133. Summer
Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Three
Summer
T he campus is full of students saying their goodbyes, and they’re all crying and sniffling as they do it.
The old Summer would have sneered at them, judging them for their display of emotions, but nowadays, I’ve gone soft.
I relate to them because I already miss my family.
I’m about to turn and head up the stairs into Manananggal Hall when I run into Max.
He smiles, though things are still pretty awkward between us. I might have to take the stranger up on his offer to train me next year.
“Hey, heading out?” Max asks, moving down the stairs to stand beside me.
“Nah, I think Mira and I will be here for a couple more days until Alice gets back from Dr?culea, and then we’re going on a girls’ trip,” I say.
“Girls gone wild?”
“Something like that,” I say with an awkward laugh.
“I saw the news about Alice. How’s she holding up?”
“She’s doing really well. Thriving, actually.” She has taken to her new role like a duck to water, and I have never been more proud of her.
“And you? How are you doing?”
I nod. “I’m good. You?”
Max smiles. “I’m okay. Where are you headed?”
“The headmaster’s office. I need to get brimstone for Rafe. The bonehead didn’t consider that he would have to rely on the devil himself if he didn’t bring his own.”
Max nods. “Right, he’s leaving today.”
“He is. ”
“You nervous?”
“Very, but Mira will be with him every few months, so that’ll keep him going.”
“Can I help?” Max asks, and I can hear the sincerity in his offer.
“With Rafe? You already do, Maxxy.”
“You do too. Help him,” Max says, nudging me.
“Don’t miss me too much this summer,” I say, relaxing into our usual rapport.
“I will do my best,” Max snickers, but it doesn’t quite meet his eyes. “Actually, I’m going to see my sister.”
“If you need me, just text, okay?” I say, and I mean it. Regardless of the awkwardness that is between us right now, he is still my friend, and I will be there for him if he needs me.
Max nods, relaxing a little. “How’s your guy? Stalker?” he asks, and I blink. “The guy whose name you don’t know.”
“He’s?.?.?.” Fuck, how do I explain that I’m kind of exclusive with the guy who shattered his arm because he kissed me? “He’s not?.?.?.”
“Summer, it’s fine.”
I blush. “It’s complicated.” I exhale. “And he’s not a stalker.”
Max quirks a heavy brow. “So he doesn’t follow you? Watch you? Monitor you?”
I open my mouth to deny it, but I feel the lie in my bones before it even forms on my lips.
Max snorts, and I glare at him.
“I should get to the headmaster’s office.”
Max snickers again. “See you in the fall,” he says, and leans in to brush a chaste kiss to my cheek.
“Have a good summer, Maxxy,” I say, and then we part ways, feeling a little less awkward than before.
I walk along the empty corridors, enjoying the quiet as I make my way to the headmaster’s office. It’s a walk I’ve done many times before, but this time there isn’t any imminent threat. There isn’t anything I’m about to be admonished for. I’m just being a good sister.
I knock on the intimidatingly heavy door of his office, but there is no response.
“Headmaster Emrys?” I call, knocking again.
A couple of things happen at once. The looming door swings open a little, and the halo around my wrist hums and starts to glow.
“Headmaster Emrys?” I say softly, pushing at the door and sneaking through the small gap, for some reason not wanting to open it fully.
His office is empty, but I can tell he’s been here recently.
The lights are still on, and his black blazer is slung over the back of his chair.
I briefly consider coming back later, knowing I’ll definitely get into deep shit for being in here without him, but time is short, and I don’t want Rafe to leave without the brimstone.
He keeps it stored in his desk, and I know he won’t have an issue with Rafe having it.
I round the imposing piece of furniture and crouch before it, reaching for the bottom drawer where I suspect he keeps it.
The top drawer is now at eye level, and I notice it is slightly ajar.
My stomach clenches, and I glance at the still mostly closed door.
My instincts are screaming at me, but I can’t interpret what they are trying to tell me.
All I know is that I need to know what is in that drawer.
I stand up and slowly pull it open, feeling as if time stops when I see the black shell bracelet with a single white shell.
As if in slow motion, I reach into the drawer and brush my fingers over the shells, feeling their familiar smoothness. My eyes flick to the matching one I always wear. I barely breathe as I pick it up and hold it up in the light.
It can’t be.
No, it can’t be . . .
There is a sound from the hallway, and I clench my fist around the bracelet, slam the drawer closed, and bolt.
I have no fucking idea whether I remembered to close his office door.
I can’t think about anything other than the shell bracelet cutting into my palm.
