I squeeze her hand. “I’ll come see you before the car arrives,” I tell her, but she’s already asleep.
“Thank you,” I murmur to the crotchety old secretary as she hands me my schedule. She huffs under her breath, and I roll my eyes, walking away and wondering what crawled up her arse.
The car which dropped me off last night was, as expected, driven by one of Dad’s many minions. He never said a word to me, other than addressing me formally upon both my collection and his departure. When I hit the room, which is more like a self-contained flat, it was bare except for a dresser, wardrobe, desk and bed. Exhausted, and knowing it was too late to shop, I took myself to bed and slept for twelve straight hours.
I was displeased when the sun woke me, shining directly through the window and onto my face. Managing to drag myself up and get ready with minimal effort, I went shopping, thankful for once I was a trust fund baby and said trust was already available to me. I spent way more than I should, gathering the ‘nik naks’ and much needed detail to make the mini flat feel more like home. I then came back to school to get my schedule from Mrs Happy, bringing me back to the here and now.
The school is strange when it’s like this, mostly empty but with the boarding stragglers. The hustle of the weekday is absent; however, a slow amble remains. As I walk out of the building, I stop to rearrange my many bags. Taking a moment, I look up to the sun, allowing it to bathe my face in warmth, my earlier ire at its behaviour forgotten. Smiling at the sky, a feeling of being watched creeps over me. I look around, alert and on edge, and then I see him. There’s one hundred and fifty feet of grass and courtyard, four trees, and about twenty students between us, but his stare locks on, boring into me, angry and full of fire…Jacobi Ashdown, still as imposing, dangerous, and darkly beautiful as ever.
Neither one of us backdown from our stare down, not until Taya walks around the corner and grabs his arm. She frowns and starts turning, ready to search out what has him so enraptured, but at the last minute, he stops her. Grabbing her and pulling her into his body, his arms slide around her and she giggles, but his eyes don’t move from mine. I lift my chin, grab my bags and walk back into the school. I make sure I don’t rush, not for a second, not even when I know I must already be out of sight, not even when my heart doesn’t stop thrumming at twice its normal rate.
No. I won’t show weakness. Jacobi Ashdown doesn’t get that from me. Not now. Not ever.
I can’t believe she’s here. I thought she’d finally gone and was hiding away in the countryside with her dying mother. But no, her father must have summoned her back, and it’s going to make my life hell again. No, scrap that, I’m not going to let it happen for a second time. This time, I’ll be ready for her. I’m the king here at Caspian Academy, the person everyone looks up to, the man every doofus of a guy wants to be, and the man every girl wants to date. Little Miss Juniper will kneel at my feet before the end of the day, and she’ll be begging her father to let her leave. I’m a bastard, and I’m not going to let my name down.
Stomping through the corridor, the sound of my heavy boots echoing off the walls, I follow Juniper into a classroom. My minions trail after me ready to do my bidding. Taya is still attached to my side; she’s the girl I’ve been dating, the Queen of the school. We’re the royalty here, and no one will ever put an end to that.
“I’m surprised to see you back here.” I throw myself casually across the classroom table Juniper has sat at.
She’s studying her schedule. I pick it up and scrutinise it. Damn it, we’re in most of the same classes. Is this someone's idea of a joke? Juniper lifts her head up but doesn’t look at me; instead, she turns her attention to Taya.
“Hi,” her little voice mumbles. “Nice to see you again, Taya.”
“Whatever.” Taya looks down at her fingernails, flicking a piece of dirt from the tip of one of the brightly painted red spears.
Uniform rules dictate she should have natural coloured nails, but no one is going to argue against her choice, not when they know they’ll have to face me if they do.
I wave the piece of paper in front of Juniper, or Flake as I like to call her because she’s beyond insane. “What’s this Flake? Why are you back here and enrolled in all my classes?” She tries to snatch the paper back from me, but I hold it high up where she can’t reach. “Answer the question first.”
“Jacobi, I’m bored can we go already?” Taya asks, not giving Juniper time to answer my question. She places her hand on my right shoulder and pulls my face to hers, but I slide from the table and shake her off. Taya huffs. “It’s nearly four. I want to go and see if we can try some of that vanilla smoke Benson was offering the other day. It made me feel so horny for you. You remember the things we did afterwards?”
I grab Taya by her long blonde hair which is up in a ponytail, and when I pull her flush against me, my body heats.
“Go ahead, I’ll be there in a minute. I just want to clarify a few points with Juniper about her return here.” I press a scorching kiss to Taya’s lips aware of how uncomfortable it will make Flake feel.
“Of course. But don’t be long.”
“I won’t.”
Letting go of Taya, I signal for my minions to follow her and leave me alone. I don’t need an audience for what I’m about to do. As they depart the classroom, I pull a chair out from underneath a table, twist it around and straddle my long, muscular legs over it.
“Talk, Flake.”
“Go to hell, Jacobi.”
“Answer the question.” I slam the piece of paper with her schedule down in front of her. “Why now?”
“You think I had a choice in this? You know full well I don’t control my destiny.”
“Your father needs to stop interfering in my business.” I slam my hand down onto her table, and Flake jumps back, her chair scraping on the floor.
“My father is the King. Your business is his,” she retorts, staring back up at me.
“He needs to go to hell.”
She snorts a laugh. “I’m pretty sure that’s where he goes for his weekend vacations.”
I flip her my middle finger, not wanting to hear her idiotic jokes. “You think this is amusing?” Jumping up from the chair I was straddling, I send it flying across the room, tumbling other chairs and desks out of the way. “It’s not, believe me. Let’s get things straight, right here and now.” Flake at least has the decency to look scared. “You stay the hell away from me. You don’t even look in my direction. I enter class, you look at whatever book you have in front of you. You don’t talk to me. I’m at a party, you don’t attend, I’m eating lunch in the canteen, you eat in the toilets for all I care. Basically, you stay the fuck away from me. You’re dead to me and vice versa. Get it?”
I don’t mean to, but I grab the long academy regulation tie around her neck and yank it upwards. For the first time since she’s been back, I look directly into her eyes, and the unusual purple flecks I see there dance in the morning sunlight flooding into the room via a small window. The irises of my destruction stare back at me, taunting and teasing me with the magic hidden within them.