Academy of the Fateful (Cursed Studies Book 3)

by Eva Chase

  The girl I’d seen lying on the campus lawn was bustling around the clearing in a furor. A collapsed tent already sprawled on one patch of ground. She shoved packages of food and cooking utensils into a huge backpack. After she’d swung that over her shoulders, she reached for the tent, started to fold it, and then let out a sound of exasperation and simply bundled the fabric and poles up in a jumble. Then she spun around and spotted me.

  “Shit!” she yelped. The tent fell from her arms with a clatter of the poles. She snatched it back up again. “I don’t know what the hell you’re doing here, but I’ve got to get—”

  If she’d thought she’d somehow be able to avoid the coming confrontation, she was wrong. The ghostly girl who’d leaned over her in the real world, now solid and in full color, stalked into view between the trees from down the slope. She held a towel tight around her body, and her hair was slick from a recent swim. She blinked at the first girl. “What are you doing, Melanie?”

  “Getting out of here. I would have been gone already this time if she hadn’t distracted me.” The first girl—Melanie?—jabbed her finger toward me. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’m still going.”

  “But—you’re taking all the stuff? I’ve got to get changed if we’re leaving now.”

  “You’re not leaving. Just me. You can figure out your own way home. You shouldn’t have—if you hadn’t— It wasn’t my fault. You deserve this.”

  “You’re going to strand me here with just what I’ve got in my pack?” The other girl’s face flushed. “That’s—that’s awful, and ridiculous. You’re kidding me, right?”

  “I told you, there’s nothing to talk about. Deal with it.”

  Melanie turned with a swish of her hair and a huff, but her eyes were wide with a hint of panic. She wasn’t actually angry, just trying to flee the conversation she thought was coming. As if Roseborne and the vision it had conjured would let her off that easily.

  “Hey,” I said, moving to block her way. “You’re not getting out of this… this memory like that. Whatever you did wrong, you need to try to make amends for it. And I’m betting you did do something wrong or you wouldn’t be here.”

  Melanie’s chin jutted out. “I was totally justified with what I knew. It’s not like it’s going to hurt her all over again. None of this is real.”

  It is real inside your head, I thought. And that was the only place that mattered if she was ever going to get out of her head alive.

  “That’s not the point,” I said, keeping my voice as calm as I could. “This is just one more of the college’s tests. Do the staff ever let you get away with a half-assed effort?”

  Her lips pressed into a flat line, but she stayed were she was, obviously recognizing that I was right.

  “What the hell is going on here anyway?” I glanced from her to the other girl and back again. “I’m guessing if you were camping together you must have been friends. Why would you take off on her in the middle of the woods?”

  “Melanie is my best friend,” the other girl said in a mournful tone. “Or at least she was.”

  “Shut up.” Melanie’s shoulders had risen defensively. She grabbed my wrist and tugged me away from the clearing, farther into the woods, where her friend couldn’t overhear the conversation. Several paces in, she stopped and turned to me.

  “You don’t understand. She—while she was down there swimming, I was checking something on her phone, and I saw all these messages between her and my boyfriend. Talking about meeting at a restaurant and what a good time they’d have and shit like that. It was obvious she was sneaking around with him behind my back. Who needs enemies when you have ‘friends’ like that?”

  I had the feeling whatever I found out next would reveal that it was her friend who should be asking that question about Melanie. “And then what? Did you do something worse than strand her here? Did something happen to her because of it?” I couldn’t see Roseborne targeting her just for flipping out over a romantic betrayal.

  Melanie swiped her hand across her mouth. “When it really happened, I called her out on it before I left. She said they’d just been planning a surprise for me—for my birthday. I thought it was a stupid excuse. You have no idea— the whole time we’ve been friends, she’s always one-upped me, acting like she’s so much prettier and smarter and better than me. The guys always go for her first. Then one of them wanted me more, and it made sense that would piss her off.”

  The pieces were starting to click in my head. “But it turned out she was telling the truth, didn’t it? There wasn’t actually anything going on between them. She hadn’t betrayed you at all.”

  Melanie was silent for a moment. “No,” she admitted finally. “I didn’t go far enough back in the messages. My boyfriend showed me the entire conversation from his end when I got home. But I had every reason to believe—”

  “What happened to her after you left her?” I said, cutting her off. The excuses were starting to grate on my nerves. With the chip in her shoulder that big, I was doubting her interpretation of her friend’s previous behavior too. How many other ways had she punished the other girl for acting “better” before it’d come to this?

  Melanie glanced away. “We came in my car. So of course I drove that back. And no one else came out this way for a few days. The weather got colder, and she had hardly any food… By the time she found someone who could give her a ride back to civilization, she was sick. Really sick. She spent a week in the hospital recovering from hypothermia and some other stuff.”

  Ah. “So, you abandoned your best friend in the middle of nowhere, didn’t try to get any help for her when you realized she hadn’t made it back quickly, and it was all over a huge misunderstanding you didn’t trust her enough to let her clear up.”

  “Well, of course it’s going to sound awful when you put it like that.”

