Clemency

I left Jade's house with mixed feelings. I was angry with her for insisting on lying to me, frustrated with myself because… wekkm wasn't I doing the same to her? I was glad that she seemed to be taking my warnings seriously and would hopefully not be going out in the dark any time soon. I was also feeling good about getting her to agree to defense lessons. And somewhere behind it all, I was eager to see her again. And knowing that made me… apprehensive. It was ridiculous, that such a small girl could make me feel so much.

I pulled out my phone and called Colum, giving him a quick update. He was pleased with my progress and more than a little amused at the thought of me spending my days shut up in high school. After that, I crept around the outside of Jade's house, looking for weak spots.

Which room was hers? That, of course, was the one that I needed to work on the most. It was probably on the second floor, I reasoned. So I climbed up a tree that was far too close to the house for my taste and examined the window nearest. There were curtains blocking out my view of the room, but I could see the silhouette of someone who was far too big to be Jade. I sighed in relief. I didn't like the idea of her having such an easy way out of the house. I might have had to fabricate a natural disaster to take the tree down, like a lightning bolt. I was glad that wasn't necessary.

I jumped to the next window, gripping the ledge. This room had its windows open, and I could see a bed with a blue blanket on it, as well as a suit draped over the desk chair and a picture of a middle-aged couple on the nightstand. This had to be her father's room, I thought.

"Third time's the charm," I muttered to myself as I swung around the corner, moving from window ledge to ledge until I was where the next room should be. This one had the light on, and I could hear music drifting out. I recognized it as Muse. I smiled. Who would have thought little Jade would listen to that type of music? Because this was certainly her room. The faint fruity scent drifting out smelled just like her.

I surveyed the area around. This wasn't a particularly easy to access room, which was good. But I still laid my hand on the window and focused on making it repellant. It glowed a faint bluish color, telling me that anyone who tried to pass through it would find it just as solid a block as the wall was. I made my way around the rest of the house, doing the same for each window.

In the morning, when I could be certain no one would be home, I would return and nail Jade's window shut for good measure. That way, humans would be kept out, too. If I did it on the outside, she would never know.

Satisfied for now, I dropped to the ground and settled myself against the house. I would stay until it was nearly light out, keeping watch for any unwelcome intruders, and then I would go to my apartment and catch a couple of hours' worth of sleep. Part of the perks of having spent considerable time with the Clemency Stone was that I only needed to sleep for two or three hours each day to be at my best.

I reached into my pocket for a block of wood and my whittling knife to keep myself occupied. I had long hours ahead of me.

- - -

The next morning, I managed to make it to the second class of the day. It was nerve-wracking, to be away from the necklace- and therefore Jade- for too long. Luckily, Jade's father left for work more than an hour before Jade and her brother left for school, so I didn't have to worry about him hearing me pounding nails into the frame of her window. I even went out and got a can of paint and slathered that on, to glue it shut. The more barriers between Jade and the outside world while she was sleeping and vulnerable, the better.

Jade looked up when I walked in, and I could tell that she was surprised. It was a nice change that the teacher, on the other hand, had actually been expecting me. After school yesterday, I had waited until the offices were clear and then I had corrected the schedule that had been drawn up for me so that I really was in all of Jade's classes.

"You're late, Mr. …" The teacher, Mr. Burke, began, then consulted a paper on his desk. "Mr. Hayes."

I nodded. "It's excused," I told him.

He nodded, satisfied with this, just as the teachers yesterday had been. "Very well. Take a seat."

I quickly moved to where Jane was, sitting down in the empty desk next to hers. I could feel eyes on me from all around the room, but the only ones I paid any attention to were Jade's.

When the teacher turned around and started drawing a flow chart on the white board, Jade slipped a scrap of paper onto my desk that read, 'You're in this class, too?'

I held back a laugh. 'Obviously,' I answered, and tossed it back to her. Jade made a face.

She scribbled something quickly and passed the paper back. 'Jerk. That's not what I meant and you know it. But whatever. What's the plan for later?'

Good, I thought. She hadn't changed her mind overnight, then. I examined the neat little letters, written in a loopy mix between script and print before answering. Did she always write so neatly, or was it a mark of the necklace already working on her that she could do this so quickly? Was I just reading too far into things? 'How about I come over around five? I'll bring dinner,' was my reply.

Jade stared at the paper for a while and I wondered, for what seemed the hundredth time, what she was thinking. Finally, she meticulously folded it up into a tiny little square and tucked it away into her purse. Then she glanced up at me and nodded once before turning back to the teacher.

It bothered me much more than it should have that I had no idea why she had done that. Why not pass the note back with a simple 'yes?'

It was annoying, how easily she had become the focus of my thoughts, not only because I was assigned to guard her, but because she was genuinely… interesting.

The bell rang, and I followed Jade out the door. "What's your next class?" I asked her for pretense's sake.

She glanced up and looked surprised. "Lunch," she answered.

"Really? Same. Freaky, isn't it, how similar our schedules are?"

"It is pretty strange. Everything about this place is strange." She must have been talking about the night she found the necklace. Though my behavior certainly wasn't helping anything.

"Just you wait," I muttered under my breath. "You haven't seen strange yet."

"What was that?" Jade asked, looking at me curiously. I winced. She shouldn't have been able to hear that. Any normal human wouldn't have. How quickly did the Stone normally take effect? I couldn't remember.

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me," Jade said sternly. I glanced at her, surprised, but she was grinning. A joke. She had joked with me. Did this mean she was more getting more comfortable around me?

I shook my head. I had too many questions by far.

We got to the cafeteria, and I noticed that Jade was biting her lip. I raised a brow in question, and she grimaced. "Do you want to sit with me and my brother?" she asked diffidently.

Was she asking because she felt obliged? Or did she really want me to eat with her? This had to be the most frustrating day of my existence. "I don't think he'd like that very much."

"All the more reason to do it," she said, suddenly grinning. Her eyes didn't leave mine.

"Well, I can't refuse that logic."