Page 72 of The Black Table
But no pain. Never any pain. I could watch the pieces of my body shrivel and burn as easily as watching TV. Like it was all happening to someone else.
The cure to all wounds.
The vessel of vessels.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I say, short and clipped.
“Fair enough,” comes Kai’s voice. “Everyone’s entitled to their secrets.”
To my surprise, no one objects.
Slowly, slowly, I raise my head.
“But what does that have to do with Elena?” Kai goes on.
Lanz breathes out hard. “If what she told me is true, then…it’s personal for her. What happened.”
This—this I don’t know.
Don’t understand.
“What do you mean?” I ask him. “I don’t even know Elena. Didn’t, until I came here.”
“She…” Lanz hesitates. “She said her dad was a building inspector? And he…they lost everything. The legal charges.”
Realization carves into me like a dagger.
The person they found liable for the fire. For theaccident. The building inspector whose name I only knew by initials from sealed court proceedings, who Mom only referred to as “him” or “the responsible party.”
That was Elena’s father.
And it ruined him.
Iruined him.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she tried to hurt Gwenna again,” Lanz goes on. “Worse.”
At that, Kingston snaps into motion.
“Then you shouldn’t be here,” he says. “Not at Caliburn. Not for your own safety. Not for…”
“What?” I say it so loudly my voice cracks. “Leave? What?—”
“You’ve already been targeted. Made seriously ill.” Kingston’s voice drops to a dangerous calm, his eyes locked with mine. “You think that’s nothing? Or are you calling one of my most loyal team members a liar?”
“I’m not! I’m not.” I tighten my hands into fists again. “I’m not doing that,” I say, “but I’m not leaving. You can’t tell me to leave. I won’t. This school is all I have.” The words crack as I speak them—not something I meant to say aloud, but it’s too late now.
Four pairs of eyes bore into me.
Something wells up inside me—humiliation, panic—and it’s too much. I stand up abruptly, the chair falling behind me. “I have to go.”
I wrench myself free, dart out of the kitchen, through the hallway, out the front door, into the quad that’s deceptively sunny and happy and green—a perfect collegiate day like it’s trying to taunt me. I squint into the sunlight, the pounding of last night resurging in my temples, the pulsing pain in my ankle shooting to my heart with every step.
Poison?I think.That can’t be right. Even if she…
But if she knows, then…
No. That doesn’t mean I have to…
