‘I really do.’ He dropped his head to hide a rueful grin. ‘Turns out I made a liar out of myself.’
The cake, one of Ashley’s concoctions, was delicious. Double chocolate with hazelnut chocolate frosting and a mass of malt balls on top. For someone who still claimed to despise Lydia Powell, she certainly had gone out of her way to create a cake made of all her favourite things.
‘I said I’d be here for you, whatever you need. The last few days have been difficult but that’s no excuse, I haven’t been a good guest.’ Jackson toyed with the tab on his soda can. ‘I guess, with everything that’s been going on, I’m feeling like a screen door on a submarine and I don’t like it one bit.’
‘That’s crazy,’ I said quickly. ‘Without you, we wouldn’t know anything about Astrid. You’ve been beyond helpful.’
He scratched the scruff on his chin, half shaking his head. Since the twins moved in I’d noticed he always had a shadow on his jaw by the evening, even if he’d shaved that same day.
‘It’s funny,’ he replied. ‘If you’d asked me three months ago, I’d have said my only back-to-school worries would be making the varsity starting lineup and which girl to take to Homecoming. Now I’m living in a magic house, full of witches, and hoping to live past tomorrow.’
I pushed the plate back towards him. ‘The witches I can’t do much about but you don’t need to worry about the rest of it. You’re safe here.’
‘Can’t stay here forever though.’
‘You can, actually. As long as you like.’
He looked around the garden, his chest expanding as he breathed in the scent of night blooming jasmine.
‘Can’t live with you forever,’ he corrected. ‘Not like this.’
‘Jackson, I—’ I began but he cut me off with a tight, bittersweet look.
‘Please don’t. I know how it is. You love him.’
There didn’t seem much point in agreeing out loud, making things worse.
‘I always thought I was pretty smart,’ Jackson said, ducking his head to hide a regretful grin. ‘But it turns out I don’t know much about anything after all.’
‘It’s one thing to do good in school, it’s another to wake up one day and find out witches and werewolves are running around town and your whole family is caught up in the middle of it,’ I replied, reaching across the table. ‘I get it, I do. I always thought getting good grades and graduating early meant something. Now I don’t know where that kind of thing gets me.’
‘It gets you out of first period math on a Monday morning. That’s not nothing.’
‘See, you’re still pretty smart,’ I squeezed his hand. ‘You don’t have to beat yourself up for not having all the answers or for asking questions.’
‘Even if those questions are about Wyn?’
‘You mean the guy who dropped into your life out of nowhere and is currently hanging out with a whole pack of werewolves on their way to kill us?’
‘That would be the one.’
I pulled up my shoulders and inclined my head as I took a sip of my soda. I couldn’t quite bring myself to say yes but if I put myself in his shoes, I could see where doubts might creep in. Especially if he had a vested interest in Wyn turning out not to be the good guy after all.
‘He’s a good guy and I know it,’ he admitted with a grimace. ‘But there were days when I didn’t know what to think. Damn, I can still half convince myself he was the one who attacked us at the dance, and on the beach. Or maybe that’s what I want to believe, I don’t know.’
‘You have to remember he didn’t want this,’ I insisted. ‘IfCatherine and I hadn’t met Cole in the cemetery that night, Wyn would never have known his family were Weres. It’s not something he can control, it’s not something he went looking for. He wasn’t given a choice.’
‘But that’s just it,’ Jackson said, attacking the air with his dessert fork. ‘He can’t control what he is. What if there are other things he can’t control?’
‘Such as?’
‘What if initiating him into the pack wasn’t the end of it? What if the other Weres are controlling him somehow?’
I looked up to see the first stars shining down on us. Powerful suns, burning brighter than anything else in the sky, but against the pale rising moon they looked weak.
‘No one’s controlling him,’ I argued. ‘No one could make Wyn do anything he doesn’t want to do.’
‘Are you sure? Are you entirely certain beyond a shadow of a doubt there’s no way Weres can influence the behaviour of their pack members?’
