Divided Souls (8 page)

L
ivid as Cassie was at Ranjit’s stupid mind games, at least the irritation distracted from her nerves as she approached the common room. Outside it, lights glowed in wrought-iron sconces, and the solid door looked very forbidding. Cassie lifted her fist and hammered on the dark, carved wood.

Might have been a little violent, she thought, swallowing hard as the door swung open to reveal the faces of the Few, turned towards her with expressions that ranged from curiosity to mild surprise to outright hostility. Avoiding their stares, she noticed the room was opulent, rich with coloured glass, gilded archways and expensive
kilims
, and the light was soft and glowing. Windows stood open to the gardens beyond; she could smell the salty breeze mixed with the dusky scent of geraniums.

‘Cassie!’

Thank God for a friendly face. Ayeesha hurried up and embraced her warmly.

‘I’m so glad you came.
We’re
so glad!’ Ayeesha’s glance at several of her comrades held a touch of defiance. ‘Come in, have a drink. You know everyone by now, I think. Or, no – come and meet Saski. She’s a third year, I don’t know if you met her yet …’

Cassie gave Saski a sympathetic smile, but the girl didn’t seem anything but triumphantly excited about her new status. Cassie diffused her vision as they chatted, focusing on the spirit nestling within the girl’s chest. A mildly powerful aura with an element of wickedness, or perhaps just mischief. Cassie let her attention fall on each Few member in turn as she relaxed and chatted. They were as she remembered them. The strong and the weak; the bad and the genuinely good. The spirits were as usual clustered according to their characters, and the more timid ones were gravitating to the protection of the more powerful. One of the strongest of them all, however, was still nowhere to be seen. That made her even more curious. Ranjit could be stand-offish, but even if he hadn’t kept his own appointment with her, Cassie did half expect him to impose his presence on the start-of-term party: mark his territory, so to speak.

‘Has Ranjit been by?’ she asked Ayeesha casually.

‘No.’ Ayeesha blinked, as though she’d only just realised. ‘No, he hasn’t. I assume he’s coming along later, though?’

Cassie shrugged. ‘I dunno.’

‘Oh! Oh, I see. So, you’re not … I wasn’t sure if—’

‘No. We’re not.’

Ayeesha’s face fell. ‘I’m sorry about that, Cassie. I really am. You and he were—’

‘Yes,’ interrupted Cassie. ‘But it’s over. Totally over.’ And she wasn’t going to spend another second fretting about Ranjit’s tomfoolery.

Ayeesha hesitated, and then smiled apologetically. ‘OK. Sorry, of course. Look, why don’t you come over and talk to Yusuf and India? They’re always good value.’

Cassie wasn’t sure she agreed. The two older Few students seemed a little distant – Yusuf clearly thought the world of himself, and he had a predatory soulmate in India. They were too busy discussing their latest romantic conquests to include Cassie much in their conversation, but they were pretty funny at the same time, and at least they weren’t openly hostile like Mikhail and Sara. She could feel
those
glares burning a hole between her shoulder blades, though from the English girl it was understandable, given the lashing Cassie had given her last term, when the unusual ‘ability’ she possessed first reared its invisible head.

Still, Cassie wasn’t thinking about the past, and she definitely wasn’t planning to give any more thought to the likes of Sara, or indeed Ranjit bloody Singh. No. She was having fun. She was enjoying being single. And ready to tingle, as Isabella might say.

So heaven only knew why she couldn’t keep her eyes off the carved door. Heaven knew why she kept aching for it to open, for a familiar beautiful figure to appear, and smile, and walk up to her, and
apologise
, damn it! What was he playing at, anyway? She’d never been stood up for a meeting she hadn’t even requested before, and it really wasn’t flattering.

Speaking of which …

When the door finally did swing open, it wasn’t the figure she was expecting, but it was a welcome one nonetheless. Richard. If anyone at this soirée was going to make her feel better, it was probably going to be him, she thought, with only a hint of grudging. As he headed towards her, elegantly swerving past other Few members, a glass miraculously in each hand, she was ambushed by a huge sense of gratitude.

