The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 65

“Don’t you just want to see what else you can melt, Clark?” Jackson asks on a long inhale of breath, looking at me with sad eyes. “Come on, I bet you could melt this whole tree if you wanted to.””

–

“Well, one, that’s not good for the environment,” I say, rolling my eyes at him which makes him laugh, just a little. “And two, no, I don’t want to melt the tree I want to talk about you. Honestly, Jackson, I won’t tell anyone you know I won’t. I won’t even let anyone know that I know! I’ll keep your secret.”

“Why does it even matter, Ari?” he asks, looking away from me. “Why do you want to know so badly? It doesn’t change anything.”

A thousand answers flood my mind. That it could help me understand what I can do how. his power compliments mine. That I want to know more about him. That I’m just so damn

curious.

But, in the end, I settle for the truth.

“I want you to know that you have someone here who will keep your secrets, Jackson,” I say quietly, willing him to believe me.

Jackson looks up at me in surprise, his blue eyes wider than I’ve seen them before.

We’re silent again, but as it has been before with us, there’s no awkwardness to it. But then he breaks it.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” he whispers, half baffled and half…suspicious, I realize. Lik

I’ve got ulterior motives or something.

I stare at him, my heart cracking in grief for the lessons his past life must have taught him.

“Jackson,” I murmur, saying his name like a promise. “Why are you so surprised that I genuinely just…want to be nice to you?”

He turns his face away from me like he’s been struck, staring at the ground beneath the tree in shock and surprise. I watch his profile as he swallows heavily, as he presses his lips

together in frustration or…consternation? Honestly, I don’t know what. But I give him the space to process it.

“I don’t have to eat,” he says suddenly, the words falling from his lips in a rush, like they’ve escaped from a dark place and can’t wait to get away.

ask, confused.

know not at me. “I don’t

up straighter. “That is….that

if I don’t want to, for like…days. Longest I’ve gone is three

eyes go wider as his confession progresses. “And like, nothing happens?

get really skinny after a while,” he says, shrugging. “Oh, and

up and down, “Rafe’s as big as you and he also eats

like…I can eat without stopping for as long as I wanted. And I don’t

I look him over anew. “So….could you get as big as an

smirking, “we tried that once. I think my skeleton’s reached

imagine it. Jackson – he’s very fit, isn’t he?

his eyes and then

Clark, you don’t even want to know. Thank god

like, experiment? To see how

his face back to me. “Wouldn’t you, if you figured out that

when everyone else. was asleep? And like, get sick of the taste of

laughs. “That’s exactly what happened – and nobody gets that. Like, after eighteen blackberry pies…you never

he trusted me enough to keep his secret.

down at our clasped

I ask, also

there’s some sort of connection between our…magic,” he murmurs.

There’s something between us. But

because of whatever connects. our magic,” he says, and

do we experiment with that?”

if I can pass some energy to you. I’ve got plenty

grin, pleased to see him talking more casually now, like one would to a real friend.

my mind, trotting anxiously back and forth. She’s pissed, I know, because she wants me to tell him my secrets, to be as

murmur to her, stroking a hand over her fur.

lets me

it annoying to have so much energy?” I ask.

murmurs, looking into my face now, studying me, I think, in the same ways that I’ve studied him. “It all comes down to what I eat. If I eat too much, it manifests in either sleeplessness or weight gain. If I eat too little, I lose muscle.” He sighs, shaking his head. “It’s annoying, counting