Page 24

Kerry

“For the last time, what Gemma don’t know won’t hurt her,” I hissed. “Stop whining.”

“Okay, okay!” Jax threw up his hands in surrender.

“ Thank you!”

After a few hours of sleep, I was recharged and ready to wreck my revenge on Reilly Argaud. I called John and Jax, and we met up in the lobby of John’s dorm. Now we stood at the top of the stairwell, just one door and a short hallway between me and my prey.

“You better stop worrying about me and start worrying about yourself,” I told Jax. “Gemma’ll just guilt me to death, but Gigi will string you up.”

“Well, she was raised on a horse farm.” Jax wiggled his eyebrows. “If she didn’t know how to use a rope, I’d be disappointed.”

John Morgen snorted.

“What about you?” I looked over at him. “Are you gonna get in trouble with your girl if we get caught?”

“Tara would be here with pom poms, cheering us on, if she knew what we were doing. He tormented her for months last year.” He shrugged. “I didn’t have to come along. I could have just told you where his room was.”

This late on a school night, the dorm was quiet and dark, and I was glad for my night vision as he led us down a hallway. We came to a stop outside the door John pointed to, and I pulled out a rolled-up paper.

I put the finishing touches on it that morning. It was time to give it instructions, fill it with power, and slide it under the door.

“I want to see!” Jax bounced on his toes like an excited kid.

I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, what did you draw?” John asked.

I unrolled the thick paper and showed them the yazi. Just like the one inked on my arm. It was only five inches tall and maybe seven inches long, but it had everything a Chinese war dragon should: scales, horns, teeth, claws, and a wickedly spiked tail. I smirked as I saw John’s eyes widen and Jax’s jaw drop, then twitched the paper out of their hands to kneel at the door.

“Attack at night,” I whispered. “Hold nothing back. Rest during daylight. Don’t get caught.”

I slid it under the door until only one corner stuck out, then poured power into it. The paper started to smoke, telling me it couldn’t hold any more, and I used my thumb and forefinger to flick it into the room.

“Lesson number two.”

I met the others where they waited by the stairs. When the screaming started, we took off and hit the lobby huffing with laughter.

“Your hair’s standing on end, Kerry.” John’s voice never changed in tone, but I could tell he was giving me a warning.

“Don’t worry. I’m not gonna lose it. I called up too much power and didn’t use nearly enough. See?”

I held my hands a foot apart and showed him how the blue sparks jumped from one palm to the other, making thin strings of spitting lightning.

“Whoa. What do you do with that?” Jax asked.

“It’ll settle down on its own eventually. Or I could destroy something. When I get outside, I can release it into the air. Until then, I’ll hold it.”

“Is it uncomfortable to do that?” John cocked his head.

“Not really, but I’m used to it. Kinda feels like holding in a huge fart, I guess.”

“When we start going out on missions, I’m on your team.” He grinned, which was a rare thing. “Don’t forget.”

“Me, too!” Jax said.

After we pushed through the exit doors, I waved two fingers in the air and released the extra power.

“You wanted to pour everything into that dragon, didn’t you?” Jax asked.

“Well, yeah. I shoulda known paper wouldn’t be able to hold as much as I wanted, but if I’d used metal or stone, it mighta killed him. And I promised Gemma I wouldn’t do that.”

“Do you think Argaud will ever realize he owes his life to the girl he’s been bullying?” John stopped walking when we reached the sidewalk.

“Talk about irony.” Jax snorted.

Irony. Okay. I’d heard of that word before. Now I understood it.

#

Gemma

Reilly Argaud was absent from school on Wednesday. The rumor was that he’d been mysteriously assaulted in the night. When I glared at him, Kerry started talking before I could ask.

“I did not touch him,” he insisted.

“But you had something to do with it, didn’t you?” I arched my eyebrows up.

“What can I say?” He spread his arms wide. “Sometimes people get what they ask for in life.”

Oh, yeah. He’d definitely done something to Reilly.

I gave him a dark look, but let it go. I couldn’t change what had already happened, and it was a waste of breath to fuss at him when he didn’t see his actions as wrong. Plus, I couldn’t prove he’d been involved.

Sighing, I headed toward my classroom.

Those long legs of his caught up to me in a second, of course, but I ignored him and fixed my eyes straight ahead.

“Gemma?”

I kept walking.

He reached down, looped his pinkie around mine, and squeezed it.

“Are we good, angel?”

Despite the jostling crowd around us, I stopped and looked up at him. Worry clouded his eyes and his eyebrows had shot up to wrinkle his forehead.

I am such a sucker.

“Yeah. We’re good.”

It wasn’t that I thought Reilly should get off scot-free. He needed to face a consequence for preying on me. After all, we adjusted our behaviors because we either liked or didn’t like the consequences that came with them.

Kerry’s idea of a consequence, though, was always a punishment, and usually a brutal one.

I can’t expect him to change his ways in the span of a few weeks, I reminded myself. He’ll get there. Might be a few decades from now, but he’ll get there.

I bit my lower lip. What if he didn’t? What if he stayed this way the rest of his days?

That won’t happen. I will not allow that to happen.

An explosion of laughter interrupted my thoughts. Breaking my gaze away from his, I looked toward the source of the commotion in time to see a boy shoulder-block a girl hard enough to knock her down.

When I realized it was Chessie, I dropped Kerry’s pinkie and ran to her. I could tell she was hurt by the way she held her arm tucked against her torso. Dropping to my knees next to her, I ignored the crowd, knowing Kerry wouldn’t let anyone lay a finger on either of us.

