“He just … always seems to be places he shouldn’t. I heard rumors he was the last person to see them … alive or dead. Where there are secrets, you usually find a Dagher.”
He nods and leans back in his seat. I get out and close the door, tapping on it once to let him know it’s shut, before heading up to the school.
It’s quite a trek, and I have to dodge professors patrolling the grounds, but I make it to my window. The rope is still dangling out of it. I grab it and climb up, bracing my feet against the wall to make it easier. I scale it more quickly than I would have done at the beginning of the year, even after everything tonight.
When I poke my head into the window, I’m surprised to see not only Erin, but also Sawyer, and a third guest that I definitely didn’t expect.
“Hey,” I pipe up from the window, hooking an arm around the sill.
“Avery!” chorus Erin and Sawyer. Their guest, Luiza de la Cruz, just grins as my friends spring to their feet and rush toward me.
“I was so worried,” Erin breathes, grabbing my arm to help me through the window.
“How did you not get caught?” Sawyer asks, also reaching to help.
Luiza just points to where my rope is secured on Erin’s bedpost. “Your knot wasn’t tied tightly enough,” she tells me. “I redid it for you.”
“Thanks,” I say flatly, still half outside. Erin and Sawyer pull me the rest of the way in.
“No problem.”
“Are you hurt?” Erin asks as I stand up. Sawyer doesn’t wait for an answer. He starts patting me, touching my shoulders and face for any sign of injury. I blush, but I don’t push him away.
“I’m fine,” I tell them. I pull the cloth bundle out of my hoodie pocket. “I have this, though.”
Luiza finally stands as I unwrap it, revealing the al’s clawed finger. She raises her eyebrows.
“So you really saw the creature.”
“I killed it, actually,” I reply, re-wrapping.
Erin frowns. “But it was … Professor Helsing who called in the kill.”
“Yeah. He caught me. But it’s fine, he says he won’t turn me in.”
Sawyer stops his worried tapping and instead pulls me into an embrace. “I was so worried,” he whispers in my ear. Next to me, Erin nods.
“The professor called it in and all the upperclassmen came back, but you were nowhere to be found.”
“The Dagher boy told me where you’d gone,” Luiza said, putting a hand on her hip. She’s wearing pajamas now. “So I came to your room to see if our Singer was okay. She was distraught, of course,” she adds, scowling at me.
“Why do you care so much?” I ask, my voice slightly muffled by Sawyer’s arm. I’m not particularly shaken by tonight’s events. If anything—I’m invigorated.
This embrace is for Sawyer. He doesn’t seem ready to let me go, and truth be told … I’m not quite ready to step back from him, either. There’s no danger of anything overly romantic happening right now. Not, at least, in front of Erin and Luiza.
An awkward silence descends. Sawyer finally lets me go, but grabs my hand firmly. His lips are pursed into a line. The hand encasing mine is trembling.
“Come on, this is what we’re here for, isn’t it?” I tell him, quietly. “I’m fine, really.”
He nods.
“I should get going,” Luiza says. “Classes tomorrow. Goodbye, little Singer.”
Erin nods, still standing by the window. She doesn’t look away from it until she hears Luiza shut the door behind her.
“You should leave, too, Sawyer,” she says stiffly. Up until now, I thought she was just her usual nervous self. Now, I realize, she’s not nervous … she’s angry.
Sawyer nods again.