House of Korba: The Ghost Bird Series: #7 (The Academy) (26 page)

“Like showing up at your house,” Nathan said.

“Or posting people on our street to keep an eye on us and follow us,” Kota said. He kept his hand on me, moving it to my shoulders to rub deeply. He sighed, looking out among the crowd. “Mr. Blackbourne is right. These bomb threats have to end. They’re a major distraction right now.”

“Aren’t they?” Silas’s deep voice was even deeper now. He looked out across the school, toward where the fire trucks and police officers were counseling not just teachers, but parents as well.

Kota and Nathan leaned to look around me at Silas. “What?” Nathan asked.

Silas was quiet for a long moment, still staring. He lifted his hand, and pointed, not saying a word.

I followed his line of sight to Mr. Hendricks, who was on his cell phone, standing away from firefighters and police officers. He wasn’t talking, just listening, and watching the crowd. When someone approached him, he waved them off, took a step back, and pointed to his cell phone.

“Watch his face,” Silas said.

I did, and I knew Kota and Nathan were studying him, too. It was hard to tell from the distance we were at, and with people in the parking lot trying to figure out what was going on being a distraction.

However, Mr. Hendricks’s stature was casual. Unconcerned.

Not even concerned with the parents who were holding up the process of getting everyone inside. No stress that this was the beginning of homecoming week, a week he wanted things to go well, or said he did. Wasn’t he the one that was worried before about parents being around for events and making things worse if there was a bomb threat? Here was one, and he didn’t seem irritated or upset.

“Isn’t he supposed to be doing something?” I asked. “I mean, what is a principal supposed to do when there’s a bomb threat?”

“It’s not sitting on your cell phone,” Kota said. He straightened, sliding off the edge of the seat onto the grass. “Wait here with Silas. Nathan, let’s go.”

Nathan moved instantly, dropping to the grass and walking beside Kota. Kota led the way, and Nathan kept his hands in his pockets, scouting around them as they walked. They kept their heads down, walking among people and blending in.

“What are they doing?” I asked Silas.

“I don’t know,” he said. “When Kota gets a feeling, he’ll act on it.”

I wanted to suggest we could do something, too, but I realized that the best thing we could do was be the lookouts. From our vantage point, we could see where Mr. Hendricks was, keep an eye on students, and most of what was going on.

Sitting beside Silas then, feeling him close, I slowly reached out to him. Wrapping my arm around his.

He found my hand, his own enveloping my palm. He held firm.

“Was I making you feel awkward?” he asked as he kept an eye on Nathan and Kota who weaved their way through the cars and seemed to be heading for North’s Jeep parked in the middle of the lot. “When I called you
night flower
?”

“No,” I said, although I wasn’t fully sure what to say. “I didn’t realize you hadn’t told anyone else about...you know, us.”

“I haven’t had the time,” he said. “Although North is suspicious.” His thumb moved over on top of mine, rubbing a little. “I think he likes you. He’s protective about talking about you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked

“I’ve known him for a long time,” he said. “He’s a brother to me in a lot of ways. I’ve known about all the girls he’s ever had an interest in. But he won’t talk about you. Not in the same way.”

“Wouldn’t...that mean he’s not interested?”

“He’s keeping you close,” he said. He turned his head, looking down at me. “But I know about you spending the night with him at the hotel. And I noticed his tattoo.”

My eyes widened at him. “Tattoo? What tattoo?”

Silas’s lips curled into a smile at the corner. “The one on his chest. You haven’t seen it yet?”

My mouth was hanging open. I was staring, and among the chaos, I was trying to make the connection. “I saw a bruise,” I said. “I think.”

“It looks like one, doesn’t it?” Silas returned to staring out at the crowd. “He said it was from you. He wanted to keep it.”

I sucked in the slowest breath, holding it for so long, I thought I might never need to breathe again, I was stuck in that moment. North’s mark on his chest was familiar to me, because it was where I’d bitten him. It’d just been so long since that time, that I’d assumed it couldn’t be, because it should have faded, like mine had done.

