Unravel Me: The Juliette Chronicles Book 2

uncurls his fingers, watching our reactions the whole time. And exactly where just a moment ago there was a huge gash, now there’s nothing but perfect pink skin and a little pool of blood.
    “Holy shit on a cracker,” Kenji breathes. “Sorry,” he says to me, jumping forward to grab James’ arm, barely able to rein in his smiles, “but I need to get this guy over to the medical wing. That okay? We can pick up again tomorrow—” “But I’m not hurt anymore,” James protests. “I’m okay—”
    “I know, kid, but you’re going to want to come with me.”
    “But why?”
    “How would you like,” he says, leading James out the door, “to start spending some time with two very pretty girls. . . .”
    And they’re gone.
    And I’m laughing.
    Sitting in the middle of the training room all by myself when I hear 2 familiar knocks at my door.
    I already know who it’s going to be.
    “Ms. Ferrars.”
    I whip around, not because I’m surprised to hear Castle’s voice, but because I’m surprised at the intonation. His eyes are narrowed, his lips tight, his eyes sharp and flashing in this light.
    He is very, very angry.
    Crap.
    “I’m sorry about the hallway,” I tell him, “I didn’t—”
    “We can discuss your public and wildly inappropriate displays of affection at a later time, Ms. Ferrars, but right now I have a very important question to ask you and I would advise you to be honest, as acutely honest as is physically possible.”
    “What”—I can hardly breathe—“what is it?”
    Castle narrows his eyes at me. “I have just had a conversation with Warner, who says he is able to touch you without consequence, and that this information is something you are well aware of.”
    And I think, Wow, I did it. I actually managed to die of a stroke at age 17.
    “I need to know,” Castle hurries on, “whether or not this information is true and I need to know right now.”
    There’s glue all over my tongue, stuck to my teeth, my lips, the roof of my mouth, and I can’t speak, I can’t move, I’m pretty sure I just had a seizure or an aneurysm or heart failure or something equally as awful but I can’t explain any of this to Castle because I can’t move my jaw even an inch.
    “Ms. Ferrars. I don’t think you understand how important this question is. I need an answer from you, and I need it thirty seconds ago.”
    “I . . . I—”
    “Today, I need an answer today, right now, this very moment —”
    “Yes,” I choke out, blushing through my skull, horribly ashamed, embarrassed, horrified in every possible way and the only thing I can think of is Adam Adam Adam how will Adam respond to this information now , why does this have to happen now , why did Warner say anything at all and I want to kill him for sharing the secret that was mine to tell, mine to hide, mine to hoard.
    Castle looks like he’s a balloon that fell in love with a pushpin that got too close and ruined him forever. “So it’s true, then?”
    I drop my eyes. “Yes, it’s true.”
    He falls to the floor right across from me, astonished. “How is it even possible, do you think?”
    Because Warner is Adam’s brother, I don’t tell him.
    And I don’t tell him because it is Adam’s secret to tell and I will not talk about it until he does, even though I desperately want to tell Castle that the connection must be in their blood, that they both must share a similar kind of gift or Energy, or oh oh oh
    Oh God.
    Oh no.
    Warner is one of us.

FORTY-NINE
    “It changes everything.”
    Castle isn’t even looking at me. “This—I mean—this means so many things,” he says. “We’ll have to tell him everything and we’ll have to test him to be sure, but I’m fairly positive it’s the only explanation. And he would be welcome to take refuge here if he wanted it—I would have to give him a regular room, allow him to live among us as an equal. I cannot keep him here as a prisoner, at the very least—”
    “ What —but, Castle—why? He’s the one who almost killed Adam! And Kenji!”
    “You have to understand—this news might change his entire outlook on life.” Castle is shaking his head, one hand almost covering his mouth, his eyes wide. “He might not take it well—he might be thrilled—he might lose his mind completely—he might wake up a new man in the morning. You would be surprised what these kinds of revelations will do to people.
    “Omega Point will always be a place of refuge for our kind,”