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We only had to wait ten minutes before a familiar black car pulled up with tinted windows. I moaned and tilted my head up to the sky.
“Oh, Athena’s tits, please not be what I think it is.”
“What?” Dany asked.
I clenched my jaw.
“Adeelah?”
“Looks like more than security is showing up today.”
Followed close behind the car were a stream of huge SUVs, trucks, and vans. I glanced at the caravan of them before focusing on the car. It didn’t take long for a tall, slender woman with long white hair, gray eyes, and dark skin to step out. She looked like she was in her thirties. Confidence oozed from her as she glanced around. She broke out into a huge grin when her eyes met mine.
“Adeelah,” my mother called out. Before I could respond, I was swept into her strong arms and hugged tightly. Her scent of honeysuckle and life washed over me. “I missed my baby so damn much.”
“Ma.” I smiled. “What are you doing here?”
She waved her hand. “As if I wouldn’t come to help you.” Her eyes scanned over my outfit and the smile on her face slipped a little. My style was never up to her standards. It was probably why I never grew out of the phase of overalls and suspenders. She said no, I said too bad.
“Yes, but you weren’t due until school started.”
She dismissed me as she turned to Dany. “You haven’t gotten her up to anything, have you?” she asked.
While my mom said it with a smile, I recognized the tightness around her lips and coldness in her eyes. Dany and I were childhood friends and may have gotten into trouble one too many times. While most of it was my doing, my mother never saw any wrong with me, or at least she rarely did—which was a blessing. So, she liked to blame Dany instead. She didn’t disapprove of Dany. In fact, she adored Dany almost as much as she did her own children. But she liked to show her displeasure to her more often than to me.
“No ma’am,” Dany said, not even wilting under the Vervain Neutral Staredown. She had a lot of practice getting used to the deadly sharpness of my mother’s eyes when she mentally planned one’s death.
Vervain pursed her lips. “Good.” She turned to face the car and waved her hands. The other doors opened, and more people crawled out.
I groaned. “You brought Gaerlan too?”
My brother heard us and broke into a wide grin. “Adeelah, don’t make me put you through your paces.”
“Is that a challenge?” I asked, making sure he heard the confrontation in my voice.
Gaerlan chuckled and lifted me into a hug, my feet leaving the ground. My big brother was a tall man, lean, his body trained into a deadly tool. The Neutral family crest was on display across his neck, matching mine with the intertwining lines, similar to a Celtic knot, to represent infinity.
All of us had the same crest tattooed on our necks, our family trademark, and conveniently, the same as the academy crest. With the three of us standing together, there was no mistaking we were family, and part of the Neutral family to be specific. Not a single one of us of direct bloodline looked different. We were all dark-skinned, with white hair and gray eyes. The only members of our family not like us were those who married into the family, like my father. He was still just as deadly though. In fact, he scared me the most, more than anyone else.
“Why are the two of you here?” I asked.
“We want to make sure you’re taken care of,” Ma said and waved at a man.
I finally noticed him for the first time, too distracted by my family. I blinked, taking in his bulky form, the light skin, blond hair, blue eyes with an extra light of magic thrumming through them.
A warlock.
My skin tingled as his magic brushed against me, and I shuddered, glancing away so he couldn’t see he affected me.
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you doing?” I asked Ma. No doubt this was of her making.
She didn’t even have the decency to look repentant. That was one emotion that didn’t live in her vocabulary.
“Taking care of my baby girl, of course.”
“He’s a guard?” I sighed. “I already have a whole team of people here as security. We don’t need more. He needs to be vetted.”
“He’s not for the academy.” My mom dismissed that very notion as if it were ridiculous. “I know you took care of that. I have all the belief that you will do right by this school. But what is right for the school isn’t right for you.”
My brother sighed. “Stop talking around it,” he chided Ma. He was the only one who could get away with it too. Trust me, I’ve tried. “Mother brought you a personal guard.”
“No,” I automatically answered.
“Yes,” Vervain snapped back. “You’re one of the most important people here. You are worth something, and the Purity Party or even other Naturals will do whatever they can to destroy what you are trying to build. That means destroying you. I will not let them do that.”
“I know, Ma. I know.” We had this conversation a million times growing up. I didn’t see what was so special about me. I grabbed the pouch around my neck and gripped it like I always did when the conversation went in this direction. It was like holding onto the pouch kept me away from my greatest weakness.
“I really don’t think you know.” She leaned forward and whispered as if those around us wouldn’t be able to hear us with their super hearing. “You are different, Adeelah. Far more important than you think. You aren’t allowed to die here.”
I wanted to roll my eyes like the child I’d been trying to make her believe I no longer was. “So you say,” I replied carefully, trying not to betray my frustration. “But I’ve yet to see signs of it.”
Her gray eyes turned dark and cloudy. “Do not doubt yourself. Never do that. You will see. Soon. And patience will get you there.”
I glanced away, meeting my new guard’s eyes. He didn’t blink. I did and looked away. He was eerie. I felt like he saw into me and that scared me. I had too many secrets to hide.
