Of Breakable Things (25 page)

“What are you up to?”

“History research for Paleo. It sounds very high school, but it isn’t so bad.” He twisted his head left to right and then leaned in close. “Don’t tell anyone, but research doesn’t make me want to slit my throat anymore.”

“Now that you finally have a brain.”

“My sentiments exactly.”

Alex stared at his paper. “Josephine Anovark,” she read. “Eighteen forty-nine to eighteen sixty-five to nineteen-oh-one.”

“It’s odd to have two death dates, huh?”

“She didn’t last very long. Who was she?”

Kaleb held up his notebook. “We were supposed to focus on the advancements within a particular time period, not the people, but I couldn't help myself. This chick was everywhere. She was the first advisor for the DeLyres and some sort of celebrity.”

“DeLyres?” Alex perked up. “I’ve heard of them. Who are they?”

She was joking, right? He studied her face. Nope, not joking. “You know … like our Chancellor?”

“Who?”

“The Chancellor basically runs the city, Alex. He’s in charge around here. You’ve been here a few months. You should know these things by now.”

Her Intro teacher must be slacking. She probably got stuck with Van Hanlin.

“You haven’t heard of someone named Eviar, have you?”

“Eviar?” Sounded like a brand of bottled water. “No.”

Disappointment clouded her face. “So the DeLyres are in charge, but this girl helped them?”

He nodded. “Actually, she even ran away with one of them. Except their little union didn’t last long because some lunatic named Syrus Raive hunted her down and killed her.”

“Why?”

“I think he was pretty irritated that she destroyed his side of the war.”

“And he killed her?”

He nodded. “Totally slaughtered. I’ll have to thank Paleo for assigning me a time period with such heartwarming stories.”

He was actually pleased that this project hadn't been a snore. The spirited world treated this girl like some sort of second coming.

Jonas and Chase arrived with steaming mugs. Jonas wore his typical peeved expression, and Chase seemed bemused. All was right with the world.

Alex lifted her bag and took out a text the size of a phone book. Because spirits could read so efficiently, the teachers assigned hundreds of pages to read for homework. He didn’t envy her right now.

“I still need to do that, too.” Chase sighed. “I usually like Van Hanlin’s law class, but amendments to transportation laws are just boring.” He opened his own law book. “Maybe I’ll just get that out of the way now. Let me know if you need help with it.”

“Or you could just do it and I’ll copy.” Alex suggested.

“Oh, may I please?” Chase turned to Jonas and reached for his notebook. “Can I borrow some paper?”

“No.” Jonas snatched the notebook and stuffed it in his bag.

Kaleb narrowed his eyes at his brother. “What’s your—”

“Here,” Alex said quickly, handing Chase several sheets. “Gabe gave me some earlier.”

“Where is he?” Kaleb asked. Gabe would be so proud of him for being interested in history, and he wasn’t even here to witness it. What a waste.

“He isn’t coming,” Alex replied. “Romey came to see him at the fields last night. He has to play watchdog for the front desk.”

Jonas began to gather his things feverishly. What was he up to?

“I forgot I need to go to the Grandiuse and check out some books.” Jonas scooped up his pile of belongings.

The only person less likely than Kaleb to check out books would be Jonas. Kaleb didn’t believe him for a second.

“Don’t you want your drink?” Alex asked.

“You can have it,” he said quickly. His sports gear spilled over the armload of books.

And now he was giving things out? Something was definitely up.

“That was strange,” Chase murmured after Jonas disappeared.

Kaleb nodded. “What’s in that drink of his? Hand me that,” he said to Alex.

She adjusted her seat to reach for the abandoned drink, and the leg of the chair caught on a backpack Jonas had forgotten in all his hurry. When Kaleb reached down to dislodge it from the chair, flower petals fluttered to the ground.

He made eye contact with Alex. Flower petals? Alex shrugged in response and held up the bag. There, condensed together snug as pickles in a jar, were dozens of yellow flowers.

Were these for Alex? She certainly wouldn’t admit it if they were. That girl could be so damn naive. Jonas could march into the Ex House wearing an
I Heart Alex
sandwich board and she would still deny his feelings.

The thing was, though, even if Chase saw the flowers, he wouldn’t do anything about it either. Hell, he would probably watch Jonas get down on his knees and give them to Alex and still keep his mouth shut. Kaleb didn’t understand it at all. Either Chase felt guilty, or he knew that never in a million years would Alex pick Jonas over him. This was exactly why Kaleb didn’t keep one girl around too long.

He watched Alex quickly close the bag, but not before the stench of moldy, wet dog reached his nostrils. He stifled a gag and swatted in front of his nose.

“Back so soon?” Chase called over the ruckus.

Jonas was pushing through the crowd again. Alex kicked the bag further away. It fell to the side, exposing a warped, brown water ring. She was a better person than Kaleb was. He wanted to call Jonas out on the flowers. Embarrass him. Knock him down a few pegs.

Jonas dashed through the maze of tables, his eyes bugged wide until he saw that his bag was lying on the floor, seemingly untouched. He breathlessly pointed to his property. “Oh good. I did leave it here. Can you hand my bag to me?”

When Chase passed it to him over the computer, Kaleb couldn’t help himself.

“You’re looking a bit
yellow
, brother.”

Jonas clutched his bag snugly against himself. “Huh?”

Alex smacked Kaleb across the chest, and he turned to smile mischievously at her. “Where are you going again?”

“The Grandiuse.”

“Back-
petaling
, are you?”

Jonas turned his heel. He didn’t get the joke. Moron.

Kaleb returned to his assignment and worked quietly for several minutes until something caught his eye. Parrish Park. The words were there on the page like old friends, waving and smiling. He kept reading.
Civil War. Soldiers. Cove.

