by Brea Viragh
“Place the whole of your attention on the masked man and nothing but him. It will create a link to him and should be able to give you a glimpse of his face.”
“Without the mask? I’ve only seen him with his face covered.”
“We can only hope,” she said as she crossed her fingers.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes for a moment. Trying to center myself when everything inside of me felt like a whirlwind I couldn’t contain. When I opened my eyes, I focused my gaze on the depths of the ball.
The only thing I hadn’t been able to do in my divination class. And still I’d managed to pass, managed to get to the top spot. I tried to focus on the man and the way he reached out to grab me after I kicked him. The way his black hood and mask obscured any recognizable features. I tried to focus on the feeling of his body when he tossed me over the edge of the ledge.
After a few minutes of focus, the interior of the ball still remained empty. Blank. Do not pass GO and do not collect two hundred dollars, I thought ruefully. Maybe my exhaustion was blocking the way.
“I did tell you I’ve never been able to conjure an image from the ball, right?” I reminded Melia.
She blew out a breath, clearly unwilling to listen to my excuses. “I know you say you have your allergy thing, but it’s going to work a whole lot better if you touch the ball. You need the connection; it’s the only way we’ll be able to find out who this guy is. One touch and then you can heal later.”
“I can’t,” I told her with a pleading gaze.
“It’s just the graze of a fingertip to establish the connection—”
“No, I really can’t.” My eyes went supernova with pleading. “You don’t understand. This isn’t just something I don’t want to do. There are going to be serious repercussions if I touch this quartz.” I didn’t have any vials of potion left. I needed to be extra careful—super duper extra careful—until I had the chance to get back to Barbara the witch for more.
“Tavi,” Melia replied with a shake of her head and a tone full of exasperation, “I have literally never heard of a quartz crystal allergy. I know you say you have issues with it but I doubt a few seconds of touching quartz is going to do any serious or long-term damage. Don’t you want to catch this guy?”
“Why can’t you just understand? This is something I can’t do?” Dial back the hysterics, I warned myself.
“Because it’s ridiculous!” she exclaimed. “You want to catch this guy or not? You want to do what you can to stop him from hurting you and hurting other people? He’s already killed two students! Two! And he tried to kill you! He needs to be stopped. Just touch the dang crystal.”
“No.”
Before I had a chance to react, Melia grabbed both my hands and brought them to the crystal ball, broken arm included. I yelped with pain, and then gasped with shock, jerking away an instant too late.
Too late. I’d touched the quartz. The last of the spell fell away with the familiar dousing of icy cold water, leaving my skin shivering and my stomach heaving. Leaving me exposed.
27
Numb with shock, I stared at Melia, but she was staring at the crystal ball. The interior of it had filled with black swirling smoke.
It did not show me the hooded and masked man. It showed me nothing except the black swirling smoke. As complete disappointment began to sink into me, the smoke changed. In a flash of red and orange light, the interior of the crystal ball burst into flame. The sphere began to hum and vibrate as if it were a bomb about to go off. How—
Melia and I jumped back in tandem and knocked into the rear desks in our attempt to get away from it.
“Down!” she yelled, and a moment later the crystal ball exploded. Quartz fragments ricocheted across the space, raining down on us in a shower of fire and splinters and sparks.
We had both dropped down to the floor with our arms covering our heads for protection. Only one arm for me and I felt the shards of quartz slice across my exposed skin. My broken arm barked in pain from the jolting.
“What the hell happened?” She was screaming to be heard above the explosion still reverberating. “What is going on?”
“I’m sorry!” I apologized immediately. It was all my fault.
“Why are you sorry? What did you do?” she continued to screech. “This is not normal!”
I shifted to try and cover her bare skin before the shards of crystal pierced through and drew blood. Feeling responsible if she got hurt. Tears slipped from my eyes as the shower of sparks at last came to an end. “I’m so sorry, Meli. I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you everything but I didn’t think I should.”
My shifter senses returned with a rush of pleasure, as though my inner wolf was eager to be free. Eager to lord her freedom over my Fae half so soon after being stifled yet again.
I can’t be contained.
Out of vials. What was I going to do? This was bad. Very, very bad.
My breathing hitched and my heart nearly beat out of my chest in a rush like hyperventilation. Panic filled me. Out of vials and no way to get to Barbara for more. No information on the hooded killer either, so…all for nothing.
Instead of anger, as I’d expected from my friend, she sat still for a moment and considered me. The crystal shards made their final descent to earth, the sudden silence strange and heavy around us. “What is going on?” she repeated, softly this time. “Tell me what happened, Tavi. Please. I need to know.”
Oh, this was going to sting. And her reaction could go either way at this point. She could understand…or she could end our friendship. The weight of that settled in my chest like an elephant sitting there.
I took a deep breath to try to dislodge the elephant there. “I’m not who I say I am,” I began hesitantly. “And that’s why I couldn’t touch the crystal. You saw what happened.” I hiccupped on another deep breath, rocking back until my spine pressed the desk behind me. “I’m so, so sorry. You’re not hurt, are you?”
