It was different. Nathan was different. This moment was different than all the ones I’d tried to predict. I rubbed my hand over my face, trying to clear away whatever was keeping me from just saying what was underneath. “I haven’t changed how I feel,” I said finally.
She smiled—sad, but full of the warmth that had gradually thawed me out last year, just like I remembered. “That’s good,” she said. “I missed you over the summer. So did Lucas and Isaac. We all know how you feel about Nathan, though.”
Reluctantly, I let her hand go. “It’s not fair for me to make it sound like I’m ready for anything. I just mean that I… there’s so much, Amelia. So much inside, and I’m trying to sort through it, to understand where I’m supposed to be.”
“That’s okay,” she said, her hand twitching back toward mine before she folded her arms and hugged herself. It was a strange gesture in this false, sunny meadow where we should have been rolling in the grass, playing a game, or lounging with beers. It should have been raining instead, overcast, the way it felt inside. “We’re still here for you no matter what. You know that, right? I mean, of course you know Lucas and Isaac are. But I am, too. All the time you need, Hunter. There’s no rush. I just want you to be happy.”
“It seems like you are,” I said. “With them. Lucas, and Isaac. Maybe… maybe it’s just time for us to all move on. I know how they feel about you. I don’t know if they’ve admitted it yet, and it’s not my place to do it for them, but they had the same choice I did. They chose you, and I… I can’t just let him be alone.”
“He definitely seems to need someone around to ground him,” she muttered. She glanced back at Lucas and Isaac again. “He doesn’t like me very much, does he? Still, I mean.”
“We don’t know what he saw,” I reminded her. “He may have reasons we don’t understand.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. “What, like because I’m The Harbinger, here to destroy the world?”
“Of course not,” I insisted, waving to the door he’d left through. “He’s in pieces. He doesn’t even know what’s real half the time. Cut him just a little slack, please. For me?”
“Sure,” she said, hugging herself. I felt like an asshole; I always seemed to feel like that around her. “Of course I will. For you. But… I mean, the least you could do is just… I’m not asking you to choose, Hunter, and I want to try and get to know him but it would be helpful if you didn’t just stand on the sidelines while we did.”
At the center of the meadow, a clump of students cheered, breaking the gentle airy quiet of the place. Again, it was just all wrong for this. “I can’t mediate every conversation,” I said, careful to tread lightly on ground that I felt was starting to grow unstable. “I’m not sure what you want me to do. He’s going to have to come around at his own pace.”
“You could at the very least just stand up for me a little?” she proposed.
I knew I should have said something. “That… Amelia, Nathan’s not himself. He’s moody, and… well, he was always a little moody but he’s reorienting himself to everything. He had to relearn almost everything; you can’t judge him by how he is right now.”
“I’m not,” she said. She turned her head as Lucas and Isaac started toward us, clearly growing concerned with the tension. “I just think that if he’s still learning, maybe help him is all. We’re friends, yeah? So I’d like to at least be able to stay close to you. That’s all.”
My temper flared a little, just beyond my control. I regretted the words before I even said them, but they came out. “Putting me in a position where I have to be torn between you and Nathan won’t help that. He needs me, and I know how to deal with him, so let me.”
“Hey,” Lucas said as they neared, “what’s the problem?”
“Nothing,” Amelia said coolly. “There’s no problem. I’m… I’m not really feeling the party. I might head in. I need to get my room sorted anyway. I’m gonna… I just need to go.”
“We’ll come with you,” Isaac said, eyeing me. “Give us just a second?”
Amelia shrugged, and headed toward the door that was, for her, the exit from the Cabin.
Lucas watched her, pained, and clearly wanted to go after her but spared himself enough time to narrow his eyes up at me. “What the hell, Hunter? What did you say?”
“I think it’s more what I didn’t say,” I muttered. “Maybe I should just keep my distance for a while.”
“She doesn’t want that,” Isaac said, shaking his head slowly. “She worried about you all summer. Then you come back attached to Nathan’s hip. And I get it. We missed him too. But there’s something… wrong with him, Hunter. You’ve got to see that, right?”
“I know she can handle herself,” Lucas said, “but the way he spoke to Amelia… those two are going to be at each other’s throats if we don’t handle them carefully.”
I threw my hands up. “That’s what I’m suggesting,” I snapped. “Keeping them apart.”
Lucas rolled his eyes. “No, you’re suggesting keeping you and her apart for the sake of keeping them apart. What happens if Nathan never comes around? You really think you can just forget about her and go back to this version of him that you don’t even know?”
Neither of them understood. They’d been able to just let go and move on. If it wasn’t for me, Nathan wouldn’t have anyone. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, or feel. I can’t just flip switches.”
“You don’t have to,” Isaac said softly as he put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re not alone, Hunter. It’s all of us. Come on. Let’s catch up with Amelia, and then Nathan. We can talk it out. He’s got questions, Amelia has questions, we have them—now is the chance to do that, so let’s take it.”
Isaac the optimist. I sagged under his hand and nodded, resignation more than agreement. I didn’t imagine that conversation going well at all. Lucas took my hand and tugged me toward the door that would take us out of the Cabin. “It’s better to get it all out in the open and sort through the pieces now than to let them fester and come out later.”
