Divided Souls (3 page)

S
hopping. She should have guessed. It really was kind of touristy, thought Cassie, but at least a light of sorts was back in Isabella’s eye.

Beneath its elegantly arched and tiled roof, the Grand Bazaar was a tumble of noise and exotic scents: tobacco smoke, roasting nuts, spices. She’d lost count of the shops selling jewellery and carpets and Iznik pottery. The prices were outrageous, and Cassie wasn’t about to buy anything except the pistachios they were nibbling as they walked, but Isabella was doing her best to get back to normal, and for her that meant retail therapy.

Brightening, Isabella strode into a shop and began to bargain over an especially beautiful
kilim
. She could have afforded it at the tourist price, of course, but Cassie had a feeling she’d want to haggle for the sheer sport of it – or usually she would. On this occasion Isabella’s heart just wasn’t in it. After five minutes, with a shrug, the shopkeeper gave up on her. Cassie was beginning to feel seriously terrible about her friend’s depressed mood.

All my fault, she thought. All my fault …

Pausing in the tumult to flick desultorily through a rack of colourful scarves, Isabella pushed her bag of pistachios into Cassie’s hand with a sigh.

‘You finish these. I’m not hungry.’

‘Isabella, you haven’t eaten all morning!’

‘I’m fine. I’m just not hungry.’ As if to reassure her, Isabella squeezed her arm and winked. ‘And you always need feeding up.’

Inside her head Cassie heard a disgusted
harrumph
.

She must keep her strength up for us, my dear. She’s
very selfish
…

‘Shut up, Estelle,’ she muttered.

Isabella gave her a look in which alarm and concern were equally mingled, but she didn’t have time to question Cassie. Behind her someone shrieked over the shouts and chatter of the market.

‘Isabella!
Cassie!
’

Cassie turned towards the direction of the excited voice, and caught sight of a hand waving beyond a knot of German tourists. A familiar face appeared then disappeared, bouncing up once more to get a clear line of vision, and Cassie grinned.

‘Ayeesha, hey! Cormac!’

The Barbadian girl and the Irish boy wriggled through the crowds, managing not to disengage their hands. Still an item then, Cassie thought. She felt an unexpected twinge of envy: that could have been her and Ranjit, if he’d had the courage to fight for her. Annoyed, she shook off the thought. This wasn’t about Ranjit Singh. New start …

‘Hey, guys! It’s so good to see you.’ She accepted a hug from Cormac, and then hugged Ayeesha as Cormac seized Isabella and embraced her warmly.

Ayeesha gave her a brilliant grin, flicking her long braids over her shoulder. ‘And good to see you too, Cassie. Looking
good
, girl! You’ve been feeding properly!’ The Bajan girl drew back and wagged a mocking finger. ‘About time!’

‘Um. Yeah.’ Cassie smiled awkwardly, trying not to meet Isabella’s eyes.

Ayeesha dropped Cormac’s hand to link one arm through Cassie’s and one through Isabella’s. ‘Come and have coffee, huh? There’s a few of us over in that little café round the corner,’ she said, her soft lilt quickening with excitement.

‘A
Few
of us, you mean?’ asked Cassie dryly.

Cormac laughed. ‘Sure, but you’ll keep us all in check. And if you won’t, I’m sure Isabella here will. Come on, girls!’

Cassie, to her surprise, found she didn’t need any further encouragement. The elite Few weren’t all her type, not by any means, but there were some of them she’d be very pleased to see again. And she understood them better, now that she understood their motivations, their comradeship, and their unnatural hunger that had to be fed. She was, after all, one of them – or at least part of her was.

As Ayeesha led them to the coffee shop, Cassie found herself looking almost eagerly for familiar faces. Mikhail wasn’t there, thank goodness. Neither was the horrible Sara who’d tipped off the evil Katerina and her mother to Cassie’s movements last term, nearly getting her, Isabella and Jake killed in the process.

But Vassily and Yusuf were sitting together gossiping, and India and Hamid waved as she approached. In the flurry of air-kisses, whether they were sincere or not, Cassie found herself relaxing, smiling. She couldn’t help sensing the new-found respect in their greetings – and she was genuinely glad to see some of them, she thought. Oh, the irony. In fact, considering how she’d first felt about the Few, she was shocked at how at ease she was. It was almost as if she’d missed them.

