The minute I'm done eating, Andrei grabs my tray containing my plate and cutlery and stands. “Hurry up. I want some time with you before class.”
He heads to the opposite end of the cafeteria and adds the tray to the rack holding others.
"He didn't want your chips because he's changing," says Jamie quietly, one eye on Andrei. "The blood born lose their need for human food when they move towards immortality."
"I know that. Andrei told me," I say, but my heart thuds.
"Did he tell you how soon?" asks Jamie. "He's a year older than most blood born at the academy. If he's eating less, that's a sign that his diet is changing.”
"Maybe he's just not hungry," I suggest, and Jamie's expression shows I'm fooling myself.
"What?" asks Andrei as he approaches, hands buried in his pockets. "Were you talking about me?"
"No," I say and stand too.
"Sure," he mutters.
As we make our way from the cafeteria, I hang back with Andrei and ask Ash and Jamie to keep walking. Pausing, I stand beside the wall, out of the path of other students heading to class. "I missed you," I whisper and tiptoe to brush my lips against Andrei’s.
Andrei strokes my cheek. "I've worried about you. Sorry I didn't catch you earlier."
"I fell asleep," I admit.
His lips twitch into a smile. "Does that mean you'll have energy later?"
I slap him in the chest as his hand sneaks around to my backside. "Andrei!"
With a chuckle, he kisses me on the forehead. "Seriously, are you alright?"
I sigh. "You've texted me several times a day with that question. I'm fine." Apart from the nightmares. The taste of blood. But that's something to tell another time.
"Liar." He pokes my nose with an index finger, and I scowl. "Nobody can go through what you did and be 'fine'."
"Andrei?"
"Yeah?"
"Shut up."
He laughs and seizes me around the waist. "I'll get the truth from you," he says, and I fling up my barrier as he pokes into my mind.
"Have you stopped eating?" I blurt. Possibly a bad subject change, but big enough to change direction from me.
"Because I didn't want your chips?" His eyes widen. "That's dumb."
"I need to ask you something. When you change—become immortal—will that make the blood lust worse?"
He blinks at me and thins his lips. "Wow. 'Hey, Andrei, I missed you, oh and by the way, are you unstable now?' Way to kill a reunion."
"That was a bit blunt. Sorry."
"Plenty of hemia students live in the academy and control themselves. When I'm full hemia, I'll do the same."
"Sorry," I repeat and look the other way, guilty that I upset him.
"I had one trip to Ravenhold; I'm not planning another." Andrei pulls himself from the wall and holds out a hand. "Please trust me, Maeve, because if you stopped, it would kill me."
We wander along the hallway, hands grasped tightly. I've barely noticed time passing in a life jumbled by day to day crisis, but I've been in this new world for months. The changes my friends go through are more than simply maturing to step into the world, the way human teens do. Andrei and Ash are on their own paths towards futures holding as great a change as the one I went through when I arrived here.
I'm scared—and scared for them.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
MAEVE
I expected to see Confederacy representatives at some point, but not summoned from class.
A man arrived and unsubtly requested I meet with Theodora, which caused whispers from the History of Magic class and concerned looks from Andrei and Jamie. I knew when I didn’t recognise him that this isn’t a visit to Theodora, and I’m escorted by the unfamiliar man to a familiar room.
My heart skips in my chest when I walk in to find Tobias sitting on a chair, in the room the Confederacy interviewed me about Lorna's death. Last time I saw Tobias, he wore a suit covered in dirt and with a confused aura. Today he’s back to his usual inscrutable self, as if he’s wiped away what happened when he washed away the dirt.
Why is he here too?
Don't panic.
His soothing words reach me but do little to calm my nerves. The man who escorted me leaves and we're left with a harassed-looking, middle-aged man slouched back in his chair behind a desk. He straightens as he spots me, his moss-green eyes studying me. Without speaking, he gestures for me to sit.
"This is Elon. He works with Andrei's grandfather," says Tobias.
The man is more relaxed than I'd expect from an interrogator, and I cautiously sit beside Tobias.
Elon nods. "Maeve."
"Tobias and I have discussed the circumstances surrounding Nikolai's death at length," he says and rubs his temples. "I'm required to ask some questions about your time at the Blackwoods and about the murder."
My throat tightens and I nod.
"Elon is the best person for you in the circumstances," says Tobias. "His connection to Oskar Petrescu and myself ensures more gentle questioning."
Again, I nod.
Elon reaches into his jacket slung over the chair and pulls out his phone. "If I record everything, there'll be no doubt I conducted this interview correctly and that all questions are answered." He drops the phone on the table. “Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?”
Elon is gentle, despite his gruff appearance, and halfway through I realise I'm merely confirming things Tobias already told those who interviewed him. He doesn't attempt to probe my mind, and if he did, I would shut down. As Tobias instructed me on the night Nikolai died, I claim not to know any pertinent details. I can't answer questions about the guys' involvement in my escape, or how they managed, and my stomach lurches when Elon mentions he'll consider talking to them too.
The barriers that keep the estate protected also hide what happens inside. If there were any evidence of Izzy and Anton’s magic, nobody on the outside would be aware. Tobias must’ve used a lot of mental magic to soothe the Confederacy minds and blank their question: how exactly did we escape?
In addition to recording my answers, Elon makes copious notes, and I crane my head to see names with scribbled words beneath. He's impressed when I recall visitor names from the gathering, and he doesn't push for details about what Anastasia and Gabriella saw in my mind.
The one question I falter on is if I feel any different. At my silence, Elon looks up, no longer intent on his notes. "Did you hear the question?"
"I haven't spoken to Maeve about events since we left, but she would be an unusual person to feel no different after an experience such as that," interrupts Tobias. "Even I've been shaken by this and I've spent time in worse places."
Elon looks between us and returns to his notes. "I will ask the Walcott head to keep an eye on Maeve, in case she displays any signs of damage."
Damage. My mouth dries, but I'm immediately soothed by a projection from Tobias. I don't want Sofia involved, but how could she not be?