  I wasn’t sure there was any way I could put it that wouldn’t sound awful, but fine. I motioned toward the clearing. “You know now that she didn’t actually deserve it. Don’t you feel at all bad about what she went through?”

  Melanie shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “I try not to think about it. It wasn’t really my fault. All the evidence made it seem—and I told you what she’s always been like…”

  Impatience wound through my chest. While I was trying to talk sense into this jerk, who knew what was happening to the guys or, hell, everyone else around Roseborne? I wasn’t going to let her off the hook of facing up to her fuck-up by trying to banish the ghost by other means.

  “It’s up to you,” I said firmly. “I’ve stepped into a lot of these visions now. I know how they work. You need to own up to how you hurt her and honestly apologize, or you’re going to be stuck in here for I don’t know how long. Maybe forever, or until Roseborne sucks the rest of your life away.”

  Melanie opened her mouth with another sound of protest, and I raised my hand to stop her. “What’s more important to you—avoiding admitting that you went too far or staying alive?” Was it really that hard a choice?

  Apparently it was, from the way Melanie waffled for another minute or so. She glared at the trees around her as if they were somehow at fault and then glowered at me as if I’d arranged the whole thing. I was on the verge of walking off and leaving her to deal with this problem on her own—there had to be a way I could cast myself out of her vision even if it hadn’t ended yet, right?—when she sighed.

  “Okay,” she said in a small voice. “I guess I should talk to her. I never did after, not exactly.”

  Thank the Lord. I trailed behind her as she picked her way between the tree roots back to the clearing. Her friend was still standing there, looking bewildered.

  “You came back,” she said with audible relief.

  “Yeah.” Melanie set down the tent. She met her friend’s eyes and then glanced away. “I do know now that you didn’t really do anything with Jake. And… even if you had, you could have died because I left you out here. That was a horribl
e thing to do any way you look at it. I was just so mad…”

  Oh, God, don’t get back into the excuses. I cleared my throat, and her shoulders twitched.

  “Why would you think anything would happen between me and Jake?” the other girl said. “I was so happy you got together with him—you guys make an awesome couple.”

  “You’re just always…” Melanie scowled at her hands and managed to raise her eyes again. “You’re so much better with guys. It’s hard not to worry. But I still—I shouldn’t have been such an asshole about it. I actually felt really horrible when I found out you were in the hospital. I only wanted to freak you out a bit, make it a little hard for you. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I’m sorry about that. Sorry I didn’t do anything to help you sooner.”

  Her stance was still tensed, but I believed the shamed note that had come into her voice. It appeared that Roseborne did too. They stood there for another moment, and then the forest scene cracked apart. With a whoosh of momentum, I tumbled back into the school lawn.

  Melanie stirred on the grass. She pushed herself up gingerly and looked toward me. Her eyes narrowed and then softened again, as if she wasn’t sure whether to be pissed off at me or grateful.

  I’d take both. “I’m betting that’s not the worst incident in your entire life,” I said. “It’s only going to get harder—and I might not be around when the next one comes. Remember what I told you, okay?”

  Her jaw tightened, but she nodded. I couldn’t tell if she would survive another, more intense vision, but at least I’d given her some tools. I’d helped her through one.

  I headed back across the lawn with a minor sense of accomplishment. As I peered through the darkness, my pulse leapt—and then stuttered.

  Jenson was standing near the maintenance shed by the side of the school. But he wasn’t looking toward me. He was watching a ghostly figure that had slunk around the side of the school and was now heading straight toward him.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jenson

  My shoulder was still aching from smacking into the shed when I saw who was coming for me next. I rubbed my arm, watching the ghost approach, and my stomach balled into a knot.

  Of course he’d be here. Davin—I remembered his name. I probably would have remembered from the time I’d spent working my con around him anyway, but the images the counseling room had shown me of his funeral had solidified it even more.

  He glided toward me slowly but steadily. His eyes, always a little watery-looking, stayed fixed on my face. I backed up a couple of steps, debating my best move.

  I’d been able to handle the ghosts before. I should be able to face this part of my past too. But my outburst at the assholes who ran Roseborne had left me feeling drained. I wouldn’t have minded buying myself a minute or two to be sure I had my head on straight.

  I tossed a few of the brambles Ryo had passed to me onto the grass between us. The ghost slowed, considering them. And a voice carried across the lawn.

  “Jenson!”

  It was Trix. My head jerked around in time to see her jogging over the grass to meet me. Her face looked paler than usual against the starkness of her dyed orange hair and her black leather jacket, but the determination I loved so much in her still shone in her eyes. It bolstered my own resolve and sent a shiver of nerves through me at the same time.

  She’d seen some of my past exploits, but nothing like what had gone down with Davin. That situation had been extreme even for me.

  It had still been me, though. I couldn’t brush it off. If I hadn’t let myself stoop that low, maybe I wouldn’t have been here at Roseborne at all.

  If Trix couldn’t stand the sight of me after she knew, it’d be my own damn fault.

  “Are you okay?” she asked, her breath coming short as she reached me.

  I spread my arms as if to show that I was. Easier than trying to form a true answer out of a question or demand. “You?”

