“Oh!” Katya clapped her furry pincers, drawing Patty’s gaze briefly away from a mirrored ball that looked like it would do well in a disco. She put the ball back on the shelf and picked up one with every color in a rainbow. Katya tapped my arm, redrawing my attention. “Your concealer sounds inspired.” Tapping her gray chin, her lips curled down. “I’ll need to make it then bespell it, which will take time. Do you want it ported to your Coven room or can you come back later to fetch it? Perhaps when my children are around? I’d love to introduce you.”
My flesh crawled. No thanks.
“If you’d like, I’ll make it while you…stay.” She drew the word out, the low sound buzzing through the air.
Stay.
My head spun as I was pulled into her eyes, sliding down into the bone—
“Hey.” Patty smacked my arm. “Might want to avoid doing that or…Well, best not to mention specific words.” Juggling a pink crystal ball to her left arm, Patty shook her finger in Katya’s face. “None of that, now. Really. I’ll tell Pandia.”
Patty’s sister who was a Council Seeker.
Katya’s round body heaved. “Sorry.” Her gaze drifted back to me. “You sure I can’t talk her into visiting a bit longer?”
“Nope.” Patty tugged me backward and stepped between us. “We’re flitting back to the Academy in twenty minutes.”
“How unfortunate. I’ll port the concealer to you, then.” Katya peering around Patty’s shoulder to speak to me. “Later this evening or tomorrow?”
Keeping my gaze cast down, I shook off the lingering haze. “Sure.”
“I could ask one of my children to deliver it personally, if you’d prefer.”
“Transport, please,” Patty said, no-nonsense ringing out in her voice.
Katya’s chuckle made her plump furry belly shake like a vat of tar in an earthquake. “I was only teasing.”
Avoiding her black hole gaze, I paid with my cointage, a golden disk the size of my palm. The diamond in the upper right corner indicated it recharged itself automatically. In other words, it never ran out. To my amazement, Ester had given it to me.
We left the store and, once the jangle of the bell overhead faded, I stumbled up the stairs. Outside, I stared at a store called Dayrior Quag. Not caring what it might mean when at, any other time, I’d be intrigued, I slumped onto a stone bench. “What the fae just happened?”
Patty sank down beside me. “Katya’s known for a variety of unsavory magical activities but, originally, before the fae split, for luring the unwary in.”
“She’s that old?”
“Older.”
I rubbed my face and shook off my quakes. At least I’d never need to see Katya again. Two concealers would be enough to last me a lifetime.
“She doesn’t mean any harm. Most of the time. It’s just…her children love power. And they’re hungry.”
Chapter 23
Patty put her arm around my shoulders. “Sorry. I should’ve warned you.”
“It’s okay. I’m getting used to creatures and plants wanting to eat me.” Kill me. When I’d come to the Academy, I’d thought my biggest challenge would be learning magic. Never thought I’d be fighting for my life on a regular basis. I stood. “We should probably go. It’s almost time to flit back to the Academy.”
“You’re right.” Patty frowned and a bell dropped from the ceiling. After loading her bag on a wyleen, we walked toward the Flit Hub where we sat on another bench near the tree and bush that still gossiped about evergreens.
Jenny joined us.
“We wondered where you’d gone,” I said.
“I looked for you guys after buying some pants but couldn’t find you.”
“Technically…” Patty’s gaze darted to mine. “No one was supposed to be alone.”
“Oh, I wasn’t alone,” Jenny said. “I met up with Ashton. And then Eben. We went to a few more stores then I came back here once I’d synced with the sundial and realized it was almost time to flit back to the Academy.”
“Where’s Eben, then?” I asked, peering around. Not that I cared to see him. Ever since he, Vik, and Ashton tried to pull that nightlace prank on me, I’d avoided them. Wasn’t sure I’d even go to the next Outling Club meeting. I still wasn’t convinced they weren’t somehow involved in the murders. Were they somehow connected with Blaine?
“Not sure where he went. Said something about needing to buy herbs for a class.”
Patty pointed. “There he is, now.”
