Chapter 36 #2
I caught him and hugged him tight, burying my face in his warm, furry neck. Seeing him safe made my throat tight, but I forced myself to focus. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Bandit. But I need to know what’s been going on here. What happened to Opie?”
Bandit wriggled out of my grip and perched on the well beside me, his little claws clacking against the stone.
“It’s bad. Opie disappeared yesterday. She kept telling me to leave her alone, so I don’t know exactly when she went away, but when I went to check on her last night, she was gone. I even slept next to her door so I wouldn’t miss it if she came home.”
Panic crept into my veins. “Do you have any idea what could’ve happened? Do you think she ran away?”
To find me?
Guilt pinched at me, but I tried not to let it take over.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure, but I do know that something weird was going on. The headmaster has been teaching her magic.”
My mouth dropped open. “What? That’s not possible.”
Opie didn’t have any magic; what was Tarquinius up to?
“Yeah, I know. I didn’t believe it at first either.
I never smelled the magic on her, but it’s there, I’ve seen it.
She yelled at me that Tarquinius has been giving her personal lessons about how to control it.
I only found out just before she went missing, and before I could figure out what was happening, she was gone. ”
I shook my head, disbelief and confusion warring inside me. “No way. Opie doesn’t have magic. They’ve been lying to her about that since the day they brought us here, feeding her a story she wanted to hear.”
Bandit shook his head. “I saw it myself, Harlow.”
Shock was too small of a word. If Opie had magic . . . that was amazing, but why had Tarquinius taken to her?
“Do you think she’s with Tarquinius somewhere now?” Fable called as she stepped closer, half an eye on the lounging Calypso. “He can be strict, of course, but he’s also a stickler for the rules. He wouldn’t take a student somewhere without letting someone at the school know.”
“Unless he’s using her to lure us back.” A sick feeling rose in my chest. “Maybe it’s all part of his stupid plan to break up House Phoenix. Bait, like he tried to do with Zeed.”
“Could be.” Calypso tapped her long nails on the edge of the well. “But, if that’s the case, then at least we know she’s safe, right?”
I nodded, but I wasn’t convinced as I ran through dozens of possibilities, each more disturbing than the last. “Typhon will find out what’s going on.” He’d come through for me so many times . . . more than I’d even known. He’d asked for my trust, and I’d given it.
For the first time in a long time, I knew my trust wasn’t misplaced.
I turned my attention to Calypso. One thing at a time.
A task on my never-ending to-do list was about to be scratched off.
“I have something for you.” I reached into my satchel and tugged out the dinner-plate-sized kraken coin. “For you,” I said simply, holding it out to her.
Calypso’s eyes softened and went glassy, but she shook her head. “I can’t believe . . . but I couldn’t possibly take it from you.”
“What the hell?” Ross snapped from a safe distance. “Do you know what we had to do to get that?”
Marina slapped a hand over his mouth. “We can’t talk about it, even though Calypso was there, we can’t.”
Calypso closed her wide yellow eyes. “I couldn’t possibly . . . take . . . it.”
Her words were cryptic as ever, but the answer came to me a second later, an intuitive guess that felt more like certainty.
“I have to flip it into the well, don’t I?” Because a well was for tossing coins and . . .
Calypso stayed motionless, just holding my gaze, her silence confirming my guess better than words ever could.
“And I’m supposed to make a wish?” I asked. “Is that right?”
She was so still, she might’ve been a statue. Another direct hit.
“What am I supposed to wish for?”
“That’s entirely up to you, Harlow.” Her voice was carefully free of any inflection. She dropped off the edge and back into the well with a nearly silent splash.
Her words sent my pulse racing. My first thought, as always, was of Opie. Saving her, bringing her back to me, but then I hesitated.
“Think it through, Harlow. It’s a big decision, for all involved,” Zeed called.
He was right, but the decision had already been made.
I couldn’t use this wish to save Opie. Asshole or not, Calypso had waited years for this moment, and she’d trusted me to follow through.
I could – I would – save Opie no matter what it took.
For Calypso, this might be her only chance of ever getting free.
If I betrayed her now, I’d never forgive myself .
. . assuming she even let me live long enough to try.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath.
“I wish for your freedom, Calypso.”
The wish left my lips on a whisper, carried down into the darkness as I flipped the coin in the air and it dropped down, down . . .
Calypso’s yellow eyes widened in surprise, relief washing over her face. Her mouth curled into a grateful smile, and she whispered, “Thank you.”
The second the coin splashed into the water, a warm sense of peace settled over me.
A wisp of dark energy puffed out of me, dissipating into nothing.
But I kept my eyes fixed on Calypso, watching as the space around the siren shimmered a golden light, and she began to fade.
Her form dissolved, becoming transparent for a second, then vanishing altogether.
I stepped back in shock, swallowing the sudden lump in my throat. There were so many things I would’ve said if I’d known it’d happen that quickly. Would I ever see her again? Where did she go?
I did know one thing for sure; the curse was gone. My body felt lighter now, and my mind sharper. I must’ve gotten used to it on some level, because I hadn’t even noticed how much it’d been affecting me, even after I’d gotten the coin and it’d loosened its hold.
“Harlow,” a low, reluctant voice called.
Zeed.
I knew what he was saying without him having to say it. And he was right. There was no time to dwell. We were scheduled to meet Typhon in a matter of minutes . . .
I straightened and turned toward my friends, forcing my feet into motion. My mind raced as we jogged back toward our meeting spot at the front of the school, only to stop short before we got there as a familiar figure stumbled out of the shadows ahead.
I tensed, recognizing the obnoxiously perfect figure and fake red hair, even in the dim light.
“Nikita?”