I jumped up, unwilling to look like I had nothing better to do on my first day at Vanderwood than wallow in the dirt.
“I’m sorry...”
He sounded confused, and I was overcome with an uneasy feeling that something was wrong. He ran his hands over his clothes, looked at me scrutinizingly, and then around.
“What are you doing here? What’s going on?” I asked.
Julian was pacing back and forth. He looked like he had seen a ghost.
“I’m at a lodge with your brother.”
I looked at him, uncomprehending.
“Are you serious?”
“What?” It sounded like an accusation.
“You’re going running because you got put in a room with Nash?” I had to laugh.
“You know he hates me,” Julian murmured, annoyed, and sat down against a thick moss-covered tree that softly supported his back as he slid down.
“He doesn’t hate you. He’s just suspicious because you haven’t joined the pack yet.”
“His problem.”
“Julian...” I sighed.
Julian was truly a complex case. And he had been ever since I knew him.
I settled down next to him.
“I’m in a room with witches,” I added, as if it was the most normal thing in the world, looking up into the dense treetops. It seemed so peaceful out here, and I could feel the forest. My home.
“I’d love to switch now,” Julian just laughed.
I snapped my eyes open and punched him in the side.
“Hey!”
He grinned at me, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
It was good to see him like that. How long had it been since he had smiled in my presence?
“They’re witches. You know the rules.”
“So, what? I’ve lived among them half my life. This would hardly make a difference. And besides... A couple of pretty girls. Who says no?”
His grin widened as I boxed him another time in horror.
He wasn’t really the playboy that my twin brother was, and he was once again making his jokes, even though I knew he could have had just as many dates. But Julian wasn’t thinking about such things. His thoughts were elsewhere. Since the incident.
His father had been having some disagreements with my father after all the drama, and had moved to town as a result. Of course, right in the witches’ territory, where we had nothing to say. So, the Bardots had been able to perfectly evade our rules and the codex until today.
If I had to live there with the witches, I would explode.
“How do you manage it?”
Julian looked at me. I noticed that his eyes still had that gleam in them. However, not as intense as back then.
Julian shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a place like any other.”
I turned away from him, and my gaze slid into the void.
“You’re moving in hostile territory.”
“Emely... Could you please stop talking about territories all the time?”
“If only it were that simple...”
Julian jumped up. He was still looking at me, but mentally he slipped away.
“Maybe we really are making it way too hard for ourselves. All the rules, the hostilities, and this flaunting of who’s better...”
I couldn’t help but look up at him, uncomprehending.
“That’s part of the rules. Otherwise, everyone would do what they want.”
In my mind, I began to imagine all that could happen without those rules. We would no longer be able to live in safety and undetected. A life on the run, like that of our ancestors. No home, the fear of being murdered every day by our bloodthirsty arch-enemies....