Voluntarily or not, she realised this was kind of where she belonged now. So maybe Ranjit had been right. Maybe if she’d embraced being part-Few sooner, they would still be together? Maybe—

No. She didn’t want to think about him. Definitely not now. Cassie shook her head to clear it, then smiled and returned Vassily’s formal handshake. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone else turn and rise to his feet. A good-looking, rakish figure with a distinctly louche air …

‘Richard. Hey.’

She’d tried to sound a little reticent, but the smile had dawned on her face before she could stop it. Tentatively, almost as if he was afraid of her reaction, the English boy returned it, but without much trace of his usual carefree arrogance.

Cassie swiftly dampened her smile. New attitude or no new attitude, some things never change. Despite Richard’s constant pleas for forgiveness last term, and the invaluable information he gave which led Cassie to finding Jake before he was thrown into the Living Soil, there was one thing she could never quite get over. Richard had been the one to trick her into hosting Estelle’s spirit. She wasn’t sure she could ever forgive him for that, no matter how much things had moved on since that fateful evening. Tightening her lips as she leaned forward to greet him, she avoided making contact with his cheek.

‘Cassie.’ He gave her a wary smile. ‘Great to see you.’

‘Yeah. You too.’

He greeted Isabella fondly, but he kept his distance from Cassie as they all sat down, their voices jumbling, eager to gossip and swap impressions of the new Academy.

‘What do you make of the courtyard? They finally got the hang of having the statues outside!’

‘Too right – but have you seen Sir Alric’s glasshouse? Has to have a special place for his precious bloody orchids, eh!’

‘I’m more worried about the food. I mean, there’s going to be something other than cheese and olives, right?’

‘Cormac, baby, don’t you think of anything other than your stomach?’ Ayeesha patted her boyfriend’s trim midriff teasingly. ‘So anyway, apparently there’s going to be a huge emphasis on history and archaeology this year. Extra classes.’ She rolled her eyes exaggeratedly.

‘Are you serious? Ancient ruins and dusty digs? No thank you.’

‘It could be fun!’

‘Yeah, right!’

During the mêlée of voices, more than once Cassie found her gaze drifting towards Richard. To her surprise, he seemed to be concentrating on cheering up Isabella; her detached, gloomy look gradually faded as he joked and chatted. Watching him, Cassie felt a surge of reluctant admiration.

Admiration for his thoughtfulness, that was all. Not affection.

She told herself that she wouldn’t fall for his charm again. So far, he was acting pretty meek around her, but that was as it should be; he
should
feel awkward. OK, so he was being sweet to Isabella right now, but that didn’t cost him anything. Sweetness and charm were weapons to him, as far as Cassie was concerned. He was the one who tried to play all sides against the middle, even sucking up to the vile Katerina and her minions when it had suited him.

But it was hard to keep her resentment bubbling. Ever since she’d perceived Richard’s spirit, Cassie had begun to understand him a little better, in spite of herself. His seemed one of the weakest of all the ancient and immortal Few spirits that had merged with their human hosts, so it was maybe no wonder that he played the game so carefully. Again she glanced in his direction. Again, he kept his eyes and his smile averted, wary of her gaze.

Cassie felt another tiny flicker of a softening towards him. Try as she might, she wasn’t as mad at him as she’d expected. Maybe she’d been wrong – maybe her new attitude
would
allow her to move on, as far as Richard was concerned. Maybe she wanted to.

‘When did you guys get here?’ asked Cormac.

Cassie glanced at Isabella, but she stayed silent. ‘Just this morning. We, uh … we came on Isabella’s father’s yacht.’

‘Nice! That was a beautiful-looking boat.’ Vassily was smiling at
her
, though, with only a brief glance at Isabella, which made Cassie a little uncomfortable.

Again she looked at Isabella, trying to draw her in. ‘Isabella’s parents are incredible. It was really kind of them to let me come along. I’m sure my friend here didn’t give them much of a choice.’

Isabella gave a small chuckle and smiled at Cassie, but didn’t inject anything further into the conversation. Cassie sighed.

‘Hey, you’re one of us now, or near enough,’ Hamid said, laughing. ‘You need to get used to this lifestyle.’

‘Yeah, I …’ Cassie smiled, with another glance at Isabella. ‘I’m not quite there yet, I don’t think, as I’m sure Isabella would tell you.’

Isabella smiled, and finally opened her mouth to respond, but the conversation had moved on again. Ayeesha set down her tiny cup of thick coffee dramatically, goggling at it.

‘Man, this gets you going in the mornin’. I’ll be buzzing all day!’

‘And all night, with any luck,’ added Cormac.

‘Hmm, you might not want to press that Irish luck though, sweetie, or Ayeesha could well get tired of you,’ India interjected with a grin.

