He held my life in his hands.
Ayaz took a step toward the door. Quinn scrambled to his feet. “Don’t tell on us, mate,” he whispered. “Hazel knows stuff that could help us be free.”
Ayaz’s dark eyes bore into mine. I nodded. “It’s true. We think we have a way to bring you back to life, but if the teachers or the Eldritch Club find out, they’ll destroy any chance we have.”
Ayaz whirled away. My heart sank. He was going to open the door, and Courtney would sound the alarm that would bring the wrath of the entire school and Eldritch Club down on me. But instead of opening the door, he crossed to the window and shoved it open.
“Get the fuck out of here,” he growled, gesturing to the tree outside. “Before I change my mind. And I need that book back before the night of the school production or else I’m dead.”
“I promise.” With a trembling hand, I bent down and helped Quinn to his feet.
“See you, Ataturk.” Quinn swung his long legs out the window and disappeared into the tree. The branches brushed against the brick as Quinn’s bulk bent them.
“Ayaz, I know you’re in there! C’mon, let me in! You’ve been so weird lately. I just want to hang out with my boyfriend!”
From the flicker of disgust that curled Ayaz’s lip, I could sense that hanging with Courtney was the last thing he wanted. Hope bloomed in my chest. He didn’t want to be with her. So why was he? And before, when he nearly touched me, he seemed so confused about me.
Glimmers of hope lit up inside me like fireflies.
“I didn’t do this for you,” Ayaz hissed as I swung my body over the sill. I tossed the book down to Quinn and wrapped both hands around the branch to steady myself.
“Good.” I leaned forward, so my lips just grazed the side of his mouth. Sparks shot through my body. “You should do it for yourself.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
I scrambled down the tree and jumped from the lowest branch. As soon as my feet touched the grass, Quinn and I bolted for the forest before anyone saw us.
My chest burned and my breath came out in ragged gasps by the time we reached the steps leading to the pleasure garden. But we had the book safely tucked under Quinn’s arm. And I had something even better – I had Ayaz.
Something about the way Ayaz’s body reacted when my lips brushed his told me everything I needed to know. He hadn’t recoiled. Heat surged up from inside him and rushed across his skin, drawing me to him. Deep down inside, Ayaz remembered me, even if he didn’t know why he remembered me.
He’d had something done to him, probably by Ms. West. She’d once said she could alter memories.She tampered with Ayaz’s mind so he believed himself when he said he didn’t know me, and yet some part of him recognized the connection we shared.
What had he started to say about Zehra? Had they used her against him in some way?
That tiny flame of hope inside me flared bright and bold. Quinn handed me the book and went down into the garden first to check if anyone was around. After a few moments he called up to me, and I followed him to the tunnel. He had a torch, so I didn’t use my fire. I hadn’t shown Quinn yet – I didn’t want to see him afraid.
As we clambered through into the darkness, he wrapped his arms around me.
“We did it, Hazy.” Quinn’s lips grazed my cheek, sending a charge of heat through my body.
“Yeah.” I buried my face in his shoulder. My chest heaved from the running and the fear. My fingers rubbed against the leather cover before I shrunk away.I’m touching Parris’ skin. That’s never going to not be gross.
“You okay?” Quinn’s hands tightened on my back. “I know Ayaz—”
“He sawme,” I whispered into Quinn’s collar. “I think his memory has been altered, and that’s why he’s acting like he is. But something inside him recognized me. He’s still in there, Quinn. We just have to make him realize it.”
Quinn tapped the spine of the book. “Maybe there’s something in this skin sack that’ll bring back the real Ataturk.”
“Maybe.” We walked in silence until we came to the end of the tunnel. I pushed open the mirror and we ducked out. I knocked on my old door. Trey flung it open and ushered us inside.
“Got it.” I spread out the book on Trey’s bed, flicking through Ayaz’s pages of notes and translations.
Trey yanked the pages from my hands. He tossed them on the bed in a messy pile and smushed his body against mine, his kiss dragging up the darkness from inside me and smothering it with his own. The flame inside me danced at his possessive touch, even as I tried to wriggle out of his embrace.
“Fuck, I hate this shit,” Trey muttered into my neck as he crushed me under the weight of his fear. “I was worried.”
“Yeah, well, we were fine.” I managed to extract myself and grabbed the book. I flipped open the cover and spread the rest of Ayaz’s notes out in a fan across the bedspread. “Now we’ve got work to do.”
