24. Chapter 23
He walked out of campus security early Monday morning, passing by one of the officers who was hanging posters for the students who had gone missing during the first exam.
The cold air seeped into his skin as he stepped outside.
If only this chill would push the guilt out of his body, or at least the alcohol he had drowned himself in over the weekend to forget that damned statue from the exam.
As he crossed the courtyard toward Arcania Hall for the café, Declan stepped out of the main entrance.
He was dressed in an all-gray suit, of course, and his hair was, as always, slicked back to hide the curls they inherited from their mother.
Ezra froze in place, hoping that if he didn’t move, Declan wouldn’t notice him.
Not a second later, he looked in Ezra’s direction and turned toward him.
“Son of a…” he groaned.
Declan stopped in front of him, his stare particularly icy. “Ezra.”
“That’s me,” he answered. “What?”
“I see you got my reminder.” Declan’s lips pursed into a coy grin before returning to a straight line. “Have you taken care of it?”
“I’ve taken care of a lot of things.” He shrugged, shoving his hands into his pants pockets. “You’ll need to be more specific.” But he knew what his brother was referring to.
Callum.
“Yes or no, Ezra.”
And of course, he followed orders. It was what he spent his Friday and Saturday doing, in fact.
He forged a fucking runaway note and just told the officer he found it under the couch in the apartment.
The security at this school was dumb as hell to believe him.
But it worked. They would take the week to verify the letter with their evidence before contacting Callum’s parents.
Ezra’s throat seized. Another family’s lives ruined, thanks to him.
“Yes.”
“Good,” Declan said, his voice low as he straightened his jacket. “Consider that your one mistake. Let it happen again, and I will tell Father.”
“Why didn’t you already?” he asked.
Declan’s jaw squared. “Because we’re brothers,” he said through gritted teeth. “But we all have jobs to do, and unless you want everything you’ve done to be for nothing, then I suggest you do yours.”
“All? You mean me, you, and Silas?”
Declan rolled his eyes.
“Why him? He wouldn’t have been your choice. You can’t stand one another. So it must’ve been Father’s decision.”
“Do you really think he didn’t know the two of you were involved?” Declan asked, scowling and shaking his head. “He knew, even out of any other relations you’ve had over the years, Silas was one of your weaknesses. He’s using it to his advantage. Simple as that.”
“Nothing about this is simple,” Ezra muttered, biting the inside of his cheek in an attempt to keep any tears at bay. “Well, as fun as this has been, I have a class to get to.” And before Declan could say anything else, Ezra pushed past him and left.
He actually had just under an hour until history class.
So he stopped to grab coffee, a caramel latte for him and a flat white for Ivy, as well as two pumpkin cream cheese danishes.
He wanted to see if they were as delicious as she said they were.
Besides, the extra sugar would be perfect to chase this hangover away.
He rapped his knuckles against her apartment door, and a moment later, Maeve opened it with a warm smile. “Nothing for me?” she asked as she let him pass.
“Let me know your order, and I’ll get breakfast for you too sometime,” he replied, mustering a laugh as he passed her by.
Ivy sat at the table, her long red hair obscuring her face, and her tight brown skirt had risen up her thighs.
He tore his eyes away from her, refusing to acknowledge the warmth coming to his cheeks before he embarrassed himself.
Liam sat across from her, and he was about to comment on missing a team meeting when he noticed the letters between them.
She told him. She told another person about it. Another person he would need to trick. To fool. To lie to about all of this.
“Hey, you alright, mate?” Liam greeted cheerfully, peeling himself away from the notes. Ivy looked over at him, and unlike Liam, she immediately caught on to how his mood shifted.
“I’m fine,” he mumbled. He walked over to the table and plopped Ivy’s coffee and breakfast on it and moved toward the counter. He leaned back against it and sipped his coffee quickly, hoping the caffeine would quell his raging headache.
“Anyway, you mentioned yesterday that you saw someone else in the exam?” Liam asked, tapping his fingers against the table. Each tap of his fingers sent a stabbing pain through Ezra’s skull.
“Yeah, but there couldn’t have been another person there with us. Otherwise there would’ve been another orb,” Ivy added, digging into the paper bag to pull out her breakfast.
