Page 9 of Venomous Lies (Greywood Conservatory for the Arcane #2)

Isla

TUESDAY

‘ T he sun is coming up, beastie. You do realize you need to sleep at some point, yes?’

‘Sleep is for amateurs,’ I replied absently. I was busy concentrating on my magick, weaving it through the cells of the plant in front of me. ‘I’m almost done with this one.’

‘You said that five plants ago,’ Cas snarked, resigned to my hyper-focus.

Carefully, I strengthened the stem with dark tendrils of green magick, happy when the plant managed to start standing straight on its own. Carefully arranging a stick for support, I gently tied the plant to it so that it could heal the rest of the way on its own. All the while, I hummed softly.

The plant rustled, the soft sound one of contentment, as it settled its roots deeper in the soil.

The edges of the leaves darkened, and the sweet smell of the plant changed into a more earthy, damp scent.

My magick might have helped the plant recover, but its genetic makeup had also been altered, changing it into a poisonous plant as a side effect of my assistance .

Most of the time, I tried to keep my magickal influence to a minimum because of the changes it brought about.

If I used my powers on plants of any kind, their basic DNA mutated, becoming something dangerous, poisonous…

I’d figured this out the hard way when trying to cultivate herbs.

Needless to say, my small garden at home was filled with plants that only I could enjoy.

Wiping my face, I looked around, satisfied with the progress I had made during the overnight lockdown. I’d carefully gone through every square inch of the greenhouse, digging up the lavender and putting it in containers to replant them somewhere else.

Just because I didn’t like lavender didn’t mean I wanted to hurt the plants. I just wanted them to be somewhere else. Far away from me.

‘You need to rest, beastie,’ Cassius insisted. ‘This place might make your powers seem limitless, but that’s not going to be true when you leave.’

He was right, of course, but part of me didn’t want to leave. The heady power was almost too tempting, too intoxicating, to walk away from.

‘At least rest and lay on the bed. I’m sure your moms have reached out again. Or Demir.’

He knew just how to get me to listen.

I’d reached out to Mom last night, and after a bit of back and forth, she had gone to work. They had been understanding of the fact that I’d been trying to adjust to a new school and friends, but when I said no video call… Well, Mom had plenty of opinions on that.

‘Let’s see if they got back to me.’

With fluid movements, I stood up, stretching my hands above me to get the kinks out of my back before making my way to the center room. Earlier, I’d thrown my laptop back on the bed.

A quick check told me there was still no internet, and my cell phone also had no internet or signal in here. Maybe it was the magick? Or perhaps it was simply being in the forest… Either way, that was something I wouldn’t find out until the lockdown was lifted.

Hopefully, that happens soon. I’m fucking hungry as hell.

My mom had, in fact, responded to me, wanting more updates.

Flopping down on the bed, I snagged a pen and wrote her back.

I just checked. I still don’t have any internet, so I can’t video call.

What do you mean, you still can’t video call?!

I sighed at my mom’s irritated reply. Rubbing my face, I tried to remind myself that screaming out of frustration would get me nowhere. The plants also wouldn’t like it—too much stress and negativity in the air after being alone for so long.

I’ve tried about five times already,

I wrote on the magicked paper in reply.

And nothing is working. I don’t think I have good signal, which makes sense given the school is in the woods. But we can message back and forth on this note... unless Demir doesn’t know you took this from him.

Of course he knows,

Mom replied back in her scrawling handwriting.

He said he’d buy another so he can talk with you too.

Smart man .

I smothered a laugh as I shook my head. No use fighting Mom when she had her mind set on something, a life lesson we’d all learned early on because it applied to everything—cleaning our rooms, participating in sports.

Hell, even when Mom tried to learn how to braid Demir’s hair.

She committed herself and didn’t stop until she figured it out.

Honestly, I was unsure whether Ma found the trait endearing or annoying.

Well, at least this way I can talk with all of you! Demir is the one that gave me the paper in the first place. I wasn’t ignoring you,

I reminded her for the millionth time. Or at least it felt like the millionth time.

