"I'm fine grandpa, really." I say to my grandpa over the phone as I slide on my pink pajama bottoms with hearts on them. Followed by my ripped up white tank top I've had since freshman year. I should throw it out, but it's so nice and thick.
"Are you sure? I-I could come back if you need me to. A girl needs her grandpa." I laugh, I've never heard that saying before.
"I'm positive. Mrs. Germani- well I mean Col has been taking real good care of me. Making sure I do my homework and eat properly." She really has. Every morning she comes and wakes me up, makes me breakfast and makes sure I get to school and work on time. I haven't had a mom in years, someone to be on me all the time, but it's nice. I know she's mostly doing it for Alexander. He would want her to be taking good care of me, making sure that I don't get off track.
I've only been staying at the pack house for 2 months, and I don't think I ever want to leave. The room is spacious, with a balcony window and mansion bathroom. Everything is marble or granite, stuff you only see in celebrity houses. They have a cleaning and cooking staff, but I told Col that I wanted to clean my own room, it would make me feel weird having strangers around my unmentionables.
"That's good, I told her to watch out for you while I'm away. I heard you want to go to Nygaard, you know you can't go. Right? They'll have your head, on a stick." I sigh.
"I know grandpa, it's super duper dangerous. Also, I'm 18 now, I can take care of myself. Plus, I've got these cool powers so if anyone messes with me, I'll blast them." I joke. In return, he lets out a hearty laugh. Damn, it's been a minute since I heard him laugh, I just wish I could see his smile.
"That makes me feel good Quinn, a little. Nygaard. . .it's dangerous. Lots of crude and selfish people running around there. I know you want to save Alexander, but the cure only lies with the King, and if he says no, then that's it." Before my grandpa left, he ran himself ragged trying to find a substitute cure for Alexander, but fell short. This made us realize something, we REALLY need that cure.
I throw my school clothes in the grey hamper on the side wall and start to the bathroom to wash my face. The phone sits on my bed, the volume of my grandpa's voice booms over my room.
"I can take care of myself." I just want to go, plead with the King to save Alexander and then make my way home. Then, we'll go back to normal and the only thing I'll need to worry about is graduating. In a few weeks, I'll be a senior in high school. College and stress are in my future.
With this whole Alexander thing happening, the thought of it hasn't crossed my mind. Where do I want to go? Do I want to go out of state, or do I want to stay locally for Alexander? Hell, what career do I even want to pursue? I push these questions in the back of my mind, and try to focus on the problems at hand.
"I know you can, you were raised by me. I'll always worry about you." He says in a definite tone.
"I know." My hands scrub at my skin, trying to make it as clean as possible. Before my grandpa could respond, I hear a knock at the door.
"Grandpa I got to go, call you later." He tells me goodbye, I finish cleaning my face, dry my hands off and head to the door. Behind it stands Col, her reading glasses sit on her head, a book in one hand while she wears a comfy jump suit. Her dirty blonde hair is in a messy bun on her head. She's such a mom it's insane.
"Hi Col, come on in." I move out the way as she walks inside. Her eyes pan over the room, surveying if it's clean or not. I close the door and follow behind her.
"I just wanted to come and check on you, make sure everything was alright." She smiles at me while sitting down on my bed. She bounces a little, taking in the firmness of the bed.
"It's been fine, I'm about to call it a night." I organize my backpack and stuff while she just watches me.
"I was going to ask you this when I came in, but I was in a meeting, how was the conference?" I stop what I'm doing and turn to her, interest waves over her.
"It was good, everyone liked my speech." She smiles that big smile of hers. A smile only a proud mother could carry.
"That's incredible, I know how hard the past couple of months have been. With The First Power, and then Alexander, but you went to that conference and owned it. I'm proud of you."
"Thank you."
"Well, I just want to see how everything was going, now that I know you're ok, I'll let you turn in." She starts to walk to the door. Opening it for her, she walks through. As I start to shut it, she pushes it back open with her hand. "Quinneth?" She questions.
"Yes."
"Everything will be ok, you know."
I nod, "Yeah, I know."
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"Hi, I'm Quinneth Worthingshire, I called earlier to-"
"Clean out your locker, yes, you can go in." Says the lady at the front desk. I tell her thank you and walk through the thick doors. The building is silent, no soul for miles. Everyone is probably at the beach, soaking up the sun before they have to abandon it and come back here, where souls come to die. Since I wasn't here for my last day of Junior year, my stuff still sits in my locker.
I would have asked Lyra to do it, but after everything that happened, I don't think I could trust her again. To my luck, there isn't a lot in here. The only thing I put in the locker was a couple of books and my backpack. Putting in my combination, a bunch of scraps of paper falls out, confetti. When it's the last day of school, the students always bust out the confetti as they throw all their old work on the ground.
Now looking at the ground, little pieces of colored confetti decorate the floor, schools been out for like a month and they still haven't cleaned it up yet? That's public school for you.
