Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (22 page)

“If you base it on tatùs, you’d have to date Rae.
She’s the only girl with rare
power
.”
Nicholas
winked at her.

Rae cringed.
Yuck!

“
No thank you
.” Kraigan glanced at her
, then Nicholas, then back at her
. “
I got enough on my plate
.
I think I’ll avoid any form of trouble if I can.
”
Kraiga
n glanced at Rae with a look in his eyes
that
she couldn’t
quite
figure out.
She was beginning to feel like Kraigan had a labyrinth around him, a giant, twisting wall that separated him from everyone else. The only way to truly understand him would be to find a way through.
H
e needs a mentor.
Devon
helped me last year.
“Dating Rae would be like dating a sister.”

“Pardon?”
Nicholas
asked.

“You know, like a sister at the orphanage.
Rae’s
on every teacher’s good books. She doesn’t do anything wrong. No offense, Rae.” He chuckled. “
I’d be more interested in hanging out with that Desiree girl. Now there’s a tatù with talent.” Kraigan gave
Nicholas
a knowing look
,
which Rae pretended not to see.
Typical guy, act stupid when you show a moment of vulnerability.

“Desiree’s the one with the expensive body. I’d pay to touch that,”
Nicholas
said.

“Body and tatù.” Kraigan smirked and nodded in agreement.

“You guys are gross
. And sad. Really, really sad.
” Rae
bent down to hide
her smile and
grabbed her binder out of her bag. “Can we please talk about our presentation? I’d like to get out of here without throwing up.”

Kraigan sighed and leaned back
in
his chair.
“Fine, let’s get
this done
.
Last night, after you called, Rae, and told us about Alecia, Nic and I researched in Joist Hall’s library.
” He pointed at
Nicholas
.
“
Why don’t y
ou start the presentation by telling the class King Henry VIII started the
Council
as his private chamber of men.
Everyone assumed they were advisors
. We tatù
s know the truth.
Explain the
Council
ha
d more members then
,
but now
has
only five.”
Someone’s been doing their homework.

“
So I’ll do the opener and explain the history of the Council and basically finish by saying the Council now has five
,
”
Nicholas
said
.

Kraigan flipped through his hand written notes and handed Rae a sheet.
“
Then
you
can
step in and
add that the council now has one member from each of the countries within the
United Kingdom
. These four
, maybe along with some others,
elect a fifth member as president.”

She had read the notes Nic had emailed earlier. It made sense, but it also seemed like they were doing some
guesswork
.
“
W
e don’t know how a president is elected.
You
’re
– we’re
just
speculating
”

“
Just m
ake it sound convincing and the class
won’t know the difference
.
Who cares if it’s true or not?” Kraigan gave her
a slightly
annoyed look.
“It’s not as if the Council’s sitting there watching.”

Nic laughed. “Rae, Carter’s going to believe anything you say. He’s going to think you have some tatù to find the answers.”

“If we’re wrong,
Carter’s
going to dock points,” Rae argued.
He
works for the Council
, dummies.
He’ll call our bluff and then blame me for it.

“
I got a feeling
it
’
s
right. It seems so logical. We’ll be fine. No one’s done a fantastic presentation yet
.
T
hey all sound like they have no idea what they are talking about.”
Kraigan
stuffed his notes into his binder
.

Rae played with her earrings.
How did you even find this information?
Maybe
Kraigan
knew
exactly
where to look.
Or
, more than probably,
being the new guy, he did stuff ahead of time to look smart.
And spent twenty hours researching every library here at the school.
The day he found out about tatùs he’s probably been digging for any kind of info
rmation.

“What’re you doing?”
Nicholas
broke her concentration.

“Sorry, what?” Rae sat straight, darting her gaze back and forth between the boys.

“What’re you doing?
” Nicholas
repeated
. “
You
seemed
lost in some deep thought and mumbl
ed
something incoherent.”

“I
did
?” Her face began to burn.
She shot a glance at Kraigan and
brainstormed
fast, biting her lip.

“What were you doing?”
Kraigan
fidgeted
with the zipper on his bag.

He’s embarrassed because I figured it out. He doesn’t want anyone to know he’s working his butt off. He wants to be the goodie-two-shoes he called me out on earlier.
“I…I was wondering what you planned on doing for our presentation.
You
’ve
got me and
Nicholas
doing all the
work
.”
Rae
talked
fast
.
Great. Now I sound like the
super-
nerdy kid.

Kraigan
leaned forward excited
.
“I’ll get
the
picture
Nic
h
olas and I found last night
photocopied onto laminate.
I
can
close and cover anything
that gets
forg
otten
.”

