by Megan Linski
I waited until after midnight to sneak out of my dorm and down to the main grounds. I knew I shouldn’t be up late, as I had ice practice tomorrow, but dammit, I wanted some answers. An alert had come up on my phone about an hour ago that the Phantom had been sighted in Dolinska, so I knew he was running around. If he was a student, and tomorrow was Monday, he’d have to come back to campus tonight to avoid raising suspicion about who he was. So I’d lie in wait and catch him in the act, tonight.
The Phantom would have to come through one of these damn doors. There were only three entrances to the school— the main gate, the right-side gate, and the left-side gate. Unless he scaled the walls of the school, he’d have to come through one of those entrances. I had no doubt that he could climb walls, especially with that fancy grappling hook thingy, but that attracted attention, and I bet he wanted to remain as inconspicuous as possible now that the sighting report was live.
He probably wouldn’t come through the main gate, as it was fairly secure and open. Anyone who was looking for him would spot him coming a mile away. The left side gate was closest to the city, while the right-side gate led through the woods.
The woods would be the most secretive option, but it was a long walk to that entrance and it’d take time, not to mention he’d likely encounter monsters lurking in the shadows. However, I was pretty sure there were Alliance forces walking around the Dolinska city gate, so he couldn’t go through there.
I decided to wait by the forest entrance. I picked a rather large blackberry bush to hide behind, then sat down and waited.
By two in the morning, I was cold, tired, and exhausted. I could barely keep my eyes open. Snow was falling again, and I was caught in a weird rotation of shivering and yawning every three seconds. The Phantom had better hurry his ass up, or I was leaving.
Footsteps snapped me out of it. I glanced over the leaves of the blackberry bush and saw a man was approaching, cloaked in shadow.
He was coming. Now was my chance. I shrank lower in the bushes and waited for my opportunity to pounce.
When the figure got closer, I sprung. I jumped out of the blackberry bush with a wild yell and landed on the man’s back. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and my knees around his legs, trying to get him to collapse beneath me.
It didn’t work. The figure grabbed my arms and sent me flying ten feet forward off his back. I screamed as I went sailing. I hit the ground hard and ended up rolling. Ouch.
“Oh, gods, Emma!” A familiar voice sounded panicked. My cheeks burned red as I realized the person I’d jumped on was most certainly not the Phantom.
Ethan grabbed both of my arms and hauled me up off the ground like I was some sort of rag doll. He put me down and started brushing the dirt off my clothes. My jeans were totally ruined with grass stains.
“What are you doing, onawilke? Trying to get yourself killed?” Ethan said roughly. “There are more than just monsters who’d rip you apart for pulling a stunt like that around here, and they wouldn’t ask questions first.”
I was totally embarrassed. It seemed like every time I went out looking for the Phantom, Ethan got in the way. “It’s none of your business,” I grumbled.
Ethan’s mouth fell open. “None of my… it bloody well is my business, seeing as how you tried to yank my head off my shoulders!”
I let out a huff. “I was waiting for the Phantom to come by, all right? I know he was sighted tonight, and I’ve figured out he’s a student. I put together that this was the most likely place he’d come through, to get back to Arcanea University.”
Ethan stared at me in a moment of disbelief. “And… you’d thought you’d just jump a dangerous vigilante, and he wouldn’t retaliate?”
“He’s my mate. He wouldn’t hurt me,” I said.
“Not on purpose! You’re lucky as hell that it was me,” Ethan spat. “What if it’d been some harmless pedestrian, minding their own business? You’d be facing assault charges. Or worse, an Arcanea that would gut you as soon as you’d laid a hand on them.” Ethan was shaking, he was so mad. But I didn’t care.
“Oh yeah, some Arcanea is just walking around at two a.m., in the woods in Malovia when the Black Claw is on the loose. That doesn’t sound suspicious.” I rolled my eyes.
I put my hands on my hips and raised my eyebrow. “Hey. What were you doing out this late, anyway?”
“I just got back from the palace. My mother needed my help with some things,” he rattled off.
