“Who wants to bunk?” Rayne asked.
Skye pointed at me without hesitation.
Rayne transformed my queen-size bed into a tall bunk bed, ignoring all my protests that she didn’t have to stay. I could guess why she was here. Leland didn’t want me falling asleep without a Shield.
“I want to,” she said. “I don’t want to be alone tonight, and I owe Leland a favor.” Her mouth twitched. “He told me that would be the easiest way to persuade you.”
“She’s persuaded!” Skye yelled.
My head ached and I hardly slept. Pepper cried all night. Belinda was gone. The Shadowrealm took Belinda from the patio where I’d been sitting, where she only went because she’d come to check on me.Me, whose last thoughts about her were — too high energy, we don’t connect. Belinda was gone, and it was my fault, my responsibility.
I decided then that I was going to get her back — just as soon as I figured out how to do it without jeopardizing Leland.
* * *
Leland was gone the entire next day, the reason unknown to me until I sat down at the first-year table for dinner and opened the paper.
Half Witch Summons Shadowrealm in Creatus.
He must have been stuck in meetings with the Echelons, perhaps being tapped for information on me and my Shadow-summoning powers, which would lead nowhere because the real Shadowrealm was sitting on the Council’s bench. Not that they would listen.
Still weighed down by guilt over Belinda, I’d tried asking Skye if she knew anything from her dad, but, busy making dolphin noises and feeding Nova tuna treats, she’d told me to go eat with Rayne.
Leland had reported to Jaxan almost immediately after the Shadowrealm attack.Surelyhe knew Jaxan was responsible? They worked closely together. How could he not recognize the same footsteps I did?It’s not the wind, he’d said into my head, moments before the Shadowcurrent struck. Sort of like he’d said,meeting’s not going to go well. How did he know that?
Rayne’s blue eyes studied me as I read the paper.
“No one believes Farrah Prolix,” she said, softly spoken.
“I might not have summoned it, but itismy fault,” I said. “She wouldn’t be gone if I hadn’t been on the patio. I’m responsible for this.”
Her high, half-ponytail bobbed as she dipped her head. “You aren’t.” She leaned forward and eased the paper out of my hands, then cast a creation spell that folded it into an origami lotus flower. Our eyes connected, her striking, bronze eyeshadow fanning out to her temples and deepening her eye color to piercing indigo, making her look like a beautiful warrior. “Have you seen Lee?” she asked. “He’s back now.”
Rayne and Leland were close, as close as Leland could be with the little free time he had. Rayne’s room had a laboratory in it, and sometimes, when I passed her room on my way up the spiral, her door was open, venting steam, and through the cloudy haze, I’d catch them brewing potions together.
“I haven’t,” I said, just before I felt him enter the cafeteria. Holding Vyra’s hand.
Iknew I shouldn’t care. My blood didn’t accept that.
Vyra led him across the smooth stone floor in a hurry, strutting for the buffet with every intention of blowing past our table. Leland let go of her hand and dropped down beside me.
For a moment, my veins unclenched, and my body stopped screaming.
“Hi, Ember,” he said, unexplainably looking like he was holding back a smile, his mouth tilted wryly.
Rayne arched her eyebrow.
“Hi.” I reeked of moonale, and my voice was scarred from not sleeping.
Vyra backtracked, the glamorous waves of her thick, brown hair springing as she bounced our direction, showering the air with her fragrant cotton candy perfume. My blood pounded forme to leave. Sutter, Vyra’s mosquito, buzzed out from behind her and hung threateningly in the air in front of my face. Then she dropped out of view.
“Really, Leland?” said Vyra as she folded herself in the chair next to Rayne’s. “We haven’t sat at this table in years. It’s for first years. I honestly can’t think of one good reason to go back to it.”
“I can.” He said it so calmly, I could’ve swooned.
I noticed his brown hair was dark and drying from a recent shower, and Vyra’s lip gloss was smooth and shining, as if recently applied, like she’d gotten ready at the same time as him. In their denim jeans and white tees, they looked like they’d coordinated their outfits too. I couldn’t stop picturing them together. In violent flashes. Leland, rough and tender, contemplative and laughing.
I really had to go before I started etherizing.
