Borden hadn’t looked at either of us since we told him. He still didn’t make eye contact. He was looking around, and as I looked out too, I saw all the glances he was getting. He’d been branded a freak now. His most private and secret journal had been hung around the walls for all to see. And now people were looking at him with evaluation in their eyes.
Was he a freak?
What had happened to flip the switch, from being one of the most popular people in school as a Society Boy to someone who talked about magic and hung out with the school outcasts?
But to his credit, he kept his head held high. He kept his shoulders back, and he didn’t cower.
“Let’s go,” he ground out.
His knuckles were absolutely white and every bit of him looked ready to snap. But he calmly took a step forward, walking down the hall.
Mary-Beth and I looked at each other, having no idea what to expect.
The looks and stares continued as we made our way down the hall. People stepped out of our way, watching and whispering as we passed. Borden stared ahead, his eyes fixed on the doors at the end of the hall, as if none of them existed.
Just before we reached the exit escape, James stepped into view. In his hands, he held a stack of ripped and torn pages.
“This was all that I could find,” he said. His voice was almost robotic, flat and deadpan. His eyes seemed slightly confused, like he couldn’t quite figure out why he was doing this. “I don’t know where else David and Donald hung their pages. But I think this is all of them.”
Borden had paused at the door. He looked back over his shoulder, and I could see the debate in his eyes. He was considering lighting James on fire, right then and there.
James similarly looked at Borden, and it was like witnessing a true brain glitch. He looked angry and regretful and hateful and confused. Absentmindedly, he handed the pages back to me, while still staring at Borden.
I was holding my breath, waiting to see if this was going to end in fists and blood.
But finally, Borden pushed the door open, and stepped out into the rain outside.
Mary-Beth and I glanced at each other, and then scrambled after him.
I tucked the pages into my coat so they wouldn’t get soaked. I hadn’t worn the right shoes for trekking through wet grass, but I didn’t hesitate as I followed behind Borden as he cut straight across the grounds and headed for the gate that led into the abandoned garden and unstable north end of the university.
I was well and truly soaked when we walked into the solarium. The second we were inside, Borden magically lit a fire in the fireplace and flung his backpack off his shoulder into the stone wall.
Outside, the rain started falling harder.
And something that Borden had told me about himself came back to me.
He thought that maybe he called the rain, and with it, lightning.
A noise bubbled up from Borden’s throat, something feral, like a growl, like something from a dangerous beast.
He turned, and his eyes cast around the space like he was looking for something to hit.
Outside, thunder sounded.
“They’re just bullies, Borden,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “They’re just stupid boys with nothing better to do with their time. You can’t let them have power over you. You diffuse them by forgetting all about them and ignoring everything they do.”
“And I’m just supposed to let them get away with this?” Borden asked. He looked over his shoulder back at me, and I froze in shock and fear.
Borden’s eyes were dancing with crackling white electricity. Where the irises of his eyes were normally brown, they were now shimmering with dangerous, white electricity.
“You gotta believe in karma,” Mary-Beth said, trying to keep her voice even and calm, to keep Borden calm. “What goes around will come back around to bite them in the ass. Why get your hands dirty when the universe will take care of it?”
“Because it would feel damn good to make them pay,” Borden said, his voice low and dangerous. “They deserve it. Every one of them.”
“Maybe,” I said, cautiously taking a step toward him. “But you going after them doesn’t just jeopardize your degree. It puts all of us at risk for exposure. We’re a family now, Borden. You have to help protect us all.”
And at that, something in his eyes softened. The cracking of thunder outside grew a little further away.
His hands relaxed just a little from their tight fists.
And right then, Nathaniel walked through the door.
He was soaking wet, the rain dripping from his hair, his shoulders dark from being poured on. His eyes were slightly wild when he walked in, going straight to Borden.
In his hands, he clutched a small stack of pages.
“Borden,” he breathed as soon as his eyes landed on Borden, whose eyes were still glowing eerily white.
Outside, a bolt of lightning cracked across the sky, illuminating the entire solarium. It was immediately followed by the deafening boom of thunder.
“They mean nothing,” Nathaniel said. He crossed the room, laying the pages of the grimoire on his desk. He crossed to Borden and laid his hands on Borden’s shoulders.
A zapping sound filled the air, and Nathaniel spasmed. Immediately he withdrew his hands, and nearly fell to the floor.
A scream erupted from me and I automatically raised my hands to protect my face.
Borden had just shocked Nathaniel.
Borden’s eyes widened with fear and he took half a step back from Nathaniel.
Nathaniel’s hands still shook, but he just blinked, surprised, but undeterred. “I’m fine,” he reassured everyone, holding a hand up to tell me to stay in my place.
“Borden, I’m really sorry this happened. I’m sorry they’re targeting you. I know how that feels, and it’s an unsettling place to be. But you can’t let them push you into a reaction.”
Borden turned his back to us and looked up at the sky through the glass ceiling. “I don’t know how you did it the last two and a half years. Dealt with all the shit we put you through. How did you never snap? How did you never kill one of us?”
Nathaniel took one step forward. “I had years of practice. The Society Boys, they were nothing new for me. I’ve been brawling for my existence my whole life. I just learned it was better to deal with the garbage than land in juvie or prison.”
Mary-Beth looked over at me then, and I saw her confusion and questioning then. She didn’t know Nathaniel’s history. She didn’t know about his placements in foster care and group homes. How he’d beaten dozens of boys to an inch of their lives. That Nathaniel knew how to fight and win. She didn’t know that he’d hurt others so bad he’d spent two years in juvenile detention.
“You’re a better man than I am, Nathaniel,” Borden said. His words were growing hoarse and low.
Outside the storm moved further out to sea.
“I’ll help you practice, brother.”
And cautiously, Nathaniel reached out a hand, once more setting it on Borden’s shoulder. This time he didn’t get shocked.
And the pages that had been lying on the desk floated into the air. I watched as they started to rearrange themselves, sorting into the correct order. I took the pages from my coat and released them into the air.
Gently, they started sorting back together, and Nathaniel carefully lowered them in front of Borden where he could see the book that was beginning to take shape.