Chapter 2 #2
Finn paused, trepidation crossing his gray eyes. His voice was cautious as he asked, “Are you still scared of me? I’m not going to hurt you.”
“ No!” I protested as my cheeks grew warm.
“I’m glad to hear it.” He nodded. “Bryce and Damen are playing another round of chess downstairs. Titus is in the garage—if you need his help, you can shout. He’ll hear you.”
“I don’t need help!” My face warmed in embarrassment. It was horrifying that my once-best friend could read me so well.
Why did he have to act like a jerk?
Yet, my breathing steadied as the tension faded from me.
Finn stepped closer to me and reached into the pockets of his charcoal-colored slacks.
“I have something for you,” he explained, his shoulders growing even tighter and his head lowering as the nervousness in his posture grew.
My throat closed. Until recently, I’d mostly only seen Finn with a mask of calm confidence.
I hated this expression—the unsure tilt of his head and the minuscule shuffling of his feet. That look had a way of breaking through my defenses, reanimating that tiny seed of hope that lay buried in the dark.
Why was I like this? It was so much easier when I wanted to punch him.
“I don’t want anything,” I told him, cursing myself for how weak my voice suddenly sounded. Maybe I’d overestimated how much he knew me after all. He was aware of how I felt about gifts.
All things came at a price. Unless it was something to eat, or there was a way to barter, I wasn’t—
“Here,” he said, pulling out a bronze pocket watch and holding it toward me. “It’ll help.”
I studied it, but I was unsure how it would help. I didn’t have any issues with punctuality.
Not usually.
Still, I watched as he dropped the watch, keeping his grip on the chain instead. The pendant began to swing back and forth in a mesmerizing movement.
The face was difficult to make out, but I saw a faint floral pattern etched upon the cover. How intriguing.
Still, I was no fool.
“Stop it!” I dropped the blanket from my face and covered my eyes. “Don’t hypnotize me! Julian will avenge me if you do anything weird.”
“I’m not trying to hypnotize you,” he drawled, exasperated. “I’m giving this to you.”
“I don’t need it,” I responded, pointing my elbow to my bedside table. “I still have Julian’s watch!” Miles had snuck it back into my room after we defeated James Cole.
“It’s not a watch. Can you just look at it?”
I squinted my left eye open and peeked through my fingers. Finn’s expectant gaze captured mine before my attention returned to the item.
It looked like a watch, but how he held it was unnatural. I’d seen something similar on my second favorite paranormal program: Passionate Paranormal: Love’s Unsolved Mysteries . It was a most exciting program because of the fortune-telling, tarot readings, and other such mysterious matters.
Finn resembled the host who interviewed the suspects. His sudden air of confidence, his arm outstretched, and his regard for the heavy object on a chain as it swung through the air suggested that it could only be one other thing…
“Is it a pendulum?”
This time, there was no sarcasm in his expression or voice. Only a short, quick twitch of his lips that I might have missed if I hadn’t been searching for it.
My heart echoed in my ears.
“No,” he answered, and the humor masked over once more. “But it could be used that way.”
I could hardly breathe. He was doing that weird thing where he was being honest about his abilities.
It was the strangest thing ever.
“Do you use pendulums?”
I wasn’t entirely sure what onmyoji did. I’d asked Damen once, but he kept talking for what felt like forever, and I didn’t understand any of it. The only thing I’d gotten out of that conversation was his distaste for DJs and celebrity fortune tellers.
Finn tilted his head, his mouth twitching. “Yes, I do. But, once again, this is not about me. Just stop making everything awkward and take it.”
“What—” The question died on my lips as he gently tossed the item in my direction. I had no choice but to catch it before it slammed into my chest.
“Don’t throw things,” I admonished.
“Just open it.”
I pursed my lips but obeyed, turning my attention to the small latch and popping the cover open.
Distrust turned to bewilderment as, instead of a watch face, there was the smooth surface of midnight glass.
I touched the top, and it felt cool as the surface seemed to hum under my fingertips. “What’s this?”
“Obsidian,” Finn explained. He shoved his hands back into his pockets and cracked his neck. “It’s been blessed by Jin—the witch in my quintet. He’s a crystal witch. They collect gemstones, which play a central part in their practice.”
I bit my lip, remembering some of the swag hidden in Miles’s chest. “Does that mean Miles also collects rocks?”
Spectral Secrets hadn’t covered this. It primarily focused on hauntings.
“First of all,” Finn frowned, lowering his voice conspiringly, “don’t tell a witch their crystals are rocks. They take personal offense.”
