Raelia (The Medoran Chronicles Book 2) (47 page)

“He’s not back yet. He said he’d be back tonight. Where
is
he?”

“Calm down,” Bear said, reaching for the pacing Dix and pulling her onto the bed beside him.

It was Sunday night and Alex, Bear and D.C. were in the boys’ dorm room, waiting for Jordan to return. They had all managed to keep busy enough over the weekend to keep their fears at bay, but none of them had heard from him since he’d left the previous morning and they were now growing increasingly concerned.

“It’s not curfew yet,” Bear reminded them. “Don’t worry, he’ll be here soon.”

Despite his comforting words, from her position on Jordan’s bed, Alex could see the strain in Bear’s features. He was as worried as they were.

As the seconds ticked by, the three friends tried to stay occupied by talking about their upcoming Kaldoras break. But it was hard to remain on the topic for long, especially when every few minutes one of them would glance at the time displayed on their ComTCDs, which only served to increase their anxiety.

At last, the door clicked open. Alex sat bolt upright and felt relief wash over her at the sight of Jordan stepping into the room.

He closed the door behind him, sending them a cocky smile. “I should go away more often if this is the welcoming committee I’ll get every time I return.”

As if his words broke a spell, the three of them leapt up to greet him.

“Don’t even think about it, Jordan Sparker,” D.C. said, wrapping her arms around him.

Jordan closed his eyes as he returned her embrace, which gave Alex the chance to look at him properly. His face was paler than usual, but that could easily have been because the temperature outside was turning bitter with the arrival of winter only days away. His rugged-up appearance supported her theory, since he was covered from head to toe—beanie and gloves included.

“Cold back at the Chateau?” Bear asked, noticing as much as Alex.

“Freezing,” Jordan said as he released D.C. and grabbed his friend in a one-armed, back-slapping hug. “It’s barely been two days, but it feels like I’ve been gone forever. Yeesh. I need to get a life.”

“We’ve missed you,” Alex told him quietly, and Jordan stepped over to her and hugged her last.

“Missed you, too,” he whispered in her ear.

Alex’s body jerked in reaction to the broken-sounding words that neither D.C. nor Bear would have heard. She pulled back
to look at his face and her breath hitched at the tormented shadows lurking in his eyes. But then he blinked and the emotion was gone, making her question if she’d really seen it in the first place.

Jordan released her and grinned widely as he looked around the room. “What did I miss while I was gone?” he asked, sprawling onto his bed.

Alex was stunned by his one-eighty change of emotion. She sat tentatively beside him and D.C. and Bear resumed their positions on the other bed.

“No way,” D.C. said. “You tell us about your weekend first. What happened? What did you parents want?”

Jordan shrugged. “They just wanted to see me.”

Alex raised her eyebrows at him—and she wasn’t the only one—but it seemed like he was ignoring them in favour of digging through his backpack. Whatever he was looking for eluded him, and he gave up his search and noticed their waiting expressions.

“What?”

“Your parents called you back to their place just to say ‘hi’?” Bear asked dubiously.

“Seems like it,” Jordan answered. “Weird, huh?”

“Did they say
why
they wanted to see you?” D.C. pressed. “Or why it was so urgent?”

“Nope.” Jordan stood and walked over to his desk. He shuffled some books around before huffing quietly and turning back to them. “I’m starving. Does anyone have any food? I thought I had something in my bag, but I must’ve left it back home.”

Home?
Had he just referred to Chateau Shondelle as ‘home’? As far as Alex knew, Jordan hated the place where he’d grown up. His home was Akarnae, and his second home was the Ronnigans’ house in Woodhaven. Chateau Shondelle was just a
cold reminder of a lonely childhood. The only person who had ever actually cared for him had been his brother Luka, but he’d killed himself when Jordan was eleven. All in all, the chateau was hardly a place of happy memories for Jordan.

“Home?” Bear asked, picking up on the word as well.

Jordan froze for a split second before his posture relaxed and he corrected, “My parents’ home. Old habits die hard.”

