Jordan listened to the story with rapt attention. He shoved his food aside more for concentration than loss of appetite. “So where was Eva for all of this?”
“In the Rickenbacker medical center with Nurse Naranga,” Eva said, glad she and Zoe Baxter had come up with that cover story. “It was quite a shock to return to the room.”
“It was a shock to smell the hallway,” Irene grumbled, more to herself than anyone.
Eva gave the girl an understanding smile. The room smelled worse, but not by much. The real surprise for Eva was walking down the hallway.
At some point, the room entered her sphere of blood sense. She could almost ‘see’ the entire kitchen from the hallway. All the cupboards and the furniture, she could even tell where the ceiling was from the splatter that landed there.
It was all a bit disorienting.
Irene just shivered and looked down at her plate.
“Still though, first Shalise and now you?” Max glanced over at Eva. “Better be on your guard, you’re next.”
Shelby elbowed him in the side. Hard. Max doubled over, groaning.
“You can’t say things like that,” Shelby said. “What if she really gets hurt? Then how would you feel?”
Eva let her smile drop, but didn’t respond. They were probably after her in the first place.
Arachne now waited in their temporary room as a guard, just in case. If Eva had to run to the prison again, she’d probably bring Juliana with her. Eva was still unwilling to have the spider-demon anywhere near the nuns patrolling the campus.
Outside of their dorms, the nuns had almost tripled overnight. Two stood around the cafeteria and a fourth seemed to patrol between the tables every minute or so. Unnecessary, in Eva’s opinion.
She was still unsure what to make of Sister Cross’ theory of another necromancer in town. It seemed far-fetched. That there would be two separate groups of necromancers in town with both having run into Eva, or at least Eva’s room in the second case, she found to be incredibly unlikely. If it was true, however, they likely wanted the book as well.
What Eva really needed to do was inform the necromancers that the book was destroyed. For some reason, just hanging up notices like missing posters for a lost cat did not seem like it would do the trick.
“I can’t imagine having to sleep in that room.”
“We don’t,” Juliana said. “We’ve been moved to room three-eighteen until the room has been ‘sterilized.'”
“Even then, it can’t be pleasant going back to it.”
“I’m more concerned with my clothes. The things landed right by my bed. Some blood and puss got into my drawers.” Juliana sighed. “I think I have to burn the entire thing.” She pulled at the tee-shirt she had on, the only student in the cafeteria who wasn’t in uniform. “These are Eva’s even. Not that they’re bad or anything,” she said quickly with a glance at the owner.
Eva lightly chuckled and waved her off.
“Oh,” Irene perked up for the first time since lunch started. “We’ll go shopping after class ends. We’ll have to be quick though, curfew has been moved to an hour before sunset after your
“That seems odd,” Eva said. “A student is attacked in their dorm so now we have to be in the dorms sooner?”
Jordan looked up at Eva’s comment. “Professor Lurcher assured us that additional wards were being erected to prevent another incident,” he said.
Eva didn’t have much confidence in the school. She had half a mind to erect her full blood wards when they moved back into three-thirteen. Sadly, such a thing would be hard to subtly key in everyone to the wards. Eva couldn’t very well go around to the entire faculty and ask for a blood sample.
Not to mention the wards might be detected by the Elysium Sisters. Their complete capabilities were still a mystery to Eva.
“No more zombie talk,” Irene said, flicking a finger at Jordan. Her finger whirled around to Juliana. “We’re going to get some new clothes and a new uniform for you with no talking about zombies either.”
The bell rang with only half of them having finished even part of their food. Together they sauntered off to alchemy.
Alchemy was the odd class out. Unlike all the classes with proper desks, they had counters with sinks and gas valves poking out the top. Four students could fit at each counter rather than the three per desk.
Normally, Irene sat with Eva and Juliana.
Today, Eva watched with furrowed eyebrows as the brunette stopped and hesitated. She glanced at her usual seat at Eva’s side before hurrying over to Jordan’s table, taking a seat beside Max.
Eva shot a questioning glance at Juliana. The blond shrugged and shook her head, looking just as confused as Eva felt.
Without Shalise, their table was down to two.
