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The message on Sean’s blackboard read, “Library. Tonight. 8 o’ clock.”
It gave no further information.
Which would have been suspicious, had Artimé been a place where faces weren’t easily recognizable. Sean knew almost everybody at a glance; there was hardly any such thing as a stranger in a world that was entirely contained in one singular mansion. As it was, Sean was more curious than anything about who this message could have come from. Artimé didn’t have enough mysteries available to the Unwanteds, and even the everyday drama mostly boiled down to whose parents had actually spoken to them and which Wanteds had kicked up the biggest fuss down by the gate.
Life still hadn’t settled, now that the gate between Artimé and Quill was down. Sean had—to put it lightly—mixed feelings on the new high priest of Quill, but if Mr. Today trusted him, then Sean would, too. He would just keep an eye out, watch his back, pay more attention. No one wanted a repeat of the battle, and if Meghan got caught up in it... Well. That was a worst-case scenario.
So Sean packed a few spell components in his pockets just in case and decided there was no harm in meeting this mystery person.
He paced about impatiently as the time grew later and later. His blackboard refused to tell him who the message had come from—and seemed to be having a great time of it, which made him less worried but more agitated—and no further messages came through. He briefly wondered how he would find this person before the clock hit 8 and he entered the tube in the corner of his room.
The library was quiet in the night, though plenty of students still sat scattered around, working on projects or reading or perusing the collection. A few statues milled about, ensuring books were organized properly. And, at a table near the back of the first floor, in a quiet corner, sat Alexander Stowe.
The younger boy’s eyes lit up when he saw Sean, and he quickly waved him over.
Sean pulled out a chair and plopped down across from Alex, folding his arms across his chest and leaning forward on the table between them. “You’re out of the hospital wing already?”
It had only been three weeks since the final battle, which had left the boy close to bleeding out. Sean had figured that would have sentenced him to far more than a month of recovery—especially with how Meghan and Carina described it—but here he was. A little pale, a little thin. There were dark circles under his eyes and stray curls falling into his face. He pushed a few to the side, tucking them behind his ear, which was newly pierced with a small, glittering, colorless gemstone.
Alex shrugged one shoulder. “I got out a couple days ago. Not back to classes yet. I haven’t been quite that desperate to see people.”
“You got hit with a lethal scatterclip, Alex. And then Mr. Today and Simber paced around in circles around you for days on end. I think that’s a pretty good excuse to take some time off from socializing.” Sean elaned back and laced his fingers together on the table in front of him. “Now, what is this about? You sent a pretty cryptic message there, bud.”
A sigh so annoyed it was almost a growl left Alex’s throat. “Clive sent the message, even though I told him not to, and once it was sent... I didn’t wanna leave you hanging, I guess.” He chewed on the inside of his lip, then leaned down beside him and rummaged around in his bag.
After a few seconds, he tossed a component vest on the table in between them.
“This yours?” Sean asked, picking it up to inspect it. He wasn’t sure why he asked; it clearly was. It had been cleaned, though it still sported an ugly gash in the chest, the edges of the fabric frayed unevenly throughout the layers of protective material. Even the zipper had broken, based off of the fact that it had been entirely removed.
“Yeah,” Alex muttered. He plopped a small sewing kit down on the table and a little bundle of fabric and thread. “I, uh... I want to fix it up.”
“Well, clearly. This thing is falling apart.” Sean set it back down on the table. “Why not get a new one? I’m sure Mr. Today can just make another, no problem.”
Alex shook his head, staring at the vest on the table between them. “No. It took me so long to get that thing, and...it saved my life, you know?” His eyes met Sean’s. “I don’t want to let it go. I think it’s...better to say I survived. And...” He looked away again, blinking a few times as he seemed to debate whether or not to say what was on his mind. In stumbling words, he continued, “I met with Aaron. By the gate, a few days ago, as soon as they let me out. He... He didn’t want to talk to me, really, and after he almost killed me, and Mr. Today...”
His words twisted as tears started forming in his eyes, and he shrugged, waving a hand in the air before it hit the table with a thud.
“I get it,” Sean said, though he knew that he really, really didn’t. “So... What’s the issue?”
“I don’t really know how to sew,” Alex admitted. “I tried. You can see the little stitches, here, and here... I want this to go in the middle, to patch it up.” He pulled out a heart cut out of fabric, vibrant red and already punched through with a few bits of thread on the edges. “I was struggling, so Clive made the call and forced me to ask for help.”
“Why me?” Sean asked before he could hold his tongue. The last piece of this mystery: the who, the what, the when, the where, the how, and now, the last component of the why. “Why not Meghan, or Lani, or Samheed, or Ms. Octavia, or even Mr. Today?”
