My lips twisted. “That’s just it. I think I’m half a witch and nothing else. My shifter abilities seem to be dormant.”
“You’re young. There’s still plenty of time to explore what you might someday be.”
“That sounds profound and all, but my mom took me to a doctor, and he said that my witch side is likely suppressing my ability to shift. But it’s okay…” Actually, it had stung worse than a murder wasp sinking its stinger into my spine, but I’d learned to suppress the feeling. It did no good to moan and groan about something I couldn’t control or fix. “I’m happy being only a witch. I’ve got enough power already without adding shifter abilities to the mix.”
Wolfy’s furry face nudged mine. “So jump.”
“Not lookin’ to be your second loss, thanks.”
“I’ve never lost anyone to jumping.”
“You can’t make me,” I said sullenly. My hands tightened on the branch, and I started easing around in order to latch onto the trunk. “I need to climb back down. I’m sure first period classes have let out, and Cece will be looking for me.” A glance down made me feel as if I were being pulled in that direction. I spiraled, and my heart slammed behind my ribcage.
“I won’t make you,” he said, but I didn’t miss the mischief lingering in his eyes. Good thing he was only a foot tall and weighed in at about five pounds soaking wet.
“What happened to the student you lost? You didn’t say.”
“She refused to jump.”
“Wolfy,” I whined.
“Maddy,” he said in an equally unappealing tone.
I didn’t get it. If I leaped, I was going to tumble down through the branches, hitting each one as I passed, then clunk on the ground, a bloody mess of fractures. He’d have to drag me back to Wadsworth. “Why do I have to do this?”
“If I told you, it wouldn’t work.”
“What wouldn’t work?”
“I can’t tell you that, either.”
I huffed out a breath. “Too many secrets here.” If we weren’t careful, they’d drown us. My hand swept toward Wadsworth. “It’s not just you; it’s this entire place.”
“I’m sure you’ll discover what you need to eventually.”
Gnawing on my lower lip, I stared blindly at the ground. “Sometimes, I’m not sure I want to. Life is probably a lot simpler when you play it safe.”
“And that’s why you’re the girl who’s refusing to jump.”
“I can’t,” I said so softly that I doubt he heard. What had challenging Wadsworth done for us other than make life infinitely more dangerous? Maybe if we backed off, did what we were told, and followed the rules, things would be easier.
“Look, to make it more palatable,” he said, “we’ll do it together.”
If I jumped, I’d splat on the ground. Pancake Maddy.
His lips curled back in a cute doggie smile. “I promise you won’t splat.”
“Are you reading my mind?”
A gust of wind rustled his fur. “Why would I want to do that?”
“So you’re saying you can’t read my mind?”
“Only if I need to.”
A non-answer, but it might be best to leave things at that.
I scrunched my nose at him. “Will you hold my hand—paw?” I couldn’t believe I was seriously considering doing this. I had to be out of my mind. What about all that following-the-rules stuff?
“If you wish, but you won’t need me.”
Edging around on the branch, I dangled both legs on one side. Damn, it was a hell of a long way down. This was foolish. My sister would smack me if she could see me now. There was no lesson to be learned by flinging myself off the top of a tree. “You promise I won’t get hurt?”
“I can never promise anything like that, but today, you won’t be injured.”
My lips trembled and my eyes stung, because I was afraid. Almost as scared as I’d been last night when I’d challenged the power blob in Wadsworth’s basement.
“Should I flap my arms as I fall?” I chuckled, but the sound came out dryer than sand.
Wolfy stood, and his nose nudged my cheek. I didn’t complain about the wetness. Right now, I needed all the comfort he’d give. “If you think it’ll help, flap away.”
I fed him a sharp look.
He hopped down onto the branch beside me.
Unclamping my hands from the bark, I inched forward. Jeez… I couldn’t do it. I’d climb down and—
Wolfy barreled his head into my side, and I fell.
