CHAPTER 18
As the clock tower bell tolled the hour, I couldn’t help but cringe.
“Relax,” Thorne said from beside me as we walked down the hall. “You won’t be punished for missing morning assembly.”
I didn’t respond, mostly because I didn’t quite believe him.
That and because my reaction wasn’t purely about being late.
Every time the bell tolled, I couldn’t help but remember those awful cuts.
I could feel them right now, stinging, burning, bleeding.
Spilling my life force all over the stairwells and halls.
“My blood,” I suddenly burst out.
Thorne glanced at me. He’d left Comet in his dorm while Riku and Oz had gone ahead to the morning assembly. But Thorne had other plans—plans that he had yet to share with me, the controlling brute. When he saw the panic stamped on my face, he replied, “We took care of it.”
My eyes widened. “All of it?”
“All of it.” His mouth formed a grim line. “It looked like a bloody massacre.”
I could only imagine. A shiver raced up my spine when I tried to picture how gruesome I must have appeared when he’d found me.
Grateful once more that he hadn’t left me there in the hallway to die, I opened my mouth to thank him again, then promptly closed it, recalling his shocking confession about the bet.
This whole time, he’d let me believe that he had bet against me.
As annoyed as I was, I couldn’t get over the fact that he’d actually bet in my favor.
They all had. Did they really think that Blaze would die before I did?
And was that the true reason why Thorne had saved my life?
Not just last night but the times before that as well?
Realizing that he’d probably saved me because of a stupid bet definitely made me feel a little less grateful. I mean, I’d known he was competitive and didn’t like to lose, but a bet?
What if touching me in the shower had been a bet, too?
I quickly shut the possibility down, certain I would yell at him if I thought about it too long. The last thing we needed was another heated shouting match filled with painful confessions.
Now that it was just him and me, I could feel that buzzing tension between us return.
It felt stronger than ever, maybe even more so, the air surrounding us rife with old hurts and new.
At least that spiteful anger in his eyes hadn’t reemerged, probably because he’d temporarily released it with his explosive orgasm.
My mind started drifting down the gutter again, thinking of dirty forbidden things. Frustrated with myself, I said more forcefully than planned, “Wherever you’re taking me, I need to get changed first. I don’t want anyone seeing me like this.”
And getting the wrong idea.
Thorne’s gaze swung my way again, dropping down my front. When his attention lingered, taking in my form while I walked, I got flustered and slowed. He slowed too, matching his long strides to my short ones.
Huh. Well, that was new. So was walking beside me. Usually, he left me scrambling to catch up.
“That’s our first stop,” he evenly replied and faced forward again. Wait. No I don’t care if you’re embarrassed speech? Maybe I needed to almost-die more often.
More uneasy silence followed, but at least I could breathe easier knowing I’d be free of his clothes soon.
The entire way to Jade Wing, we didn’t cross a single soul.
Everyone was in the morning assembly, and I could only imagine the whispered rumors about to fly with my absence.
Blaze would be at the helm, of course, gloating that I’d finally gotten what I deserved.
If it really had been him behind that curse, I wondered if he’d be stupid enough to claim credit and risk expulsion.
Probably.
When we reached the base of Jade Wing Tower, the itch for vengeance finally hit me.
It carried me up the dark winding stairs, giving me the fuel necessary to drag one trembling leg forward after another.
I’d let the abuse go on long enough. Whoever cursed me needed to pay.
Thorne didn’t comment about the lack of light, following closely on my heels, but when we hit the top, he maneuvered his big body in front of mine and pushed open the door.
That’s right. I hadn’t locked it in my hurry to leave last night. Terrific. Someone could have planted another curse in there for all I knew. Way to go, me.
I didn’t protest as Thorne barged into my room without asking, too busy trying to calm my thundering heart. At first, I thought it was because of my weakened state, but when my limbs started to freeze up the closer I got to the door, I knew that it also thundered out of fear.
“Clear,” Thorne called from inside, and some of my fear faded.
At least I didn’t feel entirely alone anymore. A feeling like that should bring me relief, but I wasn’t sure if I could trust it. So I pushed it aside, inhaling deeply before stepping through the door. Right away, my gaze shot to the floor near my desk. Finding it empty, panic gripped me.
“Where is it?”
“Where’s what?”
“It has to be here. It’s evidence.”
