“Okay. Thanks,” she whispered, her voice tight. “And thanks for standing by me, Megan. You didn’t have to, you know.”
“Of course I did!” I said fiercely. “Didn’t you hear Avery last night? We’re part of the same group—the same coven. And coven sisters don’t desert each other—right?”
“I guess not.” Her voice was still slightly choked. “I…I don’t know how I’ll face all those people again, Megan. All the ones who saw me…saw me uncovered.”
“Screw them,” I said firmly, squeezing her hand again. “Nobody can make you feel inferior unless you let them. So just don’t let them. And don’t worry—I’ll be with you in PE every day.”
“I’m so glad you came to Nocturne Academy,” she whispered. “I couldn’t have stood what happened today if you weren’t here.”
“I’m glad I’m here too,” I told her firmly. Though I still wasn’t at all sure I belonged at this strange school, I felt deeply for her and for all my new friends.
It was funny, really, for us to have such a strong connection when we’d known each other such a short time. But it felt like something outside ourselves had drawn the four of us together. Though I had never had any siblings, I felt the same way for Kaitlyn that I might feel for a dear sister who had been hurt or wounded. I wanted to protect her—to keep her safe.
And to punish those who’d been cruel to her.
On the way out of the exam room, I stopped and looked up at Ari Reyes who stood with his muscular arms crossed over his broad chest. I pointed a finger at him.
“Protect her,” I said, though I had no right to order him.
He nodded solemnly.
“With my life, if necessary.”
I stared at him for a long moment and was surprised to realize that he really meant it. If it came to a duel to the death with Sanchez, he would be all in, fighting to the last drop of his blood to keep Kaitlyn safe. I wondered if this was because of the strict code of honor he seemed to adhere to…or for some other reason. But did it really matter when it was clear he was sincere? I thought not.
Maybe not all Drakes were bad after all.
“Thank you,” I said and, nodding at the Healer, slipped out to go to my second period class which I was probably already late for.
25
I was, indeed, late for second period, even though I went straight there and didn’t even bother to change out of my awful gym clothes.
I tried to slip into the classroom silently but all heads turned when I opened the door and I felt every single person in the room staring at me. Including Griffin, who was sitting in a desk in the far corner, legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles in a nonchalant sprawl.
For a moment I just stood there frozen. Mrs. Wainright was clearly the only one who hadn’t noticed me—she had her back turned and was writing laboriously on the white board. Obviously she hadn’t heard the door open.
“Oh, my Lady of the Woods,” one of the Fae girls whispered loudly as they all stared at me. “What happened to her arms? Look—she’s all scarred up!”
“Eww,” the other whispered back—just as loudly. “She must be one of those girls who cuts themselves—gross!”
Suddenly I remembered what I had forgotten in the drama of Kaitlyn’s injury—my dreaded scars. Looking down at myself, I saw that they were clearly visible marching up and down my arms like white ladders in the overhead fluorescents.
All the pains I had gone to in order to hide them and now, here they were—displayed for everyone to see.
For a moment, I was tempted to bolt—just shut the door and run away. After all, Mrs. Wainright still hadn’t seen me—I could just tell her later that I had been sick and had taken myself to the Healer’s office. I bet she wouldn’t care as long as I made up whatever work she assigned.
But then I happened to catch Griffin’s gaze. He had pulled down the dark sunglasses he seemed to wear everywhere—at least during the day—and was looking at me directly. Not at my scars—at me. At my eyes. Slowly, he arched one blue-black eyebrow as if to say, “Well?”
The key throbbed between my breasts and, as always with him, I felt like I couldn’t ignore his silent dare.
Lifting my chin, I marched into the classroom—not trying to hide my scars and not trying to be quiet either. I took my seat and kept my spine straight, refusing to look back or hunch my shoulders when the Fae girls twittered unkindly about me, speculating about why I had cut myself and if I had actually been trying to kill myself or did I just want attention.
