“No,” I replied, stuffing the map into my pocket. “It could be another bomb. We need to make sure nobody gets hurt.”
I took off at a run before the words were even out of my mouth and I could hear the others following behind me. I had completely forgotten about Hans and Andrei, but I could hear one of them talking into a phone several paces back. I tore through the nearest faculty building to one of the raised courtyards outside the library, where the route drawn into the map had suddenly ended. There was already a large crowd of people gathered in the middle of the courtyard and I pushed through them, trying to get to the center. Soon enough they started to part for me, and I slowed as their stares weighed down on me, too anxious to shake them off as I usually would have.
When I finally saw it, I buckled. My knees collided with the dewy grass, and my shoulders slumped as I faced the messenger’s latest surprise.
It was a tombstone.
RIP
Seraph Black
It’s like a stick across your back,
And when your back begins to smart,
It’s like a pen-knife in your heart,
And when your heart begins to bleed,
You’re dead, and dead, and dead indeed.
“Alright, that’s enough everyone!” Hans boomed, knocking me out of the stupor that had taken a hold of me.
Andrei grabbed my sleeve and hauled me to my feet. “We’re going to your first class. Hans will take care of this.”
Without waiting to hear my opinion, he started to march me away from the scattering crowd. Noah and Cabe followed, of course, and we soon spilled into the lecture hall, where Quillan was waiting. He took one look at my face and folded his arms tightly, his expression growing strained.
“What the hell happened now?”
“I just saved a bunch of money on my own tombstone,” I said, disentangling myself from Andrei.
“What she means is that her stalker planted a tombstone with her name on it in the courtyard,” Andrei corrected me, folding his arms to match Quillan’s stance—like it was grown-up time now or something.
Quillan growled out a curse, and then another, and then he seemed to pull himself together. “Andrei, we need a minute.”
“I can’t leave her side right now.”
“Andrei.” Quillan strode up the stairs, standing before the giant and giving him a stare that even made me want to shrink back into myself. His dark eyes were lit from within by something heavy and unrestrained. He was very close to freaking out again. “I might spend most of my day sitting behind a desk, but I’m just as damned capable of snapping the neck of anyone who might want to hurt that girl—and twice as motived—as you. So, I’m going to say it again, and then you’re going to leave the room. We. Need. A. Moment.”
Andrei grumbled something beneath his breath and shot me a look, but eventually nodded and turned to stomp back up the stairs. “I’ll go and help Hans,” he informed us, letting the door snap closed behind him.
Quillan deflated almost immediately, sinking into one of the chairs and rubbing his hands nervously over his thighs, his eyes fixed to the front of the lecture hall.
“Does the messenger know that you formed the bond with Noah and Cabe? Is that why he did it?”
“He doesn’t know,” I quickly replied. “He couldn’t. Not yet. This was a precautionary thing. He knew that Noah didn’t go to see Amber last night, and he told Amber to give me a map to the grave if it looked like me and Noah were together. Or maybe she was supposed to give it to me anyway and she made up the other part.”
“Now Amber is working with him?”
“He’s worked with people before,” Noah said. “The people who kidnapped me and Cabe. Plus, there was no way he could have surrounded the entire high school with barrels of explosives last year all on his own.” He moved to sit beside Quillan.
Cabe followed him, falling into the chair on his other side. “He can’t find out about this. We need to find out about him first. It won’t be hard. Not now that Amber knows.”
“She won’t tell us anything,” Noah scoffed. “Not after this morning.”
“Are you sure you guys don’t remember anything?” Quillan questioned them, not for the first time, apparently.
“Nothing,” Noah confirmed. “The false memories didn’t name him, or show his face. He was just the boyfriend, and somehow that made sense to us.”
“Other people know,” I mused quietly. “The entire Klovoda knows who my twin is. Weston knows who he is. Jayden knows who he is, but he isn’t going to tell me. It didn’t turn out so well for me when I questioned him the other day, which is why I didn’t bring it up again to the Klovoda.”
“If Jayden knows…” Quillan began, trailing off.
Cabe and Noah turned to stare at Quillan, and Cabe shook his head, his expression drawing tight with pain and distress.
“No,” Cabe said, still shaking his head. “It’s impossible. Silas can’t know who the messenger is.”