His face darkened. "It's impolite to ask," he snapped.
I stiffened at his response. For a moment neither of us said anything. "Sorry," I finally muttered.
A sigh escaped him and he rubbed the back of his neck. "No," he said.
"No? I can't apologize? Geez." I glared at him.
"No. Yes. I mean -" He groaned. "I don't live here," he said. "It's just where I come sometimes when I don't want to be bothered."
I studied Mannix in the low light. He wore a twine necklace around his neck. At the bottom of it, tied securely, rested a tooth. What kind I didn't know. I'd never seen anything like it. I knew he was a shifter. I could tell based on the way he walked. I didn't get a long time to study him, but considering I couldn't keep my eyes off his rear-end as he led me to safety, if he wasn't a shifter, I'd eat my metaphorical hat.
"Thank you," I said. "I'm new here and trying to stay out of trouble."
"I know. I'm not sure you're doing a good job of it."
I shrugged. "I'm not sitting in the Headmaster's office, so I guess I'm doing a decent job of it."
We sat in silence for a few moments. "That's a really positive way to look at it," he said after a little while.
"What can I say? Optimist is my middle name."
Mannix shifted away from me so instead of sitting beside each other, we were facing the other. "Tell me, how did you get through the ward?"
My skin still felt like I had ants crawling all over it. "No idea," I said honestly. "I just thought it was a normal protection and pushed through."
His expression was one of wonder. "Sometimes at night, my friends and I will stand at the front and pelt the door with rocks. They vaporize." He held my gaze. "Instantly."
My throat dry-clicked as I tried to swallow. "I'm sure it's a fluke," I said. "Maybe they don't have it set that high if a human tries to get through."
Mannix leaned against the wall, an amused smile lilting his lips. "You don't seem to know the Merlin Academy at all. They want to know everything." He let out a harsh breath and let his head flop lightly against an exposed wood beam. "If you have any secrets, Honey, hide them with your life."
Foreboding tipped its fingers up my spine. I pulled my notebook out of my pocket. "Mannix, has anyone ever come up missing here?"
A flash of yellow rolled across his eyes and disappeared so fast I thought I must have imagined it. "If you know what's good for you, I'd never ask anyone else that question."
I lowered my notebook. "So it's true, then."
"Things go missing at Merlin. It's always been that way."
"Always?" I questioned.
A wolfish grin lit his face. "What can I say? I like it here. There's not much out there for me, so I figure I'll stick around for a while."
Something in the way he said it made me wonder. "What year are you?"
"Second." He studied his perfectly short nails in the low light.
"And how old are you I asked quietly?"
"Seventeen," he said.
"Crap," I said with feeling.
"Yup. Graduates here ... I dunno, man. Something happens. Every year. I can feel a tremor in this old building every graduation. Like it's being sated."
"That isn't weird at all," I said and shook my head. "What the heck is going on?" I wasn't sure Mannix could be trusted, but he'd warned me about asking questions about the girls to anyone else. He was either trustworthy, or he was a murderer. Considering I was currently entombed in a wall with him and I couldn't see any knives lying around, I took a chance that he wasn't the latter.
I shoved my notebook at him. "These girls. Did you know any of them?"
His gaze sharpened. "Did? As in past tense?"
I met his dark eyes. "Yes. Past tense. They're all dead."
He dropped my notebook like it had burned him. Mouth agape, he stared at me. "How do you know this?"
I let out a soft laugh. "Because their ghosts have been visiting me."
Mannix blinked several times. "You're not a shifter," he whispered. "What are you?"
"I'm shifter enough for you to answer the question," I snapped. I was lying, of course, but if someone wanted me to pretend for a while, I would. Especially since the reasons why were beginning to seem connected to these girls.
His jaw tightened, and he looked away from me. "I knew all of them. They were in the adjoining dorm. Second-year students. Cheerleaders."
"No one noticed four second year cheerleaders going missing?"
