Tabby leaned over my phone, her brows pinched together. “Where did you find this?”
“Someone left a weird note in my room with this sigil on the wax seal,” I explained, watching the witch’s face.
“A wax seal?” Xinyi laughed. “That’s so old school. What’d it say?”
“Nothing important, but they didn’t say who it was from. Do you know whose it is?”
Tabby straightened, frowning. “No, sorry. I don’t, but I can ask around.” She looked up suddenly, her eyes darting around the cafeteria. “Look, I hate to cut and run, but my friends are waving me down. I’ll talk to you later?”
She didn’t wait for me to answer before she was walking away.
“Yeah, sure,” I said to myself, staring at the picture for a long moment.
“Well, that was weird,” Xinyi commented, shoving a piece of bacon into her mouth. “Are you going to finish that?” She pointed at my coffee cup.
I pushed it toward her, not paying much mind. Then I stood, tucking my phone into my pocket. “You’re good now, right?”
“Uh, yeah but...”
“Great.” I patted her on the shoulder and stalked toward the cafeteria door. I needed to find Julian and tell him about Tabby’s weird behavior. He said he was going to check the guild’s database. Maybe he found some answers.
My mind was completely focused on finding Julian that I didn’t notice the crows watching me as I circled the courtyard until one of them squawked at me.
Irritated by the constant surveillance, I stomped into the courtyard, only to find that the handful of trees near a bench held half a dozen crows.
“I don’t know if my dad sent you to spy on me or if you have some misguided notion that I need your protection,” I argued, hands on my hips as I talked up into the trees. “Either way, I’m tired of it. I don’t need you stalking me. I can take care of myself.”
Six sets of black beady eyes just stared at me, cocking their heads to the side but showing no evidence of having heard me or caring if they did.
“You know,” I huffed, getting even more annoyed than before, “this is just typical. Ever since I came to this stupid school, someone has either been watching me, telling me what to do, or threatening me. And I’m tired of it. I’m a grown-ass woman. I can make my own decisions. I don’t need my dads, Julian, oryou,” I pointed a finger at the crows, “making me feel like I’m some irresponsible child. So... you can all just... drop dead.”
I huffed and panted, having worked myself up into a frenzy. To the outsider, I probably looked crazy, telling at crows. But for me, it was a natural occurrence, and I was just sick of it.
The crows didn’t respond to my rant, their bodies still as they stared at me, not even blinking their little eyes. Then one by one, they dropped out of the tree and onto the ground.
Gaping at them, I didn’t believe what I’d seen at first. They were there. In the tree being all creepy. Then I was yelling. Then... they just...
I walked slowly toward where the crows laid, their eyes wide and unblinking, their little chest not moving.
Dead.
They were dead. All six of them.
How? Why?
Then what I’d said made me cover my mouth with my hand in horror. I’d told them to drop dead. And they had.
Why? Why, why, why? No one has ever just done what I wanted because I told them to. That’s Antoine’s power. Not mine.
That’s it. This was Antoine. He was watching through their eyes and saw that I was upset so he killed them to show me that he heard me. This wasn’t me. I didn’t do this.
I swallowed and stepped back from them. A sick feeling in my stomach. But that would be out of character for Antoine. Hedidn’t do sudden violence for no reason. He wouldn’t kill his crows because I was throwing a fit.
I had to call him. I had to know.
My mind whirled as I pulled my phone from my pocket. Fingers clumsy while I tried to pull up the keypad to hit the speed dial. When I hit his number, I put the phone to my ear, my heart pounding in my ears, pacing back and forth in front of the crows.
“Come on,” I muttered to myself as the phone rang and rang. “Pick up already. Pick up!’
