by Elena Lawson
He rushed into the foyer, out of breath, and I thought for a second he might be going to tell me about the moon room after all. And that was the reason why he’d come all this way.
I stepped forward, ready to steady him if the exertion had affected him too much. “What is it, Martin?”
He waved off my offer to help and took a moment to calm his breaths.
Cal raised a brow at the old man, and Adrian shrugged, wholly unbothered.
“I…” he said through breaths. “I almost… forgot. I was… meaning to ask you about… well, about your birthday.”
“My birthday?”
“Yes, it’s tradition…” he said, finally regaining his breath. “…in the Hawkins family to hold a ball when a witch turns eighteen. A rite of passage. And since your birthday falls on a Saturday this year, I thought it perfect. If you’d like I could hire some help, organize everything.”
“I thought you said your birthday was on the last day of the month,” Adrian said, seeming confused and a little perturbed, maybe thinking I’d lied. “Isn’t that a Sunday?”
When I realized what I was missing, I gasped. “You know when my birthday is?” It was more a statement than a question. Obviously, he did.
Cocking his head, Martin tucked his hands behind his back and considered me. “Well, of course, I do, Miss I was here the day you were born. I wouldn’t soon forget it.”
“No—no,” I hurried to correct myself. “The date. You know the date I was born.”
“I don’t understand—”
“I’ve never known it,” I spat out in a rush.
A sadness deepened the wrinkles and darkened circles around Martin’s eyes as he said. “Oh, dear. Oh, of course, I’m so very sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. You were born at half past midnight, on June the 8th.”
But that was next weekend! A rawness in my throat took me by surprise as I bent low to wrap Martin in a tight hug. “Thank you!” I said. “Thank you! Thank you!”
Surprised, Martin squeaked. “So, I suppose you’ll be wanting to have the ball, then?”
But I jumped back, shaking my head. “Oh. Right. Well, no, I don’t think so.”
It wasn’t my birthday I cared about. It’d never been a cause of grand celebration, and I didn’t see why I should start treating it that way now.
Leo and Lara were simple people. We did cake and candles like the mortals did, mostly because I wouldn’t let them get away with not making sure I had a disgusting amount of chocolate to eat for that one day of the year—and they always got me a small gift, but that was it.
It was all I really wanted. Did anyone actually enjoy being awkwardly doted upon and sang to? I know I didn’t.
“But it’s tradition,” Martin said with a pointed look.
“Yeah, it’s tradition,” Cal said, mimicking Martin with the same pointed look.
“And I bet there’ll be a nice spread,” Adrian added with a wink, knowing my true weakness.
I looked from Martin to Cal and Adrian and back again. Groaned. “I’ll think about it, okay?”
“As you wish, Miss Harper, but I’ll need more than a day to make arrangements, mind you.”
I gave him a tight-lipped smile. “Yes. Alright.”
“Suppose you should be going then,” Martin said, moving to hold the door. “Off with you. Back to your studies.” I went out the door, whispering a quick thank you and goodbye as I passed.
“Master Cal,” Martin said with a bow as he passed—his formal way of saying goodbye to the new men of the house.
Cal stiffened, but then tipped his own head. “Martin.”
“Master Adrian,” he said as Adrian passed, and bowed again,
Adrian cleared his throat. “Master Martin,” he said with a wink and scooted from the landing to join us on the gravel, just barely escaping Martin’s scorn as he hollered down to us, “Just Martin will do, Master Adrian.”
15
What was late morning in Ireland, turned out to be pre-dawn in West Virginia. A trivial fact I’d forgotten to account for. But at least we were definitely good as far as not running into anyone on our route through the academy and out to the converted toolshed.
The halls were deathly quiet. And seemed darker than usual even though the first rays of dawn had begun to light the sky for the summer day ahead. We hurried through the academy on light feet—well, Cal and Adrian were on light feet—I was on elephant feet with giraffe legs as per usual, and managed to almost knock over a bust of some old guy atop a concrete pedestal and walk into a wall before we finally made it outside.
Cal snorted.
“What?” I snapped. “It was dark in there.”
Adrian had his lips sealed firmly against a laugh. They enjoyed laughing at my expense, didn’t they? I couldn’t wait to return the favor someday.
“Not everyone can see in the dark,” Cal said, clapping me on the back. “You’re good.”
Yeah. Right. It was only a matter of time before I shattered some priceless artifact that belonged to the queen of such and such or tripped into someone with a knife in my hand—it’d already happened once, actually. But Leo was fast enough to dodge the involuntary attack.
“Quiet,” I whispered harshly, looking back up at the darkened windows of the academy, now glinting with the orange light of morning. Impossible to see inside. But that didn’t mean people couldn’t see outside. “You’ll wake people up.” And I just wanted this morning all to ourselves in the makeshift cabin I’d made for them on the outskirts of the grounds.
I wanted this closeness to last just a little bit longer before I had to spend another exhausting week getting ready for tests and exams. Being belittled by teachers that thought I was some delusional drama queen who didn’t belong at their school. Because, of course, a witch couldn’t have been to blame for all the people who died in the warehouse. Of course not. It was physically impossible apparently. Bunch of buffoons.
