Page 17 of The First Trial
‘All right. Why don’t you take a nap, and I’ll keep things running for a bit,’ he offered, gesturing to the dorm’s surveillance on our phones.
I sent him a tired smile, exhaustion hitting me hard and fast at the prospect of sleep. ‘You sure?’
‘Positive.’
‘Okay. As long as you wake me if something happens or there’s any news,’ I bartered.
His eyes softened as he approached, wrapping me up in his long, muscular arms, a sense of safety andhomepermeating me to my very bones. ‘I promise.’
I rested my head against his chest and closed my eyes, enjoying the peaceful moment. A moment that was interrupted when the door swung open and Hawthorne stepped through with Enid on his heels.
Oz and I were thrown apart by the curse, though I was sure from an outsider’s point of view, it looked like we’d jumped apart like we’d been doing something wrong. Oz landed on the bed, hitting his head against the wooden headboard, but I was even more unlucky. I landed against the desk, the sharp corner digging into the small of my back, and my head reverberated off the wall.
Immediately, I felt the blood dripping from my nose, and one look at Oz showed he was experiencing the same symptom. I needed to get out of herenow, before the curse decided the nosebleed wasn’t enough.
‘What’s going on here?’ Enid shrieked, hands on her hips and a scowl scrunching up her face.
I winced, her shrill tone making my headache (and possible concussion) a million times worse.
‘Middle school kids are stressful and I needed a hug,’ I tried to explain, knowing it was a flimsy excuse, but it didn’t matter. No words came out. When I caught sight of the pain twisting Ozzie’s expression, I knew he was struggling, too, but it went deeper than that. His wide, panic-filled eyes were locked on Hawthorne, and I realised that more than the curse was hurting him. However, whatever was going on between them, I wasn’t privy to it, so I decided it was best to just cut my losses and get my head on a pillow sooner rather than later. The light was starting to hurt, too.
I tried to speak again, to grab my things and leave, but there was a problem with that plan, too. My things were still on Oz’s bed, just like Oz was. The moment I moved closer, the curse struck again. We were both bowled over as pain shot through us. I wheezed, then choked as fluid rose up my oesophagus and red sprayed out of my mouth.
‘Gods help us, what is happening?’ Hawthorne cried out, frozen in the doorway.
I had no choice. The curse would only punish us further if I stayed any longer, and I couldn’t grab my things without setting it off again. I gathered my strength and pushed off from the desk, stumbling towards the door. Only, I didn’t make it very far.
Hunched over and coughing up blood, my feet dragged, unable to lift high enough to walk properly, and my toe caught on the carpet. I pitched forward, one arm clutching my stomach, the other wheeling uselessly at my side.
But my face didn’t meet the floor. Instead, I found myself face-planting against a warm, defined chest, while strong, steady arms wrapped around my still-heaving frame. I spluttered, unable to speak through the onslaught of the curse, and blood splattered all over a clean white shirt.
I glanced up, cheeks flaming at how pitifully horrifying I knew I looked, and met Hawthorne’s beautiful green eyes, shimmering with concern.
‘Fuck, Juniper. What’s happening? How can I help?’ He turned to Oz. ‘Man, can I do?’
I was reluctant to leave Hawthorne’s arms, but I was even more afraid that the curse would kill us, so I pushed away from him and darted out the door on shaky legs. I bumped into Enid on the way past, and she shot me a disgusted glare as blood dripped onto her jacket from my chin, but I didn’t stop to apologise. I practically ran to my room, slamming the door shut behind me, and pressed my back against it. The hackingstopped, my stomach no longer being torn apart from the inside out, and the blood slowed from my nose. I breathed in a breath that wasn’t filled with pain, then slid down the door to bury my head in my hands and cry.
But the curse didn’t get rid of my headache.
The pounding against my skull ratcheted up to a level I struggled to handle, and I felt myself sway. I heard raised voices next door, but I couldn’t pick out the words despite the thin walls. Instead, the sounds jumbled together and worsened the migraine. My eyeballs ached, my ears rang, and I couldn’t take it any longer.
When the darkness caved in around the edges of my vision, I didn’t have any other choice but to let the darkness consume me.
Chapter 6
Hawthorne
‘Shit,’ I exclaimed breathlessly as I stared at the door where a bloody Juniper had disappeared from view. Enid smacked my arm, jolting me out of my trance, and we both hurried over to where my best friend was bent over, spitting out blood.
‘Gods above, Oz, are you okay?’ I asked, hands hovering over him uselessly like I could somehow heal him from a distance. But I couldn’t because that was his power, not mine.
‘Yeah,’ he croaked, but he wasn’t coughing any more, nor was he clutching his stomach in obvious agony. The blood dripping from his nose had also stopped, and we all breathed a sigh of relief when it was clear that no one was dying today.
‘What thefuckwas that about?’ Enid asked, her voice pitched unusually high.
‘Nothing,’ Oz said, not meeting either one of our gazes. ‘Just drop it.’
‘What wasshedoing in your room, Oz? The two of you looked awfully cosy.’ The accusation was clear in her tone and her words, and my stomach clenched with betrayal. When Enid and I had arrived, it looked like we’d walked in on a particularly intimate moment, but for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why. Why would my best friend hook up with the woman I had been in love with since before I even knew what love was?
