by Lucia Ashta
“No,” Dave and I protested at the same time, but Boone was already shaking his head.
“None of us here are healers. Unless you and Dave cuddling sparked some unknown healing powers in you, Rina, I have to go get help.” I opened my mouth to protest, then shut it as he said, “Now that I know something fishy is going on, I’ll stay alert. There are a handful of creatures on campus that would be able to help. I only need to find one of them. Or if I find Sir Lancelot, he can rally whomever we need to come over right away.”
“Bu….” I didn’t complete the thought. I didn’t like the idea of Boone heading out there into what I’d already imagined as an apocalypse.
“At least don’t go alone,” Dave suggested. “Use the buddy system. I can come with you.”
“You can barely sit up right now. And Ky and Leander should stay with you, just in case.”
Just in case of what? I wondered, dread sinking its claws into me even further.
“I’ll be fine,” Boone pressed, pinning me in his bright hazel eyes. “I’ll bring back someone to help, I promise.”
Just like Professor McGinty promised? I wanted to say.
Determination blazed from Boone’s stare so fiercely that I believed if anyone could overcome whatever the hell was going on out there, he could.
Finally, I nodded at him. “Be safe.”
“I will.” With a final look at Leander and then Ky, Boone spun on his heel and sprinted for the door. In five seconds he was gone from sight, and in five more seconds, the sound of his retreating footfalls had faded entirely.
We were back to waiting and hoping to find the way to help our friends survive. The day had turned into a shit storm, and it wasn’t yet clear if we’d all pull through it.
12
True to his promise, Boone returned to the large classroom within Bundry Hall in less than ten minutes. Along with him, he brought a crew of panicked teachers and administrators, including Professor McGinty and the flustered Sir Lancelot. The headmaster had never seen the Academy Spell malfunction. He’d never seen any of the many other spells created by the great mages Mordecai and Albacus do anything they weren’t supposed to do either.
Yet there was no doubt the Academy Spell had gone wonky. Even with all the time I’d been spending in the healing wing at Wren and Jas’ bedsides, I couldn’t help but see the constant signs of its failures all around campus. The bells announcing the beginning and end of classes rang at the wrong times, if they rang at all. Doors locked unexpectedly and without reason, trapping students and professors inside classrooms for hours at a time. Since the usual message system that kept the Menagerie running smoothly was being disrupted as well, the professors couldn’t call for help, waiting instead for a passerby to spot their trapped class.
The plant life of the academy, usually gentle and pleasant, had succumbed to macabre and sinister intentions. The ordinarily innocuous shrubberies of the campus had trapped those students who’d left the gymnasium in an attempt to secure help for Jas and Wren. My classmates had ended up caged in thick branches for hours, until Nancy had the chance to figure out the way to release them.
McGinty had fought a couple of wily willows that had been far from their usual happy selves. After coaching Wren back to her human form, and helping carry her and Jas to the healing wing, he’d spent an hour there himself getting patched up after the skirmish he’d fought, and apparently barely won, based on the amount of scratches and scuffs marring every bare surface of his skin. Even with a dusting of auburn hair across his arms, the wily willow had cut deep and without mercy. I should know; I occupied the bed next to him, waiting for Melinda, with Nancy assisting, to stabilize Jas and Wren before turning to those of us with lesser injuries.
They hadn’t been able to make a lick of sense of what had happened to me. There was no apparent physical reason for the pull on my magic that I’d experienced. Not even Sir Lancelot, who’d lived longer than any other member of the staff, could make sense of the story Dave and I shared with him. Having the owl, who was supremely knowledgeable, stymied, didn’t sit well with me. A buzz of ill ease had settled deep in the pit of my stomach, where it churned, keeping me constantly on edge. Even when Leander and I managed to squirrel away bits of time alone, I didn’t manage to fully forget all the inexplicable events that plagued the school.
With a tray laden with food and drink, I sank heavily onto an open bench seat in the dining hall. Dave sat next to me with a sigh of exhaustion.
