15. Chapter 14
She’d been pacing around the campus security waiting room for the last half hour—weaving between the rows of fake leather blue seats, mindlessly staring at the posters about campus security and safety tips on the worn white walls.
It didn’t escape her notice that it was nearing twelve-thirty.
Maeve would be back from the party any minute and would notice Ivy wasn’t there.
But maybe figuring out what story to tell her didn’t matter if she was about to be expelled.
She played out every scenario in her head, and all of them ended with her getting kicked out of Arcania and her plan falling apart.
To make matters worse, she was stuck with Ezra, who sat in one of the chairs, flipping through magazines with his leg bouncing.
“Are you not freaking out right now?” She brushed her hands through her hair for what had to be the hundredth time.
“I did nothing wrong. Why would I worry about a punishment for nothing?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the magazine. The pages rustled as he flipped to the next one, and the noise sent a wave of irritation through her. “You, on the other hand…”
“Excuse me?” She stomped over to him, snatching the magazine away.
He glared at her and huffed. “I have an alibi. I was at the party.” His hand gestured toward her and he lowered his voice. “But you? I hope you know how to lie because I don’t think security will look the other way if they find out you were sneaking around a locked school building after hours.”
“And how do you know it was locked?” A stupid defense. She winced as his head tilted to the side.
“Right, I’m sure they leave all buildings unlocked for students to roam in and out of at all hours of the night.” He leaned forward with his eyes narrowed. “What were you doing over there, hmm?”
She clenched her jaw, her grip tightening on the magazine in her hand. “It’s none of your business.”
“Maybe it should be. I know how to get out of situations like these.”
She sneered. “I’m sure you do.”
“Fine, if you want to look guilty, be my guest, Snapdragon.” He sighed, grabbing the magazine back from her. “And stop pacing. Your squeaky shoes are giving me a headache.”
She crossed her arms and huffed. “Stop calling me that. I have a name, you know.”
“And I’m waiting to use it until I feel like apologizing,” he said, his lips in a crooked grin as he flipped through the magazine again.
Before she could say something back, the doors leading to the rest of the security office opened.
Dean Wren, followed by the security officer who found them, walked through.
Wren’s dark hair was held messily with a claw clip, and her brown eyes were puffy and her olive skin dull, likely due to dragging herself out of bed this late.
She sighed and wrapped her blue peacoat tighter around her body.
“Good evening,” she said slowly before covering her mouth as she yawned. “Your names?”
“Ivy Heartwell.”
“Ezra Thaler.”
Wren sat in one of the chairs in the row across from them and gestured for Ivy to take a seat. Ivy reluctantly sat next to Ezra, who had placed the magazine on the seat of the chair on the other side of him.
“Mind telling me what happened tonight?” the dean asked. The officer next to her took out a pen and a pad of paper from his back pocket, scribbling something on it.
Ivy shifted uncomfortably as the officer studied them and scribbled again. Shit, was he writing that down? Did he already think she was guilty?
“We were at the party over in Belarune,” Ezra said. Ivy snapped her attention to Ezra, whose eyes flicked over to hers before turning back to Wren.
“Together?”
“Separate.” Ivy cut in, turning her focus to the dean. “We didn’t go together.”
Ezra sighed. “Yeah, not together.”
“I left early,” she said, playing with the sleeve of her jacket.
“Why?” Wren asked.
“Oh, um, I’m not much of a party person. I had wanted to stay in and get ahead on reading assignments, but…” Ivy paused, her heart thudding so loud she thought the whole room might hear it. Her head spun as she thought through a series of lies she could tell. Would they be convincing enough?
“She didn’t want to miss out,” Ezra added for her. “Everyone’s been talking about the party all week.”
She glanced at him and nodded at his encouraging stare. “Yeah, I was hearing how over the top Glamour parties were. I wanted to see for myself, even if it was for an hour or so.”
“When she left early, I followed so I could apologize for running into her at the train station.”
She turned back to Dean Wren. “He practically ran me over.”
