Chapter 8 #3
Adrian leaves us at the edge of the upper road with a lazy salute. "Remember what I said," he calls to me. "Just be careful."
Damaris falls into step beside me as we start toward the road leading back to campus. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing." I grab the door from him and hold it open as my multi-slate buzzes under my jacket.
Damaris glances down automatically. "Your ma?"
"Mm."
I look down at my wrist and frown.
It's not Ma. It's him.
And before I've even finished reading the notification, the screen lights up again, another message appearing beneath the first.
A chill works its way down my spine as my gaze lifts automatically, searching the crowds. Black Chapel, the party, the library at five in the morning, the pool. One encounter should have been an accident. Two should have been coincidence.
Every time I think I've put some distance between us, Ciaran Virel finds a way back into my orbit.
I don't see anyone, but that doesn't stop my thumb from hovering over the screen.
Damaris is already watching me when I finally drag my attention away from it. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." But it comes out sharper than I mean it to.
He gives me a look that says he doesn't believe me, shifting the bags higher on one arm before turning back toward the climb to campus.
where are you
I stare at the message. I should ignore it, I'm aware. Instead, my thumb hovers over the screen before I type back.
Why do you care?
The reply hits almost instantly.
not answering the question? cute. so i'll ask again. where are you
I stare at it longer than I should, waiting for whatever he's going to say next. Nothing comes, and somehow that feels worse.
Annoyed with myself, I kill the screen and ignore it when the multi-slate buzzes again, then again, each vibration landing sharper than the last.
Damaris glances over from the kitchenette as he drops the bags onto the counter. "Are you not going to answer that?"
"No. Just keep unpacking."
"If it's not your ma, then who is it?"
"No one."
He clearly doesn't believe a word of that, but he lets it go.
I drop my bag by the bed, slump back against the wall, and pull a pillow into my lap. There are six unread messages waiting for me, and even though I know I should ignore them, I open the conversation before I can stop myself.
i can see you back on campus
ignoring me already
that's rude
i asked you a question, rowan
My jaw tightens.
You're not my friend, I want to say, but I don't type it.
Instead, I keep reading, and against my will the pool flashes through my mind. Wet skin. Moonlight on water. That infuriating smirk.
I look up and find Damaris in the kitchenette unpacking coffee with the concentration of a man handling explosives, and I feel strangely relieved he's here.
Because somehow I've managed to get the attention of Ciaran Virel, and I still don't know why.
Just knowing he's still thinking about me is enough to drag me straight back to the pool, to what was supposed to be private, to what was supposed to be safe.
I lock the screen, furious with myself, with him, with my inability to shut off my damn hormones and focus on what I came here to do.
From the kitchenette, I hear paper crinkle, a cabinet door slam, the sharp grind of spice under a knife. Damaris starts humming under his breath like he's got nothing in the world to worry about.
"You okay over there?" he calls.
"Fine," I snap, instantly regretting it. "I'm just a little tired. You know what? I might just take a nap. Wake me up when dinner's ready?"
Damaris looks up from the kitchen island as though he wants to ask me why, but only says, "Sure."
Eventually, I stretch out across the bed and stare at the ceiling until my eyes start to drift and finally slide shut. Maybe sleep will shut him up for a while. Get him out of my head, even if it only lasts an hour.
For one strange second, the dark behind my eyelids doesn't stay dark.
It flickers, my stomach dropping as stone flashes under my feet and a broken lock catches in the blur, breath tearing through my throat while I'm moving too fast to think, too fast to see anything except the shape of fear closing in.
My band vibrates sharp against my wrist, then again, my pulse stumbling hard enough to make my fingers twitch against the blanket.
Rowan.
I'm running, my lungs burning, my feet slipping, and they're too fast.
If they catch me, they'll hurt me.
"Ro?" It's Damaris again, closer now. "Hey. You okay?"
I can't answer right away. My chest is too tight, my body caught halfway between the bed beneath me and something colder, older, the fear already rising before I'm even fully asleep.
But the fear won't go. It trickles down my spine, refusing to be ignored.
Because if Ciaran knows where I went, and the person in the library wasn't him, then there is more than one set of eyes on me. And one of them might have started watching long before I ever got to Sero.
"Rowan!"
If that's the case, it isn't the academy walls that are keeping danger out. Whatever followed me here is already inside.
"Wake up."