Chapter 10 Strange Encounters #2
I’d known about his desperate crush on her almost since the first day I met the three of them. I was just enough of a romantic to want them to be together, and just enough of a realist not to meddle in any way that might spoil it.
“Miranda’s the party committee of one in my dorm,” I added, still gauging his expression a little warily. “Are you going?”
“Absolutely. Interested in going together?” He must have seen a reaction on my face.
“…As friends, Shadow. Just friends,” he clarified.
“I just thought it might be fun. We could all go in a group, if you already had plans with Rook and Harringbone? I assume Joran and Mocking are going with your lot, too?”
“Probably,” I agreed.
I was hesitating. Why was I hesitating?
“I might be going with Alaric,” I blurted, a blatant lie, but Alaric might be convinced to go along with it. “Just as friends,” I added. “But, you know, we’d still be going together. As friends,” I repeated, remembering what Alaric told me the other night.
“Greythorne?” Graham blinked at me.
His hawk-like primal blinked at me, too.
“Yes.” I frowned at his expression. “Why?”
He wasn’t looking at me like he thought Alaric and I were sleeping together. He would look less surprised that I’d mentioned Alaric as my date if he thought we were shagging, wouldn’t he? Or maybe he thought Alaric would never take me out anywhere publicly, given who he was, and what I was.
Either way, Strangemore’s blank, confused stare made my hackles rise more.
“Do you know him?” I asked, sharper. “Alaric?”
“No.” Graham’s mouth pursed. He didn’t seem to notice my tone, but something about my question snapped him out of that blank look.
“But, I mean… he’s gone, isn’t he? He left campus this morning.
There was a whole scrum about it at breakfast. His father came to get him, and didn’t tell anyone beforehand, apparently.
Old Greythorne practically dragged his son out of the Valarian dining room, causing a big scene, and now there’s a rumor going around he’s out for the rest of the term. ”
I stared at him.
My mind went totally blank.
“Alaric?” My voice sounded as if it came from far away. “No.” I shook my head, feeling my lungs clench in my chest. “No. That can’t be right.”
Graham frowned at me like he wondered if I was simple-minded.
“Alaric Greythorne. There’s only one Alaric I know of.
” He continued to study my eyes. “You really hadn’t heard?
It’s all anyone’s talked about since it happened.
There’s all sorts of rumors about why his dad would show up here like he did.
Alaric’s been odd since we were kids, so some think he must’ve had some kind of magical insanity break…
like maybe he wrote something positively barking to his father, or did something… ”
I lost a few more seconds of time while he spoke.
Somewhere in that, Graham must have noticed my silence, or remembered who he was talking to. He laid a hand on my arm and I jumped.
“Sorry.” His voice sounded apologetic, on the surface at least. “I know you said he’s your mate. But the Greythornes have always been a bit off, haven’t they?”
I could only stare at him, my skin gone cold.
Some part of me remained in denial. My mind ran through the facts, trying to make sense of Graham’s words, to reconstruct a timeline, something that made sense to me, that would prove him wrong.
I looked for some way to know that his words weren’t true, that they couldn’t be true. I couldn’t find that timeline, though.
I’d completely missed breakfast.
I hadn’t seen anyone yet.
Gods, Alaric used to joke about this happening. He’d say if he ever disappeared, I should look for him in the Greythorne family dungeon.
Suddenly, I was fighting not to throw up.
Hearing a noise, I glanced up, looking for a distraction, and any excuse to look away from Graham Strangemore.
The door opened on the far wall at the front of the classroom, behind the long table that served as both podium and desk.
I glimpsed the wild hair of Professor Forsooth as he shuffled inside, his arms full with papers and books.
I had to leave. I had to get the fuck out of there.
I had to get out of here before––
You’re not going anywhere.
The words were clipped, cold.
I shivered as the presence behind them whispered over my magic, alien yet so shockingly familiar, so disturbingly close, my heart clenched painfully in my chest. Despite the hostility of the words, something in them immediately grounded me.
I couldn’t have really heard that, though.
It couldn’t be real.
You will sit in class, take notes like a good girl, and act completely fucking normal, Shadow. The cold voice paused. Breathe. You need to breathe.
I’d stopped breathing.
I’d stopped fucking breathing.
I forced myself to take a slow, painful breath. I exhaled it.
Before I could stop myself, my gaze flickered up and to my left.
Bones sat there, staring straight ahead, his gold eyes focused blankly on the front of the room.
From his expression, he was bored, annoyed, impatient with having to be there at all.
Had he moved seats? I could have sworn he’d been sitting much further back when I first walked in, and not alone.
His jaw ticked as I watched.
The dark circles seemed to have deepened under his eyes, making him look gaunt. His knuckles looked red, possibly even bruised. The bone dragon on his shoulder stared at me, its gold eyes glowing.
