Eli reached out with his right hand and snatched the bigger piece as it fell, and with his left he stamped out the flames before the desk caught fire. “Nice.”
Lance clapped his hands, grinning. “Bravo! So much for evidence.”
I plopped down into my chair, annoyed with my shortcomings. I scooted over next to Selene and Buster. Selene’s face looked slightly pink, but I knew the blush wasn’t on account of my embarrassment. She was used to my magical mishaps and probably relieved that she hadn’t been in the line of fire this time. No, she must be thinking about what Eli had said about Lance. I suppressed the urge to gag.
“Are you sure you don’t remember anything from that night?” Eli said as he brushed the ashen remains of the card off the table onto the floor.
All the computers in the room beeped at once, the noise like a high-pitched foghorn going off. I jumped in my seat and nearly fell out of it. Selene wasn’t so lucky. She tumbled to the floor as Buster gave another hard buck and rolled to the right.
“I’m sorry!” Eli shouted to the room at large. It wasn’t the first time one of us had upset the place. “I’ll bring a vacuum next time. I promise!”
The computers beeped again in final scolding then fell silent.
“Great headquarters you got here,” Lance said, rubbing his ears.
“Just one more reason for you not to join us,” Selene said, getting to her feet. Buster wheeled toward her, but she put a hand up. “No. You stay. I warned you last time what would happen if I fell off again.”
If it were possible for a chair to look crestfallen, Buster did.
Lance shook his head, his expression both amused and disgruntled at the same time. He turned to Eli. “To answer your question. No, I can’t remember a thing. But I think the curse is still having an effect. I’m having a tough time sleeping, and I can’t focus at all.”
Despite my aversion to doing such a thing, I took a good long look at Lance. Deep, dark bruises rimmed his cheekbones beneath bloodshot eyes. And it was clear from the baggy jeans and ripped up sweatshirt that he hadn’t put his usual level of effort into getting dressed this morning. I wondered if his socks matched today.
“You should go to the infirmary,” Selene said, the tiniest hint of concern in her voice.
“I can’t,” Lance said, not looking at her. “Not now.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because they’ll want to know what happened to him and where,” said Eli.
I frowned, coming to grips with the truth that we weren’t going to turn Lance in. Only, who was I kidding? I’d known from the start we weren’t going to. He was our best clue yet, but if the sheriff found out he’d been there, who knew when we’d have access to him next.
Holy crap, I’m turning into Eli.
I exhaled, not entirely displeased with the revelation. “What we really need is a way to jog Lance’s memory.”
Eli turned to me, his expression brightening for the first time since he failed to mend the joker card. “That’s a great idea.”
I blinked. “Um, you know that jogging a memory is just an expression of speech, right?”
“Not among magickind it’s not. With mind magic it’s possible to extract memories.”
Duh, I realized. We learned about that particular police procedure after the fight with Marrow.
“We need to ask Deverell how it’s done,” Eli went on. “If anybody would know, he would. Tomorrow, I’ll—”
“No,” I said, cutting him off. “I’ll do it. He likes me better.”
Selene giggled. “You mean you like him better.”
Eli glanced between the two of us, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“Dusty thinks he’s hot.”
I felt a blush threaten to warm my face, but I managed to fight it back. I shrugged my shoulders instead and grinned. “Well, it’s true.” I glanced at Eli, wanting to see his reaction. He was watching me with his mouth opened and eyes narrowed.
“You can’t be serious?”
I smirked. “No harm in looking. And besides, of all of us, I’m the most capable at psionics. It’s my strongest subject.”
“Nuh-uh.” Lance pointed a finger at me. “No way am I letting you mess around in my brain. You might incinerate it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Like you’d even miss it.”
“Ha, ha.”
Eli cut off any further remarks with a whistle. “Don’t start.” He glanced at me, his expression still dark. “You talk to Deverell then, but do it soon. If Lance is still under the curse we need to figure out a way to break it as quick as we can.”