He snorted. "Stay here for a while and you'll see. No one notices because no one cares. Haven't you noticed the slight tang of desperation hanging around here? We're dumped. Abandoned. No one wants us anymore, Honey. No one cares. If four girls go missing, the school tells us they were transferred. Or better yet, disenrolled by their parents." He ran an agitated hand through his hair. "It's the biggest bunch of bullshit I've ever heard." He reached over and took my hand. Warm and calloused, he squeezed my fingers gently. "No one ever gets out of here. Mark my words. The Merlin Academy is a place where rogue magicians go to die."
There was nothing more to say. Silence stretched like a taut piece of string between us. Could he be right? Could someone be so disillusioned they'd lost all hope?
Or could Mannix have gotten to the crux of the mystery surrounding the Merlin Academy?
We didn't speak again until all teachers had cleared out of the library. Their hushed voices finally drifted away. "How soon before it's safe to leave?" I asked, my voice dry. I hadn't eaten or drank anything before my ill-fated trip here.
"Don't you have research to do?" he asked.
I did, but if what he said was true, would I find anything? "Why do you think those girls died?" I asked instead.
He shrugged. "Foul magic seeps through these walls. Some of it is the students here trying to figure a way to get out. Or, usually, pulling dirty pranks on each other. But it's more than that. The professors here are all experts in their field. The magic here is too powerful for the students, unless they were practicing together." He grinned at me. "And we're all a little too distrustful to suddenly band together and sing Kumbaya, you know?"
I let out a soft sigh. "Sorry I asked." Mannix leaned forward and pushed against the side of the wall until the panel broke loose. He helped me out and followed behind me, carefully replacing it so you couldn't tell the wall had been disturbed. Mops and buckets were shoved against the wall and the room smelled of disinfectant and dirt. I didn’t think an academy needed a janitorial closet. Something like that was pretty mundane for a place such as this. If a school was full of witches and wizards who used magic on a near constant basis, did it really need mops, brooms, and buckets?
Mannix toed one of the buckets with his boot. "More to punish us with." A shrug lifted his powerful shoulders. "Better than kitchen patrol," he said, just as he quietly clicked opened the door and poked his head outside to see if the coast was clear.
Seconds later, he opened the door all the way and motioned me through. "Hurry up and start walking. The librarians here prowl up and down the hall just waiting to hand out conduct marks."
I picked up the pace and headed down an aisle marked Ancient History. Mannix prowled behind me. "What are you looking for?" he asked.
"I'm not sure I even know," I groused as I walked each aisle. "How do I get a pass?" I whispered back to him.
"You have to apply through the front office. But I'd recommend doing as much as you need to before you do. Once you apply and have the pass, everything you do here gets monitored. This is your one and only free-access pass. Use it wisely."
I checked my watch. It was already three o'clock.
"What time does it close?"
"Seven usually. After five is when all the nerds come in and do their study groups."
I looked back at him. "Nerds?"
"Yeah, people who think it's actually important to pass their classes here."
I let out a soft laugh. "Do you care about anything, Mannix?"
It was
the wrong thing to say. His gaze shuttered and his face went blank.
"Sorry," I said. "That wasn't what I meant."
"I don't care about the Merlin Academy, Honey, and neither should you. We're stuck here. But I won't be forever." His fierce gaze locked with mine. "I'll get out of here or I will die trying. Mark those words. I crave freedom like my wolf craves the wind. And neither of us will be satisfied until we feel it on our skin away from these grounds. You should feel the same thing if you knew what was good for you. This place isn't good for any of us. We all secretly know it, but the strength is in admitting it."
“I’m just trying to get through the day,” I said softly.
“Aren’t we all?” He lifted a hand in farewell. “I have somewhere else to be. It was nice to meet you, Honey.” He turned to walk away, but only a few steps away, he stopped and turned back to me. “The full moon is only a few days away. If you have something up your sleeve, I’d make sure to have it ready. If you aren’t a shifter and you go out to the woods with the rest of them…” His voice trailed off.
