How could I have thought it would be a piece of cake to make this person forget?
Professor Tiberius took the vial from my hand and slipped it into his pocket before jerking me toward him and forcing me to look into his eyes.
“I can do things to you that will make you wish you had never challenged me, Julie.” Heat shot through my body. “And don't you ever think of erasing my memory again.” Another strand of hair fell into his forehead, right in front of his left eye. “I'll be able to erase yours before you take your next breath.”
Wait...what? Was he joking right now? Was that an empty threat? How on earth... Did he really think he could use the forgetting serum on me that he had just stolen from me?
If only he knew that I drank it every week and that it had long since lost its effect.
His stare was too intense, his gaze so menacing that all my rational thoughts went into overdrive and his grip so firm and warm that my heartbeat started to go crazy.
Suddenly he pushed me off him and I stumbled back.
This was my chance.
In a hurry, I grabbed my backpack, trying to ignore my blue fingers, and dashed backwards across the room.
He remained standing there, his face as hostile as ever, as if he hated everything about me, as if he hated those like me.
But by then I was already wheeling around and sprinting out of the seminar room and into the corridors of the west wing of Vanderwood.
Chapter 58
Bayla
When I opened my eyes again, the memories flooded into my head. And not just any memories, no. All of them.
I tossed and turned under the pounding headache I now had, even after waking up. And just for the record: My hair loss was still a disaster.
I groped for the alarm clock that must have woken me up, but there was nothing there, just a black notebook. The one Alarik had given us.
I had spent hours trying to note down everything I knew about Blairville so far in order to get a halfway overview.
I would have preferred to read, but my professor's book was gone, and I was annoyed that I hadn't been able to assess Mum better. She had stolen it. I was sure of that. And I had to get it back, because what was I supposed to tell Alarik?
Sorry, but your former university friend took your book away from me. Why? I have no idea.
I didn't understand. What was so wrong with this book?
“Of course, you always wake up when I'm with you,” Emely said, annoyed.
I jumped up with a jerk.
She had been the last person I had seen before I collapsed...
“What day is it?” I asked, hoping I hadn't missed too much.
“I don't want to worry you, but it's Wednesday.”
Emely played with her very beautiful natural nails before closing the law book. I wish mine were naturally like that, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.
Then I realized what she had just said.
Wednesday. Monday, I had broken down...
“And whatever's going on with you, I want you out of my head.”
“Ems, we had an agreement.”
Julian stepped into the room and I immediately looked down at myself. Luckily, I was wearing clothes.
How could I have been without consciousness for so long? What had happened anyway? What did Emely mean by getting out of her head? And anyway, what was Julian Bardot doing in our girls' accommodation?
“I think I'm getting dizzy right now,” I groaned, but straightened up anyway. I couldn't possibly spend my entire first semester here in bed, even if everything in my body was screaming for the soft mattress beneath me. This was not how I had imagined my university life.
“It's scary, Julian. You've seen what it does to us.”
I looked back up at Emely, who was visibly unhappy, slamming the rest of the law books on her desk shut.
My brain was so foggy that I needed some time to process her words.
Emely turned off her Bluetooth headphones and looked at me, annoyed. “And you snore.”
Julian laughed and crossed his arms in front of his chest so that his biceps were clearly visible. I tried not to look. Instead, I straightened up further.
“Could someone explain to me what's actually going on here?”
“You fell over after your nose started bleeding,” Julian sighed, as if he had been there.
