by K.N. Lee
Apparently, that was a thing with Shifters. Sometimes when the little ones made that first change on their own, they got lost in the animal side of things.
Over a shared dessert of bread pudding with caramel whiskey sauce, Elora told Ripley about Sophia. Halfway through the story, he reached across the table and laid his hand on hers. There were no platitudes about how it wasn’t her fault or she couldn’t have known, just a sympathetic ear and an understanding touch.
“At least Angela is still alive.” Even as the words left her mouth, she wished she could recall them. She hadn’t meant to say them at all.
“Your roommate? What happened to her?”
Elora sighed. “I told her to leave me alone one morning. So she did. And still does.” He cocked his head to one side, and she answered the question he didn’t ask. “Every time she sees me, she bails. She’ll lock herself in the bathroom or she’ll just plain leave. And if for some reason she can’t do either of those, she’ll turn her back to me so she can’t see me. I haven’t been able to fix it.”
“You’ll figure it out. It’s got to be the same basic principal as making a witch light or whatever.”
It had snowed while they were in the restaurant and was still snowing when they left. A blanket of snow muffled sounds and brightened the night. It was the first real snow of the season, perfect for snowball fights and building snowmen.
Running up ahead, Elora lifted her face to the feather-light wet flakes, catching them on her tongue. Laughing, she looked over her shoulder at Ripley; he watched her with an expression, an intensity that took her breath away. She turned, started back toward him, but his eyes widened and his smile disappeared.
“Elora, run!” Even as he told her to run, he broke into a sprint toward her. With a shove into the snow-covered road, he dashed past, skidding a little on the snow as he ran. She fell. A creature the size and color of an elephant roared out its rage. It grabbed Ripley with both taloned hands and shook him like a ragdoll.
Everything seemed to slow. That cold white fire she tapped into when she made her witch lights or lit the torches burned bright at her center. The scent of mint filled her nose.
Fear for Ripley filled her heart.
“Let him go!” Her shout tore from her throat. It should have thundered into the night. Instead, it fizzled into the falling snow, dampening it into nothing. And yet.
The gray creature, mottled, naked, fat snowflakes stuck to clumps of coarse black hair in odd patterns, abruptly released Ripley. He fell to the ground from a good six feet high with a grunt of pain at the impact. The creature stared at Elora with unblinking black eyes as though waiting for further instructions.
She had no idea what to tell it to do. That cold white fire still tingled along her nerve endings, and she knew it would do whatever she ordered. Ripley watched her, too, waiting along with their attacker. Suddenly tired, Elora gave it an order, the thing she wanted most to do herself.
“Go home.”
Its massive shoulders slumped. Head hanging low, it shuffled away from Ripley. Leaving twin furrows in the deepening snow, it went for the bridge and then slid down the slope until it disappeared under the edge.
Ripley started to get up but fell back again, his arm wrapped around his ribs. “I hate trolls.”
Chapter 26
Thanks to the troll, Elora knew how to release Angela from her spell. All she had to do was figure out the safest way to word her command. She couldn’t just order her to talk to her. Too much chance of backfiring. And she couldn’t tell her to be her friend because then she’d never know if anything Angela said to her was genuine or a product of another spell. In the end, she decided to try something that wasn’t a true command. If it didn’t work, she’d keep brainstorming.
The morning after the troll attack, Elora went out for coffee. She bought two, figuring the splurge was worth it, and took them back to the dorm. Angela was just waking up. When Elora walked into their room, Angela’s face went blank and she started for the bathroom. Elora stepped into her path, a coffee in her outstretched hand and that cold fire burning in her gut.
“Good morning, Angela, I release you.”
Angela blinked, focused on Elora for the first time in weeks, blinked again. She smiled, and her gaze drifted to the cup in Elora’s hand. “Good morning. Is that for me?”
Elora grinned. “It is!”
“Oh, that’s so sweet of you!”
