Jed cracks a laugh so loud it echoes around us and bounces off the walls. I hear someone shush him in the distance. ‘Damn, Silver is sharp. I like it.’
‘Silver?’ Sebastian cocks a brow at his friend who waves a hand in my general direction.
‘You know, like her hair. It’s a family thing, right?’ He says it casually, just throwing it out there as if it means nothing. To anyone else it would be a passing comment, easily brushed off, but to me … my muscles lock up, my stomach starting to twist into knots.
Family thing.
Family.
Lukas.
‘Why is she going pale?’ I hear Jed ask but he sounds muffled, as if I’ve slipped under the water.
I hear Lillian curse next. ‘Nocthare, are you all right?’
What am Idoing? I shouldn’t be in here with them. I should be searching for ways to help clear Lukas’s name. I should be out there proving myself, working to find my magic. Not sitting in a fucking bathing house with people I can’t trust, people who possibly want me gone, or dead. Well, okay, maybe not Lillian, but even so.
‘I can’t do this,’ I announce, digging for the strength to push myself up and out of the water.
‘What? No! Please stay,’ Lillian swims over to me. The water laps around her as she moves, causing her dark nipples to peek out of the surface a few times before she reaches me. ‘Is it what Jed said about yourfamily? I’m sorry about him, okay. He has no filter, too many knocks to the head.’
‘That’s rude,’ I hear him mutter.
‘It’s not him,’ I tell her honestly – well, partly. It’sme.I’mthe problem. I’m letting myself get swept away in thinking I deserve a moment like this, when I should be utilising my time elsewhere.
Selfish, I hear my father’s condescending voice in my head. I’m being selfish.
‘Thanks for showing me this place,’ I murmur, then spin around to climb out only to freeze when I meet Sebastian’s eyes across from me.
He doesn’t say anything, and neither do I. Instead, we just stare at each other while the silence between us drags and grows heavy. I feel a drop of water fall from my chin down to the curved valley of my chest. Sebastian notices it. His gaze drops from my eyes to where I feel the droplet trickle slowly into the valley of my cleavage.
I watch, confused as he tracks it with his eyes. Not looking back up until I feel it disappear into the water lapping at my nipples, which are starting to pebble into hard points. The moment his green orbs snap up to meet mine, it’s like a wave of freezing cold water has been dumped over my head.
I climb out of the bath. My legs are shaking, but this time it’s not from pain. Instead, it’s because they’re so relaxed they feel jelly-like. I push through the strange sensation and snatch a towel from a basket beside the bath, wrapping it around my body, feeling self-conscious and exposed.
I block them out. I block it all out as I grab for my things, bundling them in my arms and stomping off, dripping water all over the place.
Out. I need to get out.
SIXTEEN
‘So, Crystal Master! What do we do?’ Tilly asks Xavier as the three of us sit knee to knee on the grass near the cliffs. Our clear quartz crystals lay nestled in between the blades of grass within the circle we’ve created with our bodies.
The wind is cold. I’m wearing my thickest of jackets while Tilly and Xavier both have woolly hats over their heads to keep the chill at bay. Moonlight peeks through the branches above us. It’s eerie and silent out here; other than the sound of waves crashing in the distance and our own whispers, it feels like the world has gone to sleep. Though in the distance, I can see a few windows that glow with yellow light in the tallest parts of the towers.
Xavier snorts at the nickname and picks up his crystal. ‘I did some research, and I think the easiest way to charge them is through intention.’
‘Intention? So do we need to cleanse them first?’ Tilly asks, picking hers up and laying it flat in the palm of her hand to inspect.
Xavier’s head shakes. ‘Not usually if a crystal hasn’t been used before, and I don’t think these would have been. Clear quartz is naturally cleansing, so maybe after you’ve used yours a few times, then you can cleanse it yourself.’
‘How do you know so much about this?’ I ask in awe. I know a fair amount about crystals and stones, mainly the ones my parents used at home. But nothing to this extent.
He lifts a shoulder. ‘I was sent to the attic a lot as a kid. My dad didn’t really want me around, and one day I came across a box of books. There was tons of information about sympathetic magic and crystals inside. Each time I was locked up there, I read to pass the time and distract myself. Over time I ended up really enjoying what I was learning, until I’d read all the books from the box and wanted more.’
My heart constricts. I can tell by his tone he’s trying to make light of the situation, but I know what he hides beneath his clothes now. The trauma he was forced to endure. Did he read to distract himself from the pain of the burns, too?
‘Is that how you decided you wanted to be placed into Agate?’ Tilly asks.
