“Are you refusing a direct order?” Chelsea said.
To think I could have been fired and avoided all of this.
“No, of course not.” I positioned myself by the wires. “What do I do?”
Like it or not, I am a Watcher and I have a job to do.
“Um, I’m pretty sure you need to pull the blue wire,” she said, wiping sweat off her brow.
“Can I get a percentage on that?” Because pretty sure didn’t sound great.
“Sixty? Sixty-five.”
“Oh God, we’re going to die,” I muttered. I stared at the wire. Hard to believe it was all that stood between us and certain death.
Chelsea and Lillian went over the spell together. “Okay, when I say go, you pull the wire,” she told me.
“The blue one?”
She hesitated. “Or maybe the black one.”
“Which is it?” I said through gritted teeth. Now was not the time to change her mind.
She hesitated. “Blue. Definitely blue.”
I held my trembling hand over the wire, ready for the go. Lillian started the incantation. When she spoke the last line, Chelsea screamed, ‘Go’ and ripped the cylinder free. At the same time, I grabbed all of the wires and pulled them free too, bracing myself for the end.
“We’re still here,” Lillian said, then laughed hysterically.
Chelsea nodded, breathing hard. She glanced at the wires. “I told you to pull the black one.”
“Actually, you said blue. I wasn’t taking the chance, so I pulled them all.”
Chelsea opened her mouth to argue, but I cut her off. “Shouldn’t we get ready for the senior Watchers?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh my God, yes. Lillian, give this place a clean. I’ll be upstairs.”
She ran off. Lillian gave me a withering look. I forced a smile. “Sorry.”
I headed back upstairs and out the front door to get some air. Students passed me, carrying on with their lives. They had no idea that they had almost been blown to bits.
I sank onto a bench and started to cry.
***
Chelsea let us take a break but wanted us back before the Watchers arrived. I took a walk off campus to try and clear my head. I had no destination in mind, just away from the Academy.
I considered grabbing a coffee, but I didn’t think the caffeine would do me any favors. My hands were still trembling, but the adrenaline had started to fade. Maybe tea would be better. I stopped at a place for the tea, being sure to add plenty of sugar, a substitute for the caffeine.
Drinking while I walked, I started to feel a little better, but I desperately wanted to talk to someone about all this.
Pulling out my phone, I found my finger poised over the call button for Grandpa before I realized that he wasn’t there to call.
God, this is so hard. That vision didn’t help, it really felt like he was there, like I was actually talking to him again.
Maybe I was.
I’m not sure what I believe in when it comes to the afterlife, but considering everything else out there, I’m not ruling it out. It would be nice to think that he still watched over me.
As I was about to return the phone to my pocket, it vibrated. James’ name popped up. I quickly answered it.
“James? Hey, I’m glad you call. You won’t believe the day I’m having.”
“I’m afraid it might be about to get worse.”
“What do you mean?”
“I had eyes on Jason’s apartment, but he must have sneaked out at some point in the night. He’s gone and so are his things. No one knows where.”
I gripped the phone, glancing around like he might pop up from behind somewhere. I got a few curious stares, but no sign of Jason. It didn’t mean he would come here. He could have slipped out for another reason. “I um, I don’t know what to say.”
“Until he shows up there, I don’t think you should worry. Would you like me to come down there?”
I sighed, stopping to lean against a wall. Possession, bombs, murder.
“No, there’s no guarantee he’s on his way to me and even if he is, I’m not afraid of him. I can handle this.”
“Are you sure? You only need to ask and I’ll be on the first plane out.”
I smiled. “I know, thank you, James. But I can handle this. I promise.”
We said our goodbyes and I hung up.
Bring it on, Jason. After the week I’ve had, you’re nothing.
Chapter Twenty
“Everyone, look busy,” Chelsea hissed as the senior Watchers entered the building, a little after noon. If only they knew how close they came to dying.
I didn’t have time to go hide in the stacks, so instead I grabbed some papers and tried to look like I was doing something. The adrenaline started anew when I came back into the building.
And here I thought my first few weeks here would be boring.
At least it was over now. The bomb had been taken care of, Anunit had been exorcized and I still had a job. Who the heck vouched for me though? Maybe someone owed Grandpa a favor and decided to repay it. It wasn’t the way I wanted to do things, but right now, how could I really refuse help like that?
The senior Watchers walked in. I recognized two of them, they visited Grandpa at the house a few times as I was growing up, although I was always sent to my room while they talked.
