Holding the picture, Alex with filled with an oddly comforting sensation. The safety of a mother’s arms.
Things became quiet in the months following the solstice. Alex and Chase continued their tango of indecision, holding back because of fear. Sometimes, though, it seemed that he couldn’t help himself, and he’d reach over and grab her hand, interlacing his fingers with hers and holding it over his heart while they walked.
Jonas was like smoke, less visible with each passing day. Alex was starting to believe that Gabe was right. Because of his preoccupation, Jonas wasn’t so concerned with Alex anymore. She kept her promise to Gabe and continued to keep quiet about Jonas’s recruitment despite the tugging at her conscience.
At first she checked Eviar’s letters for new ink every day, but come spring, there was still nothing. Alex lost interest and the box sulked in the corner of her room, swallowing dust bunnies like a frog catching flies.
For the most part, death was peaceful. Chase called it normal; Alex called it unnerving. The calm before the storm.
On a night when the world felt heavy, Alex spent hours in study hall. Although it had been months since her arrival, she still played catch-up in some areas. She probably would have passed out face down in her books if Chase hadn’t come to find her. He gathered her belongings in his arms, and they exited the Hall.
“I think you overdid it,” Chase mused, eyeing her weary face. “Do you need me to carry you, too?”
Alex pretended to think this over. When he stepped forward and readied himself to scoop her up, she laughed and backed away. “You don’t have to carry my books, Chase.”
“I think I can handle it.” But then, the thick text on the top of the pile slid to the ground. “Whoops.” He bent down the retrieve it at the exact same time Alex did, and they collided. Everything in his arms tumbled down.
Alex gave up and collapsed into the mess. “Maybe I’ll just sleep here with my books.”
He stared at her for so long she waved a hand in front of his face. “I love that smile,” he murmured.
She spoke without thinking. “That’s because it’s yours.” He began to shake his head, but she kept going. “I don’t know why you think you’ve done wrong by me.”
“Maybe I kept you from living the way you wanted to.”
“No. When I was with you, I was living exactly the way I wanted to.”
Chase held out his hand and lifted Alex to her feet. He pulled with unnecessary vigor, and she found herself pressed against him nose to nose. A breath caught in her throat as she realized the moment was absolutely perfect. She waited for him to pull away since they were in the middle of the hallway, but before she knew what was happening, he had tilted his head to the side and ever so softly, his lips brushed against hers, asking for permission. She nodded her assent, and he hesitated long enough to grin before giving in.
And then he kissed her.
Finally. Finally. She melted into him, pressing her lips against his, opening her mouth to swallow the happiness which inevitably consumed her. Their lips, their heads, their hands moved in faultless rhythm like a choreographed dance. She could feel his fingers combing through her hair, and she looped her arms underneath his, clutching his shoulders. How could they have been afraid of this?
The space around them began to crack and sizzle. Chase lifted his head for a moment, but Alex yanked at his shirt to pull him back in. Nothing had ever felt so right to her in her entire life. It was like nothing around them existed anymore. It was just Chase and Alex together, as it should be, and the world could wait.
The moment was interrupted by a loud thud from above them. Alex’s eyes flickered upward. “Wha—” Chase shushed her and cradled her face in his hands, allowing their lips to tangle again until a series of thumps thundered over their heads. They broke apart.
“Wait here,” Chase said. He softly kissed her nose and made his way up the staircase. He stopped halfway to look around.
Alex leaned against a pilaster. “Do you see—”
“Shhh.” He held a finger to his lips, his head cocked. And then Alex heard it too. It was a muffled whimper. “Hello?”
“Chaaaase.” The long wail echoed off the walls.
“Jonas?” Chase bellowed. He took off, flying up the staircase until he remembered he could think himself to the top.
Alex began to panic. Had Jonas seen them over the railing? Had he fallen in surprise? Thrown something in anger?
She tried to flicker and project herself to the top of the stairway, but she couldn’t concentrate. When she reached the third floor, Chase was huddled next to two crumpled figures outside Van Hanlin’s classroom. One was cradling the other, rocking back and forth. Jonas. He was holding someone with a head of curly blonde hair.
“What happened?” Chase demanded.
Jonas’s face was etched in agony. “He followed me. I didn’t know!”
Gabe’s head lolled back and smacked against the floor. His mouth hung open like the hinges of his jaw were broken.
“Gabe?” Chase cried. “Gabe?”
But his brother didn’t stir.
“What’s all over his face?” Alex’s terrified voice was barely above a whisper. Streaks of grayish-black whiplashes indented Gabe’s temple, cheek, and neck. Alex had seen similar markings before, though they were fainter and weathered, when Professor Darby had lifted the sleeves of his shirt.
Alex didn’t need to wait for an answer. “Did it scream?” she asked in horror. Chase gasped.
“No,” Jonas wailed. “It was bound when they brought it to us.”
“Brought it to you?” Chase exclaimed.
Battle the insane. Whoever was in charge of this “harmless” group had brought the banshee to the recruits.
“Why isn’t he conscious?”
“He was beaten. We need to go back. He wasn’t the only one.”
“Who else?”
Jonas shook uncontrollably. “P-Professor Van Hanlin.”
For a moment no one moved. Alex couldn’t feel anything. She was weightless, treading on a breeze of foreboding.
“They needed to weaken the banshee, so … ”
“So, what?” Chase was looking between Alex and Jonas, flabbergasted. “Why would anyone mess with a banshee?”
“So others could fight it,” Alex whispered.
Jonas’s face showed no expression, no shame that Alex knew where he’d been and what he’d been up to. It made her feel disgusted.
Chase was shaking his head in confusion. “Van Hanlin had you fight it?”
“No,” Jonas snapped. “He was attacked!”
“Where were you?”
“Home. Gabe must have followed me. I didn’t know where I was going. I was just told to take the emergency exit out of the city.”
“What emergency exit?”
“There. In the corner past Van Hanlin’s classroom. You have to want to see it to actually find it.”
Alex blinked, and a stairway appeared in the wall. It twisted upward like the ramp in the vestibule.
“We weren’t supposed to know where we were going. There were others there, and I couldn’t see anyone else besides Van Hanlin and Gabe, but I recognized the woods. It was home. Parrish home.”
Chase pried Jonas away from Gabe. “Alex, go tell someone about this,” he commanded, hoisting Gabe into the air. “We need to go to the medical center. Try not to jostle him too much, Jonas!”
But Jonas couldn’t stop shaking.
“Who do I tell?”
“Anyone. Paleo is in the Grandiuse, right?”
“What do I say?”
“Just tell her that I found Gabe, and he’s hurt. That’s all.”
“And Van Hanlin?”