Chapter Seventeen
SEVENTEEN
Mom has made her infamous vanilla and cherry layered cake for my birthday.
We’re all sitting around the table. Dad is at the head, and for the first time ever he looks happy to see me.
Lukas and I are on either side of the table, which leaves the empty chair at the other end for Mom.
My cheeks heat with embarrassment as she walks in from the kitchen holding the cake.
The candle in the middle of it flickers, casting orange shadows across her face.
‘Someone used all my candles, so there’s only one. Sorry, love,’ she tells me before shooting Lukas a pointed look.
‘I was testing a theory,’ he explains, sending me a wink.
Mom rolls her eyes but comes out to my side of the table and sets the cake in front of me. Her hands squeeze my shoulders affectionately. They’re being so nice today. I’m so lucky.
‘Happy sixteenth birthday, sweetheart,’ she whispers in my ear.
‘Make a wish,’ Dad tells me, reaching over to pat the top of my hand. I look down at it in bewilderment.
I decide that I don’t need to make a wish this year, because I have all I need right here with me. So instead, I push my hair behind my ears, lean forward and blow out the candle. The solitary flame puffs out, leaving a trail of smoke wafting up from the burnt wick.
I watch with a smile on my face as it dances through the air in thin wisps.
Mom and Dad start clapping and cheering.
Their enthusiasm is infectious. I can’t help but clap along with them.
Naturally, my eyes search out my big brother’s gaze across the table from me, but when I look over, his face is distorted by the black smoke rising between us.
Looking down to make sure it was only one candle, I try to fan the smoke away with my hand. But the more I seem to fan, the thicker and blacker the smoke is that rises around me. Not just from the unlit candle, I realise, but from where Lukas is sitting … as if it’s coming from him.
That’s when I see it.
His eyes.
His face.
I gasp loudly and push myself away from the table as he comes into view. I don’t get far though; someone’s hands clamp down on my shoulders. Their nails dig into my flesh so hard that I cry out in pain.
‘Look at him,’ my mother’s voice hisses in my ear. Raspy and cold.
‘Look at him!’ she yells, louder this time. But I can’t. I don’t want to.
‘No, p-please,’ I whimper, turning my head away from the charred flesh covering my brother’s face.
My dad starts to bang his fist on the table, causing cutlery to rattle against the wood. The candle falls from the cake.
Thump, thump, thump.
Oh Stars, Lukas’s eyes. They’re gone! Burnt away, leaving behind two gaping, hollow, dark holes in his face. Flaps of skin hang from his cheeks in straggly burnt pieces.
I turn my head away as bile finds its way up my throat. My mother’s hands rise from my shoulders to the sides of my head. She forces me to face him.
Thump, thump, thump.
No, please. I don’t want to see him like this.
Tears sting my eyes. I choke on a sob.
Thump, thump, thump.
Lukas!
A gasp rips from my throat as I startle awake and jerk upright in my bed.
The towel I was using as a makeshift blanket folds at my waist, bundling into my lap.
It takes me several deep breaths to get my heart rate to slow down enough for me to understand that I’m safe.
I’m here, not there. When I do, my eyes blink furiously as I attempt to evict the image of Lukas’s face all burnt and charred from my mind.
My shaky fingers reach for my face; the phantom touch of my mother’s hands holding my head lingers, making me shiver. It isn’t until I hear my name being called that I realise I’m not imagining the thumping sound. It’s coming from the other side of my door.
‘Nocthare, open the hell up!’ The hoarse voice is familiar.
What the hell?
Lillian?
On shaky legs, I make quick work of getting to the door and unlocking it. The second I do, it’s shoved open, causing me to jump back before it collides with my face. Lillian barrels through, her eyes scanning me from head to toe before spinning around in a circle to assess my room.
‘Where the fuck have you been?’ she all but hisses at me.
‘Um, here?’ I look around as if it’s obvious.
‘And you’ve been here all night?’
‘Yes, Stars! Clearly you’re not a morning person,’ I yawn, feeling my back crack as I stretch out like a cat.
‘Now isn’t the time for you to develop a sense of humour. You’re just lucky I got here first so we can come up with a story.’
‘A story? What the hell are you talking about?’ My shoulders drop. ‘You’re starting to freak me out.’
Lillian stares at me for a long moment as if she’s trying to read me.
When she doesn’t find what she’s looking for, she closes the distance between us and grabs me by the arms, bringing her face down to mine.
‘I need you to be honest with me, and I mean it. I know you might not think you can trust me, but I’m the one who told you where he was. So, I need to know if you did it.’