The Few hooted with laughter, even Ayeesha, though she squeezed Cormac’s arm affectionately. Cassie found herself joining in, but noticed uneasily that Isabella’s laughter was forced and half-hearted. She looked as though she was starting to feel pretty left out.

God, Cassie really just wanted Isabella to be happy again. If she could just move past everything that had happened with Jake, then maybe things might be OK – but right now Cassie really couldn’t see that happening. Funny how, when she’d first arrived at the Academy, Isabella had tried for so long to make Cassie feel happy there, and now here they were with their roles reversed. Because she was really getting there, Cassie realised with an inward smile. She was feeling more settled, she was starting to feel at home. As though she
did
belong.

That’s my girl! That’s my girl, Cassandra! It’s about time we
started establishing ourselves here
…

Even Estelle’s aside couldn’t dampen her mood. Cassie laughed out loud again, slightly out of place, earning a quizzical look from Richard. And yet when she turned to him, he was focused on Isabella once again, arm resting nonchalantly on the back of her chair.

‘Well, I don’t know about you guys but I
love
it here!’ exclaimed India. ‘What an amazing place for my last term! I think I might go and take a look at the Hagia Sophia this afternoon. Who fancies it?’

‘Wish I could,’ said Yusuf with a wink, tucking his gaudy shark tooth pendant back into his shirt. ‘I’m meeting someone.’

‘Aren’t you always?’ Ayeesha pointed out, to more chortling.

‘Well, I don’t remember him ever trying it on with me,’ said Richard, faux-hurt. ‘What am I, chopped liver?’

Yusuf chuckled wryly.

‘Maybe he just has better taste,’ Cassie added, though she couldn’t stop the smile on her face from softening the blow.

Richard shrugged and nudged Isabella. ‘A little harsh, your friend, isn’t she?’ he joked, though the twinkle was missing from his eyes. Cassie tried to ignore it, which wasn’t hard as she then heard India chime up again.

‘Speaking of hot dates, Isabella! When’s that hunky Yank Jake Johnson arriving?’

Damn. India was only trying to include her at last, thought Cassie as her heart sank to her boots. But as they all looked expectantly at Isabella, the Argentinian girl’s tan skin blanched.

‘Um … I’m … I don’t know …’ Isabella looked desperately at Cassie, then down at her watch. She gave a weak laugh. ‘Actually, I’m so silly. I forgot, I’m expecting a call from … from my mother. I had better be getting back. Nice to see you guys.’

She stood up so fast she almost knocked her chair over. Richard caught it and steadied it. Vassily, Yusuf and Richard stood up awkwardly but politely as Isabella began hurriedly gathering up her bag and jacket. Cassie rose to follow.

‘Can I walk you girls back, then?’ asked Richard, but Isabella was already at the door to the café.

‘No. No, it’s fine. You stay. Just a phone call. I promised I’d, uh, let her know how we’re settling in. Bye!’ Isabella waved quickly, and then ducked speedily through the low wood-framed exit.

‘What?’ Cassie heard India say. ‘Did I say something wrong?’

‘I think you just put your size six Louboutins in it, sweetheart.’ That was Richard – but Cassie was already out of the door as well, hurrying to catch up with her roommate.

‘Wait, Isabella! I’ll come with you!’ Cassie called, catching up and linking her arm through her friend’s. She was relieved not to have lost Isabella in the thronging crowds.

‘Sorry, Cassie,’ said Isabella miserably. She sounded on the verge of tears. ‘You were enjoying yourself. I didn’t mean—’

‘Don’t be daft. It’s cool, I was getting a bit bored in there anyway,’ Cassie replied with a grin.

‘Me too.’ Footsteps slowed close behind them, and then Richard fell into step. ‘Thought you might need a big strong man to protect you from the hordes out here.’

Cassie glanced at him in mild surprise, but couldn’t help returning his ironic smile. ‘Yeah,’ she replied. ‘Do you know where we might find one?’

‘That is so sweet of you, Richard. I’m sorry,’ Isabella sniffed, ignoring their banter and walking fast.

‘Stop apologising, you silly cow,’ said Richard cheerfully, his loping stride easily keeping pace with her. ‘And hey, bella Isabella … I’m really sorry about Jake not coming back. What a prize
arse
, eh? And I’m not just talking about those tight glutes of his. You’re far too lovely for him, and I always said so. If you’re looking for a means by which to achieve some comfort …’ He trailed off, raising his eyebrows suggestively.