by LJ Swallow
"Yeah. Matt doesn't belong in Ravenhold," says Ash and Andrei rubs his chin. "Like you didn't."
I snap my head around. This is the first time Ash has acknowledged Andrei as someone he's bothered about, but we all know there's no way we can deny how close our bond is now.
"Matt isn't at Ravenhold?" I repeat.
Andrei pulls an apologetic face, as if this could be his fault.
"Have you told anybody?" I ask.
"Tobias. He wants us to meet up and discuss things." He jerks his chin at Ash. "I hear you're having a shit time too."
"You have no idea," he mutters.
Jamie searches through the jars opposite, taking a tall jar in one hand and examining the label before returning it and taking one beside. He scratches his head and looks down at the list again, tapping the page with his pencil.
We have a lot to discuss with Tobias.
Katherine sits in her usual spot but with her back angled away from the Walcott girls, which I think is brave of her considering how vulnerable she is. Perhaps not vulnerable physically, but I'm waiting for Yvette to create something big. I voiced my worries to Sofia as I'd heard rumours, and she agreed to warn them about illegal magic use.
But as we know from Matt's situation, threats that illegal magic equal a trip to Ravenhold don't scare everybody.
Ash nudges me. "Are you stressing about Yvette again?"
"No, I'm sad how everything has changed in the academy," I reply.
Andrei shakes his hair into his face and stares at the page he clearly isn't reading. "I don't think they'll ever change back. Not now."
"Which is what whoever did this wants," I say. "The Dominion attacks aren't against us; they're within."
Ash falls silent too.
"We definitely need to all get together," I continue. "Tobias's debrief idea is good."
Jamie rejoins us and sets a couple of jars on the table. I uncork a clear one and sniff the contents before retching at the rotten egg smell. He laughs and takes it back. "Be careful you don't spill that one, Maeve. You'll be scrubbing your skin for days to get rid of the smell."
"Yes. No wasting the wyrmroot solution," says Professor Turlington as he stops at our desk. "We've little available since the last crops were destroyed. Only few people grow this now and they make a pretty penny from selling."
I'm unable to tell if he's amused or annoyed by the notion.
He nods at Amelia's seat. "Where is Amelia?" I can't help exchange a glance with Jamie. Doesn't he know? "I was told she'd return when things settled. I hope nothing untoward has happened."
"Nah," says Andrei. "She wanted to spend more time with her family."
My neck prickles when Professor Turlington looks at Andrei with more disdain than he should—professors are supposed to be neutral in their treatment of us. Has that changed now too? "And how are you, Andrei?"
"Yeah. Good. The evening is always more enjoyable when people don't accuse me of murder." He glares at the professor. "And I haven't hurt Amelia, if that's what you're implying."
Professor Turlington stares back. "Have you heard the human phrase 'there's no smoke without fire,' Andrei?"
He shrugs.
"Perhaps take heed. Everybody is keeping a closer eye on you."
He huffs and drops back in his chair. "Really? You think you need to tell me this? Everybody is watching my back and not all for nice reasons."
"Sorry to be rude, Professor," I interrupt, "but I don't think talking about this helps anybody. We need to move on."
Jamie's head remains bowed but his jaw is set hard. When the professor walks away again, he looks up and his eyes are stony. "Why are they still blaming you, Andrei? That's wrong."
Andrei's eyes widen at Jamie's defending him. "Uh..."
I laugh and nudge Andrei. "I told you we were all in this together now. Allegiances change."
"Enemies are elsewhere, as we all know, " Jamie says.
Andrei wrinkles his nose. "Tobias wants to meet us at the cottage—can you get the key?"
"Has he?" asks Jamie.
"Yeah. The famous cottage. I wanna see what's inside there," says Andrei with a smirk. "I heard you and Ash took Maeve and Amelia there for some fun not long ago. Jamie's House of Debauchery."
"Piss off," says Jamie with a scowl.
"No, but seriously, you have the place to yourself and never thought of taking a girl there?"
