“Do you believe me now?” Chancey asked. “The Warden’s stronger than me— way fucking stronger— so it’d be evenharderto kill him. If I’m practically invincible, what are you gonna do to him?”
I scowled as I ripped my hand away. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yeah,” Marcus agreed. “That was… intense.”
“You weren’t gonna listen any other way,” Chancey said. “I just saved your life.”
“Chancey’s right,” Kallie added. “We’d never get close enough to the Warden to do it— let alone have the tools or power to pull it off. At least not at the Institute.”
I sighed as I wiped the blood on my pants. I wasn’t giving up on my plan, but I was putting it aside… for now. “All right. Killing him is out of the question. Where are you at with the key?”
Kallie sighed. “I’ve analyzedThe Assassin’s Destinywording, and I’m trying to find what I can elsewhere, but if we really want to uncover clues, we need to talk to Ava.”
“She’s still recovering.” I didn’t want to bother her with talk of war. She had to focus on her rehabilitation.
“She’s going to be recovering for a long time,” Kallie said gently. “You need to trust her to handle the situation. Her body may be broken, but she’s still your Ava-Marie.”
“Idotrust her,” I replied.
“Then let her be a part of this,” Kallie insisted. “You can shield her from this war forever. She’s Ava. She’ll find out.”
I sighed. “You’re right about that.”
“You’ll have to go without me,” Chancey said. “I have a paper to write that’s due tomorrow.”
I was pretty sure he was lying, because Chancey had never turned in a paper in his entire life on time. He was in more pain than he was letting on, which was fair, considering he was healing a hole in his heart. We walked with him all the way back to his dorm room, to make sure he got there safely.
I washed up in the bathroom before we went to the hospital. Oberi shifted back into a husky, and he barked loudly when we entered Ava’s room.
“Aw, Oberi,” she said in a sing-song voice. “You brought me more flowers?”
Grew them myself,he said proudly.
The hospital bed groaned as Oberi jumped onto it to snuggle against Ava. I reached out for her and found that she was propped up in a sitting position. I leaned down and placed a kiss on her lips, but they were all wet.
“Ew!” I wiped my lips. “Oberi, is that your slobber?”
You bet your ass it is,he replied.
Ava chuckled. “Oberi likes to show affection.”
I shook my head and sat on the bed beside Ava. I placed my hand in her lap, and my fingers met something long and wet. I realized it was the flowers Oberi had brought Ava in his mouth. I twisted the stem of the flower around Oberi’s ear, then placed the rest on the nightstand. I turned back to Ava. I wanted to ask how she was feeling today, but I didn’t want to discuss it in front of our friends. I wanted her to feel normal.
Instead, I said, “Ez and I tuned the piano in the music room.”
“Oh, I can’t wait to hear it!” Ava gushed. “You corrected that b-flat that was out of tune?”
“Yeah, she sings really well now,” I replied. “Except the A and G that are damaged on the highest octave. Ez is getting some parts from Professor Warbright, so it should be fixed soon.”
“That’s great,” Ava said. “Kallie, how’d your first football scrimmage go?”
“My team won,” Kallie said proudly.
Marcus stepped forward. “You’d be proud of me, Ava. I got a B+ on my necromancer essay!”
Ava shifted, and I heard the slap as she gave Marcus a high-five. “That’s awesome! I knew you’d do well.”
“I couldn’t have done it without your feedback,” Marcus said.
