Restless Waves

Chapter 46

I'm baaaaaaaack!

- Sian

University was very quiet when Rowan arrived just before seven in the morning. He had taken a pleasant stroll along the beach. The day was early enough for the morning to still be cold, and a whipping breeze had tumbled along the coast. Rowan was thankful he chose to wear a jumper, though he still chose his usual board shorts and sandals.

He looked a little windswept when he entered the library and saw Jack in the corner, sitting among the beanbags.

"Good morning," Jack greeted him, peering over his glasses.

Rowan sat down with a smile. "Did you get in touch with the other group members?"

"It's seven in the morning. They don't even come in when it's three in the afternoon."

"Good point." Rowan pulled out his laptop and sent over some work he had done the night before. Rowan wanted to spend the morning reading what Jack had about fairies.

"Wow," Jack said, and his face was as blank as the white wall behind him. "So, you reply to my messages when I'm right in front of you?"

Rowan ignored him. "I read through three new journals last night and highlighted bits we might be able to include, but I need your brain too."

"And I wrote down stuff you might find useful about fairies," Jack said and handed Rowan an A5 size notebook, full of handwritten paragraphs.

"Useful how?" Rowan asked, and Jack shrugged.

"Curses," Jack said, and Rowan's heart almost stopped until he remembered how he asked Jack yesterday if fairies made curses. "You seem like a reasonable guy, so I won't assume you want to curse anyone."

"No," Rowan mumbled, preoccupied as he flicked through the pages. "I'm trying to break one."

"Fairies are under Vampire's commands. You'll have to ask vampires about it."

"So, vampires would have made the curse, not the fairy?"

Jack nodded.

"How do you know so much about all of this?" Rowan asked, trying not to sound too demanding.

"Whose curse are you trying to break?" Jack asked, looking back at his laptop.

Rowan chewed the inside of his lip. If Jack's dad was a hunter, he didn't want to reveal too much about Mandy Solar, one of the most popular hunters in the area. "It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is finding out how to break it." Rowan looked back to the notes. Jack had been useful so far, though if he were a part of a hunter's family, Rowan would soon be on their hit list because of his connection with Kaerius.

Thinking about the Thalassic Mortal shivered his spine. Burning in his stomach made Rowan long for Kaerius's intense stare, and his poison-filled fingers to touch his skin. Rowan swallowed thickly and struggled to concentrate on Jack's handwriting. Kaerius was thinking about fish. Rowan concluded that food was a great love of his. Maybe one day, Rowan would be a great love of his too.

Rowan shifted on the beanbag and pulled the notebook closer to his face. The bond was strengthening each day. The mornings were getting harder to separate. Rowan could now talk to his dad about his relationship with Kaerius because his dad understood the bond, and the overbearing strength of the bond, and the emotions that should have taken him months to feel, not days.

"Why did you tell me you didn't believe in the supernatural?" Jacks question helped Rowan fade Kaerius's voice from his head.

Rowan stared at the guy sprawled across the beanbag. He wore jeans, black boots, and a long-sleeved white top with three buttons at the top. Jack's glasses often slid down his nose, and he frowned a lot to concentrate when he hadn't noticed they weren't fixing his vision. Jack was a long-limbed guy with little muscle. Everything he did looked clumsy, even his walking. He seemed harmless and just like any other human being, and just like any other human being, he was curious.