“I don’t think the dean cares about semantics,” Ezra said with a small laugh. But Wren didn’t crack a smile. “Anyway, I wanted to show her the ember lilies before we went back to our building. I thought she might like them.”
She snapped her attention back to Ezra. How the hell was it so easy for him to lie? Yes, there were ember lilies in the courtyard of Sequoia Hall. But it was far more likely he was pulling an excuse out of his ass than actually thinking of what she would like.
Ezra shifted in his chair, staring absently at his hands for a moment. The security officer allowed him to wash his hands. Could he still feel the blood on his fingers? “Once we passed Hemlock Hall, that was when we heard a scream.”
When Ezra didn’t elaborate further, Wren leaned forward. “A scream? Like someone drunk from the party or…?”
“No,” Ivy said before Ezra could answer, unsure whether it would be another lie. “It was like someone was scared. Crying out for someone to help. I—we ran to find out what had happened. I thought maybe someone fell coming out of the party and hurt themselves.”
“And what did you see?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I don’t know if they ran into the forest or not, since it’s close. It was hard to see in the dark.”
“The only thing left behind was a ring my roommate was wearing earlier in the day and some blood.”
“And who is your roommate?” Wren asked.
“Callum McEvers.”
Ivy’s heart jumped in her chest. That was one of the names on the door during her assessment. How would the magic in the exam hall know to choose his name?
Wren nodded. Over the next ten minutes, she asked how well Ezra knew his roommate, whether they had gone to the party together, and whether anything had stood out. But there was nothing out of the ordinary, and Ezra barely knew his roommate, given that it was the first week of school.
“Thank you both for answering my questions,” Wren said. “Any time there is a campus-wide party, there are bound to be some disruptive activities. Despite our best efforts to control the magic around the campus, students still get pulled into anomalies.”
“Can students get hurt from them?” Ivy asked.
“From time to time, yes. There are certainly other scenarios. For all we know, McEvers could have cut his hand on some glass,” Wren said, lacing her fingers together in her lap.
“We’ll be conducting our own investigation, but he will probably reappear on his own within a day or two, like others who have gotten lost during their assessments. ”
Ivy’s hands gripped the edge of her seat as Wren turned to discuss something with the officer.
They didn’t seem concerned. Or find the events of the night odd.
They weren’t treating his case with any urgency, even though a student—Briar—had died last year.
Her blood boiled as rage threatened to consume her.
Was this how they treated Briar’s disappearance?
Was she assumed to be lost during an exam and never searched for until it was too late?
“It’s getting late. You should both return to your apartments and rest,” Wren said, rising from her chair. “If we have any further questions, we’ll contact you.”
“And what happens if he dies?” Ivy blurted out as Wren turned to leave. She could see Ezra’s attention snap to her in her periphery.
Wren turned back around with a brow raised. “It is far too soon to speculate such things, Ms. Heartwell.”
Ivy rose from her chair, crossing her arms beneath her chest. “Is that what you said when Briar Mayclair went missing? It was only weeks later that she was found dead in the woods around campus.”
Wren’s face hardened as she peered down at Ivy.
She took a step closer. When she did, she noticed a faint cloud of gray over her eyes.
“What happened to Ms. Mayclair was a tragedy.” The dean’s voice was even, with no shred of emotion.
“However, if we were to assume every case of a missing student was the same, then the local police station would be unable to do anything else. We’ve adjusted the protocol as needed to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
If our security does not find him within the week, local authorities will be contacted. ”
If she thought Ivy would be satisfied with that reply, she was sorely mistaken. But she realized the dean wouldn’t be giving her any answers tonight. When Ivy didn’t say anything in return, Wren nodded once. “Good night, Ms. Heartwell.” She looked at Ezra. “Mr. Thaler.”
“You need to be a better liar if you’re going to be sneaking into places you shouldn’t be in.”
Ivy snapped her head toward Ezra, who matched her brisk pace across campus. They had remained silent for most of the walk back. She guessed it was too good to continue all the way to her apartment.
“Sorry I’m not a master in deceit,” she spat.
“Everything I said had an element of truth.”
