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“Uh—better be better in the underworld. Sick of earth chicks. Then I started to wake up.”
It got much easier as I reported the events that’d happened while I was conscious. The memories were clear and sharp, as if they’d been dusted off and polished up by Cassandra’s alluring song. I filled in the rest of his hateful misogyny for them, then told them of the magical binding cord and my various escape attempts. When I got to the part where I was mentally calling for my guys, they asked me to slow down and go step-by-step.
“Your wrists were bleeding,” the siren prompted me. “How severely?”
“There was a puddle.” I frowned. “My clothes were wet. Cuts all over my body. But then the guys came.”
“And they healed you?”
“No,” I said. “They attacked Owen. Kai released me from my bonds, but then Owen smashed him against the wall. He was going to die.”
“Go on,” the siren said.
Even from the depths of my trance, I could feel the whole room holding its breath.
“I told the guys to get Owen out of the room before he crushed us all.” Despite the calm of my trance, I could feel my heart beating harder, sending blood racing through my veins. “I went to Kai. He looked dead. I cried over him.” I was crying now, as I told the story. “I touched his face. My blood got on him. I tried to wipe it off, but then—it dripped into his mouth. He drank from me. Then he woke up.”
Warmth burned low in my belly as I thought about what it had felt like to have Kai drink from me, the remembered feelings and images even more vivid under the siren’s spell.
Jesus, what an awkward time and place to be so aroused.
I knew the empath was feeling what I was f
eeling, but in my utterly vulnerable state, I could do nothing about it. The old woman cleared her throat, and I talked a little faster.
“He woke up and kissed me. It helped—it healed me a bit and gave me some strength back. It was just enough to get us back in the fight, but I was still bleeding. The other three fought hard. Xero and Kingston killed Owen. They didn’t want to, but they had no choice. He would have killed all of us, and everybody in the school.”
I finished talking, and for a moment, the only sound in the room was the siren’s beautiful song.
“Once more,” Toland said tiredly. “From the top.”
After going through the whole scene three more times, highlighting different details each time—half to do with Kai, the other half to do with the nonsense code Owen had been repeating—he finally allowed Cassandra to withdraw from my mind. The process was much less painful than it had been the other day, and it didn’t feel like my heart was cracking open in my chest as her song faded away.
“We believe you.” Toland interlaced his fingers and rested his elbows on his desk, regarding me with a steady gaze once my mind was my own again. “And we are clearing you as well. Of all charges.”
“Wait? There were charges?” I blinked.
The headmaster shared a look with Vesper. “There were. But we feel you did everything you could to protect yourself, your friends, and this school. The consequences—should be manageable.”
“Consequences? Which ones?”
Toland rubbed a hand over his face. “We shall see. We need to speak with Kai now. Vesper will take you to the waiting room.”
I followed her out. This time, she took me to the same room where she’d been keeping Kai, and I squeezed his hand in a show of affectionate support as he passed. He met my eyes with a haunted look that made my heart ache. I hoped whatever nightmare was chasing him would be gone after all of this was over.
Like before, the enchanted waiting room convinced me that I was only in it for a couple of minutes before Vesper returned with Kai in tow. His whole vibe had changed—for the worse, in my opinion. He’d gone from being haunted and frightened to being icy and furious. He wouldn’t look at me. He pulled away when I tried to touch his hand. A wall had closed down over his emotions, and with a start of terror, I realized that I could barely feel him.
When Vesper left us at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the main level, I grabbed his arm. He yanked it away in a sharp movement.
“Kai—what happened?”
I tried to keep the desperation and growing fear out of my voice, but I was sure he could hear them anyway. He would’ve been able to see them on my face too if he’d ever fucking look at me.
He shook his head. “See you around, Piper.”
“I—what?”
He took the stairs two at a time and never even glanced back.
