“Have we what?”
I sighed, rolled my eyes, and crossed my arms over my chest. “Have we ever, you know…” I waved my hand again and one corner of his mouth curled into a devious grin. He wasn’t going to help, he wanted me to say it. “Have we ever had sex?”
“Yes,” he answered simply, his eyes looking me over as if the hospital outfit I had on wasn’t there. He brought that heated gaze back to my face and my flush deepened. I let out a breath between my teeth, trying to slow my heartbeat. Well, that answered that. “Don’t worry, I never did anything you didn’t ask for. Or beg for, more like.”
My eyes widened and I turned my face so I didn’t have to look at him. That wasn’t helpful.
“How many times?”
He shrugged, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling in thought. “Hard to say. With how many times you’ve forgotten me, and how long I’ve been here. Enough where I’d say I’m pretty good at pleasing you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
It wasn’t. I was just worried about the fact that I’d forgotten all of it. Why had he kept coming back if I kept forgetting him? Was he some stalker weirdo who got off on that kind of thing?
“In case you’re wondering, our first kiss wasn’t in this place. It was before you came here. So you can stop thinking that I’m a weirdo who enjoys it when you forget about me and I have to make you fall in love with me again. And again. And again.”
“You could stop trying,” I pointed out, and he chuckled again.
“Not a chance. You may not be my soulmate, but I’m never going to give up on you, Letty. None of us will.” Us? My eyebrows raised with that revelation and he pressed his lips together in hesitation. “Yeah. Ahh. This story is a bit complicated, Letty. You’d better sit down so I can tell it.”
I sat beside him, eager to re-learn who I was, and who we had been to each other.
The hallway floor was cold and bare, turning my legs into icicles as I stared at the Highborn Asylum sign. It was just starting to look like gibberish when someone’s shoes squeaked up to me.
“I remember the first time I met you, Letty.”
I looked up at him, noting his long blonde ponytail, and hopeful blue eyes. “Is it right now? And I’m not Letty. My name is Violet.”
A deep, heavy sigh came from the boy, and he turned around, leaving the way he’d come.
Hummmmmmmmm.
“Be quiet,” I whispered, the squeaks of the boy’s shoes stopping when he heard me.
“Walls being noisy again?” he asked, walking back to me.
I continued studying the sign. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t hear the walls. Walls don’t make noise. That’s magic, and magic isn’t real.”
Sighing again, he sat down next to me, splaying his legs to match mine. “You’d think I’d be tired of this after all this time.” I let him talk, I didn’t much care. This was a loony bin, after all. People talking about spaceships and elephants as they ate breakfast was a normal day. “Sometimes I wish I had Saul’s excuse. At least he’s your soulmate. I’m just one of the boys who fell in love with you.”
I sighed too, letting all of this roll over me like the floor cleaning machine. “Why aren’t you my soulmate then, if you love me so much?”
He turned his head to look at me, searching for something that he wasn’t going to see. “Wish I was. It’s not really that simple, considering what we are.”
“Freaks?” I offered, and he gave a half-hearted laugh.
“That’s one word for it. Most people just call us witches.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “Don’t be absurd, magic doesn’t exist.”
As if on cue, someone approached us, shoes squeaking, and I kept my eyes down, giving the person one quick peek that showed they weren’t one of the Asylum workers at least. He came closer and his face looked familiar, drawing me back to the boy beside me in alarm.
They looked the same. This other boy had black hair, but their faces were the same.
The boy beside me scrambled up and let out a shriek of surprise, running up to the black-haired boy and hugging him for dear life.
“Guy! I thought you’d never find us again.”
‘Guy’ the black-haired one, let the other boy go, staring at me like I was a ghost. “Letty?” He came at me, falling over my body and pulling me into his arms. “Oh my god, Letty! I’ve missed you so much. Are you okay? Olivander, tell me she’s okay! Did they hurt you?”
An uncomfortable whine curled out of my lips and he let me go, straightening and watching me scurry down the hall on my ass until he was a safe distance away from me. The blonde boy helped Guy up and gripped his arm.
“Guy, she doesn’t remember us. They took her memories.”
What were they talking about?
I mean, sure, I’d indulged the boy’s insane monologue about me, but that was the crazy talking, right?
Guy’s eyebrows knit together and he studied my confused expression with increasing anger. “What about you, Oli? You good?”
“Not that I would remember if I wasn’t, but yeah. The spell you put on me let me keep my memories every time they tried to wipe me.”
Guy nodded and he stalked towards me, ignoring my attempt to get away, picking me up and slinging me over his back. I sucked in air to start screaming but found nothing was coming out. “I’ve removed your ability to speak, Letty. Just until we get out, I promise. You can’t alert the guards that we’re here.”
I’ll alert your junk that my foot is going to kick the shit out of it.
Guy laughed under his breath, hauling me down the hallway with Olivander behind
