Page 86 of Stone Cold Touch

Or had been pushed by a great force.

“I didn’t touch him as you can see,” I said, raising my gaze to where Abbot stood beside Geoff. “I didn’t do anything.”

A muscle feathered along his jaw as he watched Geoff stop the recording.

“There’s no denying it.” Zayne folded his arms across his broad chest. “She didn’t lie.”

“But she was looking at him,” Abbot replied, turning to us.

My brows shot up. “Unless I developed some supercool powers without realizing it, looking at him didn’t throw him down the stairs.”

His gaze flicked to me, and pressure clamped down on my chest. The way he stared at me, like I was a wolf among the poor little sheep he was charged with protecting, struck deep. There was no hiding his open distrust, and I didn’t understand where it came from. Yes, I had lied to him, but he’d lied to me about bigger, more important things—like who my mother and father were for starters.

It hadn’t always been like this. I hated the scalding tide of tears that drenched the back of my throat. It was weak to cry, but it hurt to acknowledge that Abbot no longer looked at me as a part of his family. That was so clear now.

Zayne had been speaking, but I hadn’t been paying attention. Whatever he’d said, most likely in my defense, had angered his father.

“We don’t know what she’s truly capable of. I doubt she even knows,” he replied.

Anger was like a shot of steel in Zayne’s spine. “What do you mean we don’t know? I know what she is and isn’t capable of. How can you be any different?”

The earnest and steadfast way he defended me, in spite of the obvious discontent it was brewing between him and his father, made it feel as if a hand had shot through my chest and closed around my heart.

Abbot swore under his breath, and when he spoke, it was as though I wasn’t in the room or he didn’t care that I was. “You need to look past your feelings, son. She is no longer the small, frightened child I brought home. The sooner you understand that, the better.”

I sucked in a breath as the burn moved into my stinging eyes. Except this was a different kind of blistering provoked by a maddening rush of emotions. My skin crawled, causing Bambi to twitch along my back, and the need to feed punched me in the gut.

Geoff pursed his lips and looked away as Zayne stared at his father, his mouth slightly open, as if he couldn’t believe what his father had just said.

Humiliation mingled with the soul-deep hurt. I took a breath and didn’t trust myself to speak. I had to take another. “Then what am I?”

Abbot looked at me but didn’t respond.

My voice wavered when I spoke again. “Why do you even let me stay here?”

There was a moment of silence and then Abbot looked away. A heavy sigh shuddered through him. “I really don’t know.”

I winced as Zayne stepped toward his father, his eyes flashing a bright, unnatural cobalt. “How can you even say that?”

Unable to stand here and not do something I’d regret, like burst into tears or kick Abbot in the stomach, I whipped around and headed out of the command center. My hands tingled as I curled them into fists. I was breathing too fast—two breaths in, one breath out. When had Abbot grown to dislike me so much? It struck me as I crossed the training room, causing me to stop suddenly. He hadn’t trusted me for a while, but that mistrust had been more pronounced from the moment Roth had returned and broken the news that a Lilin had been born.

“Layla.”

Gripping the locker door, I bit back a groan at the sound of Roth’s voice. Although I didn’t acknowledge his presence, he leaned against the locker beside mine. I so wasn’t in the mood to deal with him today. “What?”

“You look like shit.”

I shoved my load of books inside. “Thanks.”

“You also looked like you were about to fall asleep in bio.”

“How is that any different from anyone else in class?”

He chuckled darkly. “Good point.” He stopped as a sophomore approached his locker, which was the one Roth was currently resting his butt against. The boy stopped and Roth raised a brow. The boy turned on his heel and hurried off. Roth grinned as he tilted his chin toward me. “Didn’t get much sleep last night?”

After everything that had happened yesterday, sleep hadn’t come easily. I shook my head as I reached for my afternoon books.

“Did Stony keep you up late, whispering innocent and pure thoughts in your ear?”