“I don’t like this.”
“Course you don’t Violet,” Kathryn looked at him and smiled.
Seth looked back at her and he tried to force a smile but he couldn’t really do it. She leaned down from the door of the car and kissed him. She looked at him and sighed knowing better than to try and lighten his mood. “It’ll be okay.”
“Just be careful Kat,” he said reaching out and stroking her cheek slowly. “I don’t want you getting hurt again.”
She squeezed his hand tightly and nodded, “I’ll be careful. If I’m right it won’t come to that but just in case I have you two waiting in the wings.”
“Right,” Cal said from the back seat. “Just let out a shout and we’ll come running.”
Nodding one more time she took a few steps back and then turned to start down the street. In the back of her mind she was thinking about what Ley had said. About what had happened to Sarah. She stared at the ground trying not to think of the fact that her fate was roughly in her hands with things.
It had been a little under a week and it was time for her class again, meaning that she would run into Owen. Just the thought of that was hard to process. She knew him, talked to him, made jokes and hung out with him a little. He was a kid, a good kid at that. If someone had told her that he was one that beat the shit out of her on the train she’d call them crazy.
But she saw his face.
He didn’t talk when she first ran into him. Just spoke through his fist and it was definitely not a conversation that she had been good at going back and forth with. And he didn’t really change his tune, she just had better back up. But the moment he saw Jack and Marco’s pain over Sarah something had changed in him.
Shaking her head, she pushed open the door to the college making her way to the lecture hall. She was early like she usually was and took her spot in the mid row on the far side of the room. Setting her bag down on top of the desk rummaging through it. She looked inside it and took out his notebook. In the back of her head she realized that she hadn’t even copied any of his notes.
“If only that were my biggest problem right now,” she mumbled to herself.
Flipping through the note book slowly she noted his writing. It was small and neat, almost like he had found a way to be shy with his hand writing. Easy to read which she praised whatever Gods above. If things had been normal he would’ve been a great study partner.
It occurred to her that there was a very real possibility that Owen just didn’t show up to class today. For whatever reason that had nothing to do with recovering from a giant brawl in the street with a bunch of super power people. Looking around the classroom she realized that it too was emptier than normal too.
“Maybe I’m the weird one for having shown up at all,” she said. Going to her phone she checked through her emails and saw one from her professor, it was fairly recent. Scrolling through it slowly she swore to herself. “Really? You cancel class at the last minute?”
Her heart sank because she was more than sure that she was screwed. Or at the very least that her big plan was being screwed over. Gathering all of her stuff and shoving the notebook into her bag she went toward the door. Before she could open it though it opened in front of her and she ran right into Owen.
Neither of them knocked each other over but they were both stunned and he broke out into a casual laugh that Kathryn tried to mimic. She could see the bandages on his face and mild bruises that if he was like them should have healed by now. “You ditching class?”
“Check your email. Cancelled today,” she said waving her phone.
“What really?” his face fell and he frowned hard. “I was looking forward to it.”
“Yeah,” she shrugged. “Apparently all the commotion from last week has set a lot of people behind.”
He frowned slowly, “I guess so. You weren’t near that at all were you?”
“No, I live a train ride away. Saw parts of it on the news though,” she said carefully. “You?”
“Sorta. I live close to that area but a few streets over. My siblings weren’t anywhere near that area though.”
“That’s good at least,” Kathryn sighed and motioned toward him. “Look Owen. We need to talk.”
He raised his eyebrows at her, “What about?”
“Just come with me,” she grabbed his wrist and pulled him along. There were two ways in and out of the building, one that led them back to the street but another that went into a pseudo courtyard that students, when they were on campus, could go out to study. But with the weather as cold as it was no one was going out.
She led him toward the middle of the courtyard and turned to face him. He still looked clueless as to why they were out there and Kathryn stared at him. He blinked at her slowly and it felt wrong to think this. Clueless wasn’t the right word for him. Kind was a better one, naïve maybe. Trusting was the best word she could pick.
“Owen. I’ll just come out and say this because mincing words is Marco’s thing,” she said and Owen frowned the name sounding familiar. He just couldn’t place it. “I know who you are. What you are.”
He blinked quickly and took a step back on instinct because something about her tone had changed. She was staring at him not like a friend but like an opponent. He’d only ever seen someone stare at him like that on the opposite side of the training mat.
Taking another step back he stood taller, squaring his shoulders as he looked down at her. Despite that they were about the same height, his face changed too. The trusting naïve boy was gone and in its place was the mask of a man who’d been through pain. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Kathryn.”
Kathryn nodded slowly, “Figured it wouldn’t be that easy. Was hoping it would be.”
Unzipping her jacket slowly she looked down feeling her stone. Despite the small crack in the gem its inner light had come back slightly. She met his eyes and felt the warmth of the celestial power wash over her. She stood brimming with alien power and watched Owen’s eyes widen from shock, to confusion, anger, hate and finally resignation.
“So you found me. Are you going to kill me?”
To his surprise she said, “No. I need your help.”
The Harlequin Library 