Page 5 of Twisted Ties
“You’re not stupid,” he says.
“If that were true, would we be in this situation right now?” He doesn’t answer me. “Besides, Stone seems to think I am.”
“Stone doesn’t think that.”
“He said it.” I remember clearly. Every painful word.
“He was worried about you.”
I snort. Stone worried about me? That crush was strictly one way, and now …
“Does he know?” I whisper. “Does he know about our … situation?”
What will he think? Will he laugh at us? Will he feel sympathy for his friend? Will he care at all?
The man in black keeps staring at me, only a muscle in his cheek twitching.
“No. I haven’t told anyone. Only the staff at the hospital are aware.”
I twist my head away from him. What will everyone think? What will they say? Especially the Council? Will they make me go to school anyway, even though it will rip theguts straight from my body to be away from this man? Will they expect him to stay with me?
The thoughts swirl in my head like a whirlwind. It’s all so complicated, so entangled and twisted up.
“I’m tired,” I tell him, “really fucking tired.”
“We’ll work this out, Rhianna,” he whispers as I feel sleep pulling me down. “I’m going to fix this for you.”
But as the blackness descends, I’m really not sure he can. Not even the man in black.
3
Azlan
I watchas her eyes drift shut and her chest rises and falls in the rhythm of sleep. I wait until I know she’s truly in deep, and then I flop back against the chair.
I know I won’t sleep again. My mind’s too wired. My body is too. Despite the depletion of my powers, it hums with an energy. An energy that stems from the bond. The hook deep in my body drags me towards her and all I want to do is touch her, taste her, claim her as mine.
But I can’t. And not just because she’s injured, healing, delicate. But because she doesn’t want it. She doesn’t want me.
She can barely look me in the eye. And when she does, I can see the hatred and disappointment spitting there.
A hatred and disappointment I know will be echoed in my best friend’s eyes. In my father’s too. Hell, probably inthe Chancellor’s eyes as well. He won’t understand it. My father won’t either. Only Stone would. But Stone has fought this from the beginning.
I know sooner or later, I’m going to have to tell him. Better it comes from me than someone else.
I send him a message. Tell him to come meet me at the hospital.
He knows it’s about the girl. Of course he does. Which means he’s here in less than an hour.
I wait for him outside the door to her room in the dimly lit clinic corridor.
The pain in my gut has me grinding my teeth, wanting me to plow straight back there, to sit by her side like a faithful dog.
I pull against it and turn to my friend.
His face is full of curiosity.
“What is it?” he says.
