by Rain Oxford
That didn’t mean I trusted them. One or more of them could have decided he wanted to follow in Krechea’s footsteps.
By the time I reached the school, I had prepared myself to have an open mind. Before I knew I was a wizard, I would have blamed vampires. It wouldn’t do any good for me to change my prejudice from vampires to demons.
When I reached the school, I went straight for the infirmary in the East.
Remington was rubbing her forehead with frustration while Dr. Martin darted around the room. The creepy wizard was a scruffy, thin, six-foot-tall, ginger man. Test tubes, beakers, and potion bottles floated around him, waiting to be used or organized. He grabbed a test tube of blood out of the air and sat in the corner at a microscope.
Two teenagers were unconscious on hospital beds. There weren’t any vitals monitors or machinery because the magic in the school would interfere. That just made the scene morbid. I went to Remy. “What can you tell me?”
“That school hasn’t been in session for a month and I’m already fucking up.”
She was an extremely proud woman, and she took responsibility to heart. “They’re not dead. You’re doing a better job than your father so far. Where were they found?” I pulled a small notebook and pen out of my pocket.
“They were both found in their beds. Patience Caspillo was actually found three days ago because she didn’t show up for class. I assigned Andrew to find out why. He didn’t find anything yet. Then Turner DiCaro was found today.”
“That’s suspicious,” I said. She nodded. “Are they connected in any way that you know?”
She shook her head. “They’re not related. They’re both orphans, wizards, and fifteen, but other than that, I don’t know how they’re connected.”
“Who found them?”
“Assistants. Neither of them showed up to class.”
“None of their friends asked about them?”
“A few kids in class were talking about them missing, but even their roommates thought they were sleeping in.”
“Is that unusual?”
“They’re kids. I don’t really know; I never was one.”
“Are there any other doctors?” I asked.
“The one we had before left. He said things were getting too weird here.”
“Great. So Dr. Martin is on his own?”
“We have five nurses who are basically as qualified as a doctor.”
“Good.” I closed my notebook and put it back
“They’re so busy it’s not even funny, though. Three of them are at the orphanage, giving inoculations, and one of them stays in the North. Someone should be by any minute to help Andrew.”
“I’ll induce a vision and see if I can find out what caused this.”
“Sounds good. I’ll leave you to it, then. I have to get some other work done.”
I focused on the kids. Patience was athletic, which made her paleness ominous. Turner was small for his age, and the bed was too large for him. Neither of them looked like they were asleep.
Starting with Patience, I pulled out my ring, slipped it on, and touched her forehead. Unfortunately, I got nothing. I didn’t even get a hint at a vision. I touched Turner’s head, too. Again, there was nothing.
Am I doing it wrong, or is it the chain? Visions weren’t easy to control and they could be extremely draining, so that was possibly beyond my abilities with the chain on. However, if I was that limited, it was going to hinder my ability to protect people. I’ll talk to Vincent to see if he can lighten the binding.
I turned to address Dr. Martin and saw a woman who was listening to Patience’s heart. She had wheat-blond hair and grass-green eyes. I didn’t sense a lot of power from her, but I got the impression she was a tough woman.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t notice you come in. I’m Devon Sanders, the new vice principal.”
She smiled. “I’m Rhonda Brown. How are you liking it here?”
“It’s pretty quiet for my tastes.”
She laughed. “That will change. Ms. Hunt will be good for this place.”
“Do you know her well?”
“I have been a nurse for a long time. I remember when she was a student here.”
“You look too young.” She blushed slightly. “Do you have any idea of what might be causing this?”
“It doesn’t appear to be an illness, as they don’t have fevers. We’re still testing their blood, though. My best educated guess is that it’s a curse.”
“That’s good, though, right? Curses can be broken.”
“Did you forget that your heart is cursed?” Dr. Martin asked.
“Actually, I did for a second.” I shot a mental thanks to my gargoyle and received a sense of acknowledgement. “Have you tried any poison antidotes?”
“Antidotes can be dangerous. With children, I can’t put anything into their system that they don’t need that could hurt them or skew the test results. If it were adults, I would give one of them an antidote and leave the other one without and see which one gets worse.”
“I’m glad you’re too moral to experiment on children.”
“Oh, I have no problem experimenting on children. Logan just won’t let me and Keigan isn’t here to argue with him.”
“Well, I’m going to interview some people to find out if anyone knows what the connection with them is. Let me know if you find out anything.”
“I will.”
“It was nice meeting you, Miss Brown.”
“Please, call me Rhonda.”
I nodded and left. It was too late to talk to any of the students or teachers, so I started by looking up the class schedule for Patience and Turner. Not to my surprise, they had most of the same classes.
A lot of students ran in groups, either because they were similar types of shifters or fae, because they were orphans, or because they were in the same classes. There wasn’t the massive number of students found in most public schools.
