“Nope.”
My shoulders curled forward. “Damn.”
“It’s an elemental magic skill but only a few wizards can make them. If you want, I can try to teach you. Like any other elemental magic trick, you’ll either be able to make them or you won’t.”
“It would be cool if I could.”
“Then I’ll work with you on wards and, in exchange, you can show me the room.” A mix of eagerness and longing rushed through her words. She’d dropped her spoon, her ice cream forgotten.
“We’ll have to work on Sirra first,” I said. “She’s pretty picky about who swims in her moat.”
“Kinda chilly for swimming. The water’s half sheened over with ice.”
“Any place we can buy wet suits?”
“I could flit us both to the room.”
“Doesn’t work. Or, it wouldn’t work for me. I tried flitting out. I think the room’s bespelled or warded in some way to keep people from finding it.”
“She must’ve wanted you there, then, or you wouldn’t have discovered it.”
“Earlier, as I was waking up in the clinic, she told me to find her, to come back. But when I initially found the room, she didn’t appear as a ghost. I didn’t meet her until my dream.”
“I’m sure she was watching the first time.”
Creepy. Except, she’d been sweet and kind, without implying I should be scared.
“We may need to jump in and swim, after Sirra gives us permission,” I said.
“All right.” She nodded pertly. “I’ll freeze my ass off, but I’m willing to do it.”
A cookie flew past my head, almost hitting me.
I knew wards wore off fast, but that was extra-fast. I glared at Ashton, who continued to shovel in his ice cream.
Tria frowned, her gaze drifting past them to take in the entire room. “Let’s go.”
Standing, I grabbed my half-empty dish. Something wet and cold plopped against my shoulder. Ice cream dribbled down my arm and onto the floor. With a grimace, I wiped it off with a napkin.
My ice cream in hand, I stomped over to Ashton and Vik. “You like playing games?”
They ignored me and kept eating. So focused on their food, not even a snicker slipped out. But I’d had enough. I upended my ice cream and dropped it on top of Ashton’s head.
“We’ve gotta go,” Tria said sharply, hauling on my arm.
Ashton kept eating, seemingly unaware he wore an ice cream hat on his head. White goo mixed with chocolate dripped down his temples.
I stumbled behind Tria. “Why didn’t he leap to his feet and whine he was telling mommy—err, Justine? I don’t get it.”
Tria shook her head and started running, dragging me behind her. She didn’t slow until we’d raced up the stairs and started across the skywalk. I hated coming this way after finding Drea dead on the landing on the Earth Coven side. Yet it was the quickest way to my room from the back corridor.
Tria stopped in the middle of the glass passage and looked up, down, and to both sides like a kid on a street corner. She shoved her hair off her face and flopped against the clear wall. “That was too close. I don’t think we were followed.”
“By Ashton and Vik? So weird. I dumped my ice cream on Ashton’s head.” A completely stupid move on my part, now that I’d had time to think, rather than impulsively act. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh about it or cringe. I’d be receiving a ping from Justine within minutes. Ashton wouldn’t let this insult slide. “He didn’t flinch. Didn’t respond. In fact, he didn’t do a thing about it.”
“That’s just it,” Tria said. “They were still warded.” She turned dread-filled eyes my way. “It wasn’t Ashton or Vik throwing the ice cream.”
“Then who threw it at me?” I asked. Oh, I already knew. I rubbed the diamond on my chest. “Damn thing.” Sighing, I slumped against the glass as horror dawned inside me like a blood-red sunrise the morning before a storm.
The pranks had begun.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. That was some crazy shit right there,” Tria said.
I hugged my arms around my waist, but I kept shivering. “Tell me what you think is going on.” Maybe I was wrong in my assumption.
She bumped off the wall and faced me. “Like I need to? It’s your prankster, making itself known.”
“I thought…” It didn’t really matter what I thought. I didn’t need this right now. Lately, my life had consisted of one bad thing after another. “Stupid beatleycarne. How could this happen? When I grabbed the lardlet, the beatleycarne slipped from my hands. It bailed off the cliff. Nothing should be able to survive that drop.”
