Page 34 of Fractured Fates

He shifts against the desk and smirks at me in that cold manner. “They’ve already linked the knife to you. They already knew what you looked like. Now they have your name too. Marcus Lowsky has put a price on your head. Dead or alive he wants you to face retribution for the murder of his brother.”

“It wasn’t murder, I was saving…”

I stare at the floor; unlike the other floorboards we marched across, these are not highly polished, in fact they’re scuffed and worn away.

“Why didn’t the man in black tell me? Why did he let me leave my knife for them to find?”

“He had a job to do, Miss Blackwaters: to bring you in. And that’s just what he did. What happens to you next is of no interest to him.”

Despite myself, my heart drops. Of course. Why would the man in black care about me?

We’re silent, his breath and mine the only noise in this small stuffy office that smells far too strongly of his woody scent.

“Don’t be a fool. You’re safe here. Arrow Hart Academy is one of the most secure and highly protected places in the magical world.”

“Protected? We’re in the middle of nowhere!”

“Exactly. The next generation of magicals are precious and must be protected at all costs while they train for their futures.”

“Funny, a moment ago you said they’d expel me.”

“York will if you don’t follow the rules. Let me be clear.” His eyes roam over my face and down my body, his lip curling in disgust. “You’re a nobody. No one’s daughter, no one’s god daughter, no one’s charge. Until yesterday you weren’t even registered. You have no unusual powers or abilities that make you worthy of protection. Nobody cares about you, nobody is going to give a damn if you go missing. You run away – you get yourself expelled – it’ll be a matter of hours, not days, before Marcus Lowsky lays his hands on you. And then you’ll be dead and no longer a problem for the authorities or this school.”

I glance away from him, his words stabbing deep in my heart. I used to have someone who gave a damn, who cared about me, so much so she spent her life protecting me and keeping me hidden.

“Why was she keeping you hidden, Blackwaters?”

I’m lost in my thoughts and it takes me a moment to emerge from my reverie and register his words. “What?” I say as his face comes back into view.

“Why did your aunt keep you hidden?”

I stare at him. “How … how did you know that’s what I was thinking about?”

Did I speak my thoughts out loud without realizing?

“No, you didn’t but I can hear them anyway.” He smirks at me.

“What the fuck? What do you mean?” His smirk somehow grows even more infuriating. I don’t think this is some clever confidence trick. I think he is serious.

“I am. It’s one of my many talents.”

“You can read people’s thoughts? That’s sick,” I squeak, taking a step away from him, trying really hard not to think of all the inappropriate thoughts that have filtered through my mind over the two days we spent together.

Oh God, can the man in black read my thoughts too? Can everyone?

“No, sweetheart. Just me.”

“Stop doing that,” I snap.

Oh shit, all those things I imagined when I was lying in that motel room. All those dirty ideas I had floating through my mind while I was riding on the bike with the man in black.

Professor Stone frowns, like he just swallowed a particular nasty spoonful of that porridge.

“Don’t worry, Blackwaters, I have no interest in rifling through the immature desires of pathetic little school girls like you.”

My eyes burn but I’m determined not to cry, not in front of Stone – stone by name, stone by nature. Maybe later, when I’ve dragged Pip up onto my bed with me.

“Put on your uniform and get to class,” he says, turning his back on me to look at something on his desk. “And be thankful I’m not making you strip out of your clothes here and now and sending you back out into the school in your underwear.”