“No, but you clearly are. And I think it’s about time for you to tell me what’s happening so I can stop worrying,” she said, biting her lip. “Why do you look different? Tavi…you smell different.”
On another hiccup, I spilled everything. Everything I’d tried to hide, the potions and Barbara and the real reason why I had applied to the academy. I told Melia about Elfwaite and Kendrick, about my birthday party and my father’s murder. Everything.
She listened with blank expression and no questions, though I saw a shadow form behind her eyes. A new tension, a stiffness to her shoulders. Frightened of me? Or frightened for me?
The latter would be more than I deserved for lying to her for so long. For deceiving my only friend.
“The shifter who attacked me tonight is more than likely a member of the Grimaldi pack who decided I was better off dead than alive,” I said, adjusting my legs to get more comfortable. The exhaustion riding me so hard for the last few hours had disappeared. “But I’m not sure. Not really. I didn’t think it would be a problem yet. I also didn’t think it was a shifter doing the killing. It seems I was so wrong.”
Melia didn’t miss a beat. She reached out and took my free hand in hers, brushing aside fine splinters of quartz like diamond dust along my palm. “I don’t care if you’re half wolf,” she told me softly. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re Fae, and you belong in Faerie. You’re one of the kindest people I know and you’ve always been there for me when I need a friend. You work hard, you accept everyone, and so what if you have no fashion sense?” The sentiment drew out a mutual if ragged chuckle from both of us. “But it sounds like you need more help in this situation than the Fae can give you. The old prejudices are no joke. On both sides.”
Tears burned my eyes and I swallowed them back. Yes, I’d made the best kind of friend, I told myself again. The kind who stuck around when times got tough. I was lucky. So lucky.
“You are going to need some shifters to help you on this one,” Melia continued decisively.
&n
bsp; Um…no way. “I can’t go to them,” I insisted. I tightened my grip on her hand. “You don’t understand. Uncle Will is never going to forgive me for what I did. Odds are good he doesn’t even know Kendrick sent his goons after me. I doubt they’re working together on this one.”
Although…maybe they were and maybe my uncle was the one hunting me.
Acid reflux burned my throat. I didn’t want to go down that particular dark path.
The entire issue was wrapped up tightly in shifters and we both knew it. The man who’d chased me the other night had had shifter speed. The one who bit me tonight was a werewolf. Whatever was happening to the rest of the first-year top students, it stank of shifters.
At least Melia shared my opinion.
I’d thought I was the only half-shifter at the school, an assumption that had turned around and bitten me in the ass. Or rather thigh. Close enough. Nurse Julie had the same issues I did. And now, sitting and thinking about it, I was pretty sure my divination teacher had a secret to hide as well. She’d felt like part of my pack. I didn’t have the sensation about anyone else.
There was always Detective Wilson…
“Do you think it could be another student?” Melia mused. She squeezed my hand almost to the point of pain.
I straightened. I’d initially thought it to be another student doing the killing, then dismissed the theory when I became the target, figuring it was personal to me only, what with Uncle Will and Kendrick Grimaldi and all that going on. “How do you figure?” I asked.
“It makes sense if it’s another student. Why target the top students if you have no skin in the game? I mean, I’m sure your fated mate has people looking out for you, but there’s no reason for whoever attacked you to have killed the other boy and girl. Unless there are two killers, which means it’s someone who has more to lose. Someone who is hiding like you are.”
I shivered. “It does make sense. Why didn’t I think of it before?”
“Because you’re too close to the heart of it. This is personal for you. I’m guessing it’s personal to someone else as well. We just have to figure out who and find a way to stop them before they kill again. Because you’re still alive and they probably aren’t too happy about it.”
I couldn’t help the dry chuckle. She wanted us to stop this? Once upon a time, if someone had suggested I’d one day play a key part in catching a murderer, I would have laughed in their face because it sounded ludicrous.
After everything… “No, it’s definitely not going to go over well with them to know they failed,” I muttered.
I thought about Detective Wilson’s card in my pocket. Melia was right; we needed outside help. There was no way we could handle this alone. The pack had mighty muscle behind it. Any pack, not just the one I’d belonged to. Did I chance bringing in someone who might rat me out to my family?
Another rock and hard place moment.
“Will you lend me your phone?” I asked Melia before I had time to change my mind. “I need to make a call.”
She looked surprised but the look faded quickly as she tilted her head. “At this hour?”
“He’ll be up. Trust me.”
I watched her dig into her back pocket and punch in the code to unlock the screen before handing me the sleek black cell. It was a simple matter to type in the detective’s number from the card.
As I had suspected, he was awake.
His brusque voice answered the call after three rings. “This is Wilson.”
“Detective Wilson, this is Tavi Alderidge. I need your help.”
I kept the details to a minimum, describing the attack and telling him of my suspicions. The scratch of a pencil sounded in the background as Wilson took notes.
“Don’t do anything rash. Hide until morning and don’t let anyone see you. I’ll meet you at the gates at sunrise. Do you understand me, Miss Alderidge? Your life is in danger if what you say is true.”
“It’s true,” I assured him. “I’ll be there.”
“Good.”
