Capitulum IX

J ust as the lumbering shape shifted closer, I turned, trying to move as carefully as possible to avoid detection. But when I planted my cane into the earth, it squelched, and I lost purchase, landing face-first in the mud.

My palms went out to catch my fall, and the ground squished between my fingers. The dirt was soaked through as if it had rained recently. But then the smell hit me, thick and metallic.

Blood. A lot of blood.

I felt something under my palm. Wrapping my hand around it, I found it soft but hard at the core, like a finger.

A growl rumbled behind me, and I grappled in the soggy earth for my cane as a creature approached me fast. Feeling the wood against my palm, I swung it up in a wide arc as I flipped over, catching the creature by the nose and causing it to curl away just long enough to get my bearings. I dug my heels into the soil, but it gave way when I tried to move.

There was another loud growl, and the stars above disappeared as the heavy body pinned me into the soft earth. Luckily, I braced my cane over me just in time to catch the animal by the neck. It lunged, straining against the wood, and a rivulet of drool hit my cheek and slid into my ear canal, muffling its wheezing breaths.

I wasn't sure when I began screaming, but the force of it shot through my chest as I started getting lightheaded from keeping the gnashing teeth a few healthy inches from my face.

Once the initial confusion wore off, the real doom of the situation sank in. Every second I kept the thing away from me was a miracle. If someone didn't come soon, I didn't like my chances of spending the better part of eternity without a face.

My arms trembled just as I was surprised by a flash of sudden bright light. It jarred the animal just enough for me to kick it hard in the back legs, which buckled, forcing the creature away from my face.

In the new surge of light, I could finally make out what had attacked me. But even as I took it in, my brain had difficulty rationalizing it.

I'd never seen a wolf so big. That's what it had to be. With dark, wiry fur and piercing yellow eyes, it couldn't have been anything else. Despite this, I was sure they weren't meant to be quite so massive.

"What the fuck?" a familiar voice yelled, and I'd never been so happy to see the wiry dickhead.

I rolled toward him as the creature lunged our way once more. Rigel brought the heavy iron lantern down on its head, eliciting a shrill yip from the animal as it retreated.

"Come on," he yelled, grabbing me by the collar and dragging me across the ground like a sack of flour.

My foot had become dislodged, flopping around wildly inside my sock as I fought to keep pace with Rigel. It must not have been enough because he grumbled, scooped me up, and threw me over his shoulder.

"Ow," I yelled.

Though I couldn't say I wasn't unhappy to be putting distance between the wolf and us at a faster rate.

"What the hell were you doing?" He gasped, darting around the corners, the world appearing in flashes ahead of us as his lantern swung violently.

"I was trying to find Lindy."

My words brought us to a jarring halt.

"Did you?" He panted, panicked eyes growing distant.

I smacked his chest, looking over his shoulder to see if we were being pursued. "Why are you stopping? Move !"

He grabbed my wrist, holding it in place with a trembling hand. "Tell me why you're not answering the question, Agnes."

I kept glancing over his shoulder, sure I could hear movement from the maze behind us.

When my eyes flicked back to him, he slowly turned my hand in the lamplight. My stomach dropped as it shone with an unmistakable sheen of gooey blood.

"We need to get out of here," I said cautiously.

He met my eyes, still detached, and suddenly, I was genuinely afraid he would dump me where we stood and go back for her.

There was a loud rustling behind us, and my heart shot up between my ears. The sound snapped him out of his thoughts, and he dropped my wrist. His newly freed hand curled against the underside of my knee, holding my leg securely against him, as he dashed through the maze.

We hit a couple of dead ends before we finally reached the entrance, where many anxious people were loitering.

"Move!" Rigel yelled, pushing through them.

My screams must have been louder than I'd thought because students and faculty were rushing toward us.

Rigel paused just long enough to set me on the ground before bolting right back into the maze.

"Rigel!" I called after him, but the worried crowd swallowed his name.

Professor Algenette yelled for everyone to return to their rooms as she ran barefoot into the hedges, followed by the dining hall lady.

"Lord, girl, what's happened?" Stacy gasped, coming to a stop next to me.

"There's a fucking wolf in the maze," I gasped. "How the hell is there a wolf on campus?"

I could tell from her expression she was as clueless as me. Her head swiveled before landing on something to my right. "Oh, good. Can you take Agnes to my place until I can check her over?"

I turned, my heart stuttering, as Professor Faun came to stand over me.

"I think I should help."

"I'm the one that deals with the wild animals here, pretty boy." She nodded to me and then turned her back decisively, leaving us alone in the mess of worried students.

Face neutral, he picked me up mechanically. It reminded me of the night I'd lost my foot. It was so similar, and I wasn't sure I loved the full-circle nature. It felt more like being back at square one.

Once we were away from the crowd, I debated saying something, anything, to break the awkward silence. But the stiffness in his expression warned me off. Whatever feelings he might have produced for me in the past year had vacated the premises.