Eben, Vik, and Ashton walked toward us, talking. Eben’s face had taken on the cast of a tomato’s and he waved his arms in the air. What had pissed him off?
“How was your first trip to the mall?” Patty asked Jenny.
“Unbelievable. Amazing.” She turned to me. “You know how it is in the outling world. There’s nothing like this place.” Her voice rose with excitement. “I bought the best pair of jeans. They adjust to your size if you lose or gain weight. And they’re comfy, stretchy, even if you lounged on your bed.”
“Certainty Jeans,” Patty said with a nod. “Guaranteed to make you look fantastic.”
“They’re not cheap, but isn’t that how it always is?” Jenny said. “My parents got me a cointage. They’re super proud of me. My parents, that is. Warded not to share details with other outlings about magic but they didn’t mind a bit.” Her grin sunk into me, spreading jealousy wherever it touched. “Just happy to see me getting the education I need.”
While I hadn’t once regretted my Stone Selection choice, I couldn’t hold back my twinge of envy. It would be unnatural to feel any other way after my mom ditched me.
More kids arrived at the Hub, including Moira, and Alys with shorter hair she’d had tipped with purple. Good luck with the imps.
Donovan pinged me. Somethings…I need to tell you in person.
You sound upset. Everything okay?
Meet me on the roof at midnight tonight?
I couldn’t help noticing he hadn’t answered my question. What was going on?
Fleur?
Midnight. I’ll be there.
He hung up before I could say goodbye.
When Alys and Moira sat on a bench, Ashton slunk over and stood behind them. He leaned forward and said something that made Alys tip her head back and laugh. Her smirk pinned me in place immediately after.
“All right, students,” Professor Trarion called out. She stood in the middle of the three flit circles. “Find a place. Hurry, now. It’s time to return to the Academy.” Her attention scanned across us and each bob of her head told me she was counting.
Rising, we three took a place in a circle with me in the center, Patty on my right, and Jenny on my left.
Ashton, Alys, Moira, Vik, and Eben strolled over to stand across from us.
“Hold hands, please.” Appearing from behind us, Professor Kreat leaped into the center of our circle. She swiped a hand across her forehead. “Sorry I’m late. I was getting a massage and Clottus—he’s a hundred-handed Hecatoncheires—well, let me tell you…”
Professor Trarion’s cough cut Professor Kreat off mid-reveal. Thank the fae. I really didn’t want to hear what Clottus could do with his hands.
“Anyway,” Professor Kreat said. “Hold hands and we’ll flit you back in no time. You should know the coordinates to the Academy lobby but, just in case, I’ll ping them to you.”
“Please do not flit directly to your Coven room,” Professor Trarion shouted above kids talking. “We do a head count once we arrive and you’d hate to be found lounging in your room while we presume you’re missing and conduct a wizard hunt.”
“When you’re ready,” Professor Kreat said after Professor Trarion nodded her way. “On three…two…and one…”
The ground dropped away and I was yanked sideways, my hand wrenched from Patty’s. Her dismayed cry faded only to be followed by a gut-curdling scream.
I smacked onto my chest on the ground so hard the wind burst from me. A deflated balloon, I flou
ndered, trying to remember how to breathe.
The dirty stone floor beneath me was not familiar.
I lifted my head and squinted into the gloomy room surrounding me.
A darkened corridor stretched out on either side of the room. Rough wooden torches with flicking flames casting shadows in the gloom. Rancid smoke drifted around me, but I held back my cough.
Didn’t dare make a noise.
I rose to my heels and rubbed my stinging knees.
Where the fae had I flitted to? This was not the Academy.
Someone groaned, the pained sound reaching me from the corridor to my right.
A voice—Jenny’s—said, “Where am I? Is anyone—”
She screamed, but the sound was cut off.
Chapter 24
My belly cramped. Someone had flitted us here—wherever here was—for a purpose. I knew why…
“Jenny?” I whispered, then called her name louder.
No reply.
Scrambling to my feet, I bolted toward where I’d last heard her cry, praying I’d find her alive. That I wouldn’t trip over her lying dead on the ground, like I had Drea.
