Cat in a Cauldron

Chapter 2 - Cat Trap

"Leigh," William said quickly. "We have to get him help."

The way he emphasized the word 'help' told Cat that he meant magical aid. That meant revealing what she had done. She blinked, her subconscious kicking into overdrive and taking over.

"Where's Seth? He's the best at healing," she barked.

"I'm right here." Her friend came up the hill, took one look at Thomas' now terribly quiet figure, and cursed harshly. "I can't do much for this," he said.

"Do your best," Cat implored.

Leigh was standing a few feet away, her hands on her hip as she chewed her lip, observing Cat.

"Andromeda," she began.

"This is only for now," Cat cut her off. "We need to get him to Sabine." The thought of what the headmistress would do when she opened her door to this situation was enough to make her shiver. But she refused to let this get any worse than it already was.

And it was already so bad.

In a minute, Seth got to his feet, looking skeptically at Cat. He shrugged and gestured to William to pick up Thomas.

"Wait," Cat said quickly. Her heart was still throbbing with fear and self-loathing, and she felt she needed to do all she could to reconcile this terrible wrong. She walked over to Thomas, and when he saw her, he groaned in fear and pain, shying away from her. Tears stung Cat's eyes as she saw that his skin was red, blistering, and sickly swollen. If this was what the burns looked like after Seth had worked on him, Cat felt sick to her stomach imagining what damage she had caused originally. A tear sliding down her cheek, she leaned down to Thomas' ear and whispered in a near-silent breath, "I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve this." Then she placed two light fingers on his brow and said, "Codlaíodh." The magic drifted from her touch into Thomas, and his eyes slid closed as he fell asleep, momentarily detached from his pain, though still locked in its grimace.

Cat stepped back and swallowed hard, nodding to William to continue. She kept backing up, her tortured conscience pulling her away, back into the trees where she couldn't harm anyone. This wasn't supposed to happen, and yet there was the limp Thomas, being carried away to seek help for something she had done to him. And he had only been kind.

William and Seth hurried off through the eastern stretch of trees back to the road and to Red Anchor. Leigh stayed on the hilltop with Cat, watching her carefully. Though the expression in her eyes was inscrutable, Cat was grateful for her company.

Eventually, Leigh walked over to Cat and gently held out her hand. It was time to face Sabine, and the consequences. Never before had Cat been this scared and this angry with herself. If Leigh hadn't been there, she didn't know what she would have done to herself.

The walk back to Red Anchor was silent and strained. Cat didn't know what Leigh was thinking, and all Cat could think herself was how much she wished she had just stayed in her dorm room. It felt like the world was crumbling beneath her feet, falling away into a bottomless pit, and there was no way for her to remain grounded. She was falling, and she knew deep in the pit of her roiling stomach that she wanted to fall.

Finally, the towering arches of the magnificent school yawned before the two girls. Leigh silently passed under them and into the main courtyard, heading straight for the thick, iron-studded oak door that opened to a staircase. Up those stairs was the office and living quarters of Headmistress Sabine Demata. Cat looked up the stone wall to see with a pang of dread that there was a flickering light glowing from the window of the office.

William, Seth, and Thomas had already arrived.

Cat lifted her chin and followed Leigh. The climb up the staircase was long, yet also seemed to take no time at all. All too soon, Leigh was knocking on the door to the headmistress' office, and a sharply strained voice snapped out, "Enter, Waters and Carafe."