“Yes, it is.” Leaning into him, I wiped tears from my cheeks. “Neely is in this hospital because of me.”
“Neely is in this hospital because vampires knocked his car off an overpass with you both inside it.” Linus rested his cool cheek against my temple as we rode down. “Your quick thinking saved his life, and yours.”
“This is just the beginning.” The wider the Master cast his net, the more factions learned about me. “It’s only going to get worse.” A shuddering exhale rounded my shoulders. “Cruz is right. I should stay away.”
“Let Neely decide.” Linus ushered me through the quiet lobby out into the night air. “You’re his friend, it’s his choice.” The featherlight brush of his lips across my temple registered as he withdrew. “Neely is tougher than Cruz gives him credit for, and his husband is about to be reminded of that fact.”
“I wish I had never come to Atlanta,” I said softly, and Linus flinched as if I had struck him.
“Neely—”
“It’s more than that.” I withdrew from him, unable to stomach hurting him again. “I’ve felt upside down since I arrived, like you brought me to an alternate universe instead of North Georgia.”
Maybe this trip had been a mistake. Maybe I had needed more time to adjust to my freedom before trading the comforts of home for an adventure in the city. Or maybe I had grown too used to enclosed spaces and silence to appreciate the noise that came from wading into a sea of humanity. Inhumanity, in the case of the Faraday.
Neither of us spoke after that, and I decided I was wrong about silence.
I hated it, hated how unspoken words hung suspended between us, hated how he angled his body away from mine. Most of all, I hated the mask he wore to hide whatever he was thinking instead of sharing his concerns with me.
The long, dull drive had me ready to comment on the weather to get him talking again.
“Perhaps this will make the trip worthwhile,” he said as he opened the door on a world of possibilities built from brick and writhing with magic. “Welcome to Strophalos University.”
Thirteen
Towering red brick buildings, each laid out in a square and open to a central courtyard, cut an imposing figure on the manicured lawn. A clock tower rose from the centermost building, its face engraved with archaic sigils rather than numbers, and magic pulsed in subtle waves as the second hand chased its tail.
Gardens so lush they might have inspired Maud when she designed the ones at Woolworth House had me gaping after them. Some of those flowers… I had never seen the like. I didn’t have species, let alone names, to call them. I took a step toward the enclosure, only to be halted by Linus’s hand on my elbow.
“Reardon is waiting for us,” he reminded me. “I promise you the full tour tomorrow.”
While I watched, he slid another mask into place, this one shades of the quiet academic I had come to know from my nightly lessons mixed with the rigidity of Scion Lawson. He was approachable, though you might think twice before you worked up the nerve. The flatness of his full lips implied you better have a darn good reason for talking to him, and an even better excuse for believing your time was worth a second of his.
The posture was looser, more slouched, but not normal. Comfortable, but not himself. The clothes were nicer than what he wore in Savannah except when visiting the Lyceum, but not so ostentatious you marveled that a professor would dress so well. The glasses and the crossbody bag made him more relatable, but I saw them as camouflage. Props meant to help him blend in with the faculty. Accessories that screamed scholar and hid the predator lurking beneath his polished exterior.
After Fredrick and Ernestine, there could be no doubt lethal magic prowled beneath his skin.
With Linus as my escort, we strolled down one of the many winding paths landscaped within an inch of its life. Guys stood taller as we approached while girls tittered behind their hands after we passed. Linus appeared oblivious to it all, but I couldn’t read him with that mask on, and eventually I stopped trying.
“Reardon’s office is this way.” Linus indicated a domed building on the outer fringes of the campus. “Are you sure you want to go through with this after last night?”
“I’m a necromancer.” I exhaled through my parted lips. “I can’t avoid vampires forever.”
“No,” he agreed softly, sounding more like himself. “But you can avoid this one.”
“I need answers.” And I would face a vampire to get them. “Amelie can’t live bound to me forever.”
Settling my concern on her made it easier to forget my own life hung in the balance.
“We won’t know for certain if the effects are permanent until she’s free to leave your house.” He let me consider that before shaking his head. “She might be fine away from Woolly, out of the protective circle of the wards. Or she might remain susceptible to your magical influence. There are too many variables.”
Leave it to Linus to force me to voice what I was already thinking. Dreading, more like it.
“This affects my ability to practice—” to live, “—and I want that.”
The Grande Dame might have plans for me, but I was starting to imagine a future for myself too.
All I had to do was survive. So pretty much business as usual for me.
“I understand.” Linus gentled his voice as he ushered me in the building.
A frazzled man greeted us in the hallway with a chewed pencil tucked behind one ear, and the zing of otherness skated over my skin. His shaggy hair, a muddy brown color, hung in his green eyes. His tan corduroy pants were tailored, and so was his short-sleeved shirt. The white button-down was wrinkled beneath his chocolate and mocha striped sweater vest. When he spotted Linus, he grinned from ear to ear, but the tips of his fangs lent his expression an edge.
The aggressive display had me bumping into Linus to put distance between Reardon and me.
“The fangs?” Reardon mused, raising a lip to tap one. “It’s rude to flash them at visitors, I know, but I wasn’t made in a controlled setting. I have…” he gave it some consideration, “…quirks.”
“I should have warned you.” Linus rested his hands on my shoulders, his cold a soothing presence at my back. “My apologies.”
“A heads-up might have been nice,” I allowed then addressed Reardon. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“My young friend tells me he has a puzzle for us to solve.” He focused on where Linus touched me until the latter removed his hands. “Are you assisting him in this matter?”
Relegated to the role of assistant once again. “Yes.”
Reardon grinned at Linus, his smile no less alarming for his assurances. “Does Meiko know?”
“Oh, yes.” I beat Linus to the punch. “She’s done everything short of scent marking him since I arrived.” I rolled a shoulder. “I also suspect she tried suffocating me in my sleep.”
There was no other reason to wake with all fifteen or so pounds of her pressing down on my chest.
“You’ve met her?” His shock conveyed a few things. That he knew Linus kept Meiko as a pet, and that if I had met her, then I had been to Linus’s loft too. On second thought, I should have kept my mouth shut. “Not many have had the pleasure.”
“Yesss.” I drew out the word, hoping Linus would rescue me from myself. No such luck. He was too busy pinching his lips together to avoid laughing. “Hey, that woman has claws, and I’m not talking about an acrylic manicure. I’m afraid to close my eyes to sleep around her.”
This tidbit succeeded in digging my hole deeper. Reardon now understood not only had I seen the apartment, but I was staying there.
“She blushes,” Reardon mused. “How lovely.” He smirked at Linus, who was starting to look a bit pink himself, thanks to his pale complexion. “What a handsome pair you make.”