“Okay, wait there. I’ll meet you in a minute.”
As she ended the call, Mason cupped her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
Sage didn’t know. A numbness engulfed her whole being. She gave a curt shrug and said, “I’m stupid for believing in her all this time.”
“You’re far from stupid.” He ran his thumb over her cheek. “Where is she?”
Sage turned to Nadya and Caspar. Without emotion, Sage replied, “Behind the dorms.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The four of them ran across the oval. Gravel crunched beneath their feet as they hit the parking lot. Tire marks of the ambulances were all that remained of AJ’s earlier attack. Sage tried to stay ahead of everyone, just in case.
Camila squinted as she saw them all approaching. “I didn’t expect the whole gang to —
“Stop it, Camila,” Nadya broke out in front of Sage. “We know what you are. We know what you’ve done.”
Camila brought her hands on her hips. “And what’s that exactly?”
“Let’s not make a scene.” Nadya reached for her.
Camila snatched her hand away and stepped back. With her chin lifted, she said, “Tell me what I’ve done? Is it as bad as being a self-righteous bitch who sucks up to the teacher to advance herself?” She moved her glare to Caspar. “Or a dumb sidekick, who pretends to care but bad mouths us all behind our backs?”
“Ouch.” Caspar clutched his chest.
Camila’s eyes moved to Sage. “Or keeping a secret, like turning a boy?”
The venom in her tone stung. And it was then that Sage knew her worst fears had come true. Camila was a Fallen.
“You really want us to list them?” Nadya said, her eyes flashing neon blue. “Marking innocents without their consent? Killing Mal. Turning AJ into a murderous Guardian?”
Camila’s face dropped. “What? You think I’m...” she stared at Sage with sadness. “Do you believe this crap they’re spinning? You’re my best friend. You know me. Tell them I wouldn’t. Sage?”
Hesitating, Sage stuttered, “I… I don’t know.”
A tear fell down Camila’s face. As the salty droplet hit her mouth, she licked her lips. “Okay, fine. I marked AJ. Is that what you want to hear?”
“Finally!” Nadya threw her hands in the air. “That’s some truth, now how about the rest?”
Camila snarled at Nadya, “But I did not mark Mason. I did not kill that boy. And I did not turn AJ.”
The flicker of hope that had remained in Sage reignited. Deep in her heart, she knew the truth. Camila would never hurt anyone.
Camila continued, “I just wanted some excitement you know? I figured, I’d mark him, maybe lure some Fallen to the school. I was going to give him my blood to cure him, while we went on a mission to find some real Fallen. I just wanted to do something, anything with meaning.”
“Come on.” Caspar’s voice was soothing. He took a few slow steps toward her. As he took a hold of her elbow, he said, “The game is up, Camila.”
“Sage,” Camila pleaded, not fighting against Caspar. Tears rolled down her cheeks in waves. “I would never kill someone. You have to believe me.”
“I believe you,” Sage whispered to herself. She took a breath as her instincts pushed the truth from her heart to her mind. Louder, she said, “I believe you.”
Behind them, a cackle rose. “Oh my god, you guys are hilarious.”
Spinning around, Sage saw Arielle strolling over. AJ stalked behind her, eyes wild.
“Arielle!” Nadya cried. “Look out!”
Giggling, Arielle glanced over her shoulder. She threw a thumb in AJ’s direction. “Oh, don’t worry, he won’t hurt me. I’m his Alpha.”
Nadya gasped. “But the only way you could be his Alpha is if he’s in your clan or…”
Arielle’s mouth fell open, she lifted her delicate fingers and covered her mouth. “Go on.”
Nadya’s brow wrinkled. “Or if you turned him.”
“Bingo,” Arielle proclaimed, rolling her eyes to the heavens. “You’re so slow. Such an easy bunch of morons to manipulate. I don’t even know if I’ve had fun.” She stopped walking just shy of the parking lot’s edge, keeping enough distance between them. “Well, I think I’ve had fun. The way you hate each other is quite comical. The way you work as the most pathetic team in existence. The way you lie and weasel your way into believing you’re going to be such wonderful True Guardians. Hil.ar.ious.”
