Chapter 34
My head is throbbing like the mother of all hangovers, but I know I didn’t go out drinking.
As I peel open my eyelids, the world swims into focus. Alexis is studying my face, a deep line of stress between his brows.
A wave of pain and nausea washes over me. What the hell happened? “Alexis?” When I push myself up on my elbows, I notice that I’m wrapped in a warm, soft sweater.
"Theo? Pulu? How are you feeling?" The professor’s rich voice makes my chest fill with warmth. Oh, right. I’m in Alexis’ office. Cosmo was here and then…oh. Those red trainers.
"What happened?" I croak, my voice all raspy.
He takes my hand, smiling gently. “You…”
But another voice speaks over him. “You freaked out and lost your mind, dud. What was that all about? Did you see something?”
Tension knots in my gut as I realize Cosmo is also looming over me.
"Give her a fucking minute, Drakeward," Alexis snaps.
Cosmo ignores him. “Tell me what you saw.”
As I close my eyes, trying to remember, I suddenly realize I don’t have an uncontrollable urge to spill my guts to Cosmo. Am I free? I think I’m free from his mark. My hand snakes up to my neck.
“It’s gone,” Alexis murmurs. “You’re OK now.”
Gods, sounds great, but I can’t concentrate on what that means. I have to grasp the fraying threads of my consciousness, pulling them together to weave a coherent picture of what I just witnessed. There is something I need to remember, and the memories are slipping away.
“There was an aura…an aura surrounding those shoes.” I picture the gold and lilac swirls.
“I don’t know why I could see it, but I could.
And then flashes. Vivid, impossible images.
A world of white, hard light, quicksands and creatures and…
Wes and Donovan.” My heart stutters. “They were there. I saw them.”
“Where, Theo?” Alexis asks gently, his hand stroking my hair. “Where was it? What did you see?”
“I don’t know, but it was Wes and Donovan,” I say, my voice wobbling, and I gulp back tears.
“They were… in that place.” Just glimpses, fleeting moments, but it was them.
Wes, his face gaunt, and with eyes filled with a strange, otherworldly light.
Donovan, looking over his shoulder, had a haunted expression in his eyes.
They couldn’t see me, I knew that instinctively, but it was them. It was them.
Shit.
A surge of strength floods through me, and I sit up, looking between Alexis and Cosmo. "I saw them, I felt them. They're alive…" My voice trails off. Were they alive? Yes, I think so, but not completely.
"You think she was hallucinating?" Cosmo looks at Alexis, bypassing me.
“What do you think, pulu?” Alexis asks.
"No, I’m sure I wasn’t. It was like I glimpsed somewhere completely…”
“Completely what?” Alexis takes my hand and squeezes it tightly.
“I don’t know. An impossible place. Gods. I sound like a crazy person.”
“No, you don’t,” my professor reassures me. “We believe you. Is there anything else you can remember, anything at all that gives us a direction or clue to where this place is?”
The images are fading, and within seconds, I can’t see anything else in my memory except a golden glow. “There’s only the light left,” I sigh, feeling a loss I can’t quite understand. “Just the glow.”
Just the glow?
Oh shit. I sit up sharply. “It was like when I sank in the pool, there was the same kind of light.” I start struggling to stand up from the sofa.
"Slow down, pulu," Alexis says, keeping a hand on me. "One thing at a time. You just collapsed.”
“I'm fine,” I reply as Cosmo's phone starts ringing.
Sighing, he sends the call straight to voicemail, then looks at me. “Yeah, sit your ass down, dud.” Charming, but I do still feel wobbly, so I flop back onto the sofa.
“Can you explain what you mean about the pool, Theo?” Alexis asks, shooting Cosmo a dirty look.
The sensation of being sucked down, down, down into the cool water comes back to me. “The aura around the shoes. It’s the same glow as I saw at the bottom of the dive pool,” I explain quietly, knowing I sound perfectly bonkers.