The only good thing that I could see about the situation was the fact that Sanchez wasn’t there. Neither was Ari Reyes, of course, or any of the other Drake boys for that matter. I wondered if they were staying with Sanchez in a show of solidarity or if all of them had just decided to skip. Either way, I was glad they weren’t there. I didn’t need any more trouble with the Drakes just then.
It felt like a slow season in Hell, but finally the class ended. I had plans to run back to the girls’ locker room and change quickly before the start of third period, so I was the first one out the door the minute the bell chimed.
Or I thought I would be, anyway. But somehow I found Griffin blocking my path as soon as I got out into the hall.
Plans to go change forgotten, I stood stock still, staring up at him. His lightning and pitch eyes weren’t glowing like the last time I had seen them but they were still incredibly intense as he stared at me.
“What…what do you want?” I demanded breathlessly as the key burned against my chest. I thought he was going to ask about my scars—maybe demand an explanation. But when he finally spoke, it had nothing to do with my old injuries. It seemed he was more concerned with new ones.
“You’re bleeding,” he drawled in that low, silky voice of his. “That’s dangerous around here.”
Then, without another word, he glided away and was gone into the crowded hallway.
For a moment I just stood there gaping at him. Bleeding? What was he talking about?
Then I took a step and winced at the pain in the backs of my heels. Looking down, I saw that there were, indeed, small patches of blood spreading on my white knee socks, just where the backs of my Mary Janes had rubbed my heels when I was running laps.
I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed the small but painful injures before. Maybe because I was too preoccupied with Kaitlyn and then later, because I was trying to pretend I didn’t care what the people in my English class thought of my scars.
Either way, he was right—I needed to take care of business. I was probably going to be late to third period too if I took the time to change clothes and bandage my wounds but at that point I didn’t care—I just wanted to get covered.
I could hold my head up high during one class and pretend I didn’t give a damn what others thought of me, but I didn’t relish the idea of doing it for all my classes. Plus, at some point I was bound to get even more demerits for wearing gym clothes instead of my uniform.
So, wincing with every step, I made my way back to the locker room to change. But even as I put back on my uniform, I knew it wouldn’t matter—the two nasty Fae girls in my English class would no doubt spread the word about my scars far and wide.
By the time I sat down to dinner tonight, I was sure all of Nocturne Academy would know I had been a cutter.
26
“Well, I was hoping you would have a better second day than your first but I’m afraid from what I heard, my hopes were all in vain,” Avery remarked dryly, looking at me as he came down the spiral stairway to the Norm Dorm.
“You’d be right about that,” I admitted tiredly. I was slumped in a corner of one of the big blue overstuffed couches and Emma was sitting in the other corner. Kaitlyn was curled between us, wearing her robe and slippers already.
I was glad to see that the swelling on the right side of her face had gone down considerably. The school Healer must be good at her job because only a little puffiness remained and I was certain it would fade qu
ickly.
The injury to her spirits was more worrying, however. She had barely spoken a word to Emma and me since we’d come down after dinner (which was awful) to sit with her. She seemed to be drawn into herself, somewhere we couldn’t reach her, and she barely looked up when Avery came around to talk to her.
“Hey, Katydid,” he murmured, crouching down in front of her so they were eye-to-eye. “How are you?”
“Fine.” But I noticed Kaitlyn wouldn’t meet his worried gaze with her one good eye.
“No, you’re not!” Avery said and for a moment I thought he was going to want to talk about what had happened in first period that morning. I wished I could warn him off it—clearly Kaitlyn wasn’t up for a discussion of the PE class from hell. But then, to my relief he went on, “Nobody could be okay after that horrible dinner they just served.”
“It was pretty bad.” Emma nodded in agreement. “You didn’t miss a thing, Kaitlyn. I don’t know why the cafeteria ladies thought it was a good idea to mix the fish the Sisters had yesterday with the fruit salad the Faes had and bake it all together under a layer of greasy cheese.”
