Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Heath
Max sneaks a peek over my shoulder at the book Mavis is reading to me, but Mavis leans in and smacks him on the head with a rolled-up piece of paper. “Don’t be nosy.”
“What?” he growls, rubbing his head. “I just wanna know what you guys are reading.”
“Nothing you’d find interesting anyway,” I mumble while Mavis flips the page.
I’ve seen some dark shit in my life before but never written down so perfectly in a book. Enchantments and spells for Wiccans and everything supernatural. Mavis really knows where to find them.
“See, this one might work for finding something you lost,” Mavis says, pointing at something on the page.
Silas sits down and skewers his apple with his knife before chomping off whole pieces. “So, Mave, who are we going after?”
“Going after who, for what?” Max asks.
“We don’t know yet,” I answer, toying with the screw-fit tunnel in my ear. “We need more time.”
“To do what? Hex her?” Silas snorts. “Like that’s going to work.”
“Oh, shut up, Silas.” Mavis shoves him. “Just because you don’t know anything about magic doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.”
Silas raises his brow, brings his finger to his temple, and circles it around.
“Wait, what did I miss?” Max mutters.
I sigh. “Someone broke into the Skull and Serpent Society and robbed us.”
“ROBBED US?!” Max yells.
Silas grabs his fork and shoves it between Max’s fingers, narrowly avoiding his skin. “Don’t be so fucking loud, Fletcher. The entire fucking cafeteria doesn’t need to know our security is shit.”
“They got away,” I tell Max.
“But we found this on the grass.” Silas fishes the hearing aid from his pocket and shows it to Max.
“Okay …” Max grabs it and inspects it up close. “How’s this going to help you find the person responsible?”
“There must be some sort of identification code on it, right?” Silas says.
“I can cast a tracking spell,” Mavis offers. “You’ll find him in no time.” She winks at me in the most devilish way, and I almost succumb to her charms again. Almost. But we both know she’s just playing with me.
Silas sticks his finger into his mouth and fake gags.
“Oh, grow up,” Mavis growls at him before she jumps off the table and closes the book. “You can either accept my help or fumble by yourself. Your choice, little bro.”
“Don’t fucking call me little,” Silas snarls.
“Well, she is right. I mean, you are the shortest of all of us,” Max says, but Silas’s deadly eyes stop him halfway through his sentence. “It’s the truth.”
“Whatever. I’m done here.” She rolls her eyes and throws her blue-streaked brown hair over her shoulder. “See you later, Heath.” She smiles at me before walking off, and I throw back a wink before grabbing my knife to cut slices off my apple.
“You really can’t help yourself, can you?” Silas says. “Still trying to get into my sister’s pants.”
Not this again.
I stop and point the knife at him. “I’m just being fucking friendly because we’re friends. That’s it.”
I don’t need him to remind me of my past mistakes.
“Right. And you just read spell books from a self-proclaimed witch because you enjoy it.” He scoffs. “Liar.”
“Shut up.” I throw a piece of apple in Silas’s direction. “She’s trying to help. That’s it.”
Max is still busy checking out the hearing aid, completely ignoring what’s going on at the table.
“With bullshit that doesn’t work,” Silas quips. “Besides, she’s not interested. She made that much clear last year. Or did your sad-boy heart not want to believe it?”
My eye twitches.
He fucking dares to bring that up?
“Bro, I’m this ” — I pinch my fingers together—“close to shoving this apple down your throat.”
“Try me.” Silas folds his arms and leans back. “See how it works out for you.”
“Hey, what’s this barcode?” Max suddenly asks.
We both grow quiet and stare at him like he’s just unlocked the secret to the universe.
“Give me that.” Silas snatches it out of his hand and looks at the exact spot Max was inspecting. “What am I looking at?”
“There are three different sequences of numbers on the bottom of the battery lid, in the tab.”
Silas narrows his eyes and looks at the hearing aid up close. “Well, fuck me.” A big grin spreads on his lips as he tosses it at me so I can see it too. “Guess we’ll find this little thief in no time.”
Ivy
I park my shoddy bike in the shed and run across the pavement, checking my watch every second because I know I’m late for my classes. The neighbor took her sweet-ass time before she was finally at my door ready to watch over Cora for me. I really need to find a more reliable babysitter.
Picking up the pace, I skid across the pebble path that surrounds the fountain in front of Spine Ridge University and nearly bump into people. “Sorry!” I add a smile so they’re not too mad at me, and I bolt off.
I should really be more careful. Missing one hearing aid messes with my ability to navigate because I’m working with mono instead of stereo sound.
Fuck. When these classes are over, I’m going to look for it.
After I’ve made sure there’s no one at that damn Skull and Serpent Society house on the lookout, of course.
“Hey, Ivy!” River Landon swoops his wavy brown hair aside to show off his handsome smile. He’s leaning against a giant pillar near the big main entrance to the university next to his brother, Talon, who doesn’t even spare me a glance.
