My Darling Luce,
If you actually showed up to hang out tonight, props! We’ll get along juuust fine.
If you bailed on me, then … get your claws off my private note, ROLAND! How many times do I have to tell you? Jeez.
Anyhow: I know I said to swing by tonight, but I had to dash straight from R&R in the nurse’s station (the silver lining of my Taser treatment today) to a makeup biology review with the Albatross. Which is to say—rain check?
Yours psychotically,
A
Luce stood with the note in her hands, unsure about what to do next. She was relieved to read that Arriane was being taken care of, but she still wished she could see the girl in person. She wanted to hear the nonchalance in Arriane’s voice for herself, so that she’d know how to feel about what had happened in the cafeteria today. But standing there in the hallway, Luce was ever more uncertain how to process the day’s events. A quiet panic filled her when it finally registered that she was alone, after dark, at Sword & Cross.
Behind her, a door cracked open. A sliver of white light opened up on the floor beneath her feet. Luce heard music being played inside a room.
“Whatcha doin’?” It was Roland, standing in his doorway in a torn white T-shirt and jeans. His dreads were gathered in a yellow rubber band on top of his head and he held a harmonica up next to his lips.
“I came to see Arriane,” Luce said, trying to keep herself from looking past him to see if anyone else was in the room. “We were supposed to—”
“Nobody’s home,” he said, cryptically. Luce didn’t know if he meant Arriane, or the rest of the kids in the dorm, or what. He played a few bars on the harmonica, keeping his eyes on her the whole time. Then he held open the door a little bit wider and raised his eyebrows. She couldn’t tell whether or not he was inviting her to come in.
“Well, I was just swinging by on my way to the library,” she lied quickly, turning back the way she’d come. “There’s a book I need to check out.”
“Luce,” Roland called.
She turned around. They hadn’t officially met yet, and she hadn’t expected him to know her name. His eyes flashed a smile at her and he used the harmonica to point in the opposite direction. “Library’s that way,” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Be sure to check out the special collections in the east wing. They’re really something.”
“Thanks,” Luce said, feeling truly grateful as she changed course. Roland seemed so real right then, waving and playing a few parting slides on the harmonica as she left. Maybe he’d only made her nervous earlier because she thought of him as Daniel’s friend. For all she knew, Roland could be a really nice person. Her mood lifted as she walked down the hallway. First Arriane’s note had been snappy and sarcastic, then she’d had a non-awkward encounter with Roland Sparks; plus she really did want to check out the library. Things were looking up.
Near the end of the hall, where the dorm elbowed off toward the library wing, Luce passed the only cracked-open door on the floor. There was no decorative flair on this door, but someone had painted it all black. As she got closer, Luce could hear angry heavy metal music playing inside. She didn’t even have to pause to read the name on the door. It was Molly’s.
Luce quickened her steps, suddenly aware of every clop of her black riding boots on the linoleum. She didn’t realize she’d been holding her breath until she pushed through the wood-grained library doors and exhaled.
A warm feeling came over Luce as she looked around the library. She’d always loved the faintly sweet musty way that only a roomful of books smelled. She took comfort in the soft occasional sound of turning pages. The library at Dover had always been her escape, and Luce felt almost overwhelmed with relief as she realized that this one might offer her the same sense of sanctuary. She could hardly believe that this place belonged to Sword & Cross. It was almost … it was actually … inviting.
The walls were a deep mahogany and the ceilings were high. A fireplace with a brick hearth lay along one wall. There were long wooden tables lit by old-fashioned green lamps, and aisles of books that went on farther than she could see. The sound of her boots was hushed by a thick Persian carpet as Luce wandered past the entryway.
A few students were studying, none that Luce knew by name, but even the more punky-looking kids seemed less threatening with their heads bent over books. She neared the main circulation desk, which was a great round station at the center of the room. It was strewn with stacks of papers and books and had a homey academic messiness that reminded Luce of her parents’ house. The books were piled so high that Luce almost didn’t see the librarian seated behind them. She was rooting through some paperwork with the energy of someone panning for gold. Her head popped up as Luce approached.
“Hello!” The woman smiled—she actually smiled—at Luce. Her hair was not gray but silver, with a kind of brilliance that sparkled even in the soft library light. Her face looked old and young at the same time. She had pale, almost incandescent skin, bright black eyes, and a tiny, pointed nose. When she spoke to Luce, she pushed up the sleeves of her white cashmere sweater, exposing stacks and stacks of pearl bracelets decorating both of her wrists. “Can I help you find something?” she asked in a happy whisper.
Luce felt instantly at ease with this woman, and glanced down at the nameplate on her desk. Sophia Bliss. She wished she did have a library request. This woman was the first authority figure she’d seen all day whose help she would actually have wanted to seek out. But she was just here wandering around … and then she remembered what Roland Sparks had said.
“I’m new here,” she explained. “Lucinda Price. Could you tell me where the east wing is?”
The woman gave Luce a you-look-like-the-reading-sort smile that Luce had been getting from librarians all her life. “Right that way,” she said, pointing toward a row of tall windows on the other side of the room. “I’m Miss Sophia, and if my roster’s correct, you’re in my religion seminar on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Oh, we’re going to have some fun!” She winked. “In the meantime, if you need anything else, I’m here. A pleasure to meet you, Luce.”
Luce smiled her thanks, told Miss Sophia happily that she’d see her tomorrow in class, and started toward the windows. It was only after she’d left the librarian that she wondered about the strange, intimate way the woman had called her by her nickname.
She’d just cleared the main study area and was passing through the tall, elegant book stacks when something dark and macabre passed over her head. She glanced up.
No. Not here. Please. Let me just have this one place.
When the shadows came and went, Luce was never sure exactly where they ended up—or how long they would be gone.
She couldn’t figure out what was happening now. Something was different. She was terrified, yes, but she didn’t feel cold. In fact, she felt a little bit flushed. The library was warm, but it wasn’t that warm. And then her eyes fell on Daniel.
He was facing the window, his back to her, leaning over a podium that said SPECIAL COLLECTIONS in white letters. The sleeves of his worn leather jacket were pushed up around his elbows, and his blond hair glowed under the lights. His shoulders were hunched over, and yet again, Luce had an instinct to fold herself into them. She shook it from her head and stood on tiptoe to get a better look at him. From here, she couldn’t be certain, but he looked like he was drawing something.