Alexis hums. “I thought Max had stepped into the energy, that’s why it was on the soles.”
“No shit,” Cosmo sneers. “But he’s hardly likely to have gone swimming in those kicks.” He groans, rubbing a hand over his face as his phone pings with notifications.
Alexis turns his back on Cosmo. “We find the energy source, maybe we find our people.” He runs a hand over his bristly chin, his brow furrowed in frustration.
I think about what he just said. “Cosmo, did you see it too? In the pool?”
“No, nothing,” he says. “That’s all you.” Cosmo is about to say something else, but his phone rings, cutting him off. "Motherfucker," he groans, sending it to voicemail again.
"So I think…" Alexis begins, but his words are interrupted by the insistent ringtone. "Fuck, are we keeping you from something, Drakeward?"
"I wish you fucking were," he mutters under his breath. "I have to go. What are you going to do with her?”
"I'll take her back to the dorms," Alexis says. "She can rest, and I'll do more research."
"I'm right here, and I can make my own decisions," I tell them, shouldering my way between the two of them. "And actually, I feel fine now. More than fine, I feel good."
Cosmo's phone blares again, and he turns and storms out of the office.
Alexis pulls me to his side. "You may feel fine, but I'd be happier if you rested."
My stomach rumbles in argument. “I need food more than anything; nothing to worry about.”
"But I do worry."
I look up at Alexis, and my breath hitches as our eyes meet. I shouldn’t feel this connection—especially as he’s my teacher.
"You’re truly OK, pulu?" he asks, his brow furrowed as I stand frozen.
I shake myself, forcing a smile. "Yep, no problem."
“OK then. You go eat. Think you’ll be up for more training tomorrow, or do you want a Sunday lay-in?” he asks as he walks me to the office door.
“Let’s train,” I reply, giving him a small wave and crushing down the desire to throw myself into his arms for a hug.
“Sounds good, pulu.”
Walking to the cafeteria, I make a mental note to find out what "pulu" means.
◆◆◆
The usual unspoken and spoken bullshit assaults me as I pick up a turkey sandwich from the lunch buffet. “I hear she made a pass at Cosmo Drakeward, can you believe her nerve?” —Skinny bitch, who does she think she is, stupid dud—
—What the fuck does she think she’s wearing?—looks like a clown—
“Jordan isn’t going to stand for that. It’s going to be so entertaining, seeing her get what’s coming to her.” —Glad I’m not the one Jordan’s hating on—
It’s all water off a duck’s back, because I’m currently dissecting the word ‘Feniks’.
Sin, kin, ski, ink, inks, skin, fine, knife…
Since none of the Defectivum students are around, I spot an empty table at the back of the room and take a seat. I’m starting to make short work of my food when a strange hush comes over the cafeteria. Looking up, rows of faces are turned in my direction.
Someone is standing behind me.
“Make her move, Cosmo,” a falsely saccharine voice whines. “She’s in our place.”
Oh great.
A hand slams down onto the table beside me, rattling my tray.
I know it’s Cosmo by the heavy gold watch on his wrist. Without a word, I start gathering my things.
There is absolutely no point in getting into a ridiculous battle over this.
I have more important things to worry about than canteen turf wars.
As I move, Cosmo meets my gaze. His cold, haughty face shows no emotion, but when Jordan tucks her arm around his waist, he can’t hide a flinch. “I’ve had enough of you crawling around my fiancé,” she snarls. “Keep away from us or I’ll make you regret it.”
Fiancé?
“Just leave it, Jordan,” Cosmo sighs wearily. “She’s not worth the trouble.”
Jordan tosses her hair and giggles. “You’re so right, baby. She’s completely worthless.”
As I turn my back and move away, I hear Cosmo say a dismissive "Whatever."
Yeah. Whatever to you, too, Cosmo Drakeward.
He and Jordan Singleton-Smith are engaged? They deserve each other, a perfect match made in hell.