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Reyes came right into the girl’s locker room with us—which I guessed didn’t matter since nobody was in there. We would have kept going but Kaitlyn must have figured out where we were because she balked at going back out into the main part of the school.
“Wait, Megan,” she begged me in a low, ragged voice. “Please, I don’t…don’t want anyone to see me like this. To see me all uncovered.”
I understood at once that she didn’t want everyone seeing her scars but I was really worried about her hurt eye.
“Isn’t there a back way we can take?” I asked, half speaking to her, half to Reyes.
He nodded.
“Yes, actually. There’s a back tunnel that leads from the boy’s locker room almost straight to the Healer’s office. She’s always on call during practice.”
I almost said, “lead the way,” but caution stopped me. For all I knew, this was some kind of a trick—a way to get us alone while we were vulnerable and Kaitlyn was helpless.
“Why are you helping us?” I demanded, staring up at him. “What’s in this for you?”
“Nothing.” He looked pained. “Except perhaps to restore honor to the name of my Sire and my people. I am…” He cleared his throat. “Deeply ashamed of the way my countryman has treated Kaitlyn. It is cowardly and wrong to attack or abuse those who are weaker than ourselves.”
He sounded sincere and I felt in my gut that he was telling the truth. Deciding to trust my instincts, I nodded at him.
“Well, it was good of you to stand up for Kaitlyn.”
He shook his head. “I should have spoken up sooner. Sanchez is a cabron with no honor—I should have called him out when he was rude to her to begin with.”
“You can ask her forgiveness later,” I said, still keeping Kaitlyn close to me. She had managed to get the hair band out of her hair to hide the side of her face again, but this also meant I couldn’t see if her one good eye had gotten better or worse. “For now, we need to go.”
Reyes nodded.
“This way.”
We went briefly out into the corridor with Reyes on the outside, blocking the view of any curious student who might be passing by, and then into the boys’ locker room, which looked pretty much exactly like the girls’ except for all the clothes and towels strewn around haphazardly.
“There’s a door just here that leads to the corridor that goes to the Healer’s office,” Reyes remarked. “But wait,” he added, when I started for it.
He ran to one of the lockers and opened it. Out of it, he pulled a white uniform shirt with long sleeves and brought it over to Kaitlyn.
“Please—would you like to wear this?” he asked her softly. “To cover you from prying eyes, in case anyone else is with the Healer?”
She looked up at him briefly, her one good eye still red and swollen and nodded—a quick, jerky motion of her head.
Reyes knelt before her and helped her put on the shirt as though he was dressing a child. And indeed, Kaitlyn was so much smaller than the massive Drake, his shirt fit her as though she was a kid wearing her father’s clothing.
The long sleeves hung down over her scarred hands and the shirt tails went down to her knees. The scarred calf of her left leg was still visible but other than that, she was almost completely covered by the big Drake’s uniform shirt.
Kaitlyn clearly felt better when her scars were covered because she looked up again, briefly meeting Reyes’ concerned brown eyes.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “Thank you for helping me.”
Reyes ducked his head and spoke formally.
“You honor me by wearing my clothing. I do not deserve your thanks.”
Then he led us swiftly through the door and down a long, narrow stone corridor to the Healer—which I supposed was what they called the school nurse here at Nocturne Academy.
I just hoped my friend was going to be okay.
24
“She’ll be all right.” The Healer was an older woman in her sixties with salt and pepper hair cut short in practical style. Her office looked like any other school nurse’s I had ever seen—except for the far wall which held a lot of weird looking things floating in cloudy amber liquid in glass jars.
I stared at them—was that really a mouse with two heads? And a snake eating its own tail? What possible use could that be? Were these arcane magical remedies or just a collection of medical oddities?
I didn’t dare to ask—the Healer had a brisk, no-nonsense way about her that was not conducive to curiosity. She had already taken charge of Kaitlyn and had her lying down on a cot in the little exam room beside her office.
I wanted to stay with her, but the Healer was shooing me off.
