to the mirror to make sure
I look pretty for him. After all he has done for me, he deserves having me look
my best. I walk past the guys. They are all so stiff. I don’t know why they are
acting so strange. I hope what Dad said is true, and their weirdness is only
temporary. I open the door of my dorm and look back at them, "Are you
going to stand in my room all night, or are you going to come with me to
dinner? I'm starved."

"Did she say we are going to go have dinner with
Paden?" Dante asks.

I twist around to look at them and walk backwards to t the
door that leads to the relaxation area. “Stop acting so weird; you’re seriously
starting to freak me out. We’ve had dinner with Paden ever since we came here.”
I turn the knob and lean into the door, opening it. .

Lusk crosses his arms over his broad chest. “We are the
ones acting weird?”

"I think we should take her to
Dr. Quinn. There's obviously something wrong with her head. Maybe that Royal
put something in her food earlier,” says Bullock.

"I doubt a poison could do this to her, but I wouldn't
put it past him, or that Hansen,” mumbles Dante, through clenched teeth.  

“It’s rude to talk about someone like they aren’t in the room
with you,” I say back to them as we come to three hallways. I take the one on
the right.

“The dining hall is this way, Avalon,” says Lennox.

I turn back to face him and fold my arms. “You’re welcome to
leave. I’m going to go eat with Paden, and as you know, full Royals don’t eat
in the regular dining hall.”

They all go stiff again. “Wait, what did you say?” asks
Dante.

I lift an eyebrow. “Uh, Royals don’t eat in the dining hall?”

Dante folds his arms over his chest and frowns. “No, before
that. You said full. What do you know?”

I frown. “What do you mean? You and Lennox are half Royals.
I’ve known that ever since Dad told me I was going to marry Paden, and that
Lennox wasn’t an option, because he is only half-Royal. I also tied together
the fact that you both have long hair, but you don’t tie it back like the full
Royals do.”

“Lennox wasn’t an option? Are you saying you were with him?”
Dante turns back to look at Lennox, who looks like a deer caught in the
headlights.

Lennox shakes his head and holds up his hands, “I swear, we
have never done anything. I have no idea what she’s talking about.”

A suffocating lump forms in my chest. He completely denies
everything now. The others were around when we were together, they know the
truth. “That’s just cruel. Ever since the breakup you have been downright
horrible, but denying everything? I—” I stop and shake my head. My hand wipes
away a stray tear. “I don’t have time for your sudden need to play a round of
twenty questions. I’m going to be seriously late for dinner with Paden. You
guys can come if you want, or you can eat in the dining hall. I don’t really
care either way.”

I don’t leave them time to try to stop, or argue with me. I
turn and walk, faster this time. I need to see Paden.

A
fter
having to go down the painful memory lane with Dad, their strange behavior is
more than I can handle. I just need Paden to put his arms around me and tell me
that it is all going to be okay.

They don’t say anything else, but multiple dress shoes follow
behind me,
clacking
against the marble floor. We go upstairs and down,
before coming to the hall that leads to a portrait. Paden showed me how to get
into his personal quarters. Behind this portrait, of an ancient looking woman
holding a bouquet of dead lilies, a passage leads to his room. Feeling under
the right lower corner of the golden frame, I undo a latch and push the
portrait to the side, revealing the dark passage. I feel for the button on the
side of the wall and push it. It makes a
clunking
sound, as it clicks
into place. A row of old lights turn on. Their light casts a dim yellow glow on
the dark red bricks.

I look back to them. “Whoever is the last one in, has to move
the portrait back into place.”  I keep my hand on the wall as I move
forward. I wish I could see better in the dark, like the night vision the fire
masters have. I’m not affiliated with fire though, so that’s never going to
happen.

The guys whisper behind me. I can’t make out what they are
saying, but I’m sure it has something to do with me. The silence between us
only makes my heart thump harder in my chest. I’ve never felt so distant from
them before. I’ve never had them acting like we just met either. Did Dad do one
of his weird experiments on them?

I shake my head. No, he wouldn’t touch them. He knows they
are my best friends. They are off limits. As we near a fork in the passage, I
squint my eyes and look to the wall I’m touching. Soon, I should see the
carving in the brick that has Paden and my initials in it. He placed it there
to mark which way I should turn. I know this layout like the back of my own
hand, but it’s comforting to know that he placed it there for me when I was
still new to Spearwood. I like to trace the letters for good luck.

