"You are a hero," I say softly. "All of you risked your lives for me and Tobias."
Jamie wrinkles his nose. "Okay, how about I tell everybody that I met a hot vampire and indulged in some fun that went too far?"
My mouth drops open. "Jamie!"
He chuckles. "Man, I'd love to see people's faces."
"A new reputation to replace the nerd label?”
“That might deflect attention from you."
"I bet some will think Andrei did this." I touch his neck, careful not to put my fingers on the wound.
"And I'll tell them he didn't," he says firmly and folds his finger over mine "How are you?"
I force my usual smile. "Fine. Mostly."
"Mostly? You can avoid talking to Ash, but I can read you're lying." He sits on the bed. "Were you hurt?"
"No. I told Ash—Nikolai Blackwood attacked me." Jamie's eyes widen. "But he didn't hurt me. He..."
I'll tell them all later, but I can't lie to Jamie. He'll hound me until I say something because he'll sense how tortured I am. "He's dead." My throat thickens and I fold my arms around myself.
Jamie's pallid face grows paler. "What happened?"
"Can we go to class?"
Jamie stands. “Maeve. You can't tell me that and expect to walk away from the conversation.”
Will telling somebody stop the nightmares? Pull the constant thoughts about Jamie's death from my head? “Fine, if I tell you, promise not to freak out.”
He nods but I doubt he’ll keep the promise. Staring at my shoes, I mumble the events of the night, again in sparse detail, tensing further with each word.
“Holy shit, Maeve. If you didn’t have a Dominion target on your head before, you do now. You killed a Blackwood.”
“Thanks for the encouraging news,” I mutter.
“No. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” He hugs me to him. “All that matters are you’re safe and nothing hurt you. We'll protect you.”
"But the attack isn't what bothers me the most," I say quietly. "I don't understand why I acted the way I did."
He blinks. "Nikolai attacked you. This was self-defence."
My throat tightens. “Jamie. Do you feel Blackwood magic in you from wearing the pendant?”
He looks down at his healing palm—I’m still horrified the guys used blood magic, but also thankful. Andrei and Ash healed within a few hours, and poor Jamie stands with two injuries from his attempts to help me. “No, but maybe there is, and the magic helped with the Blackwood spell we used.” He pulls back and scrutinises my face. “Do you?”
“I don't know. Anastasia told me you shared Blackwood magic energy with me the day you brought me back from the edge. How could that happen unless you contained the magic too?"
He shakes his head, as confused as I am. "I don’t know. Maybe she lied."
If that's true, where did the dark magic come from? "I hope so." Moving closer to Jamie, I place my head against his soft shirt, and his heart beats against my cheek. "Once Tobias returns, we’ll tell you everything and can decide what to do, but I promise you Nikolai's death is the worst thing that happened."
Jamie in my room reminds me of the days we were together stuck in Walcott, when we relied on each other to work our way through the hazy time away from the others. That closeness sticks with us, and Jamie's calm, steadying presence is exactly what I need right now.
"Food, then class," I say with a sigh.
"Yep." Jamie stands.
"Have you thought any more about our date night?" I ask as he moves towards the doorway.
Jamie glances over his shoulder and smiles. "Yes. And I will make the day entirely human."
I hold my thumb and forefinger apart. "Maybe just a little bit of magic?"
He walks back over to me and tips my chin with two fingers. "A date with you is magical enough."
Butterflies flutter in my stomach at his words. "You're such a sweetheart, Jamie."
"Sometimes I think that's my problem." I shove him. "Okay, okay. No putting myself down."
With a stern look, I pull open the door and hold my hand out for his. "Thanks for being normal."
He squeezes my fingers. "As normal as we can be."
Chapter Thirty-Eight
MAEVE
I impatiently wait for Andrei to join us, and he appears in the cafeteria as I'm almost finished eating with Jamie and Ash. His bright face and confident stance reassure me nothing bad came from his stay with his grandfather; I worried he'd be subject to more accusations surrounding his mother.
Andrei sits beside me and rests his arms on the table. I fight running my fingers along the taut muscle or leaning in for a kiss—I'm not comfortable showing affection for one guy with the others around, although they don't seem to care.
Andrei evidently doesn't care, because he moves in to kiss me softly. Thank god this wasn't one of his usual mind-melting 'I've missed you' kisses. I glance at the other guys, whose expressions haven't changed.
"How did the family visit go?" asks Ash then bites down on a chip from his plate.
Andrei scrunches his face. "Painful. Constant questions about mother dearest."
"Did you tell them anything?" asks Jamie.
"Yeah. That she's still an evil bitch and cosied up with the Blackwoods."
His description of Gabriella is true, but the words sound strange for a son talking about his mother. Jamie fingers his shirt collar. Gabriella instructed a vampire to kill him. Evil is the right word.
"Did you mention anything else?" asks Jamie.
"Kinda. They wanted to know about the Blackwoods and why we went alone—and to know how we managed to free Maeve and Tobias. I lied and told them I was with Gabriella and never saw the escape."
“And they accepted that?” asks Ash.
“Yeah. They said they’d get all the details from Tobias.”
"You didn't say anything about the group and Amelia?" I whisper.
"No," he says indignantly. "I had to tell them about the teleportation spell, though. I'm in the shit for that one."
"Great," mutters Ash and sinks backwards in his seat. "More trouble. Just what we need."
Jamie spins his coffee cup in his hands. "Too late to avoid trouble now."
I lick my dry lips. I'm worried about the questions the Confederacy will ask me about my time at Blackwood house. What has Tobias told them?
"Chip?" I ask Andrei and push my plate towards him.
He shakes his head. "Not hungry."
"You mean I can eat them all myself for once?" I ask with a mock gasp. "You always eat half."
"I've not much appetite right now," he says and looks the other way.
I frown to myself and continue my meal. The uniformed students sit around the tables in their house groups again, resolutely ignoring each other. Katherine occupies her usual space, between two of her latest Petrescu girlfriends, and keeps glancing at us. She isn't the only one—Clive and Remi don't subtly glance, they downright stare. I smile, and when this isn't returned, I cast my eyes down. We weren't close friends, but they were always polite to me because of my friendship with Ash.