Chapter Eight

EIGHT

"So this is what you came to talk to my brother about?"

I shrank back in my chair before I could stop myself. Jace was in the kitchen doorway blocking out the light with his massive frame, his dark eyes on me, arms crossed. Apparently, he’d been watching us from the top of the stairs full of suspicion, with a pissed-off expression on his face.

Why the heck was he acting like this? What was I doing to do, kidnap Martin?

"We were just talking," I said. "That's all."

"You're supposed to be teaching him schoolwork."

"Its.. It’s important for teachers to build trust with their students so that they are more open to learning. One of the ways to do that is by chatting about their interests.” I tried to explain.

“Is that so?”

I continued, “Yes. Anyway, we already finished the assessment. We were just…”

"Just what exactly?"

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Then I stared straight at the table, completely unable to look at anything, most especially him because looking at him directly still required a whole lot more courage than I currently had in me and I'd already spent most of what I had today on Alison…

And in Coach Ellis's office…

And on facing the beast head-on while he tried to roar me out of his castle. The beast being Jace, of course.

I had very little left if I’m being honest.

Then I heard something very strange. It was a sound I had never, ever heard from him before. Low and warm and smooth and completely unguarded, as if it had slipped out before he remembered to stop it.

I looked up to see that Jace was laughing.

Not the usual cold, evil smirk from across the hallway that promised a world of pain and humiliation that he found joy and satisfaction in. 

Not a dangerous predator smirk full of sharp teeth, the dangerous one from my bedroom right across from his own.

This was something else entirely, directed at Martin, for him and no one else.

He crossed to his brother in three steps and ruffled his hair with a tenderness that was almost painful to look at because it was so completely at odds with every version of him I'd encountered so far.

Where was the monster I’d come to know so well? Was this his weakness? The innocence and pure nature of his blood brother? I mean.. I didn’t have any siblings of my own, so I wasn’t sure what it felt like exactly.

But judging by the smile on his face, I sort of got a little envious of him, for having someone to love so deeply and be loved so deeply in return.

Martin lit up, grinning brightly while he grabbed his brother's arm and leaned happily into it instead of away, beaming up at him with a smile that stopped me cold.

They had the exact same face, the same eyes crinkling at the corners. Same everything, just smaller, softer, and seven years younger. Like Jace was looking at a much younger version of his own face in a mirror.

Martin thrust the train upward with both hands. "My train broke and Lena helped me fix it!"

Jace took it, then he turned it over carefully. After a while, he found the joint without having to look for it too much, and those dark eyes came straight to me.

"Fix it," he said. "How did it break in the first place?"

The whole room went silent.

"It was an accident," Martin later said, and he moved, just slightly, positioning himself between his brother and me, maybe to protect me by keeping distance between us. "I dropped it. It wasn't Lena."

Jace looked at his brother for a long moment, clearly disbelieving, then he looked at me.

I held his gaze and said nothing. The little boy had taken the blame in my stead because he didn’t want me to get in trouble, because he knew exactly what kind of big brother he had and how he treated everyone who wasn’t his precious Martin

I sighed, “Actually, I was the one who did it. I wasn’t looking where I was going, so I bumped into him and his train fell out of his hands and broke. Thankfully it was an easy fix.”

I watched him glare at me, his jaw working while he handed the train back to Martin who took it and held it against his chest and watched us both, waiting to see what would happen.

"Right," Jace said flatly.

"Jace." I sat up straighter. "I appreciate you checking on your brother, Jace. But I'd like to keep my focus on him for the next two hours. After we're done I'll come find you and we can start your session."

He looked at me with dusdain "I'm not staying for any session today."

What?

"Sorry?"

"Marcus and me have somewhere to be. I have an appointment at ten."

"Marcus and I," I said.

He stopped. "What?"

"The correct phrase is Marcus and I." I kept my voice completely pleasant, the pleasantness was doing a lot of heavy lifting, because in reality, I wanted to both pat him on the back for being a great big brother who the little kid was so comfortable and safe around. 

And also, I wanted to pin him to the wall and yell at him so he would know what it felt like to be on the victim side.

"And you can't leave. Your mother specifically asked me to assess your academic ability today and report back to her. That was the arrangement."

Jace stared at me with the expression of a person who was running through several responses in their head and discarding each one, his face set in a scowl.

"Who the hell do you think you—"

He stopped himself, looked at Martin, and suddenly realised his little brother was present.

Martin looked back at him with his train held against his chest and his face completely open and attentive, taking in every single detail of what was happening in this kitchen.

Jace closed his eyes for one second, and when he opened them his terrible expression was gone, packed somewhere deep and out of sight, and in its place was a tight, fake smile that did'nt reach his eyes.

"Okay," he said.

"Thank you," I said. "It'll only be two hours. You can wait in the living room, or your room, whichever you prefer, and I’ll come find you when we're ready."

He held my gaze for one more moment. His smile was still there on his face, but his eyes were doing something else entirely behind it.

In his eyes, I saw exactly what he thought of me, of this arrangement, of the fact that I had just told him what to do in his own house and he couldn't say a word about it because his seven-year-old brother was sitting right there watching every second.

Then he turned to Martin.

And just like that, he was a different person again.

"You good, buddy?"

Martin nodded seriously. "Lena's nice."

A muscle jumped in Jace's jaw. "Great."

"She knows about trains."

"Does she now?"

"Not as much as me though."

"Nobody knows about that stuff as much as you, bud." He ruffled his hair one last time, slower now, with an amused smile on his face. "I'll be upstairs if you need me, okay? Just say the word."

He didn't look at me again. He just turned and walked out.

Martin and I listened to his footsteps go down the hall, up the stairs, and across the ceiling above us.

Then we heard his door slam shut, immediately followed by loud, thumping music.

Martin looked at me.

"Jace is my bestest friend in the whole world, other than Rosie." he said,proudly."Isn't he great?"

"Uh huh. He's the best."

Somebody get me out of here!