Chapter 184 What’s Going On

Chapter 184 What’s Going On


Zarek’s POV

I stared at the door Arabella and her brothers had just disappeared through. What the hell was wrong with that girl? The longer I spent around her, the more questions I had.
One minute she was floating me halfway to the ceiling and dropping me onto my ass in front of an entire classroom. The next she looked like she was in genuine pain. Then her brothers came charging into the room like a pack preparing for battle.
None of it made any sense. My eyes narrowed toward the doorway. 
More than anything, those marks bothered me. Those black lines covering her neck hadn’t looked normal, and they certainly hadn’t looked magical. They looked wrong. Like something spreading beneath her skin that shouldn’t have been there. Something dangerous. Something everybody else seemed to recognize except me.
The thought irritated me far more than it should have. I hated being the only person in a room who didn’t know something. Knowledge was valuable. Knowledge was power. And right now somebody was clearly withholding both.
Footsteps approaching pulled me from my thoughts. “Just leave it alone.” Adrian stopped beside me and shook his head.
My eyes immediately snapped toward him. “This doesn’t concern you.” I motioned him away.
He ignored me though. “Really, Zarek?” His blue eyes met mine. “Drop it.”
My jaw tightened. I clenched my fists together at my side. “Whatever is happening with her doesn’t concern you either.”
A long sigh escaped him. “That’s her business.”
I stared at him for several seconds before letting out a harsh laugh. “She floated me.”
Adrian immediately looked amused. I could tell he was seconds away from losing it. 
I pointed toward the ceiling. “In the air.” My hand lifted higher. “Near the damn ceiling.” The memory still irritated me. “That makes it my business.”
A low rumble echoed through my mind. “She also sat in our chair.”
I closed my eyes briefly. Of course Blaze would focus on that.
“Twice,” my dragon added.
“We have discussed this. It was a classroom chair,” I tried to explain that once again. 
“Our classroom chair,” he pointed out. 
I resisted the urge to argue. Mostly because Adrian was already looking at me strangely.
“What?” I snapped.
His shoulders started shaking. Then he laughed. The idiot actually laughed.
“What the hell are you laughing at?” I screamed at him. No longer holding in my anger at all. 
“She floated your ass.” Another laugh escaped him. “That was hilarious.”
I glared right into his eyes. “My point exactly.”
Adrian laughed harder. Yeah. He wasn’t holding back either. 
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Where did they take her?”
The amusement immediately faded from his face.
“What?” I pushed. “Did they stage that?”
His expression hardened. The laughter and amusement from earlier long gone. I just stood there silently giving me a death glare. 
“The marks appeared. They rushed in like they already knew. What are those things on her neck?” I kept listing things and questioning everything. He wouldn’t give me an ounce of reasoning. My irritation immediately returned. “Why did they appear?”
Adrian looked away. That was mistake number one. People only looked away when they didn’t want to answer.
My dragon noticed it too. “He knows and I dislike secrets.”
I almost rolled my eyes. “You dislike everyone and everything.”
“Not everyone,” he defended himself. 
The more I thought about the situation, the angrier I became. Heat gathered beneath my skin. Smoke drifted from the corner of my mouth before another puff followed.
Adrian noticed immediately. His eyes widened. “I suggest you leave her alone.” His tone had changed. No more laughter. No more amusement. Just seriousness. “She’s dealing with way too much already.”
I stared at him. “Like what?” I raised my brow and once again were set in a staring contest. “What the hell is she dealing with?” Another puff of smoke escaped my mouth as the temperature around us climbed slightly.
Adrian simply folded his arms. “Stuff.”
I blinked my eyes rapidly. “Stuff?” I repeated angrily. “Fucking stuff. That’s all you have.”
“That’s your answer? It’s the only one you’re getting,” he shrugged his shoulders and wouldn’t back down. 
I pointed directly at him. “You know something.”
His expression didn’t change. His face was void of any emotions at all. Actually if anything he looked bored. 
“You know exactly what those marks are don’t you? You know why they come and go,” I accuse him as I point my finger at his chest. 
I stepped closer to him. There’s no distance at all between us now. I hold out my finger once again and poke his chest. “What do you know?”
For a moment I thought he might actually answer. Instead he shook his head. Slowly. Almost sadly. “Just leave her alone.”
There it was again. That same sentence. Not because he was protecting her. Not because he was threatening me. Because he genuinely meant it. Which somehow irritated me even more.
“Why?” I asked him as I threw my arms to the side. 
His eyes met mine. For the first time since this conversation started, something flashed across his face. Not fear.  Not concern. It was something else. Something I couldn’t quite place. Then it vanished. “Because she’s already suffering enough.”
The words hung between us. I waited for him to say more. Surely there was more. An explanation. A reason. Something. Anything actually would do at this point.
Instead Adrian turned and started walking toward the door.
“That’s it?”
He stopped briefly. “That’s it.” He said over his shoulder. 
“You’re seriously not going to tell me?” I stomped my foot. My anger was rising more and more. “Why not?”
“Because it’s not my story to tell.”
Then he left. Just like that.
The classroom suddenly felt much larger. Much quieter. I stared at the doorway long after he’d disappeared. My frustration continued growing. The brothers knew. Arabella knew. Adrian definitely knew, and judging by the look on Mr. Wilson’s face earlier, the instructor probably knew too. Yet somehow I was the only idiot standing here without answers.
A low growl echoed through my mind. “He knows. He just refused to tell us. I dislike that.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. A smirk tugged at my lips despite everything. “Knowledge is treasure, right?”
“Exactly.” My dragon sounded personally offended. “And he is hoarding it.”
I laughed. Actually laughed. For the first time all day. Then my thoughts drifted back to Arabella. To the pain in her eyes. To the way her brothers reacted. To those dark marks spreading across her neck.
To Adrian’s warning to leave her alone. Unfortunately for everybody involved, that wasn’t going to happen.
Because now I needed answers. And the more people told me to stay away from something, the more determined I became to uncover it.
I looked toward the classroom door one final time. Whatever Arabella was hiding, I was going to find out.