My voice cracked as an uneasy sense of foreboding overtook me. “Are we safe here?”
Arthur put his hand on my shoulder to calm me down. “Absolutely,” he said quietly looking me straight in the eyes.
“Are there any suspects?” I nervously tapped my foot on the floor.
“Relax, missy.” Arthur took a small notepad out of the inside pocket of his jacket and, while he was searching in his pockets for his pen, he asked me rather indifferently, “Where were you last night?”
“Am I a suspect now?” My foot was still tapping on the floor, an uncontrollable reaction of my nervous system, afraid as I was for the direction the conversation was taking.
“Here it is. For a moment I thought I had lost it,” Arthur said out loud this time, waving a mechanical pencil that he just had pulled out from one of his jacket’s pockets. “It’s my lucky pencil. Well, where have we been?”
“I... I’m... not sure,” I hesitated.
“If anyone asks, we were together this afternoon. Is that clear? Let’s keep this our little secret and everything is going to be alright.” His voice intruded again into my mind.
“When did you become a telepath?”
“This morning. I guess it won’t last long as none of my special gifts ever lasted more than 24 hours.”
“Can you hear what I am saying to you?” I tried to tell him without speaking. He gave me a blank face. I tried again to speak directly into his mind and this time his look seemed even sillier.
“What are you doing?” He cracked a wry smile. “Are you trying to send me a telepathic message?” He winked.
“Was my attempt successful?”
“Not really. I am serious though when I say that I need your help.” His face was now serious. “The student that nearly assaulted you is missing. Everyone in the class saw me having a quarrel with him. If he is the dead person that was found near the lake, then I will become a person of interest.”
“Holy Moley, you’re right!” I suppressed a gasp. “How do I know though that you did not kill that person?”
“Because I told you so.”
“Is it enough? I do not know where you were this afternoon.”
“You do not know it, but I promise you that I did not hurt that man in any way. I may have threatened him a bit though ...”
“You did what?!” I yelled out loud. “I mean, you want me to testify that you were with me this afternoon, while in fact you were threatening a guy who is pronounced missing and he is most possible dead? I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Could you repeat it?”
I was convinced that the smile I faked looked pretty silly on me.
“I am asking you to trust me,” Arthur replied calmly as he gave me a piercing glance with his blue eyes. How hadn’t I noticed before how beautiful his eyes were? However, there was something about him that freaked me out. I had the gut feeling that something very dark was hidden inside of him.
“Can anyone else confirm your alibi?”
“No. I was alone practicing telekinesis and as soon as I finished, I was so tired that I went straight to bed.”
“I need an alibi, or I will be accused of that man’s death. I need you to confirm that we were together practicing telekinesis at the time of the murder.” He had intruded my mind again.
This new gift of his really creeped me out. I felt I was not given any other choice than support his alibi. He was the student with whom I had interacted the most since I got here less than 24 hours ago. That did not make us bond in any way, however, I felt more familiar with him that I felt with the students I met during today’s classes. He was not my friend, I had no friends here, and I did not know if I should trust him. I had to make a decision though.
I decided to join hands with him. Despite the darkness in his eyes, I did not feel threatened by him. On the contrary, he had proven to be protective of me by defending me against that nasty person in class.
I would give him the alibi he so desperately needed. If the choice I made was wrong, I would have to deal with the outcome later.
“You look great by the way.”
“What!” I yelled and a passerby turned and looked at me.
“Keep your voice down,” Arthur scolded me.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized and lowered my eyes.
“It’s okay,” he comforted me telepathically. “And yes, you look great.”
“Could you please stop doing that?” I said harshly but keeping my voice low. “You are not allowed to read my thoughts, except those about you.” That did not sound correct. “I mean, you can only read my telepathic conversations with you. And what is wrong with him?” I whispered as soon as I realized that the young student was still standing beside us, with a blank look on his face, like he was frozen.
“I made him shut down. He did not hear a word of what we just said. Don’t worry, he is the least of our problems.” He gave me a smile that sent a shiver up my spine. “Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for being so nice to me.”
“I am not being nice to you. This morning you defended me and now I am paying you back. We are even,” I said while pretending to look indifferently at the coffee cup I was holding.
“Do you have any questions to ask me?”
“Yes, I have. Who was the man who died? Where did he die?”
“Do you fancy a walk?” he asked.
Of course, I did.
THREE FORENSIC WIZARDS dressed head to toe in white protecting uniforms were standing above a pile of black ashes stashed on the lakeshore. One of them knelt down and started placing the ashes in a plastic bag using a small shovel.
“What am I looking at?” I asked hesitantly in fear of what that I would hear might be.
“That’s what has remained of the victim,” Arthur said quietly.
“What happened to him?” I whispered close to his ear.
“He was scorched down.”
“By whom? And why?”
Arthur leaned toward me and whispered close to my ear, making sure he would not be heard by anyone else but me. “There have been rumors about a vigilante taking action on Afall Island.”
I looked at him terrified. “I don’t want to be here anymore. May we go back, please?” Arthur did not try to stop me when I started walking fast back to the Academy building.