Jamie glances at me and then turns a deep scowl to Andrei. "Not everybody is like you."
"And what am I like?" Andrei arches a brow.
I ready myself to stop whatever is about to start between them but Andrei bursts into laughter. "Dude. Lighten up. Like you ever gave a crap what people think about you."
"Yeah. Exactly."
"So that's at least one thing we have in common," he says and punches him on the arm. "Nah, tell me what to bring tonight apart from my sparkling personality."
"Tonight?" asks Ash.
"I think that's probably for the best, don't you, Ash?" I ask pointedly. "We need to make a plan of action."
Ash sinks down in his seat and refocuses on his work.
Chapter Forty
MAEVE
We take longer to leave than most students, since Jamie insists on staying to relay his concerns to Professor Turlington about the volatile potions he's teaching us. Andrei hangs with me and Ash in the doorway, watching students leave. He seems non-plussed by their attention and pulls his phone out to study the screen instead.
Some things never change.
"Promise me you'll tell Tobias about your back, otherwise I will," I whisper, glancing at Andrei.
He nods. "Yeah. I'll tell everyone."
"And you won't tell Vince where you're going tonight?" I ask cautiously.
Ash's brow puckers. "No. He doesn't supervise my every move; even though I think he'd like to."
A witch barges past, her elbow jabbing sharply into my ribs on the way by, and I stumble slightly. Ash steadies me around the waist. "Did she push you?"
I shake my head. "Don't say anything. I'm not taking part in their games. We've bigger things to worry about."
Ash's face shadows again. "What's taking Jamie so long?"
I startle as Katherine's unmistakable screech runs down the hallway and we step out to watch the scene.
I see Clive first, backed against a wall as if retreating from a wild bear, with Katherine half a metre away shaking with rage. I'm relieved I can't see her angry vampire face, but Clive looks bemused, not scared.
"Why?" Her shrieking halts everybody making their way to the next class and a semicircle of people surround the pair at a safe distance in case anybody loses control.
Clive crosses his arms, muscles bulging beneath his uniform shirt. Has he grown? Because the seams are stretching further than last time I saw him. "'Sup, Katherine."
His laconic smile sends the hellish girl into more of a rage and she darts a hand out, beautifully sculpted nails becoming talons on her clawed hand.
"You bastard! You bloody bastard!"
Clive grabs her wrist. "Can you get over this?" he snaps. "We're over. You were using me, and I was using you. Not anymore."
Her back rises and falls rapidly at his words, and I don't hear Katherine's response.
Remi steps to Clive's shoulder. "He saw sense. Vamps and shifters should stay apart."
"I don't give a crap about you ending the relationship, Clive. This is what bothers me." Katherine holds her phone up, screen facing him, almost touching his nose.
Clive pulls his head back and frowns as he focuses. "What the fuck?"
"Exactly!" Katherine's voice rises in pitch again. "How dare you share these pictures."
Uh oh. I glance at a shocked Ash and amused Andrei as Clive takes the phone. "I didn't... these aren't mine."
"What?" The pitch almost shatters my ears. "Who else do you think took photos of me like.... this."
Remi roots a finger in his ear as he sneers at her. "Well, Katherine.
You're a lamia. Could be any number of people."
"Are you calling me a slut?" she spits.
"I didn't share these." Clive continues his protest, rubbing a hand over the top of his head.
The hallway drops into an expectant silence as the drama plays out. "You liar!" she screeches.
A Petrescu girl attempts to take Katherine by the arm but she yanks it away. "You will pay for this!" she snaps. "Nobody humiliates me."
"What happened?" asks Ash as Katherine and Clive continue their face off, and worry now flickers around Clive's features as he attempts to reach out to Katherine too.
He knows how powerful she is.
"Someone sent naked photos to Katherine threatening to share them if she didn't pay money," whispers a horrified-looking vamp girl beside me. "Bad idea. They don't know who they're messing with."
"I heard that," snaps Yvette beside us. "Is this more Petrescu threats?"
This whole situation stinks. What the hell is happening here?