I shrugged and let him lead me. “I know you’re probably right. I just worry that Nathan isn’t going to want to have that conversation.”
“He’s still in there,” Isaac said. “It’s in the way he holds himself. That smug, hands-in-pockets thing he does. That’s the real Nathan; we just have to let him know he doesn’t have to act like everything’s okay.”
Lucas pushed through the door, and cool night air hit us. I looked back at the yellow party, and had a brief memory of the four of us in the blue room, our bodies tangled together, all sweaty and excited at our first taste of real freedom from our respective homes. How Nathan had smiled. Not the hard-lipped sort of smile he had now, as if he were always just using it to cover something up. A real, carefree, easy sort of grin as he just enjoyed.
I wanted that back. I wanted all of it back, and I wanted to see Amelia as part of it as well. Why did it have to be so hard? Why couldn’t we all just go back together.
I almost ran into Isaac.
“Amelia?”
I looked up to see Amelia facing away from us. She took an unsteady step backward, and half-turned, her hands over her mouth. She was wide-eyed.
Concern overrode everything else in me. Isaac and Lucas were just a step ahead as we all three rushed to see what the matter was, if she was hurt, if it was what I had said—
But it wasn’t any of those things. Not anymore, at least.
It was the body that was sprawled out on the ground, just at the edge of the light from the Cabin, limbs twisted in unnatural directions. Her mouth, ears, and eyes all leaked something black and foul that stained her jacket and halter top. Dark bruises marked her stomach, her arms, and her neck.
It was Amelia’s mentee. Sadie Chapman.
She was very, very dead.
Amelia
“And you didn’t see anyone nearby?” Security Officer Emira asked, just ten minutes after I’d found Sadie
outside the Cabin. They’d moved quickly, the moment Isaac had the wherewithal to cast the alert spell. Hunter had lit up the area at the same time, while Lucas checked through revelation spell after revelation spell. He had a particularly shocked look, one of cold, pale worry, and I knew why.
The black substance around Sadie’s orifices was, at least visibly, similar to the way Lucas had looked when he was found last year, after Sinclaire sent something after him. What that was, we still didn’t know. Lucas didn’t remember much about that time, other than the terror.
“I found her like that,” I said, watching as Lucas spoke to Gershwin, the Academy’s other security officer. There were only the two, but they were effective at this sort of thing. Supposedly. They hadn’t exactly seen Sinclaire coming.
“And what time was that precisely?” Emira asked, craning her head to catch my eye. “If you could focus, Miss Cresswin. Every detail is important.”
I sighed impatiently. “I know how important the details are, Officer, I just… I didn’t check the time before I left the party. About eleven, I guess. I came out of the Cabin, I was waiting for my boy—for my friends—and I walked a little way off the path to get some air and calm down, and I just… saw her there.”
“To calm down,” she noted. “What were you upset about, exactly?”
“It’s personal,” I said. “Just… boy drama, I guess.”
She gave a soft grunt, and made a note. “Did that ‘drama’ involve Miss Chapman?”
“Uh…” I frowned and tried to peek at her notes, but if there was ink on the page I couldn’t see it. “I’m sorry… are you suggesting I had something to do with Sadie’s—”
“Miss Cresswin,” Emira interrupted, “I’m just collecting all the information I need to determine what happened. Was Miss Chapman involved in your disagreement, dispute… ‘drama’?”
“No,” I said, holding back the anger I wanted to spit it with. “Of course not. She was my mentee, I was supposed to show her around, introduce her to Rosewilde… look after her. I should have stuck with her at the party.”
“Why didn’t you?” Emira asked.
My instinct was to say that I didn’t particularly like her, but that was going to sound bad. I bit my lip and shook my head slowly. “She… we come from different social tiers, I guess.”
Emira gave another soft grunt of interest and made another note. “Because she’s a Chapman,” she clarified.
“I guess.” I looked over to where Gershwin was finished with Lucas. “I don’t really know anything about the Chapmans. I’m not really steeped in magician society or anything.”
Behind Emira, Percy came down the lit path toward the Cabin. I don’t know why, but it gave me a whisper of relief. “Is that… everything?”
“For the moment,” Emira agreed. “I think you know what comes next, after last year.”
I sighed and held my arm out. “Yeah, I know.”
She took out a small box and opened it to reveal the metal stamp inside. She pressed it to my inner wrist, and whispered a few words. When she removed it, a pale, shimmering mark was left behind. The security tag, basically, ensuring I didn’t leave the campus or try to run off. I’d worn it throughout the end of my first year, after Sinclaire. It was removed after my finals, but it made me feel like I was under house arrest.
Having to wear it again rankled. I just couldn’t go a single year without being under the microscope for something. But I smiled weakly at her and tried to remember she was just doing her job. I had found Sadie. It was reasonable to suspect me. Given enough time, the truth would come out. If nothing else, they could bring Mara out and have her rewind the clock to show exactly what happened. Assuming it worked that way. Honestly, I knew almost nothing about the librarian’s rare specialty other than that temporal magic was involved. It wasn’t exactly a class they offered each year.
