Enchanted, Page 2

  Mr. Belligbutterton gives Thad a pressing look. “Are you sure you want to do that, Thad? You’re an excellent student. I’d hate for your grade to be affected by a weak team member. Plus, you’ll be giving up your chance to attend the seminar.”

  Thad nods. “I’m sure Alana and I will work okay together.”

  Mr. Belligbutterton grits his teeth. “Fine. I guess I can allow you two to pair up.” He backs up the aisle, looking solely at Thad. “I just hope your grade doesn’t pay because of this poor decision.”

  Thad keeps his smile on until Mr. Belligbutterton turns around, then he shoots him a glare before turning toward me.

  “That guy is a jerk,” he whispers under his breath. “But with you, he’s taken it to an entirely new level.”

  “I know.” I sigh, tucking a strand of my long, brown hair behind my ear. “And what sucks is that he isn’t the only teacher who acts that way toward me.”

  Thad’s brows scrunch. “Really? I wonder why.”

  I give him a dubious look. “You really don’t know?”

  “Okay, I may have heard a couple of rumors about you.” Thad pulls a guilty face, quickly adding, “But that doesn’t mean I believe them.”

  “Well, that makes you a giraffe in the middle of a sea of sheep.”

  “Huh?”

  “Sorry, weird metaphor.” I collect my books as the bell rings, announcing the end of class. “All I was trying to say is that you may be the only person in this school who doesn’t believe I’m a cheating, lying, potential mastermind of evil.” I rise to my feet. “Although, I take the mastermind part as a compliment.”

  Thad stands up, too, grabbing his books from off his desk. Even though I’m tall, I have to angle my head up to meet his gaze.

  “Not everyone in this school thinks you’re evil, Alana.” He tucks his books underneath his arms. Then a small smile touches his lips as his gaze flicks to the doorway. “And one of those people is standing in the doorway, waiting for you.”

  I don’t have to turn around to know who’s there. It’s the same person who shows up at the end of every school day to wait for me.

  “Let me guess. He’s tall; with light brown, messy fauxhawk hair; has a lot of tattoos; silver eyes; smells like a tree”—I raise my voice, smiling to myself—“and is really, really moody, especially when you accidentally read one of his text messages.”

  “You didn’t accidentally read the message.”

  Jax sounds closer than I expect, and I whirl around, startled. Then I instantly step back at his nearness.

  “And who clearly doesn’t understand personal space.” I give him an innocent smile as he stares down at me, unimpressed. “And the only reason I read your message is because your phone went off at five o’clock in the morning!”

  He crosses his lean arms. “Whether it was five o’clock in the morning or five o’clock in the afternoon, you still snooped around on my phone.”

  “I did not snoop. I read one message.” I hold up a finger. “And I only did it because I was so tired and out of it that I thought it was my phone.”

  “You sure about that?” His brow remains up in insinuation, nearly driving me mad. “Because, with how pissed off you looked when you left for class this morning, I’m wondering if maybe you read a particular message that I got a couple of days ago.”

  “Now why would I do that?” My tone is all innocence, although I’m lying out of my ass. In my defense, I didn’t mean to look at that particular message. After I realized I had Jax’s phone, I immediately started to return it back to the nightstand, but as I was exiting the texts, a message title caught my attention. “I had a great time the other night, wolf boy. We should do it again some time.” The message was from someone who refers to themselves as Red Riding Sexy-Hood which, seriously, is the lamest name ever.

  “Because you were jealous.” A smug smile pulls at his lips. “You still are, too. I can smell it all over you.”

  “That’s not jealousy you’re smelling,” I assure both him and Thad, who’s uncomfortably watching the scene unfold. “That’s complete and utter annoyance at the fact that I can’t seem to get rid of a werewolf who’s been following me around like a lost puppy dog for over a week now. Seriously, he’s everywhere I go. He even sleeps in my bed! And I think I even caught him licking my feet the other morning. I tried to tell him that’s not cool, but some dogs are just untrainable.”

  Jax’s smugness only magnifies. “So, you’re resorting to wolf jokes now? Man, that text must really be bothering you.”