And then I remembered that next morning, when North had dropped me off at the house, and he was supposed to go to the diner, but instead was hours late. Had he gone out that day to tattoo my bite onto his chest?

My face was burning, as was my heart.

Silas’s head turned quickly, and I instantly got caught up trying to figure out what he was looking at.

I spotted Kota inside North’s Jeep in the passenger seat. The car was rolling forward, so Nathan must have been driving.

Amid the chaos, while cars were trying to clear out, Nathan rolled the Jeep through it all. We watched, and I leaned into Silas, waiting.

They angled the car toward where Mr. Hendricks was still on the phone. There was a line of cars gridlocked, trying to get in or out, and amid the police cars, people were weaving, cutting each other off, and generally stopping the flow of traffic. Nathan wedged the Jeep right into the middle.

“What are they doing?”

“Getting a clear line of sight,” Silas said. “They might be able to hear what is being said on the phone, if anything, and what he might say in return.”

“From the car?” I asked.

“There’s a few special features Victor and Mr. Blackboure put inside that Jeep.”

I paused for a long moment, watching the Jeep, as if I could see inside and tell what was going on. “What else does North keep inside his Jeep?”

Silas chuckled, a deep rumble.

––––––––

W
e were called into class before Kota and Nathan returned. Silas walked with me to make sure I got there without incident. We hadn’t heard details about what happened.

The silence was hard to bear. I kept looking at my phone, waiting for an update. Silas had to remind me that silence was probably good. If they were calling for assistance, that was the time to worry.

After all the morning chaos, school started two hours late. Once parents were cleared and everyone was parked, I ended up in second period with Nathan and North.

North sat behind me. I stared at the back of Nathan’s head instead of paying attention to the lesson, wishing they could have told me what had happened in the Jeep or with Luke trying to get the cell phone, but the teacher had started before they managed to make it into class.

After the teacher had collected homework, a voice rang in over the loudspeaker. I could tell it was being broadcast throughout the whole school, because I could hear the echo from the hallway.

“Will the following students please report to the front office:

Sang Sorenson

Arthur Prescott

Jay William

I wasn’t surprised that my name would come across those speakers, even though I’d hoped it wouldn’t.

I stood up, and before I collected my bag, North was picking it up.

I was way too tired to fight with him about how he should stay behind, and North seemed too agitated to bother to respond to the teacher, who told him to sit down.

The hallways were empty and our footsteps echoed as we walked.

“You’ll probably get detention,” I said.

“No, I won’t,” North said.

“It’s not like you can go with me into the office.”

“I don’t really give a shit,” North said. He hefted our bags on his shoulders, making fists as he held on to the straps. “I’m so fucking tired of this school. I’m tired of the bullshit.”

That edge started to slice up against my heart again. Tension hovered in the air between us. I tried to think of something to say or do to ease his thoughts so he didn’t flip out.

“Do we...have to hurry?” I asked. Mostly, I wanted a chance for him to calm down a bit. I thought if we took advantage of being out of class for a moment, it might work.

North’s dark eyebrows lifted and he turned his gaze to me. “What? Something wrong?”

“Something’s wrong with you,” I said quietly. “Can we talk?”

He grunted. His head moved, scanning the area. He pointed down a hallway, changing our direction. Two more turns, and we were at a set of restrooms. He pointed to the boys’ bathroom, and I blushed, stopping at the door.

He went in and a few minutes later after I heard the squeaking of stall doors, he called out, “Clear.”

I went inside and closed the door, locking it behind us. In my old life, I would have never dreamed of doing anything of the sort. It struck me in the moment how things had changed.

North dropped our book bags on the floor. He turned, smacked the water to start running. He scooped his hands under the flow and then brought it to his face, rubbing at his cheeks and eyes. “Christ,” he said. “I’m about to kill Theo. I’m about to kill Mr. Hendricks. This bomber better watch out. And I heard about Volto yesterday. If I find Kota’s car, I’m using it to run his ass over.”

I stepped to the counter next to the sink and crossed my arms just under my breasts, watching as he rubbed at his face. “You’re not mad at Silas, are you?”

His head snapped around and his wild eyes locked on mine. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You just seemed upset with him earlier.”

