AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stand there staring at what had been a ruined shirt for so long that Hardin reaches up and tugs me back to the bench. “You’re giving me a crick in my neck.”
“Fire on Hardin’s hand didn’t freak you out as much as that just did,” Ezra sounds unaccountably pleased with that notion.
I run my fingers over my t-shirt, not quite believing that it’s clean, but it is. I lift it to my nose, to see if it’s an illusion like maybe the coffee is still there, but no one else can see it, but it smells like clean laundry and rain and mint. Like Ezra.
I’m half expecting them to laugh at me, but they don’t. Instead, they all just watch me, content, as I come to grips with this new world. When I’ve come to the conclusion that my shirt is in fact clean, I sigh and look up at Ezra. “Thank you for that.”
He gives me a soft smile but doesn’t say anything. “So you said other students would be gunning for me? Who exactly should I keep an eye out for?”
Their faces become slightly more grim. “Some of them you can guess. Julie-”
I snort. “She pushed me down a flight of stairs. Yes, I am aware of her.”
Hardin tugs me into his body in a way that is decidedly more than friendly contact. His lips press into the hair at my temple. “Julie is bad, and she can do illusions so she could be literally anyone, but she’s not that smart and she can’t hold her magic for very long.”
“Morgan is who you really want to look out for. Cup and Moon specializes in potions, so she can slip things into drinks or food and you wouldn’t be aware of it until it’s too late.”
I think about the very first party that Merritt dragged me to and how she cautioned me to always drink out of unopened cans or bottles. She’d made a comment about ingesting bugs, but I can see now that was a cover for what she was really concerned about, potions.
“She already tried to siphon you once, so-”
I hold up my hand to stop Fielder from continuing. “Hold up. Sorry. She did what?”
“Siphon,” Ezra says quietly.
“Remember when you got sick?” Gideon asks, gray eyes running over my features.
“When I thought I was gonna puke my guts out and die on the bathroom floor? And for some reason Merritt didn’t take me to a nurse?”
He nods and digs his phone out of his pocket. “Yeah, that exactly. She didn’t take you to a nurse because they wouldn’t have been able to do anything to help you.” He holds up his phone so that I can see the screen. It’s a picture of me from that night. I’m on the floor wearing just a t-shirt and panties. I have one hand stretched out toward the camera, like I’m trying to grab the phone from Gideon. A vague memory comes back to me about thinking they were going to use the picture to get me kicked out for lewd conduct. But I see now what he was looking at, what he was sending to the other men around me.
Peaking out of the top of my shirt, swirling over my neck and jaw, are black lines that look a little like smoke, but it must follow the lines of my veins. I lick my lips, trying to wet my suddenly dry mouth, but it does nothing. “What does siphoning mean? What was she trying to do?”
Hardin hugs me closer, while Gideon is the one to answer, his voice almost apologetic. “She was trying to kill you, Ro.”
Seven
I shut down after that. I know I do. They keep talking about how Morgan doing that,poisoning me, is what made Fielder think there was no other option but to send me away, to keep me safe. Morgan isn’t a person to give up on her goals, and apparently ending my life has become one of hers.
So why the fuck am I heading back to a school that she will be at? Where she will attempt to kill me all over again? I have no fucking clue. I must be some kind of idiot.
When the ferry docks, I head toward the pedestrian ramp, intending to climb onto one of the chartered buses to head to campus. But almost as soon as I start in that direction, Gideon drapes an arm around my shoulders and gently guides me to the parking section of the ferry.
“Who do you want to ride with, Ro?”
I blink. “I’m sorry, what?”
“We all drove. Who do you want to ride with to Seven Stars?”
I can’t help but feel like this is a test. A weird one for sure, but still a test. “Why did all of you drive? You don’t all need a car on the island.”
Hardin snorts. “Says you, love.”
I shake my head. Rich boys and their toys. “I’ll take the bus. Thanks.”
Fielder’s eyes narrow. “What part of ‘it’s not safe for you to be on your own’ did you not understand, Sweeney?”
“I won’t be alone. I’ll be surrounded by other students.”
