I keep my head down and shove my hands into my hoodie pockets. I don’t want to stick around, anyway. Maybe if I was sober, the idea of another illicit hunt would be appealing. Right now, however, my head isn’t the only thing that’s reeling.
Erin sits bolt upright as I enter the dorm. “Avery!” she gasps. “I was so worried!”
“I left you a note,” I mumble, kicking off my shoes.
“I know, but still,” she says, pushing back her blankets.
“Don’t get up,” I groan, letting my clothes fall on the floor around me. I have to stop for a second as a shooting pain settles in my gut, and a wave of nausea washes over me. It is not going to be an easy night. “I’m going to bed. I’m fine,” I manage to say.
“But—”
“I’m fine.” I slump into my bed with a sigh. “I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, okay?”
I fall asleep about as soon as my head hits the pillow.
Chapter Twenty-Two
As far as I know, no one is caught the night of the break-in.
I’m so bleary the next morning, the news comes as a surprise until I remember I was there, with Helsing, when it happened. Security, patrols, guards—it all amps up right away. No one’s allowed to enter or leave school grounds. We’re escorted to PW by a guard every morning. There was a monster-hunting field trip planned for spring break, but it’s cancelled now.
Until the culprit is apprehended, we’re stuck here.
And we’ve still got a little over two months before final exams.
True to Piers’ word, our little tryst down by the tavern changes nothing. They go back to bullying me with the same—if not more—gusto. Thanks to their last little stunt, I’ve fallen in the rankings again and just can’t seem to catch up.
To make matters worse, I haven’t spoken to Sawyer since that night either. Things were so close to returning to normal, and then he had to go and pull that stunt. I still haven’t gotten the chance to confront him about it.
I want to know what possessed him to do it.
Was it jealousy, or something more complicated than that?
I’m drowning in homework. Erin is always either studying with me or training with Luiza de la Cruz to try to improve her PW score. This morning, it’s studying with me in the dorm room.
Cleaver is still asleep in my lap. I stroke him gently as I do my homework.
“Hey, Erin?”
/> She glances up, startled. She’s gotten much jumpier now that exams are approaching.
“Do you know the answer for number twelve? I’m having trouble deciding between—”
And then everything goes dark.
Erin lets out a shriek, waking Cleaver, who jumps off my lap and starts barking. I scoop him up to keep him quiet and blunder around the dark room, banging my shin on my bedframe.
“What the fuck is happening?” I shout into the darkness.
“Avery?” Erin squeaks from somewhere. A flashlight clicks on and illuminates her terrified face.
“Must be a power outage,” I grumble. “Shine that over on my dresser, will you?”
She obliges. I set Cleaver down gently and grab my flashlight off my own dresser. Unbothered, Cleaver jumps up onto my bed and curls into a ball to sleep. He’s gotten bigger, I realize. He must have only been a puppy when I found him, because he’s almost up to my knee now when before, he was barely halfway up my now-bruised shin.
“Stay here,” I tell Erin. “I’m going to find out what’s going on.”
She nods gratefully as I slip out of the dorm. In the hallway, other students with flashlights are walking around, all confused. I glimpse Sawyer and Bennett standing side-by-side outside their room.