Page 65 of Evergreen

“Yes. But only just,” he nodded, shaking his head. “The Elder Council is in tatters. They said they couldn’t give me any details yet, but they wanted to make sure the pair of you made it out alright. I told them you did.” Dean Thornfield took a breath, his shoulders sagging slightly. “They also wanted me to inform you that the hearing regarding your grove has been postponed indefinitely. Given the circumstances, the Elder Council has more pressing matters to attend to.”

I felt my stomach clench. Part of me had been holding onto the hope that I’d still have a home to go home to, that I’d get confirmation it was still mine. But of course they had bigger problems now. The entire infrastructure of our world had just been attacked.

“What about the Purity Front?” Cass asked, his voice sharp. “Did they say anything about what happened? About who helped them get in?”

“No,” Dean Thornfield replied. “But I can tell you that the rest of the semester here at Widdershins Academy has been cancelled. Campus needs to be completely vacated within the next twenty-four hours, staff included. If there’s anything you need to take with you, gather it up now and go.”

“Go?” I repeated, the word feeling hollow in my mouth. “Go where? My grove is under dispute, and Cass...” I trailed off, looking at him. His parents had come and gone.

“Your parents have arranged for you to stay with them temporarily,” Dean Thornfield said, addressing Cass directly. “They called again this morning. They were quite insistent about it, actually. Said they’d already prepared a room for you and Linden.”

Cass’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. I could see the internal conflict playing out across his features. It was a safe place to go and his parents were welcoming us both in with open arms. But he was still furious with them, still hurt from how they’d treated him.

“We… we’ll figure it out,” Cass replied at last.

Dean Thornfield nodded. “Take care of yourselves. And hopefully, if the entire world doesn’t go to shit, I’ll see you both next semester.”

After he left, Cass and I sat in stunned silence for a long moment. The semester was over. Campus was being evacuated. And we were supposed to just... go somewhere and wait for the world to stabilize itself. The whole thing felt surreal, like I was watching it happen to someone else rather than living through it.

“Your parents’ place,” I said finally, testing the words out. “That’s not so bad, right?”

Cass let out a hollow laugh. “Twenty-four hours ago, I thought they’d never speak to me again once they found out about you. Now we have no choice but to move in with them.” He rubbed his face with both hands. “This is insane.”

“Yeah,” I agreed quietly. “But it’s better than the alternative.”

I thought about what would happen if we refused to leave campus. Where would we go? My grove was in limbo, and even if it weren’t, it was still partially destroyed. We couldn’t exactly camp out in the ruins while the Purity Front was probably making attacks across the country. And we couldn’t stay on campus.

“Okay,” Cass said, dropping his hands and looking at me with determined eyes. “Okay. We pack. We go to my parents’ place. We figure this out as we go. I’m not sure what else we can do.”

I nodded, grateful for his decisiveness. “We should probably clean up first. Shower, change clothes. We look like we’ve been through a war.”

“We basically have,” Cass pointed out, but he was already moving toward the bathroom. “Come on. We can shower together. It’ll save time.”

Under normal circumstances, that would have felt like an invitation laden with promise. Now it just felt practical, necessary. We stripped out of our filthy clothes and stepped into the shower, letting hot water cascade over us. I watched as the dust and ash swirled down the drain, taking with it the physical remnants of yesterday’s chaos. If only it were that easy to wash away the mental and emotional weight of it all.

Cass leaned against me under the spray, and I wrapped my arms around him from behind, resting my chin on his shoulder. His body was tense, coiled tight with stress and uncertainty. I wanted to tell him everything would be fine, that we’d get through this together, that the world would somehow right itself. But I’d never been good at lying, and he deserved better than empty reassurances anyway.

We dried off and dressed in clean clothes, then started the process of packing. I didn’t have much, just a few books, some clothes, and a few of my favorite plants. Once I was done, we made a stop at Cass’s room to gather his things too. Within an hour, we had everything we absolutely needed stuffed into two duffel bags.

As I looked back at the quad one last time, I felt a strange sense of finality. This college had been my sanctuary for almost four years. I was supposed to start the next phase of my life here. I’d met Cass, shared my first kiss with him, lost my virginity… so much had happened. And now we had to leave without warning and without the promise of return.

It made me feel hollow inside.

“One last stop,” I said, turning toward the conservatory. “I need the heartwood cutting. If something happens to the grove, it’ll be all I have left of my lineage.”

Cass nodded. “Let’s go get it then.”

The conservatory was eerily quiet as we pushed through the glass doors. The humid air hit me immediately, that familiar warmth comforting after the night we’d had. Everywhere the plants Cass and I had nurtured were sprouting, growing, and putting out new leaves. It seemed almost wrong that they should thrive given the current situation. I half expected them to wither under all the anxious energy filling the air.

I moved through the rows with purpose, heading toward a large clay pot that I’d been babying for months now. Inside was the heartwood cutting, now green and alive once more. Just a few weeks ago it had been a charcoal stub. But now I could feel the magic flowing from it, the same that I felt back in the grove. It was a small light in the darkness that now surrounded us.

“Linden! Cass!”

I turned around to see both Nerion and Teddy rushing through the entrance of the conservatory, relief painted across their features. They both stopped short, breathless and puffing.

“Fuck dude,” Nerion barked. “I… I was worried about you. You weren’t in your room… or Cass’s room… or some other fucking room…”

“We’re here,” I said, relieved to see them both. “We’re okay. We were just packing to leave.”