Chapter Fifty Blood will have blood
CHAPTER FIFTY
Blood will have blood
AFTER WE RETRIEVED LUKE’S RELIC and remains, Angelica insisted that we bury them.
We made a gravesite, and each of us said a few words.
But we didn’t linger long. The alligators, and the wraith that led them, were watching.
They had let us pass for the moment, but none of us knew how long we’d be granted protection.
And there was the question of Luke’s words.
The owner of the weapon resides in the realm of the living. He is a wraith, yet not quite that.
If this entity we were facing wasn’t a person and also wasn’t quite a wraith, maybe there was someone on campus like Kasem: someone whose soul and body were stuck between realms. If Alaster was behind the attack, maybe he’d used the knife to summon Duncan or the general to help him inherit the estate, something no one in his family had managed before.
It felt like we were at a standstill.
Instead of returning to the medical center with everyone else, I snuck back into Poppy House by myself to sulk.
I’d nearly shut the door when a hand stopped me.
Kasem.
He slipped through the door, closing it behind us. My nerves were on fire seeing him again, especially with him observing my space.
I crossed my arms.
“How did you get here?”
“I grew up on this campus. I know all the secret passageways.” He looked around. “Where’s your roommate?”
“Probably with her boyfriend in Rose House,” I mumbled. “We barely interact.”
“Maybe she quit in the middle of the semester,” he said. “Most do from Poppy House.”
I could read the slight judgment on his face as he examined my room.
“I know it’s messy. Things have been a little hectic, if you haven’t noticed.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
There was a barrier between us, and neither of us seemed to know how to approach the other. As he took off his shoes, I noticed he was carrying a yellow bag that I hadn’t spotted when I’d let him in.
“I brought a peace offering,” he said.
“I didn’t know we were at war.”
“Not with you. Never. Myself, perhaps.”
Reluctant, I took the bag from him.
Inside was my mother’s two-piece set. But the fabric wasn’t torn or damaged like it had been after rush. Instead, the seams had been restitched, and the set was almost indistinguishable from when my mother had first left it to me.
“How?” I whispered.
“With Vivian’s help. She figured she owed you for the glove debacle.”
“And the stitching? It’s in nearly perfect condition.”
“Honey has a minor in fashion and I took a soft sculpture class once.” He held up his hand. His fingertips were riddled with needle marks. “Between her and Vivian’s affinity for time, their incantations did a lot of patching up, for me and the set.”
Heat burned at the back of my throat, and my eyes grew misty. Kasem brushed my tears away with his thumb.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “All of you.” I couldn’t explain how much this meant to me. But he knew. He must have. “Is this your way of apologizing for ignoring me?”
Kasem placed the set on my desk, not meeting my gaze as we both sat on my bed.
“I know you have questions,” he began. “I don’t mean to be distant. I just get like that sometimes.”
“Well, it’s awful. And it hurts.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I wasn’t ignoring you. I mean, I was avoiding you, yes. But I think of you always. I just…” He looked away. “Seeing you with him, hearing you talk about this whole separate life that the two of you built together… it’s torture.”
It took a moment for me to understand his meaning. And then it hit me.
He was talking about Jojo.
“Do you know I switched to finance just because I knew he had no interest in it? It’s useful, sure.
But it’s not what I love. But love isn’t enough sometimes.
My brother always said that, and I think I’m finally coming to understand.
It’s easy to be careless and irresponsible when you don’t have anything or anyone you cherish.
But now that I do, it’s eating me alive knowing that love won’t be enough to make up for what I’ve done. ”
He looked pained when he spoke, terribly so. “I have something to tell you. And I know that you’ll hate me for it.”
I shook my head.
There were enough secrets at Westfield, and holding on to all of them and myself was like keeping sand from slipping through my fingertips.
“I’ll try to understand,” I said finally.
I held out my hand and he took it, tracing lines against my palm and the lace glove.
“I wanted to tell you, but… I didn’t know how. And what you said in the swamp about how childish I was being when you were all sacrificing so much for me—it really stuck with me. I can’t keep asking so much of you. It’s unforgivable.”
“You’re scaring me,” I admitted. “Just say it and let me decide. Okay?”
Kasem was silent for a long moment, and when he finally spoke, he couldn’t meet my gaze.
“When you were asking about the accidents on campus and the connection to the curse,” he began, “I spoke of Nathan dying in the woodshop. But there was another accident linked to the curse. One that I caused.” He glanced up at me, his expression imbued with pain and regret.
“Your audition to Westfield,” he said. “I started the fire.”