the lecture, highlighting everything Gabe said because my bond had gotten it right. Sage notices my mini freakout and shoots me a worried look, her hand knocking mine gently in reassurance, but there’s nothing either of us can do or say in the middle of class. Not without Nox losing his shit at me in another public spectacle that I have no interest in, so I take a deep breath and just work through it.
As I take notes, my hand creeps up to the back of my neck, rubbing at the bump under my skin where the killer GPS chip is buried, like a reminder to myself that no matter how badly I want to run, it’s not an option for me.
Chapter Sixteen
My only plans for spring break are to study and explore the campus grounds a little more to attempt to find somewhere I can get a job.
If I can earn some money, then I can take the risk of having my brain explode from the chip. At this point, I’m fairly sure North wouldn’t actually kill me, not unless I did something terrible or became a danger to them all, but without money, I’m still freaking trapped here.
There isn’t a person in this closed-off community who doesn’t know who I am and the fact that a TacTeam dragged me back here, so there’s no chance of me hitchhiking my way out of here. I need money and I need someone to dig the chip out from under my skin.
There’s a cafe and the campus bookshop as potential jobs but when I drop off my CV, both of them shoot me down on the spot. I understand the bookshop because North probably forewarned them, but the cafe makes less sense to me until Sage shows up at my door to drag me to her place and tells me Gryphon’s sister owns it and runs it.
I had no idea he even had a sister.
The woman who had served me looked at least ninety years old, so at least I didn’t shame myself in front of his family member but, God, I guess I can’t ever show my face there again now.
Sage laughs at my embarrassment, shoving a drink at me the moment we get into her room. Sawyer is already there drinking and even though I don’t want to go to the party they’re both attending, Gabe has already messaged me to say he got me a free pass from North to attend, and I don’t want to have to speak to the domineering asshole to explain why I’d rather stay home.
Mostly it’s because Sage is now obsessed with the idea of me and Gabe working our shit out. She’s obsessed enough that the moment she starts her pre-party drinking, it’s all she can talk about.
“You’re going to end up Bonded to him. There’s no way you’re going to see Gabe shirtless at the party tonight and not fuck his brains out.”
I choke on my own drink so hard that it goes up my freaking nose, burning the whole way because Sawyer doesn’t know how to make a cocktail without the imminent threat of alcohol poisoning, which is why his mixes are always my favorite.
Once I can breathe again, I give Sage’s drunk ass a stern look. “I’ve seen it, and while there’s no denying he’s freaking blessed, I’m not fucking anyone anytime soon. I have cobwebs that no man is going to clear out for, you know, a century or two, at this rate.”
Sawyer pulls a face at me without looking in my direction, all of his focus on the phone in front of his face. Sage kicks at him, already stumbling across the line of tipsy and right into wasted, but it’s been a rough week for her.
Giovanna posted about her Bonded ring that Riley gave her.
Bonded rings are kind of a big deal at the best of times, the closest that someone in the Gifted community gets to an engagement, but the real problem here is that he gave her a family heirloom, one that he’d always told Sage he’d give to her. It was his grandmother’s, smuggled into the country during a war, and apparently it’s a Big Fucking Deal.
Just another freaking fracture he’s caused her and he’s now joined Giovanna at the top of my kill list. If they show up to the pool party tonight, I’m going to cause a scene.
From the look of Sawyer, he might be right there with me.
I don’t know