Elora sipped at her coffee while Angela chattered happily away. For the first time in ages, it seemed all was right in Elora’s world.
“I didn’t realize you two were dating.”
Ripley sipped at his soft drink. At twenty-one, he could have ordered beer but hadn’t since neither Elora nor Angela were old enough to legally drink alcohol. He looked over to Elora, effectively lobbing the ball into her court to answer Angela’s implied question.
“We’re not.” All of a sudden, Elora felt a little jittery. “This isn’t a date. I mean,” she glanced at Ripley, who watched her with a smirk, “I know it’s called a double date, or it will be when Greg gets here, but...” She shrugged, deciding to shut up.
Talking didn’t seem to be working for her. Ripley’s left eyebrow shot up and his smirk grew wider, smirkier, causing that little dimple to appear at the corner of his mouth.
Angela spotted it, and laughed. “Are you a student at Westerly, too, Ripley?”
He nodded. “Grad student.”
Greg’s arrival forestalled anything else Ripley might have said. “Sorry I’m late.” He slid into the booth beside Angela. “I had to wait for my replacement. Ripple effect, don’t ya know.”
The next couple of hours were the most enjoyable Elora had had in a long time. Greg and Ripley played off each other as though they’d known each other for years. Elora had never laughed so hard or so long; her sides ached with it.
Despite the fact none of them wanted the night to end, Angela pointed out that she and Elora had early classes in the morning. Greg agreed, saying he had to work the early shift which started at six. Only Ripley could sleep in, since his first class of the day wasn’t until noon.
They walked back to the dorms after dinner but took a side trip into the courtyard when Angela beaned Greg with a snowball. The battle that followed was epic, boys versus girls. It ended when Ripley chased Elora out of the bunker she and Angela had formed of the drift-covered benches in the courtyard’s center.
He powered through her barrage of snowballs and tackled her in the snow. It wasn’t a real date, they were friends, but for a moment it looked like he might kiss her. She hoped he would kiss her. Instead, he pulled back. Rolling to his feet, he offered her his hand.
“We’d best get you back home, milady.”
“I guess so.”
He grinned. “I’ll call you, if that’s okay.” He hooked his arm with hers and they left Angela and Greg still lobbing missiles at one another. “Tonight was fun, but I’d rather have you all to myself.”
She didn’t see Ripley again the rest of that week, nor did she have a chance to visit the castle. There was too much studying. All her classes had finals the week before Christmas and on top of that, she had a paper due in both History and English. When she walked into her room with a basket full of clean laundry Saturday night, she stopped in her tracks the moment she opened her dorm room door.
Ripley stood in the middle of the room, a self-satisfied grin on his handsome face. Behind him was what Elora could only characterize as a picnic set up on a blanket on the floor. There was a wicker basket containing a bucket of fried chicken and a tub of what looked like cole slaw. A bottle of sparkling cider chilled in a plastic bowl filled with ice.
“What is this?”
Shaking his head, Ripley took her laundry basket from her and set it on her bed. “Do I really need to answer that, Pretty Eyes?”
“But why?” She shut the door and let him lead her to the blanket. Following his lead, she sank to the sit cross-legged on the floor.
“Not that I’m complaining.”
“You’ve been studying so hard, I wanted to make sure you have at least one decent meat.”
He poured her a plastic cup of the sparkling apple cider. He filled a paper plate with chicken and claw, corn bread and green beans. He even unwrapped the plastic utensils and paper napkin for her. It was a simple fast-food meal, but Ripley made her feel like a queen.
They talked while they ate. With his affinity for animals, Ripley worked toward becoming a veterinarian. Elora still didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life after college. She hoped Westerly itself would help er with that. Eventually, the conversation turned to family.
“You know everything about my family, Ripley. Tell me about yours.”
“My mom and sister are in Florida.”
“What about your dad?”