He groaned. He snapped up some paper towels that were piled on a stack by the mirror. He dried his face. “I’ve been up all night watching his brother, and arguing with Silas about why he shouldn’t move back to Greece with his family.”

It was like he had dropped cold water on my face. “Silas? What?”

“He feels guilty,” North said. He leaned away, crumpling the paper towel and tossing it at the open trash can. He turned back to me. “He thinks shit that happened five years ago was his fault.”

“You mean, with his mother?” I asked.

North’s eyes flashed. “You know about that?”

“I just...” I wasn’t sure how to respond, if he’d be angry Nathan told me. I simply nodded. Better not to say who told me.

North frowned and shook his head. “We all go through that. There’s always someone we could have helped, something we could have stopped. He thinks if he’d stayed with his brother, maybe watched him, he could have stopped what happened. Now he’s blaming himself for what Theo is choosing to do. He thinks he’s a burden or whatever. I called him on his bullshit. I don’t know if I got through to him.”

“Why would he go back?”

“To get Theo out of our hair,” he said. He moved, touching a palm at each of my hips. “Sit down a minute.”

I relaxed, allowing him to pick me up and put me on the counter. He stood close enough that I parted my legs so he could lean against the counter.

North held my cheeks between his palms, keeping his gaze fixed on me. “I need your help,” he said quietly. “I’m trying to keep my family together. That includes Silas. I might yell at him, but he needs us right now. You might be able to help.”

“How?” I asked, my heart in an uproar. I was panicking, worried about where Silas was even at this moment. I just saw him, no less than maybe twenty minutes ago while trying to get to class. Now, North was telling me he was thinking about going back to Greece and I wanted to find him again, worried he could already be on his way.

“I think I’ve convinced him to stay, but I need you to make sure he does.”

“What do I do?” I asked.

“Anything. I don’t know.” His thumbs slid over my cheekbones. He licked his lips and then clamped his mouth closed for a minute and I could tell he was thinking before he spoke again. “I’m going to ask you something,” he said. “I’m not supposed to, but I need to know. You care about me?”

The question wasn’t what I was expecting, but I nodded against his hands almost instantly. Of course I did.

“What about Silas?” he asked. “Do you care about him?”

I nodded more, as if that could prove it. “Why do you ask?”

North sighed, again moving his thumbs across my cheeks. He leaned down, kissing lightly between my eyebrows.

My eyes closed, and he lingered there for the longest time. His musk lingered through my nose. I knew we couldn’t stay long, but that moment was quiet, and with North right there, I felt protected, like he could stop time and keep this moment for as long as we wanted.

North’s lips traced along my skin as he whispered. “I need a favor, Sang Baby. I know you probably won’t understand. I need you to get as close as possible to Silas. Become the reason to convince him to stay. No matter what happens with Theo, Silas doesn’t deserve to be buried for it. Charlie can make up his own damn mind, but Silas belongs here with us. There’s nothing for him back in Greece.”

“He’s just upset,” I said softly, unwilling to move or open my eyes. “He wouldn’t really go back.”

“He says he misses it. What he misses is a life that didn’t exist. What he misses is not feeling guilty back when his mother was alive. He misses her. But I remember Greece. I remember being there with him. He hated it. The kids were mean. The people were rude. He didn’t really fit in. Those kids his brother fell in with treated him like a...
worse
than a dog. He wouldn’t be happy going back. But if he leaves now, I don’t know if we would be able to convince him to come back.”

“Maybe...maybe if Charlie and Theo go back, and Theo is happier, he won’t be like this. And then when they settle, Silas would come back.”

“He’d want to watch out for Theo,” North said. He pulled back a bit, and his hands lowered to cup around my jaw while his thumbs traced lower along my cheeks. “Baby, sometimes we have to let go. Family is a choice. I know how hard it is to let go of a past, but his past is catching up with him hard right now. He needs to remember where we are now, and what’s important.” He paused, swallowed. He tilted his head a little closer, hovering over me almost too close to look at. “He needs you.”

“I don’t know what I could do,” I whispered.