Page 88 of Thorns That Bloom
We spend about thirty minutes going through some clarifying questions as Gail sifts through my files. She hums and nods and cocks her brows here and there. Nothing makes me feel like there might be trouble by the time she’s done. If anything, I am confident in her skills and the outcome she promises.
By the time we’re done, she mentions nothing about Theo at all. I’m not sure if it’s only her professionalism, trying to keep what got me this emergency session in the first place aside, or something deeper, and I’m too worried to ask. One thing is clear: Gail despises alphas, and she despises all of them as a collective.
I give her a brief hug as a goodbye, and while I leave the building lighter—feeling hopeful about the future and a little less scared—for some reason, my heart aches.
Chapter 21
Theo
The sight of Sam in the morning light is a glorious one. The sun shines bright, and he sits on the park bench, looking around with that serious gaze of his. When his face lights up, a smile appearing the moment he notices me approaching, I can’t help but feel incredibly blessed.
He tries to stand up, except he’s a little too slow. I hop in before he can. I smile, squeezing his shoulder briefly while I sit down next to him. “Hey.”
“Hi…”
Sam looks much better than I would’ve expected after the few days he’s had. Though there’s some sadness in his eyes and a faint darkness beneath them, he’s as glorious and glowing and perfect as ever.
“How’d it go?” I ask, hesitantly brushing my hand over his knee. Sam glances down at it, and just when I think he might push me away, he puts his hand on top of mine.
“Good, I think. Your sister, she… She’s very, um…”
“Passionate?” I fill in with a chuckle.
“Yeah. That’s definitely one word for it.”
I hum, glancing around us. The peaceful sound of the massive oak tree above us moving in the wind should be calming, but it doesn’t stop melancholy from taking hold of me. “I’m sure she is. She was the same the last time I properly spoke to her, discounting yesterday, some…four years ago.”
Sam’s eyebrows draw together in concern. His fingers glide over the top of my hand before he entwines them with mine. His touch, the softness of him that is uniquelySam, gives me the same sense of belonging it always does.
“What happened with the two of you? Or rather…her and alphas? It seems like she hates the whole lot, no exceptions, and I… That isn’t right,” he mutters, glancing down with that cute frown that makes a dent between his brows.
I don’t like thinking about it. I don’t like how it reminds me there’s a Gail-sized hole in my life, and my parents’, but Sam deserves to know. I especially don’t want him to think there was something I did specifically that made her pull away.
Though, maybe I did. Maybe I… I don’t even know anymore.
Squeezing his hand tightly, I lean back against the wooden backrest of the bench and look up into the sky.
“We used to be close. As close as twins could be, really. It wasn’t until a few years back, when Gail was attending college with her friends, and…something horrible happened. She’s a beta, you’ve obviously noticed.” Sam nods attentively. “She attended with her best friend, June, an omega. Beginning of their second year, at some party, June got…taken into the room of an alpha she liked by him and his friend, another alpha.”
I feel Sam tense through our touch and notice the darkness cloud his eyes. As if it were yesterday, I see Gail’stearful face and hear the desperation in her voice when she told me and our parents about it. “Gail was on the other side of a locked door. She…heard it. June’s pleas, her cries,everything. She banged so hard she bruised her knuckles. She was there the whole time, unable to do anything.”
When I look into Sam’s eyes again, they’re glazed over and glossy. His nostrils flare with slow breaths and his lips are held in a firm line.
“I’m sorry,” I breathe out, shaking my head. “I shouldn't have talked about this—”
“No,” he interrupts me, blinking the tears away. “No, just tell me. I want to know. What does that have to do with hating you?”
I gulp. “June wasn’t the same after, and neither was Gail. The two alphas were…from good families. They claimed all sorts of things, anything they could to get out of it, and June wasn’t doing well. She tried to hurt herself, and then dropped out, while Gail kept pushing and fighting for her to get justice. Which…she didn’t, in the end. Not really. That’s when Gail left her economics studies and switched to law. She started on this warpath for justice for omegas. Which I supported,” I clarify quickly, widening my eyes at Sam.
Almost as if he can read my mind, he smiles softly and squeezes my hand.
“I really did. It just…became everything to her, I guess. She began actively protesting, lobbying, she helped found Spyrax—”
“She did?” Sam interrupts me with a surprised expression.
I smile proudly. “Yeah. She and two of the law students from years above her got it going in the beginning, beforebringing on more people and making it what it is. Anyway, Gail fell hard into learning about every injustice that befalls omegas in our society. Don’t get me wrong; I thought it was great. What she did and what she stood for, the people she was fighting to help, I supported it, we all did, our whole family. Especially my parents, having…” Shit. I didn’t even bring this up yet.
Or that my parents know about what happened to Sam.
