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Chapter 43 : I’ll Ask Him Tomorrow

*Lena*

I hadn’t seen or heard from Xander in a week.

I’d spent most of that time in bed. sweating beneath three thick quilts and even thicker flannel pajamas while Heather fussed over me, making sure I was taking the antibiotics the doctor had prescribed for what he said was a severe viral infection of some kind.

All of it felt odd. The days passed in a blur, day fading into night over, and over. I didn’t seem to get better, however. My body was numb and frequently chilled despite how warm Heather tried to keep me.

The worst of it was having to come clean to both of my roommates about what had actually happened in Crimson Creek one feverish night when I’d spilled hot soup on my shirt, and Heather helped me remove it.

They saw the long, jagged scars across my belly, and had screamed, then were frantic and shocked beyond belief as I told them the incredible and unbelievable story.

I’m not sure if they believed it. They probably thought it was some tall tale my fevered mind had concocted.

But something changed the night before graduation.

Viv came into my room, balancing a large, hot mug of tea in her hands. Her face was drawn in a grimace, and in a split second, I knew why. I sat straight up.

“Where did you get that?” I cried, and Viv looked at me in shock. She set the mug of murky black liquid on the beside table that seperated my bed from Heather’s bed.

“Xander dropped it off. He said you liked this tea and he could only get it in Crimson Creek.”

I paled, looking down into the mug and watching the sheen that had developed on top of it. Blood root. I hadn’t seen him because he went back to Crimson Creek.

“Is he here?” I asked, but Viv shook her head, looking a little sheepish.

“No. He left in a hurry. He told me how to brew it and I… do you really like it? The smell is just awful. I was going to try it but-” she held her stomach, looking a little green.

“How did he know I was sick?”

“Viv went to him the night Slate assaulted you,” Heather said from the doorway, unwinding her scarf from around her neck and tossing it on her bed. I hied to swallow but found it impossible.

“I told him what we thought happened. And then when you got sick I… I know his roommate Adrian; we have classes together. I told him you were sick and then didn’t see him again for several days.”

I brought the tea to my lips and drank deeply, watching the disgusted looks on my roommates’ faces as I tilted it back and drained it.

is it?” Heather asked as she took the empty mug

said, then watched as she began to put the

mean… everything you told us about Crimson Creek… it actually

on the pillow and

to me. He’d gone all the way to Crimson Creek and back just to

and pale moonlight was drifting through tire frosted windows as I stood. There was no shake, no pain my bones and joints. My skin wasn’t hot

I was healed, entirely.

into tire moonlight as a weight settled on my

had sent me into a fever. Blood root had made

What did this mean?

only one person who I could ask. And

At graduation.

***

had been moved from the shabby conference room in the library to the small auditorium used almost exclusively by the theater club. I’d never been inside, not in tire three years I’d spent on campus, but found it cozy

with my legs crossed, running my palms over my jeans as Heather and Viv mingled with a group of students in tire aisle near the row we’d chosen to sit in. I’d promised my parents that if they’d just let me get this small formality out of the way, I’d walk in the official graduation ceremony in May, wearing a cap and gown and letting the announcer call my full, formal

enough time would’ve passed by then for my friends to get over their shock, and likely anger, at the fact I’d hidden my true identity from them for so long. I hadn’t told them, not yet. In fact, wanting to tell Heather tire truth was the last

now to say anything. No, not yet.

with floral arrangements from “Mom and Dad,” and my roommates and I had our coffee with the rich smell of lilies and roses permeating the air of our tiny apartment after we’d brought them

she was to accept Abigail’s diploma for her- since she was still

did a double take before quickly turning my head away from the entrance of the theater. Xander had just walked in,

me, but I stifled my nervous expression and pretended to be reading the pamphlet in my lap,

didn’t sit nearby. Not in front of me, at least. He wasn’t in my line of sight when Heather and Viv finally sat down and the lights

office stepped onto the stage, her dark hair shimmering in the lights above her head. She looked around, smiling broadly as she

then went through a little spiel. There were many murmurings in the crowd, all whispers about who she was, and what she was doing here. It was likely no

names of every graduate. Heather went up to the stage, met with applause. Viv accepted Abigail’s diploma,

were blinding enough that

smiled, handing me

it, giving her a

I’d heard a rumor I was in the running for valedictorian of my graduating class as well. As I walked back to my seat, I began to wonder what people would think about tliat. Would they

not to think about it as I sat back down, Heather and Viv squeezing my aims in silent congratulations as the rest of the overachieving seniors made

called, and I watched as he walked across the

the way he narrowed his eyes at Mara, the way he leaned in

kept her expression despite the sharp look on Xander’s face. What