at it to really feel the burn. "No."
Gryphon's eyes drop to my fidgeting and he says, "Would you run if we couldn't track you?"
He can smell my lies so I go with the truth. "I would have to run. It's better that way."
He nods slowly. "You could tell me, you know. It might change a lot of things for you around here.”
I shrug. "We both know it won't. Your bestie has already told me there's no excuse good enough for him to accept. I'm trapped here, and because of that, bad shit is going to happen. I'm doing everything I can to stop it but... it's probably going to happen anyway."
His fingers drum on the steering wheel. "The problem is that I know that you believe that. I just also know that whatever it is, you should have come to us about it instead of running. You should have trusted us."
I laugh at him, dark and freaking desperate. "Oh yeah? I was fourteen. Did you know my parents both died right before I was tested? Did you know I lost everything and... it happened? I'd just found out I was going to have Bonds and everything was going to be ok. I'd lost them, you know? I'd lost everything."
Gryphon's hands tighten so hard that the leather of the steering wheel creaks. "Did you want your Bonds? Back then?"
I blink back the tears that always come when I think about that time. "More than anything, that's what I wanted."
He nods. "And now? Do you want your Bonds now?"
I reach for the handle on the door to escape. I have to get the hell out of this car before he gets another truth out of me, the only truth here that eats at me every time I find myself trapped with one of them.
"Oli, answer me. Do you want your Bonds or not?" he growls, pushing the lock button to stop me from getting out.
I glance back at him, glaring at him for doing this shit to me. "There's no point in answering it. I can't have these Bonds. You all hate me, and I know it's too dangerous to try. I'm better off alone."
I get out but I hear his words before the door slams shut behind me. “That might be your truth, but it’s not mine.”
I need to stay the hell away from them all.
Chapter Twenty
Gabe questions why Gryphon was driving me into the campus but I brush him off easily, still mad that he had a hand in getting me to the Council dinner shit show with North. He doesn’t notice how pissy I am though and just shadows me like usual.
It’s not until we’re sitting with Sage and Sawyer at lunch in the dining hall, that he hears the rundown of what actually happened and he realizes just how angry I am at him over it.
“I only found out about the dinner when you did! How the hell is it my fault you had a shitty time? If interacting with girls your Bonds have fucked is enough to ruin your day, I have some bad fucking news for you.”
I jab him in the ribs, not that he notices because he’s made of muscle stacked on freaking muscle. “You shoved me at his people and left me to it! I almost died, and then I had to deal with the complete bullshit that is the gossips of my dorm because North wouldn’t stop at a freaking drug store for me.”
Sage winces at me. “I heard the rumors too. Obviously I didn’t believe them, and I told Gracie if she ran her mouth about it I’d tell her mom about her panting after someone else’s Bonds.”
Gabe frowns at her and glances between us. “What rumors? I haven’t heard anything.”
Sawyer scoffs at him and finally looks up from his phone. “Of course you didn’t, they’re talking shit about the Bond you’ve just called a truce with. You think Zoey and her little crowd of bimbo bitches would tell you to your face that they’re accusing your Bond of a self-administered abortion?”
I feel his control over his gift slip and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that he’s not lying about having no idea. I keep my eyes on my food because I don’t need his white knight bullshit.
“That’s why Gryphon brought you in. He heard—”
I cut him off, “Yeah and I had to convince him that it wasn’t true—”
“Well, of course it’s not fucking true! Who said it? Which