Page 31 of Twisted Legacy

I can’t let the last question be the first thing I say to her because I’m barely holding on. The total identity blackout is a safer topic for me to focus on. But finding the perpetrators for the beating she took will bring me the most satisfaction. I push my bloodlust down. Business, first.

The League’s reach is far and expansive, so for them not to know where she was… My gaze drifts to Pax. Is that a lie?Didthe high council know about her? Is this a continuation of our test?My test? Did I fail The Trium by not finding that birth certificate sooner?

I add those questions to the hundred other thoughts that conspire to keep me up at night. No matter how much I go over everything that we knew before, and what we know now, there’re just too many holes and missing pieces to weld a definitive story together.

I feel like chaos and confusion. An overstimulated ball of energy and doom. Dynamite just waiting for the smallest spark to explode. There is no off switch for my brain. I’ve learned to lessen the noise. Focus my thoughts, but now everything is too loud.Too much.

“Holden.”

Finn and Pax are standing over me. Have they been calling my name long?

“We’re heading to breakfast.”

Another place where I’ll be sitting around too much stimuli, listening to theories about Thea’s absence and reappearance. That might be the thing that’s bugging me the most. Wheredidshe go for three weeks? Who was she with? How did she slip out of the hospital undetected? Did she have help from the person who’s been hiding her all these years?

“I’m not hungry.” I didn’t even bring any ingredients down for the chef to use if I was. “I’m going to class.”

I head towards my class, but change course when I catch sight of Thea hovering on the edge of the treeline she usually cuts through to get to her English class. She does that a lot. Cuts through the woods instead of taking the designated paths. I duck behind a tree to watch. I don’t often come to the woods on this side of campus, because there’s nothing over here. The stadium is behind us. There’s an old storage shed about a hundred feet into the woods on the right, as well as the crumbling structure of the original groundskeeper’s home. Neither of those places has been used in a hundred years, but the school keeps them around for historic sentimentality.

She’s just standing there. Not moving any closer to her path. The shrill sound of a whistle through the stadium speakers causes her to jump. She turns and hurries back the other way, mumbling and typing something into her phone, veering off towards the library.

When she disappears through the doors, I head to class. Following her around for those few moments wasn’t as big of a rush as when she ran from me on Mayhem Night, but it soothed a bit of the tension I’ve been feeling.

I’ve been telling the guys I’m fine. That I’m in control. But every day Thea was gone, I edged closer to the point where that wasn’t true. I had free access to her. I let myself toy with her and teased the part of me that craves the chase and control. To have her go missing, and having to resist my urges, it was like uncorking a genie and trying to put it back in the bottle before it wreaks havoc.

Right now, the darkness threatens to drown me. I want to go to her and I want to find whoever had the nerve to put their hands on her.

My monster is awake, and I’m not sure there’s any way to put him back to sleep.

Chapter20

Pax

No one would ever call me flexible. It’s common knowledge that I like plans and hate when I have to deviate from them. So, I grumbled when Finn insisted we change the time we usually eat. His rationale is that he’s still on recon trying to find out what happened to his little toy on Mayhem Night, and he’s not getting any leads from our usual crowds. Holden backed him, using our orders to get close to Thea as leverage. She’s changed up her routine, so I had no choice but to agree with them.

This is the first time I’ve seen our neighbor from hell since her return. She’s maneuvering around, avoiding crowds. Taking the long way around the cafeteria. She gets her food and sits at herusual table.They told me about the bruising, but this is my first time getting a look for myself. I put aside everything I’ve been told, everything I suspect, about the reason she’s here and the threat she poses. I look at her like I would anyone else who came back to school with a ton of bruises after being attacked on Mayhem Night; taking in the way she’s keeping her back protected. Her foot tapping. How she jumps at loud noises.

She’s trying to pretend she’s fine, but I can see she’s not. She doesn’t even look our way. I’m used to getting a reaction out of her, and dare I say, I looked forward to seeing the pissed off expression on her face whenever she saw me. It was refreshing knowing that at least one person at this school wasn’t intimidated by us or our status. But I’m not getting any of that from her. She’s here, but she’s not.

One of my frat brothers asks me a question. I’m in the middle of answering when a scream pulls my attention back across the room. Someone’s sprawled out on the floor, and Thea’s hovering over them, her fork at his throat. Finn must’ve seen what was happening. He’s already on the other side of the dining hall.

“Oh shit. She’s gone psycho! Somebody call the cops before she kills us all!”

I ignore Eloise’s hysterics and follow Holden across the room, mumbling, “I swear this girl attracts trouble everywhere she goes.”

We make it to the center of the crowd. My heart rate slows as I assess the situation. Finn’s trying to sweet talk Thea into letting go of her victim, but he’s not getting through to her. If he gets too close, he’s likely to get stabbed too. Ordinarily he’d like the chance to go blade to blade with someone, but even I can tell this isn’t the time for that. I tip my chin towards the back door. Faculty is heading our way. Finn goes to intercept them.

“I wasn’t there that night. I swear it. I was joking. It was just ajoke.” The guy on the floor looks up at me, pleading, “I swear, Pax. It was a joke. Someone dared me to say it. I wasn’t really there.”

Thea presses the tines to his neck, growling, “Then tell me who was.”

“I don’t know. Okay, I don’t know.”

I move in closer and give the signal to Holden. I grab Thea, pulling her away from Carter, while Holden drags him to his feet and shoves him towards the door.

She squirms, trying to break free. “Let me go!”

“I will just as soon as I’m sure you’re not gonna stab somebody.”

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