I tilted my head and gave Lance an appraising look. “I don’t know. I think it might be an improvement.”
Selene snorted.
Lance opened his mouth to say something, but I waved him off. “I’ll leave lunch early tomorrow and try to catch Deverell before class.”
After that, the meeting adjourned. Selene darted for the door, in a hurry to make it to her Musemancy Club meeting on time. Lance followed her not long after.
I lingered behind on purpose, same as Eli.
“So,” he said, running his fingers through his hair.
“So.” I waited, breath held for him to go on. There were a thousand things I wanted to say to him, questions I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t find the nerve.
After a few seconds, I couldn’t stand the silence any longer. “Can you bring the moonwort key to dinner tonight?”
Eli cocked his head. “Sure, I guess. Why do you want it?”
I searched for a safe response, knowing I didn’t dare tell him the truth—that I wanted it to break into Paul’s locker. I decided on a half-truth. “I want to check Britney’s locker, see if there’s anything useful in there.” I hadn’t planned on doing that, but once the idea occurred to me it seemed a worthwhile task.
“Okay,” he said, “I’ll bring it.”
“Thanks.” I opened my mouth to ask him about that kiss, but my courage failed me as I saw his expression. He seemed so cold, so distant, as unapproachable as a snarling hellhound. I picked up my backpack and turned to leave.
“Hey,” Eli called as I reached the doorway.
I glanced over my shoulder. “Yeah?”
He ran his fingers through his hair again, not looking at me. As I watched him struggle with what to say, my gaze fixed on his parted lips, and my body tingled, the memory of our shared kisses always so close to the surface. I wanted to run over and kiss him again. If only I could be certain he would welcome it, not back away and tell me he was sorry. But his swings from hot to cold left me too confused for such courage.
Eli drew a breath and then said on an exhale, “Never mind…”
Swallowing my disappointment, I turned and walked off, wishing that I hadn’t stayed behind in the first place.
* * *
Eli brought the moonwort key to dinner that night, but once again he decided to sit at Lance’s table. I didn’t want to read anything into his decision to sit there, but I couldn’t help wondering if he was still avoiding me. I kept glancing over at him, fuming each time I caught Katarina flirting at him. At least he brushed her off same as always.
Nevertheless, as I fell asleep that night, it was with horrible images of Eli and Katarina dating again, swirling in my head. I half-expected those images to follow me into my dreams.
They didn’t.
I dreamed of the plinth again. Everything was the same as before, the tower, the wind, the all-consuming need to read the word.
Only this time, after hours of digging and clawing and scratching, I finally uncovered not just one but two of the letters.
B E
That was all. A consonant and a vowel and only two out of eight. And yet here, in this place, this dream, those were the two most important things in the world.
14
Locker Room Recon
Eli didn’t come down for breakfast the next morning, but I decided that was a good thing. It gave Selene and me f
reedom to discuss my plan to raid Paul’s locker. I didn’t expect to find much—the guy was way too smart to carry around a notebook detailing his evil schemes—but I figured there was a good chance I could find out what the book was he’d borrowed from Mr. Corvus. I doubted that it mattered, but you never knew. The book might’ve been another one of Marrow’s trinkets left behind, full of secret messages and black magic spells. Or, that could just be my imagination running away with me again.
Selene and I arrived at English class a few seconds before the bell rang, our timing perfectly orchestrated. Miss Norton was already sitting behind her desk, which conveniently stood right next to the door. Trailing behind Selene, I walked in, clutching my stomach and moaning.
Miss Norton eyed me suspiciously. I wasn’t the first student to attempt to fake an illness, after all. I ignored the look, my eyes half-closed from the imagined pain as I stumbled into the room and took my usual seat. Eli arrived moments later, his hair disheveled and cramming down the last few bites of a granola bar. To my general horror, Katarina followed right behind him. He sat down next to me, but Katarina took the desk on his other side, flashing a cold smile my direction.