The fork comes to a head and my eyes search for the mark.
It’s not there. I frown and place my hand on the brick where I know it should
be. Nothing but smooth stone greets my fingertips. It couldn’t have been
erased. He made sure it could never be removed. We placed bonding magic into it
together.

“I don’t understand,” I mumble. My hands move over the other
bricks nearby. Maybe I’m wrong. I can’t be, but there’s a small chance I am.
Where else could it have gone?

“What’s wrong, Avvi?” asks Amr.

I bite my lip before answering, “It’s missing. There’s no way
it could be missing.”

“What is missing?” asks Lusk.

I swallow hard. There’s no evidence of the mark ever being
here. I should at least feel the traces of the magic left behind. I might be
bad at air magic, but I’m not terrible at general magic. “The mark Paden and I
put here together, it’s gone. It can’t be gone. We used bonding element magic.
The only way it could be removed is if we removed it together. I don’t even
feel the traces of the magic.”

“That’s because you never put a mark there with him. You
couldn’t stand him last night. I doubt you would have done something so
intimate with him,” says Bullock.

‘
He’s right, you know. You would have never done something
like that with a guy like that Royal,’
says a voice in the back of my mind.
It sounds like my own, but why would I think something like that? It happened
when I was with Dad earlier, too. Could I be going crazy? I shake my head and
look to Bullock. “What would you know?”

His dark eyes narrow at me and he grinds his jaw. At his
side, his hands make fists. I lift an eyebrow. What does he think he’s going to
do? Here of all places?

“Even in this version of you, you act like you know
everything. You don’t.” A rush of cool wind moves through the passage, whipping
my hair into my eyes. For still being so young, he sure does have power when it
comes to air magic. I brush my hair away from my face, a strand or two having
gotten stuck to my lip gloss. I wrinkle my nose hating the sensation it causes.
I consider doing something to him, but his power will crush mine in a matter of
seconds, I doubt I could even lay a scratch on him with my abilities. I’ve
never been one to let my temper physically get the better of me anyway. It’s
not lady like. I look back to the brick, where the initials should be and
squint my eyes one last time; maybe they will suddenly appear and this will all
be a prank by Maverick, or something. “Whatever, I’m bored with this.” I move
to go down the left passage. I’m so past fashionably late right now.

“What? I’m not good enough to fight you? You had no problem
with Mirren the other day or Hansen,” says Bullock.

I frown. A glint of something flashes in my mind’s eye at his
words. Broken glass? Where did that come from? My tongue has a fuzzy
sensation covering it, and it’s hard to swallow. I grip onto the wall. My mind
doesn’t seem as clear as it should be. “What the hell are you going on about
now?” I turn around and look at him. “I know you think I’m a stupid blonde, but
I know better than to fight you, I would lose. What fights are you talking
about? I haven’t sparred with Lusk since he outgrew me in size and which Hansen
are you talking about?”

Dante takes a step closer to me. “There’s only one Hansen.
The one that tormented you as a child?”

I shake my head. “Sure, Maverick can get a little over
zealous with his pranks, but he has never done anything to hurt me.
 There’s two
Hansens
, Paden and Maverick. You
know that.”

Both his eyebrows go up, “They are brothers?”

“Oh my God, seriously stop this joke. It’s not funny.”

“Does it sound like we’re laughing, princess?” asks Lusk.

I look to where his shadowed form stands. A flash of him
kissing my cheek but seeming angry enters my mind. I shake my head. That
certainly has never happened before. Why would Lusk kiss me? “Stop stalling me.
I want to see Paden.” This time I turn and jog away from them, putting as much
space between them and me as I can. They continue to follow me.

Soon, I can see the light from his room coming through the
edges around the heavy tapestry that hides it from view. I smile, finally, it
only felt like it took forever to get here. I push aside the covering and force
my way through into his room.

 Decorated in reds and silvers, his room surrounds us,
at least the size of two of my dorm put together. He sits in front of his
fireplace, a crystal chest board between him and Maverick. Of course, he waits
for me before going to dinner.

They both look up. Paden’s eyes go wide and he stands.
Maverick looks equally shocked to see me, but stays seated. Why are they so
shocked to see me? I’ve come to have dinner with them every night since I came
to stay at Spearwood.

“Avalon, why are you here?” asks Paden. His eyes move to look
behind me, noticing the guys. He then looks back to me. “Why are all of you
here?”

Maverick stands now, his hands balled into fists. His lip has
a cut in the corner. How did that happen? He’s always been more advanced than
the rest of us when it comes to fighting. “Come to try and take another hit,
Mathis? I won’t be nice this time.”

