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One of the discarded books is titledA Comprehensive Guide to Medieval Churches in the British Isles.
A well-hugged teddy bear dressed in the bright red uniform of a palace guard has been tied to the bed with rope, the wordsIGNORE THIS WARNING AND TEDDY GETS ITemblazoned on a sheet of blank paper.
There is a variety of snacks and chocolate bars, random assortments of fruit and pastries.
I don’t quite understand why but I feel privileged just being here, taking it all in, their interests and the aspects of their personalities that they’d kept hidden so far.
But then I realize they think it was me.
They think it wasmewho did this.
Strike first? The girls have struck with all the subtlety of a nuclear bomb.
Luke stands in the middle of the room, turning to view the chaos from every angle. He sounds almost choked up. “Is it not enough that girls get their own private rooms? You had to come intoour spaceand destroy it for some petty vengeance?”
I’m staring at him as the cold dread turns my legs into lead.
If he’s royal, could I be, like, arrested for this?
Because I don’t even have an alibi. Although I was in the library all night, Dr. Moncrieffwasn’t. He took frequent breaks, leaving me alone to shelve while he went on various runs around the school. There’s no one who can back me up.
Luke begins to untie the bound teddy with a heartbreaking look on his face.He tripped you up, I have to remind myself.He thinks so highly of himself, that he should be an actual chosen-by-God king. He deserves this.
But Rory’s cold voice says, “No. Don’t touch anything. We need to complain. We need the staff to see this as evidence.” He throws a concerned look at Finlay, who’s crouching in front of the broken guitar, stunned, like it just beat him across the back of the head. “Fin, keep her here. Make sure she doesn’t leave.”
She.
He rises to his feet, looking miserable as he stands beside me.
This is awful. I should be rejoicing in their misery. I should be laughing in their faces, shouting, “This is what you deserve!” It’s only a few broken objects that are easily mended or replaced.
But it feels like more than that. It feelsworse.
“I didn’t do this,” I mutter to Finlay the instant Rory leaves, the power Rory holds over me disappearing. “I’d never… I was indetention. I…” I’m lost for words. He’s never going to believe me. No matter what combination of words my mouth throws out, I can sense the world narrowing, doom approaching as though it’s a fixed point in the universe that I’m hurtling toward.
Finlay says nothing. He doesn’t even look at me.
Ithurts.
“You like Adam Tyndall?” I find myself muttering wildly, babbling. “That’s cool. I’m more a Flirtmagicks fan myself but he has some good tunes.”
Finally, Finlay turns to look at me, his green eyes resting on my face. At first, I think he’s about to tell me to shut up. Instead, he surprises me. “When Adam Tyndall played Glasgow, I was his support act.”
It shuts me up more than any command.
I decide to watch Luke instead. He seems agitated, like he wants nothing more than to clean up the room and put everything back in its proper place.
His head turns to look at the bed with the soccer team colors on it, and he frowns. “Funny how she left Rory’s alone,” he says to Finlay, totally ignoring me between them.Rory. Rory sleeps in a bedding set from his favorite soccer team. That’s… kind of adorable.
But Luke’s right. Rory’s bed seems relatively normal, as far as the beds in this room go. His skin might be as pale as death but he doesn’t sleep in a coffin. It looks like an ordinary messy bed.
And then Luke approaches it.
Hesitantly, he pulls back the cover with the large blue lion crest.
I think my eyes are deceiving me.
Because there’s a large greensplatof wet leaves on Rory’s white sheet. They’re soaked and sopping into the fabric, just as they did when I’d had to pick the leaves off my white blouse. There’ll be green marks there for ages. On top of the leaves, there’s another sheet of A4 paper, which Luke lifts without showing us. But it doesn’t matter, because from the sticky porridge mess beneath it I think I can figure out the gist.
