They lead me down to the first floor, but before I walk out the door, Crane pulls me aside and lets his thumb hover above the wound on my forehead.“I should have done this earlier.This might hurt a little.”
I go still as he gently presses his thumb to my skin.It stings and I grit my teeth.“How you seem to love causing pain,” I manage to comment.
“I happen to be very good at it,” he says before closing his eyes and chanting a few words that I barely hear and can’t decipher.Slowly the pain melts into something warm and soft, like honey, and then he’s removing his hand.“There.That should take care of that.”
That warm softness spreads from my head and down the rest of my body and I feel the urge to fall into his arms and give in to it, just succumb to his strength, let it wrap me up in golden chains.
But Crane seems a little drained from what he just did, and I realize he did more than heal me.I think he gave me some of his own energy so that I can survive the next ordeal.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
He gives me a quick kiss on the forehead and spins me around to the door.“You’re welcome.”
With newfound verve, I give them a wave goodbye as I gather up my courage and walk down the curved path toward the women’s dorms, my gait awkward thanks to Ms.Peek’s boots.It’s still early and everyone here seems to sleep in on the weekends, so the grounds are quiet except for the birds chirping about, small flocks of sparrows and finches that land on the heads of the statues like jaunty hats, coupled with the sound of the breeze rustling the dead and dying leaves of the surrounding woods.The mist from earlier has started to infiltrate the campus, like a phantom’s translucent fingers wrapping around a neck.
A chill runs through me and I look back to see Crane and Brom still standing in the doorway to the faculty dorms, watching me until the fog moves in and makes them blurry.
I gulp and turn around in time to see my mother emergingfrom her buggy holding a box of my things, heading to my new dorm, the door to the building propped open.Her back is to me but she senses me anyway because she comes to a dead stop and whirls around to look me dead in the eyes.
“Kat!”she says sharply, and for once in my life I see relief in her face, as if she’s actually been worried about me, even though it does nothing to hide how frail and awful she looks.“Goodness gracious, where have you been?”She adjusts the box in her hands as I approach her, and she looks me up and down.“And what on earth are you wearing?”
Time for another lie, but this one is one she’ll want to hear.
I perfect a sheepish grin.“I had to borrow clothes from one of my teachers.”
She shakes her head.“Why?I don’t understand?When I woke up this morning and you weren’t there, I was afraid the worst had happened.”
“And what would the worst be?”I ask curiously.
She frowns.“That you were murdered or abducted by the headless horseman.”
Funny.She didn’t seem that concerned about it before.
“Oh,” I say.“No.I met up with Brom at the bonfire and we came back here to his room for the night.My clothes, uh, they got damaged in the process.”
She seems to transform before my eyes.The whites of her yellowing bloodshot eyes growing brighter, her cheeks turning pink, a smile broadening.
“You were with Brom?”she says, excitement palpable in every word.
I keep the shy smile on my face.
“Yes.”I say.And I shouldn’t say the next part but I do.“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
Her expression falters for a moment.“It’s what everyone wants.And it’s what you want too.”
I nod slowly, keeping up the appearance of the daughter who doesn’t want to discuss such intimate things with her mother.“Yes, well, I would like to get some of that special tea from you.”
Her eyes narrow.“Tea?What do you mean?”
“I just started school, Mother,” I tell her.“I don’t want any children, not yet.”
She scoffs loudly at that.“Gracious me, Katrina.Your studies aren’t as important as your future husband and family.Just who do you think you are, expecting to choose an education before all else?”
My head spins with whiplash, but I don’t have the energy to get into why my mother wanted me to marry Brom my whole life, then forced me to go to this damn school once he disappeared, and now wants me to marry Brom again as if the school no longer matters.If I questioned her about it she would just give me a bunch of lies stacked on top of lies.
“Still, I’d like the tea,” I tell her in a measured voice.
Her eyes narrow further and for a moment I feel suction, as if I’m looking into an airless void.
