Page 11 of Hidden
“She’salwaysimagining something.” Finn waved his hand in the air. “She’s paranoid. She jumps to the worst possible conclusion and thinks everything is trying to kill her. She makes herself sick with worry.”
“Shielding her from reality doesn’t solve anything.” Hanah frowned. “You’re only making it worse.”
Damen’s low voice cut through their conversation. “How is Jiayi involved?”
“Jiayi is Bianca’s roommate,” Finn said, his voice sullen. “Don’t be angry at her. She’s only been brought in recently. We needed someone to watch her on campus when I couldn’t.”
“Surely you knew we’d find out; or she would notice something. This is a school for those with paranormal abilities!” Damen said.
“Unless you were planning on keeping her on medication forever,” I pointed out. “It’s not like the paranormal is overly emphasized here. It could be explained away.”
“No. We knew we were out of time.” Finn glowered at the table. “Dr. Kohler wanted to lower Bianca’s dosage after midterms. The plan was to give Bianca a chance to get used to college life and for Du Yun to have time with her. It wasn’t supposed to happen suddenly. You don’t teach any of her classes, so you wouldn’t have noticed,” Finn said, nodding toward Damen. “Bryce’s presence threw things off. We knew he’d eventually be interested in her. Even with suppressants, it couldn’t be helped. But it helps that she hates him. I never expected her to stop her medication.”
“That’swhy Do Yun is here?” I’d wondered why my Tongjun had decided to transfer his practice to this college but figured it wasn’t my business.
“Why didn’t you come to us for help? Why wait?” Damen’s voice was still in that dangerous state. “You had to know we’d take care of things. She’sours.”
Finn flinched slightly. “Well, Dr. Kohler wanted Julian to finish school. Then there’s…” He hesitated briefly, before glancing at Damen. “It’syou.”
Damen pulled back, surprise flickering across his tight expression. “Me?”
“You’ll sleep with any woman who gives you the time of day,” Finn grumbled. “You’re grabby, pushy, and you don’t understand boundaries. You have two moods: carefree or angry. Bianca can’t handle the flirty side of you, and anger frightens her. You would scare her, and no one wanted that.”
I leveled my attention toward Finn—he wasn’t wrong. But since when was he insightful? But also, considering recent events, he was a bit hypocritical.
“Actually, we’ve been doing rather well. Bianca and I have an agreement, and we didn’t even require your help to manipulate our bond. We’ve created something that works for us. Besides, it doesn’t matter. I don’t even think she realizes I’m flirting with her most of the time.” Damen looked offended. “Besides,you’rethe one who hurt her! You’re the one who lost control of your abilities. If I hadn’t stopped it, she’d be in serious trouble.”
A flash of something—almost like panic—crossed Finn’s expression. “I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t…”
“How did she end up in a place like that?” Bryce spoke for the first time since this conversation had begun, his voice was rife with disbelief. “I don’t understand.”
I knew what would happen a second beforehand. Still, when Damen snapped, I couldn’t hold him back.
“This is all your fault! I don’t know how you did it yet, but I’ll find out!” Damen had crossed the room in a second, grabbing Bryce by the front of his shirt and slamming him to the floor. Chairs were thrown to the side as everyone clamored to their feet.
Chaos erupted, and once Damen had lost it, Titus was no longer under his control.
One instant he was restrained in a corner. The next, he was free. Miles’s wards alone weren’t enough to hold him back.
But Damen didn’t seem to hear the dragon roar. Nor did the onmyoji notice Titus shattering the windows as he escaped into the dusk.
“Shit!” Miles stopped in front of me, pausing in his movements. His focus shifted between the broken window and Damen. “What do we—”
I rushed past him, grabbing his arm. “Titus will keep for now. We need to stop Damen first.”
Hopefully, he’d only go to his house and destroy his room. But it didn’t matter. Without Damen, Miles and I had no hope of controlling Titus by ourselves.
“Damen, stop!” Brayden was trying to pull Damen off Bryce, as was Anthony, but they weren’t succeeding. Damen was so far gone even Anthony’s abilities couldn’t touch him. Which meant it would take all my concentration to break through to him.
I couldn’t focus on what we’d learned, nor could I think about Finn. Even though he was watching the scene with more emotion than he’d had in a long while. He stood to the side, not stopping his brother. Nor did he seem concerned that Bryce was being beaten to death.
In fact, he watched the scene with the same level of animosity that Damen was displaying.
“Anthony.” I pulled my brother’s arm and he glanced at me. No longer was there humor in his gaze. “Stop Finn before he does something stupid,” I said.
Anthony didn’t question my order and backed off Damen immediately.
It had been difficult to stop Damen from killing Garrett Cole, but this anger was on an entirely different level. Damen was a powerful man. He wasn’t at his full strength yet, but what he lacked in magic he made up for in raw physical strength.
