30. Pandora

Isat on the edge of my bed, fingers tracing the softness of the blanket that lay crumpled in my lap. My silky hair formed a curtain around me. Even in my dorm, I didn’t feel safe. Not after that nightmare. I was a soul eater, and I knew I shouldn’t be uneasy all of the time—but I was. Maybe it was something I should’ve talked to Hunter about, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it. Maybe it was some freak accident?

But there was so much malice in her eyes. I wouldn’t forget her face if I saw her, but I hadn’t seen her since the nightmare.

The desert sky outside my window was ablaze with fiery hues of a sunset I used to only be able to dream of. The life that I lived now was a life I could’ve only dreamed of. It was surreal.

Hunter and I had our counseling sessions every Tuesday and Thursday, and there was a wall between us that hadn’t been there until the day he sat next to me on his sofa and touched my shoulder. It was alienating, and I didn’t like it. It was as if my soul rebelled inside of me every time he tried to put distance between us. I didn’t understand. He had said he wanted to be friends, but lately, I felt like I was just a job to him.

I hadn”t spoken to Hemlock since that day at the library when his anger had exploded after I had interrupted him and his brother. I could still feel the weight of his eyes on me in classes and on campus, though. There was an unspoken war between us now, and I saw him as nothing more than my enemy. When he was sober that day, there was a hint of something with depth in his eyes, but he masked it as soon as I saw it.

My thoughts drifted to Skel. He was an enigma wrapped in the fae smoke that he exhaled. He got me high that night, a moment of escapism for me that felt like a betrayal to my desire for stability. I hadn”t spoken to him since, but the memory of his green eyes was both a torment and a temptation. Several times, I had debated going to the common area in the middle of the night to see if he was there.

Then there was Dex, the shadow that haunted my nightmares, literally. His mere presence sent me into a panicked flight, echoes of my mother’s shadows in his. I knew I was running from more than just him; I was running from Mother’s memory.

But Reed was the one I had become the closest with. Sweet, dream-walking Reed, who had not pulled me into his dreamscape again. I missed him, and I missed the solace that his presence had brought me inside of his dreamscape, however fleeting that night might have been.

My musings were shattered by the sound of the door swinging open. Dreadful sauntered in, a vision of confidence and bliss in contrast to my self-imposed isolation. She tiptoed over to my side of the room and extended a cute cheetah-print bikini to me.

“I bought this for you,” she announced, her voice sugary with that false sweetness I had become accustomed to. “As a peace offering. I want us to be friends again. I”m sorry for being a bitch.”

I eyed the bikini warily, my instincts screaming that something was definitely up. My ring turned black at Dreadful”s approach – a clear sign of her intent. She and I hadn’t really talked at all since our last interaction after my nightmare. But curiosity clawed at me, and I was bored and lonely just staying in my dorm all the time, so…

That was how I ended up walking to Odyssey Bluff with Dreadful, wearing our bikinis. I wore a swimsuit cover over mine, and I excused myself to the bathroom to put a waterproof dressing on my thigh.

The desert gave way to a rocky cliffside that overlooked a lake so clear I could see all of the colorful glass-like rocks at the bottom. A rickety bridge spanned the cliff, leading to a sandy beach that we walked upon.

“Woah,” I blurted, glancing at Dreadful for only a moment before turning my attention back to the beauty of nature. “This is amazing. I’ve seen it from afar, but this is my first time being so close to it.”

The scent of fresh water mingled with the earthy aroma of sand and stone, but it was a different kind of sand and stone than the cellar I rotted in. The laughter of the group of nobles Dreadful hung out with felt like a physical touch, but it was one where I wasn”t sure I was actually welcomed.

Voidfire, the fear demon Dreadful was close with, was there with a few other demons I recognized. Nightwind was there, too.

Dreadful, true to her stupid namesake, smiled a pretty and deadly grin at me that gave me chills all over my body. “Why did you wear that stupid wrap around your thigh? You know this is supposed to be fun.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely giving you attention,” Voidfire murmured cheekily, tossing her short red hair with a dramatic flip.

“That’s obviously not something I want,” I rasped, crossing my arms. My bag brushed against my hip, secured on my shoulder.

“Dude, your voice sounds like, really weird,” another girl giggled, and they all laughed.

“Did you suck too much dick?” Voidfire asked, her brown eyes in slits as she glared at me.

“Voidfire,” Dreadful hissed, rolling her eyes.

“What? I only meant that sometimes my throat gets hoarse if I do it too much.” Voidfire’s cheeks reddened.

I didn’t understand what I had done to make her hate me or the rest of them, but that’s fine. I had been through so much worse than they could give me.

The others joined in, their cruelty cloaked in a fake sense of camaraderie.

“Wow, guys, that’s so shitty.” Nightwind stood up for me. “She can’t help the way she talks, and even if she could, it’s actually sorta cute.”

“Oh, chill out, Nightwind,” another guy chuckled. “It’s all fun and games.”

I found myself edging closer to Nightwind, wanting to separate myself from those mocking me. But as I took a step, Voidfire and another girl, I couldn’t remember her name, reached out and gripped the strap of my bag.

“What do you keep in your bag, Gravesend?” Voidfire asked, mockingly tugging at the strap, her painted nails digging into the fabric like claws.

“Stop!” I shouted, but my voice wouldn’t go as loud as an actual shout. I swatted at their hands, but they dodged me.

“Yeah, what’s so important you brought it to go swimming?” The other girl grabbed the bag itself.

“What are you doing?” I cried out, clutching the bag, my knuckles white as I tried to hold on to it.

With a raw surge of violence, they wrestled and jerked the bag from my grasp before tossing it to Dreadful, the ringleader of their nobility circle.

