Page 10 of We Hunt the Night

My head swings at the sound of the male voice. He can’t be here. Oh fuck, he really can’t be here. But as he steps up to Wini’s side, as his blue eyes lock onto mine and that familiar, old tension brews in the air like a stale potion that should have been thrown away years ago, I accept that he is real. Hemlock Mercury is at Bloodstone Academy. I really thought this day couldn’t get any worse, but then my ex-boyfriend, my very secret ex-boyfriend, is somehow here. Lock stayed in our village for two months, and he liked small creatures just like me. Lock was always in the forest, helping and leaving them food. We began to talk…and the talking, along with his dimples, led to much more than talking on the forest floor. But it ended, swiftly and brutally, and I never wanted to see his handsome face again.

“Wait.” I look between Lock and Wini, and I see it. They are familiar, in a way siblings are, the same nose and the same face structure. “He’s your brother? Lock?”

I remember Lock telling me about his younger sister and how much he loved her. I’m surprised he let her come here, knowing it’s likely going to get her killed. I knew seeing him again was always a chance. There aren’t many witches left in the world, but I hope he is just visiting. That hope sinks faster than a stone when I see his black uniform that snuggly fits every tall inch of his body. “Yes, Juni. We don’t share the same last name because we have different fathers, but Winifred’s my sister. I asked her to look out for you.”

“Did you?” I sarcastically direct the question to Wini, who looks sheepish.

Wini clears her throat, her cheeks bright pink. “Yes, he did, and I kind of forgot until we met.” She hisses to Lock, “You didn’t tell me that this was a thing and awkward, or I’d have told you to fuck off.”

“I’m telling our mother about your new foul language,” he smoothly taunts before looking at me with a smile that won myheart—or at least my vagina—over a few years ago. I’m not a love-struck girl who falls for the first guy to give her attention anymore, though. Love has to be earned and proven. It has to be constantly fed because if it isn’t, it dies. Whatever was between us is dead, and there isn’t a spell to breathe life into it. “Now leave. I need to speak to Juni.”

“I still want to be friends. That wasn’t…” She stops, seeing me glaring at her brother. “I’m going to leave you both to it. Please don’t hate me.” She smiles at her new bonded. “Aster, please come with me. I’ll introduce you to my mom.”

“Of course.” Aster looks between us and nods at me before going with Wini.

“As usual, you’re gaining quite a bit of attention, and this time it’s more than the fact you’re insanely beautiful,” he purrs.

“And as usual, you’re where I don’t want you to be,” I mutter.

“You’re still mad at me,” he notes. Dumbass. He was never the smartest. He holds his hands up, his gold, family clan ring shimmering in the light. “I was visiting all of the towns as part of my leadership introduction. You knew I would be going back, and I had to go back to the academy. We were just kids. I was seventeen and stupid, but I’m not anymore.”

“I’m well aware of what we were, and what we are now isn’t changing.” I lift my chin. “I’ve had enough of men today.”

He coughs on thin air. “Well, you’ve certainly gotten stronger willed since we were seventeen.”

I glance at his uniform, the number two in Latin on his chest, next to the Bloodstone Academy logo. “Second year?”

“Yes, and I’ll be watching over you, along with Rue. We are friends, not sure if she told you that.”

I scrunch my face. “You slept with?—”

“Fuck, no. Just friends!” He shakes his head, and he looks disgusted. I’m not sure why. She is pretty and single. “Have youhad enough of that healing potion? I’m concerned about your welfare?—”

“Yes, and I’m fine.” I stop him before he begins his no doubt practiced speech to get me to talk to him. I want to be anywhere but here. I’m not in any shape or form to be here, but I’m not telling him that. He walked into my life and made me have feelings for him, possibly even love him, even though I clearly wasn’t his first. Those are things that meant something to me and I thought meant something to him. I thought I was someone who meant enough to say goodbye to, to say something before disappearing. Everyone leaves me. This is a fact I’ve gotten used to. First my parents when they died and then him, and I bet I’ll have a long list as the time flies by. It’s a fact of life that people like me don’t have people supporting them and sticking around. My heart pangs for a second, but I push the pain down. I have no family clan to have my back, to advise and show me the right way.

“I have to tell you about?—”

“Ah, there’s my wayward son, and you must be Juniper.” An older woman’s voice interrupts whatever he was going to tell me. Lock’s mother stops next to him, kissing his cheek. She smiles at me, bright like Wini’s smile. In fact, she is the spitting image of her daughter, but her hair is gray mostly except for the dark ends. There is a large, circular, pure gold pendant resting in the center of her chest, the sign for the Umbral Authority, and her light gray outfit is a mix between a suit and dress. “I am good friends with your foster mother.” Well, there goes wanting to know this woman. “I do think the marriage proposal between you two is a brilliant idea. We do need to restore the Daygan clan. I knew your mother and father only briefly, but in my time here, we were students together and?—”

I blurt out one sentence. “What marriage proposal?”

“Didn’t your foster mother tell you? Oh, the silly goose, she must have wanted it to be a surprise.” Goose? More like a feral cat who eats their young. “She knew how close you were with my son and called me the second you got into the academy. I can just imagine your children now! Both of you are so beautiful.”

“Mom, come on, that’s a bit too much.” Oh, he speaks.

Lock and Wini tell her to calm down, but I’m stuck, feeling like my world is spinning out of control, but my feet won’t move, won’t let me run away. The academy was meant to be freedom from an arranged marriage and the sinking feelings that came with imagining that life. I’d rather die. How could Melody have known about Lock and me? I didn’t tell her and I made sure we were never followed or seen. Not that many people would be brave going outside the limits of the town, anyway.

Their mom is still rambling on. “But of course, the marriage will happen after the academy and your years in the war. You two can just grow close here. Especially now that you are very formidable with your bonded, Juniper! As my future family, I will stick up for you with my fellow council and make sure they take your future into kind consideration. We all will no doubt be meeting with you soon.”

She is warning me her protection is based on me accepting the arranged marriage. I can tell she feels she has won when she looks in my eyes, but little does she know, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure I never marry him. Or anyone I don’t love. I remember enough of my parents and their true love to know what is real. I want what I remember; I want someone I’m desperate about and makes my heart race when I look at them even if they scare me to death. Dammit my mind wonders to them. My bonded. Am I so fucked up that I only think of my psychopathic hot bonded dragons as the only attractive men I’ve seen here? I just need to meet more witches that aren’t Lock or my forbidden bonded. They hate me, so itshouldn’t be a problem to ignore the attraction. I push that thought away really quickly before I end up dead. A relationship with any of them is a death sentence, or at least a heavily punishable act.

She carries on talking, but everything feels like it fades. Marriage to Lock? This has to be the worst night of my life. Absolutely the worst night in my life.

Wini must see it in my eyes, see me spiralling into a pit of depression I’ve always fought to get myself out of. “Mom, maybe I should take Juniper to her room. It’s been a long day, and I think we both could do with some sleep.”

“Yes,” she agrees. “I will see you soon, Juniper.”

“See you around,” I manage to say, my mouth dry. Her eyes are assessing as I walk away with Wini, out of the crowds and into a quiet, empty corridor. I suck in a deep breath, and I’m tempted to scream and scream.

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