I swallowed hard and offered a sharp nod. It was the only response I could come up with. I had some spell work I could do, especially on a full moon. But shifters had an extraordinary sense of smell. A spell wouldn’t fool any of them once they transformed.
Mannix nodded back and left me standing alone in the quiet library.
7
The library told me nothing of value. Not really, anyway. There was a vague reference to a ritual performed back in the 1800s to secure the wards around the school, but it didn't seem powerful enough to warrant the death of four students. Plus, a lot of wards were relatively easy magic these days. It was one of the things we first learned when we were old enough to start school. Not the ones here, though. I’d tested them repeatedly since I’d arrived. No one was getting out unless they wanted you to.
So, I'd effectively gotten nowhere. Thoughts of Mannix flickered back in my mind. He was intense. Too intense for me. But cute in a dark and broody way.
His thoughts on the Merlin Academy were disturbing. Not that juvie was ever fun, but there was always an end in sight. Wasn't there? His words disturbed me more than I'd like to admit. Four dead girls and a boy who saw too much who said we might be stuck here for the foreseeable future.
I had to get to the bottom of this before I started to believe his words. There had been no word from my parents or any other family, so thinking that if I ever did get out of here, led me to believe I wouldn't have a place to go.
All these horrible thoughts and no one to chat about with them. Mannix probably didn't want me to go around sharing his thoughts of doom and gloom with everyone I met.
Were they just thoughts from a sad, disturbed boy, though? Or something far more nefarious?
I shut the book harder than I meant to. The echo rocked through the cavernous halls and I looked around, a flush on my cheeks. I wasn't supposed to be here so drawing attention to myself was the last thing I needed to do. With an embarrassed smile, I gathered my bag up and slung it over my shoulder.
Only to remember the wards.
Crap.
How was I going to walk back through those without causing a massive scene? I'd have to wait for another opportunity when the desk wasn't manned. Looking around to see if I could wait somewhere else without much notice, a flash of black and grey caught my eyes. Over by the Geography section floated one of the girls, Mallory. I blinked in surprise.
She lifted a finger over her lips to tell me to be quiet and motioned for me to come over. I glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed, but they'd already turned their attention back to their books. I headed over to her quickly but not too quickly. If she had a way to get out of here where I didn't have to walk back through the front, I would be forever grateful.
Mallory floated faster than I walked, but I did my best to keep up with her.
It was only when she stopped at a back wall that I began to question what she wanted.
"Can I get out here?" I whispered.
The ghost nodded. "Where does it take me?" I asked as I made sure we were the only ones there.
"The catacombs."
"Oh," I said faintly. "Fun." I didn't even know the academy had catacombs, but the building was ancient so I guess I should have known it.
The ghost slipped something into my hand. "Swallow it and follow me."
It looked like an innocuous herbal supplement, but isn't this how the girls always get into trouble at parties? Was I being roofied by a ghost?
She stared at me expectantly.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Arsenic," the ghost retorted as she rolled her eyes.
"Hah," I said. "Suuuper funny."
"It's Earth Magic. A look away spell, if you will. Combined with something to help you get through the wall. You'll be able to slip through with no one the wiser."
"If I take it."
"If you'd like to get out of here with your skin, I suggest you do. Only a fool would walk through the library wards twice. None of us can figure out how you did it the first time."
I glared at her and popped the pill in my mouth, grimacing at the acrid taste.
"Swallow like a good girl," the ghost cooed.
I stuck my tongue out at her to show her it was gone.
She abruptly shoved me through the wall.
Catacombs were gross. And it wasn't because I knew all sorts of dead things were in there, but it smelled like a pack of wild dogs had used this as a place to repeatedly take a dump in. I held my nose and tiptoed over the mixed dirt and stone flooring.
