“That’s not enough to be here,” I insisted. “There must be something else in it for her. The Warden is promising her something the Hawkei tribe can’t provide.”
“And we have to talk to her every week,” Kallie moaned. “How are we going to come up with enough lies to keep her satisfied? She’s just gonna feed whatever we say straight back to the Warden.”
“We just have to give her what she wants, and make her think we’re telling the truth,” I said. “Let her think she’s brainwashing us about the Elves. As long as we don’t tell her anything about what we’re actually doing, she can’t use it to hurt us.”
“The Warden isn’t going to fall for that,” Charlie objected.
“It’s the best we can do,” I said, nearly in defeat. “We’ll just have to make it up as we go.”
That was all we were doing lately, and it was so frustrating. I rubbed my eyes. “We should go back. We can’t be missing for too long. Someone will notice, with the way we’re being followed.”
Grim notes of acknowledgement rose from the group, and we left the Lair. Kallie had football practice, so she said goodbye the moment we got to the prison yard. Marcus went to the witch alchemy lab to get catnip for Rishi, to make up for Jaymin hurting him.
That left me alone with Charlie. As much as I’d disliked being in his presence before, since the encounter with Jaymin, I didn’t want to leave his side. He made me feel safe, which was a feeling all too rare at the Institute.
“Thanks for sticking up for me.” I hugged my torso. “You didn’t have to.”
“Of course I did. Why wouldn’t I?” He stuck his hands in his pockets. I curled even farther inward than I already was.
“I don’t know. Things are different between us now.”
“Maybe not as much as we think,” Charlie offered.
I hated that feeling he created in me. Hope. Like things between us could ever get better.
I shivered as a cold autumn wind passed me by. “I hate it here,” I said, looking around the prison yard. “Too many people.”
Oberi nudged Charlie with her nose, and he said, “Let’s go to the chapel. It’s quiet there.”
I wandered after Charlie and Oberi. I expected us to go into the pews, but instead, he took us to the loft, where the organ was. The dusty old instrument hadn’t been touched since the last time Charlie and I had been up here, which felt like forever ago.
We’d confessed our deepest, darkest secrets in this loft. Even now, the place held a sort of reverence for us. It was better than the balcony above the prison, which was tainted now with the memory of what had happened there.
Charlie sat down at the bench and began to play. Dust particles rose off the keys as he made the organ sing, and it made a smile come to my face.
He played when he got nervous. The music helped the both of us relax. I disliked the close quarters, but Oberi pushed me forward, and I stumbled onto the bench beside Charlie.
“Ez told me you were making a new video next week,” Charlie said.
I scowled. My brother and his big mouth. I was sure he had ulterior motives. “Yeah. What about it?”
“Do you want me in it?”
“What?” I nearly fell off the bench. “Um, why?”
Charlie scowled. I sensed he was going to yell at me, before he changed tactics and said, “Maybe we could make music together again. I mean, what’s the harm, right? Your subscribers are going to expect me to be there.”
I was about to say no, before I realized we’d never really clarified in any of the videos what Charlie and I were. It wasn’t like we had to announce our breakup. My fans wouldn’t know any better. As far as they knew, he was just the guy who played piano.
“Why would you want to?” I asked. I didn’t get him. He’d all but implied that we shouldn’t hang out, unless it was about prophecy stuff. Now he wanted to spend time with me. What was his deal? I wanted him to make up his mind.
“Because…” Charlie sighed. He stopped playing and shifted on the bench so he was closer to me. “I think it’s pretty obvious that avoiding each other isn’t working. We’ve got Oberi, who isn’t healthy or happy unless we’re getting along, and we’re trying to save the world together, which makes things pretty awkward as it is. I think it’d be easier if we at leasttriedto do friend stuff. Clearly, we can’t have a clean break.”
No, we couldn’t. Things were too complicated. Because of Oberi, and our prophecies, Charlie would always be in my life, and in a big way. We shared a soul bond. It wasn’t like I could forget about him, like every other guy.
A bit of my unease slipped through our bond, and Charlie balked. “Never mind. It was a stupid idea.”
“It’s not,” I said. “We should make a music video again. It’ll help things feel… normal, I guess.”
