by LJ Swallow
"Not that, the... other thing."
"I didn't deliberately do anything to you, Maeve." His eyes drop to my mouth and he looks away. "Fuck."
"You felt it too, didn't you?" I ask cautiously.
He swallows. "Yes. Connecting our minds opened up something else. I knew to avoid touching you but… fuck. I'm sorry."
"That wasn't deliberate?"
"No, Maeve." His voice is soft, apologetic. "You're an emotional mess. Why would I take advantage?"
"Then why?"
Tobias chews his lip. "I can't spend time in a room with you without us triggering our energy connection. What did you think would happen if we touched?"
"We've touched before."
"Not like that. Not when we've melded minds as closely. I try to keep away, but…" He pauses. "Forgive me. I won't put you in that situation again. I merely meant to stop you running through the academy screaming like a banshee."
I want to say that I understand, but nothing makes sense. We both know this is something that can't be ignored, or pushed into a box and forgotten about.
"Promise me when you walk out of that door, you won't go to Petrescu." I nod. "And I promise I will investigate tomorrow. Could you ask Jamie to get the cottage keys and we can meet there to plan our next move."
This is more the old Tobias, grasping at his wits again, even though he's not mentally coping.
"Do you think you could bring Ash?" The fear something bad may happen to him too has intensified with Andrei's removal.
"I will try." He chews his lip, his wariness as strong as mine. Changing the subject away from tonight and planning the future makes more sense. "Would you like me to escort you back to Walcott?" he asks stiffly.
"No," I say, voice thick. "I'd rather walk alone."
He smiles. "Of course."
Tobias's escorts me from the room and hesitantly asks again if I want him to walk me back. His touch has pulled me out of one shock and into another, because whatever happened moments ago scares me. Relief brightens his face when I say no.
Chapter Twenty-One
MAEVE
As I gingerly make my way to Walcott, I avoid looking in the direction the van with Andrei travelled. I'm trembling, emotionally and physically screwed by the last hour. Andrei. Tobias. What next?
I pull out my phone and check the screen; I've been too distracted to hear messages. Jamie wants me to see him. He needn't ask because he's the first person I'm going to.
Inside Walcott, a gaggle of students are gathered at the top of the winding stairs, crowded around the large window that looks towards the front of the academy, chattering. The talk dries up the moment my foot touches the top step.
Yvette heads the group and her position on the stairs creates a barrier between me and her. "We saw him go."
Glee accompanies her mocking smile, which almost triggers the tears I fight. Almost.
"Andrei will be back once they find the real killer," I retort.
She shakes her head. "Maeve, you keep repeating that and nobody's listening. You can tell yourself whatever you want, but your murderous vampire boyfriend is gone."
Becci stands towards the edge of the group, not looking out the window. She's paler than last night and chewing her nails. "I'm tired, Yvette. Can I sleep in your room again?"
"Of course, hon. Until Sofia finds you a new room, you can share with me and Alison." Yvette pats Becci's arm, who smiles gratefully.
A new room. "Did you share with Lorna?" I ask.
Becci nods and chews her nail harder.
"Didn't you see anything?"
"No!" she protests. "How many times do people need to ask me?"
Yvette takes Becci's hand between hers and pats. "Ignore her. Maeve, you can Nancy Drew all you want, but leave Becci alone."
Something's weird. Why didn't I pick up on this earlier? Becci hasn't looked at me once.
My stomach lurches. She won't look at me.
"I'm sorry about Lorna," I say, "this must be hard for you."
At my platitude, she lifts her eyes and they meet mine. Do I have enough energy left in me for this?
I have seconds to swipe at her memories, only catching a couple of glimpses, but it's enough. Lorna laughing and smiling. Becci warning her not to do something—I don't catch what. A guy speaking her name. His face is a blank, scrubbed in black the way someone would scrawl through an unwanted picture. I recognise the surroundings. They're at the academy grounds.
Her eyes fill with trepidation and she turns her back on me. The girls continue talking, but I don't want to fully rejoin their world. I grip onto the images in an attempt to memorise them but they fade too fast.
