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Thirty-Eight
As we headtowards the dorm rooms, several bleary-eyed students are stumbling out into the hall, tripping over their feet. But when the third scream shudders through the castle, those eyes sharpen, and worried whispers ripple along the corridor.
Laila,I think, searching the faces for my friend. I shove my way through the group until I get to our room. It’s empty.
“Laila?”
I rush back out into the hall, panicked.Where is she?“Laila!”
“What?”
I’ve never been so relieved to hear her unemotional voice. As soon as her face comes into view, I wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.
“For God’s sake, Belvedere.” She’s unmoved by my display. “Did you think I was dead or something?”
I pull away. “Yes. I really did.”
We both turn to the mass of scared students in the hallway.Then I see Octavia Pax hurrying through the throng, her nightdress floating out behind her.
“Everyone back to your rooms,” she says.
“Has something happened?” Cooper asks.
“Is someone hurt?” someone else adds.
“Is someone dead?”
The questions go on, voices rising.
Octavia whispers a few words under her breath, and a shudder of energy passes through the hall. Silence immediately follows.
“Go back to your rooms and lock the doors,” she commands.
We all do as we’re told. I check the locks twice then flop down on my bed. Laila sits on hers with her legs crossed.
Slowly, she turns to me and narrows her eyes. “Where the hell have you been? I spent like an hour looking for you. Then I gave up because you’re always pulling this shit. AndthenI heard the screams.” She lifts her hands up in the air in exasperation.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologise. Tell me what’s going on.” Her eyes plead with me. I’ve never seen so much clear emotion shining from them.
I hate this. I hate not telling her about Cyrus. But it’s such a huge burden to make her share. I don’t know if I can do it to her.
I sigh. “I can’t.”
She lies down in her bed, turning away.
I feel awful. There was real hurt on her face, I could tell. “I swear, I would if I could,” I tell her, but she doesn’t respond.
I’m not sure whether to get into bed or not. With the mysterious screams out in the building somewhere, I feel like I should be ready to act if I need to. But at the same time, the rest of the pupils are in their pyjamas, so I probably stand out like a sore thumb.
After about ten minutes, I decide to change.
Laila is still silent as I slip underneath the covers, exhaustion taking over my body. I thought I’d be too afraid to sleep, but it settles over me like a spell. Maybe it is a spell. Octavia whispered something, and she seemed pretty adamant that there was no student interference in whatever is going on.
All those thoughts fade away, and I find myself back in Cyrus’s crypt. His head is between my legs, feeding from my inner thigh. But this time, I sense that someone is spying on us. It’s bizarre because I know it’s impossible. The great door to the crypt is closed, yet I have the strongest sense that we’re being watched. That someone knows what we’re doing. And it isn’t a good feeling.
As soon as I wake, I know Cyrus dreamt the same dream. That he saw what I saw.
