Page 127 of Bad for Me

“I’ll take my leave now. I don’t want Everly to see me before class and worry over why I’m here. If the Missive is still as powerful as he was when I was a Crow, then he likely already knows about the bargain. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another message waiting for me by the time I get to the top of the bell tower.”

A brief shock of worry zaps through my nerves. The Missive has always been ruthless and cutthroat. Blackmailing him is far from ideal, but God, I hope it works.

“Sounds good,” I answer roughly before walking around my desk and holding out my hand for him to shake.

As warm as my father is to others, we’ve never been ones for “I love you’s” or hugs. My mom was the one who did that. I realized when I stood alone at her casket that any possibility of affection between me and my father died with her.

So it shocks me to hell and back when he grabs my hand and pulls me in for a hug. We stay that way for a few seconds as he squeezes me, and eventually I awkwardly wrap my arms around him. The embrace is over too soon, with my father patting my back and releasing me. I can’t hide the confusion in my expression as he laughs softly.

“Surprised? Well, I hug now. You would’ve known that if you’d come home at all over the past few years.”

Guilt twinges in my chest. Before I can dwell on the mistakes of my past, his voice grows serious as he rests his hand on my shoulder and meets my gaze.

“You think my marrying Veralyn was a bad decision, I know that. But like I said, she’s my sunshine.”

“But Mom?” My voice cracks at my question, making me feel every bit the pathetic, motherless child that I am.

My father sighs heavily, our loss is a pit in my stomach. “I loved your mother very much. But she was sick for a very long time. By the end, she asked me to be happy. I never thought I could be again, but then I met Veralyn. She makes me happy and warmer than I thought I could be again. It’s an amazing kind of luck that happiness like this came twice in my life, and I count it as a blessing every day.”

I swallow the lump in my throat. “I’m happy for you, Dad.”

“I don’t like what you’re starting with Everly, but if she makes you feel half the way I do about your mother or Veralyn, then… then I’m happy for you too.” His brow raises. “Granted, Veralyn will likely want to have a word with you.”

A laugh huffs from my chest. “You didn’t tell her?”

“God no. I don’t want to be the one to tell her. That woman will have a fit when she finds out. But she will find out soon enough, and let me tell you from experience—” He points at his chest where the envelope is hidden. “It’ll be better hearing it from you two than anyone else.”

“Noted.” I nod once. “After you, she’ll be the first to know.”

He grunts. “Do everything in your power to make sure that’s true?—”

The sounds of creaking chairs outside jolts us from the conversation, leading him to eye the bookcase.

“The tunnel still work?”

“Of course.” I pull down the crow-shaped lever that poses as a bookend on its shelf, opening the door to the tunnel.

“Right then, I’ll be off, now. Treat her right, son.” He steps into the darkness and speaks without looking back. “You know the stakes.”

I close the door behind him and slump against the wall. I don’t hear his footsteps, but his warning echoes in my mind.

You know the stakes.

My voice is rough as I answer in the empty room.

“I do.”

9

EVERLY

When Woods dismisses our class,I nearly throw up with relief. I’ve been sitting here, antsy and gnawing on my pencil ever since I arrived. Marleigh has glanced at me more than once with concern in her meadow-green eyes, while Cadence, the normally talkative golden brunette on my other side, hasn’t so much as looked up from the ground since we left Agatha House this morning.

Just as I was about to leave early to catch Woods before class, Marleigh, Cadence, and their friend Brin stopped by my dorm to invite me to walk with them. I recognized Brin’s black-and-blue hair instantly. She accidentally crashed our English 102 class on Thursday and became the unfortunate soul to appear in the first GravChat thread of the year. Which is probably why she was the one who already knew the latest Gravvie gossip about the student-teacher affair.

My blood ran cold at the news, and I was so panicked that I couldn’t figure out how to decline their invite to walk with them without tipping them off that something was wrong. Then the girls insisted on stopping by The Mid, the coffee shop in the center of the campus horseshoe. I agonized every second that Brin chatted with the barista, Belinda, and interrupted tables beside ours to search for the scoop on the rumor. The story had already burned through campus like wildfire, but thankfully no one else seemed to know more than the one “Out Of The Fog” line that GravChat reported in the middle of the night.

OOTF: Is someone getting an ‘O’ before they even get an ‘A’? It seems this student will earn more than good grades this semester.

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