RoseBlood(33)

We walk side by side toward the back of the room where a door waits. I don’t have to try to ignore our classmates watching us. My mind is preoccupied with the movement I’m catching in the mirrors via my peripheral vision, as if something or someone’s following alongside me. A reflection . . . a shift in the atmosphere . . . an omen, maybe.

I won’t let myself go there, remembering my logic from the night before. It was the caretaker that I saw the day I arrived. The one who’s standing in the hall right now talking to Tomlin. As soon as I meet him in person, it will be confirmed.

We arrive at the closet and Quan tugs the door open. The light switch doesn’t work, so neither of us can see inside. He shrugs. “Let me get a flashlight.”

I nod and opt to wait at the threshold while he heads to Tomlin’s desk. My eyes adjust to the shelves along the left wall. There’s a box labeled: TUBULAR SPRING SCALES. I step inside to dig through it.

A shiver races through me when something rakes the top of my head. Lifting my hand, I feel the outline of a shoe tugging my hair. I look up in the same instant Quan arrives and flips on the flashlight, revealing a body swaying above me on a noose tied to the light fixture.

Icy terror freezes me in place. I scream, my vocal cords strained to near breaking and my bones shaking as if they’ll shatter.

Quan drags me out and props me against the wall. The world seems to move in slow motion. “Rune, you okay? It was a dummy. Someone played a sick joke.” His eyes narrow to angry slits as he looks over his shoulder to our table, where Kat and Roxie are doubled over, snorting with laughter.

My heart pounds in my chest, trying to speed things up again. Trying to hammer me back together.

Puzzled classmates join with the laughter—a timid chain reaction—first confusion, then relief that they weren’t on the receiving end of the prank. Tomlin rushes in with the caretaker at his side. The man is tiny, comparable to Audrey’s petite height, but portly. Still trying to catch my breath, I concentrate on him. His white beard and flannel shirt paired with a handkerchief cinched around his neck are a cross between a pint-size lumberjack and Santa Claus. He lifts a silver charm hanging under his handkerchief and blows it. The class silences as the sound of birdsong fills the room.

I’d been told he was a mute and communicated via written notes and gestures, but I knew nothing about a whistle. After pointing an accusatory finger at Kat and Roxie, the caretaker shuffles over to the closet where Quan helps him drag down what I can now see is a mannequin. Before becoming the resident caretaker, Jippetto used to make them for shops in Paris, and he still has a collection. Those woodworking skills are the reason he’s the go-to for sets and props at the academy.

I slide down the wall and curl my arms around my knees, barring the shell shock from all sides. Not only did Kat manage to shake my foundations, but there’s no way Mister Jippetto could possibly be the guy I saw half hiding in the garden on my arrival.

I can’t do this anymore. Someone very real is shadowing my every move, and I need to know who.

I shift my gaze to the mirrors and for an instant I see it, clear as day: a gloved hand pressed to the opposite side of the glass, as if to tell me I’m right, or maybe to offer support. Then it’s gone.

Once I’m on my feet again, Tomlin gets the class back on schedule without skipping a beat and everyone manages to finish their labs. Two minutes before the dismissal bell rings, the professor tells our table to stay put. After everyone’s left, he closes the door and gives the four of us a speech about how we’re all in the opera together, which means being supportive and being a team. That the reason he paired us for the lab in the first place was in hopes we might learn to work together.

“You guys really need to end it here. Headmaster Fabre and Principal Norrington aren’t taking Rune’s missing uniforms as lightly as you might think. Student perks are in danger—”

“Uh, wait a second,” Kat interrupts. “We had nothing to do with the uniforms! This mannequin thing was to teach Rune and her kleptomaniac pal Sunflower Sunshine a lesson about sneaking into my room and stealing my brush.”

“Summers,” I correct, annoyed by her subtle dig on Sunny. “And why would either of us want anything that has your DNA on it?”

“It was a Mason Pearson boar-bristle hairbrush,” Kat says, her perfect forehead furrowed, as if she can’t fathom my ignorance. “Worth more money than Sunny’s cheap dye job.”

“Sunny’s hair is naturally red,” Quan interjects. “And she doesn’t steal.”

For the most part, anyway, I think, and by the gaze Quan shoots me, I can tell we’re sharing brainwaves.

Roxie stands up at the table. It’s unsettling to see such a hard expression on a face that matches Jax’s, who’s almost always smiling or cracking a joke. “Awfully coincidental how it went missing the first full day you were here. Kat hasn’t seen it since Monday morning before breakfast.”

Tomlin pounds the table, getting our attention back on him. “Here’s my one-time offer. I don’t care who did what. I won’t report any of this conversation, or what happened today in my room, but only if these pranks stop now. Because were anyone to go to the headmaster with even one more thing, you guys can forget about having any fun activities for a while. That includes Saturday outings and the masquerade being canceled. Do you hear what I’m saying, ladies?”