“You don’t have a royal escort or anything, to make sure you get back here safe and sound, princey poo?” I asked.
He bunched his hands into fists. “I told you. I don’t like being treated different while I’m here.”
I went to open my mouth, but he raised a hand to stop me. “No. Why are you questioning me? You have no right. I’m the one who should be asking the questions, here. This obsession with the Phantom is a little nuts. You’re like a crazy ex-girlfriend who’s turned full stalker. It’s insane.”
I felt like I was going to explode with rage. “Don’t talk to me about crazy! You haven’t found a mate yet. You don’t know how it feels.”
“Oh, fuck off, Emma.” Ethan shook his head.
I was silent for a moment. Ethan had never spoken to me like that. I’d obviously touched a nerve.
He jerked his head. “Come on. Let’s go. It’s not safe out here for either of us.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m staying right here and waiting for the Phantom.” I crossed my arms.
“If you don’t follow me right now, I’m tossing you over my shoulder and carrying you back,” Ethan snapped.
There was the undertone of a growl to his voice that sounded wolfish and demanding. It scared me a little… and, okay, maybe turned me on. Like, a lot.
Wait. No, no, I wasn’t supposed to get turned on by Ethan. I was taken. That would be wrong.
I raised my chin and said, “If you want me to move an inch from this spot, then you’re going to have to make me.”
“Wish granted.” Ethan started forward. I yelped and went to run, but Ethan grabbed me around the waist and tossed me over his shoulder as if I was a bag of grain. I screamed and beat my fists into his back as he started walking.
“I can do this all day, so you might as well stop,” Ethan said as he hiked me back to school. “Your punches feel like a back rub.”
It was useless. I gave up and let myself sag there like a sack of potatoes. I watched the outline of Ethan’s ass move through his jeans as he walked.My eyes glued to the waistband of his boxers, which had risen upward as his pants sagged past his hip bones.
Okay, I was mated, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t look at other guys, right? Ethan had a nice… view.
“Are you going to behave now?” Ethan asked as we passed through the threshold of the castle. He began the long walk down the hallway that led to the dorms.
“Probably not,” I said back. “Would you expect otherwise?”
Ethan grumbled a few swear words under his breath and said, “At the very least, can I put you down now be sure you aren’t going to run away?”
“Nah. I like being carried. Saves me from having to walk.”
Ethan smacked my ass, hard. I yelped, and he said, “There’s more to come if you don’t start acting like a lady.”
“I am no lady.”
“We all know that by now, Miss Emmaline.”
Ethan slid me off his shoulder when we got to the staircase that led up to the dorm rooms. Our gazes connected. The look that Ethan gave me was so warm and full. As mad as he’d been a few minutes ago, he suddenly looked... really happy.
I had a sudden thought that came out of nowhere. What if I took Ethan back to my dorm, and what if we—
Guilt overtook me. Flirting with Ethan was harmless, but I was pretty much cheating on my mate by allowing my mind to wander. How could I even think of messing around with Ethan? Shit, I felt bad. I needed to stop.
I wrenched my eyes away
from his and started climbing the staircase. “Well, this was fun, but I can take it from here. I know where my room is.”
“I don’t think so. I’ll accompany you,” he said, taking the stairs two at a time.
“What are you going to do? Sleep outside my door all night to make sure I stay inside?” I challenged.
“If you keep it up, sure.”
“Maybe I’ll build a rope of pillowcases and sheets and scale down the window,” I suggested. “I never liked being a trapped little princess.”
“I won’t have any trouble coming after you.”
When we got to the top of the staircase, Ethan suddenly paused. He flung out an arm to stop me.
“I smell blood,” he said. He put an arm around my shoulders. “Something’s not right here. We should go get a teacher.”
I noticed that, down the hall, my dorm room door was propped open. A thin red trail was leaking out from within. “It’s coming from my room.”
“Emma!”
I didn’t listen. I shoved past Ethan and ducked away as he tried to catch me. I ran full-speed toward my room. When I got there, I had to press a hand over my mouth to prevent a horrified scream from leaking out.
