“Agatha?” I look up. Agatha’s sitting by herself on the other side of the dining hall, reading a book while she eats her cereal.
“So?” Penny asks. “Is this about me sleeping in your room? Because I can talk to her about that.”
“No,” I say. “No… we broke up.”
Penny’s about to take a bite of toast, but she pulls it back. “You broke up? Why?”
“I don’t know. I think she’s in love with Baz.” That reminds me. I’m wearing the same trousers as yesterday. I reach into the pocket and feel his handkerchief.
“Oh,” Penelope says. “I guess I can see that. I mean—”
I push my face forward. “You canseethat? How can you see that? My girlfriend falling in love with my sworn enemy? My girlfriend, who’s good, falling in love with my enemy, who’s completely evil?”
“Well, your relationship has had better… years, Simon. You and Agatha both seemed like you were just going through the motions.”
“And ‘the motions’ include cheating on me with Baz?”
“Didshe cheat on you?”
“I don’t know.”
Penny sighs. Like she feels sorry for me. She’s unbearably patronizing sometimes. “Agatha’s not really in love with Baz. She’s just looking for something that sticks. It’s romantic to be in love with a dead vampire.”
“Dead?”
“You know what I mean,” Penny says. “Missing. Seriously missing.”
Was Baz dead? Wouldn’t his mother know if he were? Wouldn’t she have seen him behind the Veil? Maybe death is a big place. (It would have to be.) Maybe she’s been looking for Baz here because she hasn’t seen him yet on the other side.
I jab at my eggs a few times, then drop my fork.
In all of this, I’ve never seriously considered that Baz might be dead. Hiding, yes—plotting. Maybe even kidnapped or hurting, but… not dead.
He promised to make my life miserable.
When the doors to the dining hall fly open, it’s almost like I’m making it happen, like I’ve summoned it. Cold air pours into the room. It’s bright outside, in the courtyard, and at first, all we can see is the outline of a person.
This has happened so many times since school started that no one is scared now, not even the littluns.
When the figure steps forward, I recognize him at once.
Tall. Black hair swept back from his forehead. Lips curled up in a sneer… I know that face as well as my own.
Baz.
I stand up too quickly, knocking my chair over. Across the room, a mug falls to the floor and shatters—I glance over and see that Agatha is standing, too.
Baz steps towards us.
Baz.
BOOK TWO
29
BAZ
It’s unnecessarily grandiose to use an “Open Sesame” on the doors, but I do it anyway because I know everyone will be in the dining hall, and I may as well make an entrance.
