Page 16 of Cleansed By Water (The Nature Hunters Academy 3)

* * *

Gabby tried notto slam things around in her haste to gather up warmer clothing and a few more weapons. But her emotions were running high after Shelly’s impromptu intervention. Gabby had to admit the chick had a pair of lady balls the size of the pyramids in her man’s home country, and she wasn’t afraid to hang them out there.

Gabby paused as she slipped a dagger into her boot when she realized her hands were shaking. Her lungs were tight as she tried to take a deep breath, but no air came in. She stumbled back until her legs hit the bed, where she sat down.She was broken, too. Perhaps for different reasons than why you are broken.Shelly’s words played through Gabby’s mind over and over like a song on repeat. Every time she heard “broken” she felt as if she was being cut. “I’m not broken,” she whispered into the empty room. “I’m not effing broken.” Maybe if she said it enough, then it would be true. She snorted to herself. “Why don’t you feed yourself a little more shit, Gabs, since you seem to like the taste of it so much.” The fact that she was talking out loud to herself should have been a red flag indicating that if she wasn’t already broken, she was certainly nearing her breaking point. Why couldn’t she just be normal? Nausea rolled in her stomach as that thought brought back a memory she was usually able to keep locked away.

“She’s not normal,” Gabby’s dad spat out as he stared down at her. She was sprawled across the floor of her bedroom looking up at his angry face. Gabby was clumsy, true, but that’s not how she ended up on her bedroom floor.

Lewis Gellar had a bad habit of manhandling his daughter, and Gabby was constantly having to make up excuses for why she had bruises.

“I’m not messing around, Vanessa,” Lewis said with a sniff. There was still white powder around the edge of his nose, but Gabby wasn’t about to point it out. She’d learned her lesson the last time she’d done that and could still feel the sting of his backhand.

“She’s ten,” Vanessa—not quite a mother, but the woman who carried Gabby in her stomach for nine months—said. “No ten-year-oldisnormal. Just ignore her and come do another line with me.”

“Yeah, Lewis,ignore me and go away.”It wasn’t the first time Gabby had wished that she had mind-control powers and could force her parents to do what she wanted or even what she needed.

“Don’t come out of this room,” Lewis growled at her. “We’ve got people coming over, and we don’t need them focusing on you and your weird ass.”

She didn’t say anything as he glared at her for a few seconds longer. Then he slammed her door. She stayed frozen on her floor, listening as he stomped away. When Gabby could no longer hear his footsteps, she finally took a breath and let it out. At least this time he’d only shoved her to the floor. There’d been no fists or feet, and for that, she was grateful.

“I swear she gets weirder every damn day, V.” Her father’s voice carried through the thin walls of their mobile home. “Something’s wrong with her. I don’t like the way she looks or talks. Or hell, anything about her.”

Gabby pulled her mind from the past and away from the people who had broken her. She lifted her hand, wiped away the few tears that had managed to escape while she’d been momentarily lost in her pain, and took a deep breath. Anyone who says words don’t hurt as much as physical pain has never had their parents say things like that about them. “There’s nothing wrong with me,” she murmured. Then she cleared her throat and said it again, louder, for good measure.

When she was sure her hands were no longer shaking, Gabby stood and snatched up the backpack that she’d shoved full of warm clothes and a few more daggers. She slipped it over one shoulder and then glanced around her room. “Phone?” she muttered and patted her back pocket. “Check. Clothes? Check.” She patted her thigh and added, “Sharp, pointy things to stab people with? Check.” She walked briskly out of her dorm room and headed straight for Professor Frost’s office.

Three knocks and a question later, Gabby stared at the grim smile on the professor’s face. “I will not let you switch teams,” Frost said in answer to Gabby’s hasty question. Gabby had known the answer before she’d ever even asked it, but she’d had to try.

“I just think—” Gabby began but was cut off by Frost's raised hand.

“Explain why you don’t want to be assigned to the team upon which Headmaster Terrick has placed you.”

Gabby’s eyes widened. She hadn’t considered that Professor Frost might ask her the “why” of her request. That’s because she’d been distracted by that “why.”

“I just think I’d do better on a different team,” Gabby answered lamely. The lameness of her answer was so apparent she was pretty sure she could hear the flies on the walls booing her.

“I’ve known Terrick a long time,” said Frost. “And despite the misplaced animosity between our schools for the past decades, I trust his reasons for placing you exactly where you are. Now, let’s be done with it and get a move on.” She opened a portal and ushered Gabby through it without so much as a “Have a nice trip.”

Half a minute later, Gabby found herself standing on the training field at Terra Academy feeling dumbfounded and unsure of herself. “Damn,” she muttered under her breath.

“My sentiments exactly, every time I lay eyes on you.”

Liam’s voice should have been like nails on a chalkboard. Instead, it was more like the sweetest love song. And that was just wrong. “Damn,” Gabby muttered again as she squeezed her eyes closed and tried to mentally prepare herself for being so close to him.

“Open your eyes, beautiful,” he whispered. He was close enough she could feel his breath on her cheeks.

Gabby obeyed and met his deep blue eyes swirling with white, like ocean surf, staring intently at her.Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at him. He was just so damn attractive it literally took her breath away. And yes, she was completely aware of how romance-novel-ish that sounded. But it was the truth. Liam Nash was the epitome of manly beauty. Surfer boy good looks with charm and charisma to match. It was like all the ingredients for the perfect meal were laid out before her, and Gabby was suddenly starving.

“You all right?” Liam asked her softly as he stepped even closer.

There was an answer to that question, she was sure of it. Right?

“Gabs?” he asked and ran his fingertips down her cheek.

Too close.

“Gabby?”

Bloody hell. Had he gotten even closer? Gabby suddenly pressed her hands to his chest and pushed. He stumbled back, maybe half a foot, and frowned at her.

---