I swiped my hair off my face, finding my skin clammy.
Jenny screamed again, farther down the hall, as if she’d moved. Or had been moved. I ran faster, my sneakers slamming on the packed soil. Though I’d only gone about one hundred steps, my heart had turned into a sledgehammer beneath my ribcage, eager to batter its way through.
I drew my blade and, pulling in threads of gray and indigo blue, the only strands available, I filled my moonstone with power.
She whimpered. “No. Stop. Help!”
“Jenny?” I yelled. “Where are you?”
Each time I passed a torch, my eyes struggled to adjust to the dense gloom beyond. Things…scurried around me. Bugs or mice or something even more horrifying.
“Fleur! Help. It’s…” Scraping, dragging shuffles rebounded through the tunnel. “It’s got me. A plant or a vine or…” Her shriek made goosebumps swell across my skin. “Fleur!”
A gust of wind shot down the hall, hitting my back with enough force to send me tripping forward. My arms pinwheeled as I fought to keep balance.
The torches blew out.
Coarse smoke billowed around me, choking my lungs. My footsteps slowed. Shivering, I peered around. Darkness engulfed the world around me.
I drew power from my moonstone to create my finger glow light and held it up as I inched forward.
“Jenny?” I called, my words swallowed by my fear. “Please. Tell me where you are.”
Wind caught my hair, smacking it against my face, blinding me. I yanked it back and secured it with an elastic then took a few steps farther down the hall. Trepidation slithered up my spine, the spindly footsteps of roaches.
A dragging sound was punctuated by yelps and a long wail of agony.
My skin crawled.
“Please,” Jenny cried. “Fleur…It’s…taking me!”
Caution be damned. Tracking the echo of her voice, I raced forward, the walls creeping closer while I scurried through the tunnel.
Scratches from too close by made me shudder and come to a standstill. Dread clamped down on my heart like the jaws of a beast.
Don’t look.
Tipping my head back, I peered overhead while lifting my light.
Nightlace encrusted the arched stone ceiling, a writhing mass of serpent vines eager to kill. Unless someone lurked unseen, the plants had been warded to hunt us. Were Ashton and Eben involved?
Thick bands caked with leaves must’ve sensed me, because a cluster spiked down, its sharp tip plunging toward my throat.
Yelping, I ducked and, covering my head with my arms, rushed forward. “Jenny. Tell me where you are!”
“Help me…” A snap was followed by gurgling, like she was being sucked down into an endless pit of mud.
Not again. Sarah’s face… Her bulging tongue. The horror that would burn for eternity in her eyes.
Brighter!
Light burst from my finger, revealing Jenny being dragged by her feet about twenty feet ahead of me. She clawed the ground, her fingers digging futilely at the packed soil. Head lifting, her stricken gaze met mine. Her mouth gaped wide. Vines enclosed her throat, a leaf-covered chokehold.
I flitted closer, but the vines wrenched her away from me, dragging her faster than a runaway bus heading for a cliff.
Air wheezed from my throat, and my muscles spasmed as I pelted after her. But I couldn’t catch up. Even with flit bursts. The cluster was hauling her away!
“Ashton? Eben. Stop doing this!” Was one of them hiding somewhere close by, directing the plants? “Blaine?” How far would Cloven’s son go to kill outlings?
Beyond Jenny, a round dark area waited. The vines scrambled to maintain their hold on her legs while tendrils whipped like trees in a Category Five hurricane, slapping her face, her arms, and her throat.
One lifted above like a scorpion poised to strike then plunged toward her exposed chest, carving first an O then a five in the center.
“No,” I shrieked, diving forward, my hands outstretched.
I slid across the ground and clamped my fingers around Jenny’s arm. Her skin slipped through my grip. Vines dragged me with her, a feast of two, pulling us toward our final destination waiting in the dark.
Hacking with my blade, I sliced through the vines networking her throat. The sharp edge bit deep, infused with power that surged through me from my moonstone, in an arc of white-hot lightning.
