Chapter 10
Periwinkle
Iwake up already blinking to clear the haze from my eyes.
Everything stays hazy white. My first glimpse of my surroundings is so blank my pulse hiccups with the fear that I’m back in an isolation room.
Then I notice that I’m lying down on a flat, softly padded surface. The isolation rooms I’ve been sent to before were one-hundred-percent bed-free zones.
I turn my head to take in the other simple beds and the cabinets beyond them. Oh, it’s just the infirmary in all its antiseptic paleness.
Raze’s gruff voice reaches me from somewhere near my feet. “She woke up!”
I twist to push my body upright, and a sharp tremor runs through my arm and down my chest. Okay, being upright is not on the menu today.
I flop onto my back again instead, peering toward the end of the bed.
Raze hustles over beside me, gazing down with his mouth twisted into a grimace. Jonah, Mirage, and Hail step into view too. Worry shows on all their faces and courses through our connections into me, a mix of sweet and sour like a tart apple.
“I told you it was only a matter of time.” The horned female shadowkind who doted on me here before pushes past Raze to touch my forehead and examine my eyes. “You just needed to recover your essence. You should be right as rain in another few hours.”
Raze shifts his weight as if it’s taking all his self-control to stay in one place. He can’t smooth the snarl from his voice. “What happened, Peri? Why did she hurt you?”
Mirage shudders. “You were all dismal misery, and then everything was pain. I was already coming to see what was wrong when the worst part hit.” He flashes his fangs. “Now we hit back.”
I open my mouth and close it again. The memories return in wavering images like a disjointed TV flashback.
Was it really— Did all that awfulness actually happen? It feels like it should be a bad dream.
But I’m here in the school’s infirmary, recovering. Obviously I suffered from something.
With a rap of his loafers, Rollick appears by my shoulder, his expression tense. Ominous energy roils around the demon. “I’d like to know the answer to that question too.”
How exactly is he going to hit back once he hears my report?
They seem to already know it was Gloss. Raze said “she.” It won’t help anyone to keep quiet about the rest and let them speculate.
Of course, the “dismal misery” Mirage mentioned must have been my attempt to break my connection to Hail. I catch the winter fae’s gaze, and his posture stiffens.
Does he think I’m going to accuse him? He was playing along with my idea.
It wasn’t him who sent me here, though.
The pain from the slashes of ice echoes through me, stirring fresh aches.
“Gloss was… She was so mad at me. She marched into the room, and I didn’t even have a chance to say anything to her before she threw her power at me.
From what she said, it’s mostly because I marked Hail.
She thinks I marked him on purpose—but I didn’t even mean to. I’ve tried to fix it.”
Hail’s dark blue eyes flash like the start of a thunderstorm. “That’s ridiculous.”
My stomach lurches with the thought that he’s accusing me of lying, but he goes on in a cutting tone. “I never made any promises to Gloss. We’re just friends. She doesn’t own me or get to decide who I associate with. And dealing out her idea of punishment…” His jaw clenches. “I’ll talk to her.”
Raze draws his brawny frame up even taller, his sinewy muscles rippling. “I’ll come with you—and I’ll do more than talk.”
Rollick holds up his hands to stop them. “The staff will deal with this attack in our own way—and with all due consequences. Don’t leave me having to punish the rest of you for vigilante justice as well.” He returns his gaze to me. “You hadn’t had any outbursts beforehand?”
I hug myself. “No. I was talking to Hail, and he left. A few minutes later, Gloss came in, accused me of stealing him, and started throwing her magic at me. She did say something about my magic acting up… Maybe she was hoping everyone would think my own powers turned on me?”
If she’d succeeded in crushing me, there’d have been no one to say what really happened.
Hail sucks a breath through his teeth in a sharp hiss. He catches my gaze. “I might not be happy about this thing tying us together, but I swear I didn’t ask her to hurt you—I wouldn’t do that.”
