Chapter 20 #2
I know that voice. I remember the slight tremor of fear beneath the dry wit, threading through dank, molding walls. We’d spoken through those tiny spaces between bricks, offering each other what meager scraps of comfort we could.
Steeling myself, I twist the knob and pull open the door.
She stands there, a wisp of a girl drowning in an oversized academy robe. Her pale, almost translucent skin is marred by faint silvery scars tracing along her collarbones and up her neck. Her eyes are a faded amber, as if all the color has been leeched out by the horrors she’s endured.
Fragile is the word that comes to mind, like a strong gust of wind could scatter her into a thousand glimmering shards.
But it’s her hair that catches and holds me. A pale, ethereal white, a color I’ve only seen on a Hollow, and my lips part in awe.
“Callie,” I breathe.
She offers me a wan smile. “Verily.”
I step back, gesturing for her to enter. She does so hesitantly, like a skittish animal wary of a trap. As she passes, I catch a whiff of something sharp and medicinal beneath the layer of catacombs that still clings to her. It raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” I say, shutting the door with a soft click. “When the Hollows took me away, I feared the worst.”
Callie perches gingerly on the edge of a plush armchair, her hands folded in her lap. Up close, I notice the shadows smudged beneath her eyes, the caverns of her cheeks. She looks like she hasn’t slept or eaten properly in weeks.
“I thought I was done for,” she admits quietly. “That Resonant Reaves would never keep his word to you and free me.” She shakes her head, a rueful twist to her lips. “I don’t know what made him uphold his end of the bargain. I woke up here, in that room.”
Callie nods toward the adjoining door.
I sink into the armchair across from her, studying her gaunt features. Why did Falcen keep his promise to me? And what did he mean by calling my new roommate, Callie, my latest curse?
“I’m just glad you’re out of that hellhole,” I say. “Falcen is a man of his word, if nothing else. Though I can’t fathom his motivations half the time.”
Callie gives a humorless laugh. “Can anyone truly understand the machinations of that man?”
I lean forward, my elbows on my knees. “He said something before he stormed out of here. That you were a curse. What do you think he meant by that?”
She flinches as if I’ve struck her, her gaze darting away. “I ... I don’t know what he could be referring to.”
I study Callie’s face, noting the way she avoids my gaze, the slight tremble in her hands. She’s hiding something, that much is clear. But after all she’s been through, I can’t bring myself to press her further.
“It’s okay,” I say softly. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Just know that I’m here for you.”
She nods, a grateful sparkle overtaking her dull amber eyes for a moment. “Thank you. I’m not used to having someone on my side. It’s been so long since I’ve had a friend.”
The word “friend” makes us both pause. In a place like this, the idea of friendship seems almost laughable.
But looking at Callie, a fierce protectiveness surges through me. She’s been through hell. We share a bond now, forged in the crucible of the catacombs.
“Well, you’ve got one now,” I say firmly. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
She nods, a faint smile touching her lips.
“Your classes begin tomorrow,” she says, standing abruptly. “You should try to get some rest.”
I nod in agreement, though the thought of facing the academy tomorrow fills me with a sickening dread. If the prelude Falcen offered means anything, it’s about to get so much worse for me.
“Are you attending classes, too?” I ask Callie. A hard knot forms in my stomach at facing such uncertain circumstances alone.
She pauses at the threshold between our rooms and turns back. “It’s unlikely. Resonant Reaves has a lot of sway, but he’s been absent for a long time and will have to justify to the Veil Keepers why he freed me. I doubt I’ll be allowed to leave my quarters until my fate is decided.”
“During our travels, I assumed Resonant Reaves came from the academy to retrieve me. Not once did I consider that he left without permission and was outside of their direct control. What does that mean? What game is he playing?”
If Falcen acted alone, then every lash of authority he’s cracked since kidnapping me from my village was his own idea, not the academy’s. That means he hauled me here not under orders, but under impulse.
I glance at my palms. My veins are darker than normal under my skin, souls I never asked for writhing in my blood like hooked fish. Maybe my magick really is that unstable, a loaded crossbow pointed at the world.
I stiffen at the thought of the angry, horrible Echoes that surrounded me at Falcen’s command. Spirits I consumed.
Yum, my ember chimes in.
Now you decide to appear? I ask it with a deep frown. Where were you when Falcen was breathing down my neck and threatening to execute me?
He’d be yum, too, it says.
“I’ve upset you,” Callie says, misreading the annoyance on my face.
“Not at all,” I say quickly, releasing the tension in my features.
Callie gives me a sympathetic look, as if she understands the confusion and resentment swirling inside me.
“Falcen Reaves is a man of many secrets,” she says before lowering her gaze. “I doubt even those closest to him truly know his mind.”
With that cryptic nugget of cheer, she slips into her room and closes the door.
I stare at the spot she just vacated, struck by sudden curiosity.
She knows him better than she lets on, my ember says, deciding to offer an opinion for once.
Yet I don’t disagree.