by Elena Lawson
I groaned, wanting to hit something at the unfairness of all the bullshit that kept getting thrown into my path. My magic rose in a wave, and for a second I let it free—just a second. Enough to blow out the steam that was trapped, building pressure beneath my skin.
I felt faint from the rush of it as it took over, and then sighed as I allowed it to release back into the earth. The floorboards of the toolshed shook. The dishes in the cabinets clattered, and somewhere outside, thunder rolled in the distance. A second later it was gone, and I felt faint, dropping back into my seat. A pulsing pain stabbed at a place behind my eyes and I knew what would happen if I didn’t rest.
This shed wouldn’t withstand the storm my magic could create. And Granger had only just finished with the reparations on the academy from the last time.
Now that I’d opened the faucet, though, holding it in would be harder.
“Was that…?” Cal started, cocking his head at me.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to stave off the pain and grunted as I shoved the rest of the frantic energy back down as deep as it would go, and then buried it. “Sorry. I can’t help it sometimes.”
Cal and Adrian shared a look.
The pain behind my eyes started to subside, but there were still dark spots clinging to edges of my vision. It was Adrian who stepped forward and knelt next to me, all the glow gone from his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice tight. “I shouldn’t have—”
“Shhhh,” I hushed him. “Don’t even worry about it. I should have—,” I winced as a lance of pain shot through my skull and a little aftershock of my power drained out from my toes to shake the floor a bit more. “I shouldn’t have shoved you.”
“We’ll figure this out,” Cal said, kneeling at my feet beside Adrian. “Together.”
I offered them both a small smile, nodded. “Okay,” I said, blinking away what remained of the black spots. “But you can’t come to class with me. They’ll kick you out.”
Cal expression blackened. “Fine,” he said between gritted teeth. “But the at the first sign of trouble—”
“I’ll call to you,” I said, and reached out to stroke his face, wanting to put it back to the smirk it had when he first walked in.
I rested my other hand on Adrian’s cheek and gave him an apologetic stare. He covered my hand with his and a tremor rushed through me at his intense warmth. “Swear to us you’ll tell us if you’re in danger.”
He knew me too well, already.
Frowning, I grudgingly replied. “I will.”
I slept like a baby. When I awoke at dawn, long before Bianca would’ve attempted to drag my ass out of bed on any other given day of the week, I felt blissfully refreshed. Sleeping next to them did that.
The meager five hours of sleep I got after we’d poured over the books I brought and debated all the gruesome possibilities—my least favorite being the most obvious—that Draven was to blame for Bianca and the dead students.
It made the most sense. I knew that. It was hard to ignore the facts. But… I couldn’t bring myself to believe it. I didn’t know him well, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I just had this feeling that he wasn’t the one to blame. Cal and Adrian wouldn’t listen, though. They told me if he came back to see me again to send him to them. Not to let him in. I didn’t make any promises, though.
They could think it was him all they wanted.
They were wrong. And I was going to prove it.
I climbed from the bunk carefully, trying not to disturb them. Cal stirred and I planted a soft kiss on his forehead. “Where are you going?” he asked sleepily, still half unconscious.
“I have to get back,” I whispered. “Go back to sleep. I’ll call if I need you, okay? I promise.”
Cal gripped my hand when I tried to pull away, and I turned back to find his one visible eye open, staring at me with something like fear. “Be careful,” he said.
I was about to reply, but he tugged me down to his level again and kissed me. My head spun and my stomach fluttered in surprise. “I mean it,” he said as he pulled away. “Don’t go looking for trouble.”
“No need,” I said with a note of sarcasm. “Trouble has a way of finding me all on its own.”
“That’s not reassuring.”
“I’ll be fine. You can come to check on me whenever you want, okay? But don’t be surprised if you aren’t exactly welcomed with open arms.”
Cal sighed, rolling onto his back. “How many more years are you stuck here, again?”
“Three.”
He groaned, pressing his palms into his eyes. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”
“And that there’s a magical witch-familiar bond that makes sure you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not.”
Cal gave a wicked side-eye and shook his head. “Yeah. I guess that, too.”
“See you soon?”
He nodded and gave me a lopsided grin. “See you soon, my little witch.”
I shrugged back into my blazer and slipped on my tennis shoes, blowing Cal and a still-sleeping Adrian a kiss goodbye before I grabbed my tote bag and ran out the door.
If I hurried, I could go see Elias before anyone at the academy was even awake. It was about as safe a visit as we could get. And with the authorities gone, I didn’t have to worry about bumping into any patrols along the way.
I just hoped I didn’t smell too strongly of dog.
There was a thin coil of smoke rising from his little brick chimney when I walked up to the door, but even more surprising was that he was already awake and outside. Elias sat on the top step of his front stoop. A mug of tea in one hand, and what looked to be an Arcane Chronicle in the other.
