Suddenly, he pushed me up against the wall, but not in an exciting way. In a nervous way.
“Shh,” he said. “Someone’s coming.”
He looked around wildly and spotted a little closet. He grabbed the door and opened it. We both slipped inside. A minute later, we heard teachers approaching the room and opening the door. Apparently, he had heard them long before me because of his super-shifter hearing.
“So it’s true?” One of the teachers said. I couldn’t see them from our hiding spot inside the closet, but I could hear them.
“Unfortunately. The meeting this morning with Headmistress Hex confirmed it.” The second teacher, a man, spoke.
“Students missing,” the first teacher said sadly. “All boys, and all from different schools.” I could picture her shaking her head even though I couldn’t see it.
“She said no one from Enchanted Academy has fallen victim, so we might be safe.” The male teacher seemed confident.
Was what they were saying true?
Other students had been kidnapped?
This wasn’t just something that affected students at Enchanted Academy?
“I’m not so sure about that. We’ll need to do a proper headcount in order to be certain.” The female teacher said.
“Our students here are very responsible,” the man insisted. “There’s no way that a student would go missing without someone reporting their absence.”
I thought I might be sick.
He was right.
We should have reported Peter’s absence right away. Why had I let everyone convince me not to? I felt personally responsible for his disappearance even though I know, rationally, that it wasn’t my fault. I thought about jumping out of the closet and telling the teachers everything, but Beast seemed to know what I was thinking, and he placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, as if to tell me to hang on and wait.
To be patient.
“Responsible has nothing to do with it,” the female said. “Whoever is taking these boys is stealing them away without anyone noticing. The boys aren’t even putting up fights!”
“Why not?” The man asked. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Yes, well, Helena seems to have a theory about that, but you know how she is. She’s playing her cards close to her chest on this one. She’s working with the other headmistresses and headmasters, but no one seems to know what could have taken the children.”
“Or why.”
Chapter 11
Tinkerbell waited anxiously for Jessica to arrive at lunchtime. Beast was with her when she walked up, but Tinkerbell didn’t care.
“Let’s go,” she said. She pushed open the door to the teachers’ offices. This time, it was packed. There weren’t just teachers from Enchanted Academy, though. There were teachers from other schools. In fact, it looked like they had been in the middle of some sort of meeting.
“We need to talk to you,” Jessica whispered in Tink’s ear.
“Later.”
Whatever it was, it could wait. The only thing that mattered right now was finding Peter, and that’s what Tinkerbell was going to do. She scanned the room of teachers who were all staring at her curiously now.
“I need to speak with Headmistress Hex,” Tinkerbell said. She held up her head confidently even though she didn’t feel confident at all. There were dozens of teachers – at least 30 teachers, in fact – just staring at her. The offices weren’t that big to begin with and this space was already very condensed. It made no sense that there were so many people milling about now, but Tinkerbell knew one thing: it wasn’t anything good.
“She’s unavailable,” one of the teachers said. Tinkerbell peered through the crowd, trying to see who it was, but she couldn’t.
“It’s urgent,” she said.
“It’s a matter of life and death,” Jessica added dramatically.
Beast had the brains to nudge Jessica into silence.
“Ouch!” She said, rubbing her arm. “You don’t have to pinch me. I’ll shut up. Fine.”
“Please,” Tinkerbell said, looking at the teachers once more. “It’s very important that I speak with her today.”
She didn’t tell them why.
She didn’t say it was because Peter had been missing for almost two whole days and that anything could have happened.
She didn’t say anything of the sort.
Where, oh where, was Miss Hex?
“Look,” a teacher stepped forward. She was tall and lanky. She wore a tight skirt and a matching blouse. Her robes hung loosely over them, but were open, as though she’d thrown them on at the last possible second and had forgotten to fasten the front. “I understand you want to see Headmistress Hex, but she’s got a bit of a situation on her hands right now. You’ll have to come back another time.”
“Is this about the missing children?” Jessica said loudly.
The entire room fell silent as everyone, including Tinkerbell, turned to look at her.
Jessica shrugged.
“Well, is it?”
Missing children?
There were other missing children?
So it wasn’t just Peter.
Both relief and horror swept over Tinkerbell. She was horrified that there were other children missing, but this was also a good thing. If there were more people missing friends and loved ones, then more people would help look for Peter.
And thirty heads were better than one.
“What do you know about missing children?” An old man said gruffly. He was a mean-looking teacher. He was sort of gruff, actually.
“Please,” said Dr. Rogers, stepping forward.
The director of the play was here.
What was he doing here?
“What can you tell us?”
Tinkerbell opened her mouth. She was going to blurt it out, but something made her hesitate just for a fraction of a moment. They were looking for a dark fairy, after all, and Dr. Rogers was very petite and had dark features. Those were some of the trademark qualities of a dark fae. Oh, most of the time, fairies were good at blending it. They had to be, after all. If they weren’t good at blending, how would they ever keep on surviving?