I started to glare, then remembered my sick routine and coughed instead.
As soon as the bell rang, Selene said in a loud voice from the chair beside me, “Are you sure you’re okay, Dusty?”
“I’ll make it.” I coughed into my hand then followed up with a groan.
Katarina scoffed. “The rest of us won’t.” She raised her hand. “Miss Norton? Can Dusty be excused? She’s flooding the room with her germs.”
Selene and I exchanged a look, both of us holding back a grin. Who knew Katarina would prove so useful?
Miss Norton sighed. “Yes, of course. Go on down to the infirmary, Dusty.”
I stood up slowly. “Thank you.” I coughed in Katarina’s direction once more before I walked to the front of the room and accepted Miss Norton’s proffered note excusing me from class. As I exited, I caught a glimpse of Eli’s confused stare, and I smiled reassuringly, hoping he would guess I was off to break into Britney’s locker. I didn’t want to think how he would react if he knew Paul was my primary target.
Even with the note, I kept up the sick act as I made my way to the cafeteria building where all the student lockers were located. I checked Britney’s first, keeping an ear out for hall monitors and members of the Will Guard. It was empty, and I guessed the police must’ve cleaned it out in their search for her attacker.
I moved onto Paul’s next. He was using the same locker he had been before. The e-mail Lady Elaine had sent me with his schedule also contained the location of his lockers and his new dorm room. As I slid the moonwort key into the master lock, it vibrated in my hand, the magic in the thing kicking on. A second later the lock clicked, and I swung the metal door open.
Aside from a math textbook and a handful of loose papers lining its bottom, the locker was empty. I sighed. I’d expected as much, but I couldn’t help being disappointed. Especially because this meant I would have to activate plan B.
Ignoring the sick feeling in my stomach, I shut the locker as quietly as I could and then made my way to the Phys Ed building, where Paul had gym first period. I quickened my pace as I spotted the door into the boy’s locker room and the empty hallway before it. If I hesitated, I knew I would chicken out.
A second before I reached it, I heard a door open behind me and a gruff male voice say, “Stop right there.”
I spun around, fear-fueled adrenaline rushing in my ears. Captain Gargrave stood a couple of feet from me, a suspicious scowl on his face. He held his wizard’s staff in one hand pointed at me. It was as long and straight as a broom handle, the top curved downward in a slight hook set around a red stone.
I flapped my arms at him in alarm as a vision of me dangling in the air flashed through my mind. “Whoa! I’m just on my way to”—I held up the balled paper in my hand, the panic-ruined remains of Miss Norton’s note—“the infirmary.”
Gargrave’s thick, bushy eyebrows sank lower on his forehead as he thought it over, the task appearing to be quite an effort. This was the closest we’d been, and I saw he had a slow look about him, as if whatever had squashed his face like that had squashed his brains, too.
“This isn’t the infirmary.”
Less nervous now that he’d lowered his staff, I touched a finger to my chin, and said, “Really?” I took a look around, doing my ditzy routine. Beyond the door marked GYMNASIUM I heard the squeak of sneakers. Sounded like Coach Fritz had his senior class doing laps. I turned back to Gargrave. “I wondered what that smell was.”
Yeah, he wasn’t buying it. “You need to get back to—” Gargrave’s words cut off so abruptly for a second I thought someone had hit him with a silencer jinx.
But then another voice spoke from behind me, this one familiar and as smooth as melted chocolate. “Is there a problem, Captain?”
I glanced over my shoulder, unable to keep from smiling as my eyes alighted on Mr. Deverell. He was dressed in his usual classroom attire of khaki pants and a short-sleeved polo shirt that displayed his tan forearms, but his hair looked wet. He must’ve spent his free period making use of the fancy whirlpool Coach Fritz had obtained for his gladiator team last summer.
