No, my gut was telling me it was the headmistress’s office. Mom always told me to trust my gut, so that was my best bet.
But there was a lot of light in that room. Would there be enough shadow for me to hide in? Or even get up there with? Since the headmistress’s office was in the main building, everything was above ground and there were lights and windows everywhere. It was the brightest building in the entire school.
With Dad’s help, I had been practicing traveling by shadows a lot. I wasn’t able to travel too far at once, but I could travel two or three floors at a time along the shadows of moldings and drains.
The headmistress’s office was on the fourth floor and faced the sunset, so it was full of sun at the moment.
The other side of the building might work, but I’d have to be really careful not to get caught while moving through the rooms and hallways once I got inside the building.
If I had the girls with me, I could do it easily, but I couldn’t risk taking them away from their locations and endangering the others.
Bogden had told me to just scout and come back, but I needed to scout this room.
I needed to find the teachers. Our teachers were powerful and if freed, they could be the turning point in our battle.
Chewing on my lip, I weighed my decisions.
The longer I left Tsukiko and Frances where they were, the more they would worry and want to fight their way out.
If I hurried too much, I would get sloppy and get caught.
I could just get caught anyway. I had used a lot of power and I honestly wasn’t sure how much more I had.
Maybe I should go back to Bogden and try to bring him with me? No, I didn’t have enough power for that. Not until I rested for a bit.
Should I rest first and let my power rejuvenate?
I growled softly at my indecisiveness.
A human guard nearby turned in my direction.
With wide eyes, I jumped from shadow to shadow across the grounds to the back of the building.
There were four guards on the backside of the building, all armed and facing away from the building.
It would have saved me a lot of power if I could have walked up to the building to a shadow, but I had to hurry.
With a deep breath, and a prayer to any of the dark gods who might be listening, I leapt from the shadow I was in at the base of a shrub to the side of the wall beside the drain pipe.
I was going to do this and I wasn’t going to get caught.
I could do this.
I was Death’s daughter!
Death incarnate.
I could do this!
I hoped...
Chapter 36
TSUKIKO
My girls were still alive, but that was all I knew. As the hours continued to pass, my worry grew.
If Loralie did manage to get free and she was shadow traveling around the school looking for us or scouting, which I knew would be her plan, she was going to drain herself quickly.
I knew she had been building up her stamina, but there was no way she could keep traveling all around the school for hours on end.
“What are you growling about?” Rathik asked softly.
Not realizing I was growling, I stopped and felt my cheeks warm. “I’m just worried about Loralie and Frances.”
“I’m sure they’re okay,” he whispered.
“Of course we’re okay,” Loralie whispered behind me.
I spun around and glared at the dark shape that was her head poking up from the ground behind me. “What took you so long?”
I didn’t even need to have light to know she rolled her eyes at me.
“That stupid door made it almost impossible to get in here. I found a crack in the wall that I slipped through, though. Also, I’m fine, thank you for asking.”
In the dark, I almost let the few tears of relief in my eyes free, but I didn’t want to chance anyone smelling them. “Did you find Frances?”
“She’s fine.”
“Status?” I asked.
As Loralie updated me on her findings, the hair on my neck stood on end. This was not something I had ever seen humans do before. What were they waiting for?
“The teachers are all in cages in the headmistress’s office, but they don’t appear to be injured or drugged aside from that potion they keep making everyone drink,” Loralie whispered. “I think if I can free them, we could figure out how to defeat the humans.”
“Why didn’t you travel to your parents?” Rathik asked.
Loralie sighed, brought her entire body up out of the shadow, and pressed her back against mine. “I spent too much of my energy trying to find everyone and scouting the situation out. Plus, there is a weird magical barrier up that made me uneasy when I got near it. I’m not sure I want to try to pass through it.”
She leaned against me heavily, giving away just how spent she was. “Take a nap,” I ordered her. “It’s too dark for the humans to see you.”
Her soft snores were the only response.
Relief surged through me at knowing my friends were safe. Well, as safe as they could be.
Fear also flowed within me as I thought about the humans and tried to figure out who might be helping them.
It was someone who could erect a magical barrier. That got rid of the werewolves and a lot of the other races.
Was it a student? Or was it one of their parents?
It had to be a student. They had to have gotten the intelligence that they needed to split the three of us up from another student.
I wanted to find them and introduce them to my claws.
“Kiko,” Loralie whispered.
“Hm?”
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
I chuckled. “Go back to sleep. I’m not moving until you wake up.”
There hadn’t been any noise that suggested the humans had radios on them. And with my hearing, I would have been able to hear even an earpiece.
If we took out the humans guarding us, would they be able to alert the others somehow? Even if we took them out, how were we suppose to get past that damn door?