As I grab all my books from my locker, and discard the old paper in the garbage, I'm finally done. Junior year is filled with the past, as I focus on my future year, Senior year. I was always excited about senior year; it was the year that I thought I would conquer. But now, I just want it to be done and it hasn't even started.
Shutting my locker, I start to walk to the doors when I hear voices come from behind me. It's a guy and two girls. One of the girls' voices sounds familiar, it can't be who I think it is. Right?
With reluctance, I turn around to see Lyra. They're laughing about something, I don't know what. Her once long red hair is cut short to her shoulders. It looks good on her, showing off her nice shoulders. She's wearing shorts and a tank top, with it being hot in St. Helena I don't blame her. If school was in session, they would totally dress code her.
The shorts show off her long tan legs, making her look like a supermodel. She put's Gigi and Kendell to shame. The girl walking beside her is wearing a summer flower dress with black sandals while the guy has on cargo shorts and a sleeveless green shirt. They look like three people from an Old Navy campaign with the slogan: 'Don't miss these summer sales.'
I try to flee out of there, but to my gracious luck, she spots me. Our eyes connect, and everything that happened to us starts to pour through my mind. The yelling, the cries, the emotions rush through. I have to get out of here, this can't happen. I can't feel these things right now. I rush out the building, the nice lady at the desk tells me to have a good summer, I mumble out a "you too" as I rush to my car.
My hand fumbles in the back pocket of my shorts for the keys. But I feel nothing, fuck, where the hell are those dumbass keys? Anger builds through my body, I ju-just want to get out of here. I can't do-
"Looking for these." I turn away from my car to see Lyra standing in front of me, my keys dangling from her well-manicured finger, a sincere look is on her face. Don't let her fool you, she'll go behind your back and run her mouth. I just stand there, contemplating on taking the keys from her or walking 20 miles home.
"No." Was all I said. Her eye brow lifts, unsure of what I just said.
"No? How are you going to get home then?"
"I'll walk."
"In this heat? You'll die."
"I'll take that risk." I turn my back to her and start heading to the sidewalk. I know I look crazy, but I can't get off this crazy roller coaster now.
"You fucking psycho!" She screams at me, slowly, my body swirled around to her.
What the hell did she just call me?
"What did you say?" I say, thunderstruck.
"You heard me. Fucking. Psycho." I storm over to her, my feet stomping hard against the hot pavement.
"You got some nerve, Lyraina." I call her by her full first name, knowing how much she hates that.
"You know I hate my first name." She grumbles.
"That's why I said it." A sly smile coming across my lips.
"How long are you going to be mad at me?"
"For as long as I need to be." She rolls her eyes.
"It was a mistake, Quinn!"
"Yeah? A mistake it was! A MISTAKE THAT ALMOST KILLED SOMEONE!" That, right there, shuts her up.
"That's not how it was Quinn." says Lyra.
"Yes, it was."
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Day after day, I come in this all-white room and sit with Alexander. Sometimes I stare at him, or the people down below. In the morning, Aren and Christian are down there training with their classes, on some days I just see them running by. Occasionally, they look up at me and wave with a small smile.
When they have free time, they come by and see him. Feeling weird, they pat his hand or whisper words in his ear. Then, they tell me to take care and leave.
Whenever I'm not here, Col usually takes over for me. She reads him his favorite books as a child, Magic Tree House. I would have taken him for a R.L Stine fan, but hey, people surprise you all the time.
I lay on the bed with him, my head resting on his chest. I hear his heart beat under my head as his chest moves up and down. Sometimes, just sometimes, I think I see his arm twitch, or his body will shake just a bit. When I told my grandpa of this, he just said it was reflexes.
I tell him of my day, about how much work I have at Ida's shop, or all the crazy topics that Aora and Skipper argue about. Yesterday they were arguing about things from the Mandela effect. Usually, I hang on the sidelines in awe of their heinous debates. I also tell him of me being scared of Senior year, and how he needs to wake up so I won't be alone in it. His answer was just a chest raise and a small twitch of his index finger.
The idea of going to Nygaard lays heavy on my mind. No one wants to take me, they see it as a lost cause, but I don't. Not when it's the only way to save him.
Last week, when I was coming home from work, I had a conversation with Aren and Christian after dinner. The servants, not what I like to call them, were bringing the dishes to the kitchen. On the sides were me and them, talking.
Aren starts first, "Are you sure you want to go to Nygaard?" I talk about the possibly of going to Nygaard.
I look to her with an incredulous look, "Of Course! Don't you guys want to save Alexander? He is your best friend." My arms across my chest. Aren leans on the cream-colored walls while Christian looks to Aren, who's most likely telling him to question me about this also.
"We want to save him, Quinn, trust me we do. It's just. . .when the King and Queen give their answer, that's it." He shrugs. "Aren and I have been trying to find alternatives to save him, don't think for one second we don't want to save our best friend." I could see that he cared for Alexander, and Aren too, but not as much as me. I'm his mate, my feelings for him run deeper than theirs, even if they've been friends with him since childhood.