“The smell alone would make anyone gag,” I agreed, glad to change the subject. “And why the cheese? As if the fish and fruit mixed together wasn’t bad enough!”
“Who knows?” Emma shrugged unhappily. “They seem to operate on the principle that anything nasty can be disguised if they put on a thick-enough layer of that oily, orange cheese. Either that or they just want to use it up. I think they must have a block of it the size of a car engine somewhere back in the bowls of their cold storage unit.”
“Well, it’s horrible,” I said with feeling. “Like melted orange crayons!”
“Truly gag-worthy,” Emma agreed. “Which is why we were hoping you’d cook for us again?” she said, looking up at Avery with big, pitiful eyes. “Pretty please? I’m wasting away here!”
He snorted. “I don’t think any of us is quite starving yet, Emma my sweet, but I do believe we deserve a decent meal. And since the kitchen can’t be bothered to make it for us, I’ll just have to do the deed myself.” He frowned. “We’ll have to go raiding though—I’m fresh out of supplies.”
“You guys go, if you don’t mind,” Emma said to me and Avery. “I’m going to stay here with Kaitlyn. Okay?” She put an arm around Kaitlyn who sighed deeply and put her head on Emma’s shoulder. I was glad to see my fragile friend taking some comfort.
“I’ll go.” I shrugged. I wasn’t sure what the penalty was if we were caught but since Avery did this on a regular basis, I assumed he knew his way around the kitchen and how to avoid detection.
Plus I wanted an excuse to get out of the Norm Dorm and maybe have a look around the Academy during the twilight hour. I wondered if Griffin might be sneaking out again—not that it was any of my business, but I couldn’t help wondering…
“First we both need to be in our pajamas,” Avery counseled me. “That way if anyone should happen to see us, we can say we couldn’t sleep and we were just on our way to the Healer’s office for a sleeping spell. It’s all very innocent that way.”
I couldn’t help smiling.
“Have you ever been caught?”
“Once.” He held up one finger to illustrate. “But that time I was actually caught with my hand in the cookie jar—or in the cold storage unit—which amounts to the same thing.”
“Oh my God—what did you do?” I asked.
Avery widened his eyes innocently.
“Why, I poured out my heart to the cafeteria lady who caught me, telling her how my worries about my grades were keeping me up and I just needed a warm glass of milk to help me relax.”
“Oh? And she bought that?” I demanded.
Avery gave me a Cheshire cat grin.
“She heated the milk for me herself. But that was a close call. Ever since, we usually go in pairs so one of us can act as a look-out and warn the other if someone comes in.” He shrugged. “It hardly ever happens. Most of the cafeteria ladies live off campus so it’s usually not a problem.”
“Well, let me change into my, uh, jammy-britch and I’ll come with you,” I told him.
“I have to change too. Meet you back in the common room in five,” Avery directed.
I nodded and went to my room to change into my robe and slippers—which felt wonderfully soft on the injured backs of my heels. I had gotten some bandages to cover the small wounds earlier but I could tell that wearing my Mary Janes wasn’t going to be comfortable for some time.
When I got back out to the common room, Avery was already waiting for me. He had a huge canvas shopping bag over his arm that looked big enough to hold a week’s worth of groceries.
“What’s with the bag?” I asked, staring at it. It was painted in a lot of brightly patterned colors and looked like something my Aunt Dellie would have loved. “Doesn’t it make what we’re about to do kind of obvious? I mean, who goes to the school nurse—er, Healer—with a giant-ass shopping bag on their arm?”
“Oh that’s right—she’s never seen your invisi-bag before,” Emma remarked.
“His what?” I asked, frowning.
“My invisi-bag. Watch.” Avery stroked the bag once and it suddenly vanished from sight. One minute it was there and the next minute it simply wasn’t. Only the way he was still holding his arm, like he had a bag hooked on it, gave any indication it was still there.