You’re going to keep it together, mongrel, the low, barely-there voice seethed. Don’t overreact. Don’t react at all. Not where anyone can see it.
I forced my eyes off him.
My throat closed so hard I nearly choked.
It hit me that I was fighting back a sob. I was being strangled by it.
Between the news about Alaric and now hearing Bones in my head, for the first time in nearly a year, it felt like my entire chest was being crushed. My thoughts grappled with the reality that I might actually be losing my mind.
Bones couldn’t be talking to me. Could he? Why would he do that?
My mind spun back around to Alaric, to our entire summer together, to everything we’d been doing. This wasn’t for me, I realized. Bones wasn’t here for me.
He was there for Alaric.
Whatever this was about, it centered Alaric.
But why would Bones think of me? Why would he approach me at all?
Had Alaric told Caelum something?
Gods. I’d done this. I’d done this to him. Everything we’d been afraid of that night had happened. I’d been seen somehow. They’d gotten through my shield, through Alaric’s chimaera. That night on The Eyrie, someone on the other side must have––
You can’t fucking do this here. Stop thinking about him. Stop thinking about any of that shit. Just stop. Clear your mind.
The near-silent words whispered over my magic, little more than faint vibrations. I could feel the anger there, even through his silence. I felt his frustration with me, and something about it was so eerily familiar, I shut down my mind completely.
I closed my eyes, and took a breath.
I turned to Graham, but my expression still felt utterly blank. I stretched my lips into something approximating a smile, and hoped anything about it looked remotely natural.
“Wow,” I said. “Alaric left school? I admit, you’ve shocked me. I had no idea… I missed breakfast this morning, and haven’t talked to anyone yet.” I turned around in my chair, laying my arm on the chair back. “Are you sure he’s really gone? And no one has any idea why he had to leave?”
Greythorne visibly relaxed.
The contrast made me wonder just how bad I’d looked before.
His hawk ruffled its feathers, then turned its red eye to stare at me.
“No one I talked to knows the real story, not yet, at least,” Graham said, his voice back to lofty.
“And no one’s seen him since, including a friend of mine who should’ve had Magical Botany with him at eight.
So it’s likely he’s gone at least for today.
We’ll find out soon enough if the rest is rubbish or not. ”
His voice lightened even more, colored by his smile.
“…I suppose his mates among the royals know the real story. You got anyone you can ask?” When I didn’t answer, he hesitated, back to gauging my eyes.
“I’m sure it’s nothing too terrible, Leda.
You can’t believe what passes for gossip in this place.
I’d wager it’s some family thing. He’ll be back in a few days. A week at most.”
I nodded and fought the stiff smile back to my face.
“I’m sure you’re right.” I couldn’t help hearing how strange and bland my voice sounded, but Strangemore didn’t seem to notice.
“He’s a friend, though,” I added. “I can’t help being worried about him.
Someone could have died. Or something worse.
I just hope it’s nothing serious. Do you have anyone you could ask about it? ”
My mind felt completely disconnected from the words coming out of my mouth, but if any of that showed on my face, Graham didn’t react. He smiled benevolently, leaning closer so that his arms rested on the chair-back next to mine.
“I could ask around for you, if you want,” he said sympathetically. “And maybe you could try writing him? I’m sure he’d tell you what really happened, with the two of you being such pals.”
I nodded and bit my lip.
Movement at the front of class drew my eyes.
Forsooth’s bear primal lumbered along as Forsooth himself stopped just behind the table covered in magical scales, brass protractors, telescopes, crystal balls, potion bottles, and stacks of unrolled and rolled scrolls.
He set down his stack of papers and muttered under his breath.
“So, Friday?” Graham asked hopefully, nudging my arm. “Do you think you’ll still go? To Forsooth’s party, I mean.”
I nodded slowly. I tried to keep my expression thoughtful, if a little blank when I turned to face him. “I mean, yes, probably. Miranda will drag me there by force, if need be, now that she and Jolie ordered dresses. I won’t be going with Alaric, obviously…”
I nearly choked on his name.
Avoiding Graham’s eyes, I glanced forward as Forsooth continued to arrange his papers. Only after I’d gotten my breath back, my heart beating again, did I turn back to Graham.
“If you want to come along with my group of friends,” I said brightly. “I don’t see why not? I’m sure they’d be happy to have you.”
Graham’s smile widened at once. “That would be great! Shall we all meet in the foyer at eight? Before the party, I mean?”
I nodded, forcing my eyes to meet his. “Sure. That would be fine.”
It felt like I had to force each word out of my lips.
My smile felt painful, like I was grimacing at him.
Graham Strangemore didn’t seem to notice.
When his eyes left mine, I glanced to my left and above, to a different seat, a few rows behind where we sat. A handful of mages and witches talked quietly amongst themselves a few rows higher, but the seat I’d looked at before was now empty.
Caelum Bones had done his usual, and disappeared.