"There was no other way?" I asked.
The ghost snorted. "There are no easy paths at the Merlin Academy. The sooner you realize that, the more likely you are to survive."
There was that inference. Being here equaled death. "Why do you say that?" I casually asked.
She turned and floated in front of my face. "Uh, did you forget that four of us were dead?"
"I mean, I hope that was one bad apple in a bushel."
She stared at me for a long moment and muttered something suspiciously like, "Save us from the Pollyanna's," before she turned around and continued to lead me through the darkness.
It wasn't total. Some light came from lit torches.
"Who uses this place?" I asked as we walked.
One ghostly shoulder rose and fell. "The sconces don't go out. Ever. So I don't know. If anyone uses this place, I've never seen them. Since the only thing we can do is roam all over, we've been down here a lot."
"But you still don't know where you died?"
She shook her head. "We've yet to discover it. By the time we realized we were actually dead, our bodies had been moved down to the furnace area."
I winced. "And your parents?"
Her shoulders stiffened. "What about your parents?" she asked lightly. "How invested have they been in your education here?"
"Touche," I said. "The answer is not at all."
"Exactly. If they know we died, they don't care."
"I'm sorry," I said. It was the only thing to say and yet it didn't feel like enough.
"Me too."
We stopped at a small brown door carved into the wall. The ghost motioned for me to walk over to it.
"Where does it go?"
"Your room."
I turned wide eyes to her. "What?!"
"Yep. It's a weird magic, that's for sure. We discovered it when we were down here. Wherever we need to go within the academy, a door opens up for us."
"I'll never be late to class again!"
"Not quite. You have to access the catacombs from the library. It's the only place you can get in." She floated right through the door. I, being merely human, had to open it manually. I stepped in, thankfully to an empty room.
"If I could give you any advice, I'd hold off on grabbing your pass for the library and figure out a way to pass through the wards without harm."
"Why is that?" I said as I tossed my bag do
wn.
"Once you have the card, your location is tracked via a chip."
"This place is creepy," I lamented. I flopped down on the bed careful to keep my ridiculous skirt at a presentable level.
"Very much so. A lot of people don't know about the tracking device." She offered a creepy, ghostly grin. "But you hear a lot when you're dead."
Cold fingers walked down my spine. "I'm sure you do," I said, but there was no response. When I opened my eyes, she was gone.
"I hate this place," I whispered to the empty room.
A scratching noise at my door had me sitting up straight in a hurry. I pulled the covers up over my chest, even though I was mostly decent. Glancing over, I saw my roommate still wasn't back even though it was way past curfew. I waited for the noise to return, sitting in the dark with my heart pounding a terrible drumbeat against my chest.
Just as soon as I thought I'd imagined it, it came again.
Scritch, Scritch. Scriiiitch.
"I am not a curious girl," I whispered to myself as I resisted the urge to get out of bed and see what the noise was. "I want to live a very long time. This is like a horror movie gone wrong." I pulled the covers up higher on my chest willing the noise to go away.
But it didn't.
The third time I got up and opened the door. The only thing there was a feather, white and innocent against all the darkness of this place. I frowned at it and reached down to pick it up.
An invisible, cool wind picked it up and dropped it a few steps from me. I looked around to see if this was a string gag on the new girl, but I could see no string and I could hear nothing but the groans and moans of the old building.
I dropped my blanket, shivering in the cool air of the hall, and stepped out to try to grab it one more time.
The wind came again and moved the feather.
I screamed a sound of frustration silently. It was very obvious what this supposedly inanimate feather wanted, but the question was, was I going to satisfy it or crawl back into my warm and slightly uncomfortable bed?
The feather wiggled in anticipation.
"Crap," I muttered. I went back into my room to shove my feet into a pair of flip flops and headed back out in the hall, grabbing my blanket for good measure. I could follow the stupid feather, but I wasn't going to be cold doing it.
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