My very first trip outside the Academy was not fun. I did not get to admire the emerald green lawns, the groves of trees, the ornate carpets of floral designs and walls of hedges, decorated with statues and fountains. Nor did I have the peace of mind to set eyes on the Avallon Academy five-story gothic building with the pointed arch, the rib vault, and the flying buttress.
As we were crossing the extraordinary entrance with the six feet tall iron-wrought gate with twisted black rods and the red brick wall, I could admire the magnificence and the splendor of the building. I was in awe with the large expanses of glass, the clustered columns, the sharply pointed spires, the ribbed vaults, and the flying buttress beneath of which we were now walking.
Lost in my thoughts as I was, I did not see Arthur leaving. One half of me was happy I did not need to say goodbye to him, the other half had already started missing him. The telepathic connection we had developed had more impact on me than I initially thought it would. I did not know what the reason was. I was not sure whether I wanted to know or not.
“Sometimes ignorance is bliss,” I thought as I climbed the breathtaking spiral staircase.
I had confirmed Arthur’s alibi knowing it was a blatant lie. I hated lying. I was already regretting it. Short of. I believed Arthur’s story and I did not want him to get in trouble. At the same time, I felt sorry for the man that had lost his life so brutally. Maybe it was all a misunderstanding. Maybe I had bet on the wrong horse. Or maybe I was just losing my mind.
Only time would tell. I already had enough trouble to deal with. I did not need more.
CHAPTER 9
*
It was almost midnight and I was walking was fast across th
e corridors. I was feeling uncomfortable walking around this unfamiliar building alone at night. I had always been cautious but that particular night I was extra cautious after the weird events that had occurred to me in the last 24 hours.
As I entered the corridor that led to my room, I raised my head to admire the extraordinary ornate wrought-iron arch above me before I turned my glance to an elaborate wrought-iron door I passed by. I was getting obsessed with the beauty of that building.
A turmoil of thoughts suddenly erupted into my head, accompanied by a shrill sound that caused me so much pain that I unconsciously bent down, with the weight of my body collapsing onto my knees. I placed my hands on my ears in a desperate effort to block the horrific sound out of my mind, although I knew it would have little effect. It was like a vortex of thoughts was swirling in a mist of contradicting emotions. My scream was covered by the sound of the cars as I folded my body over my tights.
With my eyes tightly closed and my fingers pressing my temples, I did the trick that I had perfected throughout the years; a trick that had saved my mental sanity multiple times in the orphanage when everyone was loud and quarreling.
I imagined a large front door, like the one I had admired a few minutes ago, closing with a loud sound, keeping all evil outside and keeping my thoughts and memories safe. An unearthly strong force tried to prevent the door from closing, but I proved to be stronger and the battle was won. My mind was safe. Now I had to care for the safety of my body.
A strong wind blew abruptly behind my back and got my hair flying into the air. I knew instantly that the blow was not caused by a natural phenomenon. My senses had already been warned about the imminent danger. What had really scared the crap out of me was the huge dark silhouette that I caught with the corner of my eye as I turned around. Beads of sweat poured over my forehead as I realized that it was not one huge entity that had almost hit my back, but two human beings embraced in a hug so tight that they looked like one unity. They hit a wall as they flew across the corridor and crashed on the steep carpet.
Suddenly, one of the men pulled out a dagger glowing a radiant silver light and stabbed his opponent in the middle of the chest. The injured man howled eerily as his entire body caught fire simultaneously and within seconds he was burned down until all that left of him was a pile of dark ashes on the pavement.
Frozen to death, I stood still against the wall, silent and breathless, trying not to draw the attention of the man with the dagger. Alas! In a blink of an eye, the man came to stand in front of me.
“My lady, at your service,” Arthur said before he hid the dagger in the inner pocket of black purple his suit jacket.
“I’LL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING when we get to my room,” Arthur said as he gently grasped my arm. “We cannot stay here, we must leave now.”
“Wait!” I yelled. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I am going to my room.”
“Please, Gwen, we have no time. They will soon be here. They must not find us here.”
“Who are they? Forensic wizards?” I asked.
“It is not forensics I am most concerned about,” he replied nodding politely that I should start walking ahead of him.
“What is it then?” I ignored his nod.
“Those people, the man in class and that one I just took care of, they were murderers. And since you were at both crime scenes, their friends may come after you. So, that is why you cannot go to your room. You must follow me. I need you to trust me.”
My gut told me that following him to his place was not such a bad plan. I followed him because I thought that being left alone was not a good idea.
A couple of minutes later, we started going down the stairs to the ground floor.
“Where is your room located? I thought the students’ rooms are on the fifth floor.”
“Mine is in the basement.”
“Oh! Why?” My question was left unanswered.
“It is on the third basement actually,” he added.
A wrought-iron cage style antique elevator brought us to an inner entrance. He opened the door and we got inside a luxurious hall of an Art Deco apartment, decorated with gold and pink marble.