  “Not even a little bit.”

  Liar. Liar. Liar. Think about the dreams you’ve been having about him.

  Sadly, the voice inside my head belongs to me.

  “I don’t care who you hook up with. What I do care about is your phone going off at five o’clock in the morning.”

  “You know, if it’s bothering you so much, you could always ask me who the message was from and what it meant,” he says, completely ignoring me.

  “It’s not bothering me, dude,” I lie for the third time “And I already know who it was from—Skanky Red Riding Hood.”

  Jax chuckles. “I think you mean Red Riding Sexy-Hood.”

  “No, I’m pretty sure I meant Skanky Red Riding Hood.”

  Jax doesn’t say anything, only smirks.

  I take a deep breath, reminding myself to stay calm, that deep down, I know Jax isn’t a bad guy. He’s done a lot for me, including destroying incriminating evidence on my grandfather. I’m just … Well, I’m not really certain what’s got my panties all up in a bunch. Whether the abundance of hours we’ve been spending together has been a little too much, or if I really am jealous.

  “I thought we had a deal that you were going to stop accusing me of being jealous?” I remind him. “After the whole Succubus thing, we called a truce.”

  “We did.” He nods in agreement. “But I can tell this is bothering you, and it’s causing tension between us. Since we spend so much time together, we don’t need this tension. So, if you’ll just admit you’re jealous, I can fix the problem.”

  My lips twitch in aggravation. If he was any other guy, I might consider admitting the text got under my skin. But with Jax, I’d only be adding fuel to his overinflated ego. So I keep my lips sealed, staring him down hard.

  He returns my stare, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

  “I have some stuff to do for Dash, so I’m going to take off,” Thad abruptly announces, breaking the staring contest Jax and I have entered.

  “You’ve heard from him, then?” Jax asks with a hint of worry.

  Thad hesitantly nods. “Yeah, he sent me a text message. Said he isn’t tailing Vivianne anymore, but is working on a new project that will keep him busy for at least a few weeks.”

  A frown forms on Jax’s face. “Did he mention what this project was?”

  Thad shakes his head. “All he said was that he’d be away for a few weeks, and that he needs me to go to his place, feed Mr. Glitters, and make sure his safe is securely locked and hidden.”

  “Mr. Glitters?” I interrupt, semi-amused.

  Thad nods with a small smile. “It’s his cat.”

  “That he named Mr. Glitters?” I question with an arch of my brow. “Is this a normal cat? Or is it, like, some sort of faerie, unicorn, rainbow fuzz ball type cat?”

  Thad chuckles. “You know no such thing exists, right?”

  “Anything can exist,” I inform him. “For all we know, a winged, horned, rainbow cat could be wandering around in some glittery field paved with diamonds that resides way out in the Fey Realm or something.”

  Thad shakes his head, amusement glimmering in his eyes. “Okay, maybe that’s true, but I promise you that Mr. Glitters is a normal, slightly overweight tabby cat Dash found in an alleyway and brought home with him, like seven or eight years ago. The name is meant to be funny because the cat’s about as sparkly as a slab of slate.”

  “That sort of makes sense, I guess,” I say. �€
œI mean, if anyone is going to name their cat Mr. Glitters, it’d be Dash. He has a very glittery personality.” When Jax makes a strange, choking sound, I glance at him like he’s a total weirdo. “What? Do you disagree with me or something?”

  Jax rolls his eyes, seeming bored. “Not at all.”

  I eyeball him closely. “Then what’s up with the choking noises?” I hold up my hand before he can speak. “Wait. Let me guess. You hacked up a hairball.” I flash him a teasing grin.

  “Ha, ha,” he drones. “You’re hilarious, Alana Avery. For future record, wolves don’t hack up hairballs. In fact, we don’t even shed.” He drops his voice as he leans in, positioning his lips beside my ear. “We do bite, though.”

  I involuntarily shudder from the feel of his breath, but promptly collect myself.

  “Is that supposed to be a threat or something?”

  His deep chuckle reverberates throughout my entire body.

  “Quite the opposite, actually.”

