I lay back down, and it all came back in flashes. Another nightmare. One eerily similar to the day I’d had.
I was at Maritza’s cottage with Dani, just like earlier in the day. Max was there, too, and Maritza in the corner. Everything felt hazy somehow, the way dreams feel liquid and warm, shadows of the real thing.
We walked over to Dani’s bed. A thin line of ants preceded us, crawling up the dangling sheets and over her nightgown. I reached for her hand. Only this time, her eyes weren’t closed. They were open and staring straight at the ceiling. When I touched her hand, her head snapped toward me, and her fingers clenched around mine.
I startled, drawing back. I tried to wrench my hand from hers but couldn’t.
Let go, I tried to say.Let go of me.
Panic rose in my chest, but when I opened my mouth to scream, nothing came out. I kept trying to scream.Help, someone! Please!But even as I fought, the only thing that came out was a choked whisper. It was barely enough for even Dani to hear.
She leaned in, the trail of ants still marching up her neck and into her mouth through the corner of her lips.
A voice whispered in my head, twisting and curling.Go on with your Magic spells and sorcery. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror.
Dani held fast to my hand.
“Dani? Is that you?”
She released my hand and leaned back, her face nearly black with hundreds of squirming ants. I looked at Max, who wasn’t moving. He stared at the place where our hands had been.
“What does it mean?” I asked, and he didn’t look up.
“Max?”
My voice felt watery and dark. An echo, one very far away.
“Max?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
On my way back from breakfast the next morning, I passed Robetresse’s office. The door was cracked, and I caught a glimpse of a huge wooden desk and hand-crafted oak chairs.* From inside came a man’s clawing voice, raw with emotion.
“Please, I’ve already lost everything; you can’t do this—”
Robetresse’s own voice was strained and hushed. “It’s too soon to reinstate you, Antony. The council would have a fit. Besides, you and I both know you’re much too close to the girl.”
“It was one mistake. Thea, please.”
“I’m sorry.”
I backpedaled at the thud of her boots and slipped behind a corner off the hallway.
Too close to what girl? To Dani? Was that why he was removed from the council? Dr. Robetresse had mentioned rumors of an inappropriate relationship between a council member and a student. What if it wasn’t Maya, but Dani? She was excelling in her studies and was heading to MIT in the fall, glowing recommendation in hand. Dani and Strauss obviously had a close relationship. And I hated to think it, hated to diminish her success in such a way, but the clock was ticking.
Maybe shewassleeping with him. And maybe … maybe she’d stopped.
I returned to my room and turned the water in the shower to the hottest temperature, letting the steam fill up the bathroom and shake loose the dust from my thoughts. I’d torn my nails to shreds these last few days, picked at them until the corners of my fingers were bloody and raw. I’d tried to kick the habit, but it always flared up when I was stressed out or wasn’t sleeping enough. Which seemed to be about the only state I’d been in lately.
I pressed my hands to the wall, watching the rivulets of water streaking the glass. I liked to watch raindrops on windowpanes when I was a kid, how the tiny streams gathered droplets on their way past, picking up speed until they were barreling full speed ahead. Now one dribbled down, rolling past the letter H written in the condensation.
I stepped back.
Another letter was there next to the H. An O? This one was sloppier, as if waterdrops had splattered all over it. Then another, R.
I drew back and turned off the faucet. How had I not noticed the letters before? I wiped the water from my eyes, heart beating fast.
Unmistakable letters appeared now, all over the glass. Whether they’d been there all along or were just appearing now, I couldn’t tell.
