Autumn Storm (The Witchling #2)(11)

“You could start by just not talking.”

He looked at her. She struggled not to smile. A slow grin crossed his face, and he held her gaze long enough for her face to feel unusually warm.

“Yeah, I like you,” he said. “I’ll see you at five. Stay out of the forest.” He grabbed another cookie and strode out of the kitchen, back into the Square.

She watched him, admiring his muscular frame. It wasn’t him, though, she saw leaving the kitchen. It was someone else, someone she didn’t know, but who looked a lot like him.

For some reason, she was reminded of lying on the picnic table in the Square to see the constellation Orion.





Chapter Four





Head and leg aching more than she wanted, Autumn made her way to her room. She opened the door to find the blond girl and another with dark hair seated on Dawn’s bed with their laptops.

“Are you Autumn?” the blond asked, looking up.

“I am. You must be Dawn.”

“Let me tell you the rules.” Dawn pointed to the space between their beds. “Stay on your side of the room. Don’t touch my clothes. You can’t afford to replace them. You left your junk in the bathroom this morning on the sink. The sink is mine; your stuff goes in the drawers. What size shoes do you wear?”

Taken aback, Autumn almost missed the question. “Um, seven and a half.”

“Too small,” she said, disappointed. “You have some cute boots.”

“Thanks.”

“This is Sonya. She basically lives here.” Dawn indicated the pretty girl seated on the end of her bed.

“Hi,” Sonya said. Her smile was friendly and her features exotic.

Dawn’s eyes went to Autumn’s bad leg. She looked like she was about to say something. Autumn willed her not to. The blond girl changed her mind and sank back on the bed, attention going to her computer.

“I’m gonna hop in the shower in a minute,” Dawn told her. “You can put your stuff in the drawers first, though. Oh, and Beck Turner is off limits. He’s mine.”

Autumn bit back a retort. She needed to be on decent terms with the girl she was forced to room with. She began to see why others had warned her. Hopefully, today was the worst of it.

Body hurting, Autumn nonetheless put her things away as Dawn demanded before she popped one of her lighter painkillers and lay down on her bed to rest. Dawn and Sonya talked a little but spent most of their time on their laptops or phones.

When Dawn went into the bathroom, Autumn dozed off. She awoke almost two hours later to hear the shower water running. She glanced at the clock. It was four. She had to be ready to leave at five. At a quarter after four, Dawn finally left the bathroom.

Autumn slid into the bathroom quickly. Happy there was still hot water, she let it run over her for a few minutes before cleaning up and exiting.

“Hel-lo! You’re not the only one who has to get ready!” Dawn shouted through the door.

Autumn glanced at the knob, making sure it was locked. Wrapped in her towel, she pulled a comb through her hair quickly but hesitated to wipe the fog from the mirror.

“Hurry up, Autumn!”

Autumn drew a deep breath to keep from yelling back. Dawn spent over two hours locked in the bathroom when she took a shower, compared to Autumn’s twenty minutes. Between Dawn and the foggy mirror, Autumn felt stressed out. Steeling herself, she wiped the mirror down. The pretty girl with long, dark hair – who looked nothing like her! – was there. They stared at each other.

“Autumn!”

Autumn blinked, and the girl in the mirror was gone. She’d thought about talking to the girl in the mirror one day, until she realized they were the same person.

Sorta. Or maybe she was crazy.

“Come on!”

I’m tired of feeling like I have no control. Irritated, she gathered up her make-up bag and dirty clothes then wrenched the door open.

Dawn was pacing. “Omigod, it’s about time.” She shoved by Autumn into the bathroom and slammed the door.

Autumn set her things down on her bed. The drunk driver, the helplessness she experienced during the weeks after the accident. She had no control over her own mind and little over her damaged body. She couldn’t even shower on her own terms. The almost-familiar surroundings made her more frustrated.

Anger trickled through her. Waking up with no memory and a body that didn’t know how to walk made her sensitive to her instincts. There were some things her body – and mind – innately knew or remembered. She’d learned to trust her intuition.

Right now, it told her something important happened at this school, something that changed her. Something involving Dawn? She had bad vibes about the beautiful girl. Where Adam and Beck were comfortable to her like old friends, Dawn was like a blast of cold air.

“Sonya’s coming by in a minute. Let her in!” Dawn shouted from the bathroom a moment before the shower came on.

Autumn sighed. What did she do with that anger? She did kind of like Sonya, who smiled at her. There were no memories or feelings at all associated with the quiet girl. It was nice. As if on cue, someone knocked at the door. Autumn crossed to it and yanked it open.

She froze and looked up into Beck’s striking eyes. He wore jeans and a short-sleeved sweater. He radiated soothing, gentle magick that lessened her anger at Dawn.