“Winter . . .”
I hurried to the desk and started to search, my panic growing the longer I came up empty. “It has to be here.”
Someone had been in my room. Again.
“Winter.”
It had to have been Blaze, checking to see if I was dead. When he hadn’t found me, he’d absconded with the spellbook to cover his tracks. He was going to get away with murder—almost murder—if I didn’t find that blasted book.
I continued to frantically search, growing more desperate by the second. Where was my bloodied towel? Where was the dark pool of blood on the floor? Nothing made sense. It was like last night had never happened, like it had been nothing more than a nightmare.
I spun in place, feeling like the walls were closing in. This was a mistake. A cruel mistake.
“Winter!”
Large hands grabbed my biceps and shook me, forcing me back to reality. To the realization that Thorne was here. I wasn’t alone. I wasn’t alone. Which meant that it wasn’t all in my head. Last night had happened. It had been real.
“I-I don’t understand,” I said, my voice sounding small, lost. “It’s all gone.”
“Look at me, Snowflake,” he commanded, yet his tone was soothing.
Gentle. When I continued to glance around the room, he let go of one of my arms to grasp my chin.
Only when my eyes finally met his did he say, “We took care of the blood, remember? Even up here. As for the cursed book, I called Chancellor Grimshaw before we left and told him what happened. He came by personally to collect it and is expecting us in his office as soon as you’re dressed. ”
I blinked, slowly digesting his words as I came fully back to reality.
Oh. That made sense. Feeling foolish, I tugged my chin from his grip and started to ease back, only to find that I couldn’t.
Not because of his hand on my arm, but because my fists were clenched in his shirt.
Mortified, I let go and quickly stepped back.
He dropped his hand, watching me closely as if I was going to break.
Not gonna happen.
“I should get dressed then,” I said, then paused, waiting for him to leave. When he continued to stare at me, I gave him a pointed look. “A little privacy, please?”
Slowly, ever so slowly, he crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
My jaw dropped. Did he just—? Hell, no, he did not just say that.
“Thorne, leave,” I demanded, not so kindly.
“Why? Do I make you nervous?”
Hell, yes.
“No, I just don’t want to be ogled right now.”
“Tough. I have to keep you alive, and that means my eyes stay on you at all times.”
My eyes practically bugged out of their sockets. “Seriously? You can’t follow me around everywhere.”
“Watch me.”
“I don’t want to watch you. I want you to leave so I can get dressed.”
He didn’t move a muscle.
Gah! Fine. Two could play that game.
In a flash, I called the shadows to me and morphed into darkness. Exhaustion pulled at me almost immediately, but I stubbornly ignored it, silently slipping away from him.
“Snowflake,” Thorne rumbled, the warning in his voice loud and clear despite my muted senses. I ignored that too, only staying in one spot long enough to grab the clothing I needed. “You’re still recovering. You shouldn’t be shadewalking right now.”
I glanced his way, annoyed to find that his gaze was locked on my little pocket of shadows.
With the only light to see by coming from the gloomy sky outside my broken window, he shouldn’t be able to track me so easily.
Maybe I was more fatigued than I thought, and my shadows were slipping.
Gritting my teeth, I willed even more darkness to cloak me before gliding to another spot of the room.
I’d just started to undress with shaking fingers when I heard him expel a clipped sigh and say, “Fine, I won’t look.”
I paused, then tugged his t-shirt over my head. “Not falling for that again.”
“I promise.”
I paused again, considering. Maybe I was naive when it came to guys, but his words sounded genuine. Plus, I was starting to sweat from the effort of concealing myself, and I wasn’t petty or stubborn enough to ignore his offer.
“Then turn around,” I instructed him.
He did, and I immediately dropped the shadows, nearly swaying with relief. Checking to make sure he wasn’t using the mirror’s reflection to peek at me, I stripped off his boxer briefs and put on my own underwear.
Halfway through dressing, the silence became too much, and I said without thinking, “What happened to the student who lived up here last year?”
Right away, I knew that bringing up the topic was a bad idea. For all I knew, Thorne was the one behind the warlock’s murder. Maybe he’d tried to scare him into leaving too but hadn’t accounted for him falling out the window.
No, I couldn’t picture Thorne being that sloppy. Every move he made was calculated and controlled. If he was behind the warlock’s fall, he’d meant for it to happen.