ChapterSixteen
SUNDAY
The rustle of paper was the only sound in my dorm room as Moira and I both lay on our beds, me reading a textbook as I tried frantically to catch up after missing an entire week of classes, her flipping through the pages of a glossy fashion magazine.
“Oh, I love that,” she murmured, causing me to glance up from my notes just in time to see her magic herself into a shirt that read ‘Peg the Patriarchy.’
“Discreet,” I said with a laugh.
“Who’s trying to be discreet?”
“You’re hilarious.”
She lifted her shoulders and offered me an air kiss. “I know. It’s one of the reasons you keep me around.”
A soft whooshing noise came from the doorway accompanied by a glow that dimmed almost instantly.
“What the fuck was that?” I muttered. I didn’t need anything else weird happening. It had been one thing after another these days, and I just wanted a break.
Moira pointed to a pale piece of paper resting at the foot of my bed. “Pixie mail.”
“Excuse me?”
She shrugged, giving me a look like I was the strange one. “Harry Potter has owls. We have pixies.”
“Of course we do.”
Moira jumped up, sending her magazine tumbling to the ground. “This is so exciting. I never get any mail.” She plucked the letter off my bed and scanned the front, her smile twisting to a frown. “Damn, it’s not even for me.”
She held it out to me with a noticeable sulk.
“You might as well read it. Not like we have any secrets. I mean, you know all about my crazy sexual habits, so what’s a little letter reading between friends?”
She perked back up and blew me a kiss. “That’s my best girl.”
“I’m going to tell Ash you said that.” But her eyes had already dropped to the missive she’d unfolded, reading it with greedy abandon. “Um... are you forgetting something?”
“What? Oh!” She laughed. “I guess I should read it out loud, huh?”
I blinked at her. “You think?”
She cleared her throat, deepening it dramatically. “My dearest, darlingest, doviest, most magic vagina-est...”
I snatched the letter from her hands with a scowl. “Stop it. He did not write that.”
Laughing, she fell back onto her bed. “You never let me have any fun.”
“As if I can actually prevent you from doing anything you want, Belladonna.”
“True.”
Shaking my head, I lifted Noah’s letter and started reading.
Dove,
I know it’s been a while since we last spoke, and that is my fault. You must feel abandoned by me yet again. Trust me when I say that has never been my intention, though I seem to be rather good at it. If I had it my way, you’d be in my arms right now, in my bed, and we’d never be separated. But since your visit to my self-appointed prison, things have shifted and become more tense.
I’ve felt your pain as well, even through the block I put up to protect you.Are you well?Of course you’re not. If you’re feeling half as miserable as I am, then it must be bloody impossible for you right now. I can only hope, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, that the others are at your side, helping you.