Chapter 23
Crane
“Crane, you look terrible,” Daniels says as I stagger into the dining room and swipe a mug from the stack by the door.
“Thanks,” I say as I stand beside him as the cook takes the metal carafe off the wood stove and pours us both some coffee.
If I have to give this school some credit, it’s that their coffee is the best I’ve ever had, no doubt because some sort of magic has been used in the process. “I feel like death warmed over,” I add.
“Perhaps you’re working too hard,” Daniels says as we walk together toward a table in the corner. Daniels leans in, the scent of pipe tobacco clinging to his tweed jacket. “Did you hear what happened to Desi?”
“The linguistics professor?” I ask. “No. Do tell.”
We sit down, and he gives the room another sweep of his eyes before he whispers, “He’s gone.”
“Gone?” I pick up my mug, but my hand is trembling enough for me to put it back down. Must be the lack of sleep, the nightmares, the everything. “He quit?”
“We don’t know. Yesterday afternoon, they were looking for him. Searched his room. All his possessions are there, his bed made. But he never showed up for class. I think they searched the campus for him, and there’s no sign of him.”
Aman Desi. Smart man, always talked of his family back in Bombay. “He probably left in the night. Wanted to escape.”
“It’s not a prison,” Daniels snorts. “Besides, he left his papers behind.”
My stomach churns uneasily, and when I take a sip of my coffee, there’s a bitterness there.
I wish I could separate the images I have from last night to figure out what’s real and what’s a dream.
But I’ve got nothing. And as much as I want to discuss it with Daniels, he obviously doesn’t see the school the same way I do.
If I were him, I wouldn’t be so trusting about a school for witches run by a coven.
Then again, I’m still here. I’m still here because of Kat and now Brom. And I’ll be damned if I don’t help Brom get to the bottom of what’s happened to him.
I have no appetite this morning, so after the coffee with Daniels, the conversation switching over to more genial topics, I decide to skip breakfast and head to the classroom. I have no idea if Brom is in my energy class this morning, but I must speak to Kat.
Though the sun has risen, the morning is still dark with heavy clouds when I walk to the classrooms. The tone of the campus has changed in such a short time, summer surrendering completely to fall.
The chill in the air is damp, the kind that seeps through your coat and lives in your bones, and I have to shake it off many times before I get inside the building.
To my delight, I see Kat waiting outside the classroom’s locked door.
“Kat,” I say, my voice coming out hoarse, echoing faintly in the hall.
“Crane,” she says, and to my relief, there’s just as much desperation in her voice as there is in mine.
I stride toward her and embrace her without any thought, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight, breathing in her smell of sun-soaked meadows, letting it fill me with light.
She lets out a soft sigh that warms my heart, and I pull back, placing my hands on her cheeks, searching her face.
She’s as beautiful as ever, but there are dark circles beneath her azure eyes, and her skin looks paler than normal.
“Are you all right?” I ask. And then I catch myself. Should I be touching her like this now that Brom is back? Is whatever we had, whatever hint of relationship that was about to bloom like a rose, now doomed to wither on the stem?
“I’m sorry, I should…” I take my hands off her sweet face, but she reaches out and grabs my wrists, holding them.
“Please,” she implores. “I need you right now. I need to talk to you.”
“And I need to talk to you.”
And I need to be with you. I need to know if you’re still mine.
I hear the door to the hall open, and she drops her grip on my wrists, and I automatically take a step back from her. A couple of other students file in, and before they have a chance to see us together, I quickly reach for my keys and unlock the classroom door, ushering Kat in.
“Come see me after class,” I whisper to her.
Of course, as one student passes me, he gives me a smirk, like he knows exactly what’s going on between us. The humorous thing is he really has no idea. Even I don’t know myself.
It turns out that Brom isn’t in this class, which is for the best, since he’s a distraction on his own, and together with Kat, I wouldn’t be able to get anything done.
So I’m somehow able to push the mysteries of him behind me and focus on our subject for the day, which happens to be how energy manipulation can be aided by spells, crystals, and rituals, including blood magic.
“Blood magic,” I explain to the class, “has everything to do with fusing energy together. We’ve practiced with using our energy to influence others and how to block others from using that energy against us.
