Chapter 17
As everyone tries to figure out if we can get away with this shit, Theo's buddies descend the staircase carrying bags and juggling drink caddies.
The smell sets off my saliva so much that it’s like my mouth is crying.
My stomach growls, and I mentally tell it to be patient a moment longer, as any second now it’s gonna get its heart’s desire.
Not that stomachs have hearts.
“What would you like?” the girl asks, plonking the bags on a dusty table. “We’ve…”
I don’t give her time to finish, just grab the first thing at hand.
Score. A Philly cheesesteak.
“Oh my fucking Gods.” I nearly orgasm from the mind-blowing flavor. For a while there, I honestly thought I’d never eat again.
“Don’t eat too fast, Donovan,” Theo fusses. “Your stomach won’t be able to handle it.”
“My stomach can handle every single thing in those bags,” I tell her, snagging a slice of pizza and tossing it in her direction. “You should be eating too.”
I take another slice, wrap it around the cheesesteak, then force the whole thing into my mouth.
There you go, stomach, told you I’d treat you right.
“Disgusting,” Cosmo grumbles. “At least use a napkin.”
Theo munches on her slice and gives me a concerned frown. I shoot her a wink. Nothing to see here, just a man on a food-mission.
“What was it like?” I hear Theo's friend ask her.
“Unbelievable, Wills,” Tee replies. “Unbelievable. There is so much to catch you up on.”
“Yeah, Wills,” I say, joining in. “Unbelievable is the right word. My last few years feel like they were a fever-dream.”
“The name is Willow,” she replies. “Only besties call me Wills.”
We’ll be besties before she knows it, but talking of best friends, I can’t wait to see Wes. I wonder how he explained his reappearance. “Did you hear anything about my twin, Wills?”
“Wait, that one isn’t your brother?” She points at Max.
“You didn’t notice the lack of resemblance,” Cosmo snarks.
“I presumed they were fraternal twins,” Willow snaps back at him. “Twins can look very different, you know!”
She turns her back on him and fixes me with her intense look. “Your twin is already back here? I’m confused.”
“I’d be surprised if you weren’t,” Theo says, giving her friend a sweet smile. “This shit is all bonkers! But as for Wes…yes—we were told he came back before us. Hopefully, he's keeping his head down somewhere.”
Willow and Duncan exchange a look. “We’ve been monitoring the portal. No one else has ‘arrived’ through it.” She does quote fingers. “Could there be another way back here?”
“Most likely there is a portal in the building site,” Alexis says, and I shudder, remembering the vision Amirene showed us. That invisible smoke looked like it was everywhere around here. Makes me want to keep us all in isolation.
Ooh. Idea.
“Hey, Cos, does the apartment still have its landline?”
“Of course," Cos says. "How else do you think I get in touch with the cleaners, kitchen staff, and such?”
“Douche,” Theo's friend mutters under her breath.
“Then call it and see if Wes picks up. Because of time-slippage and all that, he could have landed a few days ago, right?”
Cosmo fishes out his cell phone, then sighs. “My phone hasn't miraculously regained battery life. Anyone got a charger?”
Duncan passes Cosmo a charging cable and his own cell. “Here, use mine, the lock code is 7357.”
Cos grunts his thanks as Max high-fives Dunc and says ‘test’ loudly. I don’t think I’m the only one who doesn’t understand.
“Do your phones work after going beyond the Thunderdome?” Willow asks.
“Lost mine,” Max shrugs. “Somewhere out there, in a land, far, far away, is a sad little iPhone. Still got my wallet though—thanks, chainy.” He rattles the silver chain on his hip.
“Me too.” It’s wild that through all that’s happened, my passport and wallet are still in my back pocket. The phone, though? No idea.
“Has Singleton-Smith been back on campus?” Alexis asks.
“Haven’t seen him,” Willow replies, “though Jordan has made her presence felt several times. She gave a presentation in assembly about the dress code for the All Hallows Ball. She actually banned previous season outfits. Vapid bitch.”