He hadn’t heard me approaching yet, and I stopped, wanting for only a minute to take in the sight of him without him knowing I was there. His hair was bed tousled, and his shirt was unbuttoned. His feet were bare, and his short beard not yet trimmed for the day ahead. The sun had only just risen, and the ethereal light played on his features in a way that made him look almost like he wasn’t real. He could’ve been a painting. A work of art.
I was just trying to think of what the artist would name the view before me, but he looked up, alerted to my presence by Fallon, who’d come out to greet me.
“Hey, Fallon,” I said, bending down with exactly zero expectation that he would allow me to pet him. But he got closer than he usually did, so that was good enough for me. Progress.
When I looked up again, Elias was beaming at me, rushing to set down his mug and parchment to stand. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
I cocked my head at him. “Well, good morning to you, too.”
“Good morning,” he rushed to reply, an apology in his blue eyes. “I’m glad you came.”
I sucked a breath in through my teeth and unslung the tote bag from my shoulder, dropping it with thud at his feet. “You won’t be telling me that by the time I leave.”
Confused, he attempted to study my expression, angling his head so he could try to see what was in the bag.
I wrapped my arms around him before he could get a good look, and he crushed me against him—the both of us sighing at the contact. I fisted my hands in his shirt, wishing we could be even closer. The sense of calm—of soothing comfort only he could bring was like a tonic to my nerves. And a dose of Xanax for my magic.
My shoulders slumped, and I reluctantly pulled away. “I need your wisdom,” I said, and hefted the tote bag back up to show him what was inside.
He reached in and pulled out the books, looking more and more puzzled by the second.
“Mind explaining?” he said with a quirked brow, letting the books fall back into the bag.
“You got some more tea?”
He opened an arm wide, showing me the way inside. “Always.”
I had to talk to Bianca before classes started for the day. The academy had started to wake before I left Elias’ cabin, so I had to be stealthy on my way inside and back up to my d
orm. He’d confirmed what the librarian said about Bianca, and promised not to let on that he knew she was having these blackouts.
He said the same thing I did—that she should go and see someone in the infirmary, but once I explained why she couldn’t, he seemed to understand. He wasn’t at all pleased to hear about what I learned from Draven either, and much like Cal and Adrian, demanded that I stay in my dorm room outside of classes…
All their worry was making me more worried. In the quiet calm of the academy in the early morning, I felt like there was someone right behind me all the way down the south corridor and up the east hallway to my room. I couldn’t stop checking behind me, afraid there would be someone right on my heels. But who would it be?
That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?
If it was a witch, why did the dead students have puncture marks in their necks? Why were they missing so much blood?
It didn’t sit right. Didn’t make any sense.
I pushed open the door as quietly as I was able, sighing when I found Bianca alone and awake. Marcus must have left sometime earlier to avoid getting caught, too.
“Hey,” she said, halting in the brushing of her long blonde hair—looking at me with a cheeky grin through the mirror on her vanity. “How was your evening?” she asked.
“How was yours?”
She blushed. “It was… satisfactory.”
“Is that all?”
“Ok, maybe a little more than satisfactory.”
I shook my head and sat on the edge of my bed, pulling the tote bag onto my lap.
Bianca turned on her little stool and tilted her head, her light brown eyes narrowed with dread. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Did you find something out already?”
Her face paled, and I was sure I didn’t look any better. “I did.”
She inhaled deeply and clasped her hands in her lap. “Tell me.”
“It can only be one of two things if it’s not just normal stress.”
“It’s not.”
My brows rose at her certainty, but if anyone would know best, it was her. It was her it was happening to after all.
“Then you can’t go anywhere alone anymore.”
She screwed up her face, pressing her lips in a firm line. “What?” she snapped.
I handed her the books, and waited a minute for what they contained to sink in. “It’s either a side effect of Vocari compulsion, or a witch has been tampering with your memory.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. I confirmed it with the librarian and Elias. There isn’t anything else that fits. And Cal and Adrian and I went through both of those books front to back last night, but we couldn’t find anything that would help us definitively decide which one is to blame.”
Bianca’s breaths came faster, and an angry flush came into her face. “So, you’re telling me someone is doing this to me? Someone is fucking with my head?” she was practically frothing at the mouth with anger now.
I put my hands up in a gesture of peace. “I know. It’s messed up, but we’ll figure out who it is. I promise. And then we’ll put an end to it. But for now, you can’t go anywhere without me or Marcus. Not with another student. Not with a professor. It could be anyone, B.”
“Yeah, or it could be your vampire friend,” she said, glaring at me.
My mouth snapped closed at the ice in her tone. I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
“But you aren’t sure.”
I paused. “I am sure,” I said, nodding to myself as though I were the one who needed convincing. “It isn’t Draven, but if it’s another vampire, maybe he can help us find out who.”
She drew in a shaking breath and stood to get her shower things. “Well, just keep him away from me.”
I clenched my teeth, not exactly sure how she was proposing I do that since he had a habit of coming in through the window of our shared room, but not wanting to say anything to the contrary. She had every reason to be upset. If someone was meddling in my thoughts, I’d be freaked the hell out, too.