When I lurch through the front door of the house, three pairs of eyes blink at me in surprise.
Rafe and Mira frown, and Alice, who at first looks thrilled to see me again, now seems concerned.
“The brimstone?” Mira asks.
I blink and look at her. It takes a full fifteen seconds for my brain to conjure up any words. “Headmaster Emrys wasn’t in his office. So, Rafe, you’ll just have to make do until Mira comes. Just don’t make any deals for it. Or anything for that matter.”
Rafe nods once. “It’ll be fine.”
I look away. The bracelet feels like a ton of weight in my hand, burning where the sharp edges cut into my palm.
“Sum?” Alice asks .
“Yeah?” I ask, looking at her. I need her not to be perceptive right now. I need her not to look at me or draw attention to me.
“You okay?”
It’s all I can do to nod. I walk to Rafe and pull him into a hug. “No fighting,” I say, though my words have no heat. I am in a state of shock, and I feel like my body is shutting down. “Behave. Work on your impulse control.”
“I’ll be fine, I promise,” Rafe says, hugging me back.
I cling to him, thinking of how, while I won’t see him for months, he won’t see me for years.
Will I even know him when he comes back?
Will he still love me the same? I know many of these doubts stem from what I just realized, and I hate that this moment is being tainted for me.
I am furious that I cannot send him off with the confidence he needs from me.
“I’ll keep in touch, promise,” Rafe says, squeezing me. A tear slides down my cheek, and when I pull back, Rafe wipes it away. “Hey, no fair.”
“I’ll miss you.”
Rafe kisses my forehead. “I’ll miss you too.” Rafe looks down at the halo. “You’ll be okay without it?”
“Rafe. It’ll be fine, but promise me something.”
Rafe nods, watching me.
“Don’t trust Lucifer.”
Rafe’s brows shoot up, but I just watch him, trying to convey the severity of my request.
“I promise he’s different around me.”
“He’s still the devil. He engineered this whole deal. Do not trust him. Promise me.”
“He’s differ?—”
“No, he’s a liar and a cheat,” I say, my words cutting, and I tighten my fist around the bracelet. “He is the reason that shit in Dr?culea happened.”
“I summoned him,” Rafe says defensively.
Lucifer has been the only family Rafe has ever related to, but not anymore, and I need to make him understand.
“Think about it, Rafe. Why did you need to summon him? Because of the dark fae, and I wonder who brought it to their attention. I wonder who was in Dimstraeux’s ear,” I say, and Rafe looks increasingly uncertain. “He’s the only person who had something to gain.”
“What did he gain? ”
“You in Hell, Rafe,” Mira says, her eyes flickering with flame. “He’ll have you in his territory without your sisters or your family’s influence. He has two years to convince you to stay, to pull you under his control.”
“You think this too?” Rafe asks, looking at Mira.
Mira nods solemnly. “He is known for his trickery, Rafe. The saying a deal with the devil didn’t come from nothing.”
“Just be careful,” Alice says, her arms crossed, but her gaze keeps flicking back to me. She must be able to smell the blood coming from my palm.
I hug Rafe once more, and Alice says her goodbye before Rafe leans in to Mira and kisses her deeply. We stand together as he steps back, staring at us as he is engulfed in a blaze of internal hellfire and disappears.
The moment he is gone, I run up the stairs to my room, leaving Alice to comfort Mira as she starts to cry.
In my room, I fall to my knees and drop the bracelet, sticky with blood, onto the floor next to me.
I haul a trunk and a small box from beneath my bed.
Opening the trunk, I sift through school letters and transcripts.
I finally find what I’m looking for, the letter from the headmaster from the first day of last year.
I open the smaller box and pull out the letter the stranger gave me on Winter Solstice.
Holding it up to the light, I see the shimmer of a rune on the paper, as I suspected.
With shaking hands, I slice my finger and draw the counteracting rune that comes into my mind the second I see it.
He concealed the writing, and I hadn’t noticed, too distracted by everything else that was going on.
The words on the paper glow, and the writing changes.
When I hold it next to the letter from the headmaster, I can’t contain my gasp at the perfect match of the handwriting.
“Sum?” Alice asks softly, peeking her head around the door, and I glance at her, crumpling the paper in my hands as tears stream down my face.
I am not sure what Alice sees in my eyes, but both her voice and her steps are cautious as she walks toward me and asks, “You okay?”
The stranger is . . .
A memory flashes into my mind of being broken and bleeding in his office after Aqua brought me there, to a place I felt safe.
The stranger is . . .