Something was wedged between the pages of his book. I sat in the chair and let the book fall open. There was the envelope.
I drew out the card and read the elegant calligraphy.
Roses are red
Corpses are blue.
I want you dead
And your boyfriend too.
—Your Secret Enemy
Well, that was cheery. I could see why Thatch hadn’t let me read it. He definitely hadn’t given me those flowers or written the note.
I hurriedly returned everything to how I had found it in his desk. I expected Thatch to walk in on me at any moment, but he didn’t. That in itself made me worry. Usually when his desk screamed, he came running.
Someone out there knew about Thatch being my boyfriend and wanted to kill both of us. More than ever, I wished I could talk to Josie about my relationship with Thatch and what that note said. I returned my tray and bowl to the cafeteria and searched for Josie. Maybe I couldn’t tell her about Thatch and me, but I could tell her that I had a secret enemy. Josie wasn’t in the cafeteria, the courtyard, her classroom, or her dorm room.
In my classroom I prepared lessons for classes and then checked back in the dungeon for Thatch. His food remained on his desk untouched. At eight-thirty I checked for him again, but he still hadn’t returned.
His note had said he’d be right back, but he wasn’t. I wondered if something had happened to him. Maybe the Raven Queen had gotten him. Or another Fae. That note might have been from the Raven Queen. Or the Princess of Lies and Truth.
Thatch was cunning and clever, stronger and more skilled than most Witchkin, but he was capable of making mistakes. I considered going to Khaba, but if I told him, he would probably be happy if Thatch was hurt. No matter what I said, I couldn’t convince him Derrick had killed Brogan, not Thatch. Khaba still believed Thatch was in the employ of the Raven Queen.
Eventually I went to bed, but I still couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned, worrying about Thatch. Someone out there wanted him dead.
I checked the time on my phone at ten forty and decided to see if he’d gotten back.
As I slipped past Vega’s bed, she sat up. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“You’re still awake?” I asked.
“How can I not be with the way you keep sighing and sniffling over there.”
“I’m not sniffling.” I hadn’t been crying.
I shuffled to the door.
Suspicion filled her tone. “I asked you a question, midget. Where are you going?” The room was too dark to see her expression.
“The bathroom,” I lied.
“If you aren’t back in ten minutes, I’m searching for you.”
I felt like a small dog on a very short leash. “It’s going to take me more than ten minutes.”
“Why?”
Ire spiked through me. “It’s none of your business. Why are you suddenly so nosy? Thatch isn’t paying you to babysit me anymore.”
“True, but that doesn’t mean someone else isn’t coercing me to do his or her bidding.”
“Who? Elric?” Threats and blackmail weren’t his style. At least I didn’t think so. He had been pretty cruel to Thatch. “Bribing you with a new guillotine isn’t coercion.”
She didn’t answer. I didn’t know if she was making this up. It was so hard to tell with Vega. I pushed aside my irritation and focused on appeasing her with an excuse. “The curry gave me a tummy ache. I might be in the bathroom awhile. Don’t stay up for me.”
Her bed creaked and covers rustled. “Whatever.”
I headed to the bathroom, pausing to make sure our door didn’t open behind me. I wouldn’t have put it past her to follow me. Once I saw I was in the clear, I headed downstairs, using my flashlight spell to illuminate my way.
I didn’t go to the dungeon. If Thatch was in, it would be locked up. Instead, I snuck to the tapestry that hid the secret passage to the hallway of mirrors. The windows in the wall showed views of the teachers’ rooms, most teachers asleep in their beds. I tried not to examine anyone too closely as I didn’t want to invade anyone’s privacy.
The view through the portals was silvery blue, everything painted in pale moonlight. I was almost afraid to look into Thatch’s room. If he wasn’t in bed, that meant the best teacher and strongest Witchkin at the school was in trouble. He was our only recruiting agent—the one who found unregistered Witchkin before Fae found them. He was the most caring teacher at Womby’s—though he often showed it in unorthodox ways. If something happened to him, there would be no one to come to his rescue.
Except me. And I was a magical dunce.
I peeked through the long mirror to Thatch’s room. The curtains of the canopy bed in his room were drawn back, exposing a view of him in bed, his back turned to the mirror.
He was all right!
I poked my head through the portal, the cold surface sucking at my face, wanting to pull me through farther.
Thatch immediately sat up and turned toward me. The ceiling brightened, chasing away the darkness.
Thatch blinked. “Clarissa?”
I fell through the portal, stumbling on the edge of the frame and tripping forward.
His hair was rakishly mussed, his expression groggy. “Why are you up out of bed? Please tell me you have a good reason for being here. A good reason being someone has died or Vega hexed your mouth closed.”
“Sorry,” I said, already regretting that I’d come. “I came to check on you. You weren’t in the dungeon. I checked multiple times.”
He ran a hand through his midnight locks of hair. “I was called away for . . . recruiting. There was a magical disturbance in the Morty Realm.”
It was the way he paused that made me suspect he was lying. More secrets. As usual.
I sat down beside him. He didn’t draw away as I hugged him around the waist, but he didn’t act happy to see me either.
