Page 83 of Divine Oaths

I glanced to the desk near the bed, where my wallet had been placed. Someone had taken out my ID and left it on the table. My book bag was on the ground, and beside it, a canvas tote had been filled with clothes from my dorm. And then there, on the desk near my things, were the gloves I’d been missing since I first arrived at Westfield.

“Vivian and Luke,” Kasem said. “They stopped by earlier.”

I picked up the gloves, staring at them in disbelief before tossing them in my bag.

“She’s so dead. She’s so, so dead.”

I’d been sure I’d brought my gloves with me, and all this time, they’d been pilfered from my things by a poltergeist. Kasem gave me a curious look, his lashes fluttering in surprise. He looked so genuinely concerned and boyish in that moment that I laughed.

“It’s nothing,” I said. I didn’t feel like explaining this new development about my stolen gloves. And to be honest, I was too tired to be anything but relieved that now I had two sets of protection against unwanted visions.

Kasem approached my bed.

To my surprise, he leaned in, settling so close I couldn’t help but turn to face him. In his brown eyes, confliction loomed.

“Do the gloves help?” he asked.

“What?” I said, my gaze shifting away shyly. “Oh. Yes. They do. How did you know they would?”

“I didn’t,” he said. “But you were wearing ones at that pawnshop. When you mentioned your powers being triggered when your fingertips touched things, and with what happened in the quiet room, I made the connection. It was a last resort.”

“Nice observation,” I admitted.

Angelica peeked her head around the other side of the curtain.

“Your brother just messaged me.” She paused. “He heard about what happened. He’s coming to see her.”

The mention of Jojo sucked the air from the room.

The softness in Kasem’s expression dimmed, his lips curving in a twisted smile, as if he’d come to a conclusion for whatever he’d been internally debating.

“You don’t have to go,” I said when he stood to leave. “Just stay. Talk with him. I want you both here.”

He wouldn’t look at me. I hated when he did that, how far he seemed even though he was here with me.

“He won’t want to see me. And he’d probably be right for it. I’ve put you in harm’s way enough as it is. Besides, I don’t want to keep you from getting rest.”

There was no point in trying to argue with him. So we said our goodbyes and I watched him go, longing for him still.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Then, I confess

JOJO ARRIVED NOT LONG AFTER Kasem had left. He looked distraught, like he’d raced straight to the medical ward from wherever he’d been.

“She’ll be fine. Go see for yourself.”

Angelica retreated to grinding herbs for her tea in the front.

The moment he was at my side, Jojo reached for me, brushing my cheek, checking my forehead, concern drawn through his expression.

“What happened?” he said. “Are you okay?”

I swallowed. Part of me was afraid to hear his response if I told him what I’d seen. The other part of me, the part that had been so angry for so long, was shell-shocked, defeated.

“Sianna, talk to me. I’m listening.”

I pressed my eyes shut, playing with the frills of the lace gloves as I composed myself.