Dreadful”s laughter was cruel as she pulled out Nebula and dropped my bag at her feet. The enchanted water bottle from Hunter rolled out. “Looking for this weird as fuck thing?” she taunted, holding Nebula above her head.

The sight of him in Dreadful”s hands twisted my heart with anguish, but my protests fell on deaf ears.

“Ew, what the fuck is that?” Voidfire screeched.

“She’s a fucking soul eater. Bet she ate its soul and kept the skull as a trophy,” a guy laughed.

They all took turns mocking me and Nebula, but a growl tore from my throat—demonic and threatening enough to make Dreadful pause.

“Let him go!” My voice was choked with emotion, my words a desperate plea for mercy for the soul-bound kitten.

“A step closer, and Nebula’s going to take a deep dive.” She smirked, slipping her fingers into his eye sockets.

“Don’t touch him like that!” In a flurry of motion, I lunged forward, my movements fueled by a primal instinct to protect the only soul that had been there for me with Mother.

But it was too late.

Rearing her arm back, Dreadful hurled him into the water. The splash echoed in my heart as I watched him sink.

I didn’t know how deep the water was, and I didn’t care.

Anguish and fury fueled my very core, and I plunged in after Nebula, the cold water submerging me to my waist. I couldn”t swim, but my desperation to save Nebula was a lifeline stronger than anything else. I dunked under, opening my eyes and searching around where he had splashed in, but I couldn’t see him.

I stood up, gasping a breath of air just as pain seared through my right arm.

A shadow demon from the group reached out with her shadow tendrils, and one had sliced all the way down my right arm, from shoulder to elbow.

“Oops,” she said in that same fake, sweet voice Dreadful used. “So sorry! I meant to help you find the weird skull, but I guess I slipped.”

My blood dripped into the water, and my skin stayed split open as the water washed away the gushing blood.

Something inside me just…snapped. Magic filled my veins, heavy and sludgy but at the same time like it was liquid fire.

“If I can’t find him, I will personally hunt each one of you and eat your souls!”

“You can’t even activate your?—”

Dreadful stopped short as my magic erupted, a plume of black smoke seeking vengeance as it poured from my lips.

It rolled forth, seeking out and brushing against the lips of the girl who had cut me. That was all it took for her to slip into the shadows, away from me. The entire group scattered with cries of fear and revulsion.

Dreadful had been the second to run away, and I knew I had scared them. Panic and fear slammed into me as my magic sucked back inside of me.

I sucked in a breath and plunged back underneath the water, but I couldn’t catch the slightest glimpse of him. And I couldn’t swim, so I couldn’t go further out, either.

How far could he have drifted? The water was calm.

I broke the surface with a ragged gasp, tears flooding down my cheeks at how badly I’d failed him.

“Hey, I found it,” a masculine voice said.

I startled, whipping my head toward the sound to find Nightwind wading over to me in the water. He held Nebula in his palm, his skull wet and forlorn. I immediately reached out and scooped him into my trembling hands.

“I…thank you, Nightwind,” I whispered, my gratitude mingling with confusion. I thought he was a jerk for how he treated Reed, but here he was, helping me find Nebula after his group of friends bullied me relentlessly.

“I’ll walk you back, yeah?” he offered.

I found myself nodding, Nebula clutched tightly to my chest.

After getting my bag and enchanted water bottle together, we made our way back toward campus, and the sky deepened into a bruised twilight, the last rays of the scorching sun bleeding out over the dunes. The air had cooled rapidly, and my wet hair and cover-up clung to my skin, an uncomfortable reminder of the whole ordeal.

“What happened, princess? Why are you all wet?” Skel’s voice tickled down my spine, making me straighten.

We were walking past Occult Arch, and I hadn’t noticed Hemlock or Skel there. I had been too caught up in my head.

Hemlock was swaying slightly, a bottle dangling from his fingers, while Skel sat in a languid sprawl, a wisp of smoke curling from the bowl of his magic pipe.

“And when did you start hanging with this douchebag?” Hemlock slurred, his red eyes squinting to focus on him.

Nightwind”s jaw clenched. “It’s not your business what she does,” he shot back, tugging at my arm, urging me to walk away.

Pain radiated up my arm since he’d grabbed the one that had been slashed, and I winced.

Skel”s gaze zeroed in on the blood seeping down my arm and dripping off my fingers onto the sand. I’d left a trail of blood behind me.

“What the hell did you do to her?” he demanded, rising to his feet with an agility that shouldn’t have been possible with his high.

“Why do you even care?” My voice was a raspy whisper.

Hemlock stumbled over, reached out, and grabbed my uninjured arm, pulling me away from Nightwind and toward Sunstone Revive.

My feet stumbled to keep up, my mind a whirlwind of confusion and exhaustion.

Skel fixed Nightwind with a glower as his fear magic whipped out at him. “Run, bitch.”

Whatever Nightwind saw in Skel’s magic turned him sheet white, and he scrambled away without so much as a glance back.

Skel turned to me with a murderous look. “Stay the fuck away from Craig Nightwind.”

“Why do you care?” I repeated, the question hanging in the air like a challenge between us.

“We don”t,” Hemlock slurred and stumbled off the sunstone as the healing magic got to work on my arm.

It tingled as the flesh moved back together, and relief hit me like a wave.

Skel’s lip curled into a snarl before he turned to follow Hemlock.

The rainbow smoke from his pipe was the last thing to dissipate.

Anger, confusion, and an odd sense of betrayal churned within me.

I glanced down at Nebula”s soaked skull cradled in my arms, and a surge of sorrow pierced me through the heart.

“I”m sorry, Nebula,” I croaked. “I”m so sorry.”

But Nebula didn’t manifest, and I was alone with the desert stars beginning to prick the night sky. I held him closer, the weight of loneliness pressing in on me again.