I turned back to Gargrave. He seemed to be sizing up Mr. Deverell, as if he wasn’t sure who held more authority in this situation. I took a step nearer to Deverell. My bet was with him.
“She claims to have gotten lost on her way to the infirmary,” said Gargrave.
I coughed into one hand while I held out the other one carrying Miss Norton’s note to Deverell. He took the note, uncrumpled it long enough to read it then returned it to me.
“Well, the sick part is true, regardless,” Deverell said. He motioned toward me. “If you want, Dusty, I can escort you to the infirmary.”
I nodded, feeling flustered on multiple levels now.
“Is that all right with you, Captain?” Deverell arched his eyebrows.
Gargrave grunted and then turned on his heel and strode away, disappearing around a corner.
A smile teased Deverell’s lips as he looked down at me. “He’s not exactly friendly, is he?”
“About as cuddly as a hungry grizzly bear.”
Deverell chuckled. “An apt description.” The smile slid from his face, and his brow furrowed. “So you’re feeling sick?”
“Yeah, a little.” I considered coughing to play it up but decided not to. Deverell looked genuinely concerned for me, and the idea of deceiving him made me want to squirm.
“Not sleeping well, are you?”
I frowned, uncertain if that had been a question or a statement. “No, I’m not, but … how did you know?”
Deverell took a few steps away from me and leaned his back against the wall. He slid both hands into his front pockets. “I sensed it, connected to that image from your dream I saw when I was helping you with the projection cards.”
“Oh, that.” A vision of the plinth flashed as clear as a photograph in my brain, the B and E on its surface like pieces of art, lovely to behold even to my waking mind. I pushed the vision away. “It’s nothing.”
Deverell shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s not true. I think you might have the beginnings of a block, as we call it in psionics.”
“A block?”
He nodded. “It’s when an abstract object such as an idea or an image or even a thought gets lodged inside your mind.”
“Ouch. Sounds painful.”
He shook his head. “Not really, but the longer the block is allowed to continue the deeper it can get lodged.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Only to your grades.” He smiled, heading off my horrified look. “It hampers your mind-magic.”
“Oh,” I said, catching his drift.
“Most of the time the block goes away on its own. But I do know a few techniques we can try to help it move along more quickly if you want.”
>
I bit my lip, uncertain. On the one hand, I would love to stop obsessing about the stupid thing, but on the other, I didn’t like the idea of anyone else besides me seeing the plinth and reading that word.
Still, I didn’t want to reject him outright. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll think about it.”
“Sure. I understand.”
“But there is something else you could help me with,” I said, suddenly remembering my afternoon mission.
“Yes?”
I bit my lip, trying to think of the best way to phrase it. “Do you know anything about how to extract memories?”
“A little,” Deverell said, his voice cautious now.
“Any chance you could show me how to do it?”
“Why?”
Knowing I couldn’t mention Lance, I spun the first yarn that came to mind. “I have this friend, you see. She’s a fairy, and well, she has a little bit of a sugar problem, you know?”
Deverell compressed his lips as if he were resisting a smile. “I do.”
Feeling encouraged, I flipped my hair back behind my shoulders. “Well, she went on this bad binge last weekend and thinks she did something really stupid, but she can’t remember what. Or with who, if you catch my drift.”
He nodded, still looking on the verge of smiling.
“And now she’s asked me to try to help her remember.” I stopped speaking and drew a nervous breath.
Deverell scratched his chin, and I could tell by the look on his face the answer would be no. “I’m very sorry, Dusty, but I can’t simply show you how to do something as complicated as that. It’s far too advanced and delicate a technique. Not to mention the moral complications involved in possessing such a skill.”
“Right.” I sighed, seeing his point.
Deverell nodded, checking his watch. “Now I suppose you don’t really need me to show you how to get to the infirmary?”
“I think I can manage.”
The Nightmare Dilemma (Arkwell Academy) Page 12