Alex was looking at Jordan with concern as he searched for something edible on his desk. When he realised that his search was fruitless, he walked back to his bed and sat down again.

“Sorry to be antisocial, but I’m wiped,” he said, covering an almost believable yawn with his hand. “I should try to sleep before my stomach eats my kidneys and keeps me awake all night.”

No one seemed to know what to say to that.

“Um, sure,” Alex agreed, slowly standing to her feet. “I guess we’ll, uh, leave you to it. See you both in the morning.”

“’Night,” Jordan said, stretching out his legs and cupping his hands behind his head.

Alex looked pointedly at Bear as she and D.C. headed to the door, and her dark-haired friend nodded, understanding her silent request to press Jordan for more information after they were gone.

The moment D.C. and Alex were in their dorm room, they turned to each other.

“Was it just me or—”

“It definitely wasn’t just you,” D.C. interrupted as she folded onto her bed, holding her head in her hands.

“Hey, are you all right?” Alex asked, sitting beside her friend.

“I’m worried,” D.C. admitted after a quiet moment. “I can’t help but wonder…”

When D.C. didn’t finish, Alex asked, “What is it, Dix?”

The other girl shuddered slightly and raised her head, her expression scarily blank. “Nothing, Alex. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Alex was about to protest, but D.C. said she was tired and escaped to their bathroom to get ready for bed. When she came back out, she barely whispered a quick, “Sweet dreams, Alex,” before she slid under the covers and rolled over to face the wall.

When Alex settled into bed a few minutes later, she couldn’t shake off a sense of foreboding. Jordan was back, safe and sound, so why wasn’t she more relieved? Sure, his behaviour seemed a little off, but he’d just spent the weekend with his parents who demanded too much from him and gave nothing in return. That would mess with anyone’s head. He just needed time, she figured, and then he would be back to normal.

But as Alex drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t get the image of his tortured blue eyes out of her head, and she wasn’t the least bit surprised when D.C.’s terror-filled screams woke her up later in the night.

Twenty-Three

“I just wish he’d tell us what
happened, you know?” D.C. complained as she and Alex walked away from the Stable Complex, struggling to make a path through the snow that had blanketed the academy grounds during an early season snowstorm the previous weekend. “I don’t like that he won’t talk to us about it.”

Two-and-a-half weeks had passed since Jordan’s visit to his parents and he hadn’t given them any details about his time away. In fact, Alex had barely seen him outside of classes since his return to the academy, and she was more than a little worried about his continued absence during social hours. She couldn’t help wondering if his parents had done or said something to him and, being a typical guy, he’d built up walls to keep everyone else from realising how upset he was.

If Jordan would open up to them rather than avoid them, they could talk about it and try to help him. Or at least remind him that his real family wasn’t necessarily related by blood.

“I know, Dix,” Alex agreed. “But we can’t force him to talk to us.”

Unfortunately.

“I wish we could,” D.C. said, sounding weary. Her nightmares had returned with a vengeance over the last two weeks, and while they didn’t wake both girls every night, her screams interrupted their sleep at least every second day. Both
of them had dark circles under their eyes, and D.C. looked constantly ill.

“Maybe you should skip PE and go take a nap?” Alex suggested, worried about her friend.

“You know, I think I might,” D.C. agreed, surprising Alex. Normally the red-head wouldn’t have given in so easily. She must have been exhausted.

“I’ll try to find Bear and see if he’ll have a word with Finn for you,” Alex offered. Bear’s gift sometimes came in handy, that was for sure. While it might not be ethical for him to ‘charm’ their PE teacher into letting D.C. skip her lesson, his…
influence
… would at least keep her out of trouble for missing the class.

“Thanks, Alex,” D.C. said, smiling gratefully.

Alex nodded and took off to find Bear. He and Jordan both had Delta Archery for their final class of the day, so she hurried over to the Archery fields, hoping her friends would be early. Much to her relief, she spotted them quickly and asked for Bear’s help just in time for him to run off and ‘speak’ with Finn. That left Alex and Jordan standing alone together for the first time in weeks.