“Ah!” The world rose up fast, too fast! Agony erupted from my spine, telling me I’d hit it on a branch. The burn spun through my limbs and made my skin prickle and ache. My head snapped back, and I swore my neck…
Gulping, I flailed, but the movement didn’t slow my fall. Pain seared across my back, and my descent slowed.
My feet smacked on the ground like I’d been jumping from planes with a parachute for three Wolfy lifetimes.
Huh.
I grinned up at my friend as he hopped down the branches. At about ten feet up, he leaped toward me. I caught him and couldn’t resist giving him a hug.
“That was wind-in-my-fur awesome!” I shouted. My knees trembled, but the adrenaline surge fed my laughter.
He released a sly wolfling smile. “And that, my dear Maddy, was your first real lesson.”
“Not discovering the fourth Wadsworth floor, which I’m going to have to look into?”
His grin faded fast. “Don’t even think about exploring.” Hopping down from my arms, he stood on the trail, staring in the direction of Wadsworth.
A tiny wolfing couldn’t stop me if I chose to investigate. But first, I’d need to—
A tight feeling at my back made me wiggle to shake it free. “I hit myself as I was falling. Hope I didn’t break anything.” Although it didn’t hurt any longer.
I caught an odd impression out of the corner of my eye and whirled. There was nothing around except trees, prickly bushes, and pine needles underfoot.
Two extended appendages behind me called my attention again.
Feathers? No...scales.
Deep green half-circles winked like pools of ink-slicked puddles. Whatever they were, they tucked in close to my spine, leaving my view.
“There’s something on my back.” My voice rose to a shriek. “Get it off!”
Spinning, I looked for Wolfy, but he was gone.
I raced toward Wadsworth and hit the door at a flat-out run. Blubbering, I clawed it open and spiraled down the hall with my hair sticking to my sweaty face and my body on fire. I whimpered, and my tears flew out behind me. I kept going until I hit the hall with the classrooms…
Where I smacked into Cece.
CHAPTER SIX
Cece
“Jesus!” I shouted as I rounded the corner—right into my sister. She was shaking and had clearly been crying. The sight of her sent me into homicidal-big-sister mode. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
She shook her head and drew her sleeve across her face. “Nothing...I just...”
“You just what?”
She took a settling breath. “I just got spooked.”
“Spooked by what?”
“It doesn’t matter.” She eyed me up, suspicion settling in. “Where are you headed?”
“Anywhere but my room,” I replied honestly. “You?”
“To find you. I need to tell you something—somewhere private.”
“Okay…” We were far from the residential area, and to be honest, I wasn’t really keen on going back to my room. Aidan’s concern about the ball was becoming contagious. And since Janie’s alleged death, Maddy had seemed unsettled in her room.
Luckily, the library wasn’t far away, and I knew for fact that it had a cozy little section in the back, perfect for private conversations and deals with the devil—or arrogant fey boys on a mission of escape and vengeance.
Were we supposed to be in the library at that time? No—at least I didn’t think so. I
hadn’t exactly managed to memorize my schedule with all my lofty escape plans clouding my mind. Regardless, we headed for the double doors. I kinda wished I hadn't bolted on Aidan. Being glamoured invisible would’ve come in really handy at that moment.
With a ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ boost of confidence, I pulled the door open and walked in like I belonged. Maddy followed me, and I prayed she could hold it together long enough for us to stash ourselves away in the back of the room and unpack the suitcase full of shit she had ambushed me with in the hallway.
The librarian, clad once again in an unfortunate floral print dress, looked up as we strolled in. “Is this your free study period?” she asked, sounding very much like she already knew the answer was no.
“Headmaster Warren allowed us to transfer,” I said confidently.
“I see. Did he send you with your altered itinerary?”
Shit.
“He did not,” I said, looking back to Maddy. “Did he give you one?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Was he supposed to?” I asked. “Maybe he forgot? He seemed a bit off this morning when we spoke with him. Should I go back and ask for one?”
