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“That is what Thurst believes based on the way you’re responding to things.” Ellie looked at me and said, “You’ve got a primal side that has been dormant in you for your entire life, Max. Maybe it’s just trying to break free.”
“Free?” I considered what I knew about freedom up to this point. My mother was free of her magic, but that meant she was simply this… carnivorous warrior from old ocean lore that was so scarce it didn’t have an official name. So hungry for vengeance they sacrificed the entire male line of their species. These revenge-driven women who hid in plain sight for so long no one even believed they existed anywhere anymore. And I was one of them.
“Maxine?” Ellie called, but I was already running. I had magic and there were passages first year students were forbidden to use, but if this day ended like I thought it might, I wouldn’t need to worry about that.
I started for the forbidden gateway when a third year student, Thurston, came through and pulled me up short. “Stop it, Max.”
“You let me go, you monster!” I struggled to no avail.
“No.” He escorted me down the hall and then down the stairs. It was then I realized I was in mismatched clothing. As if I had no thought about my appearance when I got dressed this morning. The hunger, the aches. I wanted.
I needed. And now that he was in my reach, I had an onslaught of all new aches and desires. “I don’t want to do this.”
“Do what?” he asked as we moved toward the woodline. “Follow the path to water? It’s too late, Maxine. You made your choice and here we are.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I want to be free, not trapped in a new prison. This one, I can’t control. I can’t make it beautiful.”
“Who says?” he asked and tugged me further along to one of the small streams. “No one said that.”
“I’m a monster. I scared myself!” I looked up at him.
“You haven’t scared me.” He touched my cheek and said, “And you’re not as scary as you think you are.”
“You haven’t seen my snake hair.” I hated that his touch was bringing me so much comfort that I leaned into it, and then against him as he wrapped me into his arms for a hug.
“I saw it first. You were all bioluminescent, lit up and your hair spread out and swayed as if in the water, relaxing and floating on the surface. It was amazing, beautiful. You don’t see an entire male species ready to sacrifice their lives to appease the wants and needs of the wart witches, do you?”
I snorted an unladylike laugh and he chuckled with me. “No.”
“No. So, stop worrying about what other people will think. You’re Maxine Mayhem. If you showed up to class in full scales, the trend chasers would be drawing them on their arms and faces.” He kissed my forehead and said, “Now. There’s a water source. It’s not an ocean source, not the water we drink, but if you’re going to surrender to any body of water, I want to make sure it is a safe one and nothing is safer for us than Blackthorn.”
“Us?” I asked.
He pressed a hand to my abdomen and said, “All of us.”
I shook my head. “I’m not—”
“You are, My Love. I didn’t know you were a–and I didn’t think it could—but you are.” He moved his hand and then replaced it with mine. “Put your toes in the water, Maxine. Ask it to tell you the truth.”
I kicked off my shoe and put my toes in the cool stream. I closed my eyes and said, “Tell me the truth.”
CHAPTER 15
Thurst
The tears began to stream down her cheeks and I let go of her hand to pull her into a full embrace. “I love you.”
“I’m pregnant.” She wiped her eyes. “I wanted— so much and for so long and—this is not how I was supposed to get it.”
“And I can’t change that, Max. I wish I could, but I can’t turn back the hands of time to put you on the path you least wanted to give you the easier life. Would you want me to? Now? After all this?” I asked and hoped she didn’t break my heart with her answer. I never knew which version of Maxine I was going to get these days. I missed the one who stalked me, pursued me relentlessly, and wanted nothing more than to tie her life to mine.
“I don’t want to be afraid that I’ll lose you.” She broke my heart anyway. Sure, I wasn’t a wizard. I couldn’t fight her father in the streets and win. For all of our monstrous qualities, we were no match for some types of magic and that man wielded them all.
“We will talk to the administration. Tell them the truth.” I had no other options and her safety, the safety of our child, was all that mattered to me now.
“It will cause a scandal and—”
“That’s not your problem anymore. He can’t send you—” I stopped and she looked up at me, helplessly. “We need to get that fixed right now.”