He shrugged. “Dunno. He left when I was seven.” He tore a bite of chicken from the bone, chewed, swallowed. “Our parents could be more different, you know?” He drank some cider to wash it down. “My dad didn’t want a wife and kids to cramp his style. Your mom gave up everything she knew and could be for the love of a Shifter.” He set down his plate and shot her a wry grin. “Can you even imagine?”
Elora didn’t answer him right away. They sat side by side in the space between her bed and Angela’s. If she leaned an inch or two to the left, their shoulders would touch. Her eyes met his. It would be so easy to lean into him. No effort at all.
Effortless. Easy.
Right.
“Yeah.” Her voice came out as little more than a breath of air. “I can.”
His grin faded. His gaze dropped to Elora’s mouth a heartbeat before they kissed. It was a tentative thing at first. A silent question.
Is this okay?
And a silent answer as Elora shifted, bringing her body into contact with Ripley’s. She’d never shared a kiss with anyone before, never knew it could feel so safe and exhilarating. He tasted of salty chicken and sweet cider and Elora wanted more.
Chapter 27
Elora considered the night of their picnic their first official date, although she could argue that it was Thanksgiving or the night of the snowball fight. For the rest of the weekend, he fed her and helped her study. She felt good about the tests shoe took the following week. She might not have aced them all, but she was sure she came close.
She and Angela got along well, too, since Elora released her from the spell she’d accidentally inflicted on her. For the first time since Sophie, she had friends. Ripley, Angela, maybe even Kailey, the Phantom from her History class. She and Kailey had started meeting for coffee before History and hanging out between and after classes during finals week.
She met Dr. Grant a couple of times, once during his office hours and once over lunch. They spoke more of the Phantoms. He told her stories of manipulation and murder and kidnapping, even a tale of the Phantoms destabilizing the British crown in the 1400’s. It had something to do with the War of the Roses.
When her tests were all over, Elora went to Castle Caldwell. It was her first time there since before the troll attack. She entered what she had come to think of as the enchanted forest, walking from foot-deep snow to sunshine and dry ground. Ti was still cold, but no snow and ice.
Everywhere she went, the castle was clean. No more cobwebs or piles of leaves and dirt. No more dust covers. There were people there on the first floor, too. Lots of them. Some Elora know but most she had never seen before.
It was a little weird.
Ripley was meeting her there with pizza. He hadn’t mentioned anything about a Phantom takeover of her family’s castle. After hanging her coat on one of the open pegs in the entryway, she took her book bag with its load of cans of soda in the kitchen.
Sara Trainor waved when Elora walked in but didn’t stop her conversation with an older man washing dishes in the enormous sink. She had thought she and Ripley would eat in the kitchen, but she was rethinking that plan. Rather than drop off her bag, she kept it with her and went up to the second floor. She’d wait for Ripley in the library. If nothing else, she could look for more information on the Phantoms and their history.
The things Dr. Grant had told her about them were disturbing. She didn’t want to believe her new friends had lied to her, but either they had or Grant was. She needed to learn the truth. She couldn’t even ask Ripley about it because as much as she trusted him, he still spoke for the Phantoms as strongly as Dr. Grant spoke against them.
The door to the library was open, although that was the only sign that anyone else was upstairs. Warm light poured out into the hallway, competing with Elora’s witch light as she drew closer. She stopped inside the open doorway.
“What are you doing?”
Mer jumped and dropped the heavy tome she held. The book hit the floor with a solid thunk. “Jesus, Frosh. Don’t you ever knock?” She bent to pick up the book, rifling through its pages before returning it the shelf.
Ignoring Elora, she studied the wall to the left of the wooden shelving for a second or two and then began pressing spots on the wallpaper. Elora repeated her question. “Duh. I’m looking for something.” Mer didn’t stop what she was doing to address Elora directly.
“Duh.” Elora walked into the room. “I can see that.” The wall Mer poked was between the library and the master suite. Could there be a secret chamber inside that wall? “What are you looking for?”