“That’s incredible!” I exclaimed, my eyes going wide. “How did you do that?” Thought I was now surrounded by magical beings, it was still only my second day at the Academy, so watching something disappear into thin air wasn’t something I could take lightly.
“That’s not all it can do,” Avery said smugly. He stroked the bag, makling it visible again. “Watch this. Emma, give me that pillow if you please. No—the really big one,” he added, when she started to pass him a small throw pillow. “Give me one from the back of the couch.”
“Sorry, Kaitlyn,” Emma apologized as she shifted around to grab one of the big couch cushions about four feet wide and three feet high and passed it to Avery.
Kaitlyn, displaced by the move, sat up and smiled wanly.
“It’s okay—I like watching Avery show off.”
“I am not showing off!” Avery exclaimed huffily—and then proceeded to do exactly that.
As big as his bag was, there was no way it could hold such a large cushion—or so I thought. But somehow Avery fit it in—though it was a full foot longer than the bag was tall—and pushed it all the way down so that none of it was showing at all. Then he calmly folded the full bag in half, then in half again, and again and again until he inexplicably held something no bigger than a Saltine cracker. He stroked it once with his thumb and it disappeared from sight, whereupon he slipped the invisible bag into one of the wide front pockets in his smoking jacket and spread his arms wide, like a magician completing a trick.
“Ta-da!” He smiled triumphantly and I couldn’t help applauding.
“That was amazing! It’s like living with David Copperfield!” I exclaimed.
Avery arched an eyebrow at me.
“Please—he’s a washed-up warlock has been. I like to think I’m more like Chris Angel—he’s so much more edgy and sexy.”
Emma snorted.
“It’s more like living with Mary Poppins than David Copperfield or Chris Angel.”
Avery frowned at her.
“Now that was a very hurtful comment. Just because I have a few domestic skills doesn’t mean you can stereotype me like that!”
“I think she means because of that scene in the movie where Mary Poppins is pulling all those impossible things out of her carpet bag,” Kaitlyn offered quietly.
“That’s exactly what I meant,” Emma said, frowning at him.
“Oh, well…” Avery sniffed. “I thought you were saying that because you’re under the impression I’d like to sleep with a handsome chimney sweep. Which I would—don’t get me wrong—there’s just something about a
man who works with his hands and gets all dirty doing it…”
Emma and Kaitlyn cracked up and I couldn’t help grinning myself. But we had other things to attend to.
I cleared my throat.
“I think we’re getting off the subject of dinner and I’m hungry, Avery. Are we going ‘shopping’ or not?”
“Oh, most assuredly.” He was suddenly all business. “All the Others should be in their dorms in the towers by now—let’s go.”
“Uh—could you give us back the couch cushion first?” Emma asked. “It kind of leaves a big hole here if you don’t.”
“Certainly.” Avery took the invisible bag out of his pocket, stroked it once to make it visible, then began unfolding it until it was its normal size again. He then reached into the bag and pulled out the large blue overstuffed couch cushion which absolutely should not have fit into it in the first place. He passed it to Emma, who rearranged it against the back frame of the couch and nodded.
“Thanks. And happy hunting.”
“Get a chicken,” Kaitlyn suggested.
“For you, Katydid, anything.” Avery bowed gallantly and nodded at me. “Come on, Princess Latimer—let’s go.”
“Right behind you,” I told him. As we climbed the spiral staircase up to the Dining Hall, I felt my heart pound and the key jump between my breasts.
I didn’t know why but I had a feeling we were going to find more than dinner upstairs tonight.
27
“I want to thank you for what you did for Kaitlyn today,” Avery said in a low voice as soon as the trapdoor with its camouflage of carpet which led to the Norm Dorm was firmly and securely shut. “You were incredibly courageous, standing up to the Drakes that way. Especially Sanchez.” He made a face. “He’s a nasty piece of work.”
I shifted from one slippered foot to the other, uncomfortable both with his thanks and his praise.
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