Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)(10)

“Sometimes. Not often.” She added, “I’m fine, Eve. I get better all the time. Now who’s worrying?”

“I just want you to have all the things you missed while you were on the run.”

“You’ve given me everything. I have the music. I have people who care about me. What else is there?” She changed the subject. “And everyone probably has nightmares. I just didn’t know because I never had a roommate before. But I woke up several times in the past couple months when I heard her crying out.”

“Did you ever talk to her about them?”

“No, that would have been an intrusion. She has a right to her privacy.”

“But you’re tempted.”

“I had my friend, Elena, to help me through my nightmares while I was on the run. Darcy seems to have no one. I think she’s … hurting. Sometimes it hurts me to see her…”

That’s all Cara needed, Eve thought, a roommate with emotional problems that she’d struggle to solve. But didn’t everyone try to solve the problems of the people they cared about? It was part of life. “Then you’ll do whatever you have to do. You have great instincts.”

“Do I? You and Jock don’t always seem to agree with them.” She chuckled. “But even when you shoot me down, you do it with infinite kindness.” She changed the subject. “So it’s okay if I come home next week? If it’s more convenient, I might be able to change my classes and come this week instead.”

Eve’s glance shifted to the skull in front of her. Talking to Cara had brought home to her that life was difficult and filled with problems, but with effort they had a chance of being solved. The ugliness that had been done to this young woman and the silent threat of her being deposited on Eve’s doorstep might not be as easy to resolve. She was once more feeling that sudden sense of urgency again. “No, next week is just fine, Cara. No hurry.”

After she had hung up the phone, she sat there an instant, looking at the ruin of that scorched and blackened face. What had driven this monster to try to destroy whatever beauty of form and soul this woman had possessed? “It doesn’t matter,” she whispered. “He couldn’t do what he intended to do. We won’t let him win.” Then she picked up her measuring device again. “I’ll try to get through this boring stuff quickly, but it has to be done. Then we can get down to bringing you back to the way you should be, Sylvie…”

CARNEGIE RESIDENCE HALL NEW YORK CITY

“You’re going to be late,” Darcy Nichols said over her shoulder as she ran past Cara on the way to the stairs. “The bus for that Wounded Warrior Concert in Connecticut leaves in ten minutes. You know Madam Gallono will kill us if we don’t show up there on time.”

“I won’t be late.” Cara was hurrying after her. “And if I am, all I’ll have to do is slip in behind you and no one will even notice me.” She chuckled. “You know how to grab and hold the spotlight.”

“True.” Darcy glanced over her shoulder with a brilliant smile that had a hint of mischief. “Only a few months together, and you’ve learned how to make use of me. Everyone thinks that I’m the lightweight, and you’re so serious and dedicated, but you’ve got them all fooled.”

“Yeah, I’m clearly a master manipulator,” Cara said as she followed Darcy down the stairs. “I wouldn’t have been late, but that call just took longer than I thought it—”

She stopped short.

She’d reached the turn of the stairs and come in view of the reception area below and saw the man who stood there by the desk.

“Jock?” she whispered.

Darcy had stopped, too, her eyes widening. “Who on earth is that?” she murmured. “My God, he’s fantastic.”

That’s what everyone thought when they first saw Jock, Cara thought. Fair hair, tan, perfect, almost Grecian features, shimmering gray eyes. Strength and grace and that quiet stillness that hid so much. When she had first seen him when she was much younger, she had thought he looked like the prince from a fairy tale. These days she hardly noticed what he looked like on the outside because there was so much inside. But this was Darcy’s first sight of him, and she was getting the full impact.

“That’s my friend, Jock Gavin,” Cara said.

“And you never told me about him? Introduce me. I believe I may be in lust.”

“You don’t have time.” Cara was meeting Jock’s eyes as she finished walking slowly down the stairs. Her heart was plunging. Fear. She was so afraid of what was to come. No smile. And those gray eyes were cold. “You have a bus to catch, Darcy.”

“So do you.”

“I’ll get there some other way.”

“And you want me out of here,” Darcy said shrewdly. “I would, too, if I were you. I should have known. You’re such a workaholic, it would take someone like that to get you to sit up and take notice.” She smiled and gave Cara’s arm a quick squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’ll cover for you. You were joking, but I really can make black look white or gold or whatever. Just make sure you get there. See you in Connecticut.” Then she was dashing across the reception area and out the front door.

Cara braced herself, then was walking to the reception desk toward Jock. “You didn’t have to come to see me. A phone call would have done the trick. Or even an email. All I wanted to know was that you were alive and well. Would that have been too much?”