Ivy stopped in the middle of the path and turned to face him. “Oh, like you wanting to apologize to me or showing me the ember lilies? What part of that is true?”
Ezra rolled his eyes and stepped around her to continue to Embry. “At least I made it believable enough for the dean. What was your plan, hmm? Confess to breaking into a professor’s office?”
“No,” Ivy retorted, catching up with him. “And that’s not what I was doing.”
“Oh, please. Remember who the liar is between the two of us and spare me the bullshit,” he said. “And what was with asking about the dead girl last year? Are you trying to bring more attention to yourself?”
Dead girl. The two words were like a knife digging into her chest. “No, I’m not.”
“Then what is it?”
“I don’t know!” she shouted, her voice cracking.
Ezra came to a halt, his hard features softening as he pored over her. He reached out for her, but she took a step back, and he sighed as his hand fell to his side. “Are you alright?”
“Fine.” Her voice was soft. Pathetic. Sad. She wrapped her arms around her body, and the essay crinkled inside her jacket. A pounding ache radiated behind her sinuses, and she winced before stepping around him. “I’m fine.”
But she wasn’t. Her stomach churned as the growing realization settled that the events surrounding Briar’s disappearance went deeper than she initially thought.
The cipher, another student going missing in the middle of the night, and the school acting like it was normal.
The weight of it was crushing, and all she wanted was to get back to her room and sleep.
As they neared Embry, she noticed Ezra wasn’t turning in a different direction. “You don’t have to walk me home, you know.”
“I’m not,” he mumbled, his hands shoved in his pockets. “I live in Embry.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you do.”
“Can we put aside whatever hatred you have for me for one night? We’re both exhausted enough,” he muttered.
Once they made it back to Embry, they climbed the stairs together and stopped on the third floor.
She could’ve come up with some retort if she wasn’t so drained.
God, that meant he was right about something.
Ivy barely registered that he had stopped at one of the apartment doors until she felt a tug on her hand.
She looked down where his hand wrapped around hers, and the strand of silk-like magic of his slid up her arm softly. She shifted her gaze to his. “What?”
He dropped her hand and rubbed the back of his neck. But his magic remained. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Why do you care?” she asked.
“I know you hate me,” he murmured. “I don’t blame you for it. Just…whatever you’re after…you should leave it alone.”
She stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. Who was he to warn her about something he knew nothing about? “And what is it you think I’m after?”
He pursed his lips and sighed before glancing over his shoulder. When he turned back to her, he shook his head. “Get some sleep, Snapdragon.” He waved his hand over the lock, then, with one last look at her, went inside.
When the door clicked shut, she scoffed.
She continued until she reached hers. Thankfully, no light was coming from the crack at the bottom.
She opened it, stepped inside, and leaned her back flat against it as it closed.
It was dark inside, other than the moon shining through the small window over the kitchen sink.
Maeve’s door was still open, so she must not be home yet, by some miracle.
She pushed herself from the door and shuffled into the apartment until something crunched beneath her feet.
On the ground was a blue envelope. Another letter from Briar? She bent down to grab it, tearing it open immediately. But when she pulled out the folded paper inside, her heart dropped into her stomach.
WELCOME TO ARCANIA ACADEMY, IVY.
SNEAKING AROUND CAMPUS IS ONLY THE FIRST STEP IN DISCOVERING THE TRUTH OF WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR. THE LONGER YOU TAKE, THE MORE PEOPLE WILL DISAPPEAR.
- brIAR
Her breath came rapidly now as she reread the letter.
She rustled through her jacket to pull out the essay she’d stolen and rushed to her room.
Flicking on the light, she pressed both pieces of paper flat against her desk next to each other.
She leaned in close, studying how each letter was written on the page. Ivy frowned as tears stung at her eyes.
She dug through her drawers, pulling out the letters she had received so far, and her hands trembled as the pages slid from her grasp.
The handwriting didn’t match. Whoever sent it was pretending to be Briar and must be watching her every move.
Which meant whoever wrote it could be the same person behind what happened tonight.