Rise Like The Sun

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

NICK

He can't focus the entire day.

Nick can only think about Madison's lips on his and his fingers against her bare skin. He's distracted to the point where his teachers despair and even Theo drags himself away from Lula long enough to frown at him in confusion. It's a good thing that Madison is not in any of his classes because every time he thinks of her, all he can see is her flushed cheeks, her bright eyes, her bruised lips. There's something about Madison that simply consumes him whole.

The thing is, that even though they're going to talk again to figure whatever this is out and probably end up with the whole dancing thing cancelled, all Nick can think about is that he'll see her again. Desire burns within him, yearning for Madison's touch in a wild sort of desperation that Nick doesn't yet understand, and he's so lost he doesn't hear his phone ring.

Will pushes at him. "Nick. Nick."

Nick blinks. "Huh?"

Will gives him another one of his You're-Acting-Weird looks. Nick's been on the receiving end of quite a lot of those this week. "Your phone's been going off like mad, mate," he says, chewing a carrot stick. "You alright? You seem a bit distracted."

"Yeah, you haven't even touched your food," Theo adds, furrowing his brows.

His cheeks flushed heavily, Nick drops his gaze down to his food. "Oh, yeah, no, I'm fine," he says quickly, before he pulls his phone out of his pocket and walks away. He can feel Will's curious gaze burning in his back as Nick picks up. "Mum?"

"Nick, why haven't you been picking up?" his mother demands, her voice a tight and tremulous thing. Nick opens his mouth but his mother interrupts, as she is wont to do. "Never mind that for now. Nick, I know that it is only lunch, but you've only got one class left, anyway. I can speak to your teachers, but I need you to come home."

Nick thinks of Mitchell and black feathers and bruises, his heart sinking as his fists clench. Fear grips him tightly, cold and awful. He's holding his phone so tightly the edges of the phone cut into his palm, leaving long, red lines. "What is it?" he asks, and his voice is stiff, thrumming with apprehension. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Nick," his mother says, and Nick swallows thickly as his mother's voice comes out slightly thin. "Nick, I need you to come home."

*

There is an array of black feathers on the dining table when he enters, and it stops Nick where he stands in the doorway, his lips parting.

His mother is eyeing him carefully.

"So you do know what these are," she says, with something like triumph lingering in her voice. "I have been finding these feathers in all of my offices, all of my buildings. My warehouses, everything. Now, I've called animal control and they say that crows or blackbirds don't usually frequent busy cities." She stares at him and pushes her open laptop towards him, her fingers brushing past the airline ticket. "And, well, you see, I never would have gotten so suspicious if this had not showed up, Nick."

Nick swallows thickly and he moves into the house, his heart hammering hard against his chest. He furrows his brows towards the website flickering on the screen.

"I don't know what I'm looking at," Nick confesses heavily.

"That's a newspaper article," his mother tells him sternly, her eyes fixed on him. "Detailing all the embezzling and fraud that Mr Carroway has been found guilty of. This morning, they were out with an arrest warrant for him." Nick suppresses something like triumphant glee. "Nick, my contacts in the police department have no idea who could have sent all of those anonymous tips because their traces were covered almost impossibly."