AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I look at Fielder. “Tell me what is going on. You’ve spent so much time hating me. Why is it you’re all here and seemingly extremely worried about me?”
Fielder takes his time answering. He’s still eyeing the room, scanning every inch of it like he expects something to burst out of the walls. After a moment, he finally nods, like he’s satisfied, and looks at me. His green eyes roam over my face, snagging on my bruised cheek. “We’ve never hated you, Ro,” he states simply.
Silence reigns until I laugh loudly and flop down on the couch. “That is hilarious. All of you have told me at least once that you hate me.”
“We were lying, love,” Hardin says, shifting on the bed. “Hard to believe, I know.” A frown mars his face as Ezra sits next to me on the couch and drapes his arm over my shoulder, tucking me against him. I should try to keep some distance. My brain is yelling at me to push him off, but I melt into him instead. Breathing in the now familiar scent of him, clean laundry and rain, with just a hint of mint.
“Why would you lie about that?”
“We were trying to protect you.” Gideon says, claiming the chair.
“What do I need protecting from?”
Gideon, Ezra and Hardin look at Fielder. The blond man hasn’t moved from the center of the room, hasn’t taken his eyes off me. “There’s a lot we’re going to tell you that’s not going to make sense, Ro,” he says slowly. “And we aren’t going to be able to tell you everything. It’s just not possible.”
I scowl, my brows drawing low. But then I sigh. Some answers are better than none, and I’ll start with something that should be easy. “Okay. You can start by telling me what you’re doing in the tunnels under the university.”
That surprises them. “How do you know about those?” Ezra asks, thumb stroking my arm through my sweatshirt.
I wave a hand in the air in front of me. “I stumbled into one of them from Goodwin. Gideon was down there with Julie, so I’m assuming you all know about them?”
They’re all frowning at me. “Those are…” Fielder says slowly, before cutting off. He’s looking at me with a new intensity, his eyes scanning over my face, my body. “You shouldn’t have been able to get into them.”
I lift a shoulder. “It wasn’t that hard. I found the carving on the bookcase, pressed it and it opened.”
Hardin sits up on the bed, scooting closer to the rest of us so his legs hang over the foot. “No, he means you shouldn’t have been able to even find the carving.”
I frown at them, not understanding why they’re so shocked by this. “But it’s just right there. Anyone could find it.”
“This is what Merritt meant,” Ezra says suddenly. “When she said she’d noticed things, what was working and what wasn’t.”
The other boys are nodding. “But Rosalind’s never been to a meeting,” Gideon points out, even though I have no idea what meeting he’s talking about. “We’ve never heard about her.”
Fielder crouches in front of me, scanning me in that same way he was before. I shift uncomfortably. “But think about it, it makes sense. The things she can do.”
I hate the way they’re having a conversation about me, but acting like I’m not really here, beyond Fielder’s creepy perusal of my body, like he can see right through me to my soul or something. Well, maybe not so creepy. I flush and he notices. How could he not, when his eyes are glued on me? Half of his mouth twists into a smirk.
In a flash, I remember grinding against him on the floor of my dorm room. Kissing him like I’d always wanted to, coming apart on his fingers while he whispered filthy things in my ear. And then he’d broken me.
I frown at the memory, and he notices that too. “Stop,” I snap, cutting off the conversation that had been flowing around me. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here. And tell me what is going on.”
Fielder stands runs a hand through his hair. “Honestly, Sweeney, I’m not too sure.”
“Sweeney isn’t a family name,” Ezra says to the boys, not catching on to the whole don’t talk about me like I’m not here thing, even though his arm is around me.
“Itisa family name. It’smyfamily name,” I snarl back. “Seriously, this is getting old. Is this about the group you’re all a part of? And Morgan and Julie too?” I leave out Gabe purposefully because I’m still shaken by him, much to my dismay.
“What has Merritt been telling you?” Hardin asks from the bed, blue eyes flashing.
“That you’re all witches,” I say as a joke, because it’s so obviously not the truth. But then they all pale. Like really, all of them lose the color in their faces and I swear Fielder sways on his feet.
“Well, obviously, that was a joke,” I drawl. “But maybe not a funny one. What the fuck is happening?” I stand up from the couch, shrugging Ezra’s hand off when he tries to pull me back.
“You promised me answers, Harris.” I crowd into his space, and his hands come up to grasp my shoulders, his finger soft, but he holds me away from him so he can look into my face.
His eyes move from me to the other men in the room and each of them must give him some kind of sign because when he meets my gaze again, he whispers, “we are witches. And so are you.”
Four
