Chapter 22 Tied in Knots #2
“Sorry,” Hailey said quickly. “I’ve never seen anyone cry cobwebs before,” she told her roommate apologetically, and then she plopped on the bed beside her and threw her arm around Giselle’s shoulder.
“You want me to find you a hanky? …or one of those cobweb dusters? We’ll need a big one,” she said lifting her eyes to the ceiling, and she could have sworn Giselle let out a single giggle.
“Get away from me,” she said, but not in her angriest voice, and Hailey slouched back to her own bed.
“I was afraid that I got you in trouble,” she told Giselle.
“You did worse than that.”
Hailey’s heart sank. “What happened? Where did you guys go?”
“To punish Jaycen—he made me hold her soul down while he tied it, so I could feel her pain and her fear—he thinks it keeps me in line,” she told Hailey, pulling another string from her eye. “He makes me help him with all his punishments—that’s why everyone’s afraid of me.”
“How do you hold down a soul?” Hailey asked, mortified. “How do you tie a soul?” she said, with her hand to her heart.
Giselle didn’t answer.
“I’m really sorry, Giselle,” Hailey told her. “Is Jaycen alright?”
“Jaycen?” Giselle spat. “Who cares? She deserved it—she almost killed you, Hailey.” Giselle wiped a ribbon of web from her chin and then threw her hand out. “She’s been here for years, and she doesn’t even try to rehabilitate herself,” Giselle put her nose in the air and sniffed.
“She didn’t try to kill me,” Hailey said. “I jumped into that in-between, and she actually helped me get rid of a tunneling earworm.”
“She lured you, dumbass. She used a barrier breaker—"
“What’s a barrier breaker?”
“It’s a bomb, you idiot. It tears a layer of the veil a little—it creates a temporary in-between. She opened a lethal one, knowing you’d come in after her. She only pulled out your earworm because she’s dead scared of Asher.”
“How could she know I’d jump in after her?”
“Because look at you… You scream goody-two-shoes.”
“Oh,” said Hailey, clutching her stomach. “Why would she do that to me?” Taking a great breath, she tried not to think about suffocating inside a jellied in-between.
Giselle studied Hailey.
“I know why Asher claimed you,” she said, her face softer than Hailey had ever seen it.
“You ring with goodness. I can hear it over your broken crystals. It must remind him of the serenity inside the Aether—and you can’t even imagine the wickedness inside Jaycen,” she told her almost kindly.
“Anybody can pretend to be a good person some of the time, but to rise like you do with nothing but good in your heart—it’s very rare, Hailey.
Even though everyone here avoids you, they all want to know you. ”
Giselle’s crystal eyes sparkled beautifully, and Hailey could have sworn her hair showed flecks of gold.
Expecting the insult that was sure to follow all that, Hailey sat in silence for a good ten seconds before she realized that Giselle had just paid her a compliment.
“You stink,” Giselle said, wearing her normal look of disgust again.
There it is, Hailey thought, and she shuffled off to the shower, careful to avoid the shards of vibrating crystals spread across the floor.
Before bed, she gathered the pieces back into their box and pushed it into her closet. Giselle was already snoring on a bed of silk—on the ceiling—when Hailey reclined on her naked mattress. She shivered twice and drifted off.
In the morning, on the floor at the foot of her bed, near the door, Hailey stepped on an envelope. Inside, she found her schedule and a note.
That liar, she thought as she read her schedule.
Fin knew exactly where to find Asher—he had an office inside the observatory.
It was written in black and white on her schedule.
Not that she would ever venture there without an invitation, but she wanted her photo of Holly back. She hastily unfolded the note:
She thought about what Giselle had told her the night before—that Jaycen was wicked and had tried to kill her.
It would have been great to ask Giselle if she knew why Jaycen would want to see her, but she’d already gone.
She must’ve tip-toed—or floated or maybe she just crawled across the ceiling for all Hailey knew, but she never made a sound when she left the room that morning before Hailey woke up.
She’d just have to rely on Fin’s assessment.
Hailey had slept in her Bear Towne sweat pants, and after she opened her closet, she decided she’d wear them for the rest of the day too. There was no other option.