Now, I want to talk about fusing one’s energy with another so that you are connected.
Think about fungi. Your biology classes should be touching on how marvelous fungi are. ”
I notice a few eyes glazing over at that, but I push on.
“Mushrooms are connected to each other through underground pathways. What happens to one affects another. As witches, we know they can communicate with each other. This is what blood magic does when it’s applied to each other and our energy.
Spilled blood fuses us together, connecting us on another plane, one we can’t see unless you’re looking through the veils.
With the right spells and incantations, we’re able to become one with another, our energy combining to become something extremely powerful. ”
At that, I feel Kat’s eyes on me. Perhaps she’s thinking the same thing as I am.
If we practiced blood magic on Brom, is it possible that we could break through whatever blockages he has in his memories?
After all, I feel the reason that I’m able to retain my memories of the school when I pass the gates is due to my connection with Kat.
She gives me a little nod. Something to think about.
Too much to think about.
I get through the rest of the class, and I can tell the students are relieved that I didn’t ask any of them to take out a knife and start cutting themselves up.
When class is over, Kat goes straight to my desk. “Do you have a class after this?” she asks.
I shake my head. “No. But I know you do.”
“It’s just philosophy,” she says. “I’m skipping it. Meet me at the stables when you’re ready.”
She turns and hurries out the door. Even though everyone suspects there’s something going on between us, the last thing I want is for someone to see us walking to the stables together, especially with what we’re about to discuss.
I wait a few minutes, gathering up the textbook I had pulled from the library on blood magic and rituals, then set out after her. A light drizzle is falling, peppering my shoulders with tiny droplets by the time I slip into the shelter of the stables.
I poke my head into Snowdrop’s stall, the horse giving me a welcoming nicker. I stroke her muzzle for a moment before moving on to the next stalls until I notice Kat’s coat hung up outside one of the empty stalls at the end, furthest from the school, closest to the woods.
I peer inside and see her there. Her back is against the wall, hidden in the shadows, but the moment she sees me, she runs forward through the hay floor and pulls me deeper inside.
“Thank God,” she says, holding on to my arms. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” I ask, my hand sliding down to hold hers, wrapping around it. Her skin is cold and soft, and it does something to me, makes me feel like the more I hold on to her, the more I’ll fall through the earth.
She gives her head a shake, a strand of blond hair coming loose. “I don’t know. I just thought maybe after everything, you would want some distance. There’s just so much…it’s too much.”
I reach out and brush her hair off her face, tucking it behind her ear, and she closes her eyes at my touch. “I’m not going anywhere,” I murmur, running my fingers over her jaw until I’m gripping her chin. “You have me, my vlinder, no matter what happens, no matter what you’re about to tell me.”
Because I can tell she’s carrying something heavy on her shoulders, something I might not like.
“It’s Brom,” she says warily.
“I know.”
She gives her head another shake, rubbing her soft lips together, and fuck, do I ever want to kiss her. “No. You don’t know.”
I run my thumb over her lip, fighting the temptation to place my lips on hers and make everything go away. “Tell me, then.”
“Brom came over for supper last night with his parents,” she says. “They’re making him live on campus now.”
“All right…”
“And my mom says I’m to live here too.”
I can’t help but smile. “So you’ll be closer to me. I don’t see how that’s a bad thing.”
“It’s a bad thing because my mother was so adamant that I not stay here. Now she’s completely changed her mind about it, and all because of Brom. They want me here only because he’s here.”
“I see.” Damned if I don’t feel the deep cut of jealousy again.
“Crane,” she says gravely, her eyes searching mine with trepidation, “they want me to marry him.”
My heart feels like it’s dropped out of my chest and into a bloody mess on the floor.
“Marry him? Did he ask you?”
“No. He hasn’t.”
I sigh with relief.
“But it was always that way. Ever since I was born, I’ve been betrothed to him.
We grew up knowing we’d be married to each other one day.
And he was my best friend, and I…I didn’t mind the idea.
I don’t think he did either. But when he went missing…
that was all forgotten. Until now. Now, they’re talking about us getting married like he never left at all.
They all act like the past four years never happened. ”