The truth was that most of the world disliked fairies quite a bit. Most people had no use for the creatures. There was a reason that fairies existed primarily in stories and pictures and not in real life. They were hunted for their fairy dust. They were hated for their beauty. Most of all, they were despised for their talents.
“Headmistress Hex,” Tinkerbell managed to squeak out. “Where is she?”
“Let them through,” one of the shorter, fatter teachers said. “They may be able to give her some information that will help.”
“Absolutely not,” said Dr. Rogers. “Amy Tinkerbell, I demand that you tell us what you know.”
I gulped.
Dr. Rogers was the one who had given me the – albeit small – role in the play. I didn’t want to screw it up.
But I also knew that we were wasting time.
“Let them through,” the other teacher said again. This time, the teacher spoke more firmly, and Dr. Rogers turned to argue with her.
“Come on,” Jessica hissed. She grabbed Tinkerbell’s arm and hauled her down the little narrow side hallway that was basically an underground tunnel. It looped around and moved downward into the heart of the castle. Helena’s office was at the bottom of the tunnel, and if she was on campus, that’s where she would be.
She was waiting for them when they reached the base of the tunnel.
“I should be surprised to see you,” she said, looking at Jessica. “Yet somehow, the only student who ever manages to make it to my office without permission is the only non-magical one on campus. Strange.”
“Funny how that works out,” Jessica said with a smile.
Beast just looked at her in surprise.
“Please,” Tinkerbell said. “We need your help.”
Instantly, Helena’s demeanor changed from playful to serious.
She ushered them into her office and closed the door carefully. Then she turned to look at the students.
“Tell me.”
“It’s Peter Pan,” Tinkerbell said.
“What about him?”
“He’s missing,” Jessica said. “And we know there are other boys missing, too.”
Helena sighed and reached for her hair. She ran a hand through it nervously, or perhaps she was just trying to give herself a moment to decide how much she wanted to say. After all, they really were just kids. They didn’t have the same rights or responsibilities as the teachers.
They definitely didn’t have the same information.
“Sit down.”
Jessica and Beast exchanged looks before slowly moving, but Tinkerbell couldn’t rush to a chair fast enough. She scurried, worried that her nervousness was making her glow or sparkle. She didn’t want to draw attention to herself.
She just wanted answers and, most importantly, to save her friend.
She grabbed one of the chairs in front of Helena’s desk, as did Jessica. Beast stood behind Jessica with his hands on her shoulders protectively. Jessica and Beast didn’t exactly brag about their relationship, but they didn’t hide it, either. If Helena cared that two of her students were dating, she didn’t show it. Tinkerbell guessed there wasn’t much that got by Miss Hex.
Once they were all seated around the desk, Helena moved to the opposite side and sat down in the big, oversized chair.
“So you heard about the missing children.”
“Yes,” Jessica said matter-of-factly. “And it’s quite cruel that you didn’t warn anyone at the school. I mean, how was anyone supposed to stay safe? If you had warned us, we could have-”
“I’m sorry, what could you have done?” Helena asked coolly. She wasn’t being cruel or unkind, but her voice was icy, and Tinkerbell knew why. Jessica just didn’t understand the limitations of magic. She wasn’t from a magical family or a magical world and in many ways, Jessica was kind of naïve. She seemed to think that everything in the world had an easy solution that could be fixed with magic, but she was wrong, especially about this.
Mostly about this.
“We could have kept everyone in their rooms,” Jessica said, struggling to find answers.
“Oh, okay,” Helena nodded along. “So I should have asked all of my students to stay locked up in their dormitory rooms indefinitely even though I don’t know who is behind all of this?”
“Well...”
Jessica had the decency to blush a little.
“Or should I have locked everyone together in the auditorium?” Miss Hex continued. “I could have performed a spell that would keep anyone from being allowed to leave while the teachers hunted down the villain behind these disappearances.”
“I...”
“Jessica,” Helena looked sharply at her, and Tinkerbell’s stomach twisted in knots. She felt bad even though she wasn’t the one on trial all of a sudden. Jessica didn’t really know how things worked around here. She was naïve. Ignorant.
“Yes?” Jessica’s voice came out as a whisper.
“The decision to shut down a school, especially a magical one, is huge. Protecting students doesn’t mean locking them away.”
“I understand.”
“I want to make sure that you do. You may think that I’m playing fast and loose with the safety of my pupils, but nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, I’ve just ensured that new magical wards are placed around the school.”
“What does that mean?” Jessica asked.
Enchanted Academy was already warded. Getting new ones was extreme, and it made Tinkerbell nervous since it meant that Helena Hex wasn’t playing games. She was nervous about the safety of her students.
And if she was nervous, then everyone else needed to be, too.
“It means no outsiders will be able to find the school,” Beast said.
“And even if they wander over and happen to see it, they won’t realize what they’re looking at,” Tinkerbell added.
A ward couldn’t really make a place invisible, but it could ensure that a place stayed unnoticed. People might stumble across it, but they wouldn’t feel anything when they looked at the front of Enchanted Academy.
They might notice the castle, but there would be no curious urging. They wouldn’t want to wander inside. They wouldn’t be drawn in.