  “Yeah. Just… been dealing with ghosts I didn’t expect.” She glanced at Davin’s filmy form. He’d taken in the brambles and was easing his way between them with a delicate weaving back and forth. It wasn’t going to take him long to reach me. “I take it that’s another of yours.”

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  The words rose up to tell her that I’d be fine tackling him on my own—that she should go check on Elias and Ryo and make sure the spirits who’d orchestrated our torture here hadn’t visited even more on them. My voice snagged in my throat.

  I could do this. Opening up to her was even more important than proving I wasn’t the same guy I’d been back then to myself. Maybe it was the largest part of proving that. It wasn’t strength to insist on doing everything myself when that was all I’d ever done. The real bravery came in asking for help. In admitting I’d rather have her with me than not.

  I held out my hand. “Don’t think I can’t get through this on my own. And be aware that… it’s going to be bad. Will you come with me anyway?”

  She studied me. No doubt my awkward reaction after the first vision she’d followed me into hadn’t escaped her. “Are you sure?”

  I offered her a tight smile. “Why shouldn’t you see me at my worst? Isn’t it better you find out now rather than later?”

  At least then, even if I did die here, if my rose crumbled away because I hadn’t fulfilled what Roseborne wanted from me quickly enough, I’d know any affection she still had for me was real. No cons, no hiding behind a practiced persona. Just Jenson Wynter in all his manipulative assholery and whatever else she believed I’d made of myself since then.

  Trix nodded. She took my hand just as the ghost made it past the last bramble. Her fingers squeezed mine. I might have tugged her in for one last kiss—knowing it really might be the last kiss I ever got from her—if the conjured version of Davin hadn’t leapt across the last few feet to reach me.

  Losing my grip on Trix, I fell through the whirl of blackness without any certainty about where I’d find myself on the other side. In the office building where I’d set up a significant part of my scheme? In the bar where I’d first met the guy, first laid the trap, and planted more seeds as it went on? He and I had never actually spoken after it’d all gone down—there’d been no real confrontation.

  It was neither of those places, but when my feet thudded onto the concrete surface, I couldn’t say I felt any surprise. Frigid wind gusted over me with a fishy scent. Cars roared by at my left. And to my right, just a few steps away from me, Davin stood by the railing of the bridge, in just the right spot so that when he clambered over and flung himself off, he’d hit the highway below rather than the river on one side of it or the shrub-dotted hill on the other.

  I’d never been here before, but I’d seen this scene at least a dozen times on the shifting walls of the counseling room. My stomach constricted into an even tighter knot than before.

  Davin hadn’t hauled himself up onto the wall yet. His hands clenched the railing so tightly his knucklebones stood out against the skin. He looked around, and his gaze caught on me. His body went rigid.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” he said, sounding more hollowed out than angry. “Come to get your last laughs in? I guess it wasn’t enough to destroy everything that mattered in my life unless you got to watch the fallout.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest against the wind. A glance over my shoulder showed me that Trix had followed me as I’d suggested, standing a couple of feet back. Davin didn’t pay her any attention, but that was hardly a surprise either. He had too much of a beef with me to worry about anyone else.

  “I don’t want to watch this,” I told him, with the honesty the visions allowed that loosened my chest just a little. “I never meant— This wasn’t what I was aiming for. It was just a scam, a way to make some money.”

  “And to let someone else take the blame. I didn’t just lose my job, you know. They sued me for everything I had. I lost the house—the education funds. My wife walked out with the kids a week ag
o, and she hasn’t talked to me since. Did you think about any of that? Why the hell did you pick me when I hardly had anything to begin with?”

  I could recall the answer easily just looking at him. That suit he was wearing, the same one he’d had on in the bar that first day—I couldn’t have known he hadn’t been able to afford clothes that posh himself, that it’d been the one gift his father had managed to give him before passing on. That he’d worn it even though he was only on the lowest rungs of his company to try to set expectations that he’d be climbing the ladder soon.

  That wasn’t the whole reason, though. I’d figured out he wasn’t a big fish quickly enough during that first conversation. I’d almost walked away. Any other person, any other day, I probably would have. But the self-satisfied smirk he’d shot me and the words he’d said were still burned into my memory, sharp enough to provoke a jab of anger even now.

  I’d realized a long time ago that I hadn’t gone after him because he was a good mark. It’d been personal, a sick sort of revenge. I’d just never admitted it out loud before. But Trix needed to hear it—and maybe this version of Davin did too.

  “I approached you to figure out what I could get out of you because you looked like a big shot,” I said. “And then, even though you weren’t—there was that news segment on the TV over the bar—you started mouthing off about people who end up in jail. Laughing about how they’re doubly losers because they were too lazy to bother making a living without breaking the law and too stupid to avoid getting caught.”

  Davin waved his hand through the air carelessly. “Why should you care about that? You’re still walking free. Obviously your problem isn’t stupidity.”

  My teeth clenched for a second before I managed to unlock my jaw. “My dad’s been in jail since I was nine, you prick. You don’t know a single thing about him or why he felt he had to look after us the way he did. You don’t know how many cons he managed to pull off because he did know what the hell he was doing. He never would have taken a risk that could have ripped him away from us if he’d known— That was the last thing he wanted—”