The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2)(18)

In the shower, Adam scratched a thumbnail across his summer-brown skin. The line of his nail went from white to angry red in a moment, and as he studied it, it struck him that there was something odd about the flow of the water across his skin. As if it was in slow-motion. He followed the stream of water up to the showerhead and spent a full minute watching it sputter from the metal. His thoughts were a confusion of translucent drops clinging to metal and rain trembling off green leaves.

He blinked.

There was nothing odd about the water. There were no leaves. He needed to get some sleep before he did something stupid on the job.

Climbing out of the shower, his spine aching, shoulders aching, soul aching, Adam dried and dressed slowly. He feared — hoped? — that Blue might have left after all, but when he opened the bathroom door, scrubbing his hair dry, he discovered that she stood at the door, talking cheerfully to someone.

The visitor turned out to be St. Agnes’s office lady, her black hair curled in the humidity. She probably had an official title that Ronan knew, sub-nun, or something, but Adam only knew her as Mrs. Ramirez. She seemed to do everything a church required to keep it running, short of saying Mass.

Including the collection of Adam’s monthly rent check.

When he saw her, his stomach plummeted. He was filled with the certainty that his last check had bounced. She would tell him there were insufficient funds, and Adam would scramble to push money into the yawning hole of the account, and then he’d have to pay a returned check fee to the bank and another one to Mrs. Ramirez, getting further behind on his next month’s rent, an endless pathetic loop of insufficiency.

Voice thin, he asked, “What can I do for you, ma’am?”

Her expression shifted. She wasn’t sure how to say what needed to be said.

Adam’s fingers tightened on the door frame.

“Oh, sweetie,” she said, “I’m just letting you know about the rent on your little room here.”

I’m so done, he thought. No more. Please, I can’t take any more.

“Well, we got a new — tax assessment,” she started. “For this building. And you know how we charge you as a nonprofit. So we … your rent’s going to change. It’s got to stay the same percentage of the, uh, building costs. It’s two hundred dollars less.”

Adam heard two hundred and wilted, and then he heard the rest and thought he must have misunderstood. “Less? Each year?”

“Each month.”

Blue looked delighted, but Adam couldn’t quite accept that his rent had just dropped by two thirds. Twenty-four hundred dollars a year, suddenly freed up. His dubious Henrietta accent slid out before he could stop it. “Why did you say it was changing?”

“Tax assessment.” She laughed at his suspicion. “Those taxes don’t normally work out on the happy side, do they!”

She waited for Adam to answer, but he didn’t know what to say. Finally, he managed, “Thank you, ma’am.”

As Blue closed the door, he drifted back to the center of the room. He still couldn’t quite believe it. No, wouldn’t believe it. It just didn’t track. He retrieved the letter from Aglionby. Sinking onto his flat mattress, he finally opened it.

Its contents were very thin indeed, just a single-spaced letter on Aglionby letterhead. It didn’t take long to convey its message. The following year’s tuition was increasing to cover additional costs, although his scholarship was not. They understood the tuition raise presented a hardship for him, and he was an exceptional student, but they needed to remind him, with as much kindness as possible, that the waiting list for Aglionby was quite long, inhabited by exceptional boys able to pay full tuition. In conclusion, they reminded Mr. Parrish that fifty percent of the next year’s tuition was due by the end of the month in order to hold his place.

The difference in tuition between this year’s and next was twenty-four hundred dollars.

That number again. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Blue asked, sitting down beside him.

He didn’t want to talk about it.

Gansey had to be behind it. He knew Adam would never accept the money from him, so he’d engineered all of this. Persuaded Mrs. Ramirez to take a check and manufacture a tax assessment to cover his tracks. Gansey must have gotten a matching tuition notice two days ago. The raise wouldn’t have meant anything to him.

For a brief moment, he imagined life as Gansey must live it. The car keys in his pocket. The brand-new shoes on his feet. The careless glance at the monthly bills. They couldn’t hurt Gansey. Nothing could hurt him; people who said money couldn’t buy everything hadn’t seen anyone as rich as the Aglionby boys. They were untouchable, immune to life’s troubles. Only death couldn’t be swiped away by a credit card.

One day, Adam thought miserably, one day that will be me.

But this ruse wasn’t right. He would have never asked for Gansey’s help. Adam wasn’t sure how he would have covered the tuition raise, but it was not this, not Gansey’s money. He pictured it: a folded-over check, hastily pocketed, gazes not met. Gansey relieved that Adam had finally come to his senses. Adam unable to say thank you.

He became aware that Blue was watching him, her lips pursed, eyebrows tight.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said.

“Like what? I’m not allowed to be worried about you?”