They scattered like a herd of fainting goats, stumbling and falling over one another to get to their rooms. I was surprised that no one started bleating as they ran. They did as he said.
Shocker, I did not.
The room was empty in a matter of seconds, and I turned to him, one hand on my hip, the other jabbing a finger into his chest. “You tell me right now, Rory, what the hell did you mean when you said I was following in his footsteps? Is that what got him killed? Was he trying to change things here? Trying to make them more fair?” It sounded like something Tommy would do. Trying to right wrongs. Trying to help his friends.
Rory’s shoulders tightened, and he slowly turned his face away from me. “Maybe. I don’t know, Wild. Digging here could get you killed faster even than digging at the House of Shade. Never mind what happened to the other houses, House of Wonder is dangerous to anyone who doesn’t belong or tries to shake things up.” He closed the distance between us again, his eyes softening just a little. “Please. Promise me you won’t poke at this, Wild. Keep your head down while you’re here. I can’t . . . I can’t lose you too.”
His fingers brushed against mine, just a touch, a flare of skin on skin and it was enough to make my heart pick up speed in a whole other direction.
I stared at him, and he stared at me, and I wasn’t sure what I was seeing in his face. Or maybe I was trying to pretend I didn’t understand the depth of emotion in his eyes. The way his eyes dipped ever so slightly to my lips.
I snapped out of it, shaking my head and stepping back. Nope. I refused to go there with Ethan, and I wasn’t going there with Rory either. I had to survive, and that meant keeping my head in the game, not wondering which boy I’d want to kiss if given the chance. “I can’t be the person who doesn’t follow her instincts, Rory. Don’t think for one second I’m going to go quietly into that night.” Yes, I deliberately quoted Dylan Thomas. See if he could follow me on that one.
His lips quirked upward. “‘Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ If you’re going to quote him, be sure to do it right and quote it all.”
Well, damn.
He let out a big breath. “Yeah, I still know you, Wild, better than you think. And that’s why I’m afraid for you, more here than I ever was in the Culling Trials.”
6
My room with Gen was bigger than the one waiting for me down with the House of Unmentionables. Two single beds made up with clean but simple sheets and blankets, two desks, and a chest at the foot of each bed. The floor was concrete, but there was a large rug that covered most of the floor between the two beds, comfortable underfoot even if it was ratty around the edges. A bathroom was off to one side, simple but equipped with a shower, sink, and toilet.
Still not much better than a prison if you asked me, without a single outward facing window for a breath of “fresh” NYC air. But my stuff was there, waiting for me in a single leather bag on top of the chest at the end of one bed, and a sigh of relief gusted past my lips. I dug through the bag, found my knife and strapped it onto my waist straight away. The wand was a trickier situation. If I pulled it out, then Gen would see it and ask questions.
Except maybe I could play this to my advantage.
While Chameleons were unbelievably rare, it was less unusual for someone to have enough ability in two houses to be sorted into either. Like Colt, who could be either House of Shade or House of Wonder. I could use that as a cover. I noted that I hadn’t seen Colt on the bus earlier, or in the crowd that had been gawking at Rory and me fighting. Which meant he’d chosen the House of Wonder. That was good, seeing as there was no way to make it in the academy unless you were winning, and you weren’t winning if you weren’t in the House of Wonder.
I silently wished him luck.
“Seriously,” I said as I pulled the wand out, “this whole gig stinks worse than a pig in a three-day-old-poop pen.”
“What the hell is that?” Gen asked, coming around my side of the room, and I doubted that she meant a poop pen. “Is that a wand? Are you in the wrong house?”
I nodded, deliberately not saying which question I was responding to as I considered just where to strap the wand to my body. It was not big, only about the length of my forearm. Made with dark brown wood with swirls of inlaid honey-colored birchwood wrapping around to the tip, which made it look as though it were perpetually glowing. “Yeah, it’s a wand. I have two houses I could follow. Still trying to figure it out, really. Who knew, right?”
“Holy crap, they let you keep your wand?” She breathed the words out. “That’s not normal.”
I put a finger to my lips. “What they don’t know, they don’t know. Got it?”
Her blue eyes went wide and then narrowed as she shook her head at me. “Wow. That’s bold, man. You could get busted hard just for having that. Maybe even kicked out.”
Or killed, if what Rory was saying was true. Because I had every intention to do some digging, especially now that I knew Tommy had been killed because of something he was trying to do, something he was trying to figure out. Digging would be dangerous, which was all the more reason to keep the wand for backup. I found myself touching the pocket with the skeleton key, wondering just how it worked into all of this.
The Shadowkiller was out there, causing chaos, blowing up the other houses, and the people who were supposedly looking out for us wanted to take our weapons away? Yeah, not happening on my watch. How idiotic did they think we were?
I turned to Gen. “Look, we have to take care of ourselves. Do you really trust any of the teachers here? Any of the people in the House of Wonder? Every other house got blown to smithereens, except for the House of Wonder. Does that not seem strange to you?”
Her eyes were thoughtful. “I don’t know. Maybe the attackers were worried that they’d have magic jammed up their noses?”
“House of Night has magic,” I pointed out. “Maybe House of Wonder wasn’t hit because they had a hand in it.” I muttered the words without really thinking about what I was saying. I looked up as Gen’s mouth dropped open.
“Holy shit, are you implying the House of Wonder might be working with whoever did this?” She sat down heavily on her bed. “That is messed up. But . . . yeah, I could see it.”
I rolled up my sleeve and laid the wand against my forearm, the handle below my wrist, the tip nestled in the crook of my elbow. “Yes, it is messed up. I don’t know if I’m right; it’s just a thought.”
But I couldn’t unthink it now that I’d spoken it out loud. House of Wonder had gone completely unscathed. No one had even attempted to attack them.
I dug around in my bag and pulled out the ribbon I’d used to tie the wand to my upper thigh just the night before. The night before—how was it even possible that we’d graduated last night? It felt like a month had passed . . . no, years.
Making a loop, I tied the ribbon around the middle of my forearm and slid the wand through it. Just like before, the wand seemed to warm and stick to my skin. I slid my sleeve down and gave a few experimental swoops with my hand to make sure it wasn’t moving.
I checked my bag, zipped it, and threw it over my shoulder. “I suggest you get a weapon on you as soon as you can. Hide it if you have to, and make friends outside the House of Shade.” With that in mind, I untucked my shirt and let it hang over my knife in its sheath, keeping the blade at least a little covered.