Of Life and Death: [A Dark Academia Paranormal Romance]

Chapter 29

Once I enter the dinning hall the next morning, I wish Ididn't.

Sophie is sitting with a group of girls. Among them isSharlene.

I grip the strap of my bag on reflex and start to walk pastthem, hoping I looked indifferent. But soon that is all I become consumed with.How do I make them realize that I don't give a f*ck? Do I wave at her? Act likeI don't see her?

Am I waking too straight?

My anxiety vanishes. It's replaced with something acidic,and painful. I see Rylan.

He's with Sabrina.

The wall I'd erected around myself threatens to crack. WhenI slide into an empty table, I feel irritation at myself well. Why did I thinkanything between us had changed?

He's only helping me out of some misguided responsibilityand not because, heaven forbid, he likes me. A hysterical laugh bubbles to thesurface but it morphs into a lump and lodges at the back of my throat whenSophie's table breaks out in laughter.

What are they talking about?

Is it me?

My stomach clenches. Did she tell them what I said lastnight?

I chase the thought away. Sophie wouldn't do that to me.Letting that out could literally ruin my life.

The school would finally look into my species, find out whatI am.

But do I really deserve her loyalty, though?

I had been bent on knowing what I was and in the process I'dput her at risk by having her impersonate the f*cking principal. And even thenI couldn't come clean to her.

I'd been selfish.

When breakfast is served, I push my food around my plate,never more aware of sitting at an empty table than I am now. A prickle ofawareness trails down my back and I look up to meet Rylan's hooded gaze.

The expression on his face is impassive. But I feel hisstare like a brand, cutting through layers of my skin to lodge deep into myvery being.

I stab my fork into a vegetable harder than I intended. Iraise a brow at him? It's rude to stare.

Really?

 

I fight the urge to jump at the smooth timbre of his voicein my head. I'd forgotten he could do that. Get the f*ck out of my head,Rylan.

 

A challenging brow lifts. Make me.

 

Our stare is cut off when someone tall comes to stand infront of me. Ezra.

He settles in opposite me and for a quick moment, my heartsoars on knowing I won't be alone at the table.

"Hey," he starts.

I summon a smile. "Hey."

His voice lowers. "Any progress yet? Can you use yourpowers now? Any part of it?"

My eyes fall to the food before me. My fork works awkwardly.Push, push, stab. My shoulders fall and I decide I'm done hiding things."No. But I'm getting somewhere... With Rylan's help."

A surge of something dark springs to his eyes. "Rylan?But you promised you won't--"

"I promised I won't tell him about Faerin's book. AndI... didn't." Not exactly.

His eyes narrow and when hurt infiltrates his eyes, my faceburns with shame. He draws back to lean against his chair, folding his armsbefore him in a way that looked strangely like a barricade. "Does he knowabout Faerin's book?"

"No," I'm quick to say. "I only told him thatthere's this book I..."

He's getting up.

"Ezra," I call, but he's gone.

____

I hardly listen to the guard addressing the class. Snippetsof things he says float into my consciousness from time to time, but a hugepart of it goes unheard, lost to the storm of sadness and panic I'm working upin my mind.

Everything's going... Left.

I'm losing everything. Everyone. I--

I suck in a deep breath when a shadowy figure materializesbeside me.

Not today, satan.

Inhaling gently, I count to ten, wrestling down my panic.

....7, 8, 9.

The space beside me distorts and then the dead bodydiminishes, carrying with it the smell of rot. But I must not have hidden theshock and fear from my face because I attract stares. Heart skipping, I trainmy attention ahead.

"...But until they're caught," the burly guardconcludes. "You're to strictly observe light's out. No student is to becaught loitering around past 10. If you're found, there will be consequences.Thank you." With a tip of his hat, he leaves.

Professors troop in and out and all through it I'm zonedout, unable to bring myself to focus on anything other than the suffocatingweight on my chest. I snap back to attention when the bell rings.

I've just put my books in my bag when a note is slid onto mydesk. I look up to meet Rylan's cool gaze.

Without another word, he walks away.

I open the note.

Meet me at the woods. Midnight.