Mirage hums an off-key tune. “Monkey sees, monkey does.”
Hail scowls at the fox shifter. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Raze’s eyes have narrowed. “You have been acting like you’d rather Peri would just go away. Maybe Gloss noticed that and was giving you what she thought you’d want.”
The winter fae sputters. “I’ve never harmed the cream puff. I’m allowed to be unhappy about a shitty situation.”
He snaps his mouth shut after the last two words, maybe picking up on the jab of pain they sent through me.
Raze steps toward Hail with a growl. “You’re the one making it—”
“Hey, hey.” Jonah pushes between them, his voice as calm and even as always but his expression taut. “Fighting amongst ourselves isn’t going to help Peri. The administrators will deal with Gloss. The best thing you two can do is stop sniping at each other.”
Raze glowers at the fae man but stands down. Hail’s scowl only deepens, but he hunches his shoulders slightly as if he’s trying to disappear into himself.
Another tremor passes through my body. I make him so unhappy.
I make all of them unhappy in different ways. I wish I could go to sleep and wake up to how things were right after we defeated my former captor, before I got us into this mess.
Rollick has watched Jonah handle the other men without comment. Apparently satisfied with his underling’s approach, he brushes his hands together. “Very good. Now, there’s something I’d like to discuss with Peri alone…”
“Is it urgent?” Jonah asks before the demon can go on.
Rollick blinks at him. “Not incredibly. Why?”
Jonah tips his head toward me without meeting my eyes. “Peri’s energy is flagging. She needs more recovery time. If the conversation can wait, it might be better to give her a few more hours so she’s completely back to herself.”
Raze’s forehead furrows with consternation as if he’s annoyed he didn’t notice my dwindling spirits first. I’m surprised Jonah spoke up out of concern for me at all.
I guess he’s in the best position to challenge Rollick, considering he’s staff rather than a student, but his stance has tensed as he waits for his boss’s response. He’s afraid he’s misstepped.
But he intervened anyway. For me.
After a moment, Rollick simply chuckles. “It can wait a few hours. It isn’t the sort of discussion we should be having while she’s still out of sorts anyway.” He pats my arm a little awkwardly. “You’re safe in here. Get some rest.”
He waves to my men. “All of you, get out so she can do that. The horde of you skulking around is hardly relaxing.”
In a matter of seconds, I’m alone except for the shadowkind nurse.
A breath rushes out of me, seeming to take my remaining vigor with it. My eyelids slide shut, and my mind drifts away like a cloud in a brisk breeze.
By the time Rollick returns, I’ve been awake for nearly an hour. I’m sitting on the edge of my bed, flipping through a book of landscape photography that the nurse allowed Fen to hand over to me, though she wouldn’t let the naiad stay and properly visit.
I don’t see how friendly chatter would slow my recovery, but I’m not really in a position to argue.
The nurse won’t let me leave either, even though I can stand and walk around without any lingering weakness. I’m starting to think this is a confinement room after all, just with more beds so it’s a little comfier. Very sneaky.
Rollick tips his head to the nurse, who vanishes into the shadows. I set down the book and swivel on the bed to face him. “Can I go back to classes now? I promise my emotions are all settled down. I won’t explode or anything even if I see Gloss.”
The demon gives me a crooked smile. “You don’t need to worry about seeing Gloss for a long time if ever.
A purposeful, premeditated assault of this level on a fellow student—rather than the accidental ones you’ve perpetrated—is undeniable cause for banishment.
She won’t be returning to the mortal realm for a decade or so. ”
I stare at him. “Because she attacked me? It was only one time—and she had reasons to be angry…”
“Pretty poor reasons, I’d say, over delusions and circumstances that aren’t exactly your fault.” Rollick considers me. “Would you have any hesitation about her fate if it’d been your friend Fen she’d attacked and left close to death?”
Was I really in that bad a state?