‘Hey, Cassie,’ he said, eyeing her with an appreciative grin. ‘Enjoying the party? Would you like me to get the knives out of your back so you can sit down?’

Laughing, she took the drink he proffered. ‘Cheers, mate. I think can manage them.’

‘I don’t doubt it, Ms Bell.’ Richard glanced over her shoulder. ‘Sara and her posse are livid. It’s fantastic.’ He leaned a little closer. ‘Of course, we could get them talking some more …’

‘You have so got to stop that. You could lead a girl on, you know.’ She attempted a sarcastic smile, but found herself taking a step back, still a little alarmed by the attraction she was feeling towards him. And the way his shirt skimmed over the muscles in his chest …

‘Really?’ Richard asked innocently – or was it hopefully? Cassie flushed a little.

‘Well, to be honest, I didn’t think I was really your type. I was under the impression that maybe you were, uh, playing more for the other team …?’

He laughed. ‘Ah. I’ve got a theory on that actually: before my induction into our esteemed little gang here, I was strictly het. I reckon it’s just my pesky spirit who likes to play away – I assure you that I’m most certainly on your team. Or I’d like to be,’ he added, raising his eyebrows.

Cassie gaped at him for a moment, and then couldn’t help bursting out laughing as well. ‘You’re joking.’

‘I’m not.’

‘Isn’t that a bit …
inconvenient
?’

‘Oh, I don’t know. I’ve always thought of myself as a bit of a try-sexual anyway, so hey, why not? Best of both worlds, that’s how I look at it.’ A mischievous smile spread across his lips.

‘Lordy, I did wonder.’ Cassie laughed again, shaking her head. ‘You’re a boy of two halves.’

‘And both of them highly attractive. Now come on, Cassie. Let’s party.’

It had been fine. More than fine, in fact. She’d had great fun in the end – who could avoid it with Richard around? Besides, if Ranjit
had
turned up, what would she have said to him?

Still, back at her room, she’d had a restless night with little sleep, and it was mostly because of him. Who stood up an ex-girlfriend – one he was supposedly pining for, according to his roommate – when
he
was the one who’d suggested they meet? It was for the best really anyway. They’d only have quarrelled. Yes, they’d have had one of their ear-splitting, animal-scaring rows, and if he’d turned up at the common room then it would have been right in front of the rest of the Few. She couldn’t have stood that.

Still …

It would have been reassuring just to catch sight of him, but Ranjit stayed resolutely absent from all his classes the next day. There was no sign of him, but Cassie refused to worry. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t cut lessons before; he made an absolute habit of it. The boy was a law unto himself.

Still …

The last lesson of the day, and the heat in the classroom was suffocating despite the gently turning fans overhead. Madame Lefevre’s sonorous but soporific voice wasn’t helping, and Cassie just couldn’t concentrate. A dove had settled on the windowsill by the latticed shutters, and at least its cooing was soothing. She tried to focus on the bird instead, but her eyes kept drifting beyond it to the leafy gardens. Was he out there?

She was relieved when the interminable day was over, and glad too for the cool of the evening. Returning to her room and throwing her bag down on to her bed, she almost jumped when Isabella stuck her head round the bathroom door and cheerfully called out.

‘Cassie! Hey! How was your afternoon?’

Cassie did a double take, and then smiled. ‘Hi! You’re in a good mood.’ An unusually good mood for Isabella, these days …

Isabella looked almost shifty for a moment, but then she grinned. Ducking back into the bathroom, she reappeared clutching a bottle that looked sculpted out of crystal. The amber liquid within had an almost nuclear glow. ‘New shampoo. So expensive, and who knows what it does for my hair, but it makes
me
very, very happy.’

‘Just the price tag makes you happy?’ Cassie tilted an eyebrow, nevertheless ridiculously pleased as her friend beamed back.

‘You know nothing makes me happier than spending my inheritance on supporting the economy, Cassie.’ Isabella winked. ‘Listen, how do you fancy hanging out this weekend? We haven’t really spent any time together properly this term. It could be like old times, no? Just like old times …’ She muttered the last sentence to herself, but seemed to stop when she caught Cassie’s quizzical look. What had brought all this on?

