Seventeen

Khush

I walked into Headmaster Morrigan's office, and settled into the chair across from his desk, scanning his face for any sign he was angry with me.

Headmaster Zephyr Morrigan was a wonderful man. Even though he'd disagree, I considered him to be my savior. Without him, I'd have lived a life of confinement and loneliness, forever treated as the weak, disabled one by my blood and my community. I owed everything to him, and even meeting Dustin had only been possible because he'd brought me here when I was younger. Disappointing him was one of the worst things I could ever imagine doing, which was why I'd done my best all these years to never do it.

"Am I in trouble?"

The headmaster's blue eyes went wide, and he shook his head, making strands of salt-and-pepper hair fall into his eyes. He pushed his hair back with his right hand, then said, "Not at all, Khush. Don't worry."

I relaxed a little, sinking into the chair as he placed his left arm on the desk and started tapping it, his metal fingers making a deep thunk-thunk-thunk sound on the wood. "So what did you want to talk about?"

"I got a call this morning," the headmaster said in a carefully level voice, "from your parents."

I stiffened instantly, my fingers curling against the edge of the desk. "Why did they contact you?"

"They wanted to check on you, see how you're doing."

"They haven't called once in all the time I've been here, and now they want to know? What did you tell them?"

"Nothing," the headmaster said in a tone that implied assuming anything else would be an affront to him. "I told your mother that I'd pass along her message and if you wanted to talk to her, you'd call her yourself."

I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm myself. It'd been a long, long time since I had an outburst. Actually, the last one was the day before the headmaster brought me to the Sanctuary. It seemed my blood connections were the only ones capable of bringing it out in me.

"What was the message?"

"She said someone from the city saw you with a human in your snake form, and she rightly assumed he's your mate. She asked to meet him."

"Like hell is Dustin going anywhere near the lot of them," I growled, red flashing before my eyes at just the thought of my sweet, bright mate anywhere near those greedy, selfish assholes. "I'm not calling her."

"And I'm not asking you to," Headmaster Morrigan assured me in a soft voice, placing his right palm over my hand. I realized I'd been clutching at the desk hard enough to leave marks, and I slowly loosened my grip on it. "I just wanted to keep you informed. You don't have to talk to her if you don't want to."

I nodded, keeping my eyes focused on the desk as I worked to slow my breathing. I'd broken all contact with my blood connections—I refused to call them family. The people at the Sanctuary were my family—after I moved here, and I wanted to keep it that way. My blood family had never treated me as anything more than a disappointment, and I wasn't going to let them get their hands on me—or worse, on Dustin—ever again.

Before I could excuse myself and go find a tree to relax in—I was starting to feel a little claustrophobic in this room, and I didn't want to face Dustin with my emotions so all over the place—the headmaster's phone rang. He picked it up off his desk, squinting at the screen—did he need glasses? He was getting old—before accepting the call.

His face went blank as he listened to whoever was on the other hand, and then he took a deep breath. I couldn't hear what the other person was saying, but judging by his expression, it was nothing good. "Mrs. Vasuki," he said, and all the calm I'd managed to gather flew out the window. "I'm sorry, but Khush does not wish to talk to you."

He raised a hand, stopping me when I reached to take the phone from him. His blue eyes were hard now, no sign of the genial, warm man I knew.

"Mrs. Vasuki, this is the last time I'll tell you this, and I won't be accepting any of your future calls. Khush is an adult, and he has the right to decide who he keeps in touch with. He has no interest in talking to you, and I respect his wishes. So should you."

This time, I heard her reply quite clearly. Her voice was as sharp as ever, with just a touch of hiss that she never could get out of her voice. Suddenly, I could see her, standing there with her arms crossed and that look of utter disappointment and shame on her face as she told me to just try harder .

"He is my son! You have no right to stop me. You're nothing to him."

Yeah, I couldn't allow that. When I reached for the phone again, the headmaster tried stopping me, but I persisted, finally getting him to let me take it.

"Hello," I said, my voice slipping back to the accented English I'd grown out of over the years.

"Khush! It's so good to hear from you."

"I can't say the same, sorry. I don't want to talk to you. Please stop calling, and stop bothering Zephyr."

"I wasn't bothering him. He wouldn't let me talk to you. What else was I supposed to do? It's not like I know where you live."

"He did that because he respects my wishes, unlike you," I growled into the phone, and she hissed.

"I'm your mother, Khush. You better give me the respect I deserve."

"You may have given birth to me, but you're nothing to me. I don't owe you anything. Don't call me again."

I ended the call before she could reply, then blocked her number for good measure. Carefully, I placed the phone on the headmaster's desk before rising up, barely holding on to the mixed pot of emotions boiling inside me.

"I need to go."

