Page 73 of Lost and Bound

“Newsflash,” Orion says quietly, keeping our conversation private. “I don’t want you to go.”

Bugby takes flight, his massive wings thumping the air, and I wonder if he’s chasing the student out the door. Instead, he lands on my shoulder, his weight is soft like a feather, his presence a welcome and solidifying tether to what is important—friendship.

“There,” Orion snips, still warring with his emotions. “The dinosaur agrees with me. You’re not going anywhere.”

After I take a deep breath and check we’re alone, I go back to what I was trying to say. “I wasn’t talking about leaving Thales, Orion. I’m not giving anyone the satisfaction of chasing me away. Do you think we should leave this here for Master Maddern or someone from the faculty to deal with? Honestly, I doubt either will take the time, considering I’m a Nom.”

He pulls his phone out and takes a few photos. “Where’s your phone?”

“I never use it. I think it’s in one of my boxes.”

“I’ll send these to you, and we can draft an email to Student Services later. Hopefully, they’ll do something about it. Either way, your email will be in the system, which has to count for something.”

I’m not sure it will do any good, but I appreciate him for trying. I walk down to my room. “Let’s get this over with.”

Orion jogs to keep up, because even though the walls are saturated with their hate, there’s no way they wouldn’t have destroyed my room. All this is simply a precursor to the main event.

My emotions are overstimulated, twisting and turning with each step closer. But deep in the storm I know I’m not alone, and there’s a lot of comfort in that. Support turns to hurt, turns to humiliation, before it settles into a burning resolve to prove these assholes wrong.

“No one is chasing me away,” I growl, shoving my door open.

As expected, they decimated my room and destroyed what few things I had. I’d already prepared for how malicious their intent was, but it’s still gruesome to see. Nothing has been spared.

“What did they do with the rest of your stuff?” Orion asks.

I walk past what remains of my mattress to push the window up, hoping the air will blow away the nauseating stench of magik and sulfur that’s intertwined with the acrid smell of smoke.

“Wisely, Rodderick suggested I take everything with me for lockdown. Ironically, my wonderful housemates kicked me out before I could pack up everything, which pretty much saved my belongings.”

Orion makes an unintelligible sound before he spits out, “A kinda nice asshole is still an asshole.”

Assholes who could have done all this without raising a sweat. I force myself to look again at what remains of my room, searching for lingering signs of Emrys’ purple magik. Though there’s no signature left behind, there’s the odor of rotten eggs, suggesting a demon was involved, but I wouldn’t associate Bael to smell of anything like sulfur. But the fact is, I don’t know either of them well enough to know what they are capable of.

“I don’t want to drag you into whatever this is…” I wave my arm around.

“Do not even try to finish that sentence. As if I would leave you to put up with this fuckery on your own.” He grabs my hand, pulling me with so much force that Bugby’s talons nearly break skin.

But I’m glad he’s had enough, because I have too.

“We’re going to put your box in my room, then we’re going to the dining hall, where we’re going to sit-down and enjoy a potluck dinner and start plotting the downfall of this cohort. Then, when we’re good and ready, we’re having a sleepover.”

His resolution to protect me by not letting me run away and hide unlocks a memory. I know I’m not the only kid in the world to suffer at the hands of bullies, but my mom made me feel like I was the most important person in the universe that day. She sat me up on the kitchen counter so I was as close as I could be to her while she made a batch of my favorite cookies. She turned an awful day into a beautiful memory. I’ll never forget the words she shared: Insecure people steal your light because they’re jealous and tired of their starless nights. Don’t be afraid to shine because someone else is scared of the dark.

Almost as if Bugby is reinforcing the message, he launches off my shoulder and flies silently toward what waits for us.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

THE HIGHEST BIDDER

“I never knew Thales had this many students. Where have they been hiding?” I ask, making Orion mutter something under his breath.

Admittedly, it might be the fourth or fifth time I’ve said the same thing since we left Nomina, but I’m nervous. And he’s hangry, so I know his fuse is short, and I’m leaning into that because it’s a good distraction. At the same time, the sheer number of students making their way to the dining hall is mind-blowing.

Like what happened every other time, Orion vocalizing his frustrations is over in an instant, and in the next he’s making amends. “Sorry. I need food.”

“No apology needed. I’m sure I’m driving you crazy. But there really is…”

Rage baiting my new best friend really is the perfect stress reliever.