Page 61 of Gothikana

Thunder rumbled in the sky, a gust of wind blowing over her face, the fog circling around her. The sense of foreboding came with the phantom ants scattering over her arms.

Rubbing them down, Corvina shook off the air of gloom and marched across the garden and around the side to the front of the admin wing.

A hedge of dark red roses in bloom that she’d not noticed before caught her eye, the red as deep as the blood that hadpooled on the ground around Troy’s head. In a slight daze, she walked to the blooms, the fingers of her free hand going up to stroke the velvety petals, their texture as soft as a scrap of silk created by the death of a thousand worms.

The morbid thought jarred her into movement. Her hand caught on one of the stems, multiple thorns pricking her finger.

‘Ow.’ She winced, bringing her hand back, her eyes on the droplets of her blood sitting on the fat thorns, ready to be drunk down like a vampire tasting blood. Clearly, she was reading too muchDracula.

‘Be careful of those roses.’ A gruff voice from behind her made her turn as she turned to find a big, muscular man with close-cropped hair and dark blue eyes standing in the driveway next to a silver pick-up. He locked the vehicle and shoved his hands in his thick coat pockets, a piercing in his ear glinting.

He halted suddenly when he looked at her, shock covering his face for a second.

‘Purple eyes.’

Corvina was puzzled. She didn’t know this guy. ‘Excuse me?’

He blinked once. ‘Nothing. Just reminded me of something.’

‘Um, okay. These roses?’

‘They’ve been around since the university began.’ He eyed the bushes behind her. ‘I fell into them one time during a fight. Suffice it to say, never went near them again.’

Corvina looked at the blood on her hand. ‘But how is this possible? Roses don’t live that long.’

The man shrugged his large shoulders. ‘How is anything possible at Verenmore? Some things are just never explained here.’

With that, he went inside the building and Corvina followed, as the spectacled guy behind the desk looked up in the middle of a yawn, his eyes widening upon seeing the guest.

‘Ajax Hunter,’ the man introduced himself in a gruff voice. ‘I’m here for my brother, Troy Hunter.’

The guy behind the desk nodded. ‘I’m sorry for your loss, Mr Hunter. Please wait here while I get someone to help you.’

Ajax gave a curt nod. Corvina stayed at the side. Her phone call could wait while Troy was being taken care of first. This was his brother, the brother she was supposed to tell something. But what?

‘I’m sorry for your loss too, Mr Hunter,’ Corvina gave her condolences. ‘Troy is missed.’

His sharp eyes assessed her. ‘You knew my brother?’

‘Yes.’ Corvina fiddled with the strap of her bag. ‘He was my friend.’ And he wanted her to tell him something. How he died?

‘Do you have any idea why he jumped off a roof?’ Ajax asked, leaning against the desk, turning his full attention to her.

Corvina mutely shook her head.

Ajax looked down at the little blood on her hands. ‘Was he suicidal?’

‘Not that I know of, no. There’s—’ She bit her lip, wondering if he even knew about Alissa and the similarity in their deaths. Was that what she needed to tell him?

‘What?’ he demanded.

‘You’re an investigator, right?’ Corvina needed to confirm this.

‘That’s right.’ He watched her with those eagle eyes, narrowing them slightly. ‘You think there’s something that needs investigating about my brother’s death?’

‘Absolutely not.’ Kaylin Cross’s hard voice interrupted their conversation as she entered the room. ‘His death was a tragedy. My condolences, Mr Hunter. Miss Clemm, you should get to class.’

Yeah, she doubted she’d be able to get her phone call now.

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