“Works for me,
” Nicholas said. “
Let’s get outta here.
Couple of the guys want to have a Wii tournament and it starts in like
ten
minutes.”
Nicholas
grabbed his bag from under the table and stood. “You want to play, Kraigan?”

“Sure.
I’m supposed
to see Carter first.” He
rose
and hooked his backpack over a shoulder.

“’Night,
Rae.
See you tomorrow.”
Nicholas
patted
the top of her head
as he walked by.

Rae nodded, watching them head out.
She remained seated after the doors clicked shut.
Good thing I don’t work for the Privy Council. I’m a lousy liar.

Releasing a long sigh, she grabbed her
bag and
debated heading outside for some fresh air
.
Pulling the door open, she paused
,
then spun right
,
deciding a quick walk would help her sleep.

She nearly hit the roof when
some
one
coughed. Kraigan
stood leaning against the wall almost camouflaged into it.

“
Crap, Kraigan!
You scared the heck out of me.”

He laughed. “
I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone jump that high
.”

“When I’m surprised, sometimes my tatù kicks in and reacts with whatever seems best.”

“
That’s cool. Kinda like fight or flight.” He continued standing, making no attempt to head for the exit.

“A
ren’t you supposed to be meeting Carter?”

He shook his head. “Actually no. I only said that to Nic
h
olas so I could have a chance to speak with you
alone
. I need to
ask
you somethin
g.” He glanced around and whispered, “
I don’t want anyone to know
– not even Carter.
”

Chapter 12

Blood is Thicker

S
he didn’t believe him. “So help me, Kraigan. If
you and Nic
h
olas are
trying to play some stupid joke on me,
I will seriously cause mental and
physical
harm to
you both
.”

“
It’s only me
, I promise
.” He turned toward
Aumbry
’s front doors. “Just give me five minutes.” He held the door open for
her
to go through. “We can walk to the football fields, or to Joist Hall, or wherever you want.
You seemed like you were about to head outside
anyway
.
”

She slipped the other strap of her backpack over her shoulder
just as Madame Elpis stepped out of her room
.
“Sure, let’s go before we get a lecture.”

They
speed
-walked out of the building and both started laughing when they glanced back at the same time to see Madame Elpis’ face
smushed
against the glass door
, a disapproving glower making her features seem more hawkish than usual
. They broke into a run.

When they slowed
,
Kraigan
looked
around
and up at
the night sky. “I don’t trust this place. Too many extra ears.”

At least
they
agreed on one thing.
“Let’s head around
Aumbry
House. There’s a path we can follow.”

They rounded
the
corner and continued
al
on
g the
path
in silence. After about three
minutes,
Rae
couldn’t
stand the
silence
any longer. “So what’s going on?”

Kraigan stuffed his hands into his pockets
, sighed deeply
. “This
whole tatù thing, don’t you ever find it frustrating?
”

“All the time.
It was w
orse last year though.”

He glanced around and pulled on his ear lobe.
“Do you think anyone can hear us?”

Rae paused in her walking and tilted her head. “I don’t think so.”
Be careful. You don’t know who he is or if you can trust him.
She played with her tatù strings inside her head.
Which one would I use if he trie
d
something?
Devon
’s? Nah, I’ll
stick with
Molly’s. The moment he touches me, I’ll
fry him and send him flying back a
good fifty
feet.
Krispy Kraigan
—
that has a nice ring to it.

He leaned toward her
,
but not close enough to touch
.
Rae
forced herself to
relax a bit.
She wasn’t getting any unfriendly vibes from him, and while it was odd that he would be trying to be friendly with her, it didn’t seem to be dangerous.
Odd, definitely, but not dangerous.

“
I don’t want anyone to know this,
” he said, “N
ot Carter,
or
Wardell,
and definitely
not the Privy Council. Do you think you can keep a secret?”

Wardell?
The dean or
Devon
?
Rae was immediately and intensely interested in whatever he wanted to say to her.
She
chewed on her fingernail
and began tapping the ground with her sneaker.
They stood
a few steps away from an outdoor light on
Aumbry
’s old brick
facade
. “I can keep a secret
, if I think it’s worth
the trouble
.”

He glanced around
again
, even looking up. Seeming satisfied, he leaned
his upper body slightly closer again
and
mouthed
, “Can you hear me?”

She f
lipped through her internal collection until she f
ound the needed tatù
,
and nodded.

