Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,103

English all upset. I could hear you—your thoughts were so panicked you were practically yelling. That was when I started worrying about what Nell was up to with you. What happened that day?”

Amber knit her brows. “So much happened so fast there… two weeks ago. Well, things started getting scarier to me about a month ago. Nell started talking about what could be done to… threaten you. To keep you away from Ms. Lacusta and the chemistry club. And she wasn’t just talking about being mean to you—she kept saying she had the power to make it happen.

“That was enough to make me second-guess everything that had happened in the past two months. Then Casey said something to Nell, totally off-topic, about Marica. Nothing important, just like Marica had told her something. And Nell freaked out on her. She wanted Casey to just stay away from Marica, and Casey—she’s braver than the others, braver than me, definitely. She told Nell to shut up. I saw the look Nell gave Casey after she turned around, and it was just awful. It scared me to death.

“And I guess it probably was the day you’re talking about when Nell grabbed me outside of class. She told me she had plans, and I was part of them. She said we were going to do something, just the two of us, that the others couldn’t know about. She told me, ‘Just be ready,’ and then she smiled—but it was the worst thing I’d ever seen. And I was really frightened.”

“That makes sense,” I mused. “And it was about then that Nell was thinking about… hurting you, Amber. I saw her thinking about the knife that afternoon.”

Amber shuddered, and Marly moved to put her arms around her. “Poor thing,” she murmured. “You’ve been through so much. Let me warm up your tea.”

We were all quiet until Marly returned and perched on the arm of my chair. She put her arm around my shoulder and drew me to her, kissing the top of my head. “It must have been so frightening for you, seeing and hearing what you were, and not knowing what to do.” She leveled a gaze at Michael. “You know you could have come to us.”

It was Michael’s turn to look uncomfortable. “I know. But it would have meant telling you how we knew what we did, and that would have meant betraying Tasmyn’s confidence. I couldn’t do that.”

I turned to look up at Marly. “It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you,” I explained. “But I’ve never told anyone on purpose. Michael guessed. My parents don’t know that he knows—it would really upset them. They’ve been protecting my secret all my life.”

Marly smiled at me. “I’m not upset at you,” she assured me. “And I’m not mad at Michael either. I can see why you thought you had to do this, but the mom in me is not happy that I couldn’t protect either of you.”

“Speaking of moms and so on, it’s getting pretty late. We should probably take Amber home—and Tasmyn, too.”

I turned to Amber. “If you want, you can stay with me tonight, and I’ll take you home in the morning.”

Amber hesitated, and then shook her head. “I appreciate it, more than I can tell you. But—I kind of want to see my parents. I’ve been less than honest with them in the past few months. I want to be truthful now.”

“What will you tell them?” Michael asked.

“As much of the truth as I can. I’ll tell them that Nell really wasn’t my friend. I’ll tell them that she hurt me—emotionally. And I’ll tell them that they were right all along about her.”

I touched Amber’s shoulder. “I hope you can tell them that you made some new friends tonight. You don’t have to go back to being lonely, Amber, just because of what’s happened with Nell.”

She wasn’t sure, I could tell. And who could blame her: between what had happened to her when she did trust someone and now what she had learned about me tonight, she had to be completely freaked out. Which reminded me… I opened my mouth, but Michael beat me to it.

“I agree with Tasmyn, Amber. I hope we’ll see you at our lunch table on Monday. But there’s one thing. Please remember no one can know about Tasmyn’s gift. This is really important. Especially not Nell or any of her group, or Ms. Lacusta.”

Amber’s eyes were wide. “Don’t worry. I won’t say a word. I’m not planning