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“What do you think Snow will think?” Jace asked, resting his pickaxe on his foot.

“I don’t think she will care. I really got the feeling last night wasn’t about having sex with me, but more about getting the frustrations from her dream out. I almost felt like I wasn’t even there.” He wiped his finger under his eye like he was wiping away a tear. “You know… I feel so used.”

“Well, she could have used me.” I said.

Since the first day she came to our house, there was something about her. I don’t know if it was her innocence, the rough life she had or something else… but I felt drawn to her. I still enjoyed going to Ruby’s, but I left feeling unfulfilled… maybe guilty? Part of me wanted Snow and no one else, but I didn’t really feel like I could say that to the boys without getting made fun of, although I was starting to get the feeling they felt the same.

“Me too.” Jace agreed.

Gage walked over. “Enough. Stop talking about her. I’m tired of hearing her name.”

“Did you want a piece of her too? Is that why you’re more pissy than usual?”

“No.” He walked away and continued hitting at the wall he’d been working at all morning.

He had knocked out a fairly sizeable chunk, more than most of us could do in a day. He must have come back with super strength, I laughed.

I continued working away on my section of the wall when I heard Gage drop his pickaxe and look at Barrett.

“We need to get home. Snow’s been attacked.” Barrett said, looking at everyone.

I watched Enzo take off without hesitation.

What I would give for super speed right now…

Chapter thirty

Garrison - Protector of Nothing

Thehousewaseerilyquiet when no one was here. I had been following Snow around most of the day and I could tell she was getting annoyed with me, so I decided to give her a little space, plus it gave me a chance to do some snooping.

I walked around the different levels and stuck my head into each of the bedrooms, starting with Enzo’s since he was the highest level, aside from Snow’s. I noticed for the most part, all the rooms were setup the same.

Small space with a gigantic bed, one dresser, one desk and one night stand.

Aside from the main floor and part of the second floor, the rooms were built into the side of a tree, which was partly in each person’s room. Dresden’s room, of course, had part of the tree notched out to form a shelf to hold books and a few potted plants.

Barrett and Gideon had the most organized rooms of the entire group on the third floor. They each had a lamp on the end of their desk with neatly stacked papers and perfectly aligned pens. I toyed with the idea of rifling through the papers to see if there was anything of note, but they mostly looked like random scribbles and I didn’t want to leave my scent in the rooms for too long.

I got the feeling that most of them had some sort of gift, even if they weren’t sharing it with the group. I knew Gage was a werewolf, but no one, aside from Snow, seemed to know that and I had heard stories of Enzo’s super speed even though no one knew what he was. I’d seen a lot of mythical creatures in my time, but none with his kind of speed.

When this thing with the Queen blew over and I was out on my own, I’d have to do some research into creatures with super speed. I had a few contacts on the third mountain I could talk to about things like this.

I ended in Gages room and sat on the edge of his bed. Part of me wanted to see what it was like to be him and the other part, the more dominant part, wanted him to scent me in his room to know I was here. It wasn’t really a malicious thought, as much as it was a reminder that I was here and wanting to work on our relationship.

When he left, I never thought I’d see him again and our bond wasn’t strong enough at the time to mindlink him from a far distance, although, admittedly, I never tried. But we had spent more time together in the last week than we had spent in our entire lives. I wanted to make up the fact I abandoned him, or rather, let father abandon him all those years ago.

Looking at him, I felt guilty for all the hardships he had to endure. He wouldn’t tell me everything, but I had an idea, and the images that flashed through my head pissed me off more than they should have.

I looked around his room and laid back on his bed and was fairly certain he was going to kick my ass later for doing this, but I didn’t care. I didn’t know how much time I had left here, so I wanted to enjoy every moment with him I could, even if that meant him roughing me up a bit.

I couldn’t stay holed up in this house forever… in Snow’s room.

Which brought me to my second thought.

I had watched her grow up over the years and was completely dumbfounded to learn she was the Queen’s daughter.

Right under my nose.