"You shifters are so base!" Katherine practically spits the words. "At least if a witch were to humiliate me, they'd use magic. This is practically human behaviour. No finesse."
I don't miss her voice crack or how her fierce features have softened. I'm disgusted that anybody would sink so low to do this.
"Who has the pictures?" she demands, finding her composure again.
"Nobody! I don't have them."
"Even the ones I let you take."
A scintillated gasp ripples around us and Katherine spins around. "Oh, right? So, nobody else here has sex, apart from me and Maeve? Is it that shocking?"
I open my mouth to protest when Andrei's voice comes from behind me. "I didn't take pictures."
"Andrei!" I say hoarsely.
He back pedals. "Uh. I mean, I'm not like you, Clive."
"Yeah? You think?" he snarls.
"What the hell is this?" Ash finally breaks his shocked silence. "I think we need to calm down and for you to talk to Katherine alone."
"I don't want to talk to him, disgusting animal!"
"Oh, you were very happy with my animal side when you fed on me," he mocks and the hallways drops into silence again. "Is that why a lamia targeted me? I heard they use shifters for their primal energy, the way the hemia drink blood? You're disgusting. All of you."
"I cared about you!" Katherine's voice rises in pitch and I'm dazed by the whole situation. Is Clive responsible, and if he isn't, who else has naked picture of Katherine? Her outburst isn't in keeping with her ice cold exterior and my heart goes out to her through solidarity with another girl.
"Katherine." I step forward and try to take her arm. She looks at me and my chest tightens. Katherine's eyes are totally black and her face has transformed. She still looks like Katherine but as if someone painted evil onto her features.
In my old world, this could be a queen bee and a jock arguing over intimate photos shared online, but the situation is much worse. This is a dangerous vampire arguing with a shifter in a world that's fracturing more as each hour passes.
Katherine stares down at me. "I don't need your help, witch."
"Katherine. Walk away. This isn't how to deal with the situation. Don't play into their hands," I urge.
She blinks rapidly and looks around as if only just realising how many students are around us. The whole Potions class and another dozen students moving onto their next class fill the hallway. "Have you seen them?" she shouts at a shifter beside Remi.
He's younger, less certain, a guy I see trailing after the older shifters as if they're his heroes. Confronted by an angry vampire, he drops into puppy dog mode. "No."
"I bet you've never seen a girl naked!"
"Katherine, calm down."
She juts her chin out. "You've made an enemy today, Clive. One you really don't want."
Hitching her black leather bag onto one shoulder, she stalks along the corridor flipping the bird to anybody watching her go.
Which is a lot of people.
Instantly, Ash is in Clive's face, one hand on his chest as he shoves him hard into the wall behind. "Did you share those photos and threaten Katherine Edelsten? You're a disgusting, pathetic excuse of a guy treating a girl like that—and a moron if you try to take her on."
Clive shrugs Ash off. "None of your business. Look at you defending the wrong side."
Ash's cheeks redden. "I'm defending a girl, and I don't care if she's a vampire, a witch, a shifter, or from another bloody planet. You don't do this shit."
Clive sneers. "You don't get to talk down to me like this. Nobody looks up to you anymore."
"Yeah, your brother makes the most sense," adds Remi.
And there they are. The words that stop Ash from saying another word.
"Vince is a temporary staff member," says Jamie from the doorway. "He has no say in how Gilgamesh is run."
"He makes a better teacher than Professor O'Reilly. The guy's health is declining. If he leaves, Vince is up to the job," says Remi.
"My brother doesn't have any qualifications that would allow him to teach," retorts Ash. "Theodora is strict about her staff."
"The shifter council will have an input." Remi smiles. "Don't you want someone like Vince on staff? He stands up for us. Listens."
Most of the crowd dissipated when Katherine stormed off, but a couple of witches hang around, chatting together. Yvette is one of them and taking a gleeful interest in the situation.
"Did you send pictures, Clive?" she interrupts.
Clive scowls. "No."
