24
I returned to Morgana to take a shower before heading back to the Lud to hang out with Adina.
I spent most of the day in the library researching Leslie More and missed class, so I’ll have to beg my tutor for the notes.
Adina was a pretty distraction. But it's weird how perceptions of her have changed after I spent some time with her. Before, she was subhuman, the Boleyn girl that we had to control and destroy, but now we desire to protect her from another enemy. The script had been turned on its head, and now we’ll be plotting a devious plan for the funeral.
We haven't spoken to Nicolae about her plan yet, as I know he’ll disapprove because it’s in his family’s favor to have Maxwell out of the way and Leslie in control, since she’s eager to offload territory for cash, of course. And the Warwicks want nothing more than territory.
They’ve wanted to get their filthy hands on Richmond forever.
Adina might be able to soften Ezrah, but Nicolae was a harder target to seduce because his parents are constantly in his ear, pressuring him to do what’s right for the family.
Yep, Adina might be wasting her time trying to coax him into our plan.
But one thing I knew about Adina Boleyn was that she’d definitely give it her best shot.
Once in my room, I jumped into the shower, jacked off thinking about Adina lying on the mattress strumming the banjo, and I was hard as fuck, but she wouldn't let me touch her. Dirty, little girl.
After creaming all over the shower walls, still with the taste of her pussy in my mouth and the feel of her over my cock, I stepped out with a new swing in my step and finally something to live for, struggling to get her off my mind as I dried myself down.
The book Ashthorn: Myths and Legends was like a persistent beacon stacked on top of my table, and I grabbed it, flipped a few pages over, and tossed it back down again.
I found the black granite, and not only was there no treasure, but there was no space to hide the treasure, particularly for a child to find.
It was another lie dressed in a mystery to make my great-great-grandfather seem more interesting than he actually was.
On second thought, I grabbed the book again and slid it into my bag and made a mental note to shove it in the library book return slot as I’m riding back to the Lud.
I didn’t need to excite my life with stupid fables when reality was far more intriguing, especially what we were planning for the funeral.
As I left my room, two figures caught my eye coming down from the third floor. One of them stalled and ran back up the stairs out of sight, while the second figure was the cello player, a friend of Adina’s, and once she caught sight of me, she strolled toward me, slightly irate.
“When can I talk to Adina? She’s not answering her phone,” she demanded as I spotted her friend peering out from the stairwell, and one glance at his face told me where I’d seen him before.
“Does your friend live in Morgana?” I asked, ignoring her question.
“What friend?” She was playing dumb, which was strange and unnecessary. I couldn't give a shit who her friends were or who she liked to hang out with.
“That friend,” I pointed past her. “Fuck, girl, he ain’t a ghost.”
She seemed slightly distressed by my question and pretended to brush it off, “No. Answer my question about Adina.”
“Look, Adina is fine,” I told her, while watching the guy around the corner. “Her phone is broken. We’re taking great care of her. Once her phone is working, I’ll tell her to call you. Okay?”
“Tell her to call me so I can hear her voice to know she’s okay.
Please. I’ll give you my number so she can call me on your phone.
” I took her number reluctantly, but we did have to get Mila off our backs, so two birds, one stone.
“Please, can you tell her that we found who slipped the razor blade in my, actually, her cupcake?”
“Really, who?” I genuinely wanted to know because the razor blade was meant for Adina. I wondered if it was the Yorks, since they were working with Leslie, the stepmother, but they hadn’t arrived in Castlehill by then, so who else could it be?
“It’s a long story, but the short of it is that one of the bakers was paid a handsome sum of money to slip the razor blade into Adina’s cupcake under the impression it was part of a hazing-type ceremony,” she explained.
“Wow, cutting someone’s mouth is a pretty cruel form of hazing,” I said in disbelief. “Who paid them?”
“An anonymous person that police haven't been able to trace,” she leaned in slightly, embarrassed, even though there’s no one about, but I quickly put her out of her misery.
“But it wasn't meant for me. It was meant for Adina, so someone wanted to hurt her.” She paused, glanced back at her friend, “Her father just died, too. This is so weird.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, yet her friend peering around the corner of the stairs was distracting me. “Your friend was in the maze the other night.”
“No, he wasn’t,” she said, panicked. “I mean, there’s no friend.”
“What?” I frowned, confused. “Yeah, he was.” Then it dawned on me.
The keyring I spotted on the table was of someone who obviously lived in Morgana because was preparing food, and you can’t get in without a key.
“Wait. Does he live on the third floor next to you? Is he the mysterious, dark stranger who watches students from the window late at night?” I was mocking her because she was freaking out, and I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was.
Her bottom lip trembled as if she were about to cry. “Please don’t tell anyone. Please.”
“Oh? Secret boyfriend?” I asked curiously.
She nodded and whispered again in an empty hallway, “My Dad doesn’t know he’s here.
We had to sneak him in, and when Adina started noticing someone was living in the room next to mine, I had to make up a story in case she might tell the admin.
Please. I beg you, don’t tell anyone. Dad sent me here to separate us, and if he found out, I don’t know what he’d do. ”
A pang of envy came over me that two people were so committed to each other that they would make up a whole story to hide their clandestine affair.
I immediately thought of Adina and her sweet smile, and my heart warmed.
Hell, when you find that special someone, you’d do anything for them - lie, cheat, kill.
“I promise I won’t tell a soul,” I said, and I mean it. “No skin off my teeth if you kept your secret boyfriend in here.”
“Oh my god, thank you,” she said in relief. “And again, please ask Adina to call me on that number.”
Once I made it back to the Lud, the basement was the first place I went to. Since I had the only other key, I could sweep in to see her at any time to see if she needed anything, then ask her to call Mila.
When I unlocked the door and pushed it open, Nicolae was down there, kneeling beside her, and I was about to walk in when something urged me to pause.
They hadn't noticed me standing on the ledge because they were too entranced by each other, lost in each other’s company.
He was tending to her ankle, rubbing ice on the swollen, bruised skin, and it made me smile.
The guy was chasing her with a loaded gun up the mountain only a few days ago, and now he’s putty in her hands, fawning over her as if he enjoyed caring for her.
I decided to leave them alone and backed away, closing the door quietly behind me.