“You coming?” she asked after gathering up the rest of what she needed, reminding me that I didn’t want her going anywhere outside of this room alone.
I hadn’t planned to shower this morning, but I supposed I didn’t have a choice now. I snatched up a black towel, soap, and the fancy conditioner Bianca got for me that was supposed to help tame my hair. “I guess I am,” I said, and followed her out into the hall.
“Good, you need to.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Bianca gave me a concerned glance, as though it was troublesome that I didn’t already know what she was about to tell me. “Harper, you smell like dog.”
“Don’t get mad,” Bianca said the next morning, hiding something behind her back.
I wasn’t even fully awake yet. Those were not the first words I’d wanted to hear this morning.
It was going to be a long day. Sloane was teaching our group again tonight which meant the school day was going to go on two hours more than it usually did, and I was already exhausted just thinking about sparring off with a training dummy that could fight back.
I groaned, burying my face into my pillow. “What now?”
When she didn’t answer after a minute, I had to brave the morning light and peel back my eyelids. I was so damned tired it wasn’t even funny.
Cal and Adrian decided to go on a long ass nighttime run to someplace far enough away that it made my bones physically ache in the night. The absence of them made me groggy, and my mind a heap of chaotic, dumbed down thought.
“They asked me a favor, and I couldn’t say no. It was just a small favor. I didn’t know what they were planning, and I mean, if it were me I’d be excited, but it’s not me, it’s you, so—”
“You’re rambling,” I interrupted, glaring at her from my shield of blankets. “Just spit it out.”
She pursed her lips and handed me the envelope from behind her back. It was a thick ivory card stock material with a broken wax seal that had a marking like a flower. A rose? The rest of the envelope was blank, but inside was a thick notecard, embossed in gold edging, with fine calligraphic writing down the middle.
You are cordially invited to celebrate the eighteenth birthday of Miss Harper Hawkins this Saturday, June 8th at Rosewood Abbey.
I sat bolt upright, blinking away any remaining traces of sleep from my eyes. I clutched the little piece of paper between my fingers, not believing what I was seeing. What the hell was this? I hadn’t told Martin I wanted to have the party.
And I wasn’t planning to. I didn’t want to have some big swanky event. I just wanted to maybe eat some cake with my guys and my best friend. That would have been more than enough.
I cringed. “Please tell me you’re the only one who has one of these?”
Bianca bit her bottom lip, flinching. “No. I’m pretty sure they were sent out to everyone, actually…”
Oh shit.
“No. No, no, no,” I said, rising to pace the small patch of clear floor between us. Bianca recoiled back to give me more space. “Did you do this?” I asked her, shaking the little slip of paper in front of her face. “Did you?”
Her eyes widened, and she stepped back even further. “No,” she said hastily. “Well, I mean, I didn’t know why they wanted me to send the note to Martin. They didn’t say. They just asked me if I could.”
Those bastards! “They did what?”
I was near shouting now, and unable to help myself. Already, I was tugging on yesterday’s skirt, and throwing my hair up into a quick bun. I was going to kill them.
“Would you calm down,” Bianca said, standing in my way when I went to leave. “It’s just a party—you act like they were arranging your funeral, or something.”
They might as well have been!
“They’ve just invited everyone in an academy full of students who hate me to come to my house to celebrate my birthday, B. How idiotic is that?”
And then a little wave of relief washed over me. I was right. No one in this school save for B, and maybe Marcus liked me at all. Who would even come? I didn’t know if the thought of having no one show up was worse or better than the thought of filling my house with people who thought I was a co-conspirator to murder.
Ugh. This had to be one of the levels of hell.
“I guess you have a point,” Bianca said and stepped out of my way, calling after me, “Go easy on them!” as I tore from the room and raced down the hall.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve—” I started, bursting into the toolshed without knocking. A hissing sound and the absence of light made me choke on whatever else I was going to say.
“Shut. The. Door.”
I knew that voice.
“Harper!” Adrian came up behind me and pushed me into the shed, Cal shoving his way inside behind him, and then in the blink of an eye the door was shut, and the light was turned on. Blinking rapidly, I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.
Cowering in the back corner of the room was Draven, though now that the door was closed, not letting in any more sunlight, he was recovering back to his full height. He glared at me from the corner of his eye.
“Draven got here last night,” Cal explained.
“Yes, but you were sleeping soundly, and I didn’t want to wake you,” Draven added.
Sleeping soundly? Had I been? It certainly felt like I’d had an awful sleep. But I was known to sleep through louder things than a vampire tapping at my window. A window I’d been double checking was locked each night now.
Wait, that wasn’t the point. What was happening here? “I thought you didn’t trust him,” I accused Cal and Adrian.
“We didn’t,” said Cal. “Until we went to see Atlas early this morning.”
So, that’s where they had gone.
Adrian gestured to Draven. “Atlas told us Draven was there with him until well after Lacey was killed. And the day you found Bianca in the hallway all zombie-like he was with his queen. We spoke with her, too.”
