“Like that we’ll always stay close and be friends no matter what,” he suggests.
“What about when you get a girlfriend?” I ask him and he rolls his eyes, making me bite my bottom lip to refrain from grinning. Is it possible that Silas actually wants me to be his girlfriend? Is that why he’s kept up this tutoring farce for so long?
“The candle is dripping all over the frosting,” he complains, and I shake my head.
“We need a better pact, Silas. That one is a given.”
He huffs out a breath and smiles. My heart skips a beat as he holds his hand under mine, so that we’re both holding the cupcake together.
“How about we make a pact that if we’re both thirty and single, we’ll get married,” he says.
This time, I roll my eyes. “There’s no way you’ll be thirty and single.”
“Violet, have you seen yourself? I’m going to have to scare every man away from you if we ever leave this hellhole.”
I shake my head at him, and he holds the cupcake toward my face.
“Make the wish,” he grumbles, his voice getting deeper.
“Do you even think you’d be a good husband?” I joke, not caring about the wax dripping all over the frosting.
I like teasing him. I also need him to say that he likes me, likes me, and this goes beyond us being best friends.
“I’d be the best husband, and you know it. We’d be one of those couples who wants to spend all of our time together. You wouldn’t be able to resist me. Honestly, the more I think about it, the sillier this pact is, because I think I’m going to convince you to marry me well before then anyway, Violet.”
“So confident,” I reply sassily, even though my heart is racing a million beats per minute.
It looks like Silas is going to lean in and blow out the candle, but stops a breath’s width from my lips and I lean forward as Silas takes my first kiss.
It’s short and sweet and when I pull away, his brown eyes are bright with happiness. My heart stills, and there’s a slight tingle against my lips that I can’t shake. I don’t think it’s normal, but I have nothing to compare it to. It must just be my nerves or what all first kisses feel like.
“Make your wish,” he breathes out.
I close my eyes and blow out the candle. Something deep in my belly warms as I make the wish. Every word of our pact ripples through my mind, almost like a chant. My nerves feel like they’re on fire, actually my whole body feels like it’s in flames. I’ve felt a tingling of this sensation before, like something is trying to escape me, but never anything this intense. Fear is licking up my spine and pain rips through me as my vision goes black.
“Silas,” I rasp out his name, the cupcake tumbling to the floor as I pass out.
There’s a soothing touch against my face. It feels wholly familiar while also being completely foreign.
“I wish to take her home now,” the voice says. It’s not high pitched, but the authority and primness in her tone is clear.
“The school is a great—” Mr. Mander says, and the woman cuts him off.
“Please. Don’t pretend you are nothing but a collector of the unfamiliar, Mr. Mander. It’s unbecoming. Violet belongs with her people, where she can actually learn who she is, not slumming around with the likes of the other beings you house in this so-calledschool,” she says.
I blink my eyes open and glance over at the woman. The moment I see her, I immediately know we’re related.
She has stark white hair, which matches the color framing my face. The only difference is the rest of my hair is black, while hers is light over her entire head. I always wondered why it grew like that and no matter what I tried, there was no changing the nearly white shade. But it’s unique enough that I know without a doubt she must be related to me.
Her clear blue eyes are exactly like mine, and she’s extremely put together, with her hair in a chignon and her simple black dress and cardigan completely in place.
She strokes my hair again and her lips part as she looks down at me.
“You look just like Lavender,” she says in a sad voice. Her emotion disappears as she looks over at Mr. Mander. “I’d like to take my granddaughter home now. Please collect her things,” she orders.
Mr. Mander looks down at me like he’s losing something precious.
“But—”