He sighed in exasperation. “You shouldn’t be wandering about the school at night. Delinquent students might hex you.”
“I wanted to make sure you were okay. You were away for a long time.” And someone wanted him dead.
“It takes time to track down the source of a magical occurrence out in the Morty Realm. I couldn’t tell whether Fae had caused the incident or it had been a Witchkin child—or a child who had already been abducted by Fae. As it happens, I found a different teenager exhibiting magical tendencies. I brought him back tonight and deposited the young man into the boys’ dormitory. I imagine Puck will place the student in your largest classes as he is wont to do.” He drew away from me. “You’re welcome.”
The absence of his warmth left me cold. “Why didn’t you tell me you were back?”
He crossed over to the bathroom, disappearing for a moment inside before returning with a robe in hand. “I didn’t arrive until ten. You were already in bed. It was far too late to speak to you.” He wrapped the robe around his T-shirt and baggy black pajama pants.
“I couldn’t sleep. I was worried,” I said.
“Hence the reason you felt the need to disrupt my sleep. You can’t just barge in here because you worry about me.”
Probably I should have just satiated my curiosity and gone back to bed after seeing he was awake. I didn’t want to be like Gertrude Periwinkle and suffocate him.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you. I didn’t even know you had returned.” I took in a deep breath, trying to contain the well of misery inside that threatened to break free. “I brought you dinner. Your note said you’d be right back, so I thought you would be.”
Some of my earlier irritation leaked through my tone. “If I had known you would be more than fifteen minutes, I could have eaten dinner with Josie when she asked me. But I told her I had a meeting with you. She thought I was lying just to avoid her. I might have lost my only chance of reconciling with her. All because I was waiting for you. And you never even showed up. When I tried to look
for Josie later to see if she wanted to talk, she wasn’t anywhere. You weren’t anywhere. I didn’t know if you were dead and the Raven Court had gotten you. Normally I would talk to Josie if I was afraid something bad had happened to someone, but she doesn’t even want to speak with me. I didn’t know who to go to.”
Considering he was already in a foul mood, now seemed like a bad time to bring up the problem that someone out there knew he was my boyfriend. I wanted to warn him we might be in danger, but if I did, that meant I had to reveal to him I’d gone through his desk.
Then again, he already had read the card. It wasn’t like this was news to him.
His expression softened. “You don’t have to worry about my safety. I can handle myself against Fae. The Raven Court won’t harm me. If anything, they’ll try to entice me back into their flock. They don’t want to kill me or damage me in any way that makes me less than useful to the queen.”
I didn’t know whether he was just saying that to make me not worry or he spoke the truth. It seemed like the Raven Queen would want to punish him for his disloyalty. His sister had attacked him months before while in the service of the Raven Court.
He smoothed a hand over my hair. “In the future, if the opportunity arises, you should choose your friendship with Josie instead of spending time with me.”
“But I want to spend time with you,” I said. “That’s what normal young women want when they. . . .” I wanted to say when they had a boyfriend, but I didn’t know if he was my boyfriend. He wasn’t like Elric who made his feelings and intentions known. He didn’t ask me if he could court me or call me his lover. I didn’t know what he considered me. I forced myself to choose words that didn’t make me sound foolish. “Like a young woman when she’s in a new relationship.” If I was going to be honest, I figured I might as well go all the way. “A few hours ago you didn’t even want me to spend time with Josie. Now you’re trying to push me off on her, and you act like you don’t want to spend time with me.”
He crossed his arms. “I need you to understand something. My first duty, before teaching and before attending to your feelings, is investigating magical occurrences that might be the result of unregistered Witchkin in the Morty Realm. If I don’t go out there and determine the source, and a Fae gets there before I do, you do understand what will happen if a child is involved? He or she will be enslaved, drained, or killed.” His face remained as hard as stone. “Killing is the more merciful of those possibilities. You’ve never seen what can happen to a Witchkin who is drained and left for dead.”
“I was drained.” I didn’t add that I had been dead. I didn’t need to. He’d been there.
“The Raven Court drains to kill. Believe it or not, that happens to be a more humane deed compared to what some Fae do. Many rogue Fae leave the child a drooling vegetable, hardly functional. Morties finding such youth believe the individual suffered an accident or hit his head.” His voice was raw and the flash of sorrow in his eyes attested to having found children in this state. “I will not permit myself to fail when it comes to bringing a child back to our school. I would have no respect for myself if I shirked my duties in order to be back here in a cozy bed with you. And I should think you wouldn’t have any respect for me either.”
“‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ It sounds like a burden.” I could see his point, but it didn’t make his absence or lack of explanation earlier hurt any less. I didn’t want to be like his crazy hex-girlfriend, jealous and possessive and insisting on knowing where he was at all times. I hated the idea that he might think I wanted him to neglect his duties.
He waved me toward the door. “Come along. I’ll walk you back to your room.”
“Will you hug me first?” A lump formed in my throat at the words. Fear constricted my chest that he might refuse me, and it would be proof he had never loved me. He hadn’t ever actually said he loved me. He’d said he was “in love” with me. It was practically the same thing.