“How are you doing?” she asked, trying to subtly examine his appearance. Lately everything about him was just… drawn.

“I’m good,” he said, smiling at her. Despite his words, the usually carefree expression didn’t quite reach his eyes, and he failed to keep his gaze locked on her. He looked around as if searching for a distraction. “How ’bout you?”

She made a face at their tense conversation before mimicking his response. “I’m good.”

“That’s good,” he said.

“It’d be better if I believed you,” she said bluntly.

He tilted his head and gave another un-Jordan-like smile. “You know me, Alex. Would I lie to you?”

She looked away from him and said quietly, “You mightn’t be lying, but I don’t think you’re telling the complete truth, either.”

“Trust me, Alex,” Jordan told her. “I’ve never felt better.”

She moved a step closer and lowered her voice. “You can talk to me, Jordan. I’m good at keeping secrets, if that’s what you want. I want to help.”

Something changed in his eyes, a glimmer of emotion, but it disappeared before she could identify it.

“That means a lot, Alex,” he said. “I’m lucky to have a friend like you. But really, I’m good.”

She shuddered at the carefully controlled expression covering his normally animated features. It was like he’d shut out the world. What had his parents done to him?

“Please, Jordan,” Alex whispered, not entirely sure what she was begging him for.

“You’d better get to class,” he said, reaching out to squeeze her arm in what should have been a comforting gesture. “You don’t want to be late for Karter. Or Zain. I’ll see you at dinner.”

She wanted to stay and convince him to open up to her, but his classmates began to arrive and she knew their time for talking had passed. Not that he’d actually said anything. She wished she could figure out how to bring down his walls. They were only hurting him even more—and his friends in the process. But she wouldn’t give up. Maybe he just needed more time. There were only two days left of classes until the Kaldoras break started—hopefully he’d feel more comfortable talking when they were all at Woodhaven.

As Alex hurried over to the Arena, she felt her spirits lift a little, convinced that their holiday together would make everything better. There was nothing like a little quality time to help mend hurting relationships. They would all be back to normal soon enough.

“Ten more seconds, Jennings, and you would have been late to my class for the second time this year,” Karter informed her loudly as soon as she entered the Arena.

“I can go back out and come in again if that’ll make you feel better?” Alex offered, and then she bit her tongue to keep from saying anything else disrespectful. She’d been so caught up in her thoughts that she’d forgotten to filter them before speaking to her easily enraged instructor.
Oops.

Karter’s eye twitched at her words. Not a good sign.

“I think it’s time for another class demonstration,” he said, his voice low and dangerous.

Sometimes my life just sucks
, Alex thought miserably when Karter, predictably, picked her for his ‘demonstration’. She looked around for Zain, figuring he would be her opponent for the three or so minutes she’d remain conscious—less, perhaps, given the slippery snow-covered Arena floor—but she couldn’t see the huge Meyarin anywhere.

“Where’s Zain?” she asked, forgetting that she was supposed to be keeping her mouth shut.

“No idea,” Karter grunted.

A flicker of worry sparked within Alex, but she didn’t have time to think of anything other than her own survival after Karter threw a sword to her and began hi

She had a chance of lasting longer than three minutes with Karter, but even so, he was a talented, aggressive opponent. And he was angry. Definitely not a good combination. Plus it didn’t help that she was distracted by trying to keep her Meyarin abilities under wraps. It seemed that ever since she’d had a few tastes of what her fighting ability could be like, her body wanted to use the skills it was capable of utilising. So, while Alex was fighting Karter, she was also fighting herself.

No wonder she was so exhausted when he knocked her sword from her hand and toppled her onto the cold, wet snow.

“Again,” he barked.

The class couldn’t end soon enough, in Alex’s opinion. She almost wished Zain was there, since he might have taken pity on her.

Doubtful
, Alex thought realistically as she blocked Karter’s overhead swing.
Very doubtful
.