I looked around, bewildered, as the implications of his words sank in.
We were on the grounds of Malcroix Bones Academy. Without a mirror. Without anything.
He’d brought us back to the Great Lawn.
Vulcan Lake sparkled under the moonlight just west of where we were. I could see a few lights on in Malcroix Mansion up on the hill, and a few more in the various college buildings that lived mostly on the other side of the lake.
Most of those windows were dark, however.
Somehow, he’d traveled us here without a mirror, without wings, without a carriage, and practically instantaneously. How could he travel like that? Had he used some kind of teleportation spell? I’d never even heard of such a thing, and what would that even mean, when it came to the dimensions between Magique and Overworld? How had he gotten past the Malcroix protection fields, the chimeras that guarded the school, when no one could even sneak a hand mirror in here without it being detected?
Then again, how could anyone do what he’d done to Ankha?
I pushed my questions aside, and fought to slow my breaths.
Before I could bring myself to speak, his deeper voice broke the silence.
“We should go into the lake,” he said. “It’ll be fucking torture, but we might have to. We’ll go up to the campus directly after.”
“No.” The thought made my bones hurt, my teeth rattle. “No. I can’t. I really can’t.”
“We have to.” His words were insistent now; he’d made up his mind. “We can’t go up there like this. We fuckingcan’t,Shadow.”
“Use magic.”
“What the fuck kind of magic?” he growled. “Cleaning spells aren’t for people. You’d rip off a whole layer of your skin. Somehow, I don’t think that’ll make either of uslessconspicuous.” His voice grew impatient. “Come on. Get up. I won’t let you drown. Or freeze to death. We’ll go in together. The sooner we get it over with, the better.”
When I didn’t move, he walked towards me with forceful strides, and without seeming to slow his steps, he scooped me up off the grass and into his arms. I kicked against him feebly for a few seconds, but my heart wasn’t in it. I really was exhausted.
I also wasn’t entirely sure he was wrong.
For the same reason, I didn’t scream, even when he walked both of us into the freezing cold lake without putting me down.
I clung to his neck, my teeth chattering for real, and completely outside my control. I swore in several languages right by his ear, but only clung to him harder. He walked us both out deeper until he was in up to his chest, then, still holding me, he bent his knees to fully submerse us in the dark water.
He still gripped me tightly when we both came up, gasping.
That time, I really did have to bite my tongue to keep from screaming.
“Rub your face,” he said, gruff. “And your hair.” He paused, then added, “I need to do the same, Shadow.”
My teeth still chattering uncontrollably, I nodded and climbed out of his arms.
Without letting myself think about any of it, I did as he said.
My whole body was shaking violently, but I scrubbed my face and neck and shoulders with my hands, then dunked all the way underwater and scrubbed and rubbed at my hair. My breaths got short and painful within seconds. My face hurt. My arms ached. I started losing feeling in my legs and feet, until I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to walk myself out.
I was still rubbing my arms and sandals and clothes when Caelum walked back up to me, forcing his way through the water to reach where I stood.
His hair was white again. His face was pale and pink in equal measure.
Again, he didn’t ask, but wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up.
It wasn’t until then that I realized he no longer wore a shirt.
“I transformed it,” he told me, nodding towards a stick floating on the surface of the lake. “You’ll need to do the same with everything you’re wearing when we get back. And take a real shower. With soap. Not too hot, though, not at first, or your body’ll go into shock.”
I stared at the stick that had been his shirt, then at his bare chest. He was no longer wearing the gold paint, but I saw some remaining smears of it.