He hung up with a decisive click and I stared at the screen for a moment before ending the call on my end.
“There you go,” Melia said, having overheard everything. Her brown eyes searched mine. “Think you can make it until the morning?”
“I hate to ask you this. You’ve already been so helpful. Do you think I could stay in your room?”
Instead of answering, she grabbed me in a hug, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her the gesture hurt my broken arm.
“Girl, you don’t even need to ask. Come on. Let’s get a little sleep while we still can.”
Melia made room for me on her bed and we snuggled together under the blankets. It was a different sort of acceptance, I realized now. I thought being surrounded by people at the party had been a major change for me. A milestone of growth. But sleeping with Melia’s arm around me, without my potion spell hiding my truth, it was a different sort of realness. One I would have never expected and one I knew I would be eternally grateful for.
She saw the real me and she didn’t run. No, she stood beside me and offered to help.
Most people simply weren’t built like Melia.
It was more than luck pairing me with her as my mentor. My last thought before falling asleep was: perhaps destiny or fate or whatever luck governed the universe really did have my back.
I met Detective Wilson at the gate in the morning still wearing my clothes and cast from the night before, the sun beginning to peek through the trees with a golden glow, illuminating frost and tiny icicles. A knock on the iron with a small touch of magic had the gate swinging open to accommodate his car without me having to push.
He drove through and with a glance over my shoulder to make sure we truly were alone, I bid the gates to close again, accompanying the request with another pulse of magic to seal them against anyone else The twin iron structures topped with the academy logo swung slowly closed and locked behind the car.
I gestured to the left with my good hand, toward the small lot with empty spots. Wilson parked among the other vehicles and walked toward me with supernatural grace, looking every bit the predator. His breath expelled in a great white cloud in front of his face. Taller and more imposing than I remembered, and his steely eyes speared through me as he asked for a quiet place for the two of us to talk.
I led him to the library and the private study room accessible only to the upperclassmen. I’d never been inside before but Melia had given me her code, stating how the rest of the students would be too tired from partying all night to bother using the room and we’d be safe to talk there. I locked the door behind us and fixed it with a ward spell too. My paranoia had to be good for something, and with the wolf in me fully exposed, at least I wouldn’t have to avoid moonlight now. Or mirrors. Or garlic. Or quartz crystal.
Just everyone else in the castle.
Detective Wilson stood by the window, studying the swirling woodwork of the old oak molding. It wasn’t until he turned around, staring at me fully, that he stopped moving. Literally ceased all movement and turned into a living statue. His nostrils widened and he drew in a deep breath.
“Well,” he began in his gruff voice. “You’ve been hiding things from me, Miss Alderidge. Do you care to explain?”
He’d caught my scent with ease. My true scent. I tried not to shuffle my feet or fiddle with my clothing. Anything betraying my nervousness. I had nothing to be nervous about, I reasoned. I had information to help him close this case. It would have to be enough to keep him from turning me in. Quid pro quo.
“Yes, I have been hiding things.”
“What are you?” he barked.
I wasn’t wearing my spell, and my paranoia had ridden me for so long, forcing me to act as though nothing were wrong, it almost felt good to come clean. Again. To at least make the decision to trust someone.
I didn’t give him the same story I’d told Melia or Nurse Julie the night before. Detective Wilson got the abbreviated version limited to
need to know details without the emotional backstory. But it was refreshing to get it out there to someone who was like me. Someone who understood the details of wolf pack law the way he would.
Wilson would not condemn me and return me to my uncle, not when he heard what I had to say. I had to believe. The more I spoke, the more the knots inside of me eased until the words came easier.
I finished my story as Wilson took a seat at the table with his hands folded in front of him, fingernails neat and trimmed, and a black stone ring around his right thumb. The intensity of his gaze did not mellow the longer he stared.
“As I’m sure you’re aware,” he began gruffly after I paused for breath, “this isn’t the first time a shifter has used the academy to escape a pack. Pack culture is patriarchal and notoriously hard for women in general. Especially anyone who is even the least bit different. Most halflings are killed on sight.”
I took the seat across from him. “Nurse Julie told me the same thing last night.”
The corner of his mouth quirked but I saw the attempted smile did not reach his eyes. “I can tell you from experience. My own pack, the one I left before I transferred to my current position, lost a bunch of good kids because of their hatred. A few of them were half-Fae.”
“Wait a minute.” I peered back at Detective Wilson. “You make it sound like it’s more usual than not for half-Fae, half-werewolf children to be born.”
Detective Wilson swallowed a laugh, shaking his head. Looking at me like I was a stupid kid. “I wouldn’t say it’s common. But it happens. I’m sure you’ve heard about the promiscuity of the Fae, so definitely not unheard of. I can tell you I lost a very good friend from my pack because he was different. Not half-Fae, but gay and half-pixie. You can imagine how well that combination went over with the pack elders. I’ve been searching for him ever since. I take whatever cases come through the academy because I’m still hoping to come across information about him.”
“Look, Detective Wilson.” I placed all my cards on the table. “I’ve had a few experiences lately leading me to a certain truth. The killer is a shifter.”
