After a couple of minutes, the headmaster and the hunters went back inside the Aster building, but the students remained in the courtyard, as if waiting for them to come back.
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s go to class.”
I had to practically drag Claire to class. Everyone else was late, and the professor was pissed. Like me, she didn’t seem to think having the hunters visit was a big deal.
The day was weird. We did all the normal things—classes and lunch—but everyone seemed too wired to slow down. There was more chatter everywhere, and the lectures had been slower because of it.
Claire and I were back in the cafeteria and had finished lunch when one of the academy’s secretaries showed up and told me to go to the headmaster’s office immediately.
My first thought was that I was in trouble. My second thought was that he was calling me to check on my mission, or to give me another one. But he wouldn’t send for me in the middle of the day when there were other students around, would he?
“Oh, you were one of the chosen,” Claire said, sounding excited.
“What?” I asked, lost.
“Look!” She pointed to the secretary, who was a few tables from ours, talking to another student. Then, she moved on and talked to someone else. “She’s telling the chosen ones.” Claire grabbed my hand. “Holy crap, this is great.”
I frowned. “Want to take my place?”
Claire gasped. “I would if I could. Now go.” She pushed me off my seat. “She did say immediately.”
Reluctantly, I got up from my seat and went to the Aster building. The door to the headmaster’s office was open, and he welcomed me with a big smile. “Come in, Erin.”
I paused once I stepped inside. There were a few students gathered in front of his desk, including Ava. But what had made me stop were the Blackthorn Hunters who had taken seats at the long black glass table on the other side of the room. They really did seem like an impressive and powerful bunch. Among them, Doreen caught my eye. She winked at me.
Other students entered the office, and I woke up from my daze and joined them all in front of the headmaster’s desk.
Not long after, the headmaster closed the door and said, “As you may have guessed, you have been chosen to help the Blackthorn Hunters organize the ball.” He walked behind his desk, but didn’t sit down. “You’ll meet as often as you see fit to get it done before the ball date.” He picked up a sheet of paper from his desk. “I’ll now pair you up with the hunters you’ll work with. You’re welcome to use the larger meeting room across the hallway to talk. Demon Hunter Andre, you’re with Taylor Smith.” A hunter with dark skin and long dreadlocks stood up. Taylor, a third-year student, turned to him. They both walked out of the room and went to the meeting room. “Demon Hunter Doreen, you’re with Ava Heyward.” I heard Ava’s grunt as she stepped forward and joined Doreen. What? She had a specific hunter in mind? The headmaster read a couple more names, then finally I heard mine. “Demon Hunter Thierry, you’re paired with Erin Delman.”
A tall hunter with short black hair and brown eyes stood up. He walked to me, and together, we left the headmaster’s office and walked into the meeting room. The other hunters and students were seated around the long table—with over twenty chairs, talking about the ball.
Thierry gestured to the one of the table’s end, where no one was seating.
He pulled a chair for me, then took the seat beside mine.
With a half-smile, he offered his hand to me. “Hi, I’m Thierry.”
I stared at his hand for a moment, before taking it. “I’m Erin.”
“Nice to meet you, Erin.”
“Ditto.” I pulled my hand away, feeling awkward about this.
His smile widened. I stared, honestly taken aback by him. He was young, probably in his mid-twenties, and cute. All right, who was I kidding? He was handsome and strong. Manly. Holy shit, I felt like a horny teenage thinking like that about a stranger, but it was true.
“So, the ball,” he started. Even his voice was rough and charged.
“Hm, let me just tell you, I’m new to all of this, so I have no idea what we’re doing.”
Thierry frowned. “What do you mean?”
I sighed and told him a simple version of my story: that I had been raised away from this society, but after demons attacked me and killed my aunt, I was brought to the academy. I had lived here for six months and still didn’t know the ins and outs.
“That’s refreshing,” he said.
“Not as much as this ball.” I grabbed a notebook and pen from my tote bag. “So, what should we be organizing?”
“The ball can wait,” he said, staring straight at me. “I want to know more about you.”
I frowned, not sure how to feel about his attention. “Hm, there’s nothing special about me.” What a lie. But what made me special, also made me a target, so I stayed quiet.
“I doubt that.” Thierry reached over the table and took my hand in his. “You’re lively and beautiful. Tell me you’re a good student and a great fighter, and I’m yours.”
I stared at him, at his hand in mine, not sure what to say. He was a strong hunter. If he had made the main group, it meant he had been an excellent student. He couldn’t be a bad guy if he battled to save our world, right? Besides, he was handsome too.
Things hadn’t worked out with Rey, and there was no spark with Harvey. Maybe Thierry was the one? I shook my head. What the hell was I thinking? Hadn’t I resigned myself to be single and happy?
However, something about him coming on so strong five seconds after meeting me rubbed me the wrong way.
“I’m an okay student.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “I doubt that.” He pulled my hand to him, making me lean over the table.
Then, he kissed the top of my hand.
I froze.
“Erin.”
I heard the growl in his voice when he called my name.