He slid his tray of pizza toward the center of the table and propped his chin in his hands. “I think I’d fall asleep right here if I weren’t so hungry. With the little rest we’ve been getting after visiting hours are over, it’s not fair to have to sit through Professor Whittle’s class before lunch. It was so hard to keep my eyes open, it’s not even funny. It was pure torture. I swear I’ve never been this tired in my life.”
Sliding my tray away too, I followed his example, crossing my forearms and laying my head on them, facing in his direction. “I think I might fall asleep here too. It’s been too many nights of too little sleep.”
And still neither Jas nor Wren was any closer to being discharged. Even with Melinda’s miraculous interventions, which had managed to save Jas’ leg, the skunk shifter was far from ready to attend classes, and much farther from walking. Reading between the lines of what Melinda told us, it seemed there was a good chance Jas would never regain full use of her leg. Every time I asked, Melinda said the same thing: “It’s too early to tell. We just have to wait and see.” She said it with a cheery smile, like her enthusiasm alone could speed up Jas’ healing, but her eyes were sad, all but negating the upbeat encouragement she drilled into us at every opportunity.
Wren didn’t fare all that much better. The crack down the middle of her tree translated to a fractured skull, nose, chin, and breastbone, along with a crushed pelvis and ribs. Wren was in as bad a shape as Jas, and Melinda’s prognosis of my gentle friend was equally nebulous.
“How did things go wrong so fast?” Dave asked, staring off into space, his eyes half closed.
“I’m starting to think it’s me,” I said, trying to pretend like I hadn’t given this as much thought as I had. “What if I’m cursed? Or just bad luck or something?”
Dave snapped his eyes open all the way and turned to look at me, twisting atop his hands as if they were the only thing with the strength to keep his head up. “You’re not cursed, Rina. You can’t blame yourself for what Rage and Fury did.”
I shrugged, though this was one thing I didn’t feel nonchalant about. “Everything was fine at the school before I started attending. There were no invasions or spells gone wonky…”
“The problems with the Academy Spell have nothing to do with you. It’s happening all over the school. It’s not just you.”
“Maybe not. But you were there, you felt whatever was pulling on me. That power or magic, or whatever it actually was, didn’t try to suck you through the wall of the building. It only did that to me.”
Dave didn’t say anything for a few beats. “Regardless, none of this is your fault.”
“Then how come it feels like it’s my fault?”
“Because you’re a good person, and unlike Rage and Fury, you care about what happens to other people and creatures.”
“I still can’t help but wonder if everyone else wouldn’t be better off if I just left the school.” I couldn’t quite hold his eyes when I admitted to this secret fear.
“Well, for one, Jas would probably have died if you weren’t here. Even with Boone finally bringing back the others, I think it would’ve been too late. If you hadn’t lifted Wren up, then...” He didn’t finish his sentence; he didn’t need to. I could tell from the haunted look that occasionally marred his features that he hadn’t forgotten any more than I had how close we’d come to losing both our friends.
Adalia took the seat across from us, her perma-smile noticeably absent. “What’s with the long faces? Talking about Jas and Wr
en again?”
“Yeah,” Dave said. “It’s just not the same knowing they’re both still in the healing wing, fighting to recover normal use of their bodies.”
Well, that was effing sobering. I heaved myself up, but then slumped, and sighed heavily enough to ruffle the long strands of hair that seemed always to find a way to hang in my face. I took in the items on Adalia’s blue plastic tray and gaped at them. “You’re not messing around today, are you?”
She grinned, and the expression lit up her face, making her look like the Adalia I was used to. Her opalescent eyes twinkled as the three of us examined the thick slice of German chocolate cake with extra coconut frosting, the slice of carrot cake drenched in cream cheese icing, and the extra thick piece of chocolate cake that seemed more fudge than cake.
My stomach grumbled as I looked from her blue plastic tray to mine. I’d attempted a salad today, thinking the nutrients might give me an extra surge of energy. I was tempted to toss the salad and follow Adalia’s model, but I didn’t dare piss off the pygmy trolls, who hated waste more than anything, and they seemed to pretty much hate most things.