“Wow! Swanky,” I exclaimed after a quick look around the full-of-antiques hall.
I followed Arthur in a spacey living room, decorated in a more modern style, in contrast to the hall which resembled an antiquary. Across an exposed brick wall, there was a red couch, and a bar trolley placed in the middle of the room. After we passed by a marble staircase, we reached a brick-and-stone kitchen. Once there, Arthur took a couple of bowls with creamy crayfish soup, a bowl of green salad and a bottle of ginger ale. After he placed the bowls with the soup in the microwave, he opened the bottle of ginger ale.
“I did not expect we’d have dinner.” I felt awkward.
“I thought that you’d be starving after all you’ve been through,” he said. “And I want you to feel comfortable because right now, the safest place on earth for you is in here.”
“Why do you believe that I am in such danger? I do not feel that I am in trouble,” I scrunched up my face.
“You are in danger. Believe me,” he said cutting his food. “The man I killed tonight was sent to kill you.”
“What!” My mouth dropped open. His mouth spread into a wide grin.
“Exactly,” he said calmly. “If I wasn’t there, you wouldn’t be alive now.”
“But... why? Why would he want me dead?” My hands were shaking so bad that I could not hold the spoon anymore, so I placed it back on the table and I stopped eating my food.
“Because you have a special gift,” he said. “And because they know it. They came for you once, they will come for you again. And I want to be sure that they will not hurt you. That is why we are going to come up with a plan and stick with it. All I want from you is to trust me. Don’t you like your food?”
“I suddenly lost my appetite,” I said trying not to give away the state of shock I was in, although I was sure he already knew. There were so many questions I wanted to ask him, that I did not even know where to begin from.
“Why don’t you start with asking me who those people are?” he said.
“You said you won’t read my thoughts again without my permission,” I scowled.
“I did not read your thoughts. Okay, I may I have read just a bit of what is going in your mind right now.” He filled his glass with ginger ale.
I did not have the energy to argue with him. “Well, who are those people? And why did you kill them? You are supposed to be an Avallon Academy student, you are not supposed to be a vigilante.”
He placed his fork and knife on the empty plate. “We’ll have this conversation tomorrow. Now it is too late and we both need some rest. All you need to know right now is that you are safe here. Any other questions?” He smiled.
“How long have you been telepathic?”
“Since this morning. I do not expect it to last, though.”
“Are there any other telepathic people in here?”
“Absolutely.”
“Have I met one?”
“You met Merlin. But there are more of them. Anyway, this is a long story. We will talk about this another time. Now, get some rest. I will show you to your room.”
“What is this place? And why are you allowed to stay here?”
“Some secrets should remain secrets.” He smirked.
I followed him up a flight of stairs, after which we reached the landing and entered a beautifully decorated bedroom with a violet duvet set on a queen size bed. White furniture and pink lamps filled the room.
“If you want to shower, the bathroom is there.” He motioned towards a door across the room. “You’ll find clean towels and toiletries in there.
A few seconds passed before I realized that I was staring at him. Having felt the weight of my gaze, he looked at me, making my pulse race. With an unexpected move, he reached over and slid a few strains of my hair off my face. “Sweet,” he said softly,
and my heart flipped over.
“Do you want pajamas to sleep in? I have a couple in your size,” he said, and his lips curled up on a soft smile.
“No, thank you. I do not wear pajamas when I sleep. In fact, I don’t wear anything.” I tried to pull a straight face, despite my need to laugh hard waiting for him to feel uncomfortable.
“Good to know,” he smirked, and gave me a look that made my stomach go fluttery before he got out of the room and closed the door.
“Oh my...,” I muttered.
I needed a shower to cool off. And there was a bathroom entirely mine. That was an opportunity that could not be missed.
After I had a shower, I crawled into the bed with the violet duvet set to sleep. My stay at the Academy could not have been weirder.
THE NEXT MORNING, THE door of the bedroom opened with a screeching sound. I jumped up off the bed, fists clenched, and stood in the middle of the room. Through the door opening, Arthur appeared with a tray in his hands.
“Great, you’re up,” he smiled as if he had not noticed the defending position I had taken. “I thought you’re hungry and I made you a croque madame.” He placed the tray on the table and drew the chair and invited me to sit down.
“Bonne appetite,” he said as I placed the plate on the table.
“Would you like to join me?” I said and filled my mouth with a huge bite of the grilled sandwich with a fried egg on top.
“I’m full, thank you,” he responded politely.
“Would you come and sit with me? I don’t like eating alone,” I insisted, and I pointed to the chair beside me. “Can you hear that? It is the chair calling you. ‘Please, my Lord, come and sit on me’,” I imitated the squeaky voice of a pleading child.
“Since the chair insists, then I can keep you some company,” he smiled broadly, entertained by the act.
“You’re not going to kill me, right?” I took a large bite out of my sandwich, without taking my gaze out of his face.
“Not right now.”
He tilted his head back and burst out laughing when I almost choke on my food.
The Cursed Sword (Avallon Academy Book 1) Page 5