Arielle took something from AJ. From where Sage stood, it looked like a chocolate colored scarf, but as Arielle placed it on her head, she realized exactly what it was. A wig.
“Like my hair, Mason?” Arielle teased. She flicked the strands over her shoulder, before ripping the wig off and throwing it to ground. Looking at Camila, she blinked innocently. “Can I have my ring back now, please?”
“You’re the…” Mason stammered. “You’re the one who marked me?”
“Oh. Em. Gee.” Arielle slammed her hands to her knees. “You’re all killing me. You should see your faces. This is better than I thought it would be.”
Caspar released Camila. “It was you all along wasn’t it?”
“Ooh.” Arielle squeezed her fists in front of her in excitement. “I’ve had such a good time playing with you guys. I knew Mason was the assignment the whole time, considering I was the one who made the deal with his brother to turn them both. I had to get you off the scent somehow.”
“What?” Mason gasped.
“Oh yeah, your brother came to me a while ago. He knew the only way to become a Guardian was to do it the easy way. With a Fallen. We figured I’d turn you first and from there it would be easy to convince you to turn him. He didn’t want to do it without you, isn’t that sweet?”
Sage felt rage burn her insides. It wasn’t just her that was manipulated, it was Mason, too. She scowled, “You’re sick.”
Arielle tilted her head and gave a sweet smile. “You guys bought into the AJ story so easily. Camila, your little surprise with marking him threw me off but I used it to my advantage.” Her eyes scanned hungrily over Mason. “Shame I couldn’t turn that hottie, though. You were too quick for me, Sagey.”
“Arielle?” Camila spoke up, moving next to Sage. “Where’s Makoto?”
“In the cage.” Arielle’s innocent smile twisted into a menacing smirk.
Beside Arielle, AJ hopped between his feet. “Can we kill them now?”
She threw her arm across his chest, stopping him in his tracks. “Patience, my little protegé. All in good time. You need to savor these moments. I mean, just look at their faces. Don’t they give you life?”
Caspar took a place next to Mason and Nadya soon followed him. The five of them stood in a line, from Camila to Nadya, facing Arielle and AJ. Nadya said, “You killed Mal? Where are Ethan and Brian?”
“Well, I didn’t want to,” Arielle pouted, “But he wasn’t making a very good Fallen. He kept crying and saying how much the fangs hurt when they grew. Such a sook. But the others?” Her eyes darkened and she nodded at something behind them.
Sage turned to see the two boys from the varsity team step out of the wood. Muscles grew upon muscles. And they were grinning, eager for a fight.
“Take them down,” Arielle ordered.
For a moment, Sage felt her heart leave her body. But when Ethan shifted into a wolf, she came plummeting back down to earth. He prowled toward them, his sight set firmly on Camila at the end of the line.
Suddenly nothing else mattered. Ethan leapt and Sage cried, “Watch out, behind you!”
As Camila spun, she instinctively half-shifted. She grabbed the bounding wolf by its neck and sunk her claws into its skin. She held him there for a moment, his blood dripping down her arm, before throwing him back into the forest.
Running after Ethan, she yelled, “We have to take the fight out of sight.”
In front of them, Brian shifted into a lion. One moment he was pacing impatiently and the next, he was lurc
hing for them at full speed. Caspar shifted next. His wolf’s eyes looked almost metallic blue as he placed himself in front of his friends. Brian greeted him by clamping his jaw around Caspar’s leg.
“Get off him!’ Nadya yelled, allowing her fox to take over. She bowled into the lion, knocking him off Caspar. Once Ethan stumbled back, Caspar and Nadya ran into the forest to lure him away.
While the three of them dealt with the varsity boys in the forest, Sage prepared herself to face Arielle. She grabbed Mason by the wrist and turned around. Nothing but two dormitories, a parking lot, and a barren field of overgrown grass and patches of mud remained. Arielle and AJ had gone.
“Sage!” Caspar yelled at the same time a thump of footsteps galloped from the forest.