“Sorry, no time. I gotta run. I’m late for class!” I say as I pass them and head inside through the massive doors.
“Wanna hang out later?” River yells.
I turn around momentarily with my right ear pointed at him to yell back, “Hit me up in my DMs!”
He smiles and nods, and I turn around again. But the second I do, I bump into someone face-first, my lips making contact with a very defined chest hidden underneath a white shirt with an ominous skull on it.
My body instinctively leans away as my eyes slowly move up his chest and meet the flickering, hollowed bright-green eyes and that distinctive grin on that diamond-shaped face, making him look like he works in a haunted mansion at the carnival.
Oh God.
Silas Rivera.
I step back, shocked by the fact that I ran into him out of all people.
Get yourself together, Ivy. He doesn’t scare you. He’s just a bully. A short one too.
“What do we have here?” he growls, narrowing his eyes. “Another stumbling, bumbling, lovestruck girl?”
My eye begins to twitch. “Over my dead fucking body.”
The smile instantly dissipates from his face. “You wanna die that badly?” He briefly inspects me, and the way his lip contemptuously curls like he’s judging me makes me wanna puke. “I’ll bend you over and snap you in half with ease, twig.”
I get up in his face and hiss, “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size, shortie?”
His eyes almost bulge out of his skull at this point.
Good.
He deserves nothing less for calling me a twig and threatening to kill me over bumping into him.
He buries his hand in his pocket, and I steel myself, but then someone walks up behind him and places a hand on his shoulder, stopping Silas from making a move.
“Silas. Don’t you need to go to class?”
It’s the dean. It’s the actual fucking dean.
Felix Rivera.
I take a step back and look up into those same soul-crushing hollowed-out eyes that mirror Silas’s, and my God, the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree … except for the height difference. And the hair.
“Ivy Clark?” the dean says with a stoic face—like he’s asking me if that’s my name even though he apparently already knows.
Silas’s nostrils flare at the sound of my name.
Fuck. I really did not want that out there for him to know.
He jerks free of his father’s grip and marches off without another word. “See you later, twig.”
The dean waits until he’s out of view before he continues, “Better stay away from trouble like him if you wanna finish your studies at this university.”
I laugh it off like it’s no big deal even though the pressure is real. “Yeah, of course.”
But it’s already too late for that. Silas and I have become more than well acquainted after I stole his shit. He just doesn’t know it yet.
The dean nods and walks off like he has nothing more to say, and every crowd he passes through separates for him like he’s goddamn Moses himself. Two decades have passed, and his name still holds power in these halls.
His offspring is just as infamous, if not more dangerously unhinged.
And I don’t understand why he would let him reign these college grounds like he’s the goddamn king.
I walk down the halls to my classroom and make my way inside, sitting down on the seat in the front so I can hear the professor best. But when I look around the room and see Silas and his friend Max sitting in the back, my veins run frigid.
We share a fucking class too?
Max
The girl sitting in the front of class is so gorgeous, both my eyes and my heart have to do a double take. Her dark-brown hair tumbles over her short white woven top as she types something onto her phone, and she throws it back, allowing me to marvel at her beautiful face with sculpted cheekbones, a sharp nose, and thick, downturned red lips.
Wow.
I tilt my head to watch her put down her bag and take out a few books, her round ass making me lick my lips. I shake my head and close my eyes.
Maybe someday I’ll have the same courage Silas has and ask someone like her out on a date. Not that he dates, but he has the arrogance of someone who does.
Anyway, for now, I’ll pine over someone I couldn’t possibly have anyway.
The girl in front of the class suspiciously homes in on Silas with narrowed eyes, and I immediately look away, feeling the heat.
“Jesus, Silas. You got girlfriends who despise you everywhere, don’t you?”
“What?” he snarls back, refusing to look up from the desk where he’s torturing a tiny bug by pinning it to the wood with his knife while it’s trying to fly away. I don’t know why, but I can’t stop focusing on the bug trying to desperately get away from him.
“That girl …” I whisper, trying to point at her without making it obvious I’m pointing at her.
He plucks at the insect’s wings. “I’m busy.”
“Okay, fine. Never mind.” I roll my eyes.
She’s already turned her gaze to the professor again, writing down notes as he begins to speak, and she tucks her hair behind her ear as if to listen better to his words. She reaches into her bag, and as she lifts out a book, I spot something glinting in her ear, with the same kind of skin color and wire as …
My eyes widen.
“The hearing aid.”
Silas immediately rips the knife out of the bug, and it zooms off with damaged wings, surviving the worst kind of predator it could ever meet.
The knife lands against my neck, and I gulp at the feel of the blade against my skin.
“What did you just say?”
“It’s hers. The girl in the front row.”
His eyes follow mine down to where she’s sitting, and he gets up from his seat, leaning onto the table with both hands as he zeros in on her like a drone finding its target.
Fuck.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said that out loud.