Page 2 of Entangled (Guardian Academy 2)

My head whips in Thad’s direction, and I instinctively shuffle back. From what I was taught, ogres are supposed to be large creatures with pointy ears and fangs who like to snack on humans. While Thad is on the tall and broad side, I don’t see any fangs, pointy ears, or gleaming hunger in his eyes.

I loosen my grip on the bat. “You don’t look like an ogre.”

“That’s because he’s only half-ogre.” Dash moves up behind me and positions an elbow on my shoulder. “If you look close enough, you can see some of the resemblance. He won’t hurt you, though.”

Thad stares down at his feet with his shoulders hunched.

Feeling bad for the way I first reacted, I step toward him with the bat lowered at my side and extend my hand. “I’m Alana Avery. Sorry for acting all weird. I was just a little surprised. I’ve never met an ogre before.”

“It’s okay.” He takes my hand and gives it a hard shake, nearly jolting me off my feet. “I get that a lot. Most people won’t come within a hundred feet of me.”

“People can be such assholes,” I say as he releases my hand from his death grip.

A tiny drop of a smile touches his lips. “Sorry about your door. Sometimes, I don’t know my own strength.”

“That’s okay.” I flex my fingers, which are cramped from how tightly he gripped my hand. “I’m sure it can be fixed.”

Thad notes the unmade bed. “Will your roommate be mad when she finds out?”

I prop the bat against the metal footboard of my bed. “My roommate doesn’t come into our room that often, so I doubt she’ll find out if I get it fixed quickly enough.”

Thad rakes his fingers through his cropped brown hair, frowning at the broken door knob busted to pieces on the floor. “I’ll fix it first thing tomorrow morning so you won’t get in trouble.”

I smile warmly. “Thanks. That’d be awesome.”

“You should stand in front of the door, at least until Jax gets here, and make sure no one gets in,” Dash tells Thad, removing his elbow from my shoulder.

Nodding, Thad slumps his weight against the door, securing it shut with his body. “No one’ll get through. I promise.”

Dash starts wandering around the limited space of my bedroom, looking at the scuffed floor, the bland walls, and the tile ceiling. When he passes the lamp on my nightstand, he tugs on the cord, and soft light filters through the room.

The first thing I notice is Dash and Thad are both dressed in black jeans and zipped up hoodies. Mud cakes the bottom of their black boots, fingerless leather gloves cover their hands, and Dash has a couple of leaves and twigs stuck in his dark brown hair.

I find their appearance odd. Just where the heck were they before they came here? In the forest? That’s weird since I just saw Vivianne, the Empress, and maybe a werewolf duck into the trees.

Dash stuffs his hands into the pockets of his hood and leans forward to examine a photo of my grandpa and me taped to the wall above the nightstand. “That’s where you get your violet eyes from, huh?”

I nod, stepping up beside him. “My mother’s eyes are the same color, too.”

He glances at me from the corner of his eye. “When I first met you, I thought maybe it was because you were a pixie, but then I realized you were too nice to be a pixie.”

“I’m not that nice,” I argue. “I can be mean when I need to.”

He smirks at me. “It’s cute you think that.”

I glower at him with my hands on my hips, but it’s more of a joking move than anything. “You wouldn’t be saying that if you really knew me. I was mean to your brother when I first met him.”

“Ha, I wish I could’ve seen that.” He grins. “He’s not used to people throwing his own personality in his face. I bet he got so pissed.”

“He was. He even threatened to kill me,” I tell him. “I don’t really think he would’ve, though.”

“I don’t know. It was a full moon that night,” Dash muses, thrumming his finger against his lips. “He can get awful cranky during a full moon.”

Huh? How does Dash know I met Jax on a full moon?

Dash quickly clears his throat, looking away from me. “So, why does my brother think someone might be trying to kill you now?”

“Did he use the word kill?” I watch him roam around the room as I question the abrupt subject change. He’s hiding something from me, something about that night in the club when I met Jax.

“No, but he sounded really uptight. More than he normally does.” Dash opens the top drawer of my dresser where I keep all my underwear and peers inside.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I jump forward and slam the drawer shut. “What’s up with the snooping?”

“Just seeing when you’d stop me.” His smirk makes another grand appearance. “Didn’t peg you for a lace girl.”

I narrow my eyes at him with my arms folded. “No more snooping through my stuff.”

He grins innocently at me as he crosses his arms and leans against the wall. “What? It’s not like I knew they were in there.”

I fight back a smile. He isn’t funny. He isn’t cute. Okay, he kind of is. Whatever.

“Did Jax say when he’d get here?”

“He said a little over an hour,” he replies. “I don’t know where he was when he called. He hardly ever leaves the academy this late unless he’s called on a case. But he said he wasn’t on one.”

I sink down on the bed and tuck my hands under my legs. “I think he might have been at a bar or club or something. When I first called him, there was some loud music playing in the background, and it sounded like a ton of people were around.”

Dash’s brows spring up. “Jax? At a club? Really?”

“That’s what it sounded like.” I tuck a strand of my long, brown hair behind my ear. “A girl said something to him while we were on the phone. I think he might’ve been on a date or something.”

Dash exchanges an amused look with Thad then seals his lips together, repressing a laugh.

I look back and forth between the two of them. “What’s so funny?”

“Jax being on a date,” Dash says. “He’s been on, like, three, and all of them ended in a disaster because he’s socially incompetent, way too uptight, and scares everyone off.”

This bit of information surprises me. Jax did act kind of douchebaggy when I first met him, and he can still get intense, but he has a sweet, kind side—well, on rare occasions.

Dash searches my eyes. For what, I have no idea. All I really know about Dash is that he likes to joke around, smells like cookies, and is bound to Vivianne. I’m not sure how he’s bound to her or why he smells that way. He’s definitely not just a Guardian, though.

I open my mouth, figuring now is as good a time as any to ask, but before I can get the words out, Dash’s gaze zips to the window.

“What on earth?” He tugs on the lamp cord, smothering the room in darkness, then peers out the window.

I slant forward to see what he’s looking at and spot Vivianne and the empress dashing out of the forest. A light mist snakes from the trees and dances around their ankles as they hightail it across the grass and toward the car parked in the driveway. The mist could be as simple as fog, but I have the eeriest feeling it’s linked to something paranormal.

“I saw them pull up to the academy about half an hour ago,” I whisper to Dash. “And then they hurried into the trees. I saw a weird blurry thing go in there too, and then I heard a werewolf howl.”

“Really?” He flicks a side glance at me. “That’s weird.”

“Yeah, I know,” I whisper.

“How did the empress get out of the lake?” Dash whispers, inching closer to me.

I shrug, acting clueless. “I have no idea.”

Dash’s mismatched teal and silver eyes glimmer in the pale moonlight as he lowers his voice. “Do you know what I’m really curious about?”

I tense, fearing he can read through my lie. “What?”

He sneaks a glance from left to right then leans even closer. “Why are we whispering?”

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