Salvaged Soul (The Ignited Series Book 3) (23 page)

Not to mention, since Kris had been in her semi-coma, there had been something
every single day
that had delayed me from getting to her when that was all I really wanted to do.

I cast a questioning glance at Richie as I approached. From his guarded expression and ready-for-anything posture, I gathered he knew just how little patience I had left for Micah. Considering Richie’s sole purpose was to protect Micah, I wondered why he let Micah near me at all.

“What do you want, Micah?”

He shook his head with a smirk. “Just wanted to tell you thanks.”

I knew better. I knew I shouldn’t let myself get baited by him, but sometimes . . . oh, sometimes I let him get the best of me. “For what exactly?”

He smiled, and it was anything but friendly. “I told you.”

I sighed, and shouldered past him, uninterested in playing his game—whatever it may be this time. I gave Richie a look that all but begged for him to keep Micah away from me.

“I told you that you would screw it up,” Micah called after me.

Of course. I should have known what prompted this visit. I spun around, jabbing a finger at him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Richie flinch. “I haven’t screwed anything up!”

“Maybe not yet.” Micah shrugged. “But the events are set into motion.”

I turned, determined to walk away this time. Determined, for once, to not let him get to me.

“I saw it, you know,” he called after me. “It’s just the start. You haven’t told her about Kris!”

It took every ounce of self-control that I had not to turn around, to silence him with a strategically placed fist to the jaw. Somehow, I held myself back and kept it together. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a response. And no way in hell would I admit to him that he was right. I hadn’t told Lillian about Kris yet. But it wasn’t for the reasons Micah thought. He wouldn’t understand.

As expected, Kim stood outside of Kris’s room. She didn’t question me when I wordlessly opened the door and let myself in.

Kris was curled up on her side, asleep and snoring softly. I watched her for a moment before I lifted my shirt over my head and tossed it to the floor. The numbers on the clock beside her bed read 3:42, but the time didn’t matter to me.

Nothing would keep me from being where I wanted to be. Not today. As I pulled her limp body to me, and settled into a comfortable position, I concluded that tomorrow everything would be different.

Kris would be okay. And Lillian would know exactly who Kris was, and exactly what she meant to me.

Chapter 23

{Kris}

I tried waking you before I left, but you only rolled over and snored louder. I guess you weren’t ready to get up yet. As fun as it has been listening to you talk in your sleep the last three nights, I can’t wait to see you conscious again. I’ll be back to check on you after class. If you’re up, we’ll grab lunch. I’m sure you’ll be starving!

Love,

Nathan

I folded up the note with a smile and slid it behind the front cover of the leather journal Nathan had gotten me for my birthday.

I was only mildly mortified about the snoring. He had told me once before that I sounded like a purring kitten with a cold. No, the snoring comment didn’t bother me. I was more disappointed that I had missed him.

Checking the time, I guessed that he had left recently. He’d had just enough time to make it back to his room, shower, dress, and should be strolling into class right about now. Which meant I would have to wait a whole hour and a half to see him.

At least the delay gave me plenty of time to shower and make myself presentable. Three days without a shower had left my hair a greasy mess, my face an oily pimple factory, and the rest of me smelling anything but fresh. Not nearly as bad as my transformation into a hybrid months ago, but enough to put taking a shower at the top of my to-do list.

Afterwards, I stood wrapped in a towel, staring at myself in the mirror for no less than five minutes. Even then, I had a hard time understanding what I saw in the reflection.

How could my eyes be
worse
?

I did a quick self-check. My inner Skotadi felt . . . calm. No, she definitely hadn’t taken over control of my body as my appearance suggested. Oddly, I didn’t feel anything. I felt no different than I had when I went to sleep three days ago. Maybe less scared . . .

But way more confused. 

I checked the time again. The shower had only eaten up thirty minutes, but suddenly I had plans that would take up the rest of my morning. I threw on some clothes, pulled my still wet hair up into a hasty ponytail, and made a beeline for the door.

Kim quickly scampered to her feet at the sound of the door swinging open. I met her gaze briefly, but looked away before I could see her reaction to my eyes. She fell into step behind me without a word as I hurried outside and over to the boys’ dormitory.

He had better be there, I thought as I climbed all the way to the top floor. Stepping into the hallway, I saw Bruce standing at his post and breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t bother to hide my eyes from Bruce. From the frown on his face as he studied me, I knew my suspicions were right.

I knocked, Alec’s door swung open, and I stared into eyes that matched mine.