Alex seemed a bit stunned by the question, as though he hadn’t fully thought it through. He wound a curl around his finger as he thought about it, straightening out the red fabric with his other hand. His nails were unpainted for the first time in a long time, and Sean could see the jagged, bitten edges clear as day.
“I figured you’d have a better idea of what to do with this. I don’t know.” The kid looked like he wanted to throw up as some sort of realization hit, and he sputtered out, “Sorry if you don’t want to. Did I interrupt your night? Oh, great cats—”
“No, no. I didn’t say I wouldn’t help. I just didn’t think I’d be your first choice.” Before Alex could worry himself to tears, Sean pulled the fabric closer to him, tapping a finger on his lips. “Now, for this, I think you’re gonna need two separate pieces to make the heart, wrapping around on each side so it doesn’t all come apart. And, see, inside there’s a little bit of filler material? To make it thicker and protect you? We might need some of that. And a new zipper, of course, but that’s the easy part. Here, do you have a white pencil? I think I know how we can make this work...”
Alex nodded, leaning down to grab his huge pencil case from his bag.
Sean drew some plans on the fabric, stopping occasionally to show Alex how the pieces would sit. Alex watched closely, nodding along as Sean explained it all, even as he yawned more and more frequently, and even as he started picking at his nails again. The older brother in Sean wanted to tell him to knock it off, but he didn’t want to make the boy any more tense than he already was.
“Why a heart?” Sean asked as he cut them out, leaving a slight edge on the outside of his sketches.
“Aaron hit me in the heart,” Alex said simply. “Or, well, close enough to it. It felt right.”
“Giving him a target for next time? So he can hit it easier?”
Alex frowned, twirling a pencil between his fingers, pricking his thumb with the point.
“Not funny,” Sean muttered. “Yeah, it felt kind of bad even as I said it.”
“Do you...” He swallowed, placing the pencil back on the table, back in its spot in the rainbow lineup. “Do you think Aaron would try to kill me again?”
“I don’t know him. I don’t know what he would do.” Sean finished cutting out the piece of fabric, and he set the scissors down on the table. “But considering he tried to go after Mr. Today, even after what he did to you... Pretending to be you... I would watch out for him, Alex. I don’t trust him.”
“The heart will make it so he can’t pretend to be me,” Alex said quickly. “I thought about that, too. He can’t just pick up a random component vest and look like me, now.”
“Smart, smart.” Sean nodded. “Hand me the thread?”
Alex obliged. “Unless he, you know, steals mine. Which I hope doesn’t ever have a chance to happen, I guess.”
With that depressing note, Sean tried to change the subject. “You pierced your ears,” he noted.
“Yeah. Meg and Lani and Sam and I all did, on Purge day.” Alex reached up to rub the little gemstone as he spoke. “They’re pretty itchy, and I can’t change ‘em out for a while.”
“It’ll pass. Trust me. They look good on you.”
“Thanks.” Alex finally smiled a little bit to himself. That looked good on him, too.
They sat in silence for a while longer, Sean sewing the heart in place, ensuring each stitch was placed evenly and perfectly. It wasn’t his best skill, but he silently thanked all the stage costuming and clothing classes he’d taken in the past. It felt nice to be useful to Alex in this way.
The kid was smart, and incredibly talented, Sean had to admit. He liked him. Of course he did; he saw the way Meghan clung to Alex when he was present, and it was obvious how upset she was when he didn’t show up to hang out. He needed to get out of his shell more, and Sean sincerely hoped that the earrings and the heart patch and the wound healing on his chest would help him with that.
“Did you get into good classes?” Sean asked.
Alex startled, sitting up straighter, removing his head from where it was sitting on his hand. It left a red indent in his cheek. “Uhhh, yeah. Lots of art, of course. I was glad to see they separated out sculpting and painting from drawing. I’m taking all three, so I won’t have to wait around for us to finish one thing to get to another. The general class drove me a bit mad in that regard.”
“Drawing’s nice. I liked that one.” Sean clipped the end of the thread, then turned it around to show Alex how it was turning out.
“It looks great,” whispered Alex.
“You wanna do the other side?” Sean offered the component vest up to Alex.
“As long as you make sure it doesn’t look awful,” Alex muttered, the side of his mouth moving into a slight smirk. He covered his mouth as he yawned. “What time is it?”
Sean looked around the room for a clock, finding one in a dim corner. The tables around them were entirely empty, the whole rest of library deserted for the night. “Woof. 11 o’ clock. Wanna call it a night?”
Alex nodded, wiping a hand over his eyes. “Thank you, again, for helping with this.”
“Any time, Alex. I think it’s a good idea, upgrading your component vest. And now you can say you started the trend. It’ll be the next big thing, I’m telling you.”
Alex smiled and started packing up his stuff. “I can do the other side if you help me. Do you wanna meet again...?”
“Does tomorrow night work? Same time, same place?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that works. I’ll see you then, Sean.”