“I guess.” Her eyes swept the area, her lower lip poking out.
Unfortunately, the charm on the tent also included sound proofing. As we couldn’t eavesdrop to what was going on inside, we kept our focus on the outside. After about ten minutes, Jack stiffened next to me.
“What is it?” I asked, my eyes following her line of sight.
A petite, dark-haired female with colored strips in her hair stood next to a stall selling charmed items. I was about to reassure Jack that she didn’t know for sure that was Xinyi when the female turned around, and my argument died on my tongue.
Before I could stop her, Jack pulled away from me and started toward her friend. I glanced back at the tent and then hurried after her.
“Xinyi,” Jack called out, drawing her friend’s attention. “What are you doing here?”
Xinyi blinked, staring at Jack for a moment before grinning from ear to ear. “Jack, hey! Fancy meeting you here. What’s with the mask? Also, I’m so sorry about what happened at the club.” She grabbed Jack’s hands in hers, her eyes watering. “We had no idea where you went and then Kyren showed up demanding you bag. I hope it was okay I gave it to him. Did you get it back?”
“Yeah, I got it,” Jack replied, squeezing Xinyi’s hands. “And don’t worry about it. You couldn’t have known what happened. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“Okay?” Xinyi looked confused. “Of course, I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?”
I cleared my throat, reminding Jack that some things were best kept to ourselves.
“Oh, uh, never mind.” Jack looked around the area. “Where’s Iris? She didn’t let you come here by yourself, did she?”
“Oh, no. She’s off buying some herb she likes to put in her blood. But between you and me,” she lowered her voice, “it makes my nose itch.”
While Jack continued to chat with her friend, I kept an eye out around us. The fact that her friend was here meant other members of the student body probably also came here, and that could spell trouble. So far, no one had recognized Jack, and I wanted to keep it that way.
Thankfully, we didn’t have any issues being discovered by the time Tate and Kyren showed up at our side.
“Oh, hey, Xinyi,” Tate greeted. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much.” The small female grinned. “Well, I can see you have your hands full. I better go find Iris.” She gave Jack a knowing look, wagging her brows before mimicking the call me signal.
Once she was gone, I turned to the other two. “So? Did you find out who bought the charm for the note?”
Tate and Kyren exchanged a look before the wolf answered.
“Yeah, but you’re not going to like it.”
Chapter twenty-two
Kyren
ProfessorCampbellwascompletelyand utterly boring.
How did I end up like this? Following around a professor when I should be trying to win over Jack. It’s been a week since the black market and nothing. No leads. No mysterious group meetings.
Wake up, spend an obsessive amount of time fixing her hair and makeup. Go to breakfast. Go to class. Go to lunch. Go to class. Go to dinner. Hang around her office then go back to her apartment and bed.
Why couldn’t Fawley watch her? He’s her colleague. Isn’t that why he’s undercover at the academy?
The longer I followed her around the academy, waiting for her to do something that proved she was part of the group that attacked Jack, the more I believed we’d been lied to.
“So?” Tate asked when he came back to our shared dorm room later that day. “Anything new?”
I looked up from the book I was reading and shook my head. “No, and I’m not following her anymore. I attached one of my shadows. If she does anything out of the ordinary, I’ll know it.”
“But Kyren…” Tate crawled up the bed, pulling the book from my hands. “This is for Jack. You should be on that wretched woman like glue, not watching from afar. How are you going to do anything if she decides to go… I don’t know… across town? You can’t shadow that far away.”
“Then I’ll deal with it then.” I grabbed for my book, but he kept it out of my reach, making me strain for it. Dropping my hand, I scowled. “My time is far better served watching overla miathan watching that woman. Besides,” I snatched the book with a shadow when Tate let his guard down, bringing it back to my hands, “make the hunter do it. It’s his job.”
