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As small as it was, the room was furnished with style and taste. A four-poster in the middle, a mahogany desk near the tall, gothic windows, and bookshelves covering every inch of every wall. They were filled with books checked out from the library, books bought by Valentine himself, with notebooks and study materials he’d gathered through the years. How many years? Was this his second year at Grim Reaper Academy? The third? It wasn’t the first, for sure.
Did they brick up the top of the windows and only left the lower halves?
His wings were resting on his back, the tips touching the bed. His blond hair reached his shoulders, and his skin was sun-kissed. It was strange to see him so young and tanned when the only Valentine I’d known was pale and constantly angry, or at least annoyed at the world. I floated closer to him, trying to see what he was writing. A diary? I’d never thought he was the type…
He raised h
is eyes for a second and looked straight at me. My non-existent heart jumped in my non-existent chest. I could swear he saw me, but then he went back to his notebook, and I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding because I wasn’t actually holding it, because I didn’t have physical lungs to hold it in. He scribbled one last sentence, closed the notebook, then knelt on the floor. He brought his scythe down with him and used the tip of the blade to dislodge a rectangular section of the floorboard. There was a box in there, and he stuffed the notebook inside, on top of at least another dozen notebooks. He looked up again, and this time, his brows furrowed as his eyes focused on me.
“Father,” I whispered, although I had no idea why I wanted to draw his attention. It made no sense. Also, I’d made no sound. I didn’t have vocal cords, a tongue, lips, and whatnot.
He stood up and went to the door. He’d heard a knock, not my voice. I wanted to turn around and see who it was, but it was too late. My physical body was calling for my non-physical body to rejoin it. The water was getting cold.
* * *
I opened my eyes and gasped. I was shivering.
“What the hell? Dream? Hallucination? Did I really see into the past?”
So many questions, and only one way to find out. I had to check my old room.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I had to be smart. I had to wait for the right moment. And the next day wasn’t the right moment. After breakfast, the school exploded when the Unseelie guards started gathering phones, tablets, and laptops. The new rules were up on the board:
8. Access to the Internet is forbidden.
9. All electronic devices that allow communication with the outside are forbidden.
10. School vacations will be dedicated to practice.
Everyone was shocked, except me and the people I’d already told. Not even the staff was allowed to use their phones on the school grounds. If they went down to Salem, the Headmaster didn’t care, but as long as they were at the Academy, all phones had to be turned off. Too much of a temptation, he’d said. The truth was that he knew I had friends in the kitchens, and he knew they would help me break the rules if I asked them to.
“What do we do now?” GC whispered to me in the hallway. We were headed to Psychology.
“Fuck if I know.”
“Where’s Corri?”
I felt a knot in my stomach. “Morningstar sent her to the Blank. I tried to call her back with the bell, but it isn’t working. He said one week. I can’t do shit about it.” I was freaking out. I’d managed to hold it together the night before, but I was genuinely starting to freak out, and the more I allowed the panic to take over my mind, the more I was convinced that the Headmaster was winning. I was supposed to be the chosen one! I had a prophecy written (okay, not exactly written) about me! And I was failing!
“We’ll figure something out.”
“How, GC? How?” I stopped in the middle of the hallway and grabbed him by the shoulders. My fingers trembled as I squeezed his shirt. I looked into his ever-shifting blue eyes, and I wanted to kiss him so badly, I wanted to let him take my pain away along with my breath…
“Miss Morningstar, you might want to take a step back,” Crassus’s voice snapped me out of my reverie.
I let go of GC, and he stepped away from me when he saw that I couldn’t. My hands turned into fists, and when I looked up at Crassus, for a split second, I saw myself punching him the face, his blood running down my knuckles. I blinked. My shoulders relaxed. I gave him a smile.
“Sure thing. I’m sorry, I don’t know what has gotten into me.”
He was just doing his job, I kept telling myself. Only doing his goddamn job. If only I could…
A thought crossed my mind, and it wasn’t half bad. An idea. If only I could pay him. I’m going to Psychology, then Anatomy of Souls and PE. When I take my scythe back to my room, I’ll call the bank and have them send me some cash. How much could I need? What if I asked Celine Barnes? Would she tell me? Would she tell my father after? It was worth a shot. Maybe. Maybe not.
I was spiraling.
“Come on, class is about to start,” Francis took my hand and pulled me away from my bodyguard. Crassus didn’t protest. He was hired to keep me separated from my boyfriends, and Francis Saint-Germain wasn’t my boyfriend.