  Rolling my eyes, I flatten my palm against his chest and push him away. “Whatever, wolf dude. Try to bite me and see what happens.” My tone carries a threat that doesn’t match the images flooding my mind. Images of him and I dancing, something we’ve done once before but were interrupted. Only, in my imagination, the dancing keeps going all the way up until he sinks his teeth into my neck, which feels so damn good.

  Wait, huh? Since when do I daydream about Jax biting me?

  Nope. I’m so not going there.

  I hastily ninja kick those thoughts away and manage to maintain a neutral expression.

  For some reason, and I’m sure it’s not a good one, Jax wolfishly grins at my reaction.

  When my lips twitch in annoyance, his grin only broadens.

  “But, anyway …” Thad clears his throat, shifting uncomfortably. “I’m going to take off.”

  Jax blinks then turns toward Thad, looking as though he forgot all about the tall, broad ogre towering from the side of us.

  “Can you do me a favor?” Jax asks Thad. “Tell Dash to message me when he gets a chance. I’ve been trying to get ahold of him since he said he’d tail Vivianne to Glamor & Glitter & Wings, but I haven’t heard anything from him.”

  Thad nods. “Of course. But I wouldn’t look too much into his silence. He tends to go off the radar when he’s out on jobs.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Jax agrees with a frown. “That’s because he’s usually doing something illegal. And since he’s having you check up on his safe, my bet is he’s gotten himself into some trouble and he’s afraid someone is going to raid his house.”

  Thad rubs the back of his neck tensely. “Shit, you’re probably right.” His hand falls to his side. “I should probably get going, then. I’ll let you know if I hear from him.” He turns toward me. “Alana, if you want to meet up later tonight to start on the project, just send me a text.”

  “Oh, I definitely will,” I assure him. “The sooner we get started, the more likely we’ll be able to win and get those tickets.”

  Confusion swirls in Thad’s eyes. “You want to go to the seminar? Seriously?”

  I shake my head. “Nope. But I want to see the pissed off expression on Mr. Belligbutterton’s face when he has to hand them to me.”

  Thad bites back a smile. “So, this is about revenge?”

  I waver. “Well, that and the satisfaction of solving a case no one else can.”

  “But no one ever solves these cases,” Thad reminds me, nodding at the packet in his hand. “That’s why they were declared unsolvable.”

  “I know that.” I grin. “Which is only going to make us look more badass when we solve ours.”

  Thad doesn’t seem as confident as me. “Yeah, maybe.”

  “No maybes,” I warn, wagging a finger at him and still grinning. “We will do this. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck looking at Mr. Belligbutterton’s stupidly smug smile for the rest of class.”

  The corners of his lips twitch into a smile. “I guess I see your point.”

  I pat his arm. “That’s the spirit.”

  Chuckling, he waves good-bye then winds around the desks, heading toward the door.

  “It looks like you two are getting along,” Jax notes after Thad disappears into the hallway.

  “Why don’t you sound very thrilled about it?” I ask, squeezing past him to make my way up the aisle.

  He follows me. “I am. I just …”

  I peer over my shoulder at him and elevate my brows. “You just what?”

  He shrugs with indifference. “I worry about you; that’s all.”

  I step out into the crowded hall, then pause and face him. “Worry about me getting along with Thad?”

  He shrugs again. “Maybe.”

  Why in the wild, wild weirdoes?

  “But weren’t you just telling me this morning that I need to try to make friends?”

  He gives an offish nod. “Yeah, I guess I did say that.”

  “Then what’s up?” I give him an accusing look with my hand on my hip. “Do you have something against ogres?”

  He rolls his eyes. “Don’t be absurd.”

  “Then tell me why you don’t want me to be friends with Thad?”

  “So, you’re friends with him, then?”

  “Yeah, besties. We have sleepovers and stay up all night braiding each other’s hair and giggling about boys. It’s super, super fun.” I resist an eyeroll.

  “That would be funny, if I didn’t know where you sleep every night.” He raises his voice loud enough that a few wizards snicker.