“A prankster can. Beatleycarnes bounce.” She huffed out a breath. “I thought the Seekers…Now that it has slipped past their wards, things are going to get complicated.”
Awesome. I snorted. “Like things aren’t complicated enough already? We need to catch it and replant it in the cave.” According to Sirra. Capturessss. Reburiessss.
Or killssss. That was also a good option.
“Sadly, catching it’s not any easier than holding onto it when it wiggles.”
“For now, then, I’ll ignore it,” I said. And add it to my list of things I needed to handle. “It was just a little ice cream shot my way. A cookie.”
“Ice cream was practice. Your beatleycarne is warming up. Playing around with you to see how you respond.”
Not sure I wanted to ask, but my words came out anyway. “Practice for what?”
“I thought the healers were clear.”
“Remember? I ran.” Away, per Alex. But I’d needed time to think. To cry. And I’d learned Donovan knew who I was when he was in dragon form.
“The pranks will escalate,” she said.
We headed toward the door to Earth Coven. Reaching it, Tria opened it and waved for me to enter ahead of her.
I hurried into the hall and didn’t breathe again until the hallway door had shut behind us.
“What do you mean by escalate?” I said. “I assume I can look forward to more than flying cookies. Maybe it’ll get distracted or bored. It’ll leave and go back to its mushroom.” We could only hope.
No denying the grim expression on my friend’s face. “Once it locks onto someone, it doesn’t stop until…”
“Let me guess?” Because, sure, why not add another lead weight onto my shoulders?
We paused outside my room.
Before my door’s lips could form and ask me for the password, I faced Tria. “It won’t stop until I’m dead, will it?”
Chapter 9
I was in trouble. Beatleycarne trouble. On top of everything else, I didn’t need this prankster wreaking havoc in my life.
“Could I hire someone to ward the beatleycarne so it leaves me alone?” I asked Tria as we approached my Coven room.
“Sadly, no. Some creatures are resistant to wards,”
“I assume beatleycarnes fall into this category.”
“Yep.”
“Ah, Fleur,” my door called out before we could say anything further.
Today, he’d coated his lips in vivid red then speckled them with green polka dots.
“Great look, Thorn,” I said. Who would’ve thought a door had a name? “Very festive.”
“You think so?” Thorn’s lips pursed. “I almost went with deep purple but worried it would blend in too much with the wood. Really wanted to pop today.”
“I like it.”
“We’ll see what my date thinks.” If he had eyebrows, he’d wiggle them.
“Anyone I know?”
If lips could look coy, these did. “I’ll never tell.”
“I like that about you.”
He chuckled, but sobered fast. “Where have you been? I was worried when you didn’t come home last night. Is this your date?”
By the fae, my door was acting like an overprotective parent. “You met Tria already. She’s not my date, though.”
Tria halfheartedly lifted her hand to wave at
Thorn. “Hey.”
“If you’re going to stay out all night,” Thorn said. “You need to let me know. Then I can…”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Tell me.”
He whined like a toddler. “You can’t make me.”
He was probably right. What was I going to do? Give him a time out?
There was more than one way to make someone talk, however. I turned to my friend. “Tria, what did your door say about Thorn the other day? Something about—”
“Enough! Enough,” Thorn said. “I get it. You sure you’re an Unraveler and not a Seeker?”
I tipped my head toward Tria. “That would be her.”
The door shuddered in its frame. “Are you really a Seeker?” he whispered.
“In training,” Tria said. “Only a Level Three so far, though. But I’m close to a Level Four. Then I’ll be granted most of my power.”
“Password!” Thorn said, acting prim and proper, maybe hoping to impress her.
“It’s sexy, as you very well know,” I said. My roommate, Patty, had come up with the password our first day on campus, and it stuck. “And you still haven’t told me what you’ll do if I decide to stay out all night.”
