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Time seems to be accelerating again, spilling out of my fingers. “Please, Miss Worthy. Isn’t there any way for me to stay?”
“Cheating the school, attending without paying a cent. Do you even know how expensive it is to be a student here?”
“My cousin,” I blurt out.
She frowns. “I beg your pardon?”
“I’m not going before you tell me about my cousin.” My face feels too warm, my chest too cold. “Why didn’t you ask after her? Why didn’t you protect her?”
“Yourcousin? You have family here?”
Why does she look so shocked?
“I used to,” I tell her. “Do you have many Apollinari? Her name is Ophelia. Ophelia Katrina Apollinari.”
“No.”
I stare at her. “What do you mean,no?”
“I mean, no, we’ve never had a student by that name here. I’d remember that.”
Staggering back, I sit on my bed. What is going on? This is too much. I realize I’m stroking the mark on my neck and jerk my hand down in my lap.
Miss Worthy sighs. “Miss Apollinari, I said you need to gather your things—”
“There’s been a mistake,” I blurt out. “Several mistakes. Ophelia was studying here, she visited home during the vacations, she knew everyone. Aren’t you missing a student?”
She doesn’t look pleased. “Several students left after the summer break. Students sometimes change schools, move to other states, go for semesters overseas. Am I supposed to know this girl?”
“If you check your list,” I suggest, “I’m sure—”
“I know all the names on my list.” She sniffs, squares her shoulders. “Which is how I was sure when you first arrived that you weren’t on it.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I whisper, rubbing my hands over my eyes. “I can’t go now, I… Emrys is hurt. So are the other guys. I need to check on them, make sure they’re okay.”
“They’ll be fine.” She pushes her glasses up her nose. “They were fine before you arrived, which may I remind you was only a few days ago, and they’ll be okay when you go.”
That seems… final. And logical. I’m torn between panic and relief. I hate the thought of leaving these boys behind. I hate to leave them unpunished. Going back seems inevitable.
And impossible.
Getting up, I open the closet and pull out my few outfits, stuff them into my beaten-up bag. I change back into my old clothes and lay Zoey’s borrowed ones on the bed.
That hadn’t really been me, I think, gazing at them. I was never the popular girl. Heck, I’d never even been to a school before. Suddenly, it all seems unreal—being here, the things I’ve done over the past few days.
It was a crazy idea, admit it, Mia. It’s actually kind of insane that you lasted here so long.
Time to go.
I haven’t beento the reception office since the first day I arrived. Then I’d been nervous but confident that my name would be on that list. As it turned out, I was wrong—but this time… This time I can’t expect miracles. No arrogant, handsome vampire boy coming in to save the day, performing a little spell to keep me here, within these old walls and their secrets.
With my bag slung over my shoulder, I stand in front of the reception desk, feeling as if my sentence is about to be read, while my mind still whirls with all I’ve learned in the past hour.
The Apollinari, my adopted family, is a line of witches? We live in a church, for Christ’s sake. My adoptive parents abhor magic. Was that all an act?
Does Ophelia, my cousin who’s currently lying in a crystal coffin, caught in a deadly, enchanted sleep, know about this? I bet she’d have a fit. Sure, her mom didn’t seem to be against magic. She’s much more relaxed than Mother and Father, but Ophelia never even mentioned magic in all her stories about her life.
Come to think of it, she never mentioned the four boys to me, either, and I didn’t know of them until I read her diary, so maybe it doesn’t mean anything.