  I glare at him. “Great. Now everyone’s going to think I really am sleeping with you.”

  A smile rises on his face as he stuffs his hands into the back pockets of his black jeans. “Technically, you are.”

  “Will you stop saying stuff like that?” I whirl around and push my way down the hallway, hurrying toward my dorm room located in the farthest corridor.

  Jax jogs after me, reaching my side in a matter of seconds. “What’s your problem? You seem awfully moody today.”

  “I’m not moody.” I hug my books to my chest and keep marching forward, trying to disregard the gawking going on from every direction. “I’m just tired of people thinking you gave me partial credit for solving the case because I slept with you.”

  He catches my arm and pulls me to a stop. “Wait. People are saying that?” Remorse fills his eyes. “Alana, I …”

  “I don’t need your pity.” I wiggle my arm from his hold and lower my tone to a hushed whisper. “I just brought it up so you’d—hopefully—stop cracking jokes about us sleeping together. That’s like feeding pixie dust to a bunch of jonesing sprites.”

  He lowers his arm to his side, his gaze skimming the hallway filled with loiterers gawking at us. “All right, I’ll do my best to refrain from those kinds of jokes while we’re in public.” His silver eyes glimmer as he redirects his focus back to me. “Of course, when we’re behind closed doors, all bets are off.”

  “That’s fine.” My clunky boots scuff against the checkered floor as I start to head back down the hallway. “I’ve got plenty of my own jokes to throw at you, wolf dude.”

  He walks with me, a clever smile on his face. “Let me guess; they all have to do with a certain text message you’re trying to deny you ever read.”

  I open my mouth to retort, but the words fade from my lips as a skull-splitting pain stabs through my brain.

  Help me …

  Don’t let me die …

  I don’t want to die …

  Please … help …

  I hunch over, clutching my side and gasping for air.

  “Alana, what’s wrong?” Jax lowers his head to catch my gaze, worry written all over his face. “Alana, talk to me.”

  “I … can’t … breathe …” I gasp through the growing pain pounding against my skull, my limbs, and mostly my neck. The burn there, it’s like a fiery hot iron branding my skin. “I think … I think … I’m dying …”

  My leg
s give out, and I collapse to the floor, taking my final breath.

  Chapter 4

  I remember a time when my life was easy. Sadly, it took being thrown into a pit of complications to realize the simplicity that existed before I got my Guardian mark.

  Back then, I loathed being the ordinary. I wanted to be special, different, unique. I wanted to have odd powers that made me unique. I wanted to be a Keeper. I wanted to fight, be a badass, and do what my parents do, only better.

  Now, all I want is answers. Answers to why I’m different, and maybe a solution on how to turn off this whole living-the-final-moments-of-someone-dying thing.

  “It’s only going to get worse,” my grandpa’s voice echoes through the darkness surrounding me.

  “Hey, Gramps. Long time, no see,” I reply dazedly through the dizziness sloshing around in my brain. “I haven’t heard from you in over a week. What’s up with that?”

  He sighs. “Focus, Alana. Fight the magic.”

  “What magic?”

  “The one the dying witch put on you.”

  “Ummm … You’re making no sense. What dying witch?”

  He pauses. “You haven’t found her yet?”

  “I don’t think so …” Through the haziness in my mind, I try to recall what happened before I blacked out. “I did feel … something, though, before I passed out. Wait, why did I pass out?”

  “Because your body’s struggling to cope with magic overload.”

  “Magic overload?”

  “Because of the death of a witch.”

  I squint against the darkness, wishing I could see him. “What witch? And why would her death give me magic overload?”

  “For the same reason the dead Faerie left traces of Fey inside you.”

  “Because of my weird, freaky, unidentified curse?”

  “Yes. And the more you know about this curse, the better.”

  “But how do I find out more? Jax and I haven’t heard anything from Ollie, that Enchanter who was supposed to be getting the Scrawl of Secrets from Hushing Forest, and we’re starting to worry something happened to him.” I swallow hard thinking about how poor, sweet Ollie could be locked up somewhere in that godawful forest. “And that was pretty much our only bet of trying to find out what I am.”