Chapter 6 #2
“Elowen.” I can almost hear her reluctance to say what she’s about to say next. “If you want to come home when—if—you go into heat, I’ll understand.”
I tilt my face towards the early October sunshine. “Thank you, Grandma. I’ll think about it.”
“Thank you.” A small smile reaches me through the cell phone. “That’s all I needed to hear. Now go, have fun, little one.”
I walk back to my room lost in mental images of Gideon in Elderwood Hollow, approaching omegas with his business card.
While lectures have continued as usual, and I’ve immersed myself in the resurrection of the greenhouse, Gideon’s life has stagnated.
He’s stuck in the timeline where his sister is dead, and he believes that her death and those of the other omegas were suspicious.
And while people might be entertaining him on talk shows, no one is investigating his allegations.
I stop outside Lila’s door and hesitate. She was there when I spoke to Gideon. She has had a health check, a process prompted by Lydia Jones, the last omega to die before the summer break. And, like me, Lila hasn’t mentioned him since.
Before I can knock, her door opens and Seraphina Bloom appears. She’s obviously leaving. She smiles when she sees me, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
Seraphina sniffs the air. “You’re not close to your heat, are you?”
“No?” I glance at Lila half-hidden behind her. Her face is pale, and her scent doesn’t smell any stronger than normal. “Why? What’s happened?”
If I hadn’t just had the conversation with grandma, I’d have bypassed Lila’s door, gone into my own room, and laid down on my bed while I mentally replayed my day spent with Calder and Tyler in the greenhouse.
But standing here now, I understand Mira’s question about the atmosphere in the college, and I’m disappointed with myself for not acknowledging it sooner.
I’d like to think that the greenhouse is a distraction.
Which it is. But it isn’t the only reason I’ve been walking around campus in a rosy little bubble where nothing bad ever happens.
That award must go to the two alphas with their rolled-up sleeves and their unavoidable scents and their dazzling smiles.
“Olivia Strachan is in the infirmary.” Seraphina raises her eyes; she isn’t smiling now. “Her heat finished a few days ago.”
I blink. “What’s wrong with her? Is she… going to be okay?”
Seraphina shrugs, purely because she doesn’t know the answer. “I saw her earlier. She’s been vomiting, and she seems lifeless, but Nurse Hollis said she had to administer a sedative because she was distressed last night.”
“She got a health check before her heat,” Lila adds.
“Do you think…?” I can’t voice it out loud. Reading about the omegas who died last year was a lot to think about, but to be here when it happens to someone we know, someone who attends the same biology seminars as me… It changes everything. Makes it more real.
“We should stay positive,” Seraphina says. “We all need to look out for each other.”
When she has gone, I look at Lila; even her energy is subdued. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” she says. “Olivia might just have a virus, and it’s simply bad timing. Megan was in heat a couple of weeks ago, and she’s fine.”
I nod, but I can’t help thinking about Gideon Stockwell. Three omega deaths from natural causes in one school year. Is it a coincidence or is he onto something? Something that’s being covered up by school administration.
“You’re right. Panicking over something that might not happen won’t help her.”
“No, but your chamomile tea might.” Lila grins. “Did you want something or were you loitering outside my door waiting for more brownies?”
I chuckle. “Do you have more brownies?”
“No.”
“Then I was just passing by. My room is next door, remember.”
“How could I forget?”
We arrange to walk into town together after I’ve showered, and I go to my room and close the door behind me. Something Lila said has stuck. She said my chamomile tea might help Olivia.
Before I start second-guessing myself, I go to the table where the kettle lives, take Grandma’s battered tin, and head straight back out.
I’m going to the infirmary. If Olivia has a fever, Grandma’s chamomile blend will help her sleep, and I’ll feel better if I can help, even in some small way.
Officer Brennan is speaking in low tones with Nurse Hollis when I arrive. He doesn’t stick around when I announce that I’m there to visit Olivia.
Nurse Hollis smiles. “Second door on the left. Go on through.”
Olivia’s alpha, Patrick, is there when I go in, sitting on the far side of the bed.
Professor Robbins, our biology tutor, is there too.
She stands up and pats Olivia’s hand. “I’ll leave you to chat with Elowen and get some rest. Don’t worry about your assignment, Olivia. Concentrate on getting better.”
The professor pauses at the door, just for a moment, and then leaves the room.
“How are you feeling?” I sit on the plastic visitor’s seat near the bed, Grandma’s tin on my lap.
“Tired. Sick. Not how I expected to feel after my first heat.”
I want to ask how it went, but it’s personal, and I don’t know how I would feel if people asked me the same question, especially in front of her alpha. It’s personal. And everyone is different. Olivia’s experience won’t necessarily be the same as mine or that of any other omega.
“I brought you some chamomile tea. It’s my grandmother’s homemade blend. It will help with your nausea, and you’ll sleep easier too. I use it all the time,”
I stand up again and place the tin on the nightstand with some shiny green apples, a battered copy of Twilight, and a small transparent packet of teabags.
Olivia watches me with sunken eyes. “Thank you, Elowen.” She waits for me to sit back down. “I heard you’ve been working in the greenhouse.”
“I have. Growing herbs runs in my family.”
“What about Calder Ashford?” Her voice is weak. “Does he grow herbs too?”
I smile. “No, he and Tyler are there to add some style.”
She gives a small smile in return. “Style… that’s what you call it.”
Her eyes drift closed, and I wait a while before nodding at Patrick and letting myself out of the room, closing the door behind me with a soft click.
On my way out, I let Nurse Hollis know about the chamomile tea, and she offers to make it for Olivia later if she wants.
In the corridor, I bump into James, Olivia’s friend, who acknowledges me with a brief nod.
Back in my room, I tend to the herbs growing on my windowsill and try not to think about Olivia being the next omega to die. But it’s hard, and I’m still thinking about her pale face and sunken eyes when Lila knocks on my door.