‘You might already be aware of this, but there’s never been a Malachite headmaster. In fact, there’s never been one that hasn’t been from Agate.’
Ididknow that.
‘Lukas was determined. He knew it would come down to two things. The vote and sheer power. Everyone talked about him as if he walked in here one day and suddenly he was good at it all, but no one saw how long he studied. How much he practised; hours upon hours he’d train and read and push his mind to the limit. Not even Sebastian knew about it. He wanted to become the first ever headmaster that was brought in solely by vote and pure talent. Not hierarchy or legacy.’
‘Why would you do that for him though? You could have been expelled for helping him.’
‘Because that’s what you do for the people you love.’ He shrugs as if it’s the simplest answer in the entire world, but my mind latches on one singular word in that sentence. One that rocks me to my core.
Love.
Notloved. Present tense.
‘Y-you and Lukas?’ My voice shakes. ‘Were you … ?’
Emotion fills his eyes and Stars; my heart starts to ache. My brother didn’t tell me this either, he never once spoke of being involved with someone. How long were they together? Is that why Lukas came home smiling all the time? Because he had someone waiting for him when he got back? Is that why he left, even when I felt in my bones that something was wrong that very last time. Did he go back forhim?
Jed nods. Just once, as if confirming it out loud is too much for him.
‘I’m sorry you lost him,’ I whisper, chewing on my bottom lip. ‘I realise I probably haven’t said that, and I should. Sometimes I forget I’m not the only one who lost him that night.’
Jed’s eyes soften; he reaches over and gives my shoulder a light squeeze. ‘Thanks, Silver. That means a lot.’ There’s a sincerity in his eyes I feel reflected in my own. Jed still loves my brother. Jed knows things about him that others don’t. ThatIdon’t. I cling to the growing hope that it means we might be on the same side here. Lukas’s side. Not the academy’s.
‘Can I ask you one more question?’ I brace myself for his response.
‘Of course.’
‘How does someone who has been failing their Sympathetic Magic class since the first year have enough power to kill four students using black magic?’
I hear the small hitch in his breathing. It’s quiet and deafening all at once. My question fills the air between us.
Jed is silent for a long moment as he stares at me. Into me. When he finally speaks, it’s like he’s inflated my lungs with air that I didn’t know I was dying for.
‘That’s a good question, Silver. I don’t believe they can.’
FORTY-FOUR
Idon’t believe they can.
He doesn’t think it was Lukas.
He didn’t say it in those exact words, but I didn’t need him to. Jed is on my side and Stars, I could cry with relief.
I left his room rather promptly after our conversation, thanking him again for letting me in and speaking with me, and hightailed it back to my room.
The door was locked when I reached it, and when I went inside, I was met with silence. I don’t question it when it means I get to shower and change in peace and try to unscramble my brain in solitude. Which is exactly what I do during the half hour before I eventually fall asleep, hours before curfew.
Lukas was failing SMC.
Xavier told me that in order to harness black magic the wielder needed to be powerful while manipulating equally powerful stones. There is no doubt in my mind now that Lukas wasn’t the one to hurt those students. He couldn’t, even if he tried.
He. Was. Failing.
The pedestal I so often put him on came down just a little knowing this, and I was glad for it, because in my eyes all that meant is that he was innocent. Now I just need toproveit and bring the evidence to myfather where he can go to the board and verify that Lukas was wrongfully charged, even in death.
‘Nocthare!’
Someone calls my name in the distance, but they sound muffled, as if they’re yelling through a wall. I can’t see them. There’s too much fog. Black fog. It engulfs me. It’s stifling. But instead of turning around and running back the way I came, something beckons me closer. It calls to me.