Resigned, I sighed and gave Ma a tight smile. “Are you going to introduce me to my new guard?”
She stepped back and waved her hand out toward the man. “Meet Jed Rophan, a Grade A warlock who worked underneath your father for the past seven years.”
I raised an eyebrow. My father wasn’t the easiest man to get along with. He was... difficult. And unfortunately, one of the ones not exactly happy with me opening an academy. He thought this whole thing was beneath the Neutral family. The changes since the Unveiling four years ago had been the hardest on him. His pride slowed him down and made the overall experience extremely uncomfortable for the rest of us.
That was why he wasn’t here now, and I was pretty damn sure he wasn’t ever going to step foot on the property. Ever.
My smile was tight. “Pleasure.” I nodded.
Dany snorted, knowing I lied.
The stoic man nodded back to me, still not saying anything. He didn’t need to say much though, I saw his displeasure in those blue eyes. They drew me in and trapped me. If he were a vampire, I would have accused him of playing vampire tricks, but I knew better. His eyes were just that captivating, even as they revealed the displeasure the rest of his expression hid.
And then it clicked.
“Liliac Rophan.”
His body stiffened.
I nodded as it all made sense. “A sister or daughter?”
His jaw flexed as he swallowed a brief flash of his rage. “Sister.”
“Aw.” I dragged the sound out and clapped my hands in excitement. My mind dredged up the small photo of an adorable twelve-year-old with the same blue eyes. Unlike his grumpy face, she at least had an innocent smile. What made her stick out was that while a lot of the students held wariness or fear in their photos, she had none. She was an open book, as if the Unveiling had never touched her. A rare gem. I was quick to accept her, wanting to reserve that smile for as long as possible.
Looking Rophan over, I understood why she remained innocent. He looked like the overbearing, overprotective brother type. He had probably spent so much time training and making sure his sister never wanted for anything that he forgot how to have fun. If I had my way, his sternness was going to be broken. I was going to shove fun down his gullet and make him like it.
I smiled and shook my head. “Ma, please tell me you didn’t use his sister as a way to lure him into this job.”
She shrugged in her dismissive way that always made me gnash my teeth together in frustration. “Doesn’t matter the reason. He’s here, and he’ll work hard. Now, shall we get to work?”
Sighing, I nodded and glanced at Dany, except she wasn’t with us any longer. I turned and chuckled. She was wrapped around Zen, kissing him furiously. His hands cupped her bum as he held her close and returned her greeting with just as much fervor.
“She just saw him over the weekend,” I said in disbelief.
“Are you sure? That kind of greeting is only done when months have gone.” My mom got a dazed look on her expression, and I shuddered.
“Keep your thoughts to yourself,” I muttered.
Zen joined us with a slew of guards behind him. Neither Zen nor Dany cared about displaying their affection for each other. Another reason I liked Zen. Men in the security business had to hide their thoughts so often that it seeped into their personal life too. I glanced at Rophan, curious as to who the man was on a personal level. If he was like this twenty-four-seven, then I felt bad for his sister.
“Adeelah, glad to see you alive,” Zen said in a smooth, deep voice.
I laughed, unable to not smile. Zen had a way of making the opposite sex drool over him, and I wasn’t any different. There was even a giggle tossed in there before I said, “Glad I’m not in chains this time.”
“Really.” My mother huffed. “You’re going to joke about that?”
My smile slipped away, and I blinked back the stab of fear that tried to overwhelm me. Last year, shortly before I announced the academy, I was kidnapped by some humans who found out about the Neutral family. Their mistake really. A team led by Zen and my brother found me and tore them all apart. The humans never stood a chance, and I got front row seats to what carnage really was about.
“It’s better than trying to hide in a closet,” I said in a low voice. I looped my arm with Zen’s and tugged him along with me, forcing him to let Dany go. “Come on, let me give you the grand tour.”
“I suggest making her promise to only give it to you once,” Dany called out. I stuck my tongue out at her. She laughed and said, “Otherwise, she’ll keep dragging you around over and over again.”
“I like to be thorough.”
“There’s a difference between thorough and anal. You’re bordering on anal right now.” Dany ignored my glare as she hooked her arm through Zen’s free one, forcing the man into being the middle of a sandwich.
“How would you like to proceed?” I asked.
“For now, a walkthrough,” Zen said with amusement. “Most of my team will go set up the equipment in the designated building while we go through all the areas. Some of the guys will follow us to make notes and plans. After the tour, we’ll get my men settled and come up with a proposal, and once we do, then we will walk you through what we can do for you.”
I grinned. “Sounds good to me.”
With a new entourage, I dragged them around campus, showing them all my dirty little secrets. My mother grinned the entire time, all too happy with herself. My new personal guard stayed at my back, and I swore at times, I felt his disapproving look drilling into me.
The longer we talked about possibilities, the more relaxed I became. And yet, at the same time, the pressure grew heavier. But we were going in the right direction. We just needed to stick to this path.
