Danielle was one of Naya’s minions. I hated the thought of leaving Ava here with her, even if I was just one table away.
“Excuse me,” a female voice sneered at me. “You’re in my seat.”
I didn’t move right away, but Ava placed a gentle hand on my arm. “I’ll be all right.”
I didn’t like Danielle, but Professor Ziva was barking at the front of the room to hurry it up. “I’ll be right here if you need me,” I told Ava.
Don’t worry,Oberi assured me.If this bitch comes anywhere near Ava, I’ll peck her eyes out.
Damn right, you will,I replied.
“See you later, Charlie,” Danielle cooed to me. I kept my expression flat, and it was difficult, because I wanted to sneer. Danielle was awful to Ava, but she was always nice to me…
Too nice, if you got my meaning. I was married, but even if I wasn’t, I’d have absolutely no interest in Danielle, so she needed to leave me alone.
I got out of my seat and found my way next to Thaddeus. My fingers brushed against the feathers of his hawk Familiar as I passed his chair. I knew him pretty well by now, since we’d worked the mines together and had been paired up in Elementai Magic more than once.
“How do you want to do this?” Thaddeus asked.
“I’ve got it,” I said, pulling my reading glasses out of my pocket. I held my script in front of me, and the glasses began reading the words out to me.
“Wow!” Thaddeus raved. “Those are epic.”
“Aren’t they? Ava’s brother Mav really knew what he was doing when he developed these.”
“Maverick?” Thaddeus asked. “I remember him. He was my reading buddy back in high school. They’d pair us up with the kids from the elementary school and we’d read to them every Thursday. He’s really come a long way, hasn’t he?”
“Yeah, he’s a great kid,” I said.
Thaddeus sounded really excited for Maverick, which was so different from all the other inmates. I suddenly realized I never knew why Thaddeus had been sentenced. He was young— barely nineteen— and had a kind heart. Even the Institute hadn’t managed to fuck him up yet.
I set my script aside. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure,” he said in a bubbly tone.
“Why are you here?” I asked gently.
“Uh, it’s in my schedule.”
“Not this class. I mean… why are you at the Institute? I never heard the story.”
“Oh.” He became very quiet. “Maybe we should get to our project.”
I felt a little sad that he didn’t trust me. Everyone had a story to tell, whether it was the whole truth or not. I barely knew a thing about Thaddeus.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s all right,” I offered.
Thaddeus hesitated. “I don’t want you to think I did anything bad, because I didn’t. Well, maybe that’s not true.”
He took a deep breath, like talking about it was hard. “The truth is, my parents died a few years back in a boating accident. The tribe did what they could to help, but there’s only so much you can do for… whatever it was I had. PTSD, depression, I’m not sure. I got involved with the wrong people and was caught trading magical goods with some witches.”
“Magical goods?” I asked warily. “You were dealing drugs?”
“More or less,” Thaddeus admitted.
My stomach sank as I suddenly saw myself in Thaddeus— the lone, orphaned kid trying to find his place in the world, only for a gang of drug dealers to take advantage of him. I didn’t blame him. It wasn’t his fault. Thaddeus was just trying to cope— tosurvive. I suddenly hated that I hadn’t been there, that I hadn’t found the Elementai sooner. I could have mentored him, taught him how to survive on his own.
Maybe I still could…