Silently, he opened the tree and carried me down the stairs, curling over me to dodge the low ceiling. He rounded the corner into the cozy, circular room, with its crackling fire and root walls strung up with a drying line of mice. The closeness sent a shock of his scent down my nose, and despite myself, a tingle traveled up my spine.

Once we were standing in the middle of thefloor, he froze. He didn't move to let me down, and when I glanced up at his face, it was still emotionless.

Then, without warning, he crumpled. His knees hit the ground with a sharp thud, making me flinch on his behalf.

He, on the other hand, didn't seem to have noticed. It was like he was deflating, posture softening around me as the arm supporting my legs released and came to wrap around my shoulders, clutching me to him.

Tentatively, I touched his chest, accidentally leaving a bloody handprint on his shirt.

"Why is it always you?" he whispered into the top of my hair.

A surprised laugh bubbled out of me. "You took the words right out of my mouth."

He leaned away, grabbing the arm I'd used to touch him and extending it, checking it for injuries. "Are you all right?"

"Physically or mentally?"

"Both."

"I'm fine on the first count, but the second is still up for debate."

"What were you doing?" he whispered.

"Looking for Lindy."

His eyes widened. He knew Lindy and I were cousins but still thought I was oblivious.

I tried not to sound like I was covering something up as I backtracked. "She's been ignoring Rigel, and he's been bothering me about it, so I decided to see if I could track her down and convince her to give him a clean break on my behalf."

He shook his head. "It's always someone else's fool's errand."

"Pathetic, isn't it?"

"You stole the words right out of my mouth."

I smiled at the way he mocked my voice. "Does this mean you don't hate me, then?"

"I could never hate you."

The words gelled all my muscles, and I melted into him, bringing my face to his. So close, the craving for him was breathtaking. I felt it in my teeth and behind my eyes, that need to taste him.

But to my horror, he pulled away.

"That's not a good idea."

All the happy warmth inside me soured, and I pushed myself off his lap.

"The other professors are probably wondering why it's taking you so long to deliver me."

He sighed. "Yes, I suppose you're right."

I turned my attention to the fireplace, watching the dancing flames as his footsteps disappeared up the stairs.

How embarrassing—on the heels of everything else, no less.

I shuddered, and I wasn't sure if it was from the blood and mud crusted to my skin or just leftover terror. I leaned in close to the flames, but the plume of heat reminded me too much of the wolf's breath, and I found myself cringing away.

When the door opened again, I had stripped off my sweater. I expected Stacy's heavy footfalls, but it was someone else's slow, soft steps.

Rigel rounded the corner, face slack and inscrutable.

I rose to meet him in shock.

"Rigel?" I whispered as he sagged into a chair.

"What's happened?" I asked, though based on his expression, I had my suspicions.

"They think it's her. They think she's..." He struggled for the words. I thought of the finger. That wolf had been pretty vicious, but could it really have been capable of that? Could it genuinely have reduced her to nothing but blood and shrapnel?"

"Surely not . . ."

"It's horrific. There's so much..." The rest of the sentence turned into a shudder that folded him in half, his head coming to hang in the space between us. "What am I going to do?"

From the walls crawled glowing mice, approaching him with twitching forked tails and curious noses.

When I remembered the creepy spider lady from whom they had come, I motioned for them to leave. "Not now, you little buzzards."

I was surprised when they exchanged looks before scurrying under the woodpile in the corner, though I could still see the glint in their eyes as they watched from the shadows.

A faint pop sounded, and I looked up to see Ephraim's door on the wall before me.

It swung open, and Ephraim paused in the threshold, seemingly surprised to see Rigel.

"Oh, you're here, too. No matter. Come in."

It was jarring to see Ephraim's office glow in the early morning haze. Fog clung to the towering windows, painting the red leather tomes behind his desk a sickly, bloody brown.

We settled in the familiar seats before Chancellor Ephraim's desk, Rigel keeping his face low.

"Does anyone want any tea?"

"No," Rigel and I said in unison.

"Right, very well." He rounded the desk and sat, desperately trying to smooth the black feathers still puffed up around his neck. "Well, I suppose I should start by saying that the threat has been neutralized."

"What the hell was that?"

"It seems to have been a dire wolf. Quite a powerful creature, but we've got it under control now. No need to worry."

"How the hell did it get in the maze?"

The kettle on his desk was on, slowly rattling, as the water inside crept toward its boiling point.

Ephraim watched it in wrapt fascination, seemingly to avoid looking directly at us. "We believe it was just an accident. It seems to have stumbled into campus and probably went to hide there to escape from the humans. It's not unheard of but very, very rare."

"What about..." I cast a sideways glance at Rigel to make sure he wasn't about to dissolve. "What about Lindy?"

Ephraim's face fell, and he took the kettle off its stand before it had the opportunity to click off. He busied himself pouring the water into his cup, which had bones nestled at the bottom.

"Oh, yes, well, that is a real shame, isn't it?"

