Page 30 of Us in Ruins

The rest of the students had definitely started to stare. Margot couldn’t exactly blame them. Van was practically twice Margot’s height and strong enough to carry her fireman-style in case of emergencies. But the sun had bleached the color from his hair, leaving streaks of pale yellow in a bed of rich blond, and freckles scattered across the high points of his cheeks—making him look far more approachable than Margot knew him to be.

Astrid’s narrowed gaze settled on Van as he introduced himself to his new classmates with a few terse words. She asked, “What are you wearing?”

“Clothes,” Van deadpanned. He unsheathed his tools from their holster and spread them out meticulously at the roped edge of his plot.

Margot dug inside her soggy backpack for Relics of the Heart. Her fingertips grazed the wrinkled cover, where Isla and Reed held each other, lips only a breath apart. The pages warped, still dripping. It was probably useless, but Margot fanned out the pages and placed them into a pool of sunlight, praying they somehow dried.

Van nudged his notebook next to it. Equally soaked, the leather cover had puffed up twice its size. Margot winced at the thought of losing such a precious historical document, the way the photographs would bleed.

Topher laughed, bringing Margot back to the conversation. It was a good-natured sound but still grating. “Yeah, buddy, those are some pretty sick suspenders.”

Margot cut in. “His flight got delayed and he got rerouted through Morocco, and the airline left his luggage in Casablanca. Can you believe it?”

Astrid’s forehead fully wrinkled like perhaps she could not, in fact, believe it. She sniffed the way you would after a whiff of bad fish. Which. Given their recent surroundings, maybe she had. “You know, he kind of reminds me of that guy you wrote your application essay about, Margot.”

Her whole body froze. A thin laugh peeled out. She didn’t dare sneak a glance at Van, observing on the sidelines. “What? No way.”

“Actually, I totally see it,” Suki chimed. “He’s got that Rick O’Connell thing going for him.”

Rex scoffed. “No one but you watches those old movies, Suki.”

“We have The Mummy to thank for my bisexual awakening,” Suki said, smiling. She tugged a strand of hair behind her ear, letting Rex’s words slide right off her with an easygoing self-assuredness that made Margot’s stomach clench with envy.

“Have you read Margot’s essay, Chad?” Astrid hardly waited for him to shake his head yes or no before dragging out her phone. She’d probably bookmarked the page just to ridicule Margot with it. “Oh, you have to. Margot’s the only student on our trip with no prior archaeology experience, so she really wowed Dr. Hunt with her... creativity.”

To his credit, Van ignored Astrid remarkably well. He etched his chisel into the earth, scoring the dirt so that it was easier to shovel.

Margot, unfortunately, felt her cheeks turn redder than Georgia’s red clay. “That’s really not necessary. Let’s not—”

“No, let’s.” Astrid beamed, her smile like a scythe. “Sunlight spilled down the rolling hills and puddled at the feet of a fearless young explorer with Pompeii at his fingertips. Blond haired, green eyed, and every bit as dashing as the rumors said.”

Van’s head whipped up. His eyes searched Margot, a silent question she wished she didn’t have to answer. Of course she’d written about him. When she found his journal and the sliver of the Vase in the library, she couldn’t get him out of her head. Every time she closed her eyes, he was there—as real and whole as if he’d stepped out of the pages himself. Writing his story for her application essay had felt like an extension of her own.

He was the whole reason she was here.

Astrid kept reading, much to Margot’s dismay. “The explorer stepped into the Temple of Venus and never looked back. The five missing shards had returned, and he was seconds from completing his destiny when the door swung open behind him. ‘What are you doing here, Keane?’ the woman asked.”

Van snapped a pencil from clutching it too hard. Great. She excavated the Incredible Hulk.

But beyond his affinity for crushing things, Van was... just a boy. A boy who never asked to be resurrected a century too late, who, if he hadn’t been dressed like a Milo Thatch wannabe, could have easily passed as one of Radcliffe’s rugby players or, like, a super buff quiz bowl member.

They wouldn’t know he was the same boy Margot wrote about. They couldn’t.

“This is my favorite part.” Astrid scrolled down. Margot pinched her eyes closed, bracing for impact. “When Van searched for the Vase, he hadn’t expected to find love. But there she was. As undeniable as the sun.”

Shame slithered up Margot’s spine. She knew what came next. A heroine who looked strikingly similar to her except with none of her flaws—Marlow Rhodes was decisive and even-tempered. The kind of girl with a magnetic core, the world orbiting around her.

“That’s enough,” Van said. There was something final in his tone. Knife sharp and dangerous. “I don’t need to hear any more.”

They scraped away the years of history, pitching into the earth until the sun followed. Margot’s skin felt too tight—she couldn’t tell if her cheeks were sunburned red or stained that way from continuous mortification. When they arrived back at Hotel Villa Minerva, Dr. Hunt gathered everyone in the lobby, rapping on her clipboard with her knuckles.

“Great work today, everyone.” Was Margot imagining it, or did Dr. Hunt’s eyes linger a little too long on her? “You have some free time tonight, but remember, tomorrow we’re leaving bright and early for our overnight trip to Rome. On our agenda: a tour of the Roman Museum of Antiquities and Roman Archives. We’ll be there one night, and I will not have spare toothbrushes, so double-check your toiletries bags.”

She dismissed them, and the class dispersed toward the elevators. Rex clapped Van on the shoulder, and Van stiffened beneath his grasp. “We’re in room three-eighteen.”

Suki hung back. “We’re all going out to find some pizza. You should join us.”

“No,” Van said. A single, solitary syllable.

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