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At last the bell chimed and the busy Dining Hall began to clear out.
“Well, time to go,” Avery said, sighing and downing the rest of his cream and sugar coffee. “Come on, girls,” he said, putting out an arm for Kaitlyn and me to take. “Since Megan’s date has left her high and dry—thank goodness—I am going to escort you to first period.”
“But the locker rooms are clear across the castle from your first class,” Kaitlyn protested. “You’ll be late and get demerits!”
“Who cares about demerits when I have two such lovely ladies to escort?” Avery asked gallantly as Emma waved goodbye and headed out of the Dining Hall towards her first period class.
“You’re really sweet, Avery, but we’ll be okay,” I said. “I’ll make sure Kaitlyn doesn’t come to any harm.”
He shook his head, frowning.
“Until you can get around whatever barrier is holding your magic in and Flame up on purpose instead of just by accident, you can’t protect Kaitlyn or yourself. I’d better come with you, Megan.”
“Not necessary. I will protect Megan and by extension, her friend.”
The dark, cool voice was familiar to me by now. I turned without a trace of surprise to see Griffin standing there. He was wearing his black uniform jacket and a tie for once—like all the male students were supposed to wear—and of course, his dark glasses.
Avery scowled.
“I wondered where you were, Darkheart.”
“Just waiting for the four of you to finish breakfast,” Griffin said courteously. “I knew Megan would be safe with her coven and there was no point in intruding until then since I cannot eat breakfast myself. You may have noticed, my kind don’t eat.” He gave a humorless laugh. “Hell, some of us don’t even drink.”
I wondered what he meant by that as the key began to burn against my skin. It made me look for the outline of the thick black padlock around his own throat, but of course it was hidden by his starched white shirt and blood-red tie.
“Shall we?” He put out an arm to me, much as Avery had done.
Feeling like I was doing something somehow subversive, I took his arm and looked at Avery.
He sighed and threw up his hands.
“All right, fine.” He poked a finger at Griffin. “But you’d better take care of them. Both of them.”
“Of course. That’s what I’m here for.” Griffin put out his other arm to Kaitlyn who looked at him with one wide-eye from behind her curtain of hair.
“I don’t bite,” Griffin told her. “I can’t. No matter how much I might want to,” he added, looking at me.
Which wasn’t very reassuring, I felt. Not to mention pretty confusing. What did he mean he couldn’t bite? He was a Nocturne—they were all about biting, weren’t they?
Kaitlyn didn’t seem reassured either. She looked at him uncertainly until Griffin said in a gentler tone, “It’s all right, little sister. I swear I won’t hurt you. I only want to keep you and Megan safe.”
This seemed to decide Kaitlyn. Finally, timidly, she took Griffin’s arm, still looking down at her shoes. I wondered if she felt as dazzled by his perfection as I did. That fallen angel face of his could be hard to take even when he was being sarcastic. When he was gentle and kind, as he had been for just a moment, it was somehow even more disarming.
“Thank you for trusting me.” Griffin nodded at her. “All right then, ladies, let’s go.”
34
It was a short trip to the girls’ locker rooms with Griffin as our escort. As I had observed before on my first day, the other students just seemed to part before him like the waters of the Red Sea parting for Moses. Though I wasn’t sure that Bible analogies fit in the world of Nocturne Academy.
But however you wanted to put it, the fact was that we got to the locker room with plenty of time to dress out and get into line.
Not that I wanted to. And I could tell from the stooped set of Kaitlyn’s shoulders that she was dreading it as well.
“Well, here we are.” Griffin nodded courteously at the thick wooden door that led to the locker room. “Go on, ladies. And Megan, I’ll see you after class. Or maybe even a little before then.”
Whatever that meant.
Then he turned and glided away, leaving Kaitlyn and me with no choice but to enter the echoing locker room, which was filled with our other classmates already getting dressed.
We chose lockers on the far end of the busy space, both of us moving slowly and I knew the reason why. Neither of us was really keen to expose our scars again—though I still felt like I had it much easier than poor Kaitlyn.
I got into my own gym clothes and stood in front of her to screen her from any prying eyes while she got dressed.