I pushed my way into the room without an invitation. “What’s going on, Alec?”

I heard him mutter something to Bruce before he shut the door. When he turned to me, his expression remained neutral, calm. Much calmer than I felt. “We don’t know yet.”

“You woke up two days ago, like
that
,” I pointed to his eyes, “and you still don’t know what’s going on?”

He shrugged, almost apologetically. “You weren’t supposed to drink it yet.”

“Yeah, well, things changed.” A quick look at the crease in Alec’s brow confirmed that he didn’t know why I hadn’t waited. “Apparently, there are a ton of Skotadi grouping on the mainland. I suspect they’re here for me, for
us
. Who knows? We thought it would be best if I didn’t wait, just in case the Skotadi decide to make a move.”

Alec silently moved to sit on his bed. He stared at the floor for a few moments before he looked up. “One thing has changed,” he admitted softly. “I haven’t told anyone, but you know that pull we were feeling, to the ocean?”

I nodded, and waited.

“The past two mornings, I woke up on the beach. All day yesterday, the urge to go back there kept growing stronger and stronger.”

I hadn’t felt it yet. From the pained look on Alec’s face, I knew I didn’t want to.

“You think it might be the Skotadi?” Alec ventured. “Like they’re calling to us, or something?”

That had been a theory of mine from the start. Learning that the Skotadi were grouping so close to the island strengthened that theory. And now? I didn’t want to think about what waking up with Skotadi-gold eyes and a stronger pull toward something beyond the horizon could mean.

“I don’t feel any different,” I said as if that somehow made everything else okay. “I don’t feel any more Skotadi than I did before.”

“Me neither,” Alec said. “Except . . . well, yesterday I was practicing my specialties. You know yielding fire has always been my weakest one, but yesterday, I did it . . .
well
.”

I plopped down on the bed beside Alec with a sigh. “Does Nathan know all of this?”

“He knows about the eyes, but that’s it. I’ve kept the pull we’ve both felt and my strengthened specialties to myself. They’ve already got Bruce on
high alert
until we figure out what’s going on.”

Great. That was all I needed. Kim and Micah . . . extra vigilant. I knew Nathan wouldn’t push for extra security on me, but I thought maybe it would be best to keep Alec’s admissions between us for now. Until I found out if I would experience the same phenomenon as Alec. Definitely until we figured out a little more about what was happening.

Right now . . . I really just wanted to see Nathan again. If anything could make me feel better about the uncertainty of the recent events, it was seeing him.

I promised Alec that we would catch up later, and compare notes. Then I angled across the village center to the Education Building.

I waited in the hallway outside his classroom as the students filed out the door. Most ignored me; a few tossed curious glances in my direction. I wondered what gossip the rumor mill had been churning out the past three days, but then I saw him and none of that mattered anymore.

“I’ll wait outside,” Kim murmured.

I nodded without taking my eyes off Nathan, and Kim left.

The last student exited, and I hovered in the doorway as Nathan checked his watch and swung his duffel bag over his shoulder. My bright smile greeted him when he turned in my direction.

In an instant, he swept me into his arms. In the next instant, he pulled me into the room and backed me into the wall as he engaged the lock on the door behind me.

No words passed between us. Words would have gotten in the way of kissing.

We met like it hadn’t been only three days since we had last seen each other, but
years
. Desperation and need fueled us both, and life’s basic needs for things like air were no longer important. Re-familiarizing myself with the hardness of his chest, the curve of his shoulders, and lastly, the tuffs of soft hair at the back of his neck were all that mattered. Not until his lips slid from mine to leave a searing hot trail along my jawline did I finally allowed myself a breath.

Nathan’s low chuckle in my ear was, at that moment, the sexiest sound I had ever heard. I attempted a head tilt that would put our mouths together again, but Nathan pressed his lips to my temple instead.

“You have to remember to breathe,” he murmured before pulling back to look down at me. My hands were still clasped tightly behind his neck, preventing him from going too far.

“Didn’t seem important at the time.” I combed my fingers through the longer hairs within my reach.

If he went too long between haircuts, his hair started to curl slightly at the nape. I didn’t dare say anything because once he noticed, a haircut was inevitable . . . and I preferred it like this.

Nathan leaned back to survey my face. His eyes were tinted with a trace of concern, and I knew we had moved on from greeting to getting down to business.

“Well?” he probed. “How do you feel?”

I reluctantly dropped my hands from their death grip on his neck with a sigh of defeat. “No different.”

“You’ve seen your eyes?”

