“Okay.” Megan looked worried. “Oh God, I’m so full.” She put a hand to her stomach. “Ugh, why did I eat all of that?”
“That’s what we’d all like to know,” Avery said, coming back from dumping the trays in the dirty dish chute. “I think we’d better keep a close eye on you tonight, Emmers.”
Which suited me fine. Of course, I didn’t want Emma to be sick but at least if all our Coven-mates were watching her, they wouldn’t be scrutinizing me—at least I hoped not. I didn’t like the idea that something other than a cold might be wrong with me—didn’t like it so much that I wanted to completely ignore it.
But as it turned out, I couldn’t ignore it forever.
21
Ari
I watched my little human as covertly as I could from across the Dining Hall. I hadn’t tried to approach her again, though my Drake was growing restless within me. I sensed that she still wasn’t ready to give me a chance—though I wondered, with despair, when she ever would be.
Mierda! This was such a mess, I couldn’t help thinking as I watched her talk to her friends. Why hadn’t that stupid Nancy Rattcliff just kept her big mouth shut?
But I had other things to worry about besides Kaitlyn’s apparent aversion to me. As I watched her, I saw that she looked unwell—tired, maybe even to the point of exhaustion. Her shoulders were drooping and there was a dark circle under the one eye I could see.
Her condition hadn’t escaped the notice of her friends, though. I watched as her Coven-mate, Avery Connor, put a hand to her forehead, as though to test for fever and then shook his head.
Though I knew perfectly well that Avery was not interested in females in any way, I felt a zing of bitter jealousy. How I longed to go to my little human and touch her that way—to hold her and protect her and make certain she was well and safe. Within me, my Drake roared mournfully, adding his longing to my own. Would we ever get our wish and be able to claim Kaitlyn?
It didn’t seem likely.
Something miraculous would have to happen for her to give me another chance, I thought sadly. Something truly out of the ordinary…
But what that might be, I couldn’t guess.
Dinner ended and, as I left, I noticed Nancy and her two followers were speaking to Felix Gomez and Lupe Romero, the two green Drakes who used to hang around with Sanchez all the time before he was expelled. Nancy was standing on tiptoe and Gomez was leaning down so she could whisper in his ear. They giggled together and he nodded at her, as though they had just made some kind of agreement.
I frowned at the sight. What were they saying to each other? Were they actually making some kind of plan against Kaitlyn? Or had Nancy simply decided if she couldn’t get one Drake, she’d just have another one. Maybe she didn’t care that Gomez wasn’t royalty and never would be, since his Drake didn’t even have fire.
That was what I tried to tell myself, but I was worried enough to linger in the shadows and listen for a moment after my fellow Drakes left, though I had to stay far away to keep Nancy and her friends from seeing me. They appeared to be more on their guard than they had been the last time I spied on them, looking around as they spoke and keeping their voices low, so that I could only catch a few snatches of their conversation.
“…didn’t eat a bite of it,” Missy was saying to Nancy. “I was watching her—not a bite.”
“Damn it!” Nancy looked displeased. “…can’t work if she doesn’t eat it,” I heard her say.
“…don’t know what we can do about it if she won’t eat it!” Jasmine protested.
Nancy shook her head and dropped her voice.
“Don’t know,” I barely heard her say. “…have to figure something out.”
Then the three of them finished with their Dining Hall chores and moved into the kitchen.
After they left, I stood there thinking for some time. Had they actually tried something on Kaitlyn—put something in her food to make her sick? If so, their plot appeared to have failed because she wouldn’t eat anything. In fact, now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen her put a single bite of food in her mouth all during dinner.
Though I hated to admit it, maybe Kaitlyn’s illness had saved her from an extremely nasty episode of food poisoning, or whatever Nancy and her crew had planned.
I wondered if I ought to report their attempted malfeasance to the Headmistress, but what could I say? What proof could I offer since no harm had been done?
My second impulse was to try and warn Kaitlyn again—but I ran up against the same problem. Why would she believe me when Nancy’s nasty actions hadn’t had any result? More likely she would just think I was stalking her and inventing excuses to come talk with her again.