There would be nothing.
“I’m sorry,” Jessica said.
“You don’t need to be,” Helena sighed. “Yes, there are students missing. We’ve discovered three missing boys from different schools. All are fairy boys and all went missing two days ago in the evening. We haven’t found any other similarities. Luckily, as far as we know, no one is missing from Enchanted Academy. Although,” she eyed the students warily. “If you three are here, I’d beg to bet you want to tell me that I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong,” Tinkerbell whispered.
“Who’d they take?”
“Peter Pan.”
Tinkerbell felt sick saying it. Where was he? Was he safe? Where was he being held? It wasn’t fair that he’d gone missing. None of it was fair.
“Tell me everything.”
Tinkerbell quickly recounted her tale of what had happened. She talked about how she’d been spying on Peter and Hook and seen him vanish. She explained that the person with Pan that night hadn’t been Hook at all and that Hook was just as confused as anyone else. She even talked about how they’d determined that the person who took him was probably a dark fairy.
“Of course,” Helena sighed. “The dark faes are out of mates, and it’s nearly winter.”
“What happens in winter?” Jessica asked.
“The dark fae princesses declare their intended mates,” Tinkerbell said, and the thought made her nervous.
“Wait, dark fairies have princesses?”
Helena Hex looked at Jessica with surprise on her face.
“We really need to develop some sort of Introduction to the Magical World course, don’t we?” She shook her head. “Of course dark fairies have princesses. Regular fairies do, too, but the reality is that there are so few faes left in the world that the royal families have all but disappeared and gone into oblivion.”
“The dark fairies are trying to make a comeback,” Tinkerbell said. It was something her parents had suspected for years. “Right now, they almost always wed non-fairies, but if they can marry fairies, even good fairies, then they’ll become very, very powerful.”
Too powerful.
“How powerful are we talking?” Jessica asked.
Beast had been incredibly quiet this entire time, but he looked pale all of a sudden.
“If you thought dragon shifters were powerful,” he murmured. “Then you have no idea what a dark fae can do.”
Both Beast and Helena Hex had shifting abilities. They both looked incredible when they were in their dragon forms. Not that Tinkerbell would ever ask to see them shift or anything like that. She wasn’t a total weirdo, but she did wonder just how much more powerful the dark fairies were compared to other magical beings.
Dark fairies in the magical world were something of a legend.
They weren’t the type of creature you really paid much attention to.
“What can they do?” Jessica asked.
“They blend in,” Tinkerbell said. “But when they want to cause mischief or do something bad, they can use their glamour to take on the appearance of something else.”
“The glamour only lasts a few hours,” Helena said. “Then the fairy will need to sleep for a long time: generally about 12 hours.”
“That’s quite a reset button.”
“It’s good in some ways,” Tinkerbell said. “They can’t just walk around in a fake form indefinitely. They have to be their normal self eventually.”
“But you never know when a dark fairy might take on the image of something or someone else,” Helena said. “We suspect that there are four dark fae princesse
s who have each tried to capture a mate for their weddings.”
“So someone wants to force Peter to marry them?” Jessica stuck her tongue out and shook her head. “Gross. Wait a minute, isn’t Peter like 16?”
“The fairies declare their intended mate during their 16th winter,” Helena Hex said. “And the boys will be groomed and prepared for the next two years until they’re ready to be married.”
“That’s messed up.”
“It’s how the fairies work,” Beast said. “Messed up is a nice way of putting it.”
“So what can we do?” Jessica asked. “Where would they have taken him? I mean...fairy world?” She held up her hands, exasperated. “Is there a secret world where the fairies live?”
“No, they live among the humans and among the witches. They couldn’t have gotten far, though,” Helena said thoughtfully. “If I had to guess, they’ll be holding the boys somewhere for a certain period of time: maybe to make sure they’re the right choices or even to be sure they can get away with it. Four boys stolen from four schools on the same day is sure to draw some attention.”
“So they’re going to lie low for a little while?” Tinkerbell wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, maybe it meant Peter would have a chance at escaping. He was clever, after all.
On the other hand, it meant the boys could be anywhere.
There were four schools to search and that meant there were four castles full of places to hide, but then she realized something.
“What schools were the students taken from?” She suddenly asked.
Helena Hex looked at Tinkerbell and raised an eyebrow.
“Hybrid Academy, Montgomery Academy, and Dragon Mist Academy. Why?”
“Get me a map,” Amy Tinkerbell said to Beast.
“This isn’t my office,” he pointed out. “How am I supposed to find a map?”
“Here,” Helena Hex snapped her fingers and a paper map appeared on the desk. Tinkerbell spread it out, carefully unrolling it. She wanted to see as much of the map as possible so she could be certain.
“Look.” Tinkerbell placed her finger on Enchanted Academy’s place on the map. “Our school is here. Hybrid Academy is over here.” She ran her finger to each school in turn, and then she looked up. “They form a square in the Dragon Mountains.”
Enchanted Academy Box Set Page 26