"Excuse me," I say and step around the group.
For the first time tonight, a small hope shines in the dark.
Becci knows something.
She's the key to unlocking the truth.
JAMIE
The news spreads through Walcott like a firestorm—the Confederacy took Andrei. He's on the way to Ravenhold.
Now my focus is one person. Maeve.
How did her and Tobias fail? Were they discovered and arrested for misusing magic too? A hundred scenarios vie inside my head, and I whip out my phone to message her.
If Andrei's gone, do we have any hope of clearing his name?
I wait in the common room, eyes on my phone ready for her reply. I hear some jibes thrown my way, but ignore them. Maeve must know. She'll be freaking out—I hope Tobias helps with that.
Maeve sends an ‘on my way' text and I rush outside, hoping to catch her before she meets any gloating students. Too late. Maeve breaks away from a group on the stairs, but instead of tears there's a dark determination on her features. Her blonde hair is mussed and she smooths it as she storms along.
"Maeve." I catch her arm as she almost hits me; she's so lost in her own world.
She blinks up at me. "Jamie." Maeve's voice cracks and I hug her to me, surrounding her with comfort and hiding her from interested eyes passing by.
"What happened?" I whisper into her hair.
"It was awful." She pulls away and the expression pains my heart. "Awful. I don't know where to start."
Her hands are clasped behind my back as she clings to me; she's never held me this tight before. Why is she shaking with distress? The least Tobias could do is help calm her.
"Are you in trouble?" I whisper.
"No. I don't think so." She keeps her cheek pressed against me and I'm lost. Can I can give Maeve what she needs?
I let her cry into my shirt for a few minutes, while I glare at anybody passing who might comment about us, or Andrei. Stroking her soft hair soothes me as much as her, and gradually her breathing slows. At times like these, I wish I could curl around Maeve and keep her safe from everybody or create a magical armour to protect her heart.
I'm about to move when another sob escapes Maeve. I crush her to me again, wishing this would squeeze out her pain, and place my lips on the top of her head. "I'm here, you're okay," I say.
Maeve pulls away and wipes at her blotchy face with the back of a hand. "Can we move?"
Few people are around as we walk along the hallway towards the dorm rooms. "Do you want to talk about what happened?" I ask.
Maeve wipes her nose with the heel of her palm and shakes her head. Her big blue eyes are red-rimmed and filled with tears, but there's a different jitteriness around her. Not as if she's scared, but that something else affected her tonight.
I sensed something strange in her energy when I held Maeve, a combination of exhaustion and something else. Somebody else's energy?
"Do you want me to stay with you tonight?" I ask cautiously when she puts her hand on the door handle.
"I'm too tired to talk," she says in a thick voice.
"That's okay. We can talk tomorrow." I dig my hands in my pockets and smile at her.
"My bodyguard?" she asks with a crooked smile.
"I'm whatever you want me to be, Maeve," I say softly. I di
dn't mean for the words to be loaded, but they hang heavy between us.
"Just be Jamie," she says. Maeve sighs and touches my chest. "I made your T-shirt damp. Sorry."
I smile at her weird concern. "That's what you're worried about?"
Maeve tiptoes and kisses my cheek. "You're amazing, Jamie."
Her words swell my heart, and I hug her again. "Go to bed. Tell me everything in the morning."
She pulls away and nods.
"Tobias will have a plan. Don't worry," I say.
Maeve drops her look to the floor, and I detect a wave of troubled energy. "I hope so."
When the door closes behind her, I wrinkle my nose and look at the ceiling. Am I upset that Maeve doesn't want me to watch over her tonight?
Maybe a little disappointed, but honestly? I need a decent night's sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Two
MAEVE
Walcott and Petrescu both use the cafeteria this morning, now open again for breakfast, but with something new and something missing. New guards watch from tables, pretending they're eating breakfast too.
And every Gilgamesh kid is missing.
