He’s talking about the scuffle in Trey’s room, where Ms. West and Vincent dragged the Kings away as I escaped out the window. But Ayaz wasn’t there, so the only reason he’d have to be in the infirmary is if Ms. West did something to him. If she’s moving souls around to different bodies, it wouldn’t be a big deal for her to alter Ayaz’s memories.
“After I got back to my room, I opened the sketchbook and started to draw. It was a compulsion – my hand moved on its own. I had no control. When I had finished, you stared back at me from the page, defiant, radiant, mesmerizing.
“Every time I sat down to draw something, the lines turned into you. I told myself, ‘I’m going to sketch a kitten,’ and I’d imagine all the planes and curves of the creature in my mind and then I’d look down at the paper and you’d stare back at me. I couldn’t understand it – they told me you were dangerous. Obsessive. A liar. A bully. And yet, some part of me saw you differently.”
“Is that why you trusted me that first time, with the book?” I asked. “You could have given us up to Courtney and taken the book back, but you didn’t.”
He nodded. “I wanted to see what you’d do. I wanted to see if Icouldtrust you.”
My Ayaz. I couldn’t even imagine what it felt like to grasp at a memory but have it constantly slip away, to feel as though your mind and body were at war.There must be something that could help him remember. Or, if not remember, then reimagine.
Flames licked at my heart, urging me to act. Never one for impulse control, I slid from the chair and stood over his bed, leaning down so my face was an inch from his. This close I could see a nerve in his temple jumping. He swallowed hard after every breath, as though willing the air to stay in his lungs. He was in greater pain than he was letting on.
Perhaps I could take a piece of that pain away.
I leaned in closer. His breath touched mine. Behind the sickly smell of the creams slathered on his wounds, the metallic tang of blood, and the unmistakable charred meat scent of burnt flesh, I caught a whiff of opium and earthy incense. My beautiful Turk.
You remember. I know you remember!The words screamed inside my head, but instead of yelling them, I brushed my lips to his – so gently, so softly that I could pretend I’d never kissed him at all.
But that touch was enough to send fire racing through my limbs, to grab my heart and shake it like a fucking earthquake, to leave me breathless, gasping, desperate for him.
Ayaz’s eyes widened. In those dark pools, I caught a flicker of the wounded boy who’d come into my room in the second quarter, who’d shared a piece of his shattered soul with me, who’d let me leave my monster at the door and just be Hazel in his arms.
Please remember. Please…
Every stolen moment, every wish I’d had for a future with him, every emotion I’d stamped down and refused to acknowledge, I poured into that kiss.Please remember. Please remember.
Fire coursed through my body – a line of flame connecting my lips to my heart to the throbbing heat between my legs. Tendrils of flame broke through my skin, reaching for him, not to burn him again but to bring him back to me.
It took everything in me to tear my lips away. I dared a smile. “Did that bring anything back?”
“Just that I’ve been fucking stupid wasting the last quarter with Courtney.” Ayaz grinned. His hand reached up, and even though he winced, he gripped my neck with surprising strength, pulling me against him for another scorching kiss. “Where have you been all my life?”
I sat back, the taste of him sizzling against my lips. “You remember me now?”
Ayaz’s eyes swept across my face again.
“No. But I remember… that I know you,” he whispered.
“In the biblical sense,” Quinn piped up helpfully.
“You do know me,” I whispered. “Everything I’ve told you is the truth.”
“I don’t know how, but I know… I will never forget you. I remember that you’re more important to me than myself. And that’s enough for now.”
My heart soared. I touched my hand to his, stroking his fingers. It felt so good to touch him. “I have so much to tell you. I don’t want to melt your brain while you’re still trying to recover.”
“I can handle it.” He nodded at his legs. “This is going to take a bit of time to heal. You might as well fill me in.”
I glanced over my shoulder, checking the room was empty. Old Waldron wasn’t hovering as she normally did. Of course, she’d be with the other teachers, going over their plan. Trey and Quinn slid out the door, but I knew they’d be right outside, keeping guard. I took a deep breath.
Between more tender kisses that melted like chocolate, I told him everything that had happened since he’d betrayed me in Ms. West’s office until last night, when he’d walked into that Eldritch Club meeting and then appeared on stage with Ms. West.
“Shit.” His face wrinkled in pain. “I told Vincent what I discovered in Parris’ book. I gave him a recipe to destroy us.”
“Yup. You fucked things up for us a bit there. But the teachers have Courtney’s mother, which means it’s a stalemate between the adults, for now. This next bit is the rough bit. Are you sure you want all the gory details?”
“I can handle it.” He gritted his teeth, his body stiffening as another spasm of pain rocketed through him. I bent down to kiss him again, wishing I could sweep up his pain into myself. The good news was that when I gathered my strength to look at his legs again, a few of the blisters seemed to have gone down. He was healing… slowly.
