Addy took a few deep breaths and turned the corner to the hallway where Kim’s room was located. Patrick was one of the guards and he greeted Addy with a smile.
“Hey Patrick,” she said as she waved to him.
He nodded back. “I saw you during practice with Juliette this morning. You’re getting pretty good with that sword.”
“Thanks.” She pointed toward the door. “Jax wants me to talk to her, is she alone?”
“Doris just left. Do you want me to come in with you?”
Addy shook her head. “No, it’ll be fine.”
Her hand quivered as she turned the knob and entered. Kim was sitting on the bed sorting out stacks of photos.
“I thought you were never going to come!” She jumped up and threw her arms around Addy, who just stood there stiffly. Kim dropped her arms and backed away. “What’s wrong?”
Addy gasped. “What’s wrong? Are you kidding?”
Kim had been sharing every secret Addy told her with Matt for weeks leading up to the attack. She told Matt where the Mesen could find Jax. She probably helped Matt steal the Overseer’s Stone and then she broke them out of their cells and ran away with them.
Kim turned her palms up. “Addy, I’m so sorry Ga—”
“Do not say his name!” Addy pointed at Kim on the verge of shouting. “I don’t care if Matt did make you do those things—you should’ve told me what he was up to.”
Kim looked shocked that Addy was upset with her. “Matt didn’t make me do anything. What they’re doing will make life better for all of the Akori. I wanted to help him—it was to help you too.”
“What exactly is it you think they’re doing, Kim?” Addy didn’t try to hide her anger. “How’d you even get mixed up in this?”
“They’re trying to free your family from the Overseer’s Stone and give his people back their power.” She walked over and looked out the window. “The night on the beach after I was fighting with that girl, Matt told me everything. He said if it worked out we could finally be together.”
Addy was trying to hold back all of the terrible things she wanted to spew at her. “And he can accomplish that by using people, stealing, and killing?”
Kim whipped around with a look of horror. “Who’d Matt kill?”
“He tried to kill you! If Gage hadn’t saved you—” Addy stopped, worried she might just haul off and try smacking some sense into Kim if she continued.
Kim shook her head as Addy spoke. “Matt wasn’t trying to kill me! He knew Gage would save me. He figured out he could heal the day you collapsed after practice.” She smiled at Addy slightly. “Matt is gonna bring Gage back soon anyway.”
Addy gaped at her. “Is that what he told you? That’s a lie!” Her hands were clenched in fists and her nails dug into her palms. “Don’t you think if that was possible he’d be back here—back with me?” It took everything she had not to grab Kim and shake her to make her open her eyes to what was going on. “Matt lied to you to make you feel better about what he was gonna do to Gage.”
“You really think he’s bad don’t you?” Kim looked down at the pictures on the bed. “He’s not, Addy. They all just want their power back—they wanna be free to use it without Scattering.”
“Use powers without Scattering?” The whole conversation was going very different from what she expected. “He said they could do that?”
“They said a long time ago, before the Overseer’s Stone was created to block their powers, Akori could freely use as much as they wanted and never Scatter. They had other powers too. Renee can make herself, and anything or anyone she touches invisible.”
Addy wrinkled her brow, thinking about how Renee wasn’t even supposed to have powers. “That’s how you got out of the estate—you actually saw her do it?”
“Yeah, it’s true—she can.” Kim told Addy that Matt could communicate with her using telepathy. He did it the first time on the beach after the fight. He talked her through getting them out of their cells and Renee made them invisible.
The night on the beach finally made sense. The three of them really were having a conversation she and Gage couldn’t hear.
Kim walked over and stood in front of Addy. “He needs your help.”
“I’d never help him,” Addy said, taking a step back.
“He knew you’d say that. That’s why he needed Gage to be…” Kim began shaking her head.
“Matt tricked Gage into healing you so he’d Scatter?” Addy stood staring at her. “He knew I’d never help him with anything unless he had something to hold over me.”
“Yes.” Kim shifted her eyes to the floor. “He didn’t want to—it was the only way.”
It was a smart move on his part—Matt had her caught. He knew Addy too well to even be remotely concerned she wouldn’t help once he dangled the carrot of getting Gage back in front of her. There was still the other side of the coin though. If there really was a way to bring back a Scattered Akori early, someone at the estate should’ve already known about it. Odds were Matt was lying, but she had to find out for sure—especially if it meant getting Gage back.
Addy took a deep breath and looked up at Kim. “Next time Matt contacts you, tell him I wanna chat.”
Moose was beyond happy to be back at Addy’s villa. He walked around and rubbed on every corner of the furniture. Addy opened all of the windows in the place, and soon the stuffy air from her being gone for the past two weeks was replaced with the sweet smell of the flowers blooming in the garden. She cleaned the place from top to bottom, not missing one speck of dust. When she was done, it felt like home—not the same as it had before, but about as much as any place could.
Addy felt pretty good about everything until she came across one of Gage’s t-shirts as she cleaned her room. He stayed with her on her first night back after finding Jax, and she’d slipped his shirt on when she got out of bed. She contemplated tossing it in with her laundry, but ended up jamming it under one of her pillows instead.