I pulled my hand away and turned as Rey stomped toward us. “Rey, what are you doing here?”
“Hey, Rey,” Thierry said. “Haven’t seen you in a while. How is it going?”
Rey turned his fuming silver eyes to Thierry. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Thierry lost the amused smile. “What do you mean?”
“You’re supposed to be planning the ball, not flirting with a student,” Rey said, as if he was the boss.
“Have you looked at her?” Thierry gestured to me. “It’s hard to focus on anything other than her when she’s so close.”
My cheeks warmed, but I felt a little icky about the whole thing. “Hm, I—”
“I don’t care what you think,” Rey snapped. “If you don’t stop flirting and get to work, I will report you to Randall. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind switching her for male student.”
”What the hell? We’ll get the job done even if I’m flirting with her.”
“I would rather you didn't flirt with her.
Thierry stood up, his chest puffed. “This does not concern you.”
“What if it does?” Rey leaned closer.
I stood between them both before they started a fight. “This is ridiculous. Can you two stop it?”
“I will stop it, once Thierry backs down.”
Thierry balled his hands. “Make me.”
“That’s enough,” the headmaster’s voice boomed through the room. We all turned to him. To my surprise, the room was empty and the headmaster stood by the door, his eyes hard. “Rey, go to my office.” Rey hesitated, but then he put his tail between his legs and walked out. The headmaster looked at Thierry. “As a Blackthorn hunter, I expect a professional attitude from you.”
“Yes, sir,” Thierry said with a nod of his head.
The headmaster glanced at me for a second before walking out the room.
I sat down in my chair, my mind reeling. What the hell had just happened? Thierry had openly flirted with me, Rey lost it, and even the headmaster interfered.
/> It had all been a crazy dream, right?
Thierry sat beside me again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful or cause a scene, but I won’t take it back. I’m enchanted by you and I’ll make sure you know it.” He grabbed my notebook and pen. “But first, let’s get to work.”
Because I had been chosen to be one of the ball organizers, I ended up missing one of my classes in the afternoon, so I had to go to the library to copy Claire’s notes and study, before dinnertime.
When I briefly met her between classes, she had grilled me about the meeting. Who I had been paired with? What were we in charge of? When would we meet again? I hadn’t told her about Rey and Thierry’s showdown, because there was no time. And because I really didn’t want to think about it right now. I would tell her later tonight, or tomorrow …
The gray day was turning black when I finally made it out of the Iris building and headed to the cafeteria.
However, Rey exited the Statice building and halted in my path.
“We need to talk,” he said, his voice grave.
I didn’t stop. “If it’s about Thierry, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Erin, listen to me.” Rey walked with me. “Thierry is a good guy, yes, but he’s not the dating type. You two wouldn’t work out.”
That boiled my blood. I skidded to a stop and faced him. “Let’s get one thing clear: I don’t care what you think. If I want to date Harvey or Thierry or even Tanner, that is none of your business. You’re the one who rejected me, who told me you didn’t like me, so leave me alone.”
“But—”
“No.” I raised my finger at him, as if I was fending him off. “You have to stop. If you don’t like me, then leave me alone. You’re confusing me when you suddenly show up when I’m having a date with a guy, or start an argument with another one who is flirting with me. You can’t do that. Please, just … pretend I don’t exist. That’s what I’m trying to do with you.”
Though it hurt to say the words, though it hurt to see the flatness in his eyes, as if my words hadn’t affected him at all, I knew it had to be done. I had to get it—him—out of my system.
If he wanted me to let go of him, he needed to let me go too.
Without looking back, I walked away.
12
Rey
That night, I couldn’t sleep. I was so pissed with myself, with everything, that it took me a long time to calm down my fucking brain and finally rest.
After calling me out of the meeting room, Randall hadn’t done much. He said he was upset with my attitude, but Thierry had been inappropriate. He gave me a warning and promised to talk to Thierry later.
The next morning, I went to monster identification. This was one of the mixed grade elective classes, and Erin was in it too.
“Today’s class is a little different,” the professor said. “I’ve hidden gems of different colors on campus. Your job is to locate them. But not any gem. The color specific to you and your partner.” She showed us a leather pouch. “Pick a coin. The color on the coin will indicate your team. Pair up and go find the gem.”
I frowned, not sure of the purpose of this scavenger hunt.
Erin grabbed the coin before me. Hers was gold. Then Taylor got a red coin, Harper got a blue one, and Peter grabbed a pink one.
And of course, I fished a gold coin from the pouch. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered, glaring at the coin.
Erin stared at the coin in my hand with wide eyes. She approached the professor and asked, “Can I swap my coin with someone else?”
“No time for that,” the professor said, messing with her wristwatch. “Now go! The first team to come back with their gem wins!”
“What do we get?” Peter asked, always worried about the grand prize.
“Glad you asked,” the professor said. “The winning team will get extra credit and five points on the next test.”
Everyone filed from the classroom in a rush to search for their gems, but Erin and I stayed back, frozen in place.
“We should split up to look for it,” Erin said.
