‘You deserve to have all the jewellery,’ he whispered. ‘Allie, I want you to have everything.’
Then she pulled his lips down to hers.
8
Eight
Walking down to breakfast the next morning, Allie couldn’t stop smiling. The lock and key necklace nestled against the base of her throat, a constant reminder of last night. The memory of the way she’d kissed Sylvain made her cheeks burn.
In the dining hall, the new air of gloom that she’d begun to associate with Cimmeria hung over the room so tangibly she could almost see it. Allie couldn’t face another day like yesterday. Besides, her heart was buoyant. She was filled with joy. Overflowing with love for the universe. So Isabelle had never asked to see her. So she had no idea what was going on, school was depressing and the world was going to hell in a handcart.
Right now she was happy.
The smell of food made her ravenous, and she piled her plate and made a cup of milky tea before going to where Nicole and Zoe were talking quietly with Lucas and Katie.
‘I just want to eat all the food,’ she said, sitting down. ‘Don’t judge me.’
Zoe eyed her with mild interest. ‘You can eat all you want. You’re ectomorphic.’
Her fork already in the air, Allie stopped. ‘Wait, doesn’t that mean I wear my skeleton on the outside?’
Zoe rolled her eyes. ‘That’s exoskeletal. Ectomorphic means you have a metabolism that tends not to gain weight.’
‘Watch me,’ Allie said, diving into her eggs. ‘I will prove you wrong.’
Once she’d devoured her breakfast she looked around the group. ‘So what’s on the agenda today? Anything fun?’
The others exchanged blank looks.
‘There’s nothing to do any more,’ Zoe explained slowly, as if Allie was very stupid. ‘I told you that.’
Allie made a face. ‘That doesn’t mean we can’t have fun, Zoe.’
Zoe opened her mouth to argue but at that moment Isabelle walked up, neatly clad in a blue skirt and white blouse, a pale yellow cardigan draped loosely across her shoulders.
‘Hello, Allie. Could you come with me?’
She’d waited so long for this moment; Allie jumped to her feet and rushed after the headmistress without even saying goodbye to the others.
At last, she thought.
‘I’m so sorry I didn’t have a chance to meet with you yesterday,’ Isabelle said as she walked with brisk steps out of the bright dining hall into the dim coolness of the hallway. ‘It was the most hectic day.’
Allie could not imagine what would keep Isabelle so busy she couldn’t debrief her about an attack that had made Lucinda change her entire security plan. But she kept her expression steady. She needed to find information. Not get in an argument.
‘I wanted to find out how you’re settling in,’ Isabelle continued. ‘Merging back into Cimmeria after time away can be difficult, I know.’
This time Allie couldn’t control her sarcasm.
‘Especially during an apocalypse?’
The comment didn’t seem to bother the headmistress, who pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked a door beautifully hidden in the nineteenth-century carved oak panelling.
‘Well,’ she said. ‘Quite.’
She switched on a light, illuminating the small, windowless office.
Allie looked around hungrily. A large, mahogany desk dominated one side of the room. The wall across from it held a fanciful antique tapestry of a maiden and a knight.
Everything seemed to be right where it had been before she left. At least this room had stayed the same – a familiar oasis amid Cimmeria’s chaos..
‘Yeah, well.’ Allie dropped without ceremony into one of the leather chairs facing the desk. ‘Sucks trying to make friends at the end of the world.’
‘You already have friends,’ Isabelle observed mildly. ‘Tea?’
‘No, thank you,’ Allie said. Isabelle switched on the kettle anyway.
Soon the brewing Earl Grey tea filled the room with a flowery bergamot steam.
‘Is Rachel coming back tomorrow?’ Allie asked.
‘Of course. You both have classes in the morning.’
Relieved, Allie sagged back in her chair. She missed Rachel like a lost appendage.
Isabelle sat at her desk, setting a mug down in front of her. ‘Sylvain and the guards have briefed me on everything that happened in France. The attackers work for Nathaniel, of course, although we are still working out some of the details.’
‘Who else?’ Allie said. ‘The question is, how did he find me?’
‘I’ll get to that in a minute.’ Isabelle sipped her tea and studied Allie as if looking for clues. ‘They shot at you.’
‘Yeah,’ Allie held her gaze. ‘It was not good. Sylvain saved our arses.’
‘And since then?’ Isabelle asked.
Allie looked at her doubtfully. ‘Since then … what?’
‘Are you sleeping? Having nightmares? Panic attacks?’
Allie, who had suffered from all of those problems in the past, flushed. This wasn’t what she wanted to talk about. They had, in the past, had very frank conversations about Allie’s life. But it was hard to just plunge back into that kind of thing.
‘I’m fine.’ Allie’s tone was cool. ‘I’ve been through worse. I just want to know what’s going on with Nathaniel. How he found me. Who the spy is. What we do now.’