Page 21 of The Stone Curse
Curi shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“What? But you just said…You lied?”
He shot me a mischievous smile. “Not at all. I did speak to my sire, and he does have contacts at the registration offices, and forms are falsified all the time to hide halfbloods’ true lineages. I never said Lowther was one of those lineages.”
“But he just assumed.” I let out a bark of laughter. “Curi, you aren’t just a pretty face, are you?”
“Aw, you think I’m pretty?” he teased.
I smiled up into his warm brown eyes. “Gorgeous.” And he was. He was gorgeous to me not just because of how he looked, but because of who he was—kind, thoughtful, and funny. He was all those things, and I was so grateful to have him as a friend.
We bumpedinto Yarrow as he was exiting the tutors wing with his sister Flora. Her eyes lit up at the sight of us, but his brows came down in concern.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
Flora nudged him. “Good afternoon would be a better place to start.”
Yarrow rolled his eyes. “Good afternoon. Now, is everything all right?”
“Actually, I was hoping you could help me.” I filled him in on what happened with Melanie.
“That can’t be right,” Yarrow said. “It takes years for a ghost to turn into a spirit ghoul. Melanie may have been haunting the campus for decades, but you said that she was coherent and placid up until a few weeks ago, right?”
“Correct.” I glanced at Flora. “She was fine until the night that you were attacked. Melanie was attacked then too.”
Flora’s bright eyes dimmed. “I wish I could recall what happened. I can’t even remember what I was doing in that part of the building.” She wrung her hands. “Every time I think on it, I get so…anxious.”
“Then don’t.” Yarrow gently took her hands. “Don’t think on it.” He turned his attention on us, his golden eyes narrow, jaw tight. “It was powerful allure, enough to steal her memories notonly of those few moments but those of the several hours prior. We’ve tried to recover them but to no avail.”
Curi frowned down at me. “If Yarrow can’t get Flora’s memories back, then what makes you think Melanie will remember anything?”
But helping Melanie was about more than that one incident. “It’s not about helping her remember what happened in that filing room. I want to help her become…her again. Willowman got me a potion that can help her remember her past and be whole again. It’s my fault that she was in that filing room in the first place. She’s lost herself because of it.”
“Spirits hold memories in a different manner to flesh and blood beings,” Yarrow said. “There are no neural pathways to navigate, no synapses to eradicate. In Melanie’s case, her memories are held in the ether around her, and the attacker, whoever it may be, has cut off her access to it. Not just the memories of that incident but to all her memories.” He nodded as if he was coming to understand something. “It would explain how she might be turning into a spirit ghoul so quickly. Maybe…But I believe she can be restored.” His lip curled. “And when she is whole, we will find the culprit responsible.”
“We should check the crystals,” Flora said. “Just to make sure they’re charged and working.”
“Give me the key to the room and leave it with us,” Yarrow said. “I’m eager to get my hands on the person responsible for tampering with my sister’s mind. I want to help.”
I handed him the keys. “Be careful, though. She almost knocked me out.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Yarrow said. “We’ll be prepared.”
We left the witches to their plotting and headed back down the stairs and out of the main building. Training started in an hour, which meant the rest of the team would be up and about at the elite tower.
“Do you think Touron will make pancakes?” Curi asked wistfully.
“We just ate a plateful of buns.”
“Are you telling me you’d say no to pancakes?”
We stepped off the porch and onto the path. “Not if they come with syrup.”
He chuckled. “Blueberries.”
“Ice cream.”
We spent the rest of the walk back to the tower thinking up pancake toppings and hoping that Touron would make our dreams come true.