I slid my tray toward me with regret, and it wasn’t lost on my two friends.
“You can get extra dessert after you finish your salad,” Adalia suggested with a bit too much pep, as if she were trying to make up for the general moroseness that had hampered Dave and me since the incident in shifter class nearly a week and a half ago.
I smiled weakly. “Probably not. Since I, uh, lost my shifter magic, my appetite hasn’t been the same.”
“That sucks,” Dave said, sympathy thick in his voice. “Getting to eat extra to maintain my shifter side is one of my favorite things of being a shifter.”
Tears burned hot behind my eyes, quick and unexpected. Since the day Jas and Wren had gotten hurt, it’d been more difficult to keep myself from thinking about my lion. It was almost like I could feel her with me again—the sensation was faint, but it was there, and it made me want to mourn her loss all over again. I couldn’t afford to go to pieces, not when the academy was in turmoil and my friends were fighting, maybe not for their lives anymore, but definitely for a chance at normalcy. Melinda’s miracles could only do so much; after that, it was up to their shifter healing to take them the rest of the way.
Sadie slid onto the seat next to me, beaming a wide grin.
“Sadie!” I exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“Uh, guarding your ass. What, aren’t you happy to see me?”
“I’m thrilled to see you, but I didn’t think you’d be back. I thought the Enforcers decided I was safe—and your room is gone.” I almost mentioned Wendi’s room, then stopped myself. If I wanted to enjoy pleasant Sadie, it was better not to mention the traitor.
Sadie’s mouth tightened in a grimace anyway. “I’m not in agreement with the decision of the Enforcers. There’s too much weird shit going on.”
“You mean … you don’t think I’m safe?”
“I’m not sure anyone’s safe anymore, not at this rate, but no, I’m not sure you’re safe. Not after what Thane got out of Wendi.”
“You found Wendi?” Dave asked, leaning forward to see around me.
Sadie’s grin took on a malicious edge. “We sure did, and promptly handed her over to Thane, who was all too happy to see her. The feeling wasn’t mutual. Wendi about peed her pants when she spotted him.”
The fierce hyena shifter, Jacinda, had feared Thane too, and I wondered what he might look like to instill such fear. I hoped never to meet him. From the sound of him, it was better to live with curiosity than experience.
“What happened? Tell us,” Adalia prompted, digging into her German chocolate cake.
I tried not be envious of her food choices and failed miserably. I chewed on a bite of raw kale.
“I’m happy to recount the experience, especially since Damon isn’t here to correct me the way he likes doing. But first things first, I need me some grub.” Sadie pushed off the table, but before she could fully stand, a stubby, four-fingered hand landed on her arm.
All of us looked down.
In his other hand, Orangesicle, the pygmy troll with the fluorescent orange fro-hawk, a bare ass, and prickly attitude, held a tray piled high with all of Sadie’s favorites. In all fairness, I was pretty sure Sadie had lots and lots of favorites. But her eyes widened regardless, twinkling with pleasure.
“Be still my heart,” Orangesicle grumbled, and Dave and I exchanged awkward glances. I hoped the troll wasn’t planning on wooing Sadie in front of us.
“Her eyes are actually twinkling at the sight of my food,” the troll said, but the way he said it sounded like Sadie was reacting to him and not the pizza, burritos, and pasta piled precariously on the tray. “I saw you come in,” he continued, “and I just knew I needed to set you up with some deliciousness. I don’t want such a fine woman as you starved to the bone.”
Sadie didn’t look starved to any degree, but she batted her lashes at the troll and sighed like a Southern belle, sinking back into her seat. “My, you sure do know how to please a woman.”
I grimaced in disgust before I could stop myself, relieved to see Dave with an identical expression, while Adalia merely looked amused. I didn’t think there was much that would rattle the fairy, and after some time spent among the fae court and its king, I had an idea why. The fae were forged of tough stuff.
Orangesicle stood on his tiptoes to place the tray in front of Sadie, then he climbed onto the seat next to her, offering Dave and me a shot of crack that we both would have rather not seen. Sadie didn’t even flinch, but I already knew she was made of steel.