“As you know, we doors talk.”
How, I didn’t know. But this place was magical. For all I knew, they met in the courtyard each night to play cribbage and gossip.
Doors also dated, but I wasn’t going there. How could a door…? I shook my head.
“We also watch out for our students,” Thorn said. “Consider us your neighborhood watch. That’s an outling term, but it fits. Very little happens without us knowing about it.”
That I could believe. Doors were everywhere. Were there beings inside every one of them? I’d only seen mouths on the doors in the Covens but they could remain hidden on the others. “Since you guys talk, do you have any idea who might be a Bespeller on campus?” Maybe Thorn could provide some clues.
His lips twisted. “The only Bespeller I’ve heard of on campus was with the king. He visited the Academy recently but has left.”
I leaned against the doorframe. “There’s a rogue Bespeller running around creating nasty spells. No one knows who she or he is.”
“No!” Thorn gasped.
“They bespelled a student, turning them into a nightlace cluster, then bespelled the person to hunt outlings.”
“This is dreadful,” Thorn cried. “I’ll notify the watch immediately. Bespelled, you say? Which student are we talking about?”
“Alys.”
“A neighbor.” Dismay came through in his voice. “To think, she lives only one door down from me. Hunting precious outlings? I won’t stand for this. In fact—”
“Hold on there,” I said, tapping on the wood with a knuckle on my good hand. “Don’t send doors after her yet.” Although, I had no idea how doors could do much even if they wanted to, since they were fixed in place. Sorta. “The Council’s involved. They’ll get to the bottom of it.” If not, I sure planned to. “Seekers, too.”
“Good. They’ll fix this and keep you and the other outlings safe.”
That was debatable. But they would try harder now that an Elite was involved. “Alys is wearing a charm that keeps her from turning back into nightlace. Since she tried to kill me, I was asked if I wanted to press charges, and—”
“You were?” Tria asked, swaying forward. “You’re going to, right?”
“No.” I shrugged. “She doesn’t remember anything and, under Serum, they couldn’t prove she’d done more than attack me that afternoon. They’re not convinced she killed Drea and Sarah. They said the murderer might’ve been one of the other bespelled nightlace clusters. Justine plans to send out a general announcement about this.”
“And she has, but I’m not convinced. If Alys comes near you again,” Tria growled, her hands fisted. “I’ll show her the full power of a Level Three Seeker.”
“Can you not?” I asked. The last thing I needed was for my friend to punch my sister. If anyone punched Alys, it would be me.
“Why?” she asked, her brow pinching.
“Because…” I needed a solid excuse that wouldn’t reveal my secret. “Because we’ve talked.” That was true. “And we’ve come to an understanding.” I tightened my spine. “We’re going after the Bespeller together.”
“Absolutely not,” Thorn shouted. “Leave this to the door federation.”
There was a door federation?
“What are doors going to do?” I asked, tilting my head.
“Watch. Report,” he said. “You’ll see. We’ll expose the Bespeller within days.”
“That would be awesome.” But I doubted doors could do much of anything, so I wasn’t letting go of my plan. “In between then, can you ask your friends if they’ve seen anything suspicious?”
“I can definitely do that,” Thorn said. “I’ll report what I discover.”
“Great.” I grinned at Tria, pleased to be making progress in my investigation already. “Off the top of your head,” I asked Thorn. “Any idea who the Bespeller could be?”
His lips twisted, and he said nothing for a beat. “What about…”
My spine perked up. “What about what? Who?” Tria and I exchanged a raised-eyebrow glance. Would exposing the Bespeller be this easy?
“It’s probably nothing,” Thorn said.
I wanted to poke him but restrained myself. I’d hurt my finger while he wouldn’t realize I’d done a thing. “Tell me anyway.”
“There’s only one suspicious person I can think of. Someone who creeps around where he shouldn’t. Does things he doesn’t realize others can see. Not that anyone ever asks us. We’re doors, after all. The world assumes we sleep, I suppose, when instead, we’re—”
“Who?” Tria and I shouted out in unison.