My head whips around to look at Dante. He did that? Since
when have they been on a last name basis? Nothing makes sense. I feel like I
have fallen through the looking glass. Dante’s eyes narrow and he gives him a
sneer. I’ve never seen him look at someone with such contempt.

Dante adverts his eyes away from Maverick, not commenting on
what he said. He looks to Paden. "What have you done to her?" he
asks.

Paden looks at Dante with a frown. I don't like seeing his
lips turn down with displeasure.

"I haven't
done
anything to her. I would never do
anything to Avalon."

"Except kidnap her and force her to wear things she
doesn't like. So why wouldn't you have something done to her mind in order to
make her love you?" asks Bullock. I look back at him, he has such
conviction in his voice it's odd to hear, since it isn't projected at me. 
 "You want to make her love you, so why would this be a surprise to
you? She has memories now that none of us have. "

"Excuse me, but I'm in the room. I don't like being
talked about while I am standing right here. It's rude."

"Again, I haven't done anything to her. I would never
force her to love me by changing her memories and mind. That would make her
someone different. I love her for the girl she is."

I smile at Paden and walk over to him. I stand on my toes to
place a kiss on his cheek. He looks at me with wide eyes and moves away from me
by a step. I frown. He has never done that, normally he would return my affection
by kissing me lightly on the lips. That's what he has always done. 

"Don't tell me you're acting strange, too. I don't think
I could handle it. "

"Avalon, how did you know about that passage into my
room? Not even Maverick has been told about that one. "

I take a step back from him. Now I know something has changed
all of them. "You never call me by my name, not since we decided to make
the engagement work.   You showed me the passage on my first night
here, months ago in July. We did the bonding ceremony with our initials in the
tunnel. Please tell me you remember." Hot tears prick the corners of my
eyes. My heart hurts.

"Bonding ceremony? Are you for real?" asks
Maverick, with a scoff.

I look to him, my vision blurred by the tears.  His cold
demeanor takes me off guard. He doesn't seem care free. That's not like him at
all. In fact, all of them seem stiff with each other. Paden looks to the others
and then to his door. "We shouldn't be talking here, the walls are
listening."

Dante crosses his arms over his chest. "Fuck the walls.
Let them listen.”

I turn to look at him. "Dante, language." I wipe
the tears out of my eyes. I just have to keep reminding myself that Dad said
this would happen. I didn't think he meant Paden, too, but I guess he meant
everyone. They will be back to normal in the morning.

"Avalon, seriously? You've never cared about cursing
before," says Horace.

I give him a glare. "Of course I have always cared.
Ladies and gentlemen don't say such foul things."

"I really can't stand this version of her. Will someone
please shut her up?" asks Lusk.

My lip begins to quiver. I've never had him be so mean to me
before. Paden puts a hand on my back and for a second I think he has gone back
to his normal caring self.

But one look in his eyes tells me that he is still acting
strange. His looks confused and even a bit angry. My Paden would never be
angry.

"We should really not be speaking here. Our words could
affect her as well. I have a place where we can talk."

"So do
we
," says Dante.

What are they talking about? Where could we go, and the walls
are listening? Are they all paranoid?

I look back to Paden and Maverick. Paden lifts an eyebrow. He
gestures with a wave of his arm. "Then by all means, lead the way."

"I don't trust you with that type of information."

Paden takes off his suit jacket and then his button down
shirt. My cheeks flare with heat. I've never seen him like this before. He
wears irritation well, my body grows hot with attraction for him.  He
turns this back to face the group. Showing them a brand scar on his right
shoulder blade, a circle with six lines that meet in the center and shoot away
from it. .  "Is that trust enough for you?" asks Paden, as he
turns back around.

Dante looks back at the others. They all exchange looks. Then
Dante looks to Maverick. "What about you?"

Maverick looks to Paden, Paden nods. Maverick growls and then
sighs. He practically rips of his jacket and shirt. He has the same marking on
his right shoulder blade. I frown. What does that mark mean? I have never seen
it before, but obviously the guys know. I thought we didn't keep secrets from
one another.

"What does that mark mean?" I ask.

"Interesting, something she doesn't know," says
Triton.

I send him a death glare. "Shut up, Lennox."

He sends back a glare of his own. That hurts. "I thought
ladies don't says such foul things."

My cheeks flare with more heat and my hands go into fists.
"I make the exception for you."