“Well, not sure if this would be the case with Arcania, but castles would often have escape routes for the royal family for emergencies,” Liam said.
Still. Tapping. “This school is as old as the hills, and the warfare side of campus was used for defense at one point. What if there’s a hidden door leading out of the building? ”
“Or they lead somewhere else. Maybe that’s how the students are going missing.” Ivy beamed as she scooped up the letters, dragging them loudly across the table. “You’re brilliant! If there are tunnels leading out of the exam hall, we should try to find them an—”
“Yeah, so brilliant,” Ezra scoffed. “Instead of completing our next exam, we should waste time trying to find a secret door leading to tunnels that don’t exist.”
“What the hell, Ezra?” Maeve asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
“It’s only a theory, mate. Better than nothing,” Liam said.
He shook his head. “Is it? If these tunnels do exist, who’s to say we won’t go missing? That we won’t disappear? It’s a stupid fucking theory.”
Ivy pushed herself out of her chair. Her magic vibrated against his skin, stabbing him like thorns on a rose bush. “Ezra—”
“No, you know I’m right, Ivy,” he cut her off. “And why would you th—”
“Ezra,” Ivy interrupted, her voice firmer than he’d heard from her before. She glanced over her shoulder at Liam and Maeve. “Can you…”
“Yeah,” Maeve said awkwardly, pulling at Liam. “Let’s go grab a coffee or two.”
“Or three,” Liam added as he got up from the table. Within a minute, the two of them were gone, leaving him and Ivy alone.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she asked, stepping in front of him.
“Me?” Honestly, the answer to that question would be too long.
He ran his hand through his hair, gripping it at the base of his skull to alleviate some of the pain.
It didn’t fucking help. “What’s wrong with you?
How many people are you going to tell about this, Ivy?
You want to tell the whole damn school, too?
” He turned around, reaching for the window, and flung it open before facing her again. “Be my guest!”
Her face reddened, and she moved around him to slam the window shut. “That’s what this is about? You’re being a…”
“A what?”
“An asshole!” she shouted. “You’re being an asshole because I told one more person.”
“Did it occur to you that the more people who know about this, the more danger you put yourself in? You’re being stalked, Ivy! How do you know it’s not him?”
“I just do,” she argued. She leaned her hip against the counter and crossed her arms. “He’s trying to help!”
His head was splitting in half, and he gripped the counter tightly, trying to force the pain somewhere else in his body. “If you want his help so badly, then why am I here? Maybe he should’ve been the one helping you across the bridge instead.”
He peered over at her to see her pink lips parted slightly as she searched his face. He snapped his gaze away. She didn’t need to read deeper into his psyche. Not today.
She huffed a singular laugh. “Are you jealous? Is that what this is about?”
He rolled his eyes before turning back to her. “Not at all.”
“No, I think you are.” She took a step closer to him, her hands on her hips.
“Is it because you’re not the only one with this secret?
I know it bothered you when I told Maeve, too.
” She tilted her head to stare at him directly.
“Or maybe it’s that he’s nice to me, and it’s apparently something you are so incapable of for more than a few days at a time! ”
He clenched his jaw and pushed himself away from the counter.
Instead of walking away like he should have done, he pressed against her until she was trapped between him and the counter.
Her breath hitched as his hands grabbed the surface on either side of her waist, and her lavender-vanilla scent washed over him as he leaned in closer to her.
“You say you want me to be nice to you,” he murmured, bringing his lips to her ear.
He should turn around and leave. Right. Now.
But being this close to her was intoxicating.
And even though his brain was telling him to push her away, a part of him wanted to retreat into her.
“I can treat you very nicely, Ivy. Believe me.”
She exhaled shakily, her hot breath sending shockwaves through his body.
He swallowed roughly, gripping the counter harder to avoid grabbing a hold of her. “Except I’ve seen the fire in your eyes when we’re at each other’s throats. I’ve felt how your magic trembles when we fight. You enjoy this as much as I do.”
She pulled her head back enough for their eyes to meet. Her pupils were blown and her cheeks flushed. But her jaw was tight as she made her best attempt at a glare. “You’re confusing it with hatred.”