Page 16 of Hallowed Bones

“You’re probably going to get tired of hearing this, but—”

“Everything here is haunted,” I finish for her.

She laughs. “Exactly.”

I march forward, but the longer we walk, the colder my skin becomes. It’s as if an icy breath of some unseen force is hovering over the back of my neck. A shiver steals over me, and I close my arms around myself as I fix my eyes on that lone beam of light surrounding the girl in front of me.

Not yet, I promise myself silently. It’s too soon for anything to go wrong. It’s just your imagination.

Several more minutes tick by as we walk. Just when I’m convinced we’re lost and I should beg Elodie to turn around and head back to the dorms despite the futility of it, the tree line breaks and I nearly stumble and fall flat on my face as my Converse sink into sand.

“We’re here!” Elodie cries, shutting off her phone’s flashlight and stepping out of the way for me to see exactly where “here” is.

“Here” is apparently a massive lake in the middle of nowhere. I gape at the bonfires dotting the half circle of sand surrounding one side of the lake. It spans so far into the distance that all I can make out on the other side is more trees, a massive hill, and a … house? There might be a house on the distant side, but it’s well enough away that if anyone lives in it, they probably won’t hear the boisterous voices around the lake and music lilting into the air.

“Come on, let’s go get a drink!” Elodie grabs my arm. I open my mouth to say something, but I never get the chance. She practically yanks me off my feet in her excitement and pulls me along behind her as we head toward the first group of people we see.

As we draw closer, a figure separates from the others to lift a hand in the air. A male voice calls out Elodie’s name, and just as abruptly as she’d grabbed me, she releases me to run, squealing, into the man’s arms.

“Jonah!”

My lips twitch in amusement as she runs full tilt in the man’s direction, shouting the name. He smiles back in turn, opening his arms for her to leap into them and closing her in a big bear of a hug.

I follow along at a more sedate pace, coming up to stand alongside them a full minute after their first encounter.

“Jonah, this is my new roommate, Haven,” Elodie introduces me as she backs away from her friend.

“Haven? That’s an interesting name,” the guy says as he holds out a hand. I lean forward, stiffening a moment before I take it, but thankfully, there’s no weird electrical pulse like there had been with Cameron— Or the guy from my dream, a small voice recalls.

“They were all out of regular names at the hospital,” I joke, releasing his hand a moment later. “I got the leftovers.”

Jonah chuckles, his cheeks dimpling with the sound. He’s a handsome guy, more slender than what the magazines like to put on the front page, but with a cut jawline and clean face. He swings an arm around Elodie’s shoulders and pulls her in for another side hug as he reaches up with his free hand and adjusts the beanie on his head.

“You’re funny,” he says, glancing down at Elodie. “She might just be able to handle you for a full year.”

Elodie playfully punches his side. “I’m not that bad,” she replies before giving me a wincing look. “Last two roommates either transferred to a bigger school or moved off campus,” she explains. “No one understands why I like the dorms, but it’s just easier.”

“I don’t think I’ll be transferring, so no worries,” I tell her. I don’t mention that it’s because no other place would likely have me with the bad-luck curse’s effect on my school records. I refocus on Jonah. “So,” I say. “Are you a student too?”

“Oh, no,” Elodie says quickly as she snuggles against him. “This is the guy I told you about earlier—I know I said most townies don’t come here, but Jonah isn’t like other people. He’s a townie, but he doesn’t mind slumming it with Ipswich outcasts every once in a while.”

“Outcasts!” Jonah exclaims dramatically, placing his free hand to his chest as if he’s been mortally wounded. “How dare you impugn the honor of the great Ipswich College!”

Elodie rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, save it for Amelie and Francis,” she deadpans.

I eye the two of them uncomfortably. “What’s that all about?”

Jonah shakes his head and waves a hand at me. “Nothing much,” he says. “It’s just that the dean and vice dean of Ipswich have a reputation in town. They keep to themselves, and a lot of the older folks think it’s weird that neither of them ever married or had kids.”

I frown. “I mean, it’s not like they don’t have time. They can’t be but … what? Forty at most?”

Jonah arches a brow. “Good guess, but you’d be at least twenty years off. Hell, I don’t even know how old they are—they’ve been around as long as I can remember.”

“Amelie must have a great skin-care routine.” Elodie sighs, cupping a hand over her cheek. “She seems nice enough. I wonder if she’d share it with me.”

“Anyway,” Jonah says, bringing me back to the present as he slides his arm off Elodie’s shoulder. “You guys must be thirsty. I’ll go grab you something from one of the coolers—you okay with beer?”

“Sounds great,” Elodie pipes up, and I simply nod when Jonah looks my way.