Chapter 119

KATHERINE.

Hunter shrugged in response before I dropped the drawing back on the table and as I returned my attention to him, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Is everyone alright?” he asked and I raised a brow. “At your pack.”

“Oh, yes, uh… Just some minor injuries, according to my uncle. Nobody was in the building when the bomb went off, thankfully,” I replied, glancing at his phone which he was tapping away on just before Blake’s name flashed across his screen as his phone began to ring. I set my mouth in a hard line.

I hated what he was doing. Blake, that is. We hadn’t talked for weeks now and at this rate, it seemed like we were never going to talk which meant he was never going to accept me or reject me and that was so fucking infuriating because I needed to know what his plan was for ‘us’. The thought of telling his friends what was going on between us – well, what was ‘not’ going on between us seeing as we had practically become strangers to each other – was becoming tempting, but I definitely wasn’t going to do that because they were ‘his’ friends before they became mine. They’d take his side. Then on the other hand there was the way I felt about one of his friends…

“Yeah?” Hunter started after answering the call and after a couple of seconds, he narrowed his eyes. “Why do you need my input on this?” After another couple of seconds passed, realization dawned on his face and he let out a laugh. “Ah… well, what are the options?” he added and I was tempted to listen in on what Blake was saying because I wanted to know what he could be talking about so casually while ignoring me, but I got rid of the thought. If I did that, I’d be invading Hunter’s privacy and I’d already done that twice.

I got to my feet and began to go around the studio, scrutinizing paintings and objects while Hunter kept talking to Blake. When minutes passed without the conversation ending and showing no signs of doing so soon, I went back to my stool and began to go through Hunter’s sketchbooks that were on the table. He had added some new drawings to them and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw a sketch of a glaring Theo before mouthing ‘sorry’ to Hunter when he raised his brows.

“Yeah, Katherine,” he suddenly said, drawing my attention back to him and I assumed Blake must have asked him if he was with someone before I waited for an indication that Blake… I don’t know, was thinking about me or wanted to talk to me or something, anything. But there was none and their conversation carried on like I hadn’t been brought up.

‘Ugh.’ I returned my attention to the sketchbook and my lips curved into a smile at the sketch of Theo before I wondered what he was doing right now. Was he at the library or the CMES clubhouse, going through the dark magic book? …Had he heard about me and Poppy’s fight? I winced at that because I knew he’d probably reprimand me for acting like that.

I flipped to the next page to see a sketch of a frowning Priyanka and snorted because she’d probably not be pleased with this. The next was of a smiling Josie and when I got to the page after that, I paused. It was a sketch of Lenore reading a book and Blake, who was lying next to her, staring at her while smiling. ‘Uh…’ I drew my brows together, wondering why Hunter drew this before the feeling I had of something going on between Lenore and Blake popped up once again. I had tried not to think about it but I couldn’t help but do so now and the fact that Hunter had drawn this meant that he saw something. As I began to debate if I should ask him, some pictures slipped out of the book and scattered over the floor.

“Oh, sorry,” I muttered as I quickly got to my knees to pick the pictures up and I saw that they were pictures of their friend group. Among them was the picture of Blake and Lenore that Hunter had sketched and one thing was clear in the picture – Blake adored her. It made my stomach churn and I quickly gathered the remaining pictures before putting them back in the sketchbook and closing it.

“Okay, see you later,” Hunter finally said before ending the call while I returned the sketchbook to where it had been lying earlier and plastered a smile on my face.

“When is he coming back?”

“Tomorrow,” he said, dropping his phone on the table before he heaved a sigh. “So… how do you plan to spend those two weeks?” he asked and I took a moment to think about it before smiling again. This time, it was genuine.

“I think I’ll go home.”

****

“Of course Theodore would volunteer for something like this,” I said, folding my arms across my chest in the doorway of the art section while my lips curved into a smile and Theo paused as he glanced at me. His eyes were red, telling me that someone or something had pissed him off recently, but when they settled on me, they became dull before slowly switching to green. That made my smile widen.

“Is there a reason why I shouldn’t have?” he replied as he slid the textbook in his hand into the shelf. The renovation of the library had been completed this morning and when I heard that students were volunteering to arrange the books on the shelves, I assumed Theo would be doing that too so I came here to say goodbye. Theo tilted his head at me. “ Besides, shouldn’t you be doing this too? You’re the librarian person… thing… What’s your job called again?”

I shrugged and walked over to him, noting that he had a ‘long’ way to go if he was doing this alone because a lot of the shelves were still empty. “I don’t think it has a name.”

“Are you here to help?” he asked when I picked up a textbook and checked the title and I returned my attention to him before shrugging.

“I could lend you a hand for a minute or two.”

He raised a brow and collected the textbook from me, sliding it into the shelf with his eyes fixed on me. “Why does it sound like you’ll be doing me a favor by doing that?”

“Because I am.” I grinned at him. “My uncle will be here to get me soon.”

“You’re going home?” he asked and I bobbed my head before he drew his brows together. Then realization dawned on his face and he gave me a disapproving look. “Reckless… What you did was reckless.”

“I know.”

“You could have gotten expelled,” he added and my shoulders sagged as I remembered how disappointed Uncle Lander had sounded when he said those same words to me last night. He’d called me after the school let him know about my suspension and he’d understood why I attacked her, but that didn’t stop him from being disappointed. He wasn’t going to let the council know though. “Are you okay?”

I returned my gaze to Theo and he raised his brows before I nodded. “I’m fine. I walked away with only a broken nose,” I replied and the corner of his mouth turned up. For a moment, he looked proud.

“I wasn’t asking regarding the fight. I was asking regarding your pack.”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” I said and he nodded before handing me a book from the pile on the stone table and picking another.

“When will you be coming back?” he asked while I checked the name of the book and I answered as I walked over to its shelf.

“On Monday.” Neither of us spoke after that and I kept arranging books on the shelves till I spotted a piece of paper on the stone table which had ten names written on it. It was in Theo’s handwriting and the paper had ‘Sunday’ written at the top. “What’s this?” I asked and Theo glanced at me before I gestured at the paper, then he frowned.

“Missing students,” he replied, but I didn’t recognize any of the names.

“They’re not on the website.”

A muscle in his jaw ticked and he heaved a sigh. “They’re uh, new missing students,” he replied and I choked on my intake of air while my eyes widened. “They went missing the day that malevolent spirit escaped.”

“Oh, God. I– What? Why is…” I glanced at the list again as the words ‘not again’ repeated themselves in my mind. At first, I wanted to ask if he thought the malevolent spirit had something to do with it, but I knew it didn’t for three reasons – the students would have been found if the malevolent spirit had something to do with it, it was ten people just like before, and there was a full moon the night they disappeared just like before. “Why has no one been talking about it? That was over two weeks ago.”

“Only two of them are from Blackwood. The rest are from Dumein and Staerdale.”