Page 77 of Waysider
This time, Victoria heard it—the unspoken threat. Cass could tell from the way she stiffened. If Victoria’s tone had been cool before, it was practically glacial now. “Look, there’s a good reason it’s so forbidden,” she said. “The compound has addictive properties, and too much of it can change you or affect your abilities.”
Cass knew all that. She didn’t want to argue; she’d already made up her mind. “I need it for something important, okay?” Cass snapped.
Victoria frowned. “Like what?”
Cass didn’t see any way around it. She couldn’t think of a lie, and maybe the truth would mean something to Victoria. She was a voyant, after all. “I’m… I’m trying to help a revenant,” she said.
Relief flashed across Victoria’s face. “There are standard procedures to follow. You submit a report, and the school sends a team—”
“No.” Cass slowly raised her gaze, and she let Victoria see the hardness in her eyes. Slowly she said, “If I wanted to follow procedure, I wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
The Timekeeper’s jaw clenched, and Cass could see the debate raging in her eyes. Don’t make me say it, she thought. Cass really didn’t want to say the words. Just the thought made her feel dirty. There was also the risk that Victoria might call her bluff.
She waited a few more seconds, praying the other girl would just give in. Apparently Victoria Chen was as stubborn as she was, though. She raised her chin, and her mouth curled in silent defiance. Cass fought the urge to swallow, knowing Victoria would see it. She willed her insides to turn to stone. Fine. She’d be the bad guy. She’d do whatever it took, even if that meant losing a tiny piece of her soul.
“If you don’t get me the See, I’ll tell people about what I saw at the party,” Cass said.
The moment the words left her mouth, Cass wished she could unsay them. But there was no turning back now. She tamped down her guilt and shame. There was an awful, bloated pause as Cass waited for Victoria’s answer. She made sure nothing showed on her face.
“I need a few days,” Victoria said.
Without giving Cass a chance to respond, she stepped back and pulled the door shut, probably a tad harder than necessary. The sound echoed up and down the hallway. Cass turned away with a tightness in her gut—she got the feeling that she’d made her first enemy at Else & Bellows. But there was a small, terrible part of her that liked it. That thrilled at the chaos. God, what was wrong with her? Cass shook her head and hurried down the stairs, then down the hall, eager to leave the building.
“What the hell are you doing?”
The sound of Cal’s voice made her shriek. Cass spun to face him, and when she confirmed it was her brother standing there, she exhaled so hard that her chest deflated. Her alarm was instantly replaced by annoyance.
“This is starting to get creepy,” Cass snapped. “You can’t just follow me around and listen in on all my conversations.”
His nostrils flared. “Yeah, well, if I hadn’t followed you, I wouldn’t know about the See you just blackmailed that girl for. You’ve been doing so well, Cass. What have the drugs ever done for you, besides get you into trouble? Is this who you really want to be?”
A rush of understanding went through her—Cal thought she was addicted to See. He didn’t believe what Cass had said about helping someone. Why would he? As far as Cal knew, she still hated revenants. Was terrified by them. If Cass had just told him about Karen, maybe he would trust her now.
There was nothing stopping her from trying to rectify that now, she thought. Cass fought against a surge of anxiety she didn’t fully understand, but she met her twin’s gaze and said bluntly, “It’s for Karen Watkins. Her revenant has been trying to communicate with me, but everything she says is too jumbled. I need the See to establish a clearer link with her, then I’m going to find out who killed her and turn him over to the police. That’s it, I swear.”
Cal frowned. “Since when do you care about one of them?”
Cass faltered again. She didn’t know how to explain her strange connection with a dead girl, or the fact that it had gotten personal. “I don’t,” Cass lied. “But this girl keeps showing me awful things and fucking with my sleep. It’s getting exhausting. Maybe if I expose her murderer, Karen will… move on.”
Now Cal was silent for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then he asked, “Since when do you care about that, either?”
His voice was soft, but there was something sharp about the way he said it. Cass heard it and felt a quake of fear. They had to end this argument. Right now, before one of them said something they couldn’t take back.
“I’m not lying, okay?” Cass said. She turned away, shoving her hands in her jacket pockets. “We’ll have to talk about this later. I need to go. My first class is starting in a few minutes.”
She started to walk toward the exit. She’d only taken a few steps when Cal’s voice stopped her. “I’m not letting you drink that See.”
Cass stopped in the center of the hallway, her shadow slanting over the sun-drenched tiles. Silence swelled between them like an infected wound. Cass looked from the doors, then back to Cal. Why did it feel as if she were making a choice? Why couldn’t she just let this go?
Because letting go was just a pretty story people told themselves.
Something hard and painful lodged in Cass’s heart. She looked at Cal and remembered their last argument. Remembered the words he’d spoken to her like hard punches.
“You can’t stop me,” Cass said.
She didn’t wait to hear his reply.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