The sorority girl stopped poking and turned to study Elora with as much intensity as she’d studied the wall. No doubt she was trying to decide the best way to poke at Elora.
Instead, she surprised her with a real answer. “The staff of office held by the leader of the Phantoms went missing along with this castle when your grandfather died. Between your appearance and the castle’s reappearance, factions within the Phantoms are boiling over.” She walked to the other side of the shelves to push on more spots. Elora was close enough to see they were flowers, plush red and blue and purple velvet on the smooth cream background. She hadn’t noticed that before. Or maybe it hadn’t been there. “If I can find that staff, I can—”
“Shove Elora out of the picture?” Ripley stood in the doorway holding a large pizza box. The dual witch lights reflected on his glasses, turning the lenses to a greenish tint.
Mer rolled her eyes. “Well, I can see I won’t get anything more done here.” She stalked over to the desk and snatched her coat from the back of the chair. She left without another word.
“Bye, Mer!” Ripley turned to Elora. “Was it something I said?”
The confrontation with Mer, mild as it was, left Elora unsettled, but Ripley soon convinced her to let it go. They ate right there in the library. They talked, they laughed, they danced to a tune Ripley hummed. Somehow, it didn’t surprise Elora that he had a beautiful singing voice. When they finished eating, they poked around the wall to see if they could find whatever Mer had been looking for. They found nothing, not even when they poked at it from the other side, in her grandfather’s room.
From there, Elora went to her mother’s old room. She hadn’t had much of a chance to look around there before. It was as clean and tidy as the rest of the castle. Elora walked around Mallory’s room looking for traces of her mother.
Ripley watched Elora; she caught him at it when she turned toward him. The look in his tawny eyes took her breath away. Abandoning her explorations in favor of stepping into his arms was all she wanted in the world just then, so she did.
They made out for what seemed like hours, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. When they fell backward onto the bed, Elora would have been more than willing to go further, but Ripley pulled back. Propping his head on one hand, he stroked her cheek with the other, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Much as I’d like to stay here forever, we should get you home.”
They walked back to the dorms holding hands the whole way. The moment they stepped out of the woods, the smell of smoke hit them like a blow to the
face. It grew stronger with each step. They turned the corner into the courtyard and saw flames and thick, black smoke pouring from a third-floor window of Elora’s building.
“That’s my room! Angela!” Elora ran through the snow as fast as she could, but Ripley sprinted past her, reaching the door first. It was a Saturday evening. Most of the dorm dwellers were out celebrating the end of finals week.
There was no one to get in the way as Ripley dashed up the stairs three at a time, Elora right behind him. A couple of students did pop their heads out of rooms on the third floor, and Ripley shouted for them to call 9-1-1. Elora didn’t now if anyone did. She couldn’t believe no one had called already, the air in the hallway was so thick with smoke.
Ripley kicked in her door and Elora heard Angela screaming for help, raw terror in her voice. Ripley and Elora ran into the room but couldn’t get past the flames. The heat was a terrible thing. The smoke blistered Elora’s lungs. Angela tried to reach for them as Ripley yelled for her to make the leap.
“I’ll catch you!”
But then Elora heard laughter. Even as Angela gathered up the courage to leap through the flames to Ripley, someone burst through the blown out window and grabbed Angela by the hair. Elora only caught a hazy glimpse, but she was certain it was Mer.
Sirens in the distance grew louder, closer. Still laughing, Mer dragged Angela to the window and flew out of it, a screaming Angela in tow. The Phantom looked and sounded drunk on power. Elora started to go after them, but Ripley snagged her with an arm around her waist. He pulled her out of the burning room to the hallway as firefighters clattered up the stairs. A hissing sound came from the dorm room. Elora looked back to see water pouring in through the gaping window.
She tried to break free from Ripley, but he was too strong. “Angela isn’t in there, Elora.” She fought him anyway. “She’s out. She’ll be okay.” He started to say more, but Elora stomped on his foot, forcing him to release her.