‘How about it?’ Isabella continued.

‘Isabella, that sounds wonderful.’ Cassie felt a surge of relief, despite the sudden nature of Isabella’s new-found good mood. She hadn’t seen her friend this happy since … Well, since last term.

‘It does, doesn’t it?’ Isabella agreed, nodding happily.

Cassie returned her friend’s enthusiastic grin, though she couldn’t shake the feeling it was all a bit odd. First Ranjit, now Isabella acting bizarrely. Well, all in a day’s work at the Academy, she thought, chuckling to herself. Anyway, so what? All that mattered was that Isabella was cheerful again, almost back to her normal self, and Cassie wasn’t going to question that too hard.

So long as Isabella was finding her way back, she didn’t care. Cassie had missed her far, far too much to rock the boat now …

A
s Isabella dumped her bag on her desk and sat down, Cassie glanced around the history class. There seemed to be more of a buzz than usual, more furtive whispered comments and suppressed excitement. Even among the Few, in their usual spot at the back of the room, there was a flicker of nervous energy.

Mr Haswell was calling for quiet, asking them to take their seats, but Cassie was Few, wasn’t she? She didn’t often pull rank, and never usually around the teachers, but now was perhaps the time to start. She headed straight for the back of the class and leaned down to talk to Ayeesha.

‘He just never came back,’ Ayeesha’s neighbour Lara was saying. ‘Nobody knows what’s happened.’

Cassie interrupted. ‘There’s no need to panic though, is there? I mean, Ranjit’s been away before.’

Lara blinked and shook her head. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘It’s no big deal,’ muttered Cassie. ‘Why’s everyone making a big thing of it?’

‘It isn’t Ranjit,’ explained Ayeesha. ‘We all know what
he’s
like; skips class all the time. It’s Yusuf.’

For a moment Cassie felt like she’d fallen into a parallel world. ‘What?’

‘Yusuf Ahmed,’ said Lara patiently, as if there was another Yusuf in school. ‘He didn’t come back to the Academy last night. No sign of him this morning. People are beginning to wonder.’

Cassie laughed. ‘You’re worried about
Yusuf
? He probably fell asleep in some poor damsel’s bed, and right now he’s being thrashed by her irate father!’

Ayeesha didn’t laugh. ‘I don’t think so. They found his wallet near the docks at Sultanahmet. His credit cards, his cash: everything gone.’

Cassie didn’t know what else to say, and Mr Haswell was getting downright impatient now. She walked back to the front of the class and took her seat next to Isabella.

Yusuf had lost his wallet. So what? He could have dropped it. Unlikely, but even more unlikely that he’d come to grief from a mugger. He was Few, for heaven’s sake! It would be the thief who was sorry.

So he’d lost it somewhere else. A thief had found it, emptied it, dumped it. That was the only explanation.

It’s not our concern, my dear!

She’s right, Cassie thought. It wasn’t really anything to do with her. And it was probably nothing anyway. Yusuf could take care of himself.

Yet, she couldn’t help thinking … There’d been no sign of Ranjit for the past couple of days, and now Yusuf had disappeared too? That was a bit of an odd coincidence. Could their absences be connected? The thought lodged in her brain like a lead weight, despite her efforts to shake it free.

Torvald: had he maybe heard something? If she could speak to him, then perhaps she could settle the matter once and for all – especially as she’d promised herself no more worrying about Ranjit. And she wasn’t worried, was she? She just wanted to clear things up.

After class she ran to catch up with Torvald, but Mr Haswell caught her with a query about a homework assignment. By the time Cassie eased herself free, she’d missed Torvald by a whisker, and she had no idea what his next subject was.

Oh, forget it. What could she do anyway? And in any case, she didn’t want Torvald to tell Ranjit she was desperately looking for him, or worried about him. There was a good chance that Ranjit was
trying
to make her anxious, playing some warped manipulative game. She wouldn’t put it past him, and she certainly wouldn’t indulge him.

Quite right, my dear. Ignore him!

