I can’t help it. I hunger for her embrace and melt each time we touch. Each kiss she places on my lips draws us closer and closer. We share one mind. I see through her eyes, hear her laughter, feelmyself kissing her, my mind curving out and back into itself like a Möbius strip, over and over. I get dizzy, but I don’t lose control. I’m learning to control my power.
One more kiss, another, and another. Then I come up for air. I breathe and my eyes flutter open. I don’t realize there are tears running down my cheeks until Raven wipes them with her thumbs. I almost feel embarrassed, but I don’t.
She pulls my shirt over my head, then takes hers off. “Okay?” she asks.
I nod, and we kiss as we make our way to the bedroom. What could I possibly say right now that would capture how I feel? Powerful, elated, free. No words seem good enough. Now she’s unbuckling my belt, and I’m helping her out of her jeans. We’re both breathing heavily, and I kiss her all over, on her collarbone, between her breasts, down her stomach.
Her body is splayed before me. Everything I’ve ever wanted.
“Dorian,” she whispers. “Do it. I want you so much.”
I can’t reply; I’m overwhelmed with desire as I position myself at her entrance. But before I can move, my mind explodes.
I lurch back and cry out.
Atticus’s voice rings in my head. It’s as if he’s screaming from afar.DORIAN! RAVEN! HELP!
The sheer force of his psychic energy paralyzes me, and I don’t know what to do. Meanwhile, underneath me, Raven opens her eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
Then Raven screams and holds her head.
Everything hurts. It feels like my head is cracked in two, an axe buried deep in it. Then the blade is ripped out just as quickly. The pain fades, but the words remain, echoing in my thoughts. The room spins, and I struggle to find my way back to myself. It’s as ifthe world were a boat at sea, rocking violently, and I have no hope of standing upright on it.
“Raven?” I ask. “You heard him, too, right?”
“Atticus,” she says, scrambling to her feet and putting her clothes back on. “He’s in trouble.” She tosses me my shirt and pants. “We need to find him!” she cries. “Where do you think he could be?”
“I don’t know, but he’s somewhere in Sibylline—let’s just go back to campus and see if we can figure out anything. Maybe he’ll send another message,” I say as we hustle out the door.
The strangest thing. There’s a black cat at the doorstep. It stares at us intently, as if trying to tell us something.
“It’s just a cat,” says Raven. “Ignore it.”
I move to follow her, but something nags at me. “What do you want, cat?”
It arches its neck and curls its tail.
“Do you want us to follow you?”
It meows.
I remember how Atticus mentioned that he’d made a friend of a cat that hung around the architecture school. Was this the cat? Did Atticus send this cat?
“I think it knows where Atticus is,” I say, kneeling down. “Do you?”
The cat meows again.
“Okay, we’ll follow you.”
We sprint across campus, following the cat all the way to Mansart Hall.
The rain returns, soaking us from head to foot. I don’t care about the burn in my lungs or my legs; I only care about the terror in Atticus’s voice, the panic, the desperation. I have to find him. We storm up the stairs and through the unlocked doors. MansartHall is empty. There’s no one here, not even a security guard waiting to escort us off campus. We search the offices where Atticus worked, all the desks, all the back rooms, until—
“Dorian!” Raven cries.
I follow the sound of her voice and find her standing in a hallway. She’s looking at a puddle on the wooden floor.
