“Yes,” Lady Elaine said. “Whoever targets him, targets you both. Always.”
20
A New Client
I texted Paul six times that night when Selene and I finally got back to Arkwell. I said the same thing in each one:
We need to talk.
He ignored them all.
I turned in around midnight, plugging in my cell and setting it beside my pillow. Even with the juice pumping to it, the stupid thing would probably shut itself off before morning. But in case it didn’t, I wanted to hear any incoming text messages. I had a feeling Paul wouldn’t ignore me forever.
I was right as sometime later, my phone chimed. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and stared at the screen.
We will. Soon. I promise.
Irritated by the short, useless message, I tossed the cell onto the floor. It beeped at me in protest then fell silent—turned off at last, no doubt. I rolled over and fell back into a fitful sleep.
* * *
I dreamed of the plinth again. The urgency to learn that word was stronger than ever. Even inside the madness of the dream, I seemed to understand that I must finish uncovering it soon. Everything depended on it.
I scraped and clawed and dug until all the skin on my hands was torn away, leaving the bones exposed.
By the end of it, I’d uncovered the next two letters—L L.
B E L L
* * *
I woke the next morning with the image of those four letters burned inside my brain. BELL. What did it mean? Was it something obvious, like a literal bell?
Only, there were still four more hidden letters. BELL was just the first part of a larger word. Of course, it was possible the word didn’t mean anything at all. I had no idea if the subject of a block held any significance. It could be something random and stupid, the mental equivalent of an earworm.
I sighed and got out of bed. It was time to take Mr. Deverell up on his offer. I still harbored reservations about someone else learning the word, but if the person behind Britney’s attack wanted the dream-seers out of the picture, then there must be something big coming. And given that small glimpse we’d seen in the Senate Hall dream, it would be all kinds of bad. I needed to get my dream-mojo working correctly again.
In the meantime, there was Paul to focus on. Remembering my discarded phone, I picked it up from where it had fallen beside my bed. Surprise, surprise—it was turned off. I hit the POWER button and then stuffed it into my pocket, knowing it would take a good five minutes to turn back on.
“I’m heading down now,” I said to Selene, who was still getting dressed. She nodded, her face expressionless and her eyes red and rimmed with dark spots. I tried to think of something to say to make her feel better, but I knew only time and finding the bad guy would be able to do that.
More determined than ever, I marched out the door and down to the cafeteria. My phone chimed from inside my pocket halfway there. It was from Paul and had arrived around three this morning. I tried to read the text but couldn’t. Half of the letters had been replaced with symbols.
Ugh, of all the times for the animation phenomenon on it to worsen.
Afraid I would crash into something if I attempted to decipher it while walking the hallway, I returned the cell to my pocket and hurried to the cafeteria. Eli beamed at me from across the room the moment I arrived, his eyes lighting up. He waved me over, quite unnecessarily—as if I would go anywhere else.
“How are you?” Eli said as I reached the table. He lifted the strap of my backpack and slid it from my shoulder, setting it down on the table for me.
I blinked up at him. “Um, I’m fine. What about you?”
“Just glad you’re all right.” He squeezed my shoulder.
As I sat down, I realized he must’ve heard about what had happened at Vejovis. I wondered who told him. Selene and I had gotten back far too late to tell him in person and it wasn’t something I’d wanted to send in an e-mail.
“What all do you know?” I asked as he took the spot right next to me, near enough that I could feel the heat of his body. I thrilled at his closeness even as unsettling memories of our last kiss and its disastrous non-results afterward came over me. I did my best to ignore them and retrieved a pencil and notebook from my bag.
“Most of it,” Eli said. “Lady Elaine filled me in last night right after they came and took Lance to Vejovis to try and figure out what’s wrong with him.”
I froze midway through pulling my cell out of my pocket. “They took him to the hospital?”
“Sure, where else?”
“I dunno. Maybe somewhere safe.”
Eli grinned, a dimple appearing on one cheek. “Could it be you’re starting to care whether Lance Rathbone lives or dies? Miracles and wonders abound.”
“Shut up.” I returned my attention to the message on the screen. Deciphering it was going to be a lot harder than I thought.
After a moment Eli asked, “What are you doing?”
I scrunched up my nose. “Trying to decode a text message.”
He snorted. “I told you that thing needs to be replaced.”
“Yeah, well, my birthday’s not until September.”
“I know,” Eli said. “September first.”
I glanced at him, surprised. I couldn’t remember us ever talking about when my birthday was, but the fact that he knew made my insides tingle. “Right.” I forced my gaze back to the cell.
“Who’s it from?” Eli leaned over me to look down at the screen, his chin brushing my shoulder. His breath tickled the side of my face, sending shivers down my neck. I resisted the urge to close my eyes and savor the feel. It was too risky—not knowing how Eli would react, not being certain if he felt the same. I stiffened at the reminder.