Ethan’s lion, although scratched, tore across the ground toward them. Behind him, Caspar panted against a tree, blood pouring from his forehead. The sight of him injured infuriated her. How dare someone hurt a person she cared for. She shifted into her owl and Mason half-shifted beside her.
“I’ll do what I do best,” she said, flying in a straight line for the lion.
She interrupted its run, dancing her feet over its face. She could never take down a lion. Not half-shifted. Not even fully shifted. But she could distract it.
As Brian opened his jaw to crunch her body whole, a whir from the side—a bright and glorious red—took the lion out. Brian, unconscious, reverted to human form. Fully shifted into his tiger, Mason crouched over him. He held Brian him down, one paw on either side of his body.
Camila hobbled back, her face was bruised and she winced with every step. Sage, now human, ran to greet her. “I’m so sorry for doubting you.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t give you much reason to trust me. You told me your secret—I should have told you mine.” As Camila spoke, she lifted her hand and twisted the mood ring off her thumb. Ethan’s blood stained the obsidian stone. She tossed it onto the ground. “Arielle gave it to me the day we got the assignment. I thought it was a gift, not a tool to frame me.”
“What do I do?” Mason asked, still fully shifted.
Caspar rushed over, his arm around Nadya, helping her walk. Blood poured from her kneecap, coating her shin in red. They stood back, staring at Mason, waiting for him to do the inevitable.
“I don’t want to kill him.” Mason’s voice quivered.
Sage rushed over and knelt beside him. “He’s a Fallen, we have to.”
“There’s no other way,” Camila offered. “I just killed Ethan. I didn’t want to but imagine how many innocent people will die at his hands.”
Mason grimaced.
Nadya crouched opposite him, hissing through her teeth as the scratch mark on her knee opened up. She let her fingers glide through Brian’s hair. Sighing, she said, “Think of it this way, we’ll be doing him a favor. He’s in turmoil now—Fallen venom ripping through his veins. He will never be the same.”
“You do it then.” Mason half-shifted back. He stood and held out his hands in front of himself, watching his claws retract.
Nadya sat upright, moving her head above the boy’s. She licked her lips and hovered her hands around his neck—not quite touching. She stayed that way for a while, breath shaking.
“Do you need me to do it?” Caspar asked.
As soon as he said the words, Nadya collapsed back and whipped her hands to her side. She rolled to her feet, making way for Caspar.
He stood in her place and took a deep breath. “Brian is my brother’s team-mate.”
“Oh, for god’s sake,” Camila huffed. She pushed Caspar out of the way and without even shifting at all, she splayed her fingers and grabbed Brian’s face.
As Camila twisted his head to the side, Sage turned away. She faced Mason, watching his eyes take in the scene. The sound of a neck snapping made his eyes glaze over, he blinked and met her gaze. One quick exhale to tell her it was over.
He said, “This isn’t anything like I thought it would be.”
“You and me both,” Camila replied, pulling her blazer sleeves over her crimson stained hands.
“Guys,” Nadya said, rubbing dried blood off her healed wound. “We need to get Makoto.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
They ran into the Shadow Society lecture room and found Makoto in his human form pacing in the cage. As Casper ran to open the wall, Sage turned to Mason. “Do your fangs hurt when they grow?”
He shook his head. “Not at all.”
“It must be a Fallen thing,” Camila said. “And in case you’re wondering, no, mine don’t hurt either.”
The wall retracted and Makoto stormed out. His wild eyes landed on each of them. “Where’s Arielle?”
Nadya waved her hand. “Off doing villainy things, I assume.”
Makoto clenched his teeth. He marched to his desk and whipped out a map of the school. “We’ll need to shut her down immediately.”
He pointed to the boys’ dorm. “I’ll do a varsity team head count. She’ll be after strong people to join her. I’m assuming those boys that went missing are hers already?”
“Uhhh.” Caspar winced. “We found them. Camila took care of them.”
Makoto glanced at Camila, a softness falling over his face. “I’m not surprised.”