“No reply from the apartment,” Cosmo reports. “I left a message telling him to call this number.”
I tuck my arm around Theo and pull her closer to my body. “Wes will be keeping a low profile; he’s no idiot. But if he's not in the apartment, where will he hide out?”
“What about the boathouse?” Theo asks, snuggling into me.
“Oh yeah, good idea, babe.”
“Why there?” Cosmo asks.
I smirk in his direction, remembering several extremely sexy times we had down there. “Wes, Theo, and I have many fond memories of the boat house loft. One time we pretended Wes and I were pirates, and Theo had stowed away, dressed as a little cabin boy, and then…oof!”
At the same moment that Theo jabs me in the ribs, the janitor is suddenly looming over me, looking fierce. The professor glares at me. OK, fine, no oversharing.
“I wanna hear the rest of the story,” Max groans.
“Moving on,” Duncan says, clearing his throat. “I messaged Striker, like you told me to,” he says to Cosmo. “She’s super cool. We’re World of WitchCraft buddies now. Anyway, she said she’d take care of your absences.”
Cosmo frowns. “Do you know what excuse Striker gave to the school?”
Old Dunc has an extraordinary expression on his face. “Yeah, she messaged the registrar, saying you’d had to go away suddenly to take care of some business regarding your, er, magnificent engagement and you were traveling to Amsterdam to pick out the perfect stones for Jordan’s ring.”
Theo laughs as that Duncan kid’s words sink into my brain. “You’re engaged? To Jordan Singleton-Smith? What the fuck?”
After a beat, I realize this must be his father’s doing. No wonder Cosmo has been even more of a grouch than usual. “Fuck. Papa Drakeward?”
Cosmo’s left eye starts to twitch. “You know it.”
“We’ll get you out of it, Cos. Don’t know how, but we will—promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he grunts.
Oh shit. Cosmo has been humiliated, tortured, threatened, and beaten by his father, but I’ve never seen him so resigned. “Aren’t you going to fight back?”
“Aurora,” he mumbles.
Oh, yeah. Cosmo’s kid sister is what keeps him in line. Fuck.
“Don’t you think we have more to worry about than Drakeward’s love life?” Max’s cousin snaps.
He’s uptight, but obviously nuts about Theo—and Theo likes him back.
I guess, seeing as I’ve abandoned her for the last year (or four), I can hardly complain if she’s interested in other dudes—as long as she likes me the most.
Also, faking being a teacher so he could hunt for Max was cool and Jason Bourne-ish.
“What else can we do to help?” Willow asks. “I’m supposed to be presenting in potions class, but that is completely irrelevant in the face of things.”
“You should keep to your commitment,” the faux-professor states. “Any deviation draws attention, and that’s the last thing we need.”
“Yeah, I suppose,” she shrugs. “But I can be here at the drop of a text.”
The little dude stands as well. “Me too.”
“Thank you, both of you,” Theo says, hugging one friend then the other. “You go, but we’ll keep in touch, OK?”
As the two defectivum kids zoom up the stairs, Cosmo starts grumbling again. “I’m not staying holed up here forever.”
“You think Donovan, Wes, and Maximus can just arrive back and wander around with no comment?” Theo snaps. “We need a plan. What are we going to do about the security log at the gate?”
She’s getting all steamed up.
I try to hug her closer, but she bats me off.
“This is all crazy. The WMO has been all over the building site, so obviously knows something weird is going on.
What if they're the ones using the dark energy?
And then there's the security log. It will show we never left the premises. What are we going to do? We are going to get taken away and experimented on! People who get taken by the authorities hardly ever return.”
She’s freaking with a capital F.
The big old janitor and Alexis step closer, but I beat them to it, pulling her down onto my lap and cuddling her tight.
“Listen, babe. I don’t know much, but I do know one thing.
I am never going to be separated from you again—understand?
If some men-in-black types try to bundle you into an unmarked van, you’d better believe I’ll be in there with you.
