They all stepped out into the grounds together, into the evening air. The lavender sky was dotted with twinkling stars, the moon peeping through a cloud of deep indigo. It gave the flowers a drowsy coat, the deep rose and lavender scents a happy dream.
“Well done,” Jamie grunted, awkwardly patting her on the shoulder.
“Yeah, good job, Lottie. We can rest now,” Ellie said, but her words only made Lottie’s heart sink more.
They walked quietly up the path, to the Ivy dorm, and something shifted. The trees began to rustle, while Vampy nestled in Lottie’s arms, sleeping soundly, his heartbeat thumping against her chest.
She felt surrounded by a melody made of three distinctive sounds: the endless beat of the Kiri Shinrin still following her, the burning rustle of the love letter in her bag, and the gentle twinkle of the metallic fragments Sayuri had given her.
When they got back to Ivy Wood, nighttime had reached its stillest point, milky blue shadows falling over Ryley as he greeted them by the pond.
Jamie made to head up to the boys’ dorm, but Ellie stopped him.
“Erm . . .” She coughed, raising her eyebrows indignantly. “I think you’re forgetting something, Jamie.”
Following her signal, Lottie handed Vampy to him, smiling apologetically at his furious expression.
“I still think it’s unacceptable to be sneaking a pet onto the grounds; if the cat gets caught, I’m turning you both in.” His face was dead serious while the cat nestled itself against him.
Ellie smirked. “Oh, please, I’m sure that’s not the worst thing someone’s smuggled into this school.”
A dry smile crept over Jamie’s face, a look Lottie remembered from a long time ago, an expression she’d thought was gone forever.
“What do you mean?” he asked, effortlessly grabbing his bag and hauling it up over his shoulder. “I smuggle weapons into school all the time.”
He turned to Lottie and she stared at him blankly, not quite finding a smile.
Both Ellie and Jamie watched her suspiciously, circling in front of her like a pack of wolves. “Are you okay?” they asked in unison.
“Yes,” she repeated, already zoning out. “I’m just very jet-lagged, and there’s lots to do.” The pounding in her head was still going, getting stronger and more distracting.
“Lottie’s right. We need to set up our room, and I’m pretty tired.” Ellie yawned and stretched. “Good night, Jamie,” she called, heading up the path.
“Good night, Ellie.” But as he spoke his eyes didn’t leave Lottie’s, sending shivers through her.
She knew there was no point in putting on a smile for him, no point in pretending it was all okay. He knew, as she did, that the truth was coming for them.
Tomorrow Lottie was going to do the hardest thing she’d ever done, and prove once and for all whether Ellie and her family really were at the center of Leviathan’s plans, and if she was right, she could never look at the Maravish royal family the same way again.
34
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN a long time Jamie didn’t wake up before his alarm. The chirpy trill of Judy Garland singing him good morning was strangely jarring, and it was only made worse when a large fluffy face appeared in front of his own.
“Mreow,” the cat grumbled.
“What do you want?”
The cat stared at him, purrs vibrating against his chest. Stifling a yawn, he picked up the big attention-seeking brute and put him to the side of the bed so he could turn off his alarm.
7:00 a.m.
It felt particularly odd to have his phone in his room; it felt like more of a crime than having the cat, and part of him was looking forward to handing it in later.
Back to normalcy.
Only there was no normalcy now, because he couldn’t get Haru out of his mind. He’d infected his dreams, that summer-breeze smile twisting and melting into a grinning bird mask.
Haru isn’t part of Leviathan, he told himself. Because if he was, then nothing made sense anymore.
Rubbing his face, Jamie tried to push the thoughts out of his head, trying to persuade himself he just felt weird not having Percy in the room with him. But he knew it wasn’t that. He felt out of place. When he’d decided to share his feelings with Ellie, it was the first time he could remember ever choosing to relinquish control, and it made him squirm to think of it. Everything felt so messy now, and all he wanted to do was get out of this cage of a room and burn off some steam.
Catching his reflection in the mirror while he pulled a black shirt over his bare skin, Jamie felt as though he were looking at a stranger. A lock of hair fell over his face as Vampy came to stand beside him.
Shadows under his eyes gave away a lack of sleep, and he remembered Ingrid looking up at him while he squeezed down on her wrists and shuddered.
Who are you? he asked the mirror, but what he really meant was, What are you?
His vision warped, the image in front of him morphing into a terrible black-cloaked figure, horns extending from his head, coiling out like a ram’s, and Haru was there, smiling beside him.
He blinked and the image was gone. Shaking his head and pushing his hair back, Jamie reached for a pair of jogging shorts.
He wasn’t doing this anymore. He wasn’t going to be paranoid. And he wasn’t going to let the sickly darkness that the Goat Man had left behind seep into him.
They were so close to revealing his identity; he could see it in the way Lottie kept drifting off, her mind wrapped up in a puzzle she was on the verge of solving. It made her visibly anxious, but strangest of all it was making him nervous too.
“Are you coming?” he asked Vampy, but the cat didn’t budge, instead choosing to