“You guys still have coffee left in there, right?” I asked as we made our way around the academy, making sure my headband was snuggly in place. It was going to be a long day. Why had we gotten up so damned early?
Probably because you went to bed at a time usually reserved for babies and people over sixty, my mind whispered back.
Yeah, that would do it.
“Think so,” Cal answered. “No cream left, though.”
“I’ll see if I can get you some more,” I told them.
“You’re the one who drank it all,” Adrian said. “We don’t even use it.”
Oh. “Well, then I guess I’ll get me some more to have when I’m with—”
“What is that?” Cal stopped, making me run into his solid back since I was looking at Adrian and not paying attention to him.
“Um. Ow.” I said, rubbing my nose. Damn, I think I hit it right on his spine.
Adrian tucked me behind me, and confused, I struggled out of his grasp. “What are you—”
“Shhh,” Adrian hushed me sharply, a finger to his lips.
“You smell that?” Cal asked Adrian, and immediately, I was trying to use my probably broken nose to sniff the air. But I smelled nothing except drying earth and pine.
Adrian’s eyes ignited in vibrant gold, and a growl ripped from Cal’s throat, his eyes turning a burning jade.
“Guys?” I said, deciding my nose wasn’t broken and it looked like we had bigger problems to worry about. “What is it?”
But neither answered me. Cal took two running steps and growled back toward Adrian and I, “Watch her,” before he shifted mid-stride and broke into a full run, darting off into the trees like a loosed bullet.
Adrian grit his teeth, and I saw his hunter’s gaze sifting through the trees, scanning for a threat. His canines had started to slide loose, and his fingernails curled to talons at his sides. He was seconds from shifting but holding back the beast. He whimpered, just a little at the effort.
“Adrian, what is it?” I demanded, grabbing him by the arm so he would loo
k at me.
He shook his head, and his voice was half animal when he said, “There’s something dead in the woods.”
My heart stopped at his words. The lack of blood flow turned my skin clammy and cold before it started again, forced into a roaring drumbeat that echoed in my ears.
“A witch?”
His hands shook. “You should go back inside, Harper.”
“Fuck that,” I said, not meaning to sound so indignant, but unable to help it. “Come on. We can’t let Cal go in there alone.”
I started off into the trees, and Adrian hissed his frustration. “He told me to watch y—”
“Then watch me! But I’m going in after him. You coming or not?”
Adrian’s face reddened and a vein in his neck pulsed with barely tempered fury. He grunted. “Fine,” he growled, practically snarling, scanning the forest one last time. “Let’s go.”
A rush of magic poured into me as we sifted through the trees side by side. I let it fill me, kept it contained, but not restricted. I wanted to be able to use it at a second’s notice if I needed to.
With Adrian tracking Cal’s movements, we didn’t falter, and kept heading in a straight line to the east and then curving around north. If we kept going just a bit further, we’d be approaching the toolshed through the trees instead of via the path we usually took.
The intense look in Adrian’s glowing eyes only got more troublesome as we sped through the foliage.
I could make out the roof of the toolshed up ahead, and between the tree branches, I saw Cal. He sat in his wolf form, unmoving. So still he could’ve been a stone carving. Adrian and I pressed through to where he was, staring at something near the side wall of the toolshed.
“Cal,” I said hesitantly, stepping up to kneel beside him. I placed my hand atop his gigantic head. “What are you—”
But then I saw what he stared at, and my stomach turned, heaving, trying to turn out what meager contents it possessed. But I held the bile back. Oh no.
Not again.
A girl lay unmoving in the molting leaves and newly sprouting weeds shooting up at the side of Cal and Adrian’s makeshift home. I had little hope, but I had to make sure she was really gone.
“Harper,” Adrian warned as I inched closer to her, finding the smell Cal and Adrian had scented on the wind from the academy. I choked, covering my mouth with the crook of my elbow.
“I just have to make sure,” I told him. “I have to make sure she’s gone.”
Cal whimpered, and laid down, putting his head atop his paws to watch me.
Her highlighted blonde hair shimmered in the amber rays of the morning sun as it began to rise. She was in her nightgown. A frilly purple thing that looked so out of place among the decaying leaves and dirt.
Her face was angled down, pressed into the earth, and her right leg was bent at an odd angle. I touched her shoulder. “Hey,” I whispered, my voice high and rasping, hand shaking.
Please don’t be dead.
“Maybe you shouldn’t touch—” Adrian started, but I’d already started to clear the hair from the side of her face, trying to see if there were any signs of life in her eyes. If she was breathing.
Once the curtain of hair was parted, I saw that a deep wound gouged into the side of her neck. Gnarly, torn puncture marks. A bite covered in semi-dried blood. The shade of red so dark it was almost brown. But it wasn’t the bite that made me gasp and jump back from the body, landing squarely on my ass.
It was her face. Her brown eyes staring unblinking, dull, and clouded right at me. I didn’t even know her name, but I knew her face.
It’s one of the minions, I thought, and instantly regretted it, feeling guilty for even thinking it. The one who’d gone with Kendra was Sasha. This one was… Heather?
