Desolate Me

Read All About It

I got my stuff together and turned in my lab notes, the teacher glancing up and nodding. I was sure she had no idea who I was but that didn’t really matter. As long as she gave me an A, I wasn’t going to object.

“So…”

“I need to talk to you about something. It’s important.”

“Ok…it’s not like I have anything else to do.”

He took my hand and led the way back to the main building. None of our classmates said anything about it which didn’t surprised me. My popularity had died when another popular couple broke up a couple days before. I was invisible again which was what I wanted.

“Make yourself at home.”

He’d unlocked the door and opened it. I’d only been in here a handful of times and every time I felt the need for several layers of sweaters. This time was no different.

“It’s freezing in here,” I joked. “Even for my standards.”

“I apologize.” He adjusted the thermometer and grabbed a blanket off the back of one of his chairs. “I wasn’t expecting company or I would’ve made sure it was warmer.”

Interesting considering he was the one who asked to talk.

“So what’s up?”

His brow crinkled. “I’m still getting used to these…”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Two things, one more serious than the other.”

“If it’s about Erik, I know he…”

He waved away my words. “It’s not about my brother.”

“That can only leave your cranky uncle.”

“Indeed. He wishes to have dinner with the both of us tomorrow night.”

“Can I say no?”

“Yes but it would be ill advised.”

“Darken, I don’t want to have dinner with your uncle. You I can handle but he’s just…I don’t want to spend anymore time with him then I have to.”

I was sitting in one of his chairs in the study so he pulled another forward so he was sitting in front of me. I actually liked the set up of the room since it closely resembled the way I had mine when I was living here. There were books everywhere, even on the tables. I was always calmer around books.

He was only going to pat my hand but when he felt how cold they were, he wrapped both of his hands around mine. The gesture wasn’t unwanted so I let him keep my hands in his.

“I know you see him as the villain, Cass, but he just wants what’s best for you.”

“Well, you can tell him, along with the daily report card I know you give him, that I’m fine. I have this fancy doodad now and I haven’t performed any magic today. Not even to turn off my alarm clock this morning.”

That got me a smile. “That’s good to hear but I never suspected you as the type to use magic for the little things. This—” he brushed his fingers over the bracelet “—is pretty pointless.”

“I don’t know. I think it’s pretty neat. The colors even swirl sometimes.”

The skin on his face tightened and his eyes lost all their humor. “What?”

“It’s nothing horrible. In bio, when I was talking to Gwen, the colors swirled.”

“That’s…not good, Cass.” He stood up and went to get his phone from the other room. “For how long?”