I didn't know if the headmaster or Touya said anything as I left, because all I could hear was a loud ringing sound, my head full of nothing but anger and pain. Talking to my mother had opened up the floodgates, reminding me of all the terrible things I'd buried deep inside me.

Somewhere in the hallway, I lost track of myself, falling to the floor as I clutched my head and tried to get the pain to end. I just wanted it to stop.

Dustin

Something, some instinct told me I needed to get out of here. So, even as the ground shook, I grabbed the shelf for support and took one step after another, trying to reach the exit.

I shrieked when two hands clamped onto my shoulders, then realized Haruto was helping me. His spider legs had sharp ends, and he was digging them into the ground as he walked to keep us from falling.

When we stepped through the door, my eyes instantly fell on a slumped-over Khush in the middle of the hallway, and I struggled in Haruto's hold until he dropped me, racing toward Khush.

I fell twice before I made it to his side, and I pulled him into my arms, cradling his head against my shoulder. His hands were clamped against his head, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Khush! Khush, can you hear me?"

I glanced up at the door behind us opened, and Headmaster Morrigan floated through it, his feet hovering a few inches above the ground. He came to kneel beside me, still floating, and placed a hand on Khush's forehead before he started murmuring a spell.

Doors opened in my peripheral vision, people peeking out to see what was wrong, but I paid them no mind as I held Khush to me, wishing I knew what was wrong, wishing there was a way I could help him.

Three things happened all at once. The headmaster finished speaking his spell, and a faint blue light shone where his hand touched Khush, Khush went completely limp in my arms, and the ground stopped shaking. I blinked as I realized the ground had been shaking because of what was happening to Khush rather than vice versa, and I pulled him closer.

"What just happened?" I demanded, and the headmaster frowned, running his fingers through Khush's hair and pushing it off his forehead in a way a parent would.

"Khush's mother called. She's...not a very nice woman. I tried to keep him from talking to her, but he insisted. I think it brought up some memories." The headmaster looked like he needed someone to hug him, but I was too worried about Khush to do much more than nod.

"We should get him somewhere comfortable," a new voice said, and I glanced up to see Silas and Keoni standing there. The others had mostly dispersed, and I could hear Jacinta shouting in the background, calling all the 'free butts' to come help them stack the pantry and utensils.

I nodded, and Silas—in his probably eight-foot-tall troll form—slid his arms under Khush's back and tail, picking him up effortlessly where I'd been struggling with his weight even on the floor.

"Come on. You look like you could use a cup of tea," Keoni said, offering his hand to the headmaster while Touya wrapped his arms around my shoulders and urged me up.

Leaving Keoni to take care of the headmaster, I followed after my mate, grateful to Silas, Touya, and everyone else at the Sanctuary for their help. If this had happened in the human world, even without all the magic involved, it would've turned into a spectacle. People either wouldn't have offered a helping hand, or would've been too busy recording a video of the event. I could see why Khush said the whole Sanctuary was his family. It was because they were.

Silas carried Khush into our cabin and all the way upstairs, laying him in the bed and pulling up the covers before he turned to me. "Would you like us to stay or leave?"

I had a feeling that as much as Khush loved his family, he'd feel embarrassed if he found his friends waiting for him to wake up, so I shook my head. "I'm fine. I'll let you know as soon as he's awake."

Silas nodded, then stood there for another few moments, looking like he wanted to say something.

"Khush, he doesn't really talk about his past. He's never told anyone, and even the headmaster only knows what he witnessed. If you can get him to talk to you, I think that would be really good for him," Silas said, shooting his friend a worried look. I could see nothing but concern in his eyes, and I reached out, patting his forearm.

"I'll try to talk to him. Thank you for helping."

"Of course. Anytime," he said, eyes crinkling in a smile even though the mask hid most of it. He took Touya's hand, and the two made their way downstairs.

Scrappy raced up the stairs after they'd left, and immediately crawled into the bed. She curled up on Khush's chest and started purring.

Smiling at her, I removed my shoes and slid into the bed on Khush's other side, throwing an arm over his torso and pressing a kiss against his temple.

"Wake up soon, okay? I'm really worried about you, my sweet, gentle snake."

Pressing my face into his shoulder, I closed my eyes, breathing in his soft, familiar scent. Today had started off on such a bright note, and I suddenly felt an unbearable hatred for the woman who'd given birth to Khush. That might just be the only good thing she'd done in her sorry life.

I didn't need to know her, or meet her, or even hear her voice to hate her. Just the fact that talking to her had brought up memories traumatic enough to make Khush lose control was enough for me. She'd hurt him, when all she should've done was love and protect him.

I knew the man Khush was today was despite her. Despite her and what she did to him, and because of Headmaster Morrigan. The Sanctuary had saved him, and now I was going to make sure to protect Khush, because he was mine, just like I was his.