Page 68 of Lethal

“So, what is it like being a Guardian?” I ask Imran, hoping to get some extra information while he’s here.

He sips his orange juice. “Pretty good. We get to travel. Every day is different. Tracking can be annoying, what with all the camping out in open areas. And having so many rituals with the witches gets old pretty quickly. But aside from that, I enjoy it. I’ve always liked a good scrap.” He grins.

“And your affinity is wind too?”

“Hell yeah,” he says. “The others always want me on flights with them. We get to our destination so much faster.” He winks.

“Stop showing off.” Laila breaks off a chunk of the flapjack she gave away and eats it.

I like seeing her with part of her family. Laila clearly takes a while to warm up to others, and I’ve only learned titbits about her home life over time. Now I get to see how she interacts with her brother, and it’s sweet. They’re like any other little sister and big brother.

We finish up lunch, and Mum nervously fidgets with her handbag as we take the trays over to the bins. For the first time since I arrived, I start to think about all the staff members here at the castle. There are the service workers in the dining hall, a few cleaners who look after the dorm rooms, and I guess someone to manage the building itself, unless Octavia does it. Any one of them could have faked their credentials to get closer to the auras.

I still don’t know why Dina, Jenny, and Nathan have been targeted, but there’s no shortage of people in the school with access to us. The thought makes me shiver. Some of the workers at the school might even have keys.

“You look miles away, Kira,” Mum says. “Is everything okay?”

I pull myself back from my thoughts. “I’m fine.”

We make our way down to the dock on the other side of the car park. The air is cold, and it whips up my hair. Mum pulls her jacket tighter.

We stop near the coast and face each other. In the distance, the ferry waits to take all the visitors home.

“It’s been so lovely to see you. I’ve…” Her voice cracks. “Sorry. I’ve missed you a lot. And I really have loved seeing you.” She cups my face with her hand. “You are a bright, strong young woman, and you will be just fine. Do you hear me? Just… don’t go anywhere alone on the island. I don’t like what’s going on here, but I know you can’t be separated from the others until you’re older. So if you need to be here, please be careful. Please look after yourself.”

“I will. I promise.”

She pulls me into a hug then lets me go. “Let’s never fight again. Okay?”

“Okay,” I say, on the verge of crying again. I feel like someone has reached into me and scooped me out. I’m raw and open and more vulnerable than ever. And I have no doubt that Mum and I will fight again, probably many, many more times, because that’s what we tend to do. But right now, she’s here, comforting me, making me feel like everything is going to be okay, and I’m grateful for it.

But now she’s leaving, much too soon, walking away down the platform that connects to the ferry. Laila joins me, standing by my left shoulder. She’s silent, but it’s nice to know she’s there.

We wait until the ferry pulls away. I watch it sail off across the water then gasp when it disappears from view a few seconds later.

“It’s cloaked,” Laila explains. “So that it doesn’t interfere with the human world.”

I was not expecting that. “What if another boat bumps into it?”

“That would never happen.”

“Are you sure? Because I don’t want my mother to end up capsized in the sea.”

“It’s part of the magic,” Laila says. “Like a repellent making sure nothing can come close to it.”

We begin our walk back up to the castle. There’s a freneticenergy to the air between us. The breeze keeps lifting the ends of my hair until they hit me in the face, and I’m beginning to think Laila might be behind the phenomenon.

“I like your brother,” I say. “It’s nice to meet someone who’s a Guardian.”

“Hmm,” she says. “I guess he’s okay.”

“What do you want to do now?”

Laila is almost always standoffish, but she seems even more so as we head back to the academy. Her back is straight, her arms folded across her chest, and her long, dark hair falls across her eyes.

When she turns her head to meet my eyes, hers are full of steely determination. “Well, Kira Belvedere. How about I show you my Care Bear, then you show me yours?”

Forty-Two

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