Nobody in authority need worry about fights—the two houses barely register each other, sitting in the house cliques more noticeable than usual. Katherine's group only includes Petrescu today. Things are calmer because no hemia can come to breakfast, but when the evening and classes begin, the true test of ‘normalcy' happens.
The emptiness in my heart is matched by the vacant chairs around the table. Three missing—Amelia, Ash and Andrei. Jamie's thinking the same thing—it doesn't take a spirit affinity to feel that. I comb my mind for something to talk about to break our morose silence, but there's nothing light in my thoughts.
Yvette and her gang sit a few tables from us, drinking coffee and picking at muffins as they chat. Throughout my breakfast with Jamie, she watches us. Andrei's incarceration has lifted them and their smiles twist anger and jealousy inside. I want to be the one happy at the outcome.
I stir the yoghurt with my spoon too vigorously and some splashes from the pot. Yoghurt splatters Jamie's sleeve.
"Are you going to eat that or throw it at me?" he says, wiping the mess away with his fingers.
"Sorry."
He shakes his head and smiles. "Eat the yoghurt. I'm watching."
"You can be really bossy sometimes, Mr. Greenwood," I retort.
Jamie huffs and rolls up his shirt sleeves, revealing his distractingly toned forearms. "I'm dealing with the most stubborn witch I've met. I have no choice." He drops his firm tone. "Maeve, you're fading. I don't know if this is because you're not coping or something more, and I feel helpless. But I can make sure you eat and offer free hugs whenever required."
I take a huge mouthful of yoghurt and stare at him as I eat. His mouth tips into the smile that triggers endorphins and happiness. He's helping in more ways than he realises. Yoghurt smears my mouth and I lick my lips before leaning in to kiss Jamie's soft cheek. "Thank you."
"I'm always here for you, remember?"
I move back and stroke his cheek with the back of a hand. "You shaved."
He rubs his chin. "Yeah. I'm not into the scruffy look."
"You decided not to grow a beard?" I ask and run my fingers along his chin. His smooth skin is a contrast to the scratchy sensation against my neck last night. "I began to wonder if you were going for an edgier look, when you weren't the perfectly groomed Jamie for a couple of days."
"Not unless I need to disguise myself and even then..." He pulls a face.
I smirk at an image in my head. "I can't picture you with a beard. Ash maybe, but not you."
He straightens and puffs his chest out. "Are you saying I'm not manly enough?'
"Manly." I splutter the word, casting an appreciative gaze over his lean physique. "Believe me, you're manly enough."
"Hmm." Jamie pushes hair from his eyes and looks the other way, lips pressed together. "Have you seen Ash this morning?"
"No. I haven't seen any Gilgamesh yet. Don't you think that's strange?"
"Vincent probably told Ash to stay away from you again." He sips his coffee.
"Probably, but he can't tell every student to stay away."
"Lessons start this evening, including Potions. I expect we'll see Gilgamesh then. The staff want the academy back to normal, remember?"
At the adjacent table, Yvette giggles and the sounds grates like fingernails on a chalkboard. I focus on Becci, her hair captured in a ponytail, revealing a brighter face as she smiles and joins in, unlike yesterday.
"Has Yvette threatened you again?" asks Jamie.
"What?" I look back to him.
A dark look covers his face. "You're watching them."
"Oh. No." My chair scrapes as I shift closer to Jamie. "We still need to find our way into Lorna's room, but also need to get Becci alone again."
He sits back in his chair and his brow tugs low. "I tried, Maeve, but there were too many guards outside the room last night."
"Hey. It's okay. You're not the only one who failed their mission." I poke him with a toe. We could wallow in our failures, but we need to take them on the chin and continue.
I lower my voice. "Do you think you can get hold of the key for the cottage? Tobias said he'd try to bring Ash. That's the safest place for us to meet."
"What time did Tobias say?"
I spin the yoghurt pot around in my hand. I can't shake what happened between Tobias and me before I walked away last night. Was that due to our heightened emotions or something more?
What's harder to forget is what I saw in Becci's mind.