He shot back in his chair. “Holy—”

“Kaleb!” Alex cut him off. He fought the urge to say the word just to spite her. They weren’t sitting in church or anything.

“Things just got weird. This girl.” Kaleb pointed to the computer. “Guess where she died?”

Alex shrugged.

“Take a wild guess.”

Chase stretched his body around Alex to get a look at the monitor.

“I’ll give you a hint. There once was a girl who fell off a cliff because there were confederate soldiers chasing her. Well, actually, this says they pushed her. I never heard that before. She died when she smashed into the rocks below. She paces the beach and haunts the woods around it, digging up the ground. Ring a bell?”

“What does the Parrish Cove Ghost have to do with anything?” Chase asked.

“The Parrish Cove Ghost is all over the time period I’m supposed to research.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It gets better.” Kaleb’s voice shook in anticipation. “She died there
twice
. In life, soldiers chased her to the edge, and then in death, Syrus Raive found her there once the Restructuring War ended. That was where he killed her again.”

Chase laughed. “So we were afraid of those woods for nothing? She only haunted them from … ” He glanced at her death dates. “Eighteen sixty-five to nineteen-oh-one?”

“Guess so! Hey, don’t tell Jonas. If we ever go back there we can make fun of him for being afraid.”

“You’re sure this was our ghost?” Alex asked.

“Unless there were two of them.”

“Because that doesn’t explain why footprints still show up on the Parrish beach.”

“Oh, don’t ruin the moment, Alex. Half the time the people who attempt to see the ghost pass out in a drunken stupor. Any idiot could walk by and leave footprints.”

He’d never heard the name Josephine Anovark in Parrish, but then again, he’d never tried to uncover the true identity of the cove ghost. According to his research thus far, before Josephine was recruited to help the DeLyres, she assisted the Ardor Service. She’d spent years helping them track down spirits who became unstable or who broke the law in significant ways. One of the spirits she’d helped to imprison was Syrus Raive, the man who later killed her.

The creepiest part was that according to the statements following her second death, the two had been friends.

August 1866

Dear Sephi,

I worry so often about a world the mind engineers. Your gifts cause you to question your sanity, and I admit I have similar concerns.

Sanity. Insanity. The line between the two blurs in dreams. You can get away with so much in the dream world. What makes this world any different? What is real, and what is not? I’ve been inside your head. Are things really the way you see them or the way I see them?

I’m pleased you were invited to speak to the Ardor Service at the Dual Tower. If you are amongst the strongest in the city, the risks are diminished.

If all goes well, perhaps you can introduce me to the infamous Ardor Westfall.

***

The man was up so high Alex could barely see his shiny shoes. Due to the gaggle of girls huddled at the foot of the ladder, she wondered if the invisible man was the notorious professor, Dr. Darby.

“Some of the animals get distressed in bad weather,” she heard a cheery voice call down. “Best to calm them before they get too worked up.”

Oh, it was Darby, all right. Gabe called him the zoologist to the dead.

Darkness lurked behind the glass of Duvall’s aquarium. Storm clouds blocked what little sun could break through the massive cover of trees. Alex took her seat, pulling out several of Eviar’s letters. She carried them with her now, justifying her obsession with the idea that it was comparable to carrying around a novel. And even if she wanted to leave them behind, the box found ways to sidle across the room and wait patiently by the door like a faithful dog.

Eviar’s talents kept growing, the most interesting being his ability to persuade. He began by willing other newburies to give him their belongings or homework, but he grew bored and began to use his skill for amusement. Alex had laughed out loud when she read about the day Eviar persuaded Paul Bond to dive into the fountain and flail like he was drowning. He insisted to Sephi that he was just very influential. Sephi believed the ability would more aptly be termed mind control.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Eviar was a mover, but even that grew into something extraordinary. Typically, advanced newburies learned to elevate pencils and books. Natural movers were usually able to channel their energy into more substantial objects like furniture. Eviar, on the other hand, had taught himself to move clouds and treetops. With such gifts, there was no possible way that his life wouldn’t be documented somewhere besides his letters to Sephi. But no matter how much she searched, Alex failed to unearth any spirits with powers like his. She couldn’t find Sephi’s name in history either, which was even more frustrating because Eviar had said she was well known.

The more Alex read, the more she felt attached to the two of them. She would frequently find herself entranced by Eviar’s words, unable to move, losing track of time and responsibilities.

She was forced out of her reverie when a man slid down Duvall’s ladder, calling to order the giggling girls and irritated boys. Thin and lanky, yet polished and proper, he was the type of dazzling man one could call pretty and get away with it.

Alex searched for Duvall and found her hovering in the back of the room where she could freely cast the weight of her glare onto Reuben and the Bonds. She didn’t approach the podium.

Darby flicked his head and a light appeared at the front of the room. It circled around him like a spotlight. “Slight change of plans,” he said. “I will be your guest lector this morning. We have much to cover and an inadequate amount of time to learn it because you weren’t supposed to delve into banshees until next term.”

The class began to buzz with excitement.

“And that,” he sighed, “is precisely why Ardor Westfall suggested we jump the curriculum. For some reason, newburies find these dismally dangerous demons to be fascinating, but I can tell you there should be not such enthusiasm. There have been various sightings of banshees in our territory, and many think it sport to battle them.” The light around him grayed. “That would be as foolish as a human jumping into a tank to battle a great white shark. Something tells me that you wouldn’t be lining up for that one.”

Without warning, a life-size image of a banshee flashed in front of the classroom, resulting in a handful of screams. Alex shivered violently when the maniacal eyes bored into her through the gangly threads of its greasy white hair.