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He juts his chin to the path behind me. “I’ll walk with you. You’re not coming back to school, are you?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “How do you like it here?”
He shrugs and tucks his hands in his pockets. “It’s not home, you know? Everything feels temporary. How do you like staying at Auclair?”
I smirk. “Feels temporary.”
A loud bell drones, and shortly after, streams of people join the paths from all directions. The uniform at Radmore is slightly different than ours—the blazers navy blue instead of red, the plaid skirts green and blue.
Daniel steps closer to me so we don’t get separated, his shoulder bumping mine. He clears his throat. “It’s really good to see you, Valerie—”
“Please don’t get sappy on me.”
“If being sappy was ever justified, I think this is it—”
“Of course it is,” I snap, looping my arms through one of his and leaning against him as we walk. “But if you keep it up, I’ll start crying, then I’ll have to hurt you.”
A corner of his mouth kicks up, and he squeezes my arm. “Here we are.”
There’s nothing that sets this building apart from the others, all shiny windows and just as tall. For being in the middle of nowhere, Radmore does a good job of making you feel like you’re in the heart of a city. Maybe that’s the appeal, why it’s one of the more popular academies.
Daniel checks his watch and presses his lips into a thin line. “I have to get going, but can we catch up later?”
“We better.”
“We’ll get dinner,” he decides, pointing a finger at me as he jogs away backward.
I wave as he disappears into the crowd.
Like York’s buildings, the doors won’t open without a key card. Sighing, I lean against a column by the entrance and send a quick text to Adrienne, waiting for someone to come or go so I can slip inside.
My fingers skim the outline of the note in my jeans pocket. Now that Daniel’s gone and the overwhelm has subsided, the heavy dread returns to the center of my chest, accompanied by something…else. Something not as easy to identify. Or maybe it is. The lump in the back of my throat, it’s been there since the moment I saw that fingernail.
The magic inside of me warms at the thought, like it remembers once being hers. Another unnecessary reminder that the only reason I’m still breathing is because of my mother.
My mother who wished me dead, then turned around and sacrificed the thing she loved most to save me.
My brain can’t make sense of it, especially not as my stupid, traitorous heart and desperate-for-affection inner child are vying to take over control.
I suck in a deep breath and force the line of thinking away with my exhale. Whatever her reasoning might have been, if she’d gone to such lengths to save me, I don’t see why she’d lead me astray with this note now. Whatever it means, it must be important.
Maybe I should have gone to Reid. But I just…couldn’t. At some point, even a saint would get exhausted with the same person always coming to them with a problem. Especially when we’re barely speaking, our partnership is hanging on by a thread, and he has more than enough on his plate already. I did send him a quick text to let him know where I’d be, though, so he wouldn’t worry.
“I got here as fast as I could.” Adrienne jogs up the stairs, her backpack hung over one shoulder and her short hair pulled back in a haphazard ponytail. She’s out of breath by the time she reaches me. “What is it? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
I should tell her everything’s fine to get her to calm down, but is it? My panic might not be as obvious as hers, but that doesn’t mean it’s not singing in my veins just as clearly. The note burns against my leg.
“Can we talk inside?”
Unlike the rest of the campus, there are no noticeable differences to the inside of York’s dorms. The rooms are the same small size, same furniture—though the window is larger and the view nicer.
“Are you going to tell me what this is about now, or are you trying to see if I have a heart attack?”
Adrienne stomps into her room ahead of me and drops her backpack on the twin mattress. Her roommate isn’t home, thankfully. I fish out the note, and she reaches for it but yanks her hand back with a hiss the second her fingers make contact.
“Ow, it shocked me.” She shakes out her hand. “Is that magic?”
“It did the same to me.”
