CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: FOX
FindSK,meetat AL’s. NER accident.
I stare at the text message from Brynsyn, reading the words over and over again. The shorthand is enough to let me know that he isn’t fucking around. He always makes a point to send full, grammatically correct texts after I’d complained about a couple of short handed messages he sent that I didn’t understand.
I understand this one.
Find Soskia, meet at Alik’s Cabin, Neryssa had an accident.
Sighing, I push a hand through my hair as my stomach drops slightly. The last couple of weeks I’ve felt off, especially after Neryssa had woken up and gotten pissed at us.
I know why she’s mad, understand it, but she doesn’t understand why we did what we did. She’s clueless to this world, which is crazy considering her mother is on the council.
She didn’t even know what a fucking abaron is.
Sighing, I try to figure out how in the hell I’m going to find Soskia of all people. We don’t run in the same circles, just the exact opposite. I know she lives in the same dorm as Neryssa, because admittedly I’ve kept an eye on Neryssa on and off for the last week.
No serious stalking, not like Brynsyn.
Just following her from class every now and then, keeping a comfortable distance as I watch her move increasingly slower. The first time I’d seen her energy drain within a minute before my eyes, I’d been thrown for a loop. But then I’d started to notice little things, like how if I walked closer to her, it’d seem like her energy was restored and if I moved even further away, she’d get slower.
Whatever happened that night in the attic, it’d tied Neryssa to me, somehow. The others as well. She reacts the same around them. And sometimes I can feel her deep in my chest even though she’s nowhere close to me.
It’s… disturbing.
Even when Brynsyn and I do our thing, the process is intimate and invasive, it’s never felt like this, like our souls were tied together somehow.
I don’t like it.
I push out of the cafeteria, my head on a swivel as I look for Soskia. I don’t spot her rose gold hair anywhere in the quad, which isn't surprising. She’d finally made her way out of Alik’s cabin, but she was clearly still trapped in her head, not entirely back to her usual confident and forceful self. I watched her in our advanced history class this morning. Typically, she’s excited about the class, though she tries to play it cools, she’s a nerd. But in our class earlier she’d blankly looked out of the window for most of it. Profesor Linxyn had to ask her to stay behind and I’d caught the beginning of their conversation when she’d asked Soskia if she was okay.
She’s probably isolating herself outside of class hours.
I’m pretty sure she’s done with classes for the day since we have similar class schedules.
I turn in the direction of the dorm, my steps quick.
Its the middle of the fucking day, what kind of accident could Neryssa have had?
The girl sitting at the front desk smiles at me and I recognized her as one of the shifters I took intro to shifting with in my first year. “Hey,” I offer her my most charming smile even though on the inside I’m feeling antsy.
“Hi.” She looks up at me expectantly.
“Have you seen Soskia Windaire come through?”
Her nose wrinkles, “Yes, she came in about an hour ago.”
“And she hasn’t left?”
“No.”
I pat the desk, “Thanks.”
I forgo the elevator, heading up the stairs two at a time as I make my way to the third floor. The flow is empty, the common area empty, most people still in class.
I knock on the dorm door but no one comes to it. Letting out a grunt of irritation, I slam my fist against it harder. It takes a few minutes, but eventually the door finally flies open.
Soskia’s eyes are full of hellfire. “What the fuck do you want?” she snaps at me.