Flunked (Fairy Tale Reform School, #1)(37)

“Did you ever think this family needs you too?” Jax asks quietly.

“I don’t want to listen to this.” I push my chair back from the table and stride out of the room. I hear Jax calling me, but I don’t turn around. When I reach the hallway, he catches up and grabs my arm.

“You and me? We’ve got to talk,” he says gruffly and starts pulling me by the arm down a new hallway that appears in front of us.

“I don’t care what you have to say,” I protest, wincing as he touches one of my bandages by accident. “I’ve got to go pack!”

“You own three things. It won’t take long.” I’ve never heard him talk to me like this before. I’m so dumbfounded that I let him walk me straight to a bookcase, and I watch as he feels around for something among the self-help tomes. Witchy No More, The Only Spell You Need Is Love, A Warlock’s Guide to Bettering Yourself, and Anna’s favorite book, No One Keeps Me in a Tower, a guide to breaking out by Rapunzel herself. Jax pulls Life Lessons from the Bog forward slightly, and the whole bookcase moves back to reveal a garden courtyard in the middle of the castle.

“Whoa,” I say as Jax pulls me inside. This must be where the cafeteria grows fresh herbs and vegetables. I’m not surprised they’ve kept it hidden. Some of my classmates have an insatiable appetite. He closes the bookcase behind us. My nose smells basil and mint growing among the radishes, tomatoes, and cabbage.

Jax turns toward me. “I brought you here so we can talk without anyone overhearing.” He takes a deep breath. “There’s something you need to know before you bail, and I’m only telling you because I know I can trust you.” His violet eyes glow in the dimming light. “I tried to keep you out of this, but you’re too smart not to see what’s going on right in front of you. You’re a fighter, Gilly, and I could use someone like you on my side.”

“On your side? What are you talking about?” He sounds crazy.

“That day we met, when I was breaking out of here—didn’t you ever wonder why I didn’t succeed? Why I made such an obvious mistake with the alarm?”

My smile vanishes.

“I needed it to look like I was trying to escape, but the truth is, I have reasons to stick around.” Jax suddenly sounds much wiser. “I’m undercover.”

I laugh so hard my belly hurts. “No, you’re not.” Jax doesn’t crack a smile. I stop laughing. “You are?”

“For the royal family,” he says simply. “I’m one of them, actually.”

“What? You’re not royal,” I sputter. I can feel a lump forming in my throat. “You were raised on a farm. You said you ran away.”

Jax plucks a sprig of basil off its vine. “That was part of my cover. This is a reform school. I needed people to believe I hated the royals and this school as much as anyone did, but the truth is, I’m actually Rapunzel’s brother.”

I feel my hands begin to tremble. He’s one of them?

“We’ve long suspected there was a traitor in the castle,” Jax tells me. “We’ve had too many close calls with the princesses to not think someone is feeding villains information.”

“Villains?” Images of three possible people enter my mind. There’s Gottie, Rapunzel’s captor. (Happily Ever After Scrolls once posted what they claimed was a grainy picture of her and said the photographer was killed taking the image.) Alva, Sleeping Beauty’s dragon of a witch, is the next baddie I imagine, but no one has heard from her in a decade. I bet she’s even worse than Gottie. And then there is Rumpelstiltskin, the trickiest and most dangerous of them all. “You’ve heard Flora,” I say. “No one’s seen them in years.”

“They’re out there biding their time ’til they can rise again. Who do you think sent those gargoyles to the school? They’re after something or someone at FTRS,” Jax says, and I feel a chill go through my body. “We just don’t know why. Are Flora or the other teachers working with them? Who was Flora meeting with that day we spotted her in the Hollow Woods? Is Harlow wicked again? That trance she was under was too perfect. Who could put the Evil Queen under a spell?”

Jax picks a piece of rosemary from its stem. “It was my father’s idea to get someone close to the villains to learn what was up.” He smiles. “What better place to do that than among thieves and crooks at FTRS? I’ve been getting myself in enough trouble to stick around without students getting suspicious for a year. It helps that I act like I don’t care about anyone but myself.” He grins. “I had you fooled, didn’t I?”

I don’t believe this. He tricked me! Now it makes sense—his expert dancing skills, royal name (Who has a name like Jackson?), and the way he was up on royal doings. I thought we were friends, but friends don’t keep secrets this big. “But you don’t act royal! You’re not spoiled. You’re not selfish. You’re not…royal!”

“We’re not all made from the same shoe mold, Gilly.” His violet eyes seem deeper somehow. “You should know that by now.”

I hang my head shamefully, thinking of all the royal put-downs I’ve said in front of him. I feel like a fool. If Jax is royal and a totally great guy who gave up going to the Academy to hang out in a reform school to help his family, could I be wrong about other royals too? My head hurts at the thought. “If you’re royal, don’t people know you’re Rapunzel’s brother? The princesses didn’t even give you a second glance on Royal Day. You let me save them.”