Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 37

"So we're looking for a male suspect who is versed enough in magic to be able to cast a strong killing curse that cannot be reversed unless it's only by them." 

I watch Astrid as she paces around my room, her neon yellow socks silent on the hardwood floors. She spins on her heel to pace back as she jots something in the notebook held in her hands. Tessa lies sprawled on her back next to me on my bed as she fidgets with a length of cotton rope that she ties and unties endlessly. 

"I don't think that we can just walk around campus asking people if they're good at casting killing curses and looking to become a serial killer," Astrid says with a frown, "but I could look into some of the dueling clubs, see who their best caster is?" 

Astrid and Tessa had shown up around two in the afternoon. It's now five in the evening, the sun already starting its slow descent outside my window as we sit amongst scattered notes written on notebook paper that is strewn about my room. Tessa rolls over suddenly as she props her head in her hands. 

"But he's not a serial killer," Tessa counters and Astrid pauses in her pacing, the sunlight from the setting sun cutting stripes of light across her face as she squints at Tessa.

"What do you mean?" I ask in a low voice.

"He's only killed two people, a serial killer has to kill three," Tessa elaborates and Astrid rolls her eyes.

"Tessa-." 

"Sorry," she mutters as she pouts her lip, "I was just trying to be funny. All of this has been making me nervous and I use humor to cope." 

"Well he almost killed me-," I begin to weakly joke back, but Astrid cuts me off with a wave of her hand.

"I doubt that he was the same person, the murderer knows killing curses, why would he choose to strangle you?" Astrid says as she shakes her head slowly.

We pause for a long moment as Astrid seems to turn over what she says in her mind. She tucks a lime green nail into her mouth as she plucks distractedly at her lip.

But he strangled me for a reason, he wanted to scare me, to get me to confess to being the murderer. 

"But he did tell me something," I find myself saying quietly. 

Two sets of eyes, one nearly black and the other blue, focus on me. 

"What was it?" Astrid says in a low voice. 

Next to me, Tessa flips onto her side so she can look at me. 

"He told me that I should have turned myself in, to admit that I was Finn's murderer," I explain, lowering my voice as the healing bruises abruptly ache. 

Astrid's eyebrows arch at this as she opens her mouth to say something, but Tessa beats her to it. 

"Why didn't you say anything earlier?" 

I chew my lip before I speak, "I was keeping it open as an option to keep others from dying." 

A heavy silence settles over the three of us, Astrid pausing in her pacing as she leans back against my dresser, her eyes trained on the floor. I can hear Tessa's breathing hitch from the revelation, her eyes narrowing as she realizes I'm telling the truth. 

"Kara, you can't, it wouldn't get us anywhere," Tessa argues. 

"I know," I admit, "but still, Sophia was killed because I didn't turn myself in." 

Guilt that I've yet to acknowledge grapples for my attention as tears begin to fill my eyes. Astrid peels herself away from the dresser to sit on the edge of my bed as Tessa scootches over. Tessa reaches out, opening her arms for me as she makes a beckoning motion. I let myself lean into her embrace as she holds me close.