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.

don’t have to eat like…ever, if I don’t want to. I mean, eventually, I’d

straighter. “That

also don’t have to sleep, if I don’t want to, for like…days. Longest I’ve gone is three weeks. And I can run for miles and just….not get

confession progresses. “And like, nothing happens? You can

“I get really skinny after a while,” he says,

magic,” I say, looking him up and down, “Rafe’s

like…I can eat without stopping for as long as I wanted. And I don’t get full I just get…” he looks down at himself, at his seriously

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

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

Jackson – he’s very fit, isn’t he?

and then rubbing it down the length of his

don’t even want to know. Thank

see

back to me. “Wouldn’t you, if you figured out that that’s what you

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

nobody gets that. Like, after eighteen blackberry pies…you never want a slice of pie ever again.”

him. “It’s really incredible, Jackson,” I sigh, so happy that he told me, so honored that he trusted me enough to keep his secret. “It’s one hell of a power. I wish I

looking down at our clasped hands.

also looking down.

connection between

I think. There’s something between us. But I clench my jaw to keep from

to melt the marble because of whatever connects. our magic,” he says,

we experiment with that?”

See if I can pass some

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

know, because she

a hand over her fur. Not

huffs but lets me be.

is it annoying to have so much

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,