“
I heard the school has a tutoring program. I checked it out on the student
’
s webpage. I went through the list of kids and didn’t recognize anyone.” He stared down at his shoes. “You’re name’s not on the list.”

“I’m
not
in the program actually.”
Is that all?
Poor guy, he’s too embarrassed to ask for help.
“
Devon
, the dean’s son
,
tutors me.
Well, i
t’s more like mentoring
.
He helped me last year and
again
this year. Being thrown into this world with no knowledge is hard.”
So is finding out you’re the daughter of the one person everyone’s terrified of
, but we’re just going to leave that alone
.

“
Tell me about it
.” He reached out, as if to touch her arm, then dropped his hand to his side. “
Do you think you could mentor me?
”

Rae’
s
brows went up.

“
I’m still trying to absorb the fact
that
I’ve got this ability – which I have no idea how to use
.
I
feel like I have to
pretend
that
I’m actually figuring things out
, when I’m not
.
I heard how people freaked out around you last year.
I don’t want that to happen to me.
This is all too new to me
.”
He shrugged. “I figured
,
if you could make it look this easy, you could help me more than Carter or anyone
else
.”

That’s kinda sweet...but
—
“
Y
ou should
talk to Carter. He’ll find som
eone who knows more than me. I
don’t think I’ll be much help.”

“You’re wrong. I think you’d be more help than anyone
else
. Everyone here seems to be in awe of
the Privy Council and never questions
anything
. You do. I can see it when stuff goes on in class. I appreciate that. You don’t act all powerful with your ability either. You’re actually pretty cool. I admire you.” His eyes grew big and a horrified look crossed his face. “I’m not trying to hit on you. Please don’t think that
!
”

She laughed. “The thought never even crossed my mind. I’m so glad
Devon
helped me out last year.
I think I would have been totally lost without him.
I just don’t know all the tatù history or where to look
for answers
. It might be better to have Nicholas or even Julian mentor you.”

“But you know how to deal with the not-knowing stuff.”

He looked so lost and alone.
Last year
,
this
was me
. It
had been hard and so freakin’ mind-blowing.

“It sometimes feels like everyone’s watching me, waiting for me to
either
grasp my tatù
,
or
totally
flip
-out
. I
don’t like that. It makes me want to run away. But I
want to stay at this school. I like it here.
I feel like I’m on the verge of fitting in, for the first time in my life.
” He grinned sheepishly. “I figure, you’re a Kerrigan and
you
didn’t get kicked out. I might have a chance.”

“
I’d better warn you then, s
hocking people seems to be
a Kerrigan strong suit
.” She smiled when he laughed.

“
I would
n’t have pegged you for the
type
that likes to shock people.
Isn’t that Molly’s area of expertise?”
Kraigan reached for his phone. “Sorry, it’s buzzing like crazy.” He scrolled through whatever messages he had. “It’s Nicho
las.
He’s wondering where I am
.
Are you game for being my mentor?
”

“
Don’t consider me your mentor yet, but I will help. You might want to fire me in a couple of days.”

“
I doubt it
.”

“It doesn’t have to be a secret either. No one here
would care
.”

He paused and started intently at her. “
Thanks, Rae. I really appreciate it.”

The
ir
presentation
the next day
proceeded smoother than
she
expected.
Before
they started
, Kraigan produced
a
photo of
a
meeting hall
that he said he had found in the Scriptorium.
“It could be the Privy Council,” he whispered.
The
dated, grainy, black and white photo held an aura of something secretive
. So it could be legit. S
tudent conversation came to a halt when he flashed it on the overhead projector. Ra
e didn’t
know
where
or how he
had
got
ten
a hold of
it, but she also
didn’t miss Carter’s
look of
shock
when Kraigan
showed it to the class.

A
s they finished
the closing of their
presentation,
the buzzer
signaled
the end of class
.
Perfect timing
! I’m starved
.
Rae stuffed her binder into her backpack
,
in a rush to be the first in the lunch line
.
She froze when
Carter
call
ed
her name.

“Ms. Kerrigan?
A
moment
of your time, if you please
.”

Oh crap.
She glanced at Molly, who waved and put her hands around her throat, pretending to choke herself, as she walked out the door.

Rae
rolled her eyes as she
glanced away
,
and
saw
Maria at the exit.
She
look
ed
lost and confused.
Rae made a mental note to
have a chat with Maria the next chance she got
.
They
had been
pretty good friends
the previous
year
,
but
had
hardly hung out since the start of the school term.
Too bloomin’ busy. Too many secrets
—
D
evon
—
l
ast year
—