“Chessie! Where are you hurt?” I shrugged out of my backpack. “Your arm?”

“Don’t!” she hissed. “If you help me, he’ll go after you, too.”

“I truly hope so,” I growled. “I have a knee that’s in a hurry to break his nuts.”

Despite the tears on her cheeks, she snorted.

“Besides, Kerry saw the whole thing. We may need to intervene before he kills the guy.”

“Don’t bother,” she muttered. “He’s made my life a nightmare.”

“What’s been going on?” My mouth settled into a grim line.

Instead of answering, she bowed her head and her whole body shook.

Frustrated at her silence and worried about what Kerry was doing, I laid my hands on her shoulder, called up the power, and healed what damage I could.

#

Kerry

I clamped my hand around the throat of Chessie’s attacker, swept his feet out from under him, and choke-slammed him to the floor. Holding him down, I drove my knee into his gut and leaned my weight on it.

“Get off him, demon taint!” shouted one of his pals.

Lifting my head, I gave him my meanest look, the one that could clear whole rooms at the Diabolical Market. No way this prick would have the stones to stand against it.

Sure enough, he paled and shuffled away.

Black power rose like smoke around me and drew my attention back to the guy I had pinned. I squeezed his throat tighter. He gagged and clawed at my hand, but he wasn’t going anywhere until I wanted him to. I could do this all day.

Going nose to nose with him, I met his eyes to show him what lived inside me.

“Do that to one of my friends again, and I’ll cripple you in a way no healer can fix.”

“Kerry?”

My angel sounded like she needed me. Although this guy was down, he wasn’t out, so I smacked his head into the floor. His eyes rolled back, and I got to my feet and hustled over to Gemma.

“I’m taking Chessie to Ms. Chapman.” She looked up at me with those big, green eyes. “Will you come, too?”

#

Gemma

Ms. Chapman sighed as we entered her office.

“Mr. Harker. Have you found another damsel in distress?”

Kerry didn’t know what a damsel was. I was sure of it. Any other time I would have told him, but Chessie took priority right now. Besides, he wasn’t the type to let something like that slow him down.

“Uh, Chessie was in trouble.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “A guy attacked her in the hallway just now.”

“She told me he’s been making her life a nightmare,” I added. “He’s been bullying her for longer than today.”

“What?!” Kerry rumbled. “I knew I shoulda hurt him more!”

Ms. Chapman raised one hand with power in her eyes, and his mouth snapped shut.

“And you two were in the hallway when this happened?” She turned to me.

“We were walking to class,” I nodded, “and saw a boy—”

“I’d like to hear it from Ms. Catt first, please,” she interrupted. “Ms. Catt, tell me what’s been happening. Who attacked you?”

I could see Chessie wasn’t going to talk. That made me realize how Kerry must have felt the day he’d brought me here for the same purpose.

“Chessie, I’m going to tell you the same thing Kerry told me when Reilly groped me. If you don’t report what this boy is doing to you, you’re saying it’s okay. Your silence lets him get away with it.”

“If he finds out I told, he’ll do worse things to me,” she whispered.

“No, he won’t.” Surprising me, Kerry didn’t raise his voice or light up with power. Maybe he sensed how fragile Chessie was. “He’ll never touch you again. In fact, he’s gonna forget you even exist. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Mr. Harker.”

Ms. Chapman gave him The Look, which he returned.

While the two of them tried to stare each other down, I wrapped my arm around Chessie’s shoulders.

“You have friends who care about you and hate to see you hurt,” I told her. “We can’t put an end to this, but you can. Take the power away from him by speaking up.”

After a few moments, she dropped her head.

“His name is Cole Fanishell,” she mumbled. “He’s one of Reilly Argaud’s lieutenants in Firsts First.”

In a voice that grew even quieter as she went on, she described how Cole Fanishell took every opportunity to be cruel to her. They had third period gym together, and he’d picked her out to bully right from the start. At first, she said, he contented himself with calling her mean names, laughing at her, and spreading lies.

Then, about a week ago, his viciousness turned physical.

“He either pushes me like you saw today or crowds me into a corner and runs his hands all over me.” Chessie’s breaths grew short and choppy, and her words came out faster. “Two days ago, he— He put his hand up my shirt.”

“That son of a whore touched you?!” Kerry rocketed to his feet.

“Control yourself, Mr. Harker!” snapped Ms. Chapman. “Ms. Shepherd, thank you for your intervention and care of your classmate. Now, I think it would be best to take Mr. Harker elsewhere while I finish interviewing Ms. Catt.”

“Call me,” I murmured in Chessie’s ear. “Anytime. I’m here for you.”

I got to my feet and picked up my backpack, not wanting to leave her, but Kerry had one thing on his mind: Hunt down Cole Fanishell and end him. Ms. Chapman knew it, too, which was why she was sending me with him. She trusted me to stop him.

She has a lot of faith in me . I’m not sure anyone can stop Kerry if his control snaps for real.

I turned to the boy who was on fire to kill someone.

“Kerry? I understand that you’re angry, and you’re right to be so, but not here. Not now.”

He swiveled his eyes down to mine, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

What should I do? What can I do?

Going with my gut, I reached out my left hand and extended my pinkie.

“Come with me, okay? Please?”

I held his gaze for several tense moments before he leaned toward me and dropped his forehead against mine. Closing his eyes, he took a few deep breaths that he blew out slowly. I stayed calm and still and hoped my patience would be rewarded. I didn’t know what else to do.

Finally, he hooked his little finger with mine and let me lead him away.