I nodded. “I already saw Alec, too,” I added. “So nobody has any ideas?”

His head shook slowly, solemnly. “No. I’m sorry. I don’t . . . I don’t really know what to say.”

“It’s okay.”

I saw that the outcome, and not knowing what it meant, tore him up. Trying so hard to find the solution, and finally thinking he had found it, only to be let down once again, had taken its toll on him. I wrapped my arms around his middle in an attempt to make him feel better.

“I’m no worse. Maybe it did work, and we just won’t know right away?”

I wasn’t hopeful, but I hated to see Nathan so defeated. It reinforced my decision not to tell him what Alec had told me about the pull and the increased strength of his specialties. Hearing that certainly wouldn’t make Nathan feel any better, and he already worried too much. I would tell him once Alec and I figured out what it meant.

“I guess time will tell, right?” Nathan said.

“Why wait?” I pulled back with a grin. “Why don’t you say something to make me mad, and we’ll find out right now just how strong my inner Skotadi is?”

He barked out a laugh. “Oh, no. I’m not that stupid.” He grabbed me by the hands and pulled me away from the door so that he could open it. He pulled me close, long enough to plant a hasty kiss to my forehead before ushering me into the hallway ahead of him.

“You hungry?” he asked.

“Starving.”

“Lead the way . . .”

I knew the drill. The hallway was packed with Kala this time of day. Despite whatever speculation surrounded the status of our relationship, Nathan intended to maintain some level of distance between us in front of them.

Because I walked in front of Nathan, and rounded the corner to the exit first, I was the first to see my biggest nightmare.

My steps faltered and I barely avoided crashing into Lillian as she hovered there in the middle of the hallway, almost as if she were waiting for us. That observation, combined with our history, immediately put me on the defensive.

At least she didn’t seem all that interested in me. It took me a moment to register where her gaze was directed. Behind me. On Nathan.

I felt him behind me. My reassurance. My rock. His hand on my back, gently pushing me forward, kept me grounded even as I realized that he intended for us to greet Lillian.

Her gaze swept from him to me, and a timid smile graced her lips. “You’re Kris?”

I gave a subtle nod. She sounded unsure, like she didn’t know who I was, and she glanced at Nathan as if for reassurance. I desperately wanted to look over my shoulder to see his reaction to seeing her, but I didn’t dare turn my back on Lillian. Sure she was cured, or whatever, but after all she had done to me, to Nathan—to everyone I cared about—I was a bit gun-shy.

Her hesitant smile widened and she took a cautious step forward, extending a hand. “I’m Lillian. I know you already know that, but I wanted to officially meet you, as the new me.”

I accepted her hand, but dropped it as quickly as politely possible. It was just too
weird . . . in so many ways.

“And I’m very, very sorry for everything I did to you while I was under Skotadi control,” she continued sincerely. Her eyes darted over my shoulder, where I felt Nathan’s firm presence. “I don’t remember all of it, but I know I’ve caused you a considerable amount of suffering that I can never undo.”

“It wasn’t really you,” I offered meekly.

She smiled again, and I hated that it accentuated her natural beauty. Even when she had been a Skotadi, and cold in every way, I suspected she had once been very pretty. I had, unfortunately, been right.

“Thank you for understanding.” Again, she looked at Nathan. Her smile grew, and I saw the unmistakable twinkle in her eyes.

I recognized it because I had the same twinkle in my eyes when I looked at Nathan.

“You were right,” she said to him.

Right about what exactly?
I shot a look over my shoulder at Nathan. He glanced at me, and I recognized the worry that creased his brow.

Looking back at Lillian, and seeing the way she looked at him, it finally hit me. She sure didn’t look like a jilted ex who had met the love of her life’s new girlfriend for the first time. If I had woken after seven years still in love with a guy, and found out that he was in love with someone else, I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand in front of her with a smile on my face. I definitely wouldn’t be looking at my ex like Lillian looked at Nathan.

“Going to lunch?” Lillian asked, her eyes moving back and forth between Nathan and me.

“Yeah, in a minute,” Nathan said. “I have to talk to Kris first.”

“Okay. I’ll see you there.” 

I stared after Lillian as she walked away, and a hatred-spurred heat spread from the roots of my hair to the tips of my toes. My body felt like it was on fire. Angry fire.

“Kris . . .”

I didn’t turn. “You didn’t tell her.” His hand came down on my shoulder, and I shrugged it off. “It’s been three days. I’ve been asleep for three days, and you still haven’t told her.”