Morgan was on the floor. She had large gashes across her chest and neck— gashes that were weeping blood and that had torn her clothes. A huge pool of blood spread around her lifeless body. Her face was pale, and her form was unmoving. I was sure she was dead.
“We need to get her to the medical ward.” Ethan was immediately beside me. He stooped down and picked up Morgan. Her blood soaked his shirt, and her head rolled lifelessly on her shoulders.
My mouth gaped. “But… but…”
“She’s still alive. I can hear her breathing,” he told me. “We need to hurry.”
Ethan started to move. I followed him at a quick pace as Morgan’s blood dripped on the carpet, creating a trail.
People started to stir as we ran through the hall. They came out of their rooms with sleepy gazes. A crowd began to grow around the entrance to my room.
“No one woke up when this happened? I can’t believe no one heard the attack,” I asked Ethan as we ran.
“Not if she was attacked from behind and didn’t have time to scream,” Ethan said.
We reached the medical ward in what seemed like minutes. The doctors and nurses wasted no time in getting Morgan onto a gurney and wheeling her into emergency. After she was taken back to surgery, we were escorted into the waiting room by one of the nurses. I stared at the blood drying on Ethan’s shirt and tried not to be sick.
I didn’t like Morgan. She’d been a bitch to me ever since I’d arrived. But that didn’t mean I wanted her to die.
“Breathe, Emma.” Ethan poured water out of a plastic white jug and into a paper cup. He forced me to drink it and take deep breaths, rubbing my shoulders in tiny circles. How the hell could he be so calm at a time like this?
A short time later, Lady Magdalina came storming into the waiting room like she was leading a warrior’s brigade. She had Lady Korva flanking her, as well as Lord Lucien.
Lucien seemed pale and bothered. Korva’s face was red with rage. Magdalina turned toward me with a calm expression and asked, “What happened?”
Ethan rushed to explain before I could. “Emma and I returned to her dorm around a half an hour ago. When we got there, we found Morgan inside. She’d obviously been attacked, though we weren’t sure by what.”
“Why were you not in your dorm this time of night, Miss Sosna?” Lady Korva’s tone was firm and demanding. She was acting like I’d been the one to hurt Morgan.
“She was with me,” Ethan said immediately, before I could answer. “We were exploring the grounds together and lost track of time.”
I did my best to hide my surprise. Ethan was covering up for me?
Lady Korva’s nostrils flared. “Students should not be outside their rooms after midnight.”
“That is beside the point now,” Lady Magdalina said quickly. “I am more concerned about how and why Miss Bianca was injured in the first place.”
Lord Lucien hadn’t said a thing since he arrived. He looked like a ghost. His eyes kept fluttering back and forth, to me and then to the floor. It was weird.
“What was Morgan doing in my room anyway?” I asked.
Lady Korva narrowed her eyes. “You are not in a position to ask questions, Miss Sosna. You’ve been a troublemaker since you’ve arrived at this school. I personally am regarding you as a key suspect.”
“Be reasonable,” Magdalina snapped. “Morgan’s injuries were caused by magic, power that is beyond Emmaline’s current abilities.”
Lady Korva kept her lips tightly pinned together, but the look she gave me clearly said she still thought I was responsible.
Lucien broke his silence and reached into his pocket. “This was in Morgan’s pocket. It seems she snuck into your dorm to pull a prank on you.”
He handed me a small jar of silly string. I really had to resist rolling my eyes. Really? Morgan was so immature.
Then I realized she was paying for it. She wanted to prank me, sure, but now she was fighting for her life. A knot rose up in my throat.
“You two are dismissed,” Lady Magdalina said. “We will do what we must to find the perpetrator of this heinous crime. The rest of you, with me.”
Lady Magdalina swept away. Korva gave me a hated stare before she left with a sniff.
Lord Lucien seemed apologetic. He gave a quick nod of his head and bounded after the sorceresses.