"And you guys are ok with that? I'm not, they've never met me, they haven't heard my side of the story. They would be monsters to let someone's mate die for protecting them? It's ridiculous." I have to make myself stop talking, heat courses through my veins and I feel my heart beating erratically against my chest.
Aren sighs, "They think his death is necessary, to show people that no one is beyond the rules. Everyone in Nygaard and in other Kingdoms know what he did. Some that knew him growing up, think that he should die. He crossed into another pack, infiltrated it for you. And you. . .you resurrected the four most deadly werewolf witches ever, people are scared, children refuse to go to sleep at night. Scared that they'll climb in their windows at night and kill them." I look at her with horror, I didn't know it was THAT serious.
"I didn't mean to- to make people scared, or on edge. I did what I felt was right, to save you all." From this, Aren snickers. You know. . .I don't think she likes me much. "What's that supposed to mean?"
She steps towards me, her height towering over me. "We don't need a human protecting us."
"Last time I checked I'm the only one of my kind. A Zastitinik, I hold the old power in my body right now. If I wanted, I could kill you all." Christian steps between us, hearing the world 'kill' must have alerted him.
"We get it Quinn, you're powerful. But you don't know your own power yet, you're weak, even to us. We just want you to know what you did, and what could happen." He says in a warning voice.
I take a couple breaths, trying to calm myself down once again. "Look, I know you don't like me and I'm ok with that. I don't live for people to like me, I'm only here for Alexander, to save him. If he dies- It'll be-." She interrupts me.
"-your fault." A smirk paints her lips.
"Exactly. My grandpa told me of the risks, that Nygaard is full of shady people and danger. I'm ok with risking my life, as long as I can get a cure for him, I don't care what happens."
"Ok, then." Was all Christian said. "We just can't go with you, if you do this then it has to be on your own. I'm sorry."
"Quinneth?" I hear someone say from the front door. Squinting my eyes, I see that it's my grandpa. Coming in the room behind him is Lyra.
"I'm awake." I wipe the drool off Alexander's shirt, if he was awake, he would be so mad at me. Since I'm wearing a dress, I readjust it so one could see my private areas, he wouldn't like that either. "He's still, you know, asleep." I say updating them.
"Yeah. You've been here for 3 hours, go home and get some rest." He starts checking Alexander's vitals, seeing if anything has changed. It didn't.
"Are you sure?" He laughs.
"I am, he'll be here when you get back. I'll keep a good eye on him, plus his family and friends are here they'll let nothing happen to him." I know, it's just leaving him is always hard. What if he, by a miracle, wakes up and I'm not here. What if he's panicking and looking for me, and I'm at work? I can't bear it; I need to be here. At night, I can't sleep. I just come down here in the middle of the night or look out the window at the sky. Or go into the bathroom and cry while the water is on so grandpa won't hear me, but sometimes I think he does.
"Come on Quinn, I'll drive you." Lyra comes over to me, her red hair is tied in a ponytail while she wearing a black tank top and blue jeans.
I get down from the bed, and start to pack up all my stuff. Once it's all done, I walk over to the bed for the last time today, I push those curls I love out of his eyes. Those eyes, how I miss them. The way they looked into mine, the way they panned over my body. God, I need him to wake up.
For the last couple of days, I've been wondering how he knew I was at Insofar. He never heard over any of my conversations, and I never told him I was going. If he would have known he would've told me so and stopped me. When I heard him scream my name the night he was captured, it stoned me to my core. At first, I hoped it was a figment of my imagination, a small part of me hoped it really was him, and it was. I was happy to see him, but also angry. So, so angry.
"Grandpa?"
He looks up at me with a curious look. From my facial expression, he could tell something was wrong with me, his stethoscope wraps around his neck.
"Yes honey?" He leans on the bed.
"How- how did he know?" My hand strokes his cheek, Lyra and my grandpa both look at each other, obviously confused by what I'm asking.
"You need to further explain, Quinn." Lyra says walking up to the bed.
My voice comes out a little stronger now, "How did he know where I was going? When I went to Insofar, how did he know?" These questions have been working my brain, to no end result of an answer. "I never told him where I was going, and the only person I did tell was-." I pause. My eyes drift up to the redheaded girl next to me, I analyze her.
Those long bones of hers going ridged, a pale look comes over her porcelain skin and I hear a hitch in her throat. Did she- no she couldn't have. Could she?
"Lyra." Suddenly she starts to ramble when she sees that I now know, she was the one. The one that told Alexander where I was, what I was doing.
"Listen Quinneth, you have to understand I didn't want to tell him, I was going to keep your promise. But- but when he begged me, he begged me Quinneth, to tell him. I was backed against a corner, I thought maybe he could help you, or what if you would have died and I didn't tell him he would hate me. I-I thought I was doing what was best. Forgive me Quinn, please."
"Ok."
"Really?"
"Hell no! Are you fucking crazy!"
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