“You feel or you know?”
“Both,” he says slowly.“Leona told me I’m needed to protect them.From what, I don’t know and she didn’t say.But it did lead to talk of Goruun.Who, it turns out, is a deity linked to their coven.”
“A fucking deity?”I repeat.I close my eyes and try to remember exactly what Sarah had said to me when I was still half-possessed.“Help us bring Goruun’s wishes to life.” I repeat her words quietly.“Help us usher in a new age.”
“Does this new age have anything to do with the end of the world?”Crane ventures.
My eyes fly open.“Not that I know of.Sarah only said I had to take what was owed to me and go get her daughter.Perhaps I read into that wrong.Maybe I’m not meant to marry Kat on behalf of this Goruun.”
“Or maybe you’re meant to get her pregnant,” Crane says, his voice like iron.“And the marriage is ceremonial.I don’t know.But I can tell you this much: Regardless of whether we exile the Hessian from you sooner or later, I still don’t think your cock should go anywhere near her.Not for the sake of Kat’s safety but because this is whattheywant.And you have to wonder why that is.”
He’s right.I fucking hate that he’s right, but he is.
“I’ll be careful,” I tell him.
He grabs my face and gives my jaw a sharp, painful squeeze as his eyes bore into mine.“You are not to fucking touch her,” he growls at me, holding me tight.“Not unless it’s for the ritual, not unless it’s under my supervision.Understood?”
I can’t even talk against the pressure in his fingers.I manage to nod.
But I never verbally agree.
10
Kat
I spend the rest of the afternoon staring out my new window, waiting and hoping to catch a glimpse of Crane or Brom.I’m on the first floor, which makes it easy for me to sneak out my window at a later hour, but I don’t think I’m allowed to wander over to their dorms as it is.
After my mother told me I was ripe for the picking, which she then clarified by saying I was ready for my magic to be fully useful—something that seemed to please her to no end—I let her usher me into the dorm to set up my room.There was no chance for me to talk to Famke about what I really wanted to (mainly, if she knew who or what on earth Goruun was).My mother watched me the whole time.It’s like her eyes were drinking me in and by the time they finally left, I felt completely drained, as if she’d taken back whatever energy Crane had given to me.It couldn’t have been my imagination that she seemed brighter and stronger than earlier.
Finally they left and while I was sad to see Famke go, I feltnothing but relief the minute my mother left me alone in my new bedroom.There had been no more talk of tea but she did say she wanted Brom and me to come for dinner next weekend.I said I would depending on the weather but she gave me a look that told me she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.Well, she would have to come and drag me there.
Now that I’m back into my regular clothes and there isn’t much more to do, I need to find Crane and Brom.But out there in the halls I can hear my fellow students laughing and chatting and I suddenly feel lonely.
This isn’t the time to make friends, I remind myself, trying to feel stronger.Your focus is Brom and Crane and that’s it right now.
Finally, when the drizzle that had started earlier seems to let up, I gather up Ms.Peek’s clothes and boots, planning to go to the faculty dorm and give them to her.That way I can quickly swing by the men’s wing and see if Crane is there.
The hall is empty of students when I step out and lock my door, slipping the key into one of my tiny pockets on the bodice where I keep my button hook.I exit the building through the main doors and into the cold air.The sun is still up somewhere but the fog and clouds have swallowed up almost all light, plunging the campus into a hazy darkness.It’s strangely still and quiet, only the faint dripping from the eaves and onto the cobblestone, and for one terrifying moment I feel like I’m the only person left in the world.Like this is all there is left, just me, the stillness.
And something dark and sinister that lurks in the shadows.
Something that wants to eat me.
Then a breeze ruffles my hair and I hear the call of crows as aflock of them take flight from the trees, and everything seems normal again.
A violent shiver rocks through me and I hurry over to the faculty dorm, careful not to slip on the slick path, and then head up the stairs to the mezzanine.I think about going to Ms.Peek’s first to drop off her clothes, but I’m pulled toward the men’s wing, the need to see Crane too strong to ignore.
I turn the corner of the hall and then come to a stop when I find Sister Sophie standing outside his door, as if she just knocked and is waiting for him to answer.
Her head swivels toward me.“Katrina?”she asks, sounding surprised and yet uneasy at the same time, as if I caught her doing something wrong.Then she squares her shoulders and walks toward me, chin raised, that haughty coldness that all the sisters seem to share corrupting her eyes.
“What are you doing here?”she asks suspiciously.
“I was returning some clothes to Ms.Peek,” I tell her, raising the items.“Were you seeing Professor Crane?”
Her eyes flick over me.“Yes,” she says after a moment.“I had something I wanted to discuss with him.And you were only going to see Ms.Peek?”She raises a thin brow.Even with her hood down, she still seems shrouded by shadows.
“I sensed someone was down here,” I lie.“I was curious.”