Classes are going good. I’ve made a few friends. Just trying to get a feel of how the school works still. No issues so far.

There was just the matter of the campus lockdown.

Not to mention, I had a mate.

I’d survived a rut with an almost feral incubus.

All small details she didn’t need to know about because I had no idea how to fully process any of those three things yet.

I’m glad you’re making friends, bats. Your mom is happy about that too. She just worries… That’s who she is.

I smiled at Ma’s handwriting as it filled the page.

Remember to write to us and touch base. But right now, it’s too late for your mom to be up. I’ve had to force her to get some sleep, and you have class soon, I’m sure.

Thanks. Love you, Ma.

Love you too, bats. I’ve got to get to work, but I’ll write you soon.

Letting out a huge yawn, I leaned back against the small bed and laid the magicked paper on the bedside table. Talking to them had been great, though I had quite a few questions for Demir when I finally heard from him again.

Flashes of memory hit me as I ran my hands over the blanket on the bed.

Skin against skin. Fingers trailing along my sides, nails digging into me as Echo desperately tried to feed. The sting of him sliding into me after chasing me down in the garden beyond the glass panes of the small study where I currently sat.

I’d spent the past week or more trying to chase Echo down and make him listen to me. I was fucking tired of it. Exhausted, really. Maybe I had run when I should have tried to be more understanding, but I couldn’t explain things if he refused to be in the same room as me.

‘He’ll be ready to listen at some point, beastie.’

‘Why should I care about his timeline?’ I shot back at Cassius, instantly on edge. Why couldn’t he just be on my side? ‘This is my life, and I’m not apologizing for finding a fated mate. Besides, it doesn’t seem like Echo gives a shit about what’s going on given how he’s treating this.’

Cassius didn’t say anything, but from the corner of my eye, I saw dark smoke forming. His tattooed face stood out first, then his amber eyes. His focus was on me as I stood up.

‘I’m sure it was a lot to process on his end as well.’

‘What about my end of things, Cas?’ I argued. ‘What about the fact that I was fucking used for sex, for days, with no end in sight. He used me then ditched me like I was fucking nothing.’

When I stalked out of the room, Cassius kept pace with me in the glass panes, stopping just short of me when I came to a halt by the front door. Reaching for the doorknob came with a shock of warning.

The lockdown was still in effect. Why? What the hell is going on out there?

‘I’m not on his side, beastie. I’m just trying to be objective. ’

‘I don’t want your objectivity, Cassius,’ I replied coldly. Although I could sense the weight of his gaze trained on me, I didn’t bother to look over at him.

“Bones and I didn’t have a say in us being bound together by threads of fate.

I guess I don’t get a say in the ripples it causes either.

” My pain caused me to speak out loud instead of internally like we usually did.

A humorless laugh escaped as I reached out, caressing the leaves of a nearby plant. “How fitting.”

‘Beastie…’ He trailed off when I walked away from him, following the vines to the main part of the plant itself. ‘I’m always on your side.’

“Should I feel grateful that the mysterious spirit who’s been living in my mind is on my side?

” I felt emboldened here, in my element, and it loosened my tongue.

“I know nothing of you, Cassius, nothing . You help me when it suits you then leave me on my own when it doesn’t. Whose side are you on if not your own?”

‘Isla… It’s a complicated story, and I don’t remember most of it.’

I whirled around, anger pulsing through me. The branches of nearby plants trembled under the weight of my emotions as I glared at the manifestation in the glass.

“Are you saying I’m too stupid to understand? Too simpleminded, young, inexperienced? What could you possibly know that I don’t?! You live in my head! You say some cryptic shit and then ghost, leaving me scrambling, trying to pick up crumbs.”

‘Isla—’

“No.” I took a shaky deep breath and turned my back on him. “I’m fucking tired of everyone making me chase after answers while they claim to care. Echo seemed to care, but now that he got what he wanted, he’s gone. You’re there when you choose to be, then you block me out whenever it’s too much.”

