But how did I …
‘You’re awake!’ A familiar voice whisper-shouts from my right. Tilly is at my side with a water pitcher and a glass in her hands. Gone are her grey robes; instead she’s wearing a long black skirt that reaches her ankles and a soft brown sweater. ‘I heard about what happened, that bloody psycho!’ She places the glass and pitcher down on the bedside table next to me and sits on the wooden three-legged stool beside it. ‘I can’t believe they let him do that to you.’
My first thought is,what is Tilly doing here?My second is,what the hell is she talking about? They letwhodowhatto me?Then the words ‘I’ll kill you’ flash into my mind.
My body stills.
The memories slam into me. Entering the Malachite tower. Landing on my knees. The student with the black eyes.I’ll kill you.I gasp. My hands reach for my throat as I recall what happened. How furious he was. The way his top lip curled back from his teeth as he yelled in my face. The feeling of his hands fisting my robes until they began to cut off my air supply. My vision caving in at the sides. Then nothing. After that, it all goes blank.
‘I was attacked,’ I say, pushing through the scratchiness in my voice.
She nods.
‘How did I get here?’ I have no memory of being taken to the infirmary at all.
With great effort, I push myself up into a sitting position. I feel like this conversation shouldn’t be had laying down. Tilly reaches forward and presses a cold glass of water into my hands. ‘Thanks,’ I rasp and bring it up to my lips, taking several small sips until the cold liquid has soothed the ache in my throat.
She takes the cup from me and sets it back down before shooting me a sympathetic smile that has my stomach turning this way and that. It must be bad, based on the way she starts to chew on her bottom lip.
‘Just tell me, Tilly,’ I urge, needing to know how bad it got out there.
Again, her head bobs in understanding, but it takes a minute as she finds the right words to say.
‘So, after Harley – that’s his name, by the way – did what he did to you,’ she points at my neck, ‘you fell unconscious and from what I was told … they left you there.’
‘What do you mean? Left me where?’
Tilly shifts in her seat uncomfortably. ‘In your unit. They just left you laying on the floor during the rest of the ceremony. The onlyreason you were brought here is because you didn’t show up for your first Sympathetic Magic class this morning and the professor sent someone from your unit to search for you.’
My stomach pitches.
‘They found you on the floor, absolutely freezing. With bruises around your throat …’ Her voice fades to a whisper, or maybe it’s the blood rushing in my ears that causes her to sound quieter, more distant.
I don’t move. I barely blink as her words splinter beneath my skin.
They left me there. All night and morning.
Allof them?
How can they be so cold and cruel? To have to walk past me, around me, over me? As they all went their separate ways and went to bed. Then to come back out in the morning and head to their classes. None of them cared. Not even one checked to see if I was all right.
Not even—
Not even Sebastian.
His betrayal hits harder than the memory of the attack itself. It cuts deep, twisting sharply in my chest.
Did he come back through the door once the ceremony was over to find me lying there in a heap, unconscious? I picture him stepping over me, my unconscious form a mere inconvenience to where he needs to go. Undeserving, he called me.
My eyes squeeze shut as my head drops.
Do not cry, Aria. Not over them. Overhim.
My eyes prick with heat anyway. I bite the insides of my cheeks to stop my chin from wobbling.
‘Are you okay?’ Tilly asks ever so softly from beside me. I hear the scrape of her chair being pulled closer to the bed, then feel her fingers gently thread through mine, balled into fists on my lap.
My eyes open. I look at her, at the flecks of green and brown in her eyes; the freckles dotted along her cheekbones and nose. Her hand squeezes mine and that small connection she offers me, that gesture of kindness, does something to my chest. Causes it to tighten.