The librarian’s gaze shot between Maddy and me until she sighed and gestured for us to go sit down.
“Bring it with you next time,” she said.
“We will,” Maddy offered in a contrite tone.
“Absolutely.”
Before the librarian could change her mind, I took Maddy’s hand and led her through the stacks to the back seating area, which was thankfully unoccupied. We plopped down into the two chairs there and stared at one another for longer than was comfortable, even for us.
“So...wanna break down everything that happened for me, or should I just fill in the blanks with my overactive imagination?”
That earned me a nervous giggle. “I’m not sure I can really tell you—it was all so strange. Wolfy pushed me out of a tree and I fell, but I didn't die. I didn’t crash.”
“Guess the mini-wolf and I need to have a chat about safety the next time I see the furry little bastard—”
“He was trying to teach me a lesson—”
“I’m gonna teach him a lesson—”
“Cece!”
“What? You come to me crying, then tell me your little buddy tried to break your neck, and you want me to be calm about it?”
She took a breath and closed her eyes. “I believe he was trying to teach me about my shifter side.”
“By shoving you out of a tree?” I asked. She shrugged. “Still not seeing the connection here, sis—”
“I know—it’s hard to explain.”
I bit back my angry retort as her confusion and disappointment swept over me. She was upset, and I had let my emotions override my sympathy. Some empath I was.
“Well,” I said in a softer tone, “what did you learn, exactly?”
“That I won’t die if I jump from a tree.”
“Dude, I’m hanging on by a thin thread...not the time for you to find a dark sense of humor.”
“I’m serious!”
“So am I!”
We stared at each other for a moment, our frustration forcing a break in the rehashing of what had sent her careening into me in the hallway after I’d left my room. She’d seemed so freaked out that I’d wondered if the headmaster had snapped back to his senses and shit was about to get real. Instead, she started to ramble about shiny green things and her back hurting, and I struggled to keep up.
When she finished, I was just about as freaked out as she was. “So what were the green shiny things that you were babbling about?”
She chewed her bottom lip. “I don’t know.”
“Well...how big were they?”
“Big enough to see over my shoulders.”
“Wait, were they attached? Like part of you? Maddy...did you shift?”
“I don’t know. Maybe...partway?”
“Oh my God, Maddy…were they wings? I mean, that would make sense, right? The mini-wolf wouldn’t have pushed you out of a damn tree if he thought you’d plummet to your death—”
“No,” she said softly, wide eyes looking at me, “he wouldn’t have. In fact, he guaranteed I wouldn’t get hurt.”
“See! Because wings!”
“But that means…”
“That means you can FLY!”
A wry smile tugged at her mouth. “Holy shit...maybe I can.”
“Yeah, well, I think we should probably figure out a bit more before you go jumping out of trees or windows or anything like that again, okay? There’s gotta be a book around here on winged shifters…”
She laughed at my warning, but then it died off, leaving us in silence once again. But there was something strange nestled in that silence, a distance I’d never felt between us before. I wondered if it was due to being in Wadsworth, or if somehow everything we’d been through—or the rise in her power—had changed the dynamic of our relationship.
Dread crept up my spine at the thought, and I fought hard to beat it back.
My hand reached for my lap to stroke the ball we’d stolen, but there was nothing but denim there. Fucking Aidan and his stupid ideas.
Maddy, noticing my strange movements, put two and two together. “Cece...where is the crystal ball?”
“Don’t worry,” I said before she could start panicking, “it’s fine—”
“Where is it, Cece?” She shot to her feet, and I mimicked the gesture. “That’s not something we can afford to lose—”
“I didn’t lose it,” I hissed, cramming my hands into my pockets. “It’s—” My words cut out as my fingers met something cold and smooth and the size of a marble in my jeans pocket. “What the fu—”
“Seriously, Cece. Of all the times to—”
I pulled out the tiny black orb that Maddy couldn’t see and held it out to her on my palm.
