The Hollows Of Hiraeth (✔️) | 'Hollows' Book I

Chapter Seventy-Six

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T h e   H o l l o w s O f
H    I    R    A    E T H
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Nearly falling on my face, I watched as Jameson locked the door, then rushed to my window seat.

"You're eager." I retorted, taking a few breaths to calm my racing heart before finally acknowledging Jameson's unusual, sketchy behaviour.

"What's wrong?" I then asked, moving towards the window, seeing as Jameson's usually watchful eyes flitted all over the place. I gazed out of the window, trying to find whatever Jameson was looking for. Jameson cursed profoundly under his breath and I turned to look at him, reading further into his action and realising how serious the situation was.

"Are we under attack?" I blurted out, fingers trembling. Not again, surely. Jameson looked over at me and his expression softened slightly, though he still looked troubled.

He sighed, "The academy got higher protection on the gates, a better system," Jameson explained and I glanced out of the window, trying to look for the big entrance gate he was referring to.

"Someone tried to get in whilst you were with Carter, but they got the passwords wrong. So a warning was sent out, now everything's haywire, again." Jameson finished his explanation and I nearly laughed at the term 'again'. But something else caught my attention and turned to look at Jameson, seeing that he was already gazing over at me.

"Passwords?" It was the plural part that had me confused. Of course they upgraded the system and of course it would have to be tough to get through, however, just how many passwords were there?

"Yes, there are a lot of pass codes; several for each gate," Jameson informed me, an amused expression shadowing over his eyes as I rose an eyebrow at him.

"There are more gates than you'd expect, the academy owns a lot of ground. So the gate I'm talking about won't be found by just gazing out the window." Jameson smiled at me, though I'm sure I looked like I had just taken a trip to the sauna as my cheeks heated up. Jameson was referring to my earlier position, looking for the gate out of my window and poised for an attack.

"The important part is that they didn't actually get in, so now we've got our field guardians out on the look." Jameson continued despite the fact that I had fallen face first into a pit of embarrassment.

"Field guardians?" I never knew such guardians existed, then again, there were a lot of logical things that I hadn't thought about when it came to the academy.

Jameson just nodded in response, "But I'm still keeping you here, just in case." He told me adamantly, sounding as if I'd actually plan an escape and sprint out somehow.

"Just in case." I repeated with a roll of my eyes and Jameson gave me a knowing smile. We stood like that for a while, until Jameson finally spoke.

"So, did you eat with Carter?" He asked, trying to keep a look of grimace off his face as he spoke his name.

I sighed, "Yeah." I fell down onto the window seat and glanced out of it, wishing to be up on the highest hill where the most beautiful tree grew. I remembered when I first arrived and it was in full bloom, displaying stunning, rose coloured blossom. Yes, I fell in love.

"I'm sorry about what happened earlier." Jameson suddenly said, and I looked up at him to see him looking flustered. After running a hand through his hair, he sat opposite me.