“Watching.”
“Who’s watching?” I asked, frustration growing like an inflating balloon inside me.
“Well, I am. That’s what I was trying to say, that—”
“I meant, who’s creeping around doing things he shouldn’t?” He, huh?
“The Smythe boy, of course.”
Smythe. Smythe.
“Who’s that?” Tria asked, equally puzzled.
Smythe… Oh. “Ashton.” I hadn’t heard what his skapti was, but if he was a potential Bespeller, Justina and Cloven would’ve mentioned it.
Could he be hiding a secret skill?
Tria placed her index finger against her lips and shook her head before I could quiz Thorn any further. When she nudged her chin to my room, I nodded. We’d talk inside.
But I did still have a few questions for Thorn. “How about Serum?” I asked. “Do you happen to know any home remedies that can be used if someone gets Serum on their hand?”
“Why would anyone do that?”
My neck prickled. “It was an accident.”
“The only solution is to cut off the hand, of course.”
I sighed. “I was afraid you’d say that.”
“Sad but true.”
“How about a beatleycarne?” I said. “Do you know much about them?”
“I don’t, but I can ask the other doors if you’d like.”
“That would be awesome.”
“Anything else I can do?” he asked.
Wasn’t all this enough? “Nope.”
“Very well, then.” His lips thinned, making him come across prim. “Since you’ve used the password, you are granted entry.” The panel clicked and widened a hair.
I pushed it open. Tria followed me into the room and shut the door behind us.
Tossing my coat, mittens, and hat onto my desk, I turned and leaned against it. “Why didn’t you want me quizzing Thorn about Ashton?”
“Anyone could hear in the hall. Ashton’s…”
“Ashton’s what?”
“Nothing.”
There she went, acting secretive.
“Tell me,” I said.
; “There isn’t much to say, except I’m watching him. There’s something strange about that kid. It bugs me.”
“Ashton bugs everyone,” I said.
“Isn’t that the truth. Us, in particular.”
“Alys seems to like him. Or, she did a while ago.” She’d hung on his arm when the king was here. I’d wondered if they were going out together but I couldn’t exactly ask her.
“I’ll let you know if he does anything weird,” Tria said.
“Okay.”
“I’ll come by later if you want, and we can talk about your plan for the beatleycarne, your hand, Donovan, and any other magical disaster that reveals itself between now and then.” No holding back her smirk, but it fell fast.
I wanted to laugh. It would be nice to feel as if this was a joke, that life was fun again. But I’d never been good at pretending.
“I’d love to hear your input,” I said. “Patty will be around tonight, too.”
“Perfect. Between the three of us, we’ll figure something out.”
“Great.”
She frowned. “It’s late. I’ve got to get to my last class. But I’ll stay with you if you need me.”
I waved toward the door. “I’m okay. Go.”
“You sure?”
Biting my lower lip, I nodded.
“Don’t go anywhere,” she said. “Don’t do anything.”
I groaned. “Yes, Mom.”
Grinning, Tria flitted to class.
Someone knocked on our door. I strode over and swung it open.
“Hey, Fleur.” Bryce, Patty’s boyfriend, peered around me. “Pats around?”
“Not sure. I haven’t been around.”
“Oh, okay.” His face relaxed into a cute grin, and I could see why my roomie liked him so much. “When you see her, would you tell her to ping me? She hasn’t responded to mine, so she must be busy.” He rubbed his belly. “I’m starved.”
“I’ll tell her.”
“Thanks.”
I shut the door, crossed my room, and flopped on my bed, where I stared up at the ceiling. What a day. I’d talked with a ghost, discovered my rotting hand would kill me within one week unless I cut it off. Then Sirra told me Alys was my sister. Tria revealed a beatleycarne had locked onto me and was determined to prank me to death. And I was no closer to unraveling Donovan’s bespelling than I’d been weeks ago.
Crystal Wing Academy- The Complete Series Page 55
