Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,112

I could stand it, in both Chemistry and in History, and I didn’t hear anything beyond her normal dark thoughts. Her little spites toward the girls in her group, her continued worship of Ms. Lacusta and her general disdain for the rest of us were always there, but that didn’t concern me. I figured that was just who she was.

Only one thing troubled me slightly during that week. In Chemistry, on the Wednesday after the dance, I noticed that Casey and Liza were both very tense. Nell refused to acknowledge their attempts to talk with her; she sat staring straight ahead in stony silence. I wondered if I had interrupted an argument.

Sensing that this might pertain to the Amber situation, I didn’t have any qualms about lowering my mental curtain and listening to Casey and Liza. Nell’s mind was eerily silent, though I could feel the unpleasant mood flowing from her.

Don’t know why Nell keeps harping on this. Haven’t we told her everything, like, a million times? What happened at the dance after she left one more time… all she talks about… gonna scream… know I’m not the only one… Casey sighed in frustration and turned in her seat, away from Nell.

Why she blames me… something with Amber… not my fault. Won’t tell us what happened… she keeps going on and on… what did Tasmyn say, what did Michael ask, how did she ask it… crazy… starting to think that’s what Nell is, too. Liza frowned and fingered her pencil nervously.

This was worrisome. I cast my mind back to those minutes before Michael and I had left the dance, when we were madly trying to discern where Nell and Amber had gone. I hadn’t been completely discreet at that point about listening to Liza’s mind. In fact, some of the things I had said could be quite damning. At the time, my focus had been on finding and saving Amber, so I hadn’t worried about what Liza might think. And left to her own devices, she might not have thought anything other than I was exactly the freak she’d suspected me to be.

But the fact that Nell was questioning both Liza and Casey about what happened at the dance made me nervous. She was suspicious about how we had figured out her plan. The only possibilities were that one of her friends had spilled the beans or Michael and I had followed her to Lake Rosu. Since it seemed that she had played this one very close to the chest, I doubted that any of the girls knew what her intentions had been. I sincerely hoped not. Though I didn’t like any of the girls in Nell’s little posse, neither did I want to entertain the idea that they would sit back and allow her to murder another girl in cold blood, in the name of magic and power.

I told Michael about it that day at lunch. We were sitting outside again, enjoying a little time to ourselves. I had worried about leaving Amber at the lunch table by herself, concerned she would feel we were abandoning her, but she was fitting in so well that she didn’t even blink when I explained to her where I was going once we reached the cafeteria. She only grinned and gave me an airy wave. Anne caught my arm as I headed for the door, still looking back at Amber indecisively.

“Don’t worry about her. I’ll look out for her today. Enjoy your private lunch.” She gave me a suggestive wink that made me blush.

My cheeks must have still been pink when I reached Michael since he greeted me with one raised eyebrow.

“Something I should know about?” he inquired.

My face heated all over again, and I shook my head as I sat down. “Nope. Just Anne being naughty.”

Michael pulled me closer to him and wrapped one arm about my waist. “Remind me to thank her. I like it when you’re flushed and flustered.”

I rolled my eyes at him but couldn’t really work up a good mad. He was just so insanely good-looking, and the teasing light in his eyes reminded me once again that I was the one he had chosen. The unlikelihood of it still caught me by surprise at the oddest moments. This was one of them.

“So what’s the status of our parolee today?” he asked me, tearing open a packet of crackers.

I pulled over the salad he’d brought me and added the dressing. “Nothing much going on in Nell’s head.