AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Like KC, she’d had some smoke inhalation issues. Though, as far as I could tell, KC seemed to have bounced back. She sounded better anyway. Her singing voice clearly survived, at least based on the viral videos from their “surprise” nightclub appearance in Maryland.
“The letters are going out.” Harley’s statement yanked me right back to the conversation. I paused mid-step and glanced at her. Her expression didn’t hold an ounce of humor.
Shit.
We were in the middle of the path and the students broke around us, more than one muttering under their breath, but they avoided eye contact. When I nodded past her to where a bench was a few feet off one of the sidewalks, she turned.
“How many? Do we know?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “They haven’t let that slip since the bullshit that happened three years ago.” Back then, Harley had been a senior, and I’d been in my first year at the college-level. Blue Ivy’s prodigy. They’d had such high hopes for me to carry their reputation to the Ivy League.
I scrubbed a hand over my face as I scanned the students making their way to their next classes. I had a free period for grading. While the plan had been to get coffee, I might need to...
“I only know they’re going out because Melinda and Raquel both got tapped.” They were seniors. Melinda was her cousin. Raquel was her best friend.
“Do they know?” I kept that question deliberately vague. No one was close enough to overhear us, but it didn’t matter. Knots and Chains required no information sharing outside of the group.
“No.” Harley grimaced, then shook her head. “After the shit that went down and the ban on taps for two years, I didn’t…”
“You didn’t plan on tapping them.” Not that I could blame her.
“Nope.”
“But they were tapped, regardless.” I didn’t have to wonder why. “Legacy.”
She nodded once. “That means Jonas will likely get tapped this year, too.”
Fuck. The last thing Jonas needed was to deal with any of this. He didn’t know about the rest of it… “I’ll take care of it.”
“Ramsey,” Harley said, her voice taking on a warning note. “You can’t tell him.”
Couldn’t help him either.
Movement and blue hair pulled my attention. KC had a bag slung over her shoulder and her phone to her ear as she walked. Even with her hair pulled back into a braid, there was a wildness to it. Of course, it was the color, but it was more. Her hair was far too “alive” to be constrained.
Our gazes snagged briefly. Irritation flickered in her eyes and her lips compressed before she purposefully looked elsewhere. I wanted to try and find a way to make peace, but she had zero interest in hearing a word I said.
Maybe I’d pegged her wrong. Maybe we all had. I let a lot of preconceived notions rule my thinking where she was concerned. While she might have been a little unruly and disrespectful, mostly in a playful way, the year before—no such pretense existed this year.
She didn’t talk to me at all, given a choice. The few times we’d had to interact for class, she’d been almost coldly polite. Too cool. Almost unfeeling.
That girl? That girl was far more alien than the elemental girl I’d been getting to know.
The one I’d kissed…
Fuck.
“We can’t help her either,” Harley said in a soft voice as though she was sorry she had to remind me.
“Maybe she didn’t get tapped.”
Harley snorted, then gave my arm a squeeze before she walked away. Yeah, the chances she hadn’t been tapped were slim to none. She was a member of Torched. If they linked her to us, then she was also a legacy. However, the band’s reputation and her own ferociousness would speak for themselves.
I pulled out my phone and sent Lachlan a message. He responded swiftly enough that he’d meet me for coffee. I’d have to make up the prep time later. Fortunately, Lachlan didn’t keep me waiting.
The fresh bruise on his jaw just made me sigh. At least his new black eye had begun to turn green and yellow. If he could manage to not ram his face into Jonas’ fists anymore, he might heal the rest of the way.
I passed Lachlan his coffee before I nodded to the doors. The sun was out and the temperature was balmy, making it almost a perfect day. That was a good enough reason to be out there.