I didn’t need extra credit or points, but for some reason, I thought this game was just what we needed to mend things between us. Not that I should be trying to mend anything. I deserved her hate, but I honestly didn’t like it. I would rather we broke things off completely between us, but without so much argument or heartbreak.
If, at the end of the day, we could be good acquaintances, I would be glad.
I shook my head. “And how will you warn me if you find it? Or vice versa?”
She dropped the coin on her desk and started picking up her stuff. “Then you can do it alone.”
“Erin …”
She lifted her eyes at me. “Don’t Erin me. We already talked about this last night.”
“I know, I know, but I don’t really like things half-done. Let’s just search for the fucking gem. The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll be done with it.”
I hoped she noticed the forlorn tone of my voice and how I wasn’t interested in this either, and ended up agreeing to be done with the task.
Apparently it worked, because she sighed and said, “All right. Let’s get this over with.”
Together, we walked out of the building. The sun peeked from behind the clouds, trying to warm up the chilly day a little. It wasn’t working. At least, the campus had been magically cleared of snow—because of the Blackthorn Hunters’ visit yesterday. Though it was mid-February now. There was still a chance we would see a lot more snow before the season was over.
“Where could this gem be hidden?” I asked, looking at the courtyard in front of us.
Erin shrugged. “I don’t know.” The harshness of her tone, as if she would rather die than be around me, cut through my chest.
Sometimes I hated my fucking resolution to keep my distance from her. Or rather, trying to. I was doing a fucked up job.
The gem wouldn’t be hidden so close to us, so easy. The best bet was to search the building and look for it on the lawn, in bushes, and in trees before the outer walls.
“This way,” I said, taking the lead. I started around the Statice building, and Erin followed me, purposely lagging.
We walked slowly, looking around the ground, the cracks in the stone pavement, the windowsills, the empty flowerbeds lining the buildings, and in bushes. We did find the pink gem underneath a tree’s root, but there was no sign of the gold gem anywhere.
After about thirty minutes walking behind the Gardenia and Snapdragon buildings, Erin and I made our way back to the center of campus.
I looked around the courtyard. “It can’t be here.”
“Why not?” Erin walked ahead, eager to end this partnership.
“It would be too obvious.”
“One more reason to hide it here, then.” She took slow steps toward the center, searching under wooden benches and patches of thick grass, until she stopped right in front of the Blackthorn tree. “I gotta admit, this tree is impressive.”
I stood beside her and looked up at the tree. A thick, black trunk, and hundreds of thin branches and vines, all covered in thorns. The thing was massive, bold, and powerful.
“Indeed it is,” I muttered. My eyes scanned its trunk, thinking the professor could have hidden the gem behind the vines, but I found something else instead. “What is this?” I reached over and ran my fingers over what seemed to be a loose piece of shiny wood interwoven in the vines and thorns. I gasped. “This is a blade.”
Erin frowned. “What do you mean?”
I tried removing the piece of wood, but it didn’t budge. “This is odd.” I grabbed the tip of the blade and pulled, but again, it didn’t move.
“What are you trying to do?” Erin reached for it. Her fingers brushed against mine as she grabbed the tip of the weapon. I quickly pulled my hand back.
Then she pulled the blade out. She held it with both her hands and stared at it, her eyes wide. “This …”
I nodded. �
��It’s a raw piece of an original Dawnblade. Just like Randall’s.” It was a special blade, a mix of metal and dark wood. Holy fuck, I hadn’t seen one like that in centuries. In fact, besides Randall’s, I had only heard about the others, not seen any. “It chose you.”
Erin’s brows curled down. “What?”
“The Dawnblade. I couldn’t get it, but it easily came off for you. It’s your Dawnblade.”
She stared at the piece in her hands, as if doubting it. “Why?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but this is special.” I grabbed one of her hands in mine and tugged her with me. “Let’s go. We need to forge your Dawnblade right now.”
There were two classrooms with forges in the Orchid building. One was occupied with a current class. The other was empty. I pushed Erin in, closed the door, and locked it.
“Why all this secrecy?” she asked, still holding the crude blade.
“We all have to forge our Dawnblades the normal way now,” I explained as I made my way to the forges on the back of the room. “Randall is probably the only demon hunter alive with a Dawnblade like that. It’s a rare thing and it might mean something.”
“Like this mark.” Erin turned her hand over and tugged the sleeve of her jacket up, showing off the sign on her wrist that marked her as a daughter of the king of the underworld. “And …” She glanced down to her chest. “Never mind.”
She was going to mention the soul bond. I was sure of it. But I was thankful she didn’t. If she told me about hers, I wasn’t sure I would be able to stay quiet about mine.
“Come on, let’s make you a Dawnblade.”
At that, her lips tugged up a tiny bit, but enough to make my heart skip a fucking beat. She was so fucking beautiful and amazing … it took all my strength to not embrace her right then.
To tell her how I really felt.
To kiss her.
I reined my desire and feelings in, and turned to the forge.
The Hunter Secret (Rite World: Blackthorn Hunters Academy Book 2) Page 9
