And what do you know, the voice worked as well on adults as it did children. Winnie smiled when the others shut up and looked at her. “So, we all realize something else is going on that we are not being told. And maybe right now we don’t need to be. However, there are things we do need to know.”
Percy scoffed. “I feel we need to know all of it, considering?—”
“Percy,” Fleur admonished. “Let Winnie finish.”
The man rolled his eyes, but kept quiet.
“As I was saying…there are things we do need to know. First, is Ollie safe, specifically, is he safe around Noble? Or should we be grabbing our bats and hog-tying the man?”
“Hog-tying? Really?” Eashaa drawled with disgust.
“I grew up in Texas, so sue me.”
The dark-brown-haired woman blinked, before laughing. “Right, I forgot. Your lack of an accent always throws me off.”
“Do you want me to have one?” Truth be told, Winnie had worked hard at getting rid of her accent years ago, but she could still have one if she wanted to. She, of course, did not.
Hanna cut in before Eashaa had a chance to respond. “We are getting off topic.”
“Right, so…what is the answer, Jay?”
Jahla sighed. “Ollie is safe with Noble. I think the man would rather hurt himself than hurt Ollie, even if I personally do not trust him.”
“Yeah, I’m guessing we probably should ignore that last part, as I’m pretty sure you don’t even fully trust us,” Aurora mused with a smirk.
The woman sputtered at the accusation. “T-that’s not—” She winced and averted her gaze. “—necessarily true…”
Percy laughed. “Wow, that was said withsuchconviction.”
Yeah, Jahla for sure had trust issues. But who didn’t? Or at least, who didn’t have issues? Winnie sure as shit did. She had changed her whole ass name to distance herself from said issues. At least, the issues who were physically a danger to her.
Winnie cleared her throat. “Right, now for the other two questions I have. Is there a good reason why we shouldn’t know the full truth? And do we have any reason to think that the library is now unsafe?”
“So, yes, there is a good reason, and honestly, knowing may put you in more danger than not. But you aren’t in any directdanger, and the library is about as safe as any other place is around here. For you, at least.”
“What do you mean by ‘for you’? Who is it no longer safe for?” Fleur asked sharply.
Jahla wrinkled her nose. “I mean, I wouldn’t say it isn’t safe for them…just different.”
“Them being who?” Winnie pressed.
“Ollie.”
It did seem to all come back to Ollie…
Percy scoffed. “Let me guess, whatever went on has to do with Ollie. And one of the reasons, or likely the main reason, you can’t tell us the truth is because it involves Ollie in some major way.”
Jahla shrugged. “Pretty much. I’m just going to say now, before you all start blurting things out again. I can’t tell you. The only one who really has the right to is Ollie. And I don’t think he will be willing to tell you, for the same reasons it’s better that you don’t know.
“I can say that it has nothing to do with him not trusting you, and more to do with his own personal safety. The best way I can explain this is to compare it to the secrets we keep to ourselves that are better left unsaid. I'm sure we all have secrets that we’d rather others not know. I know I do.”
Winnie did… Though she was pretty sure it was only Jahla who assumed everyone she met had some deep, dark secret they were hiding. She knew for sure that not everyone did. Some, yes, but not all. But then, Jahla had always been a bit paranoid.
“Then…I guess we can let it go, for now?” Winnie said, after a moment of silence, where likely everyone was thinking over what the woman had just said.
“Fine, we can let it go,” Percy drawled, before adding, with a far too smug smirk, “But I will not be helping convince Elias to do the same.”
Winnie laughed with the others when Jahla groaned, “Fuck.”
