By the time we reach the door that leads back to Phoenix Hall, I’m second-guessing everything. Logan’s words about wanting all of me. The way he looked at me like I hung the moon. Even that moment when our magic created an actual storm… did any of it truly happen? Or was it just the Double Cluster making us both crazy?
“Monday night.” He releases my hand and flexes his fingers, pain crossing his eyes. When he looks back at me, all that’s left is steel. “The Fury Loop.”
I search his face for any trace of what we shared in the observatory, but he might as well have locked his feelings into a metal box and thrown that box into the treacherous sea surrounding the island. “Right,” I finally say, surprised I’m able to find my voice at all. “The Fury Loop.”
Then he’s turning away and disappearing into the tunnels, leaving me to wonder if anything that happened tonight was real, or if it was just the stars playing cruel tricks on my heart.
JADE
I should be usingmy Sunday off to catch up on reading. Instead, I’m in the greenhouse with a knife and a pumpkin, pretending my life is normal. Because that’s exactly what you do after your secret whatever-he-is tells you he wants all of you and then shuts down completely—you carve vegetables and pretend everything’s fine.
“Your design is incredible.” Evie peers over my shoulder at the intricate pattern I’m engraving. “How are you getting those curves so precise?”
“Years of wire work.” I complete another swirl, my knife moving with the same precision I use when setting tiny stones. “Jewelry making, remember? Same principle, different medium.”
The pattern emerging on my pumpkin is inspired by the Tower card in my Crystal Visions tarot deck. Lightning bolts striking a crumbling tower that reminds me of the Drowned Tower, surrounded by an angry ocean, all of it carved into thick orange flesh.
I’m deep in focus mode when Oliver’s knife slips, and he stares at the gash on his pumpkin for a moment too long beforeforcing out a laugh. “Guess mine’s going for the battle-scarred look,” he jokes, adding another gash for emphasis. He smiles, looking around to make sure others are laughing with him, but there’s a sadness in it. Like he’s looking for something he’s lost.
He’s been distracted all afternoon. But that knife slip? Oliver’s been training with weapons for years. He doesn’t just “slip.” Something’s bothering him, and I have no idea what it could be.
I glance at Evie’s pumpkin next to mine, searching for something to lighten the mood. “Evie’s looks like she used a protractor,” I say, giving Oliver what I hope is a warm smile.
“She probably did use a protractor.” He turns his attention away from his disaster of a pumpkin and focuses across the table on Evie. “Remember when you mapped out your Halloween candy route with graph paper?”
“I was eight!” Evie throws pumpkin guts at him, which he easily dodges. “And it was efficient!”
Avery giggles from her spot next to Oliver—across from me—her laugh light and musical. “I’m guessing you got more candy than anyone else?” she asks Evie, her voice so carefully cheerful it makes my chest hurt.
Oliver nudges Avery with his shoulder, and a flush blooms on her cheeks. “She did. And most of it went to me.”
Their enthusiastic chatting continues, the rest of the greenhouse buzzing with activity.
Felix works near the fountain, conjuring tiny fire butterflies. They’re beautiful, ethereal things that dissolve into sparks when they land on his pumpkin, leaving artistic scorch marks in their wake.
“Show off,” Lauren calls out to him.
Felix shakes his head at her and makes his way over to me, leaning over my shoulder and lowering his voice so the others can’t hear. “So, the Halloween ball. Are you going with Oliver?”
“He hasn’t asked?—”
“Please. The way he was looking at you at dinner last night?” He creates another butterfly, this one landing on my pumpkin and leaving a perfect scorch mark in the shape of a star. “Everyone’s talking about it. Nina’s even taking bets.”
“She’s what?”
“Current odds are three to one that you say yes. I put fifty dollars on you saying no, by the way. Don’t let me down, Harrington.”
“Great. No pressure or anything.” I focus on my carving, trying to ignore the weight of expectation. Although I guess it explains why Oliver seems so nervous, or anxious, or whatever it is. “What happens if I just... don’t go at all?”
“Then I lose fifty dollars and Nina wins by default,” he says cheerfully. “So please don’t do that.”
“You’re all insane.” I roll my eyes as he compliments Evie’s far-from-artistic pumpkin, adds a few butterflies to it, and makes his way back to the fountain.
When he’s settled again, I glance at where Nina sits at the far end of the table, her own pumpkin barely started. She has that black notebook open beside her—the same one she’s always scribbling and sketching in—but she looks tired today. Haunted, even.
After our little heart to heart on the day we dueled in the Smoke Spire, part of me wants to go to her and ask her what’s wrong. Maybe I should? But I don’t know. Nina doesn’t look like she wants a pumpkin carving buddy right now.
I’m still contemplating it when Alessandra’s voice sounds through the greenhouse. “Callie and I are going to look amazing together!” she says from three tables over, where she’s holding court with her usual crowd. “Our costumes are going to be legendary.”