“Welcome to the Watcher Academy,” Chelsea said, rushing forward to shake their hands. “Everyone this is Watcher’s Thompson, Leland, Garrison, Fenton and Carmichael.”
They moved around the room, shaking hands and speaking to the other Watchers in turn.
Carmichael spoke to me first. “And you are?” he asked.
“Adeline Grimm, sir.”
“Oh. You were involved in the…incident.”
My cheeks grew hot. Of course they all knew about it, they had to be aware of problems at the Academies. “Um, yes, sir.”
He nodded, quickly moving on, with a look on his face that made me feel contaminated.
Leland reached me next, one of the men I recognized from the house. An older man with salt and pepper hair, he smiled as he took my hand. “Miss Grimm, a pleasure.”
As my skin made contact with him, I experienced a weird flash in my head. Images that were gone too quickly to make out.
“It’s been a long time. I believe the last time I saw you would have been at Edward’s funeral,” he said, not seeming to notice my ‘episode’.
I nodded, trying to focus. “Yes, it would have been. It’s nice to meet you formally, sir.”
He smiled and moved on to the next person.
What the hell just happened?
I headed for the bathroom, wondering if this was another residual echo from my possession. I took a few moments to compose myself, checking I looked okay. There was a smudge of dust on my shoulder. I wiped at it, but it didn’t shift it entirely. Grabbing a paper towel, I ran it under the tap and cleaned the dust spot.
Glancing at my reflection, I froze when I saw the wicked smirk on my face. A smirk I wasn’t making myself.
Dropping the paper towel, I said, “Anunit?”
“Miss me?” The words came from my own mouth, but again, I didn’t say them. Oh God, she’s still here.
I backed away until I hit the stall behind me. “This isn’t happening. Max exorcised you. I saw it.”
“Oh, that? A little trick I learned. Max’s spell wasn’t strong enough to get rid of me. So sad.” She cocked my head to the side and pouted.
I shook my head, determined to maintain control. “Then he’ll find a stronger one. I’m going to tell him, right now.”
“Before you run off to tell your little friends, there is something you should know.”
Despite everything, I paused to hear what she had to say. “What are you talking about?”
“A faction of your precious Watchers are playing a dangerous game. They are working from the inside to hoard artefacts which they are going to use to take over.”
<
br /> “How do you know that? Take over what?” I asked.
“The League? The world? I have the ability to see into a person’s mind when I touch them. When that Watcher shook your hand, I saw all his dirty little secrets.”
“You’re lying.” She shouldn’t have abilities as a spirit, but what was that flash I saw?
“One of them already tried to blow you up.”
“Ha! If that Watcher is in on it, they why would he blow himself up? Not exactly a genius plan.”
I felt my mouth curve into a smile. “Because it was a planned hit. The faction wants him dead and they made Antoine set it up. He was supposed to be long gone before it blew. Until he ran into me, that is.”
“No, you’re trying to save your own ass by coming up with this ridiculous story.”
“Of course I’m trying to save myself. But that doesn’t make me wrong.”
“Prove it,” I demanded.
“Fine. When I looked into his mind, I saw a tattoo that they have in common. Something to signal to the others. It’s subtle, concealed. Check his wrist for it.”
“What does it look like?” Was I really listening to her? She was accusing the League of planting bombs and stealing artefacts.
“It’s an infinity symbol.”
An infinity symbol? Even if he did have it, that didn’t mean anything. She might have seen it when we shook hands, although I didn’t remember seeing anything.
“Why don’t you just take over again? Why are you even talking to me?” I asked, because she could have just walked on out the door with my body and no one would notice.
The silence from her spoke volumes. “The exorcism weakened you, didn’t it?”
“Yes,” she hissed and I could feel the venom behind it.
Which meant another exorcism would finish the job. I opened the door and headed for Max’s office to tell him everything. We could wait until the senior Watchers left and get it done.
Leland chatted to Chelsea in the middle of the room. She kept giggling like a schoolgirl every few seconds. Leland raised his hand to wave at another Watcher, his shirt sleeve slipping slightly. I stopped walking.
There it is, the infinity symbol. She isn’t lying.
“Told you,” Anunit muttered.
I glanced at Max’s office. A few more feet and I could get rid of her completely.
“Don’t make a rash decision. If it wasn’t for me, you’d all be dead by now.”
“You were saying tick tock, not me.”
“You owe me.”
“You told us because you would have been killed too.”
“No, I would have been fine. Just without a body.”
“Dell?”
I turned to find Anita behind me. “Hey.”
“Are you talking to yourself?” she asked.
