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25
MIA
“Well, that was a surprise,” Ophelia says. “I’m flattered that you keep thinking you need to avenge me, really I do, but there’s no need. Even though, granted, they managed to break out of my room and gather their gangs… So annoying. Are you listening to me, Maddie?”
“Yes,” I say, “of course I’m listening, cousin.”
“So in the end, maybe it was for the best, what you did,” she mutters, pacing her room. “In my rush to snag you, I loosened my net around them too much. Now they’re safely kept in a demonblood-sealed room until the Golden Moon and I won’t have to run after them. Then I’ll get them out and get to work, though I’d hoped to siphon some more magic from them before that. Ah well, now or then, it’s probably all the same…”
I listen to her ramble about the boys and the ritual and how much time is left, what else has to be done—not much, from the sound of it, except for some meditation and connecting with the greater world forces.
She thinks she still has me under her enchantment, and to a point, she does. My limbs feel heavy, my head too light, my thoughts scattering like birds every time I try to hold on to them.
But something inside my mind has cracked wide open, and that dark place is growing bigger as the night wears on. Images and sounds spill from it. Memories are returning.
I remember her hurting the boys, kissing them, and sucking on their magic, I remember her calling me names, sending Zoey and her girls to beat me up. I remember the boys holding me, touching me.
The pull on my mind is still there, yanking every time a memory surfaces, every time a doubt pushes through to the surface, and it hurts. It feels as if the inside of my head is bleeding. But the pain is welcome if it means I’m not hers to control anymore.
“They’re in the file room, right?” I ask, reaching for a jar of water and a glass that’s on the table she has in her room. A piece of paper catches my attention and I pick it up.
A drawing. The style looks familiar. The girl looks familiar, too. She has a moth on her shoulder, and I reach up to my shoulder, a chill going through me.
That girl is me.
Ophelia snatches the drawing out of my hands and tears it up. “I see you found Sindri’s favorite pastime. That boy draws too much and has no real talent.”
I stare at her. “You hate the boys, don’t you?”
“Oh, don’t be silly. I don’t hate them. They’re pretty and not too stupid, I guess. But they’re a means to an end. I can’t afford to like them.”
“You’re not planning on hurting them, though, are you?”
“Aw, why the concern, cousin?” She grips my chin, smiles sugary-sweetly at me. “Deep in your soul you still care?”
“No.” I try to shake my head but her grip is too strong. “I only care about you, cousin.”
She watches my face, as if waiting to catch me lying. But after a long moment, she releases me, looking satisfied.
After all, I’m not lying. Her hold on me is strong even if her hand no longer touches my face. My mind keeps telling me that it’s true—that Ophelia wants the best for me and for everyone. Such a heavy burden, having to care for us and I’m grateful for it, only…
Only the gap in my mind keeps widening, whispering that things are not as they seem.
“Go to bed,” she says. “And stop messing with the boys. I’ve got it under control. Just… do your homework and stay out of my hair.”
“Yes, cousin.”
“Go. I have lots to plan still.”
Time passes differently in the Academy. Faster and yet outside of time. We are inside a spinning bubble and around us move the slow rivers of hours and days and weeks.
I stare up at the moon disk and breathe in the cold night air, wondering how that works with the planets and whether the people outside see the same full moon I am seeing.
Two days. Two days left.
I think of the stones raining on the four boys, of their stunned expressions, and my chest aches. I rub at it, huffing out white clouds. If Ophelia knows what she’s doing, if she’s doing it for everyone’s good, then why would she hurt them?
They’re not murderers. Those articles were full of shit. And they’re not bullies. Ophelia has so much power, how could they have bullied her?
