21. Chapter 20
By the time he’d returned with pizza Monday night, Ivy had told Maeve everything about what had been happening since a new letter had been shoved under their door after he left.
But now he had two people he had to steer away from digging deeper into Callum’s disappearance.
Guilt gnawed at him for leading Ivy into tell him everything.
He figured it out after their confrontation in the library that she was looking into Briar’s supposed death.
The way her face crumpled from her confession…
he wished he were someone else. Anyone else who wasn’t holding on to this secret because seeing her pain etched across her face made his defenses fall.
His apology to her was real. What he said to her in the library was rude. He was trying to push her away, hoping she would stop searching around for what happened that night. But he couldn’t let her go now that he knew who she was really after. Not when his only chance of freedom was within reach.
He wasn’t sure what exactly happened to Briar. All he knew was that he was to erase her name from the headlines. When he didn’t, his family took over, which meant Briar must be linked with the people disappearing this year.
By Wednesday, more posters of Callum had gone up around campus and, since the local police were now involved, he could assume there were some downtown.
Since Silas and whoever else were watching him closely, he was sure his brother knew about it at least. After history class, he spent the rest of the day clearing as many of them as he could in broad daylight.
By seven o’clock, when most classes were either finished or still in session until later, he used nearly the last of his magic on erasing the poster hanging in Dahlia Hall in the School of Fates.
It was a creepy building, especially at night.
The walls were lined with open-flame torches that cast great shadows across the rib-bone vaulted ceilings and skeleton models—human and animal alike.
His hand dropped from the bulletin board, trembling.
After a full day of classes and using his magic to manipulate the ink, exhaustion was settling in.
He stared at the changed poster for a moment longer as shame slithered through his body.
What would’ve happened if he had refused his father this summer?
Would Callum still be around? Was Callum dead because of him?
If he wasn’t dead, Ezra knew he wouldn’t be found unless Father wanted him to be.
He stumbled out of the building, making his way back to Embry slowly.
As he came down the hill from Fates, one of the more familiar faces of his father’s grunts was leaning against the corner of the exam hall.
No doubt waiting for him. Once their eyes met, he turned to the side of the building, going into the shadows, and Ezra followed.
“You could at least try to blend in, Ollie,” he said, keeping his voice low. The man was wearing a beat-up denim jacket with blood splatters on it, for fuck’s sake. “What do you want?”
“More posters been hung.”
Ezra rolled his eyes. “No shit, I can see that. I’ve spent most of the day taking care of them.”
Ollie clenched his jaw as he crossed his thick arms across his chest. “Why are there still some left?”
“Leave the logistics to me, or you’ll lose the few brain cells you have left,” he sneered. “If I change them all at once, it will look suspicious. What do you think will happen if people notice?”
“People are noticing he’s missing, you spoiled cunt,” Ollie grunted. “Police are involved. Declan doesn’t like that, and I’m sure if your father finds out, he won’t like it either.”
“And I’m handling it.” Ezra rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension weaving through his muscles and making his head throb. He turned away from Ollie. All he wanted was to lie down and forget the day existed.
“Is that what you call hanging around that pretty little girlfriend you’ve got now?” The man’s gravelly voice called out. “Are you too distracted with what she has between her thighs to do your job right?”
Ezra came to a halt, his hands curling into fists as a rush of fire ignited inside him. Before he could think otherwise, he was face-to-face with Ollie, drawing the last of his strength to pin the burly man against the brick.
“She has nothing to do with this,” he hissed, letting the fire consume him so much that his voice was unrecognizable to his own ears.
His magic coursed through him toward his opponent, and he relished watching as fear etched across the man’s blocky face.
Ollie’s veins protruded beneath his splotchy, scarred skin, painting him in thin streaks of blue.
“Leave her alone, or I won’t hesitate to show you the full extent of what I’m capable of. You understand?”
Blood leaked from Ollie’s nose, and droplets lifted from his skin into the air.
But his power wavered as he neared the end of his energy, and the uncontrollable rage faded.
Ollie smiled maniacally, the blood sliding over his lips and onto his two front teeth.
A blunt smash knocked against the side of Ezra’s face, his vision in his left eye fizzling to black as he crashed to the ground.