Her jellied jeans popped up to attention as soon as the closet door opened, and then they began pacing back and forth as if they were on patrol.
Her jellied t-shirt had folded itself into a swan and cooed sleepily on its shelf.
Meanwhile, her other pair of jeans, which had fallen into Alaskan bog water, had come out of the washer and dried into otherworldly cement.
They now resembled a stone carving, and they were just as flexible as one too.
Hailey couldn’t bend them enough to get a foot inside and left them standing against the wall.
She was afraid to put on her muskeg-jellied shoes, which quivered in the corner.
Thankfully, rain poured on Bear Towne that day, and Hailey grabbed her wellies while Tomas fixed her hair.
Outside Fin’s door, Hailey listened for any suspicious giggling before she knocked. He answered straight away and closed his door quickly behind him, before Hailey could see inside.
“Morning,” she said more like a question, and he nodded, grabbing her by the hand and practically dragging her down the stairs.
“All the clothes that went into the in-between with me have come to life,” she told him right before she tripped down the stairs.
“Careful!” he yelled as he caught her.
“You’re pulling me too fast, Fin, my legs can’t keep up with your lightning speed,” she said, smiling brightly as he held onto her.
Fin laughed heartily and shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
“What are we running from?” she asked as he steadied her back to her feet, and then her face darkened. “Did your clothes come to life too?” Maybe he knew what to do about autonomous jeans.
“No, goofball. There’s just an angry woman in my room.”
“Oh,” said Hailey, her playful smile vanishing.
Fin looked at her sideways, smiling as they made their way out the door and across the Bowl to Chinook for breakfast.
Neither of them said a word until they sat down to eat.
“Was that your girlfriend?” Hailey blurted, bursting the silence, and then she imagined slapping herself in the forehead.
“Who?” Fin asked, looking mighty smug as he shoveled a spoonful of scrambled eggs into his mouth.
“The girl…” Hailey sighed, dipping her head. “You know, the girl you were…with last night…” She couldn’t even look at him as she said it.
“No, Hailey,” he said sounding highly amused. “That was my dinner date. You’re not jealous, are you?”
“What?” she said, scoffing loudly with almost believable disbelief. “No.” She was absolutely jealous. “So, why is there an angry woman in your room?” she asked, trying to look convincingly focused on her pancakes.
“She wants a new roommate.”
It was RA business. Hailey tried not to sound as relieved as she felt.
“Oh.”
“Badly.”
“Oh?”
“Apparently you’re impossible to live with…”
“Oh!” Hailey’s jaw dropped. She thought she and Giselle were getting along fine!
“‘Impossibly annoying.’ I think that’s how Giselle put it,” he said, chewing his bacon. “Probably because you talk to her—she can’t stand humans. And when I told her she’d have to ask Asher, she went all exorcist on me.”
“I do talk to her a lot,” Hailey pondered, pushing the food around on her plate.
“Yeah, that would do it.”
“And then I hugged her last night…” Hailey said, ducking her head, and Fin choked on his coffee.
“Gross,” he muttered. “Well, congratulations, Hailey,” he said, getting up. “Your roommate hates you.”
Hailey stared at her plate.
“Let’s go,” Fin said impatiently. “And I hope you washed your hands after you touched that thing.”
Hailey hung her head. She actually liked her roommate from Hell.
“Where are we going?” she asked, almost absently, as she imagined the loneliness of living without a roommate.
“To see Jaycen.”
“Oh, I don’t know if I should go see her,” she said, shrugging one shoulder. “Giselle said she—”
Hailey couldn’t bring herself to say Jaycen tricked her into jumping into a glazed in-between, so she stared at her plate instead.
“Relax,” said Fin standing over her. He rubbed her shoulders and brought his head next to hers. “She just wants to apologize,” he said softly, and his cheek brushed hers.
Hailey turned slightly, and he didn’t move away. His lips were so close to hers, it made her heart pound.
“Huh?” she said dreamily, and Fin stood up, smiling and very obviously pleased with himself.
“Come on,” he said, kicking her chair. “Let’s get this over with.”
“What if she gets into more trouble for talking to me?” Hailey dragged her feet as Fin pulled her toward the door.
“I don’t think that’s possible.”