Gothicana

CHAPTER 17

Corvina

The next morning, Verenmore was buzzing with the arrival of Troy’s brother.

Corvina looked around the Main Hall at breakfast, amazed by how quickly the human mind could shift gears from grief about an acquaintance’s death to excitement about a stranger’s arrival.

“But he’s not just any stranger,” Erica told her conspiratorially, cupping her mug of coffee with both hands. “He’s one of Verenmore’s alumni. He graduated and joined the International Investigation Squad.”

Ethan played with the noodle on his plate, his jaw tight. “Troy told me he’d wanted to come to Verenmore to be like his brother. Make him proud. He idolized him.”

Fuck.

For some reason, that hurt even more. Corvina glanced at Jade who just stared out the window, barely touching the food on her plate. She extended the apple she’d brought for herself to her roommate, giving her a soft smile. “Starving yourself will only make it worse.”

Jade sighed and took the apple. “I know. I just... it feels so empty without him here. Like a chunk is missing.”

It was. Troy had had a unique, bright energy to him that had lit up the whole group. Corvina, who usually didn’t like many people, had really, really liked him. She missed him and the way he’d been with her.

Turning her eyes away, she blinked in surprise as Mr. Deverell made his way towards her table, a serious, intent look on his face. Her knees started to get jittery, her heart pounding as she looked around to see everyone quieten, watching him with curious, surprised faces.

He stopped behind Jade’s chair, his magnetic eyes on her, and took a folded piece of paper out of his pocket. “Your request to make a call has been approved, Miss Clemm,” he informed her, extending the paper to her. “Please give this to your person of contact in the Admin office. They’ll guide you further.”

Corvina wiped her palm on her skirt and took the paper. “Thank you, Mr. Deverell.”

He gave her and the table a curt nod, and departed.

“What was that?” Jade demanded, her eyes wide.

“I need to call someone and the office told me I needed someone from the faculty to approve.”

“But Mr. Deverell?”

“He just overheard me in the office,” the lie rolled off her tongue smoothly. Jade frowned but leaned back in her chair.

“He just unsettles me,” she told the table. Yeah, he unsettled her too.

Done with her food, Corvina stood up and hiked her bag over her shoulder, gripping the paper in her fingers. “I’ll go make the call. See you guys later.”

They all waved her goodbye as she hurried out of the building into the misty morning. The fog had thickened so much she could only make out the shape of the Admin Wing ahead of her, the smoky arms wrapping around her, alienating her from everything but them.

There was something about that moment, that place that hit her like déjà-vu. Standing in the middle of the garden like that, Corvina could almost believe she had been there before, could almost believe she was in another time long past, with the same castle walls looming ahead, absorbing secrets never to tell with each tick of the clock.

Thunder rumbled in the sky, a gust of wind blowing over her face, the fog circling around her. The sense of foreboding came with the phantom ants scattering over her arms.

Rubbing them down, Corvina shook off the air of gloom and marched across the garden and around the side to the front of the Admin Wing.

A hedge of dark red roses in bloom that she’d not noticed before caught her eye, the red as deep as the blood that had pooled around Troy’s head on the ground. In a slight daze, she walked to the blooms, the fingers of her free hand going up to stroke the velvety petals, their texture as soft as a scrap of silk created by the death of a thousand worms.

The morbid thought jarred her into movement. Her hand caught on one of the stems, multiple thorns pricking her finger.

“Ow,” she winced, bringing her hand back, her eyes on the droplets of her blood sitting on the fat thorns, ready to be drunk down like a vampire tasting blood. Clearly, she was reading too much Dracula.

“Be careful of those roses,” a gruff voice from behind her made her turn as she turned to find a big, muscular man with close-cropped hair and dark blue eyes standing in the driveway next to a silver pick-up. He locked the vehicle and shoved his hands in his thick coat pockets, a piercing in his ear glinting.

He halted suddenly when he looked at her, shock covering his face for a second.

“Purple eyes.”

Corvina was puzzled. She didn’t know this guy. “Excuse me?”

He blinked once. “Nothing. Just reminded me of something.”

“Um, okay. These roses?”

“They’ve been around since the university began,” he eyed the bushes behind her. “I fell into them one time during a fight. Suffice it to say, never went near them again.”

Corvina looked at the blood on her hand. “But how is this possible? Roses don’t live that long.”

The man shrugged his large shoulders. “How is anything possible at Verenmore? Some things just never had explanation here.”

With that, he went inside the building and Corvina followed, as the spectacled guy behind the desk looked up in the middle of a yawn, his eyes widening upon seeing the guest.

“Ajax Hunter,” the man introduced himself in a gruff voice. “I’m here for my brother, Troy Hunter.”

The guy behind the desk nodded. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Hunter. Please wait here while I get someone to help you.”

Ajax gave a curt nod. Corvina stayed at the side. Her phone call could wait while Troy was being taken care of first. This was his brother, the brother she was supposed to tell something. But what?

“I’m sorry for your loss too, Mr. Hunter,” Corvina gave her condolences. “Troy is missed.”

His sharp eyes assessed her. “You knew my brother?”

“Yes,” Corvina fiddled with the strap of her bag. “He was my friend.” And he wanted her to tell him something. How he died?

“Do you have any idea why he jumped off a roof?” Ajax asked, leaning against the desk, turning his full attention to her.

Corvina mutely shook her head.

Ajax looked down at the little blood on her hands. “Was he suicidal?”

“Not that I know of, no. There’s-” she bit her lip, wondering if he even knew about Alissa and the similarity in their deaths. Was that what she needed to tell him?

“What?” he demanded.

“You’re an investigator, right?” Corvina needed to confirm this.

“That’s right,” he watched her with those eagle eyes, narrowing them slightly. “You think there’s something that needs investigating about my brother’s death?”

“Absolutely not,” Kaylin Cross’s hard voice interrupted their conversation as she entered the room. “His death was a tragedy. My condolences, Mr. Hunter. Miss Clemm, you should get to class.”

Yeah, she doubted she’d be able to get her phone call now.

“Nice to meet you,” she gave a small smile to Ajax and moved to the exit.

“Hey! You dropped your paper.”

Corvina turned to take the paper he was extending to her, frowning because she had her paper in her hand. However, with Kaylin watching them both with narrowed eyes, she took it with a thanks and left.   

Once out of sight, she quickly unfolded the paper, looking at the quick note he’d scribbled, not even knowing how he’d written it with Kaylin right there.