King Hall (Forever Evermore 1)

Mutely, he was still staring with his hard gaze as his wife held out…my envelope.

I quickly snatched it from her hand, mumbling, “Thank you.”

She nodded, silent.

They stared, their heads cocking.

Well, alrighty then.

Antonio slung an arm over my shoulder. “You like the gun?”

Huh? Oh. I nodded. “It fires straight. That’s what important.”

“It’s yours.” He smiled. “I spelled the clip. It’ll never run out of silver bullets.”

My eyebrows rose. “You know, Antonio, I always thought for graduation I’d get, like, a car, or a vacation to someplace warm, but no, instead, I get a letter willed to me from the grave and a gun that always fires.” I paused. “I am a woman. Chocolates or roses…” I trailed off as he pulled Rolos and a small, single red rose out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket. I bit my lip, taking the gifts when he held them out.

He kissed my forehead softly, whispering, “Your mother would have been so proud to see the woman you’ve become. I am too, Lil. So very proud of you.”

Vivian deigned to speak, instead of ogling. “You two know each other?”

Antonio nodded. “I raised her, with her late mother.”

Cahal blinked, also deciding to speak. “You raised her?” He paused. “Then, how did she end up with that ass**le?”

Keeping his arm firmly around me, Antonio stated, “Before her mother passed away, I left. I had to search for someone who was lost. You might know him. His name’s Ezra.”

I knew that was why he had left me. The timing fit perfectly.

Vivian jerked, her mouth thinning, but, little by little, she bowed her head to him.

Cahal’s eyes narrowed. “What are you really doing here? I haven’t seen you since we passed on our reign to our Prodigies.” Yeah, that was the history lesson I hadn’t put together. Ezra’s dad had been a scary-ass King during the war, right alongside Antonio.

Antonio jostled me inside his side. “Watching over this one. She can be a handful.”

Cahal grunted, his narrowed gaze finding mine. His eyes didn’t soften, either. “She appears to like trouble. It figures you had a hand in raising her.”

Antonio grinned.

Cahal’s attention returned to him, and his brown eyes ran over Antonio’s face, his words slow. “Since you’re here, I may stay awhile. See what happens.”

Antonio nodded. “Might as well.”

They stared at one another.

Mrs. Jonas called loudly, “It’s time for the Prodigies to head out. Once they’re gone, you’ll all want to take your seats down the hill. There’s a special area reserved for you behind the students.”

I twisted under Antonio’s arm, hugging him. “Wish me luck so I don’t trip and fall in front of everyone.”

“You won’t trip and fall, Lil.” He kissed my forehead again, squeezing me tight. “Besides, even if you do, you’re going to be Queen soon. Blame it on the person who put the stage together.”

I chuckled, swiftly pecking his cheek, and inserted my rose in his lapel buttonhole for safekeeping before covertly opening a drawer to Mrs. Jonas’s desk and placing my new gun at the back. I couldn’t exactly carry it down the school hallway without worrying people. This was a happy day, after all. I would just jump through the window later and get it back when it was time to leave after the Awakenings.

Antonio shooed me off, and I turned, running smack into Ezra’s back. Seriously, I had run into walls that were softer. Ezra grunted and growled under his breath, not even glancing backward as I shoved away from him, rubbing my forehead and growling in return.

Mrs. Jonas gave us a disapproving look. “I know you two aren’t in attendance anymore at this school, but if you both keep up these shenanigans,” she paused, “or if the four of you have planned any pranks for the graduation ceremony—”

“We need to go,” Pearl interrupted from where she stood in front of Ezra, her tone clipped. She was still irritated.

“Now,” Jack said very quietly, which was never a good sign.

Mrs. Jonas glared at the four of us, her eyes roaming down the line until she got to me. She pointed a finger. “You are trouble.”

“You’re the second person to say that to me today, so it’s not really breaking news.”

Her face scrunched in aggravation.

King Nelson cleared his throat quickly, offering, “Mrs. Jonas, I’ll take this unruly bunch where they’re supposed to go. You just relax before you have to go onstage.” He motioned for us to follow him, which we did.

Although, we still heard Mrs. Jonas hollering after us, “There had better not be one person flying through the air, a wet t-shirt contest, wild animals roaming about, or an unwilling flash mob during the ceremony!” She must have paused for breath, because there was a gap of silence, then she shouted, “This is going to be on live television, so don’t ruin it!”

Hell, I had only done the wild animal party once. I’d had to have a little fun with that part of my power, since I knew I could do it now. It wasn’t my fault if one of the pythons was last seen entering the administration building and never found. That could have happened to anyone. The bugger had just slithered away when I hadn’t been looking. Other than the fact the python was hard to control, like the alligators had been, I blamed it on the goat that had been giving me a lot of trouble. It had kept eating everything in sight, including the sandals I’d had on that day, which I had been in the process of pulling out of its mouth for the second time when said python disappeared. At least the python wasn’t that big. Yet.

I didn’t trip and fall. Thank God for small favors.

I sat with my diploma for Political Science in my hand as the last of my classmates were walking across the stage. We were in alphabetical order, so I hadn’t been able to sit next to any of my friends. Not that I had really wanted to but, sadly, once I had calmed down during Mrs. Jonas’s droning on — and on — behind her podium onstage, I felt I should apologize again. My abusive uncle had been another secret I had kept to myself, even when they had held nothing back. At times, I definitely acted more Com than Mys.

I had read my mom’s letter while I sat on the slip-covered folding chair, instead of listening to Mrs. Jonas. She hadn’t written a lot of words. But it had made me misty-eyed, and I had quickly blinked back my tears, not wanting mascara tracks staining my cheeks. The gist of it was that she hoped and prayed I forgave her for sending me to her brother, but that there had been no other choice. She wrote that if I was reading this, then it was my graduation day and she was proud of me and my hard work, and she knew in her heart and mind I would go on to do great things and live a life full of happiness and love. Under her signature, she had, once again, asked me to forgive her.