I picture Fen lying crumpled, bleeding essence in clouds, and shiver. “No, I guess I wouldn’t.”
“Then you should have the same devotion to your own well-being. We can’t have someone who’d behave so spitefully representing shadowkind among mortals.” Rollick pauses. “Which in a roundabout way is what I need to talk to you about.”
Does he think I’m spiteful too? I thought he liked me.
Please tell me I haven’t gotten on an uber-powerful demon’s bad side.
I knit my brow, tamping down my instinctive anxiety. “I don’t understand.”
Rollick props himself against the end of the cot.
“With the current state of affairs, I’m not sure it’s safe for you to remain at the academy.
Gloss isn’t the only student who’s unsettled by the reports they’ve heard about the marking.
And she had a lot of friends among her peers, I gather.
I don’t want to risk you facing additional hostility from Hail’s various paramours or whoever else. ”
My stomach sinks. “Then…”
“I’m not suggesting you leave the mortal realm,” he says quickly.
“I have a much better idea. You’ve proven useful in evaluating the strange shadowkind who’ve emerged from these unusual rifts.
I’d like you to come work with me until we can determine how to remove the bonds you accidentally forged, or at least until tempers settle down. ”
I find myself staring at him again. “You want me to take an official job working for you? Like Jonah does? But I haven’t even made it out of the reform building—”
Rollick waves off my concern. “I’ve seen with my own eyes how quickly your control has developed with the right guidance.
At the moment, what’s most important to me is ensuring these new rifts don’t end up revealing shadowkind existence to the entire human population. I need all the assistance I can get.”
And he wants me to help him. He thinks I’d contribute enough that my mess-ups don’t matter.
A smile springs to my face. “Of course. I’ll do whatever I can. I want all of us to stay as safe as possible—the mortals too.”
Rollick smiles back. “That’s exactly why I knew this would be a good decision—one that works in everyone’s favor. I’ll see about making arrangements right away.”
His mention of “everyone” makes my stomach dip. My happiness deflates. “Oh. If I go with you… then the men I marked have to come too, don’t they?”
They won’t get a choice. Just one more way I’ve disrupted their lives.
Rollick gazes at me evenly. “I’d imagine their skills will all come in handy one way or another. It’ll simply be another team effort like the first one I sent you on.”
I don’t think any of the men, even Hail, will refuse a direct request from the school’s headmaster. But he wouldn’t be making the request if it wasn’t for me.
What’s the alternative? Should I camp out in the infirmary for the rest of my student career?
Maybe if we spend more time together, we’ll finally work out how to turn off the tap between us. How to snuff out the glow.
Avoiding each other seems like a terrible way of finding answers.
There’s one other question that’s been niggling at me since Rollick mentioned the sorcerer’s notes when we were inspecting his confined shadowkind.
I hesitate and then ask, “When you looked through all those papers we got from the bunker… did you see anything that told you why and how David Blaver came up north?”
How did he end up so far from his home turf? I’m guessing it wasn’t for the fresh air and delightful scenery.
And did he drag his daughter, the girl who saved me from his clutches, with him?
The demon cocks his head. “His ramblings are disjointed, but I gather that he caught wind of an odd occurrence or two in the area and came in the hopes of gathering a ‘better army’ for the petty destruction you’ve mentioned he was prone to.
He talked about wanting more vicious shadowkind than before, studying them and figuring out how to best work with their warped nature.
Not that he got any farther than using brute sorcerous force. ”
“Was there anything about someone named Gracie?”
“That name… no. I’m sure it would have stuck out to me. He didn’t mention anyone other than himself and the targets of his irrational wrath.”
Then I can still hope Gracie got away. And if the weird rifts pose a threat to mortalkind, I owe it to her to do whatever I can to solve the problem too.
Two missions at once. I can be ambitious.
One last twinge of guilt ripples through my chest, but I give Rollick a firm nod. “All right. Let’s go unravel the mystery of those rifts.”