“You can’t be serious?”

I smirked. “No harm in looking. And besides, of all of us, I’m the most capable at psionics. It’s my strongest subject.”

“Nuh-uh.” Lance pointed a finger at me. “No way am I letting you mess around in my brain. You might incinerate it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Like you’d even miss it.”

“Ha, ha.”

Eli cut off any further remarks with a whistle. “Don’t start.” He glanced at me, his expression still dark. “You talk to Deverell then, but do it soon. If Lance is still under the curse we need to figure out a way to break it as quick as we can.”

I tilted my head and gave Lance an appraising look. “I don’t know. I think it might be an improvement.”

Selene snorted.

Lance opened his mouth to say something, but I waved him off. “I’ll leave lunch early tomorrow and try to catch Deverell before class.”

After that, the meeting adjourned. Selene darted for the door, in a hurry to make it to her Musemancy Club meeting on time. Lance followed her not long after.

I lingered behind on purpose, same as Eli.

“So,” he said, running his fingers through his hair.

“So.” I waited, breath held for him to go on. There were a thousand things I wanted to say to him, questions I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t find the nerve.

After a few seconds, I couldn’t stand the silence any longer. “Can you bring the moonwort key to dinner tonight?”

Eli cocked his head. “Sure, I guess. Why do you want it?”

I searched for a safe response, knowing I didn’t dare tell him the truth—that I wanted it to break into Paul’s locker. I decided on a half-truth. “I want to check Britney’s locker, see if there’s anything useful in there.” I hadn’t planned on doing that, but once the idea occurred to me it seemed a worthwhile task.

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll bring it.”

“Thanks.” I opened my mouth to ask him about that kiss, but my courage failed me as I saw his expression. He seemed so cold, so distant, as unapproachable as a snarling hellhound. I picked up my backpack and turned to leave.

“Hey,” Eli called as I reached the doorway.

I glanced over my shoulder. “Yeah?”

He ran his fingers through his hair again, not looking at me. As I watched him struggle with what to say, my gaze fixed on his parted lips, and my body tingled, the memory of our shared kisses always so close to the surface. I wanted to run over and kiss him again. If only I could be certain he would welcome it, not back away and tell me he was sorry. But his swings from hot to cold left me too confused for such courage.

Eli drew a breath and then said on an exhale, “Never mind…”

Swallowing my disappointment, I turned and walked off, wishing that I hadn’t stayed behind in the first place.

* * *

Eli brought the moonwort key to dinner that night, but once again he decided to sit at Lance’s table. I didn’t want to read anything into his decision to sit there, but I couldn’t help wondering if he was still avoiding me. I kept glancing over at him, fuming each time I caught Katarina flirting at him. At least he brushed her off same as always.

Nevertheless, as I fell asleep that night, it was with horrible images of Eli and Katarina dating again, swirling in my head. I half-expected those images to follow me into my dreams.

They didn’t.

I dreamed of the plinth again. Everything was the same as before, the tower, the wind, the all-consuming need to read the word.

Only this time, after hours of digging and clawing and scratching, I finally uncovered not just one but two of the letters.

B E

That was all. A consonant and a vowel and only two out of eight. And yet here, in this place, this dream, those were the two most important things in the world.

14

Locker Room Recon

Eli didn’t come down for breakfast the next morning, but I decided that was a good thing. It gave Selene and me freedom to discuss my plan to raid Paul’s locker. I didn’t expect to find much—the guy was way too smart to carry around a notebook detailing his evil schemes—but I figured there was a good chance I could find out what the book was he’d borrowed from Mr. Corvus. I doubted that it mattered, but you never knew. The book might’ve been another one of Marrow’s trinkets left behind, full of secret messages and black magic spells. Or, that could just be my imagination running away with me again.

Selene and I arrived at English class a few seconds before the bell rang, our timing perfectly orchestrated. Miss Norton was already sitting behind her desk, which conveniently stood right next to the door. Trailing behind Selene, I walked in, clutching my stomach and moaning.

Miss Norton eyed me suspiciously. I wasn’t the first student to attempt to fake an illness, after all. I ignored the look, my eyes half-closed from the imagined pain as I stumbled into the room and took my usual seat. Eli arrived moments later, his hair disheveled and cramming down the last few bites of a granola bar. To my general horror, Katarina followed right behind him. He sat down next to me, but Katarina took the desk on his other side, flashing a cold smile my direction.

I started to glare, then remembered my sick routine and coughed instead.

As soon as the bell rang, Selene said in a loud voice from the chair beside me, “Are you sure you’re okay, Dusty?”

“I’ll make it.” I coughed into my hand then followed up with a groan.