I wouldn’t have had to guess either, because just below each torn out, handwritten page, was another piece of paper that read BORDEN STEWART IS A FREAK.
“No,” I breathed as I crossed to the closest one. My eyes stared in horror.
This was a page from Borden’s grimoiore. That was his handwriting, documenting his ability to fire start and his theories on what more he could do with it considering his electrical abilities.
I grabbed the paper from the wall, tearing the corners as I ripped it away.
Turning, I looked down the hall in horror.
There were two dozen students in this hall, and every one of them was inspecting the pages that had been hung there.
My heart hammered in my chest and my mind was racing a million miles an hour trying to decide what to do.
I could light every one of the pieces of paper on fire instantly, incinerating the words that put us in danger.
I could try to knock every student in this hall out, like I had done on the beach to the Society Boys.
But there were so many of them. There were so many witnesses.
So, I did what any woman could do. I stepped forward and started tearing the pages down, one by one.
“Hey!” people called out as I tore away the pages they were reading. “What kind of freak show is going on here?” others asked. “Is this what’s been going on in your weird little quad coupling?”
“You shut your mouth about things you don’t understand,” I snapped at another freshman who said nasty things.
“You really going to believe everything the Society Boys tell you to?” I glowered at another senior boy.
I turned down the next hall, and there, I found Mary-Beth doing exactly the same thing. Ripping pages down from the walls.
“Holy crap,” she breathed as I worked my way down the hall toward her. “Could Borden have taken any more notes? I’ve got like, thirty pages here already.”
“He can’t help it,” I said, focusing on that, instead of the blinding rage filling me. “It’s in his nature to be detailed oriented.”
We turned down the next hall and worked our way through that one.
And then there, at the end, we watched James Richards walk out of a classroom.
I stalked straight for him. And without hesitating, I got in his face, and pressed my fingertips into his temples.
I dug. I ground. I clawed my way into his mind with my fingernails, not caring what I shredded along my way.
I found the memory. I watched it as he and David and Donald slipped into Borden’s dorm. I’d never been there, but I watched it through their familiar eyes. Borden had his own room. They’d gone through all of Borden’s things. They’d trashed his whole room.
And then they’d found the grimoire in Borden’s desk. They’d read through the first five pages. They’d laughed and scoffed and called Borden a freak. And then they’d taken it.
During lunch, they went around the entire school, taping up the pages they’d ripped from the book, along with the other pages, BORDEN STEWART IS A FREAK. And they’d laughed their asses off about it all.
Take them down, I pushed into James’ mind. Take them all down and bring them to me. And if the Society Boys ever want to bother Borden again, you make them stop, or you come tell me about it.
I released James, who took a staggering step back from me. He blinked five times and brought the palm of his hand up to his forehead as if he had a headache.
He blinked at me a few times, confused at why I was there.
“What are you looking at?” he snapped.
But he didn’t even give me the chance to respond. He staggered off down the hall, taking the pages down, one by one.
“That’s absolutely brilliant,” Mary-Beth said as she walked over to my side. “Kind of freaky to watch. He just sort of froze up with this pained expression, and you were eerily still and calm. What did you make him go do?”
“Take all the pages down and bring them back to me,” I said as I watched him make his way down the hall. He took every single one of the pages down, shoving aside other students who were trying to read them. “And if the Boys ever decide to go after Borden again, he’s to stop it, or come tell me.”
Mary-Beth shook her head. “Someday I’m going to be able to do something useful, too. Until then, I bow down to your powers, Margot.”
And she actually did bow down in a dramatic way, bringing a lot of stares.
“Cut that out,” I said with a laugh, even as I blushed from the attention. “We’re already getting targets on our backs. I can guarantee our names are on those pages.”
“You need to wipe the memories of everyone in school now?” she asked, and instantly, her tone was serious as she realized just what this all meant.
I shook my head. “That would be impossible. We just need to lay low for a while. No one is going to take it seriously.”
Just then, a door to a classroom opened, and Borden stepped out. All the pages had been torn down in this hall, so he started to head down it, completely ignorant that anything was amiss.
“Ready to go ruin his day?” I asked, looking warily at Mary-Beth.
She let out a sigh, and together, we set off down the hall to catch up with Borden.
“Hey, Borden, wait up,” Mary-Beth called out to him. He looked over his shoulder and slowed down.
“Um, something happened, and you need to know,” I said. “But first, you need to decide that you’re not going to go get in a fight that gets you kicked out of school for behavior, considering I had to brainwash the Dean into letting you back in.”
“You’re really bad at this,” Borden said, his tone darkening.
“I know,” I admitted. “I just need you to promise that you’re not going to go kill anyone. I’ve already started taking care of it.”
His look darkened and he squared off to me.
Slowly, I raised the torn pages of his grimoire. As his eyes fixed on them, they grew wider and darker and the tension in his jaw grew tighter.
“They were hung up around school,” Mary-Beth filled in. “They were only up for about an hour, but they were seen.”
“David and James and Donald broke into your dorm during lunch and took your grimoire,” I explained. “I know because I found James and dug into his mind. I made him go around the school and take them down and then bring them back to me.”
Borden looked around, and I watched as his nostrils flared as he breathed out hard and quick. His hand curled around the strap of his backpack, his knuckles turning white.
“I made James stop the Society Boys if they go after you again,” I explained. “Or come tell me if he can’t stop them.”
“There’s only seven more weeks of school,” Mary-Beth said. “I’m sure we can deflect them for that long. And then it’s over. You’ll never have to see them again.” But even as she said the words, I could tell she didn’t believe any of them.
“Do you have any more classes today?” I asked. I was getting more and more worried by the second as Borden remained silent but poised to explode.
“No,” he ground out.
“Mary-Beth and I are done, too,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get out of here. Let’s go back to the solarium and put your book back together. We’ll practice something new. Maybe we can read through Mare’s journal and find something useful.”