Chapter 120 Starting Over
976words
The queen had officially moved in with Kayn's family for the time being, which infuriated me more than it should. Sure, I understood she needed to lay low and was and would always be my mother, and I would like to get to know her too, but she was putting that entire family at risk by keeping her there.
I voiced this concern to Kayn, but he kept telling me to relax and that it was worth the risk for me.
Funny, how he didn't feel that way when I first got on to this island. Now he was willing to risk his family and his own life for me.
Returning to our daily lives didn't come easy. The first few days went by in a blur. I barely registered any of the work we did in class, and this landed me a detention slip. Kayn, at some point did something too to land himself a day in detention alongside me, but it barely phased me.
I continued on robot mode, moving from class to class, to a session in detention. When that was over, I met up with Kayn by the school gates.
"Well, that was boring," he muttered, taking my hand in his and laced our fingers together. "Let's go do something."
I glanced up at the thick, gray layer of clouds in the sky. "Swimming is definitely not an option."
"Even if the sun is shining it isn't an option," he spoke pointedly, his gaze dropping to my legs and I sighed.
"The color. Royal. Of course," I sighed. "Then what did you have in mind? I can't concentrate on movies, if that's on the agenda."
"Nah." He swung our clasped hands back and forth. "We could go for ice cream?"
"It's to cold for that."
"Hot chocolate?" he eyed me. "And croissants? I haven't had those chocolate ones in a while."
"That's a lot of chocolate," I sputtered a laugh.
"You forgot who you're with?" He grinned, suddenly leaning forward and stealing a kiss.
"Great," an annoyed voice sounded. We tore apart to find Belinda standing beside us with her arms crossed to her chest. "You two just don't learn, do you?"
"We are not in the mood for your nonsense," Kayn snapped, turning away and urging me to follow him.
"Fine," Belinda quipped. "But you should know, there are two men in the car across the street watching you."
Kayn cursed, spinning around on his heel and charged toward the car. "I'm getting tired of this bullshit."
My eyes widened with panic and I dashed after him, grabbing by the arm before he managed to cross the street. "Kayn, just leave it. We don't know what they'll do if we make them aware that we know," I whispered in a rushed tone. "Please. Ember already pushed her luck outing the other one."
"You know you're being followed?" Belinda gasped, sounding incredulous. "You knew and you're still hanging out."
I flung around, bitting out in a low voice, "if you haven't noticed, I'm not human. Isn't that what your initial problem is?"
"Yes. But they don't know," she countered.
"Actually, they do," Kayn ground out. "I think I've mentioned that to you before."
"No, you didn't," she huffed. "You rarely even ever talk to me anymore. So how was I supposed to know? How could you keep something like this from me?" Her eyes bounced to me. "How do you know they know?"
"Not here," Kayn mumbled, peering over his shoulder. "We can talk somewhere else."
"But I—" Belinda started, but Kayn held up a hand and shook his head
He mouthed, "That tree behind you could be bugged. Or the pole on your left. We don't know what they can hear."
Belinda's eyes widened and she turned to peer at the objects in question, no doubt trying to spot anything out of the ordinary that might stand out. She turned back, breathing out a, "Oh."
"Let's get out of here." I reached for Kayn's hand, urging him to follow me. He shot a final glimpse toward the car, before he turned to walk after me.
Belinda muttered under her breath as she trailed after us, complaining about something that sounded like, "Fish and people."
I rolled my eyes, breathing out a heavy sigh and chose a normal enough subject. "So, do you have any idea what homework we have?"
Kayn shrugged. "I wasn't paying attention."
"Of course you wouldn't," Belinda snapped behind us. "You were too busy staring at your girlfriend to care."
"Guess that's true." Kayn grinned at me and I rolled my eyes for a second time, laughing.
"Of course you would—"
A thud sounded behind us and Belinda whimpered.
"Seriously?" Kayn snorted. "Are you pretending to trip over your own feet to get attention?"
When Belinda didn't answer, we both turned just in time for a blackness to swallow us. The last thing I felt before I lose consciousness was the hard earth and Kayn's hand reaching for mine.
***
Pain pulsed through my body.
My lids were too heavy to open up so I could see what's going on. More pain. Cries. I could hear them through the fogginess of my mind.
Pleas for ending it all could also be heard.
Then fire. It burned my entire body to such an extend that I couldn't move or cry out for help. I vaguely remembered there were people with me. People who mattered, but I couldn't form their names in my mind.
At least, as far as I could push through the fog, one mattered incredibly to me. I kept seeing his face, but just no name came.
Nothing.
I slipped back into oblivion…