“Potion time,” one of the humans, the one who had hit me, said.
Loralie jerked awake. “I need to get you out of here.”
“They do a head count when they give us the potion,” I whispered.
Loralie bounced her leg as she thought.
“Did your guards have radios?” I asked.
“Not that I’ve seen. Plus, I doubt they could use them with how deep we are underground,” she whispered. “Time to fight?”
With a deep breath, I calmed myself, focused on my inner animal, and pulled. It was sluggish, but I was able to lengthen and thicken my nails into claws and my teeth into fangs.
“Fight,” I growled.
“What are you planning?” Rathik hissed. “You agreed that we couldn’t—”
“Drink up, snakeboy,” the human ordered.
“Mist and slash,” I growled at Loralie.
She snapped her fingers, giving me the sign, and as she covered the human’s head in a cloud of black shadows, I used my claws to cut his throat. Unable to cry out and alert the other guard, he fell silently.
“Round two,” Loralie said and began crawling through the other students towards the second human guard.
He didn’t know what hit him.
“That all of them?” Loralie asked.
“Yes,” Rathik said. “There aren’t any more in this room.”
“Let me scout on the other side of the door and then if it is safe, I will open it,” Loralie said and disappeared before I could object.
I growled my frustration.
“Do you guys practice combined fighting attacks like that often?” Antoine asked.
“That was the coolest thing ever. I wish I had been able to see it better, though. Stupid darkness,” Ainsley muttered.
“Is anyone hurt?” I asked just loud enough for everyone to hear.
“No,” most said.
“Where are you going to go?” Antoine asked.
“Loralie and I are going to try to free the teachers. Once we know it is safe, we will come back for you all,” I said.
“You two are not going alone,” Rathik hissed. “You can’t fight all those humans.”
“We aren’t going to fight them all,” I said and rolled my eyes. “We are going to free the teachers, so they can instruct us what to do.”
“Who made you the leader?” Norma snapped.
She was always trying to start trouble. It was time to put a stop to it. Marching right up into her face, I asked, “You want to walk out there, get killed, and risk getting every other student on campus killed? Or do you want to sit down, shut up, and let us handle it?”
The tension built, but after a moment she scoffed and walked away. “I won’t be crying when they toss your corpse into a fire.”
The door opened and Loralie said, “If they kill us, you have no hope of surviving, trampy vamp.”
Norma flipped her hair as she stomped past Loralie, not bothering to respond.
“Ready?” Loralie asked.
“Take me with you,” Rathik insisted.
“It will drain me too much to take you, too,” Loralie said softly. “I’ll keep her safe. Promise.”
He hissed and slithered down the hall.
My entire body froze as fear of his form consumed me.
Loralie set her hand on my shoulder and said, “Let’s go rescue our favorite patchwork doll.”
The joke should have cheered me up, Frances hated when we called her that, but a sense of dread filled me instead.
What if this was the last time I saw Rathik?
And all I could do was stare in fear.
Chapter 37
FRANCES
“Psst,” Loralie whispered behind me.
I turned my head and stared at her mouth and nose sticking up from the small shadow my body made on the floor. “What are you doing?”
“It’s too bright in here. I need a shadow so I can transport Tsukiko and I inside fully,” she explained.
“If we sit side by side, will that give you enough shadow?” Dante asked.
Her lips pulled up in a wide smile. “See, I knew he was more than just pretty. We’re going to teleport and then take out your guards. ‘Kay?”
“Stop talking!” one of the guards yelled.
Slowly, so we didn’t draw attention to ourselves, we pivoted until the entire side of our body was pressed together. He was so warm that I almost jerked away, but I held my place.
Tsukiko and Loralie popped up behind us.
“Evening, gents,” Loralie greeted and waved at the guards.
They aimed their guns at her and Tsukiko. “Who are you? How’d you get here?”
“Did anyone report losing students?” The other guard asked and reached for his belt where a handheld radio hung.
“Kiko, left. Lor, right,” I ordered and charged down the center.
Kiko leapt over the students sitting between us and the guard on the left. Loralie flew around the side of the room and by the time she reached the guard on the right, her scythe had materialized in her hand.
As they cut them down, I snatched the radios from their waists.
“When did you learn to move like that?” Dante asked.
We ignored him. Now was not the time to get into it.
“Everyone stay in the room and don’t make much noise. We aren’t sure the routes their guards are taking yet and we don’t want to alert them that we aren’t being watched,” Loralie ordered everyone.
“What is going on?” Himari, a tiny female fox with seven tails, asked.
“The humans have taken over the school. They have the teachers locked up, but we’re working on a plan to free them. We aren’t sure what the humans’ plan is since they aren’t taking pictures, torturing, or experimenting on anyone. There is a magical barrier around the school and we aren’t sure what type of barrier it is, so we are hesitant to try to break through it,” Tsukiko answered.
