Page 54 of Minding the Minotaur

Now, this could prove interesting.

CHAPTER 17

SAMMY

As I scurry toward the study, I’m still busily tucking my shirt into my pants and tugging my ponytail tight. It was like a game of peekaboo as Arlo tiptoed out of his bedroom to get my uniform from the snug, sneaking straight past the door of the study.

I needn’t have worried. Jax is sprawled in a chair, his green eyes hooded, while Tippy sits on the edge of the sofa opposite. She’s talking animatedly, her pretty hands gesticulating. “What you need, Jax, is a vitamin B complex, plus a mega dose of vitamin C. Have you thought of vaping as an in-between measure?—”

Jax is looking more and more like a cornered animal, but his eyes light up when he spots me in the doorway. “Ah, Blondie, there you are.” He looks pointedly at Tippy. “Can you give us a minute, Tip?”

“Sure.” Tippy smiles at me rather too knowingly. I do my best to ignore it.

“And back off on the vaping shit, will you?” Jax adds, as she gets up. “That’s for wimps.”

Tippy shrugs. “Okay, I’ll mix you up my Quit Fast elixir instead.”

“Sure, why not?” Jax drawls. “Now go.”

She trots out of the room, her tail swishing and her pretty little nose in the air. Jax’s eyes follow her with vague amusement.

“Do you two know each other?” I ask.

“Everyone knows Tippy. Self-appointed health guru for the Labyrinth. I just use the excuse that none of her hippy shit works on humans.”

“Doesn’t it?”

“Don’t know. Never tried it and never will. “

“You said you’d take her elixir,” I say accusingly.

“It’ll give the nearest drain a drink. Though maybe I won’t roll a ciggy here, or she’ll be onto me like a crazed whippet.” He straightens in his chair and eyes me shrewdly. “So, how’s things, Blondie? It’s been two weeks, so I thought I should check in on you.”

“It’s been… interesting,” I say guardedly.

“Not what you expected?”

“I had no idea what to expect. It’s not as if you gave me a lot to go on.”

“Better that way.” He grins wickedly. “Throw you in at the deep end, see if you sink or swim.”

“What if I’d sunk?”

“I’d have dragged your ass out of here quicker than you could blink.”

I let out a little snort. “Really, you would have?”

“Sure I would. Takes a certain kind to be able to cope with the Labyrinth. I must say, I wasn’t sure at first. But Clem was right about you, you’re a tough little cookie.”

For some reason I feel unduly chuffed at Jax’s praise. I have no idea why I should care what this skinny green-eyedguy with the constantly haunted look about him thinks of me, but I do somehow.

“Aw, thanks Jax.”

He passes my gratitude off with a wave of his hand. Takes a packet of gum from his jeans pocket, places a piece in his mouth and starts chewing.

“So…?” He raises a laconic brow.

“So?”