Page 60 of Splitting Secrets
“You can keep telling yourself that?—”
“What’s going on in here?” Beatrix and Jonah push open my door, then fall unceremoniously onto the bed between me and Ava..
“We were just talking about how we’re going to become so famous in history for all of this that one day, there will be little kids dressed up as us for Halloween,” Ava says playfully.
Jonah scrunches his nose. “I don’t think kids dress up as historical figures for Halloween. Kids like fun stuff like cartoon characters and animals.”
Beatrix shakes her head, a smile creeping in when she sees Ava’s cheeks darken. “Ava was probably a little librarian,” she teases.
Ava shrugs as she huffs out an irritated breath. “You’re going to sit here and try to tell me Peter Parker is cooler than a real-life librarian badass?!”
“To a kid? Probably,” Jonah playfully rebukes.
“You’re such a history nerd.” Beatrix throws a pillow at Ava’s head.
“I bet you made the cutest archivist,” I giggle.
She crosses her arms over her chest and nods. “Damn right, I did.”
32
Raze
The majority of students travel home for the three weeks of winter break at Ravenshurst, leaving the campus quiet and deserted. I usually love spending time walking or jogging around, enjoying the peace—a stark contrast to the chaos of finals and packing for travel in the days leading up to break. It’s especially enchanting while it snows, like tonight. I’ll usually sit on a bench and just listen to the quiet patter of snowflakes piling around me, blanketing the trees and buildings.
My colleagues know to keep a wide berth, and often find themselves in similar situations where they want to sit alone in silence to decompress from the semester. Funding for resources to support the faculty have been incrementally pulled until there’s nothing more than bare bones being offered during a time when it seems they’re asking the most of us. Each semester somehow seems to stretch longer than the last, and we’re all feeling a lot more worn down as the years go on.
So, wrapping myself in shadows as I stroll through the snowy campus toward Devlin is mostly precautionary. No one gives ashit what anyone else is doing. But visiting the dorm rooms of students who have just escaped the underground cells of the university seems like more than enough reason to be extra cautious.
I visit the Resident Advisor’s room first. It’s filled with random things she must have accumulated through the years, neatly placed on top of the university-provided furniture. Students who live in Devlin are usually the ones who are most connected to the Syndicate or the board—usually both. They’re the most insufferable to teach.
Polaroids of smiling faces are clipped onto string lights that line the walls, and I can’t help but notice a few with Sonny’s face beaming back at me. A side of her I never knew. Lecture notes lay sprawled across the sofa table with open textbooks and highlighters and pens uncapped on the floor, like she was preparing for her finals when they dragged her out of here.
The weight of the situation plunges my heart into my feet.
This was a woman with a future. She’s got sports accolades and friends and straight A’s in advanced courses. She’s not a criminal or an enemy or just another name on a class roster. Shemattersto people in this world.
Anger begins to flood my chest, and I have to push it down before I do something rash that will trace them back to me if they come to her dorm. I’m surprised they haven’t yet, honestly. I doubt they’ll waste time with an Aeternum, but if they do, I’ll be fucked. Hopefully, that won’t happen until I’m already gone.
Unzipping a duffel bag, I open each of her drawers and grab random handfuls of clothes, stuffing it all in without violating her privacy. I have no idea if anything matches or fits, but at least it’s her stuff. Once I have a good variation, I zip the bag up and sneak back out, then repeat the same process in the dorm next door for the blue-haired one.
When I get to Sonny’s dorm, I take a little extra time to pick through her drawers and grab things I know she favors wearing—plus a few of my own favorites. I stand beside her bedside table with the bottom drawer open, debating if I should grab the pink monstrosity in there. She’ll probably be pissed if I do, but when isn’t she pissed at me?
Before I can second guess myself, I shove it into the bottom of the bag and move out. Her dorm is in the same bare state I found it in before, with hardly any trace of her decorating the walls or furniture like the others had. She never really had a chance to settle in before she was plucked out and deemed a traitor.
As I turn to leave, the ancient-looking music box catches my eye, and I stuff it into the duffel before zipping it up.
The guy’s dorm is next. I stop at my car to drop the three heavy duffels into the trunk, then head into the center of campus, where the rest of the student housing is. His is going to be a little harder to sneak into because he’s in a more populated building and it’s difficult to hold a shield around so many people, but I can chalk my presence there up to an evening stroll and wait to throw my shadows up until I’m closer. Thankfully, he doesn’t have a roommate, so there’s no chance that I’ll run into a straggler in the room.
I’m in and out in half the time and jogging back to my car without anyone giving me a second glance when my phone rings.
33
Sonny
Quinn is waiting for us on the couch when we return from our rooms. I half-expected her to bail as soon as we were out of sight, given how irritating she finds us. There’s a strong savory aroma that follows her around wafting from the kitchen and filling the area, reminding me that I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast.
I’m the last one down the stairs, so distracted by the delicious smell, my attention on my feet, that I almost don’t notice the way Jonah, Ava, and Beatrix have all stopped on the bottom step. Their mouths hang open as their gazes fixate on me.
