Winter Fire (The Witchling #3)(34)

Morgan couldn’t be another Tanya.

Connor ground his teeth loud enough to hear.

“That’s the deal,” Beck said, unwilling to back down. “You both are stuck between Light and Dark. If she’s in trouble here and won’t try to fit in, then I can’t help. Removing her from the school seems like a good option.”

“No.” Though firm, Connor was also torn.

“Beck, you want to wrestle?” Isaac called over to them. A glance revealed the boys were waiting.

“No, go ahead,” he said, waving.

“Can we talk somewhere else?” Connor asked.

“Sure,” Beck answered.

Connor led him out of the gym and around to the back of the dorms, stopping in the gravel driveway, kept clear of snow by a layer of salt. He stopped, paced and stopped again, green eyes on the pine trees of the forest.

Beck waited. He folded his arms across his chest, the earth’s warmth keeping him warm as it flowed up his legs and into his body. A water element, Connor was drawing snow from the sides of the road. Beck watched the emotions play across the teen’s face.

“She would kill me if I told anyone,” Conor said. “It took me a year to get her here, after all the messes we went through. My mom always wanted to send us when we turned thirteen, but our father wouldn’t let us. They got divorced when we were fourteen. Mom’s goal was to pack us up and send us here, but the court prevented it, and then granted Dad custody of Morgan with some sort of lame-ass excuse about how it was fair to both parents, if each got custody of one of us. I mean, seriously? It wasn’t fair to us!”

Beck listened.

“Morgan went to live with him and I went with Mom. I couldn’t come here without her. Mom never stopped trying to get Morgan back, but it’s not easy to fight a custody battle when you’re on minimum wage. I used to work as a busboy then as a waiter to help her raise the money. Anyway, Morgan went to Dad’s. It took almost three years for Mom to get an injunction, but then we couldn’t prove anything, and Morgan wouldn’t testify. The judge –“

“Wait. Go back,” Beck said, frowning. “Couldn’t prove what?”

“Dad has a temper. He used to hit our mom, and when I was fourteen, I mouthed off, and he decked me good. It’s why Mom got a divorce finally – to protect us. But then the judge gave Morgan to Dad, and he took it out on her. She showed up with bruises on Mom’s weekends,” Connor said in a hushed tone. “I knew what was going on, but she kept saying it wasn’t him.”

Someone Dark hurt her. Decker had said.

Beck’s anger unfurled within him. He didn’t want to imagine Morgan at the hands of someone abusive. Her behavior made sense in that light: What she said to Dawn, how she knew Beck’s pain. Why neither sibling wanted anyone to call home.

“Anyway, Mom petitioned to let us go to boarding school here. We got a sympathetic judge, and he sided with Mom. For once,” Connor sighed. “It took four lawyers and almost four years to get her out of there, and a year of that was in court.”

“I’ll protect her,” Beck said. “We won’t call your parents. I promise.”

“I know how difficult she is,” Connor added. “I am so sorry. I’ve done everything I can think of to get through to her how important it is that she just tries.”

“So, did the custody battle go sour at Christmas?” Beck asked. “It’s why she hates the holidays?”

Like a light switch, Connor’s cooperativeness switched off. His features grew shuttered.

“No,” he replied. “I can’t talk about that.”

“God. There’s more?” Beck asked, astonished. Morgan already had every excuse in the world to run away. The idea that something else – something worse, by Connor’s reticence – happened to her made Beck almost sick.

Connor said nothing, the gleam in his eyes telling Beck he wouldn’t.

“She’s such a sweet girl,” Beck said. “I can’t believe she’s been through hell.”

“Sweet,” Connor cocked his head to the side. “Something happened. Either you asked her out or she set your dog on fire or something.”

Beck allowed a smile to escape. “Do you really want to know?”

Connor studied him. He was troubled yet hesitant.

“No,” he said finally. “I think if anyone can help her, you can. But, Beck, I swear to everything holy, if you hurt her, I will drag you into the Dark with me.”

Beck’s heartbeat quickened. Connor had just given him permission to see his sister, after entrusting him with her secret.

“My intent is never to hurt her,” Beck replied. “I’m afraid she and I aren’t really able to go out.”

“Why?” the protective brother demanded, his guard back up. “She’s poor? Not blonde?”

“No,” Beck said, chuckling. Morgan’s defiance was on Connor’s face. “I’m dealing with some issues of my own that I want to protect her from. It might require me to wait before I consider asking her out.”

“Your court stuff?”

“Yeah, and a psycho, Dark ex-girlfriend who happens to be behind the kidnapping of my last girlfriend,” Beck said.

Connor frowned.