“I’m pretty sure that’s a swear word. You’re a hypocrite. Also, you have two seconds.”
“Fine!” Jinx paused, then said, “I-have-the-ability-to-make-people-forget-things-if-they-look-into-my-eyes.”
I gaped.
Let her words sink in.
She can make people forget things if they look into her eyes.
I paused because she’d acquiesced way too easily.
Slowly I said, “And you’re telling me this because you still plan on making me forget this conversation. Correct?” I shook her back and forth, and her silence was damning. “Well, checkmate, little girl, I’m never looking at your face ever again.”
Jinx kicked the wall. “You’re a fool. You have no idea what’s going on.”
“Explain why I need to be righteous. Explain what’s going on.” I gasped as it dawned on me. “Oh my sun god. What else have you made me forget?”
Jinx said too quickly, “Nothing, just evidence that I’m in pain. Forget about this please. I’m begging you.”
I body-slammed her, pseudo-gently, into the wall.
She was lying.
“Sadie, I have something to tell you!” I whispered loudly as I kept my eyes averted.
“No, please, please, please,” Jinx begged, sounding for the first time in her life like the child she was.
I exhaled slowly and infused my voice with sincerity. “Just tell me why you need me to act a certain way and I won’t tell them anything. I promise.”
There was a long, silent moment.
Finally, Jinx’s voice broke, and she said, “I can’t. I really wish I could, but I swear on Sadie’s life that I can’t. It’s forbidden. All I can do is try to guide you into making the right choices. If I explain things, then your motivations are muddled. I swear.”
I released her.
Nodded and said, “Okay.”
Jinx sagged against the wall and said in a small voice, “Thanks for being a good friend, Aran.”
I screamed, “Sadie, Jinx has been erasing all our memories! She can look us in the eyes and make us forget things! She’s probably been doing it her whole life and is hiding things from us! Also, she’s apparently in pain every day!”
“WHAT?” Jax roared.
There was a loud cracking noise as the bathroom door was torn off the hinges. Five shifters crowded the space.
I shrieked, “No one look her in the eyes!”
Jinx whispered brokenly, “I’ll never forgive you for this.”
“Oh, please,” I scoffed. “I didn’t buy your pathetic ‘woe is me’ act for a second.” My voice dripped with sarcasm as I threw her words back at her, “And I’m trying to do the right thing. Keeping secrets isn’t right.”
Jinx emitted a high-pitched war cry as someone constrained her.
Ten minutes later, Jinx was tied to a chair with bed linens and was facing the wall.
She’d refused to talk until Jax promised he’d voluntarily withdraw from the competition and get strung up in the tree.
He wasn’t joking.