Jax had asked her about her conversation with Kim earlier when she saw him at lunch. She told him what she could without letting him know how Matt was trying to use Gage to get her help. There was no way she could tell him about the meeting she’d asked Kim to set up. If there was even a slight possibility Matt was telling the truth about Gage coming back, she had to find out more without Jax interfering.
Again, she and Tanner had different practice times and he wasn’t in the library when she saw Jax that morning. She’d spotted him walking with Bernard. He was holding a Scythian style bow she’d never seen him use before. Bernard was pointing something out on the grip and Tanner was so into what he was saying that he didn’t even notice as she passed by. Not running into him right then was alright with her anyway. Spotting him at the beach the night before and not talking to him made her feel a little guilty—like she’d been spying on him or something.
Seeing him with Bernard made her wonder if he was making any progress finding out more about Tanner’s past. It just seemed so unreal that he was an Akori and didn’t even know it. Not to mention the possibility that Fate placed him with the family who adopted him. There were so many questions about him and very few answers.
Addy grabbed her clothesbasket and headed back to the estate to pick up her laundry. Jax was standing on the terrace with Juliette and Patrick. She tried to head around to the lower doors, avoiding them, but Jax spotted her and called her over. She reluctantly sat her basket on the table and joined them.
Jax looked good, more like the Mr. July she remembered. He ran his eyes up and down Addy, shaking his head. “When was the last time you left the estate?”
The day Gage Scattered, she thought. “The day we went to get Kim.”
Jax shifted his eyes to Juliette. “Take Addy out somewhere—anywhere.”
“Sure…” Juliette looked about as interested in doing that as Addy felt.
The sunshine made her look really beautiful. Her wavy shoulder length dark red hair a
nd green eyes suited her oval shaped face perfectly. Unfortunately, she wore Team Jax gear almost every day, which gave her a masculine edge.
“That’s ok. I’m fine hanging around here.” Addy pointed at her basket. “I’m doing laundry anyway.”
Juliette looked at Jax, then to Addy. “Be ready in ten minutes, Sleeping Beauty.”
Jax rolled his eyes. “I think you mean Cinderella.”
“Whatever, just be ready,” Juliette said, heading toward the house.
Twenty minutes later, Addy was sitting next to Juliette in her black Alfa Romeo Spyder.
Addy slipped her sunglasses on and sighed. “So where are we going?”
“To a salon in Miami—Jax thinks you need to go out and do girl stuff.”
“Oh.”
They drove to an upscale part of the city and pulled into the valet lane out front of a busy salon. They climbed out and Juliette shot the valet a look that warned him to treat her car with care as she tossed him the keys.
The salon was extremely busy, and Addy doubted they could get in. To her complete surprise, they were quickly taken back as soon as Juliette said who she was.
“Do you come here a lot?” Addy asked as they followed the woman from the front counter into the back.
“I’ve never been here. Angelica recommended this place.” She made a motion across the room with her head. “Who’s that girl over there that keeps looking at you?”
Addy tried to place the girl who was getting her nails done. After thinking carefully, she remembered her as Tanner’s friend Aimee. She was almost unrecognizable without all the gobs of make-up she’d been wearing when Addy met her at Tanner’s show.
Addy waved to her and she quickly waved back with a giant smile.
The salon was completely white on the inside with bright red accents. It looked very clean and sterile, not like the one in the mall she and Kim had visited. They went through a similar routine to the one she had the day before she found Jax, but it was much more fun with Kim. Juliette wasn’t exactly bubbling over with excitement to be there.
Aimee stopped them just outside the front door as they were waiting for the valet to bring the car around. She gave Addy a hug which felt completely out of line considering they’d only met once. Aimee asked her if she was going to Tanner’s show later that night. Addy hadn’t even been invited, which wasn’t surprising since she and Tanner hadn’t even spoken in over a week. By the time the car was brought around, not only was she going to the show, Aimee was picking her up.
Juliette was quiet on the ride back, leaving Addy with nothing better to do than mess around with her hair in the mirror.
Addy cleared her throat and broke the silence. “Has anyone ever come back from being Scattered early because they regained their powers sooner?”
“No, it doesn’t work like that.” Juliette glanced at her, and then looked back at the road. “If a child is Scattered, they come back sooner, but not an adult.”
“So it’s not even possible?”
“No, it's not possible.” Juliette paused and then glanced at Addy as they stopped for a red light. “You really have to find a way to deal with what happened. We have much bigger issues than your boyfriend being Scattered.”
Addy cringed at her sharp words—they didn’t talk the rest of the ride back. Juliette’s reaction just confirmed that there was no way she could tell Jackson about her plan to see Matt to find out why he told Kim that Gage would be back soon.
Jax pulled in the driveway ahead of them and parked in the garage. “You look almost as good as I do,” he said, walking up to the car and opening Addy’s door.
“Thanks,” she said, rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses.
Juliette tossed her keys in her purse and slammed her car door. “It looks like you’re going clubbing tonight.”
Jax looked at her over his sunglasses. “Is that so?”
“We ran into Aimee—she’s friends with Tanner.” Addy slung her purse over her shoulder. “I met her a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, she asked me to go see him play tonight. You don’t have to go—she’s picking me up.”
He raised his eyebrows and glanced at Juliette. “Tanner’s band, huh?”
“Like I said, I can fly solo. You’re the one who wanted me to get out,” Addy said, heading for her villa.
Chapter 29