Seriously, I’m not even going to let you go potty without me.
And yes, I did say ‘go potty’ because I know you don’t like it when I talk about taking a shit. ”
Theo's eyes are pooling with tears. “Don’t make jokes,” she says, a wobble in her voice. “I’m scared, and my chest hurts.” She presses a hand between her gorgeous tits, gasping for air. “It burns. Gods! I wish we could grab Wes and then run away. All of us.”
“Hard pass, dud.”
I am just about done with Cosmo. My initial joy of seeing him again is wearing off, and now I remember what a total prick he was to Theo. I gently move Theo to one side and walk the three steps forward to face my ‘friend’.
“Stop it!” The professor snaps. “Both of you, settle down. Now is not the time.” He has his arms around a white-faced, trembling Theo.
I force myself to tamp down a spark of irritation.
The professor meets my eyes for a second, then looks to our girl.
“Pulu, Donovan's right. No one is taking you away. We face whatever comes, together. But your point about the security log is valid. We need to get Maximus and Donovan, and Wes when we find him, on the other side of the perimeter, then they can just stroll through the front gates. It’ll be easy enough to believe the three of them went on some ill-advised adventure for a year, and are just now back.”
“I’m guessing the perimeter still has WMO-level security wards?” I ask. The three of us tried to break those wards a thousand times.
“It has,” the professor says. “I’ve never been able to breach them, but I wonder…” He looks at Theo. “I wonder if Theo’s newfound power could? That pain in your chest, Pulu? I’ve a feeling that’s not panic—it’s your flame growing stronger.”
Theo pales even further. “Gods, it’s like I’ve got a herd of wild horses inside me.
” She takes a deep breath. “But I guess I can test if it is my magic. I only know one advanced spell, and that was from Restricted Studies class, but let’s see.
” She narrows her eyes at Cosmo. “Remember your little party trick in that class?”
Cos rolls his eyes. "Oh, please, like you can do that to me.”
“Unlike you, I don’t take pleasure in manipulating someone’s vocal cords, but for the sake of experiment, I’ll give it a go,” Theo snaps, waving a hand in a casting motion.
The magic hits him like a freight train.
Cosmo’s mouth flies open. He tries to fight it, his neck muscles straining, but the power inside Theo is too much. It forces the air from his lungs, compressing the sound into a solid wall of pressure.
“I’M SORRY!”
The words erupt from him, not as a scream, but as a concussive blast of air. It’s like standing next to a subwoofer the size of a house. The vibration is so intense it rattles my teeth in my skull.
It’s like a cannon went off inside him. The kickback lifts Cosmo right off his feet and launches him backward like a ragdoll.
He crashes into the rickety chair, shattering it into kindling, and hits the floor hard. Dust rains down from the ceiling rafters, shaken loose by the vibrations.
Silence slams back into the room.
Theo's expression is a mix of shock and wonder. "Holy shit" she whispers, looking at her hands. "I barely even pushed."
She glances at the stunned Cosmo, who is groaning on the floor, then a mischievous grin spreads across her face. "Well, that was certainly enlightening, wasn’t it, Dragon? Maybe I will be able to handle a few wards."
Cosmo glares up at Theo, rubbing his throat. “Fuck. You.”
“No thanks,” she giggles. “I’ve plenty of better options.”
Turning to me, Ludo, and Alexis, she blows us all kisses.
My girl is fucking Tinkerbell. “As soon as I stopped fighting it, my body became much more in tune with the magic.”
“You feel like you could break the wards and get us off the premises?” I ask, pulling her in and kissing the top of her head.
“You know what, I think, truly, it will be easy as pie!”
I look at my girl with complete awe.
Max knocks me out of the way to get to the food bags again. “There’s pie?”
Pie.
Wes loves pie.
Gods, I miss my twin so much. It's like I'm only half a person now, where I used to be basically two people.
If my math is correct, that means I'm a quarter of the Donovan I used to be.
Hold on, brother.
We’ll be reunited soon.