“I don’t want to go with Eden.”
She doesn’t even answer. I don’t know what to do anymore. This is worse than when she was sedated, worse than anything, because there’s nothing to fight, nothing to rally against. She’s completely lost herself, and I don’t know how to bring her back.
Someone knocks and I shout for them to come in, hoping it’s Eden and I can get a break from this frustrating, mind-numbingly awful existence. But the clomp-clomp-clomp of heavy, confident steps and the scent of oranges and velvet night air flood my apartment.
“James?” Fia’s voice is incredulous.
“Apparently I am to be addressed as the Beautiful Boy with the Booze. But I take it Annabelle didn’t tell you I was back.”
Of course I didn’t tell her. I?
??ve heard all the girls talking about him. He flirts shamelessly with everyone. The Readers whisper that he thinks constantly about sex. Eden says he reeks of lust. I don’t want him in my rooms. I don’t want him around my baby sister.
“Unfortunately,” he says, “this time I didn’t find any bottles of whiskey to steal before visiting. Can I still come in?”
An exhalation. Was that a laugh? Not the hollow dead-girl laugh?
“I don’t care,” she says.
“Excellent.” I hear the couch’s leather creak. How close is he sitting to her? Is he touching her? I want him away from her. I wish I had been sitting on the couch next to her so I could block him, shield her from him.
“To what do we owe the honor?” I ask.
“I was bored. Running this school is dead dull.”
Fia’s voice is sharper than it’s been in weeks. “Since when do you work for your father?”
“Didn’t you hear? I own the school. Twenty-one now, and I’ve come into my mother’s idea of an inheritance. I would’ve preferred my own island, but there are perks to this.” There is a pause here; no one says anything; and I have never felt so blind as I do now, trying to imagine how he is looking at her when he says “perks.”
Finally James talks again. “Now, Fia. I’ve got a confession.” I stiffen, furious. He can’t call her that. He doesn’t deserve to use her nickname.
“Hmm?”
“The first night we met, when I told you my name, do you remember what you said?”
She doesn’t answer.
“You said, ‘I should bash your brains in right now.’ I apologize for assuming you were a liar and a flirt. I see now you were quite serious, and I must have offended you dearly.”
My jaw drops in horror. How could he? How could he joke about that? After what she did?
“I hereby vow to take any and all death threats at face value, unless you are, in fact, trying to flirt with me, in which case please threaten to bash my brains in while winking, like so.”
And then—
She laughs. She actually laughs, not like she did before we came here but like she did before things got really bad. It’s harder and has jagged edges, but it’s a laugh.
“I’ve gotta tell you, when I heard what happened, I thought my father would be more upset, but do you know what he said to me? ‘She should have seen it coming.’”
“That’s terrible!” I hiss.
Fia laughs louder. “Someone taught me how to get in trouble around a Seer.”
“And you are a star pupil. You surpassed even my record, which I used to be quite proud of. If we’re still keeping score, this puts you firmly in the lead and I owe you this drink.”
I slash my hand through the air. “Stop.” Did he bring alcohol in here? That joke about the whiskey—is he making fun of me because I can’t see that he’s holding some? “You will not give her anything.”
“Relax. I’ve come with ice-cold Coke. Not even as a mixer. Just as a drink.”