I sank slowly into a chair. “I just don’t get it. Why would anyone want to attack Morgan? She’s mean, but she’s harmless.”
Ethan’s face was dark as he said, “Morgan wasn’t the target, Emma.”
The meaning of his words sank in slowly. As they did, a cold terror overtook my body. Ethan was right. The attacker didn’t mean to go after Morgan. They wanted me. That’s why they’d been hiding in my dorm. Someone had been waiting in my room, to do to me what they’d done to her. She’d just gotten in the way.
I’d become a target. Here at Arcanea University, there was someone who wanted me dead.
The only question was… who? And why did they consider me a threat?
Chapter Fifteen
Ethan
It’d been a week since Morgan had been attacked, and nobody knew who did it. An investigation was underway to find out what exactly had happened, but like the murder of Professor Waldron, it only turned up dead ends. No evidence had been left behind, and there were no clues indicating who had performed such a deadly assault.
Morgan survived the attack with minimal injuries. She’d lost a lot of blood, but she hadn’t been seriously hurt, and had minimal scarring. Morgan couldn’t remember who had attacked her. She’d never seen their face, and had fainted once she was attacked. She couldn’t even recall what spell had been used.
But regardless of who’d tried to murder her, Morgan blamed Emma. She’d loudly told anyone who would listen that she thought Emma was behind the attack and that this was a way of getting back at her, because she had wings and Emma didn’t.
She wasn’t the only one. There were many students at the school who said we never should’ve allowed Emma in, and that this was what we got for letting an outsider attend Arcanea University. A lot of people kept their distance from her, as if they too were afraid she’d suddenly snap and turn on them.
An assault and a murder, all in the span of a few weeks. And at Arcanea University, no less. This was a huge problem. I had a feeling both crimes were connected. The Black Claw was inside the school somehow, watching. And for some reason, Emma had become their target.
My urge to find out exactly what was going on had increased tenfold. My mate was directly in danger. If the Phantom couldn’t find out what the Black Claw was doing, then Prince Ethan would. I had power. I’d ordered spies to be placed around the palace in the guise of employees, to report back to me periodically if they noticed anything unusual. Stil
l, they found nothing.
My mind was still preoccupied with the attack during my Forging Master Weapons class on Thursday. Myself, along with the rest of the class, had been tasked with learning how to make swords for the majority of the semester. We were working with enchanted steel, which was easier to forge and safe for fae to use, but broke far more easily. I heard swear words often as people created cracks in the weapons they worked. Each student had been given their own forge, along with a hammer and common tools. The blacksmithing classroom was outside, in one of the inner courtyards next to the Conservatory.
Professor Desmona was a warrior of epic proportions. A griffin Marked, she’d killed more monsters than anyone else I knew and was a master blacksmith. She could forge any weapon out of any metal but iron, and her swords could kill a monster in one swing. She was a towering woman, over six feet tall, and had muscles that would put most Companions to shame. Her blonde hair was cropped short around her ears. Instead of wearing sorceress robes or dresses like the rest of the female teachers, she donned long breeches, woolen tunics, and leather aprons.
I’d often seen her in full chain mail and armor, participating in the various tournaments that were held throughout the year. She was one of the few Marked that had been knighted, an honor usually reserved for Companions. My father was the one who had given her that honor. Because of that, I think she liked me, but it certainly gave me no favoritism. She was tough on everybody.
“If your sword is of shabby quality, I will have you start over next semester, and you will fail this class,” Professor Desmona said loudly as she passed me. “You cannot kill a monster with a blade that won’t cut butter.”
Several people groaned, but I kept my head down. If you complained, Desmona was more likely to take off points. I didn’t think she was mated, which was odd for a Marked of her age— early thirties or so. I wasn’t sure if she’d found her mate yet or if he had died, and I didn’t have the balls to ask.
I had been working all semester on hammering away at my sword after it emerged heated from the forge so that it obtained a proper shape. Today, I was sharpening the sword using a grindstone. Professor Desmona didn’t believe in using modern tools for weapon-making— said they created poor weapons.