“I could find out,” Larissa, a witch, said. “I just need to hover my hand near it.”
Loralie looked at me. “Frances?”
“It would be helpful information to have. We are running pretty blind not knowing what their plan for us is,” I said. “Can you get her there without being spotted?”
“Yes,” Loralie said with a nod.
“Shadow travel?” Larissa asked.
Loralie nodded again.
“Just don’t leave me stuck in the in-between,” Larissa ordered.
Loralie set her hand on her shoulder and smiled wide. “You’ll be returned safe and sound.”
“While you’re gone, we’ll listen to their radio communications to see if they give anything away. Don’t do anything rash or stupid,” I said.
Loralie saluted me, and then she and Larissa disappeared.
“She’s going to do something stupid, isn’t she?” Tsukiko asked with a growl.
I sighed and hung my head. “Probably.”
“Frances,” Dante whispered behind me.
I turned and looked up into his scowling face. “What?”
“When did you learn to move like that? When did you three learn to coordinate attacks like that?”
“Does that really matter?” I asked him and turned the handheld radios up a little louder.
“You aren’t the same as you were before,” he whispered. “You’ve been hiding things from me.”
“Since when does she need to update you on her life?” Tsukiko asked with hands on her hips. “Last time I checked, you two aren’t an item. You two haven’t even ever been on a date.”
“What did you do over the summer?” he asked us both. “What were you three up to?”
“Learning how to protect ourselves,” I said. “I don’t know if you are aware of this or not, but being from such prestigious monster lines makes us targets not only to humans, but to other monsters as well. You don’t know what we have been through. You don’t know what I have been through. I don’t have to tell you anything.”
His mouth dropped open and he blinked at me.
“Night is falling. Prepare for phase two,” a female voice said over the radio.
Phase two? What was phase two?
“That doesn’t sound good,” Tsukiko whispered. “Why aren’t Loralie and Larissa back yet?”
They should have been back by now. What was the hold up?
“Come on, Loralie,” I whispered nervously. “Hurry up.”
Loralie materialized before me, an unconscious Larissa in her arms. “We’ve got a problem.”
A goblin took Larissa and inspected her for wounds.
“She said the barrier is to keep monsters from leaving, not from entering, though. The barrier makes me feel super uncomfortable when I'm near it. Anyway. While we were standing near the barrier, it suddenly thickened and touched her. The barrier's touch knocked her unconscious immediately.”
“She’s alive,” the goblin said. “Just passed out.”
“They said they’re moving to phase two, but we don’t know anything besides that,” I informed her.
“I do,” she said. “We’re going to have to implement Plan Apocalypse.”
My mouth dropped and Tsukiko screeched, “What?”
Loralie smiled. “Time to have some fun, besties.”
Fun was not what I called Plan Apocalypse. It was draining, dangerous, and would cause everything to change.
Our social lives were about to go out the window.
“Shit,” I whispered.
“What’s going on?” Dante asked, coming up to my side.
“Don’t worry your pretty head,” Loralie said and smiled wide. “We’re going to save all of you and wh
en we’re done, you will either worship or fear us. I’m fine with either.”
This was the worst day ever.
Chapter 38
TSUKIKO
“You’re serious?” I asked Loralie.
She nodded. “We need to get to the other side of the school to take out the magic user who is working with them. Have someone change the barrier to keep everything outside and ensure nothing can come inside. Then, kaboom.”
“Kaboom?” Dante asked, scowling.
“Ka. Boom,” Loralie said with a wicked smile.
“Who do we know who can change the barrier?” I asked.
“Bogden could,” Frances said.
Loralie’s smile disappeared. “No.”
“He’s the strongest and is basically immortal. He is our best option,” I argued.
She growled. “There has to be someone else.”
“Lor,” I whispered.
Her eyes turned red and shadow leaked from her fingertips. “No.”
“Stop being a baby,” I growled. “He’ll be fine.”
“What is their plan?” Dante asked. “You said you know what phase two is.”
“They’re contacting the monster elite to force them to come here. Once all of them are inside the barrier, they’re going to kill them in an attempt to summon Lucifer,” she said.
My claws shot out of my fingertips, and I growled. They wanted to kill my family. My parents and grandfather. My best friends' parents who were like second and third parents to me. No. I was not going to let that happen.
“What is your plan?” Dante asked.
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” she said.
“We’re going to have to put ourselves in their direct line of sight. They could just shoot us,” Frances said.
“We will be fine,” Loralie said with a smile. “We can do it. We have done it multiple times before.”
“It hurts,” I whined. “And feels super weird.”
“It’s either this or we let our families die,” Loralie snapped.
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