Gospodin Chelnikov was less inclined to indulge the mutter of gossip than Mr Haswell had been. As the students filed into the chemistry lab, the Russian clapped his hands, his blue eyes so cold and fierce that even the Few sat down with little fuss.

‘Quiet, all of you. I know there are some rumours circulating concerning Yusuf Ahmed. It’s natural for you all to be concerned, but Sir Alric has asked me to speak to you about this, as it is beginning to disrupt today’s classes.’

‘How do you explain—’ interrupted someone at the front.

‘He hasn’t yet been missing for twenty-four hours,’ snapped Chelnikov. ‘The school has notified the authorities that a student did not return to the school last night. That is the only action that needs to be taken now. Yusuf has an adventurous nature, so it may well be that his night simply caught up with him.’

A few titters ran round the classroom, and Chelnikov very nearly cracked a smile.

‘But what about his wallet, sir?’

‘Perhaps he lost it in circumstances he’s embarrassed to admit. Now, all speculation will
cease
, at least in my classroom. Do you understand?’

He was right, thought Cassie as she tried to focus on her textbook. Yusuf was adventurous. Ranjit, meanwhile, she was sure now, was simply trying to worry or hurt her. She’d given Ranjit a pretty harsh kiss-off the other night; maybe he thought that if he scared her enough, she’d come around. That she’d magically realise she missed him, and agree to go along with his plan … Oh, who knew? Cassie really didn’t know what to think.

Isabella, however, wasn’t so uncertain when they left the class together. ‘This is crazy,’ she said firmly. ‘Two students vanishing into thin air? Something’s not right. The school should do something.’

‘What would they do? Look, you heard Gospodin Chelnikov. Yusuf hasn’t even been missing that long. And he’s a risky type. He’ll be back. Ranjit too.’

‘I’m a little surprised you are so complacent,’ sniffed Isabella. ‘Especially with Ranjit one of those missing. I mean, aren’t you worried at all? If it was me …’

Cassie sighed in exasperation. ‘Look, Ranjit isn’t even my boyfriend any more. It’s not up to me to chase him around! Of course I’m worried but there’s not much I can do about it, is there? I’m sure he’ll turn up and then I’ll just be left feeling foolish.’

‘All right, Cassie, all right. Let’s not fight about it.’ Isabella linked her arm through Cassie’s. ‘Why don’t we go somewhere on the mainland? Do something to take our minds off it all?’

‘Well, funny you should mention, actually. Uh, Ayeesha and some of the others were talking about going across to Beyoglu.’ Cassie cleared her throat, embarrassed again. ‘You know, hang around Cukurcuma, do some shopping. Shall we go with them? I kind of said I’d go …’

‘Oh, how could I
possibly
resist hanging out with the Few? I could carry their shopping bags.’

Cassie raised an eyebrow at her roommate’s snarky tone. ‘You sound just like—’

‘Hmm?’

…
Jake
, thought Cassie, finishing her sentence in her head. Even with Isabella’s improved outlook, it probably wouldn’t be tactful to mention him, especially if she was trying to persuade her friend to come along with them to the mainland. Instead, Cassie grinned.

‘Anyway, don’t be stupid. We’ll probably have to club together to carry yours! But listen, seriously, Isabella, I won’t go if you don’t fancy it.’

‘In
that
case …’ Isabella paused, then laughed. ‘No, come on, let’s go!’

This hadn’t exactly gone to plan, Cassie had to admit to herself as the six of them negotiated the busy, chic little streets of Cukurcuma. Things had started off OK as they explored the sleek, modern, glass-fronted furniture warehouses which butted up against the historical buildings of sand-coloured stone, and she’d been enjoying looking at the beautiful, vivid upholstery materials piled high in antique stores together with vintage marble basins and intricately weaved carpets. But it was becoming increasingly apparent that Isabella was starting to feel a bit left out in the midst of Cassie’s attempts to integrate more with the Few.

‘What about this vanity table, ladies?’ India said as she eyed a beautifully carved dresser in a small boutique off one of the cobbled streets.