Next, I looked up their records. Both of them were good students who didn’t get into trouble or cause problems. Patience was in martial arts, track, swimming, and dance. Turner was in the manga club, Japanese culture club, and ancient history club. Patience’s room was on the third floor, while Turner’s room was on the second floor.
Chapter 5
I was seeing through the eyes of someone else, standing in front of a man I didn’t know. “I killed my husband so that I could be with you,” she said. I recognized her voice as the redheaded woman from the first vision.
“And I was willing when I thought the baby was going to be a boy,” the man said. “I have no interest in a girl. Get rid of it.”
“I’m not going to kill her.”
“I don’t care how you get rid of her. If you want to be with me, you’ll do it.”
* * *
Friday, August 26
At breakfast, I told Darwin and Henry what was going on, both with Drake’s club and the students. Addison had an early morning appointment and Amelia was working with a teacher to change a few classes around, so Darwin, Henry, and I had a semblance of privacy.
“Do you know any connection between Patience and Turner?” I asked Darwin. Since they weren’t shifters, Henry didn’t know them.
“They were part of the same study group. One of the ideas that Remington introduced was that the kids formed study groups of four to six. Whenever I let this class get into groups to practice a subject, Patience and Turner got together with four other students.”
“Who were the other four?”
Before he could say anything, we were interrupted by a cat that jumped on our table and glared at me. He was a tall, well-built cat with medium-length, blue-gray fur. “Hello,” I said. He stared at me hard for a minute before leaping from our table to another. “If we were at a human school, a cat jumping onto our breakfast table would be considered unsanitary.”
“If he wasn’t a familiar, a cat jumping onto our breakfast table would be considered unsanitary,” Henry said
&nb
sp; “If we were at a human school, a familiar jumping onto our breakfast table would be considered weirder than a cat doing so,” Darwin added. “Anyway, the other members of the group are Kat Padgett, Leon Raymo, Jasmine Pryor, and Jessica Connolly.”
“I don’t know any of them,” Henry said.
“They’re all wizards, bro,” Darwin explained.
“Did either of them act odd before they fell into a coma?”
“Not that I know of,” Darwin said. Darwin was a genius at history, math, and science. He was fluent in over twenty languages and even though he used terrible grammar when he felt uncomfortable, it wasn’t from lack of intelligence. That being said, psychology wasn’t his field of science. He wasn’t as intuitive when it came to people.
“I’m going to check the records of the other group members. Let me know if you think of anything else.”
“Will do.”
* * *
I went to my office and pulled out the records. I learned a few interesting connections. Kat was Patience’s roommate and Leon was Turner’s roommate. It wasn’t surprising that students would team-up with their roommates. Likewise, Jasmine and Jessica were roommates. The interesting connection was that all of them were orphans.
I decided to question Kat and Leon first to see if I could get any solid clues. This wasn’t enough to cause suspicion, but it was definitely something to look into. Kat, Leon, and the rest of their group were in English. I headed to Ms. Baumwirt’s room.
As I passed the library, movement drew my eye to the open door. The library, however, was empty. It’s not a shadow walker. It can’t be. I was halfway to the classroom when I heard glass shatter and kids scream. “Oh, great. Here we go.”
A door ten feet in front of me burst open and Mr. Grant’s science class ran out, followed by Mr. Grant, who was covered in blood and glass. He looked at me, pointed back at the classroom, and gasped. He couldn’t get a word out.
“Goblin!” All eleven students shouted in unison.
“Wait, those are real?”
“Of course they are!” a student said.
I reached out with my magic for Darwin’s mind. When I sensed it, he welcomed my invasion. “What’s up?” he asked.
“I need emergency info on goblins. Namely how to fight one.”
“They’re mostly sneaky tricksters. They don’t normally kill people, but they love pranks and threatening to eat children.”
“Apparently, one attacked a class.”
“Check it out and tell me what it looks like. They can’t stand sunlight, so they don’t normally come out during the day.”
I went inside. The windows were broken and the desks were all destroyed. Nevertheless, the room was empty. “That’s interesting.”
Mr. Grant entered the room, finally catching his breath. “It wasn’t a goblin. It was blurry and dark.”
“Whatever it was, it’s gone now.” To Darwin, I said, “It destroyed the room, but it’s gone.”
“Did it go out the front door or is there another way out?”
“The only way I see that it could have gotten out was through the window.”
“Then it wasn’t a goblin.”
“Let me know if it attacks again.” I left the classroom and continued to the English class, which was quiet. I knocked on the door and was welcomed in.
“Hello, Mr. Sanders,” Ms. Baumwirt said. “Do you need anything or are you popping in to observe?”
“I need to talk to Kat and Leon in my office for a few minutes.”
“Sure.”
Two students stood and gathered their supplies. We walked in silence to my office.
Kat had an air of defiance to her. She had the kind of confidence that made her popular with her classmates and unpopular with her teachers. Her long brown hair was put up in a ponytail. She wore a blue sequins shirt and black skirt.
