Saliva pooled on my tongue. Fuck. I wasn’t ready for this. I was supposed to be resisting. I had to keep Ayaz at arm’s length to save both our hearts, but if he kept surprising me with nudity I’d be writhing underneath him in minutes…
No, no. I shook my head.Be strong.
I tore my eyes from Ayaz to shut the door behind me, letting the CLICK of the lock jolt me back to reality. I stared at a spot on the wall and reached for my pocket to grasp the vial.
“Hazel, what is it?” He stepped closer, but I held up my hand for him to stop. His scent made my head spin. “Did you and Trey—”
“Yes, we saw Deborah, and she had a lot to say and it was… confusing as fuck. But that’s not what I came to talk about. I mean, it is, but there’s something else and I would’ve come sooner but I didn’t sleep all night and—”Stop babbling.I took a deep breath. “We’re breaking Zehra out.”
Ayaz flew across the room, his hands circling my arms. “What? When?”
“Friday night. Dr. Morgan caught Trey and I coming back inside. She says she wants to help us take control of the school. Apparently, the teachers are planning a party of their own. I know their parties usually take a turn for the occult, and I don’t want to give them the opportunity to do something to Zehra. Dr. Morgan’s given me a sedative that she said will knock them all out, as well as the location of the key, giving us time to sneak into the gym and get Zehra.”
Ayaz wrapped his arms around himself. His eyelids fluttered shut again, the dark lashes tangling together. Seeing him like that only made me want him more. I dug my nails into the scar on my wrist.Be strong for him. For all of them.
His eyes flew open. “Wait, why is she helping us?”
“She thinks Ms. West has gone crazy. Can’t say I disagree. Or she’s really working for West, and this is some ploy to walk us into a trap. The only way to find out is to try it.”
Ayaz slumped back down. “It’s risky. What will we do with Zehra?”
“We could keep her here, but I don’t want to risk Ms. West finding out and telling Vincent. Ms. West believes Zehra might be Vincent’s spy in the school, but we know that’s not true. We need to get her off the peninsula – if we send her to Deborah, she’ll help Zehra hide somewhere safe. Zehra’s resourceful and she’s eluded Trey’s father for decades – she’ll do it again.”
Ayaz reached for my hand again, pulling me onto the bed beside him. I tensed, ready to jerk away if he tried to kiss me. Instead, he squeezed my hand, and his serious face broke out into a brilliant smile. “Zehra’s always been resourceful – no matter where I hid my toys, she’d find them and break them. She was advanced for her age – more than I ever was – and she had my parents wrapped around her tiny finger. Sometimes I hated her for that. She was only four when my parents sent me to America. She was so angry with them that she blocked all the sinks and flooded their house.” He laughed at the memory. “That’s Zehra – a slave to her passions, but fierce in the face of what she sees as injustice. I adored her after that. She has that effect on people.”
“I believe it.” I smiled, remembering the first time I met Zehra. Except for Dante, never in my life had I met someone and so instantly clicked with them. It felt like we’d been sisters in another life.
I wanted the chance to get to know her for real, to be the friend to her that she deserved. Yet another cord binding me to this world that I would have to cut loose if I wanted to save them all.
Ayaz continued. “After I moved in with Trey, we’d talk a few times a month over video chat, and I text her every day. She always made me laugh. Trey was a bit jealous, I think. His younger brother Wilhem was a creep, and his dad barely acknowledged his existence. Even he would talk to Zehra sometimes, and she’d always win him around. She was so clever, she never seemed like a younger sister, and now she’s grown older and I haven’t, and it almost feels…” He shook his head. “Zehra may not be an Edimmu, but she’s missed out on so much. If it weren’t for me, she’d be a doctor or a Fortune 500 CEO or the first president of Mars.”
“It’s not your fault, Ayaz.”
“It’snot.” He spat the words, his hands balling into fists. “I have much to feel guilty about, Hazy. So much evil weighs on my conscience that I’ll never be rid of the burden, but for ruining Zehra’s life I blame Ms. West and the Eldritch Club. And I cannot let them go unpunished.”
“And we will punish them, I promise. But right now, we’re focused on Zehra. Because of you, if we can pull this off, she’ll get her life back.” I reminded him. “Will you survive till Friday?”
“Only if you distract me.” Ayaz leaned in, his beard brushing my skin, sending a delicious flicker of heat through my body. He grazed his lips over my cheek, laying a trail down to—
I leaped to my feet and went over to the stack of books beside the table, desperate to put some distance between us. “We’ve got work to do.”
“Hazel—” Ayaz’s feet slapped on the marble as he padded over. His eyes burned into me. I didn’t dare look up, knowing I’d crumble under the intensity of his gaze.
“We want to know about everything we can about this pillar, and why it’s appearednow.” I pulled over a stack of books and opened one at random. “I need to know if I’m being tricked by the god. He says it’s a piece of something, and the rats tell me it’s a lock and I’m the key. But a key to what? Is the god trying to get me to free him so he can devour the entire human race? That wouldn’t sit with his plan to populate the universe, so then what—”
Ayaz chuckled, sliding into the chair opposite me. “As you Americans say, no pressure.”
“Right.” I handed him Rebecca Nurse’s diary. “I’ve found a few things. We tried to chisel a piece off the pillar to take to the lab, but the stone broke all our tools. Greg did a couple of tests for his geology project, and as far as he can tell the stone isn’t made of anything that exists on earth. That could mean we don’t have the right lab equipment to get better data, or it could mean…”
“…that you’re avoiding kissing me,” Ayaz cut in.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Fire raced along my veins. “That’s not true.”
“Trey and Quinn said the same thing,” he whispered.
“Well, it’s not true.” I slammed the book shut a little harder than I intended. “I just have bigger things on my mind right now. As I was saying, it could also mean that no human could have carved that symbol… or for that matter, built the pillar itself. And the rock didn’t come from our planet.”
Ayaz stood. “I need to see this pillar.”