Camila swallowed and gave a sad smile. “We hid the bodies in the forest. Will probably need to dispose of them properly.”
Nodding, Makoto turned back to the map. He took a long breath out and hung his head. “This is the first time the school’s been attacked. I made a mistake with her.”
Sage stepped forward, now knowing the burden and responsibility of turning someone. “You weren’t to know she’d be a Fallen.”
Makoto pressed his hands onto the map and sighed. The recruits gathered around their broken-hearted teacher, silent and waiting. Makoto sniffed and stood up straight.
“We have to work quickly. Caspar, I’m sure you’re worried about your brother. I suggest you find him and see if he’s been marked. Get as much information from him about the team as possible. Nadya, I need you to get into the office and find me a list of the team. Camila, you’re with me. We’re going to gather them up and bring them here. If they’ve been marked and haven’t been turned we can at least stop her in her tracks.”
“But if we can’t find her, how will you cure them?” Nadya asked.
Makoto’s lips upturned. “You think those blood tests at the start of semester were to test for any vitamin deficiencies?” He walked around his desk, opened the bottom drawer, and pulled out vial with Arielle’s name on it.
Sage asked, “And what do we do? Look for her?”
Makoto shook his head. He pointed the vial at Mason. “It seems your assignment isn’t over, Sage. There’s unfinished business.”
“The assignment?” Sage shook her head. “Is that more important than finding Arielle?”
“We can handle her. But your assignment is pressing. I think you’ll find it’s all interconnected.” Makoto slammed his drawer shut. He cast his eyes on Mason. “There’s a new development isn’t there?”
Sage felt Mason tense beside her. He gave a small nod. “My brother’s been marked, I’m assuming by Arielle.”
Camila raised her hands in surrender. “I didn’t mark anyone except AJ, I swear.”
Makoto’s brow lowered. “We’ll talk about that later. Now, come with me.” As he headed for the door, he called over his shoulder, “Bring Ben here, we’ll give him the cure.”
The four of them rushed out of the room, leaving Sage and Mason. She grabbed his hand and marched for the door. “Let’s go save your brother.”
“Whoa!” Mason declared, resisting Sage’s strength. “I thought you said I needed to kick him out of my life?”
Sage shook her head. “I gave you the wrong advice. I gave you advice based on my life… not yours.”
Mason frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I told you to walk away. But maybe what he needs most…” Sage gazed at Mas
on intensely, his gorgeous face lined with confusion, “is you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Something isn’t right,” Mason said as they approached the boxing studio. “The sign isn’t on.”
Sage glanced above the door. He was right, it wasn’t lit. She shrugged. “Maybe he forgot.”
Mason glared at her. “You don’t get it. Ben never forgets anything. He’s meticulous. Something’s wrong.”
He rushed to the window and peered in. Sage hurried to catch up, standing on her tip-toes to see through. Inside the boxing ring, three men were tied to chairs. One of them was Ben. The other two were on the varsity team. Arielle paced around the unconscious trio, eyes ablaze.
“They look drugged,” Mason stated, his whole body tensing.
“No, don’t you remember?” Sage whispered. “It’s transition. They seem sick as the mark works its way through them. She’s waiting for it to appear so she can turn them.”
Mason’s hands clenched into fists. He moaned, “Why?”
She knew it was a rhetorical question, but answered anyway. “Extra strength. Her Guardian’s a small domestic-looking cat, she wants big cats or wolves or bears.”
“We should call for backup.” Mason patted his pockets. “I don’t have my phone.”
As Sage took hers out of her blazer, she had a thought. “Do you think Makoto knew she was here?”
Mason turned back to the window. “You think he wants us to take her down on our own?”
“I don’t know,” Sage replied.
With shaking fingers Sage typed a rushed message to Makoto: She’s at the boxing studio in Burrville. Please hurry.
“Sage?” Mason’s voice was a warning.
She peered through the window, seeing Arielle hover over Ben. She held his shirt up, baring his stomach. A black spiral shimmered beside his belly button. Arielle cracked her knuckles.
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