Authors: Cindi Madsen
Only she’d experienced a similar situation with Adrastos a few minutes—hours, she hoped, like that made a difference—later.
How can I feel so strongly for two people? Two people who happen to be nothing alike.
“Everything okay here?” Miss Nelson asked.
Jax straightened. “It’s fine.”
Miss Nelson looked at Persephone, eyebrows raised, apparently wanting the answer from her.
“Yeah,” Persephone said, nodding her head. “Everything’s okay.”
Miss Nelson crossed her arms. “Don’t you two have a class to get to?”
“We were just about to go in.” Persephone turned and walked into Mr. Ramsey’s room.
Great. On top of feeling guilty and confused, I still haven’t figured out what to do about Miss Nelson’s request for a meeting with Gran.
Any more problems and my head’s going to explode.
The day did get worse, but luckily, her head didn’t actually explode—it just hurt like hell. World History hit a snag about the time Mr. Ramsey caught her daydreaming; Danielle seemed upset all day, and although Persephone tried to find out why, she’d gotten the cold shoulder. On top of that, things with Jax were tense, and as she walked up to Miss Nelson’s desk at the end of Literature class, Persephone was sure her lie was about to go bad.
“My gran’s sick right now,” Persephone blurted out as soon as Miss Nelson looked up. “She can’t meet you. In fact, she can’t even talk on the phone much.”
“Then it sounds like we need to get someone over to check on you.”
“No!” Persephone realized she’d yelled, and tried to calm her voice. “I mean, you can call her, and I can manage. We don’t need any help.”
Miss Nelson looked over Persephone’s shoulder. “Jax, you need to wait in the hall while I talk to Persephone.”
He hesitated for a moment and then trudged out of the classroom.
“The bruise on your arm.” Miss Nelson pointed. “It looks like finger marks.”
Persephone glanced down. She’d been so concerned about hiding the hickey—which hadn’t faded at all overnight, unfortunately—she hadn’t noticed the bruise on her arm from where the demon had grabbed her.
“Look, I wanted to talk about this with your grandmother here, but since she can’t come” —Miss Nelson raised an eyebrow, the doubt on her face clear— “I need
you
to listen to me. Really listen. It’s not okay for someone to hurt you. Not even if they say they love you. Do you understand what I’m saying?” She glanced toward the doorway, in the direction Jax had gone.
A light bulb went off in her head, and Persephone did understand what she was implying. “This isn’t from Jax. He’d never hurt me.”
“Where’d you get it then?”
Something told her
a demon was trying to pull me out of my car
wouldn’t get Miss Nelson off her back. “Um, soccer. I play soccer with the boys, you can ask anyone. One of the guys got a little aggressive on defense yesterday.”
“And the red bump on your cheek? The one you had about the same time Jax showed up?”
Well, that one
had
been Jax’s fault. Not that she was going to admit that, because as good as Miss Nelson’s intentions were, they were misplaced. “I told you, I ran into a door.”
“In fact, ever since Jax entered the picture, you seem to have a lot of bruises. I can’t help but notice how possessive he is, too, hovering over you in the halls, never letting you out of his sight.”
“You’re wrong about this, and I wish you’d just stay out of my personal life. Gran and I are fine. Jax and I are fine.” Actually, that was a lie. Not only was Gran gone, leaving a big empty hole in Persephone’s heart, things with Jax were a mess, too, and she didn’t know if they’d ever be fine again. That wasn’t the point, though. “Anyway, thanks for your concern. I’ll try harder in class and all that, but I’m good.” Hugging her books to her chest, she charged out of the room.
Jax caught up to her in the hall. “She buy the sick story?”
“I don’t think so.” Telling him the truth might make him upset, but she supposed she should let him know. Maybe he could cool off the protective vibe when Miss Nelson was around. “Our literature teacher thinks you’re getting violent with me—that you’re an overly possessive, jealous guy. I guess she’s noticed bruises, probably from all the training we’ve been doing, and I got this yesterday…” She held up her arm to show him.
“She thinks I did that to you?”
“And the red mark on my cheek, which
was
pretty much your fault, since I got it the night you broke into my house.”
“I don’t suppose she’d be okay with it if I told her you started that one?”
“I doubt it.” Persephone looked into his face. This was the first normal conversation they’d had all day—well, not normal, but not strained. “I told her you’d never hurt me.”
Jax grabbed her hand and rubbed a circle over her pulse point with his thumb. “Tell me what’s going on with you today.”
She hated when he looked at her like that. Like he’d do anything for her. It made her hate herself for not being stronger last night, dream or not. Now wasn’t the time or place to get into this—too many eyes and ears.
“We’re going to be late for soccer.” She started to turn, but he kept hold of her hand.
“So we’ll be late.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Miss Nelson, standing, arms crossed, watching them.
Jax must’ve seen her, too, because he dropped Persephone’s hand. “This isn’t over.”