"I don't like her kind, but Katherine is right about one thing—shifters don't have any real skills. No mental magic or... any magic, really." She glances at me and tugs her bottom lip with her teeth. "Witches have much more in their arsenal. Many more spells to choose from."
I join Clive in his irritation at Yvette's words, but her veiled threat sings in my ears. "Are you talking shit about shifters, Yvette?" he asks.
"Me? No. Just stating a fact. I can't stand vamps, but naked photos? Really? How tacky." She looks Clive up and down as if he belongs in the field with the academy's cows. "We won't help you if Katherine fights back."
"We wouldn't need or ask for help from witches," sneers Remi. "Gilgamesh can look after themselves. We don't want anything to do with you."
She gives a false laugh. "Is that so?"
Something new has arisen from Lorna's death. Walcott, who kept themselves on the edge of the major personality clashes in the school, are stepping out of that quiet corner and taking a more demanding position in the school hierarchy.
Are the professors aware of the shift in sentiment within the academy? And if they are, what will they do?
Chapter Forty-One
MAEVE
After class, Jamie hands me the cottage key and tells me he'll follow, as he has something to do in the library. The library became his second home again recently, and when I ask Jamie what he's studying, he retorts he has work to catch up on. I'm suspicious—his extra study is either connected to his research into the school, or Amelia.
I walk through the dusk towards the cottage, carrying a plastic bag containing crisps and canned drinks; a little different to Jamie's clarity tea last time we met. Apparently, this is usual for their get-togethers, although I'd hardly call this a get-together. We have a lot to discuss.
Even though the cottage is on the campus, whenever I approach my stress drops away, as if I'm leaving the academy behind. Jamie's retreat becomes all of ours the more we visit.
Somebody waits by the door already and I recognise Tobias's tall figure through the gloom. As I move closer, I'm able to see he's dressed down in his scruffy jeans and grey T-shirt today, his signal to us who he is.
Tobias stands by the black door leading into the stone building, beside the blue wildflowers growing in a nearby garden bed. As I reach him, he watches me steadily, hands in pockets.
"Hello, Maeve." His smooth voice holds warmth, but also a distance. I don't catch any of his thought
s, either.
"Hey, Tobias," I reply stiffly and unlock the door. My heart beats quicker, as the disappointment that he hasn't spoken to me for days rushes back.
I shiver slightly as I step inside and flick on the lights, although the cottage isn't cold. Each time I visit, something happens—the time with Jamie when I told him I've seen his death, and last time with Ash that ended in disaster.
Please let nothing happen this time.
The door closes and Tobias walks around to face me. He betrays no sign of his emotions and the energy in the room is thick, his aura impenetrable.
I'm awkward standing, and sit on the edge of the low sofa, placing the bag of junk food on the floor.
"How are you, Maeve?" he asks.
"Took you long enough to ask," I retort then close my eyes. I didn't want to be childish or confrontational, but his absence hurt me.
He presses his lips together. "Sofia asked me to stay away when you were unwell, and I respected her wishes."
"I didn't know that. Sorry for snapping."
"After I visited you in the infirmary, my focus switched to dealing with Andrei's situation, since the truth was out." Tobias sits stiffly in the armchair opposite me. "Then, I had to collect Andrei."
"You returned to Ravenhold?"
"I didn't leave the boat." His eyelids flicker, but he doesn't share any thoughts.
"That must've been hard for you."
"I didn't leave the boat," he repeats, "and you never answered my question. How are you?"
"What happened with Becci scared me, Tobias," I admit. "I almost died."
A muscle ticks in his jaw and he blinks away a thought—one I feel. Fear for me. "You were lucky Jamie was with you."
"As everybody keeps telling me."
Although I last saw Tobias days ago, his absence seems like weeks. He's back to a stranger again when I need him more than ever. He's the only one who truly understands the burden I carry. "Is that all?" I ask once he drops into silence.
I stand and take the bag and when he still doesn't answer, I head into the kitchen.
Shakily, I unpack the bag and line the items on the kitchen counter.