“Um, yeah, sorry, nervous habit.”
Anita chuckled and headed over to talk to Leland. I forced myself to walk to Max’s office. As I raised my hand to knock, I became overwhelmed by a vision. The room disappeared and I found myself standing in the library at home. How did I get here?
I heard male voices arguing, but I couldn’t move from where I stood in the corner of the room. The image was blurred, like looking through a dusty lens. A man rushed out of the room, I didn’t get a chance to see his face. He wore a suit though and had dark hair. A Watcher?
A second man slumped forward across the desk to the left. His arm dangling off the edge. His back was to me, I couldn’t see his face or much of him at all.
“Who is that?” I whispered, trying to force my legs to move, but they stayed rooted to the spot.
“He doesn’t look familiar?” Anunit asked. She didn’t appear to be in the room, just a disembodied voice from somewhere above me.
“What is this?” I yelled.
“Look closer.”
I saw the gold signet ring on his pinky finger. One I had seen many times before.
“Grandpa?” I whispered. How could that be? I didn’t find the body so this couldn’t be my memory, or Anunit’s for that matter.
“I told you, they will stop at nothing to keep their secrets.”
“Are you saying they murdered my grandfather?”
“What does it look like to you?”
I blinked and I was back in the Academy, leaning on the office door. It opened and I almost fell on top of Max.
“Whoa, what’s going on?” Max asked, steadying me.
I hesitated. If Anunit wasn’t lying, then the senior Watchers could have had a hand in his death. It would have been easy for them to make it look like natural causes. I knew he didn’t have heart problems.
“Nothing, um, just wondered if you needed anymore filing done?” I said.
“Not right now. We should probably stay out here and make Chelsea look good,” he joked.
I laughed, a little too hard. “Yeah, sure.”
He left to speak with the senior Watchers and I hurried back to the bathroom where I could talk without looking like a mad woman.
“This can’t be happening. Grandpa gave his life to the League, they wouldn’t kill him.”
“Wouldn’t they? The answer lies with them and I can help you find the answers you need.”
“What’s in it for you?”
“No exorcism. I won’t take you over again and in return, you find a way to transfer me into someone else.”
“Are you insane? I’m not going to let you possess another person.”
“I can possess a coma patient, someone who has no chance of waking up.”
“That doesn’t mean they would want you to have their body!” I hissed.
I started to pace the floor. I couldn’t deny that she might be useful, but after everything she did? She murdered Antoine.
“It was self defense,” she said. “I’ll show you.”
Another vision took hold of me. I saw Antoine holding the statue, looking furtive. He stood by the fireplace in the main room.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snapped when he saw me.
“A better question would be what are you doing? Are you supposed to be in here? And what is that?” Anunit said.
His face hardened and I saw him reach for something at his back. I could guess what it was.
“I’m working on a special project. Actually, Grimm, you could help me. Come here, I want to show you something.”
Anunit walked slowly toward him. “What is it?” She made my voice sound high-pitched and girly. She knew exactly what he was up to.
He set the statue on the table and when I got close enough, he grabbed my arm and revealed the knife.
“I really didn’t want the added hassle of hiding a body tonight, but things change.”
My hand closed around the statue and I swung it hard. It cracked against his cheekbone. Anunit wasted no time in wrenching the knife from him. She drove it into his chest and the shock jolted me free of the vision, before I had to witness the rest.
I slumped against the wall.
“See?”
“You know what? I don’t care. You could have found another way to deal with him, you could have knocked him out, or I don’t know – something!”
“I didn’t have a lot of options. He had no problem killing you, don’t waste your tears on him. That’s not what matters anymore. You need to make a decision. You can run off and tell your little friends about me or let me help. Or are you happy to let your grandfather’s death go unavenged?”
I had to know the truth about Grandpa. If someone murdered him, I needed to know, to make sure they were punished. Anunit might be the only one who could help me. Going up against the League, well, I wouldn’t have any allies inside it. Even if they weren’t corrupt, they would never believe me. I was a trainee who had already gotten possessed in my first week here. I couldn’t tell them about Anunit either. But to trust her? She was weak, for now, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t recover and I’d be right back where I started. What do I do?
“
Have you made a decision?”
I closed my eyes and sighed. “Fine, you can stay. For now.”
“Good, because with what’s heading your way, you’re going to need me.”
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author S. K. Gregory writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance and horror novels. She currently resides in Northern Ireland, where she works as an editor.
You can find out more about her books by visiting her website:
www.skgregory.com
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