Page 129 of Architecti
He nods.“Who is rapidly turning from a shade into a wraith.So… not exactly who we’d want to ask for help.”
I slouch back in my seat, trawling through anyone I’ve met or colleagues of colleagues I might know that could help, but I come up empty.
“I’m out,” Midnight says.“I don’t know anyone.”
“Me too,” Lex says.“Had my sister known anyone, she’d have told me because she knows what a language nut I am.”
Bastien pleads with me silently, his forehead lined.I search my memory for anything or anyone else I can think of.
“It’s fine,” I say.“I’m not putting this burden on you.You’ve all done too much for me already.”
“Fuck that,” Lex says.“Midnight’s our gal, and if you’re her gal, then that makes you our gal by default.”
Midnight nods, Bastien too.
“Professor or not, you’re one of us,” Bastien says.
“Thank you, that’s kind.But truly, this is my problem, not yours.”
Midnight sighs.“I’m sorry, Bastien.Looks like you’re our only option.”
“I agree.Fuck,” he says and puts his head in his hands.
39
Midnight
Twenty-One Days To Go
Bastien is white as a sheet.He paces basement floor minus six as Lex, Lucy and I try to locate a safe room for him.
This floor is mostly row upon row of cages and safe rooms, except for the giant practice room at the heart of this level.
We stride down the gloomy corridors, checking room after room.
Lucy and I continue sharing surreptitious glances; we’re going to have to talk properly.Things are different between us, and we’re avoiding talking about it.But we’re running out of time.I have less than three weeks until the final exam and three weeks exactly until my birthday.If we don’t talk soon, there may not be any more time.
I shouldn’t think like that.I should assume I’ll win the favour, and Lucy will be free of Ignatius.
Whether it’s the incessant tinnitus-like whispering the campus is doing in my ear, or the slick sensation of being watched always present on my spine, I am losing faith.
A melancholy has settled in my bones; an inevitability that things will end.Has fate finally caught up to me?Maybe it’s just the ever-present weight a reaper carries.
“Any luck?”Lucy says, jolting me out of my thoughts.
Lex shakes her head as we walk down the next corridor.
I sidle up to Lucy and lean in to whisper, “We need to talk.”
She snaps her attention to me.“Now?”
“I get that it’s not convenient, but when else are we going to talk?There’s only three weeks until the final exams and my birthday.We don’t have a lot of time.”
Her lips press into a flat line, but she nods.“Okay, talk.”
“Wow, so open.”It’s childish, but I’m hurt.
“What do you want me to say?”she whisper-hisses at me.
