Page 35 of Bound By Fury

“What door?” I scoff. “You don’t know about the famous secret door that I found earlier today? The one that’s right here?” I press against the wood and release a frustrated breath when it does what it did earlier. Click and then stop at the lock.

He nudges me out of the way and bends to look at the keyhole. “It’s probably nothing. Like storage or something. Why? You were gonna try to pick the lock?” He gestures to the bobby pins.

I roll my eyes. “What? No. I always carry bobby pins with me.” I shrug. “In case of a hair-mergency.”

“Okayyy,” he says, drawing the word out, before placing his hand on my shoulder. “Well, we should probably get out of here… before we get caught. And from now on you shouldn’t go breaking into other buildings on campus at night. It’s not safe.”

A pit forms in my stomach. “What do you mean it’s not safe?”

“I don’t—I just mean you could get in serious trouble. They don’t take that kind of thing lightly around here. They care a lot about the integrity of their students.”

I don’t miss how he’s separated himself from the institution, despite his name being on the founding plaque… and the student center.

“Besides, it’s an old school. You have no idea what could be down there. Mold or asbestos or something. It’s safer to just stay where you know you’re allowed.”

Down there? I think, shrugging from under his hand. “Thanks for the heads up, I guess? I’ll be sure to do my snooping in places where you won’t accidentally run into me from now on.”

“That’s not funny.”

“I’m not joking.”

He sighs, brushing past me before opening the front door of the chapel a crack. He sticks his head out, looking both ways before deciding it’s safe. “You should go back to your room now.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” I say, peeking out into the darkness of campus, not trusting his coast-clearing skills. I consider stomping back inside and finishing what I came here to do, but something in my gut tells me that I have to do this alone. Besides, after everything that’s happened between us, I don’t trust Malachi as far as I can throw him. And that guy is a giant.

“Yeah, whatever,” he says, giving me a small shove out of the chapel.

“Hey—”

“Shh!” He holds a finger to his lips before gently closing the door behind him and swiping his hand out to snatch the bobby pins from my grasp.

“Those are mine!” I whisper-protest.

He shrugs, tilting his head down to meet my eyes, but he’s shrouded in shadow. I can feel it though. A buzzing like he can’t wait to get away from me. Like every moment he’s near me is almost too painful to bear.

“Go back to your room,” he says before turning on his heel and retreating down the path leading away from the chapel, in the opposite direction of our dorm building.

Before he can disappear, I call out to him one last time. “Malachi!” He slows to a stop, his shoulders hiking up to his ears. “I really am sorry, you know. For what I said. For them being gone. For you hurting.” Because that has to be what this is, the pain of losing everything twisting him into a barbed-wire version of the boy I once knew.

He turns to peer at me over his shoulder. His face is illuminated by a nearby lamp, and I watch as his eyes rake over me once again. I just wish I knew what he was searching for.

“I pinky swear,” I mumble, and I hope that’s enough because he knows I would never lie on a pinky swear.

As we stand there among the screaming cicadas, his face blooms something small. So small I can almost convince myself it isn’t there. A softening. It’s slight, but it’s enough to unknot the teeniest bit of tension in my chest.

Fights among friends can be cathartic if you let them. But we aren’t friends anymore. Though, maybe now that we’ve laid it all out there, some of the pent-up rage has been released.

He watches me for another moment before turning back around and taking off.

As he’s swallowed by the darkness, I blow out a shaking breath.

Later when I lie in bed, still struggling to quiet my mind long enough to drift to sleep, I can’t help but think I’m not the only one on campus with secrets. I know Malachi Matsoukas better than anyone—or at least I did—and I know he’s hiding something.

I’m going to figure out what.

I’ve just begun to dream when I’m jolted awake by a ping. I crack one eye against the bright screen puncturing my room with blue light and almost drop my phone when I see the notification.

K!ll3r_kai09 has requested to follow you.