Her black mascara was smudged in straight lines down her face—as though she’d been crying before she died. Or maybe while she died.
My stomach clenched and my chin began to quiver. The truth of what I saw sunk in. “She’s dead.”
I just touched a dead person.
Other than Sterling, I didn’t think I’d ever been this close to a dead person before. And seeing him—the man who tried to kill me and Elias get his head torn off had been grisly, but it hadn’t made me feel like this.
This awful hollow feeling that ate at me from the inside out. This profound sadness that came from thinking that she’d never see through those eyes again. And the gripping fear that it was now my job to tell someone what we’d found here.
“We should wake your headmistress,” Adrian said, sinking down next to me to place a comforting hand on my shoulder. When I didn’t answer he squeezed gently, turning me to face him. “Did you know her?”
I shook my head. “No. Not really.”
Once the galloping of my heart had slowed to a pace that allowed rational thought, I accepted Adrian’s outstretched hand to help me stand.
How had this happened again? The thought of telling Granger made all the blood drain from my face. She’d already had to deal with so much. I didn’t want to be the one to tell her about this. And what would she think?
What would everyone think? I realized how awful it would look and lost all my breath, hunching over to try to catch it.
“I’ll go inside with you if you want,” Adrian offered.
“Why,” I said, looking back to where Kendra’s friend lay limp and bloody. “Why did whatever it was that did this have to dump her here.”
Adrian stiffened, seeing what I meant. His eyes narrowed. A chill swept over me and I shivered. Cal growled, and then shifted quickly back into his human form.
I jolted at the movement and almost fell back, but Adrian caught me, righting me back onto two feet.
“Shit, Cal!” I cursed and then froze when I looked up to fix him with a glare for scaring the hell out of me. He was naked.
“Well, this might be the most interesting situation I’ve caught you in…” Rose’s voice said next to my ear, making me startle again.
Damn it!
I groaned, utterly spent and frustrated and the day hadn’t even begun yet.
“That’s one impressive package,” Rose said in a seductive voice, and I looked at her from the corner of my eye to find her head cocked, her bottom lip between her teeth as she beheld the beauty that was Cal’s cock.
As though his nakedness didn’t matter at all, Cal sighed. “This isn’t good,” he said.
“You think?” Adrian answered.
I couldn’t stop staring at his parts. I tried to find my sense of propriety but thought it’s either abandoned me or I never had one at all. Because… damn. Rose was right.
“Oh, sweet lord!” Rose exclaimed a second later. “Is that… a corpse? Well, this is a party,” she exclaimed, surprised, but unbothered.
“Not the first one, either,” I told her.
“You don’t say,” she said. “Are your familiars into human tartar, then?”
“What did you say?” Cal asked, looking at me confused.
I gulped, finding that shred of propriety I’d been looking for just in time to tear my eyes from his downstairs in favor of meeting his stare. “I said, can you please put some clothes on,” I lied, answering Rose in my thoughts, No, it wasn’t them. They were with me. Now can you ghost off? I need to focus.
“Doesn’t work like that sweet cheeks. And this is way too interesting for me to want to go anywhere.”
You’re real messed up, you know that?
“I do.”
I shook my head.
Cal had the audacity to smirk before he turned to jog around to the front of the shed, giving me an incredible view of his glutes in action.
Rose laughed. “There’s a dead girl not more than ten feet from you and you’re thinking about his glutes!” Rose said in mock shock. “Who’s the messed up one now?”
She had a point.
“Come on,” Adrian said, taking my hand to tug me back toward the academy. “Cal will catch up. Th
e longer we wait to say something, the more suspicious it will seem.”
But I was afraid it was already about as suspicious as it could get. There was a dead girl practically right outside their door, with a nasty bite mark in her neck.
And this time, there was only my word to save them.
16
This time, Granger didn’t stop classes. She thought it was too important that the students begin the Magical Defense lessons. But she excused Kendra and Sasha from returning to the academy, as well as the dead girl’s boyfriend.
Thankfully, I was excused from attending the announcement assembly where she told the rest of the students who’d returned to the academy from their weekend at home. Telling her had been hard enough.
She was already in her office when me and the guys went up and had greeted us with a warm smile and a bright and cheery good morning, what can I do for you three? before she saw the looks on our faces. She hadn’t even heard a word and already she’d sunk down into her chair. As though she knew she should be sitting to listen to the information we were about to give her.
It was chaos after that. The Arcane Authorities were called back in. And Cal and Adrian were asked to wait in Granger’s office while they took care of the body beside their home. I waited with them, and to the chagrin of the overseer, refused to leave their sides during questioning.
I vouched for them and told the overseer to contact Martin at Rosewood Abbey. He could attest to the time we left. The girl had been there in the dirt long before we ever returned to the academy—judging by the crusted blood on her neck and hair.
Granger couldn’t corroborate my story, but she also insisted Cal and Adrian had nothing to do with it, which didn’t stave off all suspicion but seemed to help.
I was a bundle of nervous energy when we finally had to go our separate ways. After her body was analyzed, and our alibi checked out, we were free to go, but not before the overseer warned that he would be seeing to it that my familiars were removed from the grounds.