‘Seems appropriate,’ Isabella said, barely making an effort to keep her comment under her breath. Cassie gave her a warning glance.

‘Yeah, looks good,’ she said, ignoring her friend.

India gritted her teeth, visibly annoyed by Isabella’s snipe, and turned to the other Few girls. ‘I’ll get it shipped back home then, shall I?’ She wandered off towards the store owner, credit card in hand.

Cassie cringed. Some of Isabella’s mild snarkiness was starting at times to turn into outright confrontation, and she felt a little caught in the middle. The other girls weren’t exactly being as inclusive as they could have been, to be fair. All in all, the tension was putting a strain on the outing. Cassie had begun to regret inviting Isabella a little. But just thinking that gave her a jolt of guilt. After all Isabella had done for her. After all Isabella had sacrificed …

Mind you, at least Isabella wasn’t looking so miserable now. There was a sharpness and a spark to her moodiness that was oddly reassuring – more like the old, feisty Isabella – even if it was a little unnerving. Her attitude reminded Cassie more and more of how confident and spirited Isabella had been in previous, happier terms, when a certain someone was the focus of almost all her energies. In fact, if she didn’t know any better, Cassie would think Jake had been in touch with her roommate …

But of course he hadn’t. Cassie would have known soon enough if he had. Isabella would have woken her up at two am, jumping for joy on her head.

Still, an atmosphere was an atmosphere, and she could have cut the one between her and her roommate with a blunt knife. But she had to befriend the Few, and Isabella knew that. Besides, some of them were really decent people, like Ayeesha. Cassie respected them, she liked them, and it wasn’t really as if she had a choice in any case. Isabella could surely understand that?

Cassie couldn’t even use retail therapy as a means of distraction in the way that the other rich girls at the Academy could. While they gasped and giggled over yet another mind-blowing, wallet-defying handbag, and Isabella made critical comments about their taste, Cassie tried to focus only on her surroundings. Something besides the tense atmosphere between the girls was making her uneasy, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. A certain movement, something pricking her senses, but she couldn’t think what.

Estelle, she thought, can you feel that?

Yes, my dear
, came the anxious reply, but Cassie’s ‘conversation’ was interrupted by more bickering amongst the girls. She convinced herself that it couldn’t be anything too serious, or Estelle would have alerted her to it sooner. Anyway, it was silly, because this part of town was outrageously pretty. The lanes wound down steps between old houses with prettily painted shutters and window boxes that overflowed with geraniums. Yet all Cassie could think was that the splashes of scarlet looked so much like spattered blood. When a petal drifted down to the cobbled street, she found herself dodging it.

And then she felt it.

A watcher.

She turned, narrowing her eyes.

No way. She was imagining things; her nerves were shot, that was all. She was on edge because of Isabella and – oh, everything else. Who’d be trailing her round Cukurcuma? It couldn’t be …? With a mixture of hope and irritation, she waited to feel that familiar prickling sensation, but she wasn’t sure. Was it there? Was she just on edge and imagining it? Estelle remained unhelpfully silent. Perhaps it wasn’t Ranjit then, she thought, irritated at her disappointment.

But then who?

Cassie forced herself to take an interest in the discussion about Umit Unal’s latest gowns, aware she was being hyper-cheerful, and ridiculously keen to draw Isabella and the Few girls into a simultaneous, friendly conversation. And trying to forget that feeling too – that between-the-shoulder-blades, indefinable itch. Falling silent for a moment and drawing away from the gaggle of girls, Cassie turned slightly to peer over her shoulder. Again, nobody was there.

But no. She was sure she’d been right the first time. The force of the stare was almost tangible. There was no way, with her heightened Few senses, she could be mistaken. She could even tell where it was coming from. Behind and to the right.

She raised her head to search the shuttered windows, but the sun was in her eyes and he was downwind, whoever he was. Her entire body went still.

Somebody’s watching us …

We’re imagining things, Cassie insisted unconvincingly to herself and to Estelle, shaking her head fiercely. She couldn’t see anyone.

And hard on the heels of that thought, she wondered why she kept trying to talk herself out of her own instincts.