Chapter 132: Crows Don’t Cuddle

The branch stopped shaking.

For a long moment, the only sounds in the canopy were the rustle of leaves and Blair’s ragged breathing. Her arms were still locked around Jack’s neck, her legs still wrapped around his waist. She was fairly certain that if she let go of either, she would fall forty feet and die completely naked.

That would be a terrible way to be found.

Jack’s chest rose and fell beneath her cheek, slow and even, as if nothing had happened at all. His heartbeat was already calm. Hers was still trying to escape through her throat.

"You can let go now," Jack said.

Blair did not let go.

"Ms. Willows."

"I-I can’t," she whispered into his collarbone. "We’re very high up."

"You were not concerned with the altitude five minutes ago."

Blair’s face burned so hot she was surprised the leaves around them didn’t catch fire. She squeezed her eyes shut and said nothing. There was nothing she could say to that. He was right, and they both knew it.

Jack let out a long, put-upon sigh. Then a soft whoosh stirred the air, and black feathers brushed against her bare legs.

He stood up on the branch and stepped off.

Blair’s stomach launched itself into her mouth. She clamped down on the scream before it could escape, burying her face in his neck as the ground rushed up to meet them. The landing was so gentle the grass barely whispered beneath his feet.

Jack set her down. Her knees promptly forgot how to work, and she sat down hard on the damp lawn.

He stood over her with his wings still half spread, moonlight gleaming across the black feathers and the dark runes curving over his ribs. He was completely naked and utterly unbothered by it, like a statue someone had carved specifically to ruin her life.

Blair fixed her gaze firmly on a dandelion.

Then she remembered.

"Your..." Her voice cracked. She tried again, barely louder than the crickets. "Your clothes."

Jack glanced toward the dark square of her bedroom window, then back down at her. "What about them?"

"They’re on my floor." She pointed a trembling finger at the window. "Your shirt. Your... everything. All over my room."

"I am aware of where I left them."

"That’s not..." Blair swallowed. She pressed her knees together and stared harder at the dandelion. "Daemus has a very good nose," she whispered.

The silence that followed was so long she finally risked a peek upward.

Jack’s expression hadn’t changed. "Then I suppose I will retrieve them," he said evenly. "Before the Wolf Prince goes on his morning run."

Blair nodded frantically. "Thank you, Professor."

He crouched in front of her, bringing those unsettling eyes level with hers. For one wild second, Blair thought he was going to kiss her.

Instead, he reached out and plucked a leaf from her hair.

"Your debt," he said quietly, "is not paid in full."

Blair’s heart stuttered. "It isn’t?"

"You still owe me." He flicked the leaf away and stood. "Lessons resume at seven. Do not be late."

Then he scooped her up off the grass as if she weighed nothing, carried her the few steps to her open window, and deposited her over the sill onto her own bedroom floor like a returned library book. He climbed in after her, gathered his clothes from where they lay scattered beside the desk chair, and dressed in silence. He paused just long enough to push her window open wider.

Airing out the room.

Then he was gone, his footsteps soundless on the stairs.

Blair sat naked on her bedroom floor for a full minute before she remembered she needed to breathe.

* * *

Blair pulled on her pajamas with shaking hands and sat on the edge of her bed.

The house was silent.

It’s one of the reasons.

Daemus’s words from earlier that evening circled her head. She had finally worked up the courage to ask why he liked her, and he had hesitated.

Blair pulled her knees to her chest. She didn’t know what she and Daemus were anymore. She didn’t know what she and Jack were, either. Not lovers. He had made that very clear.

She lay down and stared at the ceiling.

Sleep did not come.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw red eyes in the moonlight. Then silver ones, soft and trusting, looking at her over a math textbook. Is x seven?

After an hour of torturing herself, Blair gave up. She switched on the lamp, grabbed the laptop from the desk, and dragged the sheet of combinations into her lap. If she couldn’t stop thinking, she could at least think about something useful.

The screen flickered to life, showing the same scanned image of the filthy, blood-spotted paper and the password box waiting beneath it.

Blair uncapped her pen.

She worked down the list the way she always worked: methodically, line by line. Daemus had done nearly a third of the remaining combinations. His handwriting was atrocious. His sevens looked like ones. She had to squint to tell which was which. It didn’t take her long to finish the rest of the combinations.

She typed. Enter. Incorrect password. She drew a neat line through the entry.

Typed. Enter. Incorrect password. Line.

It was hypnotic. Almost soothing. By the time the clock in the corner of the screen read 2:14 AM, she had crossed out another forty combinations, and her eyelids had started to droop.

Still nothing.

She stared at the strings that remained. Four letters, three numbers. Every one of them belonged to someone on campus: a beastman who sat in her classes, brushed past her in the halls, maybe even snarled at her. One of them was the key to whatever Jack knew.

Somewhere outside, a lighter clicked.

Blair turned toward the window Jack had left open. Through the gap in the curtains, she could just make out a figure standing in the yard, a thin curl of smoke rising into the moonlight. Jack, dressed now, stood with a phone pressed to his ear.

His voice was low, but the night was very still.

"Where?" A pause. "How long has it been there?"

Another pause, longer this time. The ember of his cigarette flared red as he inhaled.

"No. Don’t move it. Don’t let anyone near it." Smoke drifted from his lips. "I’ll be there in the morning."

He hung up. For a moment he only stood there, staring out into the dark. Then he turned and looked straight at her window.

Blair squeezed her eyes shut and held perfectly still, her heart hammering against her ribs, until she heard the back door close.

She didn’t sleep at all that night.