Chapter 93: Midnight

POV: Carly

He promised.

She kept coming back to that word. He promised, and Niko didn't break promises. That was what she told herself for the first hour, standing in the banquet hall with a smile plastered on her face, finishing her obligations, saying goodbyes, avoiding her mother's pointed looks from across the room.

She texted him at seven thirty.

Are you okay?

Nothing.

She texted again at eight.

Niko. Please just let me know you're alright.

Still nothing.

By the time she got back to her room it was nearly midnight and she had called him four times, left two voicemails, and sent more messages than she was proud of. The banquet had ended an hour ago. She'd walked back across campus alone in the cold, dress uniform doing nothing to keep the Black River Falls night air off her arms, telling herself with every step that there was a completely reasonable explanation and she just needed to wait.

She was waiting.

She was also losing her mind.

"For the love of — will you stop pacing!" Katy said from her bed, tossing her magazine to the side with a groan.

Carly's feet were moving on autopilot, back and forth, back and forth across the limited space of their dorm room. She hadn't even realized she was doing it.

She also hadn't realized she was biting the skin off her fingers until Katy pointed that out too, gesturing at her hands with a look of mild horror.

"Something wrong?" Katy asked, in the flat tone that meant she already knew the answer.

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Carly said, without thinking.

Katy stared at her.

"Right." Carly stopped walking. She looked down at her own hands, registered the state of them, felt her heartbeat going at a pace that had nothing to do with exertion.

"Oh my god." She dropped onto her bed, flat on her back, arms at her sides, staring at the ceiling. "I'm a complete mess."

"Not complete." Katy said, which was as close to charitable as she got.

"Lover boy problems?" She determined.

Carly's weak nod answered for her.

"Right. What happened? You two looked like newlyweds at the banquet."

"That's the thing. I don't know what happened." Carly said, at the ceiling. "One minute everything was fine and then something shifted and he got distant and then he left without coming back even though he promised he would. I've called him four times. He's not answering anything." She sat up. "And I met his mother tonight. Unexpectedly. Which apparently set everything off."

Katy's eyes went wide. "Wait. Isabel Monroeson was actually at that banquet and nobody told me? You didn't tell me!"

"There's the unexpectedly part you're glossing over." Carly said.

Katy waved it off. "Go on."

"Niko was clearly shaken by her showing up. He introduced me as his friend." She paused on the word. "He explained why afterward, which I understood, but it still hurt, and he didn't seem to fully register that it hurt me. And then he got this look on his face like something was wrong, like more than just his mother being there, and he said he needed to go feed and that he'd come back and he just—" She pressed her lips together. "Didn't."

"Bastard." Katy muttered.

"He doesn't do this." Carly said. "He doesn't dodge my calls or ignore messages. He doesn't make promises he can't keep. So either something actually happened to him, or—" She stopped. "I don't want to finish that sentence."

"He's Niko Monroeson. Nobody's jumping him in an alley." Katy said. "He does the jumping."

Carly didn't laugh. "That's not funny right now."

Katy sighed. She looked at Carly properly for the first time since the pacing started — the smudged makeup, the set of her jaw, the fingers she kept reaching for to bite and then catching herself. She was genuinely upset. Not the performative, dramatic version of upset that was easy to roll eyes at. The real kind.

"Fine." Katy said. "What's your plan."

"I don't have one. That's the problem."

"Go to his room."

Carly looked at her. "What?"

"Go to Silas Hall. Go to his room. You'll either find him or find someone who knows where he is." Katy said simply. "Step one of any investigation."

"That's invasive. I wouldn't want him showing up at my door in the middle of the night."

"Hasn't he already done exactly that?" Katy said. "Pebbles at the window? Four in the morning? Ring any bells?"

Carly opened her mouth. Closed it.

Fair point.

She sat on the edge of the bed and looked at her hands and thought about it. The sensible side of her said it was too much. Said to wait and let him come back when he was ready. That pushing was only going to make whatever this was worse.

But the other part — the part that had watched his face go white at the banquet, had felt his hand trembling against hers, had kissed him at the end of it and felt something in that kiss that scared her — that part wasn't interested in being sensible.

She needed to know he was okay.

That was it. That was the whole reason. Not jealousy, not anger, not wanting to start another fight. Just the simple, terrifying need to confirm with her own eyes that he was alright.

"Okay." She said. "Okay, fine."

Katy's smile was immediate and wide and she clapped once like someone had just announced a party.

"I can't believe you talked me into this." Carly said, already reaching for her jacket.

"You talked yourself into it. I just provided clarity." Katy said, hopping off her own bed. "Also, I'm coming."

Carly looked up. "You don't have to—"

"You're walking into a vampire dorm in the middle of the night, alone, after midnight." Katy said. "I'm coming."

Carly didn't argue. She was grateful and she didn't say it because Katy would find a way to turn it into something she'd have to live with.

Katy crossed to her and put both hands on her shoulders, looking at her squarely.

"He's fine. You're fine. Stop letting your head write the worst story." She said.

It helped. Just barely, but it helped.

"Right." Carly said.

She pulled the jacket on, and they left.

POV: Katy

The walk across campus to Silas Hall was quiet.

Carly had talked herself out of turning back twice. Katy had watched her do it without saying anything, because saying something would have made it worse. She just kept walking and let Carly follow.

It was cold. The Black River Falls fog was in its usual position against everything, softening the edges of the buildings and the path lights. The campus was mostly empty at this hour, which made the walk feel longer than it was.

Katy kept her hands in her pockets and her eyes on the path and thought about the evening.

She had been at the banquet. She had watched from her own carefully managed distance, the way she watched most things. She had seen Niko's face when Isabel appeared, which confirmed a few things she had already suspected about the Monroeson family and the specific kind of damage it had done to him. She had watched Carly's expression when he introduced her as a friend, had watched Carly absorb it and keep going anyway.

She had also noted Isabel making her way toward Leona McPherson before she left the building.

That was interesting.

She filed it away with everything else she had been quietly collecting, the faction review notice on the board outside Headmistress Saltzman's office, the way Whitney Salem had felt the witch's call differently than a full witch should have, the Zdravei Katerina moment that she still hadn't fully decided what to do with.

She was building a picture.

She wasn't sure she was ready to see the full shape of it yet.

They reached Silas Hall. A couple of vampires outside gave Carly double takes, curious enough to stare, used enough to her presence by now not to comment.

Carly straightened her spine and kept moving.

Katy followed her to the second floor corridor and stopped just outside Niko's door while Carly knocked.

Nothing.

She knocked again, harder.

The door opened. Mauricio looked out at them, surprised.

"Carly?" He said.

"Hey. Sorry for the hour." She said. "Is Niko here?"

Mauricio's face did something complicated in a very short amount of time. Something that involved his eyes moving quickly away from hers and then back again, and his shoulders adjusting, and his breathing changing in the almost imperceptible way that meant he was deciding something.

Katy clocked all of it.

She said nothing.

Interesting.