“Sorry.” His voice sounded apologetic, on the surface at least. “I know you said he’s your mate. But the Greythornes have always been a bit off, haven’t they?”
I could only stare at him, my skin gone cold.
Some part of me remained in denial. My mind ran through the facts, trying to make sense of Graham’s words, to reconstruct a timeline, something that made sense to me, that would prove him wrong. I looked for some way to know that his wordsweren’t true, that theycouldn’tbe true. I couldn’t find that timeline, though.
I’d completely missed breakfast.
I hadn’t seen anyone yet.
Gods, Alaric used to joke about this happening. He’d say if he ever disappeared, I should look for him in the Greythorne family dungeon.
Suddenly, I was fighting not to throw up.
Hearing a noise, I glanced up, looking for a distraction, and any excuse to look away from Graham Strangemore. The door opened on the far wall at the front of the classroom, behind the long table that served as both podium and desk. I glimpsed the wild hair of Professor Forsooth as he shuffled inside, his arms full with papers and books.
I had to leave. I had to get the fuck out of there.
I had to get out of here before––
You’re not going anywhere.
The words were clipped, cold.
I shivered as the presence behind them whispered over my magic, alien yet so shockingly familiar, so disturbingly close, my heart clenched painfully in my chest. Despite the hostility of the words, something in them immediately grounded me.
I couldn’t have really heard that, though.
It couldn’t be real.
You will sit in class, take notes like a good girl, and act completely fucking normal, Shadow.The cold voice paused.Breathe. You need to breathe.
I’d stopped breathing.
I’d stopped fucking breathing.
I forced myself to take a slow, painful breath. I exhaled it.
Before I could stop myself, my gaze flickered up and to my left. Bones sat there, staring straight ahead, his gold eyes focused blankly on the front of the room. From his expression, he wasbored, annoyed, impatient with having to be there at all. Had he moved seats? I could have sworn he’d been sitting much further back when I first walked in, and not alone.
His jaw ticked as I watched.
The dark circles seemed to have deepened under his eyes, making him look gaunt. His knuckles looked red, possibly even bruised. The bone dragon on his shoulder stared at me, its gold eyes glowing.
You’re going to keep it together, mongrel,the low, barely-there voice seethed.Don’t overreact. Don’t react at all. Not where anyone can see it.
I forced my eyes off him.
My throat closed so hard I nearly choked.
It hit me that I was fighting back a sob. I was being strangled by it.
Between the news about Alaric and now hearing Bones in my head, for the first time in nearly a year, it felt like my entire chest was being crushed. My thoughts grappled with the reality that I might actually be losing my mind.
Bones couldn’t be talking to me. Could he? Why would he do that?
My mind spun back around to Alaric, to our entire summer together, to everything we’d been doing. This wasn’t for me, I realized. Bones wasn’t here for me.
He was there for Alaric.
