House of Korba: The Ghost Bird Series: #7 (The Academy) by C. L. Stone Read Free Book Online Page A

into the bag. I leaned over the bed, taking the edge of the note in Silas’s hand. He stopped reading, looking back up at me. I caught the anger bubbling on the surface.
    I smiled, crumbling the edge of the note. “Doesn’t matter,” I said, confident that whatever it was, it was probably stupid.
    His lips pursed, and he collected up the notes and stuffed them into his pocket. “Let’s get out of here,” he said. He moved to the window, hitting the lock and then tried to lift the bottom part, as if testing to make sure the lock worked.
    “What are you doing?” I asked.
    Silas squinted at me. “Sweetie, we’re about to leave. I’m locking up.”
    “Oh.” Of course he was. There was usually someone always inside my old house, so locking up wasn’t an issue. I only ever did it at night.
    Silas zipped up my bag for me, throwing it over his shoulder. “Need anything else?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
    “Have your phone?”
    I patted at my chest, where the phone was tucked into my bra.
    He grinned down at me, sweeping a fingertip across my cheek. “Check the back door, make sure it’s locked.”
    I padded out of the bedroom, checking the lock on the sliding glass doors. Silas was waiting for me at the front. I rushed past him and he hit the lock, closing the door behind himself.
    I raced out on my toes to the passenger side door of the blue car parked outside. Silas laughed. “It’s open.”
    I clutched the door handle and got in. The seats were cloth. The inside smelled like sports equipment, Silas’s ocean scent, fresh cut wood and paint. Silas dropped my book bag in the back seat next to a tool belt and his football helmet. He got behind the wheel, fishing out his keys.
    Suddenly I remembered I didn’t have everything. “Oh no, I forgot my keys.”
    “I’ve got the keys, aggele ,” he said, turning the car engine over.
    “Oh yeah.” I blushed still, feeling awkward since I should have thought to grab them. First time I’m going out like this and I locked my own keys into the house. What if I needed to come back and Nathan wasn’t here? I needed to remember to start taking them with me.
    I put my seatbelt on, kicking off my sandals and putting my feet in the seat, curling up. My heart was pounding a mile a minute, excited and nervous. I’d only been to Silas’s apartment building once, and I hadn’t seen the inside. I wasn’t sure what to expect.
    Silas’s strong arm flexed as he gripped the gearshift, putting the car into reverse, and pulled out of the drive. He focused on the road as he pulled his seat belt around his body after he’d already started down the road. When he’d clicked the belt into place, he leaned forward, pulled his cell phone out of his back pocket and fiddled with it with one hand as he drove.
    “You shouldn’t text and drive,” I warned him, my head against the headrest as I looked up at him. As if I could tell him what to do.
    He flashed a smile at me. “I’m not texting,” he said, and put the phone to his ear. After a couple of seconds, he started talking. “Kota? I’ve got her. She’s coming home with me. House is locked up.”
    “Hi Kota,” I said.
    “And she says hi,” Silas repeated. He slipped the phone over to me, holding it out. “Here, he wants to talk to you.”
    “Hi Kota,” I repeated into the phone as I pressed it to my ear.
    “Hi Sang.”
    “Are you still working?”
    “Yes.”
    “Is this a thing where I go to someone’s house overnight and when I come back, there’s a new pink couch and a security system and laser beams?”
    Silas’s laughter boomed, almost masking Kota’s laughter in the phone.
    “No,” Kota said, “although remind me about the laser beam security system. I might look into it.”
    “Where are you? Are you coming?”
    He sighed. “Sorry, sweetie. I can’t come see you. But behave and listen to Silas.”
    “Okay.” I had to smile at him thinking he had to tell me to behave.
    I hung up the