Nothing she’s saying makes sense. I have no clue what she’s talking about, and for a split second I wonder if I’m still sleeping and this is yet another strange dream that I’ve plummeted into.
‘You need to know if I did what?’ I ask, feeling exasperated.
‘Did you kill Harley?’ she whisper-yells, darting a quick look over her shoulder at the door that’s slightly ajar.
The ground feels like it’s swept from beneath my feet as I register her words.
‘Did I do what?’ I shriek, jerking out of her hands. Why would she think—‘Wait, Harley’s dead?’ My jaw drops when she nods. ‘How … and when? And why does this have anything to do with me?’
‘Nocthare, the last person Harley spoke to was you. He was put in solitary and was supposed to come out today. I told you that. Me.’ She stabs a finger to her chest. ‘The headmaster just went down there to release him, and he found him lying in his bed. Dead.’
Holy shit.
‘Okay … okay!’ I start pacing the length of my bed. ‘But I was in bed all night. There’s no way they would think I did that. Hell, I don’t even know where solitary is! You only told me that it existed, not where to find it.’
Lillian is shaking her head. Why is she shaking her head?
‘They found bruises on his neck. He was strangled to death.’
Strangled.
Coincidence? I’m not so sure they will see it like that.
‘They’re going to be here any second and you’re going to be questioned.
You cannot let them know I told you he was in solitary.
If they get even a whiff that you had any idea where he was, they will find some way to pin you to his death.
’ Her tone is urgent, as is the pleading look she gives me with her eyes. ‘Do you understand?’
I don’t get the chance to ask her who is coming or to reassure her that I wouldn’t tell them it was her, or that because I didn’t do anything there’s nothing for me to confess to anyway, because loud voices echo up the staircase and into the corridor outside.
Lillian and I both turn to the door. My heart is racing, my palms sweating, and I feel like I should try to run as the thunderous sounds of shoes close in. But there’s nowhere to go …
Is this what Lukas felt like? Did they swarm him while he was in his room, standing helplessly innocent in his nightclothes?
My door slams against the wall, making me jump back. Lillian moves to stand beside me as two figures step into my room, taking up what’s left of the space with their presence.
‘Arianell Nocthare.’ It’s Professor Kroff who steps forward, wearing a slate grey button-up and navy trousers. His hair is dishevelled as if he has run his hands through it several times, and even the tie that matches his trousers is off centre and loose. ‘You need to come with me.’
Professor Nicks, who looks like he’s seconds from losing his shit, stands behind him teeming with fury. ‘Stay where you are, acolyte. You’re not going anywhere.’
‘For the last time, this is not up for debate. You have no say over this,’ Kroff bites back at Nicks, red-faced. They glower at each other as if they’ve been at each other’s throats all the way up here. It would explain the yelling we heard coming from the corridor.
‘Oh, I have plenty to fucking say,’ Nicks snaps.
‘Like the fact that you’re not taking my acolyte anywhere when she’s barely dressed.
’ He gestures to me, and my arms immediately rise to cover myself.
The baggy shirt I’m wearing hides my braless chest, but it’s long, overhanging the sleep shorts I have beneath them.
This, I realise, makes it seem like I have no pants on. ‘She’s indecent.’
‘As is the act of harming a fellow student,’ Kroff defends, stepping further into the room.
‘Woah!’ I start shaking my head. ‘I didn’t—’ I start to protest but Nicks holds his hand up, silencing me.
‘You will get the chance to speak. Now is not the time. Get changed, and you—’ He points to Lillian as if finally realising she’s here with me. ‘You shouldn’t be in here, get out.’
‘But—’
‘Now!’ he commands, stepping back so there’s space to exit the room. ‘And find your unit leader and send him to Agate. I want him in there.’
‘Yes, sir,’ she nods, offering me a weighted glance before she leaves.
Keep your mouth shut, it warns.
‘Miss Nocthare needs to—’ Kroff starts, but Nicks leans forward and shoves at his shoulder, pushing him out the way they came.
‘She will, but I’m not walking a first-year student anywhere without any fucking pants on. Now move.’
Kroff begrudgingly listens, and I stand in shock as my eyes dart between the two of them. Nicks turns my way. ‘Get changed and make it quick. I hope for your sake they’re wrong.’ He pulls the door shut.
I try to plead my case to Kroff and Nicks, but the latter once again silences me and tells me to save it for Headmaster Zain. They flank me as they walk me out of Malachite’s tower and through the Grand Hall.