But as Orangesicle sat and swung his stubby legs under the table and mooned at Sadie as she took her first bite of a large meatball, moaning in a way that was too suggestive for polite company, I opened my mouth and blurted out the first thing I thought of: “Where’s Damon?”
Orangesicle narrowed his eyes at me, and I gulped, but Sadie swiveled to face me. “He’s at the Enforcer hub for now. He wanted to wait around to see what other info Thane got out of Wendi.”
“You captured the traitor, then?” Orangesicle asked in a deep voice that had taken on a Barry White edge.
Sadie beamed a smile with her mouth full. “We found her hiding out in some crappy motel room with her mother. They were about to run to Mexico, from the looks of things. If they had, we might’ve never found them. The supes across the border rule themselves by pack law. It’s a bit too easy to offend the wrong creatures there.” She grimaced as if she spoke from experience. Knowing Sadie, she’d probably offended entire condados down in Mexico.
“She put up a fight, but Damon and I bagged her without too much trouble. We handed her and her mom over to Thane. Dealing with them is his job. But we heard enough from Wendi to know that Rage and Fury are working with more sorcerers than just Jevan. She didn’t know their names, but she did know of at least two other sorcerers, and from what Thane got out of her, they’re dark, like … really dark. One of them helped hide her and her mom for a while.”
“Dandy,” I grumbled.
Sadie nodded, and Orangesicle scooted closer to her on the seat while she looked my way. “Wendi didn’t say the sorcerers were working against you though. For all we know, Rage and Fury are still content with what they got from you.”
“Content,” I deadpanned. “You think those two don’t want something else now that Fury has all my power?”
Sadie grinned evilly. “Oh, but he doesn’t have all your power, now does he? You got the one up on them. You still have power.”
“Yeah, and they know it.”
Silence permeated the table. Even Dave stopped slouching into his hands to stare at me. “Wait. They know you have mage power?”
“I don’t know exactly what they’ve figured out, but they saw me pop off Ky’s magic blocking collar. Whatever they’ve gotten from that, they know there’s more to me than a mountain lion.”
“The trouble
isn’t over, then,” Orangesicle said, rising to his knees on the bench and leaning across the table in front of Sadie to look at me. I was only too happy to meet his gaze, since that meant I couldn’t be drawn to look at the full moon he was pointing to the rest of the dining hall. I could feel Dave struggling not to look at the ghastly sight.
“I’ve met lots of creatures like them over the centuries,” the troll continued. “Supes like them, once they have a taste for power, all they ever want is more of it. If they think you have some rare power, which it sounds like you might, then they’ll be all over you like this … passionate woman … is all over my food.”
Ew. Just the way he said it made me squirm inside. Dave started fidgeting next to me.
Sadie, however, took another bite of a meatball, moaned, and then spoke with her mouth full. “Tanmroosh is right.”
Wait. So Orangesicle was actually Tanmroosh? First time I’d heard the troll’s name, and since I wouldn’t remember it properly, Orangesicle it was, so long as I didn’t have to call him that to his little old man face.
Sadie added, “Power hungry grubbers will always want more power. Rage and Fury might very well be after you right now.”
“Then why are you grinning?” Dave asked.
“Because that means I get to be at the academy in an official capacity. I was going to have to use vacation time to watch out for our girl. Now, it doesn’t look like I’ll have to. And I’ll get to enjoy lots more of Tanmroosh’s food, so it’s a win-win.”
It didn’t seem like a win-win to me, not if she was right and Rage and Fury might still be after me. Sadie definitely had a warped sense of priorities—but I already knew that. She was unlike anyone I’d ever met before.
For the first time, I fully took her in. “Sadie, what on earth are you wearing?”
“What? This?” She pulled her t-shirt out so we could all read it properly. But that was the problem. I’d already read it. Which was why my eyes were about to pop out of my head. Her lavender t-shirt read “I’ve been blessed by the Angel of Hope.”