"We forgot to confirm a time. Things were a little... weird. Tobias was upset too. He's taken this badly."
Jamie tips his head. "He's upset you again. I can tell."
"Last night was bad. I think we were both shocked and it triggered..." I shake my head.
"Triggered what?" Jamie leans forward.
"You know we clash. The situation triggered an argument and neither of us were rational. Today I'm sure he'll be back to his old self and have a plan."
"Hopefully he'll pin down Oliver and drag the truth from him," says Jamie. "This could all be over soon."
Yvette and her friends pass by and I sigh at her immaturity as she knocks my chair and simpers an apology. Sometimes, kids here act like they're fifteen and not nineteen years old. Becci stays on the group's outer edge, furthest away from Jamie and me.
"She knows that I saw something in her mind," I whisper to Jamie as the girls leave.
"I hope Becci doesn't find a strong blocking spell before we can get to her." He half stands. "We should stop Becci and talk to her."
place my hand on his to stop him. "No. We can't run after Becci and assault her. We need to speak to Tobias and find the right time. How good is she at mental magic?"
He shrugs. "Average, I guess."
"And I'm above average."
Jamie sits back down. "Are you sure Oliver isn't the guy you saw in her mind?"
"I couldn't tell. If anything, the image faded overnight."
He looks at the doors Becci walked through with Yvette. "I think she knows who really killed Lorna."
"But why isn't she saying anything?"
"She may've been threatened, especially if she saw the murder."
I rub my mouth. In all my eagerness to find the truth, I hadn't considered if Becci may be in danger too.
Jamie reaches across the table and squeezes my fingers. "Everything is complicated, but I'm great at jigsaws." He stands and this time I don't stop him. "I'll get the cottage key and we can wait for Tobias over there. At least the atmosphere's more comfortable there."
I'm tempted to rush over to Gilgamesh to find Ash, but need to be content he's okay, and wait. But that waiting is gnawing at my resolve. I'm grateful one of my missing friends is back, but there was something weird about him yesterday.
"I'll come with you." I stand hastily. I don't want to be on my own. Not yet.
>
Jamie holds out his hand. "Sure."
Without him this last couple of days, I'd be a mess. Yes, I'm determined to be strong for Andrei and all of us, but without support from others, I can't be.
"Thank you," I whisper and squeeze his hand.
Chapter Twenty-Three
MAEVE
I'd forgotten how much of a sanctuary the cottage is and understand why Jamie would come here alone. If I were him, I'd be here every day. I open the curtains in the lounge window to let some welcome light into the room. There's nobody walking towards the cottage yet, but we're a little early. Please let Tobias find Ash.
On the way over here, me and Jamie continued to discuss our theories about where we go next, and I'm still convinced the Petrescu guy is responsible. Has Tobias spoken to him yet? I'm certain we'll find the real killer, and that confidence wipes away some of the sickness that comes over me if I think about Andrei.
Is Andrei at Ravenhold yet? How frightened is he?
Will everything happening to Andrei change him?
Jamie clatters around in the kitchen and I wander in to find him arranging mugs on the stone counter besides a boiling kettle. "Tea?" I ask with a chuckle. "How very English in a crisis."
"Not your usual sort of tea." Jamie opens a cupboard to reveal a neat row of glass jars containing dried leaves in shades of black, reds, and greens.
"Herbal?" I pull a face. "I like chamomile sometimes, but I'm not a fan. Those teas never taste of anything."
"Some of these aren't common. Amelia brought them from her family's place."
"Magic teas?" I blurt.
"Well, magic infused, but they taste like normal tea." Jamie smiles and he takes a jar from the cupboard and pops off the lid. "How about this one?"
I sniff the contents—a curious smell of licorice and cloves with a sweetness I can't identify. "What does this tea do to you?"
"Clarity." He catches my look. "Not mind-altering, Maeve. We need to focus our thoughts because they're all over the place right now."
I watch, wrinkling my nose as he spoons leaves into a cracked blue and white teapot painted with small flowers. "I'll try."
