“That’s great, except…” She started, then stopped. Worrying her bottom lip, she looked to Kai for help, but he shook his head.
I rolled my eyes. “Just spit it out.”
She looked wounded by my tone, but straightened and let the rest spill. “You don’t even knowhowyou triggered the siren call, so you can’t truly know if you have it under control. What if something sets you off? And I saw what you did to the dorm bathroom…”
She let the words hang in the air, along with all the implications they fueled. The others nodded, and I felt my summer of freedom slipping away.
“The risk of your control slipping while you’re this new is too high,” Kai continued. “It wouldn’t be safe for youanywhereamong the humans. Not for a while.”
I swallowed past the growing lump in my throat. Going home was the only thing that’s kept me sane these past few weeks. To have it ripped away… It was enough to crush me.
“So, I’m never allowed to go home?”
It was unfathomable. How did I even explain that? I shook my head, adamantly against the idea of staying on this campus for one more minute, let alone three months. Ezra’s hand was a grounding warmth on my shoulder, and for once, he wasn’t smirking.
“How would you feel if your parents turned into those frenzied zombies trying to get to you?” His eyes radiated pity, but he was right.
“I’d never forgive myself.”
Just imagining them screeching and clawing their way to me made me shudder. I never wanted to see that. Where did that leave me, though? In my dorm or at the sorority house? That didn’t sound any safer.
“Kai and I have to return to the tribunal so I can officially meet his mother and be sworn in to the family.” Eryn stuck her tongue out with a frown. “But my parents will be there too to meet my bonded and be welcomed back into the fold.”
She grabbed Kai’s hand and looked up at him with such love that my own heart cracked with envy. Especially because it sounded like everyone else was getting away from here but me. At my obviously morose expression, Eryn tried to reassure me.
“Oh, we’ll come back as soon as we can, but there’s a lot of responsibilities to tackle before we’re gone again for the next school year. Mainly clean up from the djinn… butyoudon’thavetoworryaboutthat!”
“My mother has my agenda packed full of boring meetings and trivial requests from greedy faction members trying to work their way into my family’s good graces,” Kai added, trying to smooth over Eryn’s blunder.
They both cringed, but I couldn’t muster any sympathy. At least they got to fucking leave.
“Do me a favor and don’t let your mother replace me in one of those meetings,” Ezra joked, but the corner of his mouth was pinched with worry. “You know she’s been dying to.”
“Mother knows these are extenuating circumstances.” Kai’s gaze briefly flicked to me. “The law is on your side, and you have a valid excuse to take a break from duty.”
The room was suddenly tense once more as I tried to understand what they were saying. Even though they were cousins, Kai was the heir of the witches, and Ezra worked for him. Protected him. That much I knew. So, what did he mean by a break from duty?
“You’re not going with them?”
Ezra turned to me, lips curled in that infuriating smug grin of his, and my heart stopped. “I told you, babe. You. Me. Fancy beach house. Ring a bell?”
“Absolutely the fuck not,” I snarled.
Being left behind was bad enough. Not being able to go home was worse. But to be stuck here, withhimthe entire time? I would jump from the cliffs myself.
“Who did you think was going to help you learn control?” He asked, enjoying my torment.
“Someone who won’t be too busy fucking everything with legs?” I deadpanned, and that grin turned sinister.
“Jealous?”
I sneered and crossed my arms to hide my uneven breathing. “As if.”
“Iwillsend a siren tutor,” Kai cut in, with a glare at his cousin. “One we can trust.”
“I don’t trustanyone.”
The silence that followed was uncomfortable, as if everyone was waiting for me to take it back. But I wouldn’t. It was the truth, and sometimes she was a bitch.
