Within These Wicked Walls(58)

My slow words and soothing touch seemed to do the trick, and eventually his breath eased. Tears flowed freely down his face, but no sobs with them.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Andromeda,” he said. “Because no one in their right mind is going to volunteer to die.”





CHAPTER 23


I pulled on the oversized boots, opened the big black umbrella, and stepped into the snowy hallway.

Apparently, snow was common in many parts of the country, the world, but I’d never seen it before. It was mesmerizing, watching the little icy fluffs materialize from the ceiling to aimlessly drift down. I almost didn’t want to get rid of it.

But it wasn’t real snow, obviously. More obvious when it retreated from me, shifting away and around the shield of my brand-new—apparently more powerful—amulet.

I left the snow and hammered a nail just outside the domain of the Manifestation, hanging my amulet on it and making sure it was still in sight when I stepped back in, feeling the snow crunch underfoot.

I stooped down, the umbrella shading me and the snow below. Spreading my fingers, I pressed my hand into the white fluff. It gave easily with a crunch, wet and light, and I was buried to mid-forearm before my palm touched something harder and colder. When I lifted my hand out, I took some of the snow with me, gazing at the fluffy crystals in my hand.

“I wish you didn’t have to go,” I whispered. I stood and brushed off my hands, then closed the umbrella to bask in it a little longer … though I quickly realized the umbrella was there for a reason. I’d be soaked through if I wasn’t carefu—

I yelped as something solid and cold hit my shoulder, scattering snow like an explosion that got some in my eye.

“Hey!” My scowl turned into a smile as I watched Saba laughing at the end of the hall. “What was that?”

I wiped the water off my eyelashes and looked down at my shoulder, a splotch of snow sticking where it had hit me. I dusted it off quickly, before it seeped through my sweater. Saba bent over and gathered more snow, pressing it into a ball between her hands. I gaped, realizing what she was doing, and barely had time to dodge as she threw it at me. I slipped and fell onto my bottom, giggling like a little kid.

“Oh, you’ve done it now.”

I pressed together my own ball of snow, using the umbrella as a shield to block Saba’s attack, but mine was small and ineffective, Saba barely needing to move to get away from it. I threw the umbrella away to gather more snow, but I’d never be able to move or block in time to—

Snow hit Saba in the chest and she grinned wildly beyond me. It suddenly occurred to me how similar her smile was to—

“Magnus!” I felt myself beaming as he bent beside me to gather more snow. I dropped my gaze to the snow at the last second. “I’m not wearing my amulet.”

“I’d say the odds are a bit more even this way, wouldn’t you?” Magnus pressed his snowball tightly in his bare hands. “And that’s okay, keep your eyes on the prize.”

“Beating Saba?” I held up my arms in front of my face just in time to block Saba’s attack.

“Not in the face!” Magnus threw his snowball in my defense. “We can’t just put ours back together, you know.”

Saba stuck out her tongue at us, and I slipped to my feet, laughing. “Get ready to lose, Saba!”

And with that, it was all-out war. My hands were numb, my hair and sweater coated with snow, but I didn’t care. This was the most I’d laughed in—

“What the devil is going on?”

Peggy’s voice made me jolt around, slipping before I gained my footing.

“Have you lost your mind?” she said, glaring at me as if I truly had. “Why are you throwing snow around?”

“She started it,” Magnus and I said together, pointing at where Saba had been—she certainly had a way of disappearing at all the right moments to avoid Peggy. And maybe Magnus thought so too, because we both laughed.

Peggy gave a disapproving look. “Magnus, come out from there, you’ll catch your death.”

“Wouldn’t that be novel?” he said, but stood, holding out both bluing hands to me. I took them and he lifted me to my feet.

I made my way carefully out of the snow and hung my amulet around my neck before turning to look at Magnus. He was rosy and grinning and …

And not yours, Andi.

“After you,” he said.

My heart was still pounding, but I think my body was beginning to realize it was cold, because my teeth chattered when I murmured my thanks and hurried ahead of him.

There was no denying getting over him was going to be impossible while living under the same roof, especially while sleeping on the same floor. I would have to amend that quickly if I was going to survive.

“Andromeda,” Magnus said, when we’d made it to our rooms, “may I have a word with you after you’ve changed?”

My heart panicked, and I prayed to God he couldn’t hear it. “Of course.” And then I rushed into my room and locked the door. I quickly changed out of my wet clothing, toying with the idea of finding a random closet to hide in. But I couldn’t avoid him for days like I did after that first kiss.

Don’t be a coward.

Perhaps I’d taken too long to consider, because when I finished changing and went into the hall, Magnus was waiting for me, leaning on the wall across from my door.