“Here.” I slowly—very slowly—pull my backpack purse around and fish out an oracle card. I turn to face Jean-Claude and concentrate on the picture in my hands. The energy is accepted, and I can feel the spell working. I tuck the oracle card in the inside pocket of his suit and pat his lapel. “Can you feel that?” I’m no longer with him physically, but I am metaphorically. It will feel as if I’m still with him so I step out of his embrace.
He looks down and palms the space where my head would be if I were standing there with him. It’s like watching a mime caress an invisible person. He feels my representation and nods.
“Take that part of me with you.”
Jean-Claude nods again, staring at me with a type of disconcerted awe, and slips into the room beyond the bookshelf. Riven taps the button and the secret compartment seals itself. As if there was nothing behind the bookshelf at all.
Harlow is the first one to break the silence with a choked sigh.
“Fucking fuck.” He throws a blanket over my shoulders and wraps it around me. Before I can ask what he’s doing, the incubus hugs me, burying his head between the blanket and my neck. His grip is so firm, I don’t think he’s ever going to let go.
“What happened?” Riven’s voice is soft.
“I don’t know,” Harlow answers, shaking his head. “I got Jean-Claude to the infirmary. He was asleep or whatever, but before anyone could check him, he just roared back to life and rushed out.”
“Was he alert? Coherent?” Riven asks.
“Um, he had this crazed look in his eyes, like he didn’t know where he was.”
“Did he respond to his name?”
“No.” Harlow sighs into my hair. I close my eyes, loving the feel of him behind me, arms wrapped around me. I feel safe.
“Did he speak?” Riven asks. I notice his eyes following Harlow’s arms. It doesn’t seem like he likes the fact that we’re so… chummy. He doesn’t say anything though.
“No.”
“Were his movements fluid? Controlled?”
“Yes.”
Riven lets out a breath. “Okay.”
“How did you…” Harlow starts but he’s no longer talking to Riven. He’s talking to me. He tosses a hand at the bookshelf that doubles as a vampire safe. “What was that?” he says as he looks down at me.
I smile at him. “I actually got the idea from you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your wings.” I point. “They’re invisible. They’re still there, but you can’t see them.” I shrug. “So, I figured I could use Commune, Augury, and a little bit of Identify and Guidance to copy you.”
Harlow blinks.
Riven huffs in amusement. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“Neither have I,” Harlow says.
I thought Harlow would be proud of me, would appreciate the fact that I thought of him to come up with my plan, but I see loss, sadness, and a little of the spark within his eyes going dim. I don’t understand why.
“Riven,” Harlow starts as he looks over at the man in question. “I should take Everly home.”
I look up into the incubus’s sorrowful eyes because I’m confused. “To the count’s castle?”
He shakes his head. “To Arcadia.” Then he looks back at Riven. “She doesn’t belong here and her life is in danger.”
Riven swallows hard but doesn’t say anything. Harlow continues, “You know it’s true.”
“I can’t argue that—any of it,” Riven says. Then he meets my gaze. “Everly? The choice is yours.” He’s asking if I’ll help him.
I give him the only answer available to me. “When do classes start?”
Riven smiles down at me. “Now.”
“Everly,” Harlow starts and I look up at him.
“I’m here, Harlow. I’m here because I need to be. It won’t be forever, but for now… my mind is made up.”
Harlow sighs and shakes his head. Then he smiles. “You’re impossible, you know that?”
A knock on Riven’s door sounds. The headmaster straightens and stands behind his desk. “Come in.”
A familiar hooded figure steps in. It’s the Raven rider.
“Tor,” Riven says. The guy looks at him and nods. Then he looks at Harlow and narrows his eyes and Harlow grunts out something unintelligible. The anger between the two of them is palpable.
“Who are you?” Tor asks as he faces me.
Riven clears his throat and answers for me. “Tor Glassglow, this Everly Stillwater. Please take her with you to Mrs. Fernren’s class.”
“I could have taken her,” Harlow starts but Riven shakes his head.
“You and I have something to discuss,” Riven says as he looks at Harlow with a stern expression.
Tor pulls back his hood and gives Harlow another nasty once-over, then turns to Riven, smoothing his features. “Of course.”
Underneath his hood, Tor, my taciturn guide, is classically handsome, with fine features, pouty lips, straight, short brown hair, and dark eyes. He’s not textbook gorgeous like the count or mechanically handsome like Riven, and he doesn’t have the rugged, bad-boy vibe of Harlow, but he’s got a certain beauty and grace that could make a girl swoon, all the same. I also can’t tell exactly what species he is. He doesn’t have the ethereal glow of a fae, nor the darker aura of a resident of Dread.
While Tor doesn’t mention their morning’s squabble, Harlow isn’t as generous. “Good to see I can torment you another day.” Harlow smiles.
“Just wait, asshole,” Tor replies, but doesn’t match the incubus’s good-natured ribbing. “You haven’t won, and the day isn’t over yet.”
That’s all he says before Riven scribbles a few notes on a piece of paper and hands them to me. “Your schedule. Please present this to your teachers.” He pulls out a drawer and hands a folded letter to me. I take it. “And Everly?”
I look at him. “Yes?”
Riven smiles and the expression nearly melts my heart. “Thank
