I sat on the edge of my old desk, still empty, I noted with satisfaction. Fin took the chair. Melinda and Helix sat in chairs a couple of desks over, seemingly trying to keep distance between them and Hawk.
Hawk locked the door and marched across the room to glower down at me. “What happened to asking for help when you needed it?”
I shrugged. “To be fair, I didn’t know I needed it until I actually did.”
“And you don’t have a phone you could have used to call someone?”
I could deal with Hawk being over-protective and ridiculous. Not so much being logical and calling me on my shit.
“I didn’t think about it at the time. We’d been cut off from our magic and were scrambling.”
“Why? You’ve had magic for five minutes. You’ve been training without it for years. It shouldn’t have mattered to you, or have you forgotten everything you’ve learned under this roof?”
Scolding-Hawk sucked even worse.
“Can you lay off me for a second so we can figure out what the hell we’re going to do?”
He gave me another scowl and dragged me into his arms for a hug. “I was worried about you, kid.”
I rolled my eyes but hugged him back. “You can’t call me kid. You’re only like, ten years older than me.”
“And yet, I just did.” He released me and looked at my friends. “So, what did they want?”
I held up my hands to make air quotes. “The women.”
He gave another scowl, but this one matched my own in solidarity. “They said that?”
I nodded. “Before I made him put his knife into his own chin. Yup.”
Hawk leaned back into
the desk opposite him, crossing his arms at his chest. “So they are going to keep coming after you. Why?”
I waved at Melinda. “He wants to use her power and he wants me to make some kind of fae-mage hybrid babies or something. I think he’s just crazy and is trying to take me away from Fin out of revenge. There’s no way we can know for sure without a spy on the inside, and something tells me he would spot one easily.”
Hawk nodded, thinking.
Melinda spoke up. “Who is this guy and why are you telling him everything?”
Oh, if only I could explain Hawk in a few words. “This is Hawk. He trained me for a lot of my life. He’s the second in command of the bounty hunters, the leader of which, the Chief, is my adopted father.”
“Oh,” she said. “But you’re...”
“Magical...yeah, it was a surprise to me too, but I was raised human with the bounty hunters. I didn’t know about the magic until more recently. So in short, I trust him.”
“We don’t need to trust him,” Helix said, “because we are leaving. It’s my job to keep you safe, Melinda, and I intend to continue to do that.”
He took up a position behind Melinda’s chair.
“Don’t let me keep you,” I said, acid in my voice. I didn’t appreciate the way he spoke to Hawk after he’d saved us. Nor did I appreciate the fact they would both wanted to run away from a fight they were as central to as Fin and me.
Helix dug out his phone and punched a few buttons while I stared at him. When he finished, he looked back at me the same unflappable expression on his face I’d learned over our multiple interactions.
“And you, Melinda, do you want to run too?” It wasn’t a fair question given all she’d endured, and I knew it. My anger took over as it usually did and came out my mouth.
She didn’t answer but stared down at her feet.
“Helix keeps me safe,” she said, as if that were an answer.