Leon was a tall boy with enough muscle definition that he couldn’t be considered scrawny. He had dirty blond hair and medium blue eyes. Unlike Kat, however, he was apprehensive. When we reached my office, I told Leon to wait outside.
“It’s nice to meet you, Kat,” I said, closing the door.
“You, too, Mr. Sanders. Am I in trouble?” Despite her cheeky expression and posture, her tone was worried and humble. She sat on the couch and I sat in my chair.
“No, not at all. I am only worried about your roommate.”
“Ms. Hunt said that Patience will be fine and I shouldn’t worry.”
I resisted voicing my first response. Remington was doing the best she could, but if Kat didn’t believe her roommate was actually in danger, she was more likely to withhold information that was useful in solving the case.
“How well do you know her and Turner?”
“We’re orphans, so we grew up together.”
“Were you all friends?”
Kat shrugged. “Not really.”
“Do you know anyone they are friends with?”
“Turner is kind of an idiot. Patience only cares about sports.”
“I heard you were in the same study group. Were you working on a project or anything in particular?”
“No, just homework.”
Darkness moved in the corner of the room and my instincts fired up. We were being watched. After a few seconds, the sensation faded. “The other members of your group are Leon, Jasmine, and Jessica, right?” I asked. She nodded. “Why did you six form this study group? Or did a teacher put you all together?”
“We have a lot of the same classes and we’re good at different things. Like, Jasmine and Leon are really good at math, so they help the rest of us, and Jessica and Turner are really good at history. Patience and I are good at English. We don’t copy or anything. We just help each other.”
“That’s reasonable. Did you notice anything unusual about Patience before Sunday night?”
“No.”
“She didn’t lose her appetite or say anything weird? She didn’t act ill or hurt in any way?” Kat shook her head. “What did you do Wednesday night?”
She shrugged again. “Study.”
“With your study group? Was Turner there?”
“Yes.”
“Picture what you were doing,” I said, slipping my ring onto my finger and pushing my power into her mind. Immediately, I saw her sitting at a table in the library with four other students, discussing answers and helping each other. “What about Sunday night? Picture that.” The scene went dark.
“I was studying with the group.”
I slipped off the ring. Either more powerful magic than mine was stopping me from seeing the scene, or my chain was blocking it, and my chain was the more likely cause. I really wished I had the ability to smell a lie. Instead, I had to rely on my mind powers, which weren’t reliable at the moment.
“Where?”
“In the library.”
“After hours?” I asked. She paled slightly. “I don’t care if you were studying after hours. I just want to know what the situation was.”
“Yes, it was after hours. We went to the library after dinner and stayed until midnight.”
I had seen Cy in the library around twelve-thirty. “Was anyone else with you?” She shook her head. “Did Patience go straight back to the room with you?” She nodded. “So she didn’t stop to talk to anyone or do anything after your study session?”
“No.”
“Okay. Thank you for talking with me. I will let you know when Patience is better.”
“Do you know what caused it?”
“I don’t. Not yet.”
“Is she going to die?”
“I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen. If you know anything or if you hear from anyone who does, tell me as soon as possible. Think about it. Even if you don’t think something’s important, it might be. Especially if you’ve seen a stranger or moving shadows.”
“Moving shadows?”
“Don’t worry about it.” I opened the door for her
and saw Leon fidgeting. I invited him in and he sat in the chair nervously. “Don’t be afraid,” I said. “You’re not in trouble.” These kids were more worried about being in trouble than kids in public school. Then again, if I were in a school of magic when I was a teenager, I probably would have been a lot more engaged.
“You want to talk about Turner, right?” he asked.
“Yes. Were you good friends with him?”
“We were okay. He’s not my best friend.”
“Who’s your best friend?”
“Toad. He was adopted two months ago. Turner just wants to be included. He’s not really annoying, but he asks a lot of questions and he’s not smart.”
“Why is he in your study group?”
“He’s good at history and he’s kind of funny.”
“Did you notice anything off about him Wednesday night?”
“No.”
“Were you with him that night?”
“We were studying.”
“Where at?”
“In the library.”
“Was anyone else there?”
“Cy.”
“What about Sunday night?”
“We were studying then, too. We had a math test today.”
“How late were you studying on Sunday?”
“One-ish.”
“And you haven’t seen Patience or Turner doing, saying, or talking to anyone strange?” He shook his head. “Do you know anyone close to Patience or Turner who might know something?”
“Turner has a crush on Jasmine, but she doesn’t know.”
“I want you to recall Sunday night.”
“Are you going to read my mind?” he asked.
“Are you afraid of me seeing something?”
“No. I just think mind reading is cool and I hope they teach us to do it.”
I slipped on my ring. “Remember it.” He nodded and I pushed my magic into his mind. To my surprise, I didn’t have a vision. “Okay, Leon. Thank you for answering my questions. Let me know if you think of or remember anything.”
He stood. “I can go?”
“Yes.” He left quickly. I finished writing everything down, followed by the questions I wanted to ask the study group about Sunday night. I also needed a better way to make sure they weren’t lying.