“Here,” I said, urging her to pluck the invisible ball from my hand. When she didn’t move, I pinched it between my thumb and finger and put it in her palm. The second I pulled away, the marble returned to soccer-ball size.
Her eyes went wider still as she took in the sight. “How did you—”
“I have no clue, Mads. No clue at all.”
She looked over the orb at me. “You really didn’t know you had it, did you?”
I shook my head. “Aidan said I should leave it in my room. He thought it’d be safer there.” So much for that theory. “I went along with it because he seemed genuinely concerned, which is a stretch for him, so—”
“Well, if you left it in your room, then how in the hell was it in your pocket?”
“I don’t know! I watched him put it in my shower with my own eyes, Maddy. Then I left and ran into you in the hallway. No picking up of the mystery ball occurred during that process, and yet—”
“And yet here it is,” she whispered as her gaze dropped to the dormant black ball.
“And yet here it is,” I echoed. She handed it back to me, and it shrunk down without request. I tucked it in my pocket for safekeeping, then let my eyes scan the stacks of books surrounding us. “So, since we’re already in the library, maybe we should try to learn something about your winged secret—and all about magical balls.”
Maddy’s serious face gave way to let a smile tug at her lips. “Crystal balls,” she said. “We should probably be super specific about that.”
“Good point. Now, if only someone could point us to where those magical ball books would be…” I scanned the room, ears perked. “If so, feel free to just fall from the shelf to the exact page I need like last time.”
My request wasn’t met with the loud thud of an ancient tome hitting the floor.
It was met with something far more unexpected.
The bookshelf behind Maddy parted to reveal a library within the library. But this one appeared old and untouched; the intricate cobweb barring the way spoke to that.
“Holy shit,” I muttered under my breath as I
walked toward it. Maddy, ever the thinker, grabbed my arm to stop me.
“What if it’s a trap?” she whispered in my ear. “Didn’t Aidan tell you this place was riddled with them?”
Yes. Yes, he had.
“We need answers, Maddy, and I don’t think the midlife crisis up front is going to hand us what we want just because we ask nicely.”
“I’m not saying that, but—”
“Answers, remember?” I said, jerking my head toward the door. “Ask and you shall receive.”
“It’s what we’re going to receive that makes me nervous,” she said, eyeing the door with a reasonable amount of suspicion. A warranted amount, even. But suspicious or not, I was willing to bet that the secret library had exactly what we needed.
“It wasn’t a trap when the book fell last time,” I said, leading the way. “Besides, if it is a trap, you can just burn the place down with your malum power or something.”
“Great plan, sis, when we’ll burn with it.”
“Can’t you fly or something? You’re the smart one with wings. Figure it out!”
I flashed her a smile over my shoulder before I scooped the webs out of the way and shivered as they coated my hands. We pushed further into the darkened space, and with every step we took, I could feel the tension growing inside me. An ancient magic pulsed in the room. Maybe Maddy had been right. Maybe this was a terrible idea.
Then firelight ignited and cast a warm glow around us, even though there was no actual fire to be seen. The room was heavily magicked, that much was clear. I just hoped that magic would continue to be friendly.
“Okay,” I whispered as I took in the hexagonal room, its walls lined only with bookshelves that were so dust-covered that it was plain they hadn’t been touched in years. Maybe decades. How long did it take for an inch of dust to accumulate? “We need something on shifters—the kind with wings,” I said as I continued my slow spin. All the light in the room bent toward the shelf to my right and focused on a leather-bound spine at about knee height.
With some hesitation, Maddy reached for it and plucked it from the shelf. For a second, the two of us stood still, as though we feared she’d triggered a booby trap. But when spikes didn’t shoot up from the floor and a massive stone didn’t fall from the ceiling, we figured we were good.
Rogue Reformatory: Broken (Supernatural Misfits Academy Book 2) Page 5