But they were rocks…
“Secondly…” Finn’s posture straightened. “Yes, Miles is the Xing. That means that he, like you, possesses the abilities of all practices under his tutelage. Although,” he muttered, stroking his chin, “you seem to have more than you should. Which is why we’ve been having these discussions.”
My heart raced. I’d been avoiding this subject.
“Anyway, since you suck at meditation, I brought you this.” He nodded again toward the object in my hand. “Obsidian is used to ward against evil, but it’s also a good surface for dowsing.”
“You mean like when you stared at the water?” I asked. “I thought you determined I couldn’t be still.”
“No.” Finn frowned. “I don’t think you can’t . I think you’re not ready.”
I glared at him.
“Don’t be angry.” He sighed, shoulders slumping as his eyes briefly closed. “It wasn’t fair to expect you to be able to do it on your first try.”
My eyebrow twitched as my temper stirred. How could he tell me not to be angry and insult me in the same sentence? “What do you—”
“You’re always distracting yourself away from your deeper thoughts.” He shrugged, no longer meeting my eyes. “Until you learn to confront that part of yourself, you’ll never be able to meditate.”
“I can meditate.” I pulled the watch against my chest. Having my limitations thrown in my face was the worst feeling in the world.
“Eventually.” Finn rolled his eyes, brushing off my snarl like he always did. “But you just can’t yet . That’s why you should use that.” He glanced at the watch. “Like I said, the obsidian will keep negativity away while you practice.”
Time paused, and a strange sensation—a mixture of understanding and thankfulness—passed over me.
This was Finn. And I was still angry at him.
Why did he have to make it so hard to stay mad?
“What do you want in return?” I glanced around my room. I didn’t have many knickknacks. I usually gave him a glitter pen when he brought me gifts. I wasn’t sure why, but he seemed to enjoy them.
They didn’t fit his image, though.
“I don’t want anything.” He stared at the floor. “At least not right now. You can pay me back later.”
Darn it. This left me with another outstanding debt. I needed to set up my access to that shared account that Bryce had promised me.
How much money did we have?
“Happy birthday.” Finn pushed a loose lock of his hair back from his eyes. “Sorry I missed it.”
I blinked. Of all the things I expected him to say, that wasn’t one of them.
“You didn’t miss it,” I muttered. “You just weren’t there.”
Finn exhaled. “Same thing.”
It wasn’t. But I didn’t argue.
Silence stretched between us. The gift felt solid in my grip, the obsidian smooth against my palm. I wasn’t sure if it worked the way he claimed, but the fact that he thought of it—that he still thought of me—made my stomach twist.
I let out a breath and glanced up at him. “Thanks.”
Finn gave a slight, satisfied nod, then flopped onto the window seat as if he’d already decided he wasn’t leaving anytime soon. “Don’t mention it,” he said, stretching out.
I sighed. Fine. Just because he stayed didn’t mean I had to entertain him.
“I’m going to keep reading,” I warned him, pulling out my book.
“I don’t care,” he replied, holding up his phone. I glimpsed a chaotic display of red and black on the screen, and he sighed. “I’ve plenty to do. Nobody ever stays on topic.”
I wanted to ask, but he’d never tell me anyway.
“Damen is leaving early tomorrow,” Finn said, cutting into what was supposed to be a peaceful silence. “I can drop you off at the school—that is, if you plan on hanging around all day.”
“Oh.” I looked over my book. Damen had asked me to go with him, but, “How early does he want to leave?”
“Six,” Finn replied, and I scowled. “My class isn’t until ten. So we’d leave here about nine-thirty. You can meet up with him after he’s done working.”
“I—” That was a much better option. I hadn’t let him drive me anywhere since we’d first arrived on campus, and the need for slumber was strong. “I would like that,” I whispered. “Thank you.”
He didn’t reply, but I could have sworn a smirk broke out in the corner of his lips.
Finn dropped me off as planned, but now Brayden—whom I’d planned on surprising—was nowhere to be found.
I considered waiting for him, maybe finding a spot to settle down, but the idea of wasting time doing nothing made my skin itch. Instead, I decided to explore until it would no longer be rude for me to show up at Dr. Stephens’s office.
There were more hidden corridors and rooms than I’d previously assumed, so it was likely Brayden had disappeared into one of them.
Still, it wasn’t until I was about to give up and head back to the coffee shop—where I could dedicate my time to more productive pursuits, like creating a new seasonal flavor—that I discovered it.
Tucked into the furthest corner of the topmost floor was a bookcase that didn’t belong. It was a dark wood unit nestled between metal shelves.
Something about it felt… off.