Free King 02 - Breathless by Tawdra Kandle Page A

see what she’s planning…”
    My voice trailed off because my father was shaking his head emphatically.
    “No! Tasmyn, absolutely not. According to both Amber and—and Nell, what happened last year was largely attributable to the influence of that woman. She might not have been holding the knife—” his eyes skimmed over the scars on my neck— “but she might as well have been. There is no way that we’re going to deliberately put you in her path again. The fact that you remained in her class last year made me unhappy enough, but at least you were in a classroom full of other people—plus, she was still on probation then. It would have been too risky for her to try something else at that point. But this is different. You’ll be frequently alone with her. She’ll think that now everything has died down, everyone has forgotten. She’ll be feeling safe again, which makes her very dangerous. No. No.”
    Everything that he said had already occurred to me. I knew it made perfect sense. But I also knew that sometimes what made sense wasn’t necessarily the right thing to do.
    Wearily I leaned my head against my hand. “Daddy, I know all of that. But you’ve got to trust me on this. I need to be close enough to Ms. Lacusta to hear her. I don’t know for sure how much she’s guessed about my abilities. But in order to protect myself, I have to be informed. This is the best way, and it just fell into my lap.”
    My mother sank into the chair next to me and lightly ran a hand over my hair. “Tas. You know how we feel about you using your talents deliberately. Your father is right. You cannot do this. Tomorrow you go in, and you tell this Ms. Ross that you’ve changed your mind; you want to take an elective instead of independent study. And if she gives you any trouble, your father and I will take care of it.”
    I could feel that their minds were set. Nothing I could say at this point would change anything. I nodded and retreated to my bedroom.
    My cell phone was on the nightstand next to my bed. I saw that I’d missed Michael’s call, which didn’t surprise me. I’d purposely left the phone in my room, anticipating the difficult discussion with my parents wouldn’t benefit from an interruption.
    I fell across the bed, briefly wondering if I’d be able to avoid telling Michael about the whole Ms. Lacusta situation. After all, it was basically a non-issue now, with my parents standing firm.
    But when I returned his call, I could hear the concern and tension in his voice. “Tas? Are you okay? First I couldn’t get hold of you, then my mom told me that you’d seemed a little off this afternoon. I’ve been worried.”
    Still lying on the bed, my arm over my eyes, I smothered a sigh. “I’m fine. It was just a long day. You know how first days are. And the nursery was crazy,” I added, hoping to throw him off the subject.
    “But what happened in school? I can hear it in your voice. Something’s up.”
    “Oh, look who’s the mind reader now,” I commented wryly. “And aren’t you lucky, distance doesn’t seem to slow you down.”
    “Tas, don’t do this. What’s going on?”
    “Okay, okay…” As succinctly as I could, I told him the whole story, including the just-concluded talk with my parents.
    “So you see, it’s really nothing,” I finished.
    There was silence on the other end. I closed my eyes, frustrated once again that I couldn’t hear him thinking, couldn’t feel him.
    “Tas…” His voice was tired. “I can’t believe you’d even consider doing that. Why would you let her talk you into it?”
    Instantly my defenses were up. “I think you’re overreacting, just like my parents. It’s not like I agreed to go on a foreign study program with Ms. Lacusta. I didn’t say I’d move in with her and be her apprentice. We’re talking about a single class period, maybe once or twice a month, in the school. In the building. Filled with other people.”
    “Tasmyn, if you think she’d