My voice cracked at that, and memories of the one boyfriend I’d had in the academy hit me. Always too much, too loud, too everything… I was exhausting, and that wasn’t changing anytime soon.

‘Stop it.’

“Tell me something. Tell me fucking anything at all to show that you give a damn about me as more than just a body you’re stuck in,” I offered quietly, weariness dripping from every word as I anticipated him sidestepping yet again.

That was what he did best.

CASSIUS

‘I know Julian... or I did. Before.’

Fuck. Why did that slip out?

Of all the things to discuss, he was a topic I shouldn’t have picked. It wasn’t the right starting point, but, hell, it was too late.

Isla whirled around to face the glass that was holding my manifestation. Her hazel eyes were wide, her surprise making her lips part as she inhaled sharply.

My heart twisted at the shock on her face. I knew it wasn’t surprise at the information but rather at me actually opening up to her at all.

“Before?” She stepped forward, her surprise quickly morphing into a calculating expression. “You know the vampire that works in the library?”

‘One and the same,’ I responded. Squeezing my eyes shut, I recalled the aching longing that had hit me when I saw him through her eyes at the first assembly she had attended. It had nearly knocked me on my ass—or it would have if I had one—when the vampire had started talking to the students.

He looked the same as he had the last time I’d seen him, which wasn’t surprising, but there was a new weight and seriousness in his gaze that had been absent before.

Lines around his eyes that I hadn’t seen before.

He’d aged since my death. Knowing that and seeing it were two very different things.

“How?”

I opened my eyes and saw, on Isla’s tilted chin, a silent challenge. She wasn’t going to drop this, and if I was even a little bit honest with myself, this conversation was long overdue.

One of many, in fact… But that was too slippery a slope to contemplate now.

‘I knew him before I died,’ I said gravely, after a few beats of silence.

Isla stumbled back a step and I let out a small puff of laughter. Guess I’m dropping more than one secret today.

“You died?!”

‘I’m a spirit, beastie. I had to come from somewhere.’

“But how?—?”

‘That I don’t know.’ I held up my hands as I shook my head. ‘I died, and then I was this. If I knew how it happened, I would have tried to separate myself from you during your younger years.’

“When you terrorized me?” she asked. Hands on her hips, she walked closer to me.

‘I’ve already apologized a million times–’

“Make it a million and one. ”

‘I went from being my own person to becoming a figment in your mind,’ I reminded her gently. ‘Not my mind or body, but yours.’

Isla dropped her hands and sighed before nodding slowly.

“That does tell me something, even if it’s vague as hell… But that has nothing to do with Hellsing. Why are you avoiding talking about him?”

Hazel eyes studied me, so damn curious and cautiously hopeful.

It gutted me that she was that hesitant to trust me. Why would now be when she starts pushing me for answers?

Or maybe it was happening at just the right time given her new bond to the bone fae.

‘He was ? —’

I was interrupted by a powerful wave of magick surging through the air. The lockdown was lifted. Students were being instructed to report to the quad in an hour for a mandatory special announcement.

This isn’t good.

“Shit.” Isla looked torn between continuing our conversation and knowing she had to get moving.

‘Go, beastie. Get some food and clean up since you have to get there at a set time. We both know how long it’s going to take you to get ready.

’ I could feel her argument on the tip of her tongue, so I held up a hand to ward off the next thing she was going to say.

‘I’m not going anywhere, beastie. We will talk tonight when you’re not in the middle of things. ’

She hesitated, uncertainty lining her face as her gaze darted to her things then back to me.

“Do you promise?”

‘I swear it to you, beastie,’ I promised gravely. ‘I think it’s about time I share some things with you. It won’t be everything, but…’

“It will be a start,” she said firmly when I trailed off. I nodded sharply.

With that reassurance, she ran for her stuff and tugged on her boots. After hurrying to the door, she froze with her hand on the knob and looked over her shoulder at me.

“I’m glad you’re here with me, Cassius. No matter what you tell me, that won’t change.”

Without responding, I disappeared into a cloud of smoke, reappearing in the home I’d created in her mind.

We’ll see about that, witch.