Over the ringing in his eardrum, he could hear Ollie’s raspy chortle. “I don’t think I have much to worry about.” He kneeled, tilting his head to the side as he grabbed Ezra’s jaw in his large hand. “Act up again and I’ll go straight to your father with her name.”
It was as if a thousand tiny knives were stuck into the left side of his face. Tears welled in his eyes, and he gritted his teeth. “Fuck you,” he said weakly.
Ollie shook his head, and he dropped Ezra to the ground. “Do as you’re told, pretty boy, or you won’t like the consequences.” With one last laugh, Ollie turned and left.
He wasn’t sure how long he stayed on the ground.
It was long enough for his eye to close over completely from the pressure and for the bleeding to stop.
At least, he thought the bleeding had stopped.
He couldn’t be too sure. The late September chill settled over his body, and he knew he needed to get up, but he could barely move his body without his face protesting.
It didn’t matter if he erased the other students without notice.
One minor misstep, one small mistake, was enough to get him knocked to the ground as a reminder of what waited for him if he didn’t do the job perfectly.
Maybe it was foolish of him to believe he’d get his freedom if he’d done exactly as he was told.
No, it was foolish to think otherwise. He stared into the night sky, the moon and stars twinkling brightly above him without a care in the world.
The small spots of light reminded him of…
A soft thump of footsteps sounded in the grass somewhere above his head.
“Hello?” he called out, his voice cracking.
He could feel who it was before he could see them. Ice trailed over his skin as they got closer, and soon enough, Silas’s pale face appeared above him. “Oh, it’s just you.”
“Good evening to you as well, Ezra,” Silas said. “Had a run-in with one of your father’s men?”
Ezra snorted, and a stabbing pain shot through his skull. “You should know. I’m sure Declan sent him based on your latest report of what’s going on.”
“Well, you should’ve taken care of Callum by now,” Silas said. He extended his hand to Ezra.
Being stubborn, Ezra forced himself off the ground and wobbled as he got to his feet. Silas placed his hand on Ezra’s shoulder to help, but Ezra brushed him away. “I don’t need your help.”
“You said you would take care of it,” Silas said coldly. “And now the police are involved. I had no choice but to alert your brother. He will have to come here to take care of the mess. As far as I know, your father is unaware that this has happened.”
“Stop acting like you’re doing me a favor, Sy.”
Silas grabbed his shoulder, squeezing hard. Ezra turned to face him, and he could’ve sworn Silas flinched at the sight. But that cold face, the one Ezra had grown to know every inch of, steeled. His dark eyes were hollow, and the gentle slopes of his lips were in a rigid line.
“I am doing you a favor.” Silas’s voice strained. “Do you understand what will happen if you fail?”
“Of course I do!” he shouted, pushing through the pain pulsing through his head. “I’ve lived the consequences already. I’ll be tossed in the basement and acknowledged only when I am useful. And even then, my father will bend my mind to his will to ensure I follow his orders perfectly.”
Silas’s expression cracked. His thick, pale eyebrows twisted as his hand slid to Ezra’s chest. “I didn’t know.”
“Now you do,” Ezra’s voice broke. He took a step back, letting Silas’s hand fall away from his body. He turned away, stumbling out of the darkness and back to the path toward Embry. The chill slipped away from his bones, leaving him to wonder if Silas didn’t follow him.
If he were lucky, both Maeve and Ivy would be asleep by the time he got there, and he could heal himself in the morning until his injuries were…
well, he’d likely still look like he got punched in the face, but he’d figure out what lie to spin tomorrow.
He lifted his arm to check his watch, bringing it to the opposite side of his face.
Half past ten. There was a fifty-fifty chance they’d be asleep.
Maeve was the more likely one since she had early classes or was still working at the library.
Ivy had a later start on Tuesday and stayed up late Monday night doing homework.
She might have done the same thing tonight.
When he got back to the apartment, the living room was dark.
No light came from beneath Maeve’s door.
But there was a soft glow coming from beneath Ivy’s.
He closed the front door behind him quietly, hoping he wouldn’t alert her to his presence, and discarded his shoes, bag, and sweatshirt before sinking onto the couch.