“I believe you,” he says, running his hand down my back.“I believe you.”
I stare up at him in horror.“It was your late wife.”
Crane’s jaw flexes.
“You were married?”Brom asks incredulously, a hint of betrayal in his voice.
“It’s a long story,” he says, his eyes glimmering darkly.
“And a story I think we ought to hear,” I tell him, straightening up.I’m suddenly aware that I’m naked once more around these two, but Crane grabs a towel and wraps it around me.
“And you will,” Crane says, holding my hand and giving it a squeeze.But I don’t find any comfort in it.“Both of you will.I promise you that.But right now we need to get you dressed and out onto the grounds.It may be the weekend, but soon everyone will be up and your mother will be here and the last thing we need is trouble from the coven.We have our own shit to figure out first.”
I can barely think, my heart is still beating too fast, and I feel like I can’t breathe.I close my eyes and try to take in a deep breath while Crane whispers, “I’m sorry we left you alone for so long.We had to go to the library first thing, and you looked so peaceful sleeping.”
“Did you find the head?”I ask warily.I’ve been trying not tothink about that head, knowing it was the drunken fellow who was pawing at me at the bonfire.Mary did a good enough job getting him to leave me alone, there was no need to murder him in cold blood.I suppress a shiver at that, knowing his murderer is standing in the room with me.
“The head is gone.”Crane says this so easily, as if we’re discussing something trivial.“I cleaned up the mess we left in our tussle but the head is gone.And no, Brom has no idea where it went.”
I glance at Brom but he seems lost in thought, that hurt expression in his eyes, and I know he’s still thinking about the fact that he didn’t know Crane was married before.
I swallow uneasily and look up at Crane.“I think your wife was trying to kill me.”
He gives me a tight smile.“I’m sure she was.She has a lot to be angry about.”
I squint at him.What did you do to her?
But I know that question will have to wait for later.I tuck it away with the million other questions I have, knowing it’s probably futile to expect answers anytime soon.
7
Kat
After the incident with Crane’s dead wife, I dressed in his shirt and coat and made my way over to the women’s side of the faculty dormitories.Since I arrived at school in just my nightgown, the only way to get proper clothes would be to go back to my house.But I don’t want to go back there.I don’t even know what time my mother and Famke got back last night from the bonfire—or if they did at all—but my gut instinct is telling me that going back to my house wouldn’t be safe.
Of course we’re only assuming that my mother is coming here today with my belongings to move me into the dorm.One would think she would have come here as soon as she returned home last night and realized I wasn’t there.Or perhaps she thinks I’m still in my room sleeping.It’s early enough in the morning.
Though I’m hit with the memory of trying to escape from my bedroom and finding the door locked.Did that really happen?Had someone locked me in my bedroom with Brom?Had shebeen home at that time while I was struggling?Or had it been Brom himself who somehow locked the door when he shut it?
Either way, my mother was determined that I move to the institute.
But since none of us are ready to discuss with her—or anyone for that matter—what really happened last night, I can’t be walking around campus in a nightgown, with bare feet, and covered in bruises.Thus it’s up to me to try and wrangle clothes from one of the teachers.I don’t know any of the female students well enough, but at least the teachers will feel obliged to help, given that my family runs the school.
Brom and Crane stay behind in their area as I go down the women’s hallway and knock on the first door I see.Ms.Peek, my alchemy teacher, answers it.
“Katrina,” she says, gripping her dressing gown around her, her black hair swept up under a bonnet.“Good heavens, what are you doing here?Come in, come in.”
She ushers me into her warm room, smelling of incense.Thankfully she’s always been welcoming to me and supportive in my classes with her, even though I’m not as good at alchemy as I want to be.
“What happened, dear?”she asks.She’s probably the same age as my mother but appears much younger in some ways, with beautiful porcelain skin and bright brown eyes that seem to never miss a thing.
I give her a quivering smile and launch into the story I concocted in my head.“I went for a walk by the lake this morning with my friend to try out a dawn spell and I tripped over some roots.So embarrassing.I fell right into the lake.He was kindenough to give me his clothes but my nightgown and boots are all soaked and I don’t have anything else to wear at the moment.”
She purses her lips as she listens, studying me closely.I can tell she doesn’t quite believe me.
“Are you all right?”she eventually says, her gaze going to the corner of my head now.“You hit your head?”
“I’m fine,” I tell her quickly, pasting on a smile.“Just smacked it on a rock when I fell, but I feel fine.Just embarrassed, that’s all.You wouldn’t happen to have clothes you could lend me for the day, would you?I’ll return them to you tonight.I won’t get them dirty, I promise.”