"A real shame ?" Rigel hissed, rage smoldering off of him so powerfully I was afraid he would singe the chair.

I put a hand on his shoulder to keep him grounded. "So, you know it was her?"

"We've made a positive ID." He exhaled a long sigh.

"Are you sure? Why would she have even been out there?"

He picked up his cup, staring hard into the darkening water. "I don't pretend to understand what you kids get up to after school hours." He took a long swig, wincing as it scorched his throat on the way down. "But the important thing is that there's no more danger."

There was a crash as Rigel shot to his feet, his chair flying back.

"The most important thing?"

I got up, raising my hands to keep him from leaping over the table at the chancellor.

"I've been here a long time, young man. Much, much longer than you. I know how things work." He cleared his throat. "But I also sympathize with the pain you're—"

Rigel shoved my cane out of the way to clamber over the table at the old man, but I had just enough strength to yank him back by the collar.

"You people are fucked!" he yelled, jabbing a finger at Ephraim. "This whole place is fucked."

Seemingly unmoved by Rigel's rage, Ephraim leaned back. "You knew what you were signing up for, son."

"You fucking people are insane. How could you just let that happen to her? Why don't you give a shit?"

"All we can do is take measures to prevent it from happening again. There is nothing we can do for your friend now."

Rigel lunged again, and I grappled with his shirt, struggling to maintain distance between the two men.

"I think it's time both of you get some rest," Ephraim said. "But I will ask that you resist the urge to confide too many details with the rest of the student body. You can verbally abuse me all you want in this moment, as I'm sympathetic to how upset you are, but I will not tolerate fear-mongering."

The door swung open behind us.

I stepped in front of Rigel, shoving him backward toward it, while he fired off more choice phrases.

We'd been delivered to the Iudex dorm, and once the door disappeared, Rigel yanked himself free from my grip.

"This is bullshit," he said, collapsing on the leather couch in the lobby. "They're acting like it doesn't even matter that she..."

"I know," I said. "I'm sorry."

He leaned forward, resting his head in his hands as he said the next words. "What am I supposed to do with these feelings?"

"I guess you just have to let them happen," I said. "Do you want me to leave you alone to lament in peace?"

"No." He sighed, scanning the room blankly. His eyes weren't welling with tears or scrunched with misery. Instead, they were just vacant. "I don't know what I want to do."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I need to wash off."

I intended to give him an out, but instead, he got to his feet and looked at me expectantly.

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Inviting yourself to the show?"

"Don't flatter yourself," he said, though his voice was tired and flat. "You don't have anything I've never seen before."

I could hear my old nickname, "Tits," on the tip of his tongue, but his sad mood really had leveled him out.

I wanted to have a moment alone to process, but something strange about his behavior made me want to keep an eye on him despite myself.

"Fine."

As we wandered into the baths, I picked the first tub and closed the curtain definitively between us. It wasn't necessarily that I assumed he was desperate to leer at me, but he was so absentminded I was afraid he would inadvertently follow me out of habit.

I pulled my pants off first, finding them stiff, painfully affixed to my skin where they'd dried down. I cringed at the contrast of my bloodied skin against the glow of the sea glass tile. Reaching up, I felt all the blood and dirt matted into the back of my hair, wincing as I unbuttoned my shirt.

"Is the gouge new?" he asked over my shoulder. Rigel was leaning against the partition, only half outside the curtain. He had a flowery bath soak over his eyes, but the outline of his glassy irises peeked through the mesh and dried petals.

"Stop being a creep."

"I'll close my eyes when you actually show something interesting. Scout's honor."

He was trying his hardest to animate his words with his usual jeering inclination, but each one fell flat.

"You, for sure, weren't a scout."

"Scumbag's honor, then, whatever suits you."

"Fine, but just know you're abusing my goodwill right now."

"Noted." He nodded to the back of my leg. "The gouge?"

"It's from last year."

"Looks painful."

"It was," I said, getting to the last button. "Eyes now."

I made sure to watch him that time as he covered his eyes completely, and I tugged at my shirt.

Thoroughly waterlogged from the altercation, it had to be peeled away like snakeskin. But just as I got it free, something fleshy dislodged and thumped against the tile.

Turning, I searched the ground and froze when I realized what it was.

The finger had gotten wedged inside my collar during the scuffle and was balancing in the grout line next to the bubbling cauldron of water.

"Dare I ask which part of you fell off?"

My stomach dropped.

"Don't worry about it."

I could already sense him deciding to peek, so I kicked the finger into the water with a plop.

"What was that?" he asked, and by the time I turned, he'd fully removed his hand from his face.

"Really, it's nothing."

I silently begged for his eyes to stay on me, but instead, his attention strayed to the tub, where the finger bobbed in the current.

"Rigel," I warned as he approached it, head tipping in confusion. I held my breath as he plucked it out of the water, examining it closely.

"Agnes," he said, bewildered. "This isn't her finger."