He strode back to me, holding out his hand. I took it, and he tugged me into his arms. “I forget what it is to be young and for the pangs of love to be so overwhelming.” He tucked my head under his chin and stroked my hair. “I forget you are normal, and normal people feel. It must be difficult for someone who has interacted with warm, loving human beings to then have to deal with me.” He kissed my brow. “You would be better off without me.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true. You don’t deserve someone who will choose saving the world rather than spending time showing you the affection you deserve.” He covered my face in soft kisses.
I closed my eyes and sighed. “You can always make up for earlier.”
He snorted out a laugh. “You would say that.”
I looped my arms around his neck, giving him one last squeeze. Vega was waiting for me. It was best that I headed back. Thatch hugged me closer, not letting me go.
“Are you seducing me, or am I seducing you?” He planted kisses on my lips, the kind that made my anxiety and sorrows drift away, forgotten.
“Good question,” I mumbled against his mouth. “Can the seduction be mutual?”
He walked backward toward his bed, taking me with him. “I’m rather awake now and don’t think I’ll be falling asleep anytime soon. Shall we put this time to good use?”
Maybe he was a Merlin-class Celestor. He’d just read my mind.
Twenty minutes later, after a sexy late-night tryst, Thatch suggested I shower before returning to my room. It wasn’t a bad idea considering I probably smelled like a marathon runner. I had already spent long enough away from my dorm, but my after-sex musk alone might wake Vega and make her suspicious.
Unlike the old shower in the women’s wing upstairs that sometimes shot out bursts of cold water when someone flushed the toilet or turned to a drizzle when someone stepped into the next stall, Thatch’s bathroom was perfect. I had first discovered this when he’d let me recuperate after I’d given myself lightning burns.
The Grecian columns and mosaics decorating the walls made the lavatory one of the most beautiful places in the school, only second to the adjoining room that led to Thatch’s secret garden. I’d asked him once if he would let me take a bath in the chamber next door after I’d spied it. His answer had been an adamant no.
I opened the side door, peeking at the secret garden. A waterfall spilled into a stone pool, swirls of mist steaming from the hot water.
“Don’t even think about it,” Thatch shouted through the door.
“I wasn’t thinking about anything,” I said.
The tile was warm under my feet as I stepped into the shower stall. The three shower heads set on different walls spoiled me. I would never want to shower in the women’s dorm again.
I was shampooing my hair when the tap at the door came.
“I come bearing gifts of towels,” Thatch said.
“Okay.”
Cold air prickled my skin as he entered the bathroom and heat escaped. My eyes were closed as I rinsed my hair, but I could tell the moment he opened the shower door.
“Do you want a washcloth?” he asked.
“No, I’m fine.”
“No wonder you’re always looking so grubby if you don’t use a washcloth. I’d wager half those freckles are actually dirt.”
I opened one eye so that I could see his expression as I splashed him in the face. He sputtered and closed the door.
His shampoo smelled like lavender, but the conditioner was supposed to be fragrance-free. Both smelled like him. I liked the idea that I smelled like him, only I hoped it didn’t give me away later.
A cloud of cold blossomed against my skin, and I turned to find him naked behind me.
I giggled. “I thought you said you already took a shower.”
“I did, but someone has to make sure you do a proper job of cleaning yourself.” He held up a white washcloth he was lathering with soap as if to prove the truth of his words
.
“Oh, really? Are you sure you aren’t taking a shower because you’re a dirty old man who wants to see a young woman naked?”
He scooped me closer. “Highly unlikely.” He scrubbed the cloth against my back.
I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him. He lifted me up and pressed me against the wall. I wrapped my legs around his waist.
“Have you ever had shower sex before?” I asked. I clung to him, trying to keep myself from sliding down the wall.
He tilted his pelvis. His erection was sandwiched awkwardly between us as I slid lower.
“Shower sex wouldn’t be too . . . kinky and abnormal?” he asked.
“It’s perfectly normal.” My attention was stolen by the way he nibbled his way down my neck.
“Condoms won’t work for shower sex,” he said.
I hadn’t thought of that. “Can’t you just enchant a condom?” I started to slide down the wall again.
He lifted me higher. “It would take some experimentation ahead of time. Synthetic materials don’t always mix well with magic.”
He rocked his pelvis against mine. Desire flared up inside me momentarily before he slid on the porcelain floor. He dropped me onto my feet. I toppled into him and would have taken him out if he hadn’t held on to the wall and grounded himself.
“Merlin’s balls,” he swore. “Perhaps we should consider less dangerous recreational activities before I slip and impale you.”
I grinned. “I’m fine with going back to bed.”
“You would say that.” He spanked my bottom and laughed.
His erection poked into my belly, insistent and demanding for attention. I grabbed onto him, and he moaned.
“Wow. I’m surprised you want to go again. I thought men had to wait or something.” I blushed, realizing how naive and inexperienced I probably sounded—because I was.
He cleared his throat. “I didn’t come earlier.”
“What? Wait. You didn’t?”
He rested his chin on top of my head. “No. The most important reason being I needed to monitor your affinity because I wanted to ensure you wouldn’t lose control.”
Of Curse You Will Page 6