I peered into the hole, at the face with no eyes, head cocked to one side, neck snapped. “Selina Evergreen. The girl no one remembers.”
His face drained of color and he exhaled sharply, “Selina… Yes. Yes, I remember her.” His hand went to his temple. “If what I suspect is true, now that you’ve found her, everyone else will remember her too.”
CHAPTER 38
In dreams, nothing is forgotten.
ANONYMOUS
The tea did nothing to warm the cold place inside me. I huddled under a blanket on the sofa in the Unwoven quarters, surrounded by my friends and overlooked by a shaken Vitra.
Selina had lived in my room in Bramble Tower, not because she’d been Unwoven, but because she’d been unwanted. Bullied and shunned for being bright, she’d asked to continue to be housed in Bramble for solitude. Her parents were dead, and she’d been raised by an aunt on her father’s side, who’d been happy to give her up to the Evergreen coven when they’d come looking for a conscript to save their pureblood children from having to attend Nightsbridge.
“Someone murdered that girl,” Clary muttered. “SomeonehereatthisAcademy killed her, buried her, and made everyone forget.”
“She was a quiet thing,” Dori said. “Studious. I always thought she had so much potential.”
“I spoke to her a few times,” Clary added. “I should have asked her to hang out.”
“But who killed her and why?” I couldn’t stop thinking about it. “I saw a hooded figure in my dreams. I felt her fear.”
“And why you?” Clary asked. “Why did you dream about her? Why could you remember her name?”
“I may be able to answer that,” Vitra said. “Miss Onyx came to the Academy after the spell that wiped Miss Evergreen from collective memory was cast. Therefore, it didn’t affect her. She was also staying in Miss Evergreen’s former chambers. I believe the spirit of Miss Evergreen was able to reach out to her because of those reasons, and maybe… Maybe part of Miss Onyx’s Weave abilities are necromantic.”
“A Morbus Arcanus? No, thank you.”
The Morbus Arcanus were rare. Their connection to the spirit thread of the Weave gave them not only necromantic abilities but also allowed them to walk through the land of the spirits. They often went mad, as the boundary between the living and the dead blurred.
“You can rest easy—this matter will be looked into as a priority,” Vitra assured us.
A girl was dead. A girl who’d lived in my room.
Find me… Her tormented face filled my mind. Was she at peace now? If I were her, I wouldn’t be. Not until my murderer was discovered and brought to justice. “You need to do more than look into it. You have to find the bastard who did this.”
Vitra’s jaw tensed. “The Coterie will ensure the safety of the students.”
“Like you ensured Selina’s?” Dori said.
“And what about the non-aggression wards?” Benedict asked. “How come someone was able to kill on campus?”
“I don’t know,” Vitra said. “But I will find out. The Coterie will meet with representatives of the Imperium Alius to discuss a way forward. New protocols will be put into place.” He headed for the door and stopped. “Oh, and you should know—I spoke to Pip about why the doors to your quarters were left unlocked the other night. He claims he locked them. I believe him, which means someone else unlocked them. We think the culprit is Mr. Raichand.”
Raichand? “The radio guy?”
“Yes. He must have unlocked the doors again tonight.”
Because he’d wanted me to get hurt sleepwalking. Bastard!
“That doesn’t explain why we were incapacitated the other night,” Benedict said. “He’s an Embercrest, right? Does he have that spell?”
Dori shrugged. “No idea.”
“I’ll be speaking to Mr. Raichand tomorrow,” Vitra said. “Iwillget answers before he is appropriately reprimanded. In the meantime, your doors will continue to be locked.”
But I didn’t think I’d be sleepwalking again. “I think Selina got what she needed. She’s been remembered.”
He pressed his lips together and sighed. “Yes. Tomorrow, Nightsbridge will wake to the memory of a girl long forgotten. Tomorrow, Nightsbridge will mourn.”