Not yet. But once you find out the truth, it will be.
After playing a quick game of soccer, Persephone and Jax took the Mazda to get the broken window fixed. The shop was blasting music, which made for a seemingly innocent way to stall the big talk with Jax—she just said, “huh?” every time he attempted a conversation. But as they walked up the sidewalk to her house, the knot in her stomach got tighter and tighter.
Jax was expecting something, an explanation for why she’d been distant all day. She still hadn’t decided if he was going to get the truth. Maybe parts.
She glanced at him.
He deserves the truth.
The first porch step was closer than she thought. She stumbled, catching herself on the flickering railing. She focused, counting her steps to the door. Her hand shook, jingling the keys as she lifted them to the doorknob.
After two failed attempts at lining up the key, Jax put his hand over hers. “Do you need me to try?”
“I got it,” she said, elbowing him off her. The third time, the key slid in and Persephone opened the door.
Turtle greeted her, rubbing against her legs, and she bent down to pet him. “You hungry?”
He mewed.
“Let’s get you some food then.” She picked him up and went to the cupboard for cat food, glad for the distraction.
Persephone filled his food and water bowl, then continued to stand in the kitchen, staring at her mangy cat, hoping Jax would give up. But she could feel him standing behind her and knew he wasn’t going to give up or let it go this time.
The floorboards creaked as he moved toward her. His hand came on her shoulder and his breath hit her ear. “If you changed your mind about me, just tell me. You know I’ll still stay and protect you.”
Without turning around, she said, “I talked to Adrastos last night. I tried to tell him I was with you, but…” Her throat tightened and she shook her head.
He tensed and his fingers dug into her shoulder. “Don’t leave me hanging. But what?”
“He’s going to come for me, and when he does, I’m afraid you’re going to get hurt.”
“By him or by you?”
She squeezed her eyes closed, fighting tears. “You deserve someone better than me.”
He slid his hand down her arm and gently twisted her to face him. His eyes implored her, raw and vulnerable. “What I need to know is if you changed your mind about me.” The muscles along his jaw tightened, and his voice was an open wound. “Are you choosing him?”
The pain on his face echoed through her, stabbing at her already aching chest.
A couple weeks ago, the answer would’ve been easy—no second guesses, just a resounding yes. But now the thought of losing Jax made her heart feel like it was ripping in two. Speaking was difficult, but she managed a scratchy, “No.”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tightly to him. For a moment, everything seemed right again.
Then she wished she wouldn’t have let him hug her. It made what she needed to say next that much harder.
“Now, you’ve got a decision to make,” Persephone said. “I need to tell you something, and then you’ve got to decide if you still want me.”
“I’ve never wanted anything more.”
She wished he wouldn’t say things like that. It only made this more difficult. “That’s because you don’t know everything about me.”
“Whatever it is, it won’t change the way I feel.”
Her heart pounded out a painful, rapid rhythm. She couldn’t believe she was actually going to do this. She didn’t want to, but she had to. She had to know. “Haven’t you ever wondered how I can handle the dagger?”
“Back when the demons were taking over, Athena came down and blessed Sentries with the power to touch it. You told me, the super-speed healing power and all that.”
“It took more than a simple blessing, and the healing power is more of a side effect. It took changing who we were.” Fear cramped her stomach, her pulse pounded through her head, and she almost lost her nerve. “You know the thing you fight, the thing that appalls you more than anything else in the world?”
His eyebrows drew together as confusion flickered across his features.
Finally, she forced the words past her lips, hating that everything would forever be different between them. “Jax, I have demon blood in me.”
Jax jerked his arms away like she’d burned him. He took a giant step back, bumping into one of the kitchen chairs.
It crashed to the ground, the noise echoing through the room, ringing through her ears again and again, until no sound remained.
The affection in Jax’s eyes turned to revulsion, and his head moved side to side. Like a bobble head. Only they nod, and he was most definitely shaking it, the meaning clear. No. No. No.
The silence pressed against Persephone. Her lungs turned to stone.
And still he shook his head. His hand hovered near his belt, twitching, like it wanted to go for his sword.
Persephone knew telling him the truth would hurt, but she didn’t expect it to hurt this much.
Now she knew.
Only now she wished she didn’t. The distance between them felt unbearable, and she wanted to go back in time and undo it all. To go back to the way things were yesterday. Earlier today. Five minutes ago.
“That night you had the nightmare,” Jax finally said. “I swore I’d seen…but you can’t be…” The head shaking started again. “I need…” He turned and walked out the front door of the house, leaving her standing in the crushing silence.
Her knees buckled and she fell to the floor, like a marionette whose strings had been cut. She was tempted to lie down, regardless of the fact she couldn’t remember the last time she’d swept and she could feel the dirt underneath her palms. This was doomed to happen, but it didn’t make it hurt any less. She’d put her heart out there and it got shredded, like she always knew it would.