The nightlace snapped back, sizzling and smoking. But the strands wrapped around her legs tightened their hold. Wailing, she kicked.
“I…I. They won’t let go!” Endless horror burst from her eyes.
Straining forward, I lifted my knife, but I couldn’t reach the vines wrapped around her legs.
Nightlace hauled us both toward the darkness.
A black hole.
Hissing and snapping, more nightlace vines dropped from the ceiling, landing on my back and legs. They clawed up my body and latched on. Wrapped around my throat.
My lungs aflame, I sliced and hacked and the vines tumbled away. They reared back and, in a cluster, descended again, banding around my waist while others wrenched us closer to the edge.
“She’ll be coming ’round the mountain when she comes,” I sang through gritted teeth. So freakin’ stupid but this wasn’t a church choir.
Thuds and bangs rang out around us. Dandybucklions? They hammered, trying to break through. How deep did the stone go?
“She’ll be coming ’round the mountain…”
Lifting my feet, I rammed my toes down, hoping they’d sink into the ground enough to hold us in place. Then I could think of a way to get us out of this.
I couldn’t let go. I’d save Jenny or die along with her.
Earth chafed my exposed skin and rocks jutting up from the ground ripped my clothing, tearing the tender flesh beneath.
The vines hauled us closer to the bottomless pit. Would they pull us over the side or suspend us by our throats in the middle?
No one would ever know what happened to us.
Someone had flitted us here and sent the nightlace after us. I had to get free and make them pay.
“Jenny. What’s your skapti?”
She frowned. “Cooking.”
No help from that skill.
“Can you move your legs?” I winced when my body bumped up and over a gnarled root. Stabbing my knife in deep, I used it to hold us in place. Vines dropped from the roof like thousand-legged spiders. They crawled all over me, tightening in a noose.
With renewed vigor, the vines dragged us closer to the hole. My blade was wrenched from my hand and my anguished cry echoed as our sole chance of survival was left behind. The loss of my moonstone ripped through me like a jagged spike, severing something vital inside.
Jenny’s feet lurched over the edge and she screamed, her hand tightening around my wrist. Her pleading gaze met mine
but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do. Like a plane with blown engines, we were plunging to the ground with nothing to stop our fall.
Her body was sucked into the blackness. I shoved the tips of my feet against the ground, hoping for purchase. Futile. The vines were determined to exterminate two outlings this time.
I only needed an O and a four on my chest for the next murders to be complete.
One sharp yank, and I was hauled forward. I clawed for something I could use as a lifeline.
Jenny’s head dropped over the edge.
My arms followed.
Clinging to my hand, Jenny stared up at me with terror and resignation in her eyes. “Let go,” she said in a whispered croak. The skin around the vines on her neck bulged. “Release me. Save yourself.”
No! “No way. We’re getting out of here.”
“Too late. Let go.” A sob shot past her dusky lips. “S’okay. Really.” Tears streamed down her cheeks and her chest stuttered with her ragged breathing.
“Not happening!” I renewed my grip on her wrist and, with my other hand clinging to the rocky side of the cliff, I tried to heave us backward, to pull her up.
My body flopped on the ground as vines yanked her downward. I was dragged over the edge, bending at the waist.
I couldn’t let the vines take us.
Power. I could draw it in but what could I do with the uncontrollable energy? Fire would do nothing to something that couldn’t burn.
I tried to flit us to the Academy, but something was blocking my magic. The vines?
With her eyes locked on mine, Jenny released my wrist. She twisted, trying to break free of my hold. “Let. Me. Go. Please!”
Her struggles yanked me over the edge.
I was sucked into the hole.
.
Chapter 25
Someone grabbed my foot.
“Hold on to Jenny,” Tria shouted. “We’re getting out of here.”
A flash, and we stood in the Academy lobby.
Severed strands of nightlace vine dropped away from my legs, my waist, and my throat.
Standing beside me, her face chalk, Jenny pried my fingers from her wrist. “Let go. Let go!”
Crystal Wing Academy- The Complete Series Page 40
