Quinn waved a hand dramatically, as if it was no big deal. He didn’t want Trey to know he’d told me he was afraid of me. “Tell me now.”
“When I drifted off in Ayaz’s bed, the god drew me into a dream. He told me that the pillar is so old he doesn’t know what it is anymore. But the important thing is that he’ll take away the gifts his spirit gives you – the immortality, the fast healing, all the stuff that makes you not human – but only if you can find other children for him to bestow those gifts and continue his race.”
“Our lovely girlfriend thinks our parents would make the perfect candidates,” Trey added.
Quinn’s mouth froze in a hard line. “Give our parents immortality?”
“They’ve worked so hard. I think they deserve this. Don’t you?” I explained my plan to him as we checked ourselves one last time in Trey’s mirror. Quinn’s crown slid down over his eye, and I reached up to adjust it. He didn’t flinch when my fingers brushed his face.
Yes,” he whispered. “Yes, I think they will get exactly what they deserve.”
Chapter Fourteen
“This feels like the worst idea ever.” I smoothed down the front of my Derleth uniform. The red-trim on the blazer swam in my vision, the same red as blood.
On either side of me, Trey and Quinn looked resplendent. The pink of the tie brought warmth to Trey’s icicle eyes, while the green blazer and crest gave Quinn’s savage expression an otherworldly glow.
Behind them, Andre and Loretta wore their Derleth uniforms. Sadie wore Loretta’s spare uniform – they were about the same size. Andre had insisted she be part of whatever happened today, and I agreed. This was as much her decision and her battle as anyone else. For the first time since I’d met silent, angry Sadie, I could picture her as a student here. Young and fierce and naive and innocent – until Derleth Academy had taken everything from her.
Edimmu. Scholarship students. Maintenance staff. All the people who’d been wronged by the Eldritch Club and faculty.
A united front.
A recruitment drive for the damned.
I squared my shoulders. “Let’s do this.”
We’d deliberately ignored the first bell in order to make an entrance. Homeroom was in session, so the dormitory was empty of students as we headed toward the main classroom wing. The place looked like a tornado had blown through. Doors hung open, and rubbish had been flung all over. My shoes scuffed papers littering the hall.
Every noticeboard stood empty – strips of paper hung from bent thumbtacks. Every last student photograph and memento had been torn down and trampled underfoot. Memories too painful to bear after I’d shown them the truth.
We shoved our way through the double doors and across the sky bridge into the classroom wing. The bell sounded. Students poured into the hall, their conversations rising through the high rafters and bouncing off the rows of lockers.
They saw us. They stopped dead, freezing like statues. Conversations cut off like someone had hit a mute button. Even though some of them had already seen me in the dorm earlier, I still inspired enough fear to render them silent.
I folded my arms, moving my head to meet each and every single pair of eyes. Many of them looked away. At the front of the crowd, Courtney fixed me with her panther-stare, but she didn’t intimidate me anymore.
The last person I locked eyes with was Ayaz, who shuffled out of Dexter’s classroom on crutches. The sight of him shuddered through my body like an earthquake. His eyes swept across my Derleth uniform, and I felt like I was wearing nothing at all.
You’re mine again, Ayaz Demir. At least, for now.
I stepped back and nodded once. “Glad to see you’ve all missed me.”
“How are you back, gutter whore?” Amber demanded. “You died in the Dunwich fire.”
I breezed past her without answering the question. They were smart enough to figure out that fire wasn’t my enemy.
Trey and Quinn edged forward, escorting me toward my locker. Students parted for us to pass – like I was a plague victim they were afraid to touch. I slammed my locker open and grabbed a stack of textbooks at random, hugging them to my chest as I grinned at Courtney. “It turns out I’m only slightly dead. Like you.”
Courtney’s eyes blazed, but there was no real fury there. We faced off across the corridor. Tillie stood behind her, flicking her gaze from me, back to Trey and Quinn and the others, then back to me again. She looked like she didn’t know where she wanted to stand. Behind them, Ayaz looked on with intense interest. Everyone wanted to know how this was going to go down.
“Itwasyou on stage,” Tillie said in a small voice. “I thought maybe it was just a trick.”
I nodded. “I was really me, alive and with my soul intact. And apart from a few projector tricks, the rest of it was real, too. The fire. The pillar. The truth about what your parents did.”
Tillie flashed me a tentative smile – a smile as a peace offering, as an olive branch. She’d been the first one to start to believe me during the performance. She and Trey had suspected the parents for years. Not only did she believe me, she wanted to be a part of putting it right. I wasn’t ready to trust her, but I was ready to make an attempt to try.
It took every effort to return it. I didn’t make a habit out of smiling at my ex-bullies, but I needed as many people on my side as I could get.