“Percy,” I breathed when he approached. “Are you here for Lucas? He’s still—”
Percy grimaced and shook his head. “I’m afraid I’m not,” he said, apologetically as he peered past me and held up a small case. “Security called me to help with the initial investigation.”
“Professor Turner is an expert in Abyssal magic,” Emira said. “Given the circumstances…”
My heart struck the back of my ribs. “You… is this because of last year?”
Emira tilted her head to one side, eyebrow arched. “It has crossed my mind, Miss Cresswin, that you’ve had dealings with Abyssal forces. But, no—the material found on Miss Chapman’s body, and our initial analysis of the aura traces suggest that she may have been the victim of an Abyssal attack. Professor Turner, if you would? Our experience suggests the evidence may not last.”
Percy nodded quickly and excused himself as he pushed past me. I stepped aside to let him, and watched Emira’s face as she stared at me like she might be able to look inside. Which she could. She and Gershwin both were multi-talented magicians, and when they interviewed me last year, after Sinclaire, I gave them almost full access to my thoughts. There were some things I didn’t particularly want anyone knowing, of course.
Now, I wondered if she knew I’d hidden parts of my thoughts from her.
“Are we done here?” Lucas asked from behind me. “It’s been a difficult night for all of us. I think Amelia may need to turn in.”
Emira stepped to one side and held a hand out to the path back up to the Academy. “If I have more questions, I’ll come and find you all. Stay in the light on your way back. For all we know, there’s still a killer loose. Or something worse.”
It was the something worse that really lodged itself in my head as Lucas guided me up the path a bit, and then waited for Isaac to catch up. He didn’t want to be apart any more than I did, apparently. Hunter gave his statement to Emira; it was brief enough that I didn’t think she suspected him of anything, and when they were done he joined us as well.
“Your brother’s here looking at the body,” Hunter said as he reached us, glancing back at Sadie where Percy had opened his case and begun examining her through tools I couldn’t quite make out. “They’re thinking this is some kind of Abyssal thing?”
“Seems that way,” Lucas murmured.
“They think I did it,” I whispered.
“Come on.” Isaac started up the path. “Let’s leave them to figure it out. Once they find out what really happened, no one could possibly think you had anything to do with it.”
We followed him, and I hugged myself as a chill breeze picked up. “So, you believe me?”
Lucas slipped an arm over my shoulders. “What kind of question is that? Of course we do.”
I leaned my head against his shoulder for a moment. “I wish that made me feel better. But Sadie’s still dead. A freshman… she didn’t even get a chance to be a real student. I don’t understand why anyone would do this.”
“It may have nothing to do with her personally,” Hunter said from behind us. I glanced back at him, frowning, and he spread his hands. “She’s a Chapman. Her family has enemies. It’s possible she was targeted because of that.”
“That doesn’t make it better, either,” I breathed. “It just means some kind of assassin got into Rosewilde. But… honestly, I’m not even sure I believe that. I mean, what are the chances that after everything we went through last year, this year just so happens to start with something like that? Is Abyssal magic that common?”
“No,” he admitted. “At least, not to my knowledge.”
Isaac opened the gate through the north wing of the Academy, into the tunnel that led to the central courtyard. The passage was dark, and as Lucas and I reached the edge of the light from the spells that illuminated that path to the Cabin, I paused.
Lucas squeezed me close. “Hey, it’s all right. Hunter?”
Hunter muttered a quick spell, and with the final word a spark of light drifted into the passage and brightened until it was lit, burning away all the shadows. Did it seem like part of the darkness took more ti
me than the rest to disappear? I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Sorry,” I said. “It’s stupid, I—”
“It’s not,” Lucas said, and urged me into the passage. “But the three of us are here. You don’t have to worry. If you want, we can all go back to my room and stay up. Right?”
Isaac nodded, smiling. Hunter, though, looked off at one of the windows high up on the Academy wall facing the courtyard. “Nathan looked like he was having trouble,” he said. “I should go see how he’s doing. But… I could come by after?”
It was late. I wanted to stay up with them, but classes started early, and I didn’t want to be too exhausted to make a good first impression. Especially since all the faculty likely knew about last year’s series of fiascos. “You go check on Nathan. And I don’t need to be coddled. It’s scary, but it’s also Rosewilde… this kind of thing happens, right? I mean, Sadie grew up with magic, right? Maybe she was messing with something she wasn’t ready for. I don’t know.”
I gave Isaac a weak smile as he brushed my hair with his fingers. “Speculation will get us nowhere but running in circles. Let security work it out. You sure you don’t need us with you? We could come to your room with you, sit up until you fall asleep.”
“As nice as that sounds,” I told him, “I haven’t really settled in. And I don’t know who my roommate is yet. They weren’t in when I was there before. I need some time to clear my head and”—I glanced at Hunter—”just sort through some stuff. But I’ll see you for breakfast?”
Isaac nodded and dipped his head to kiss me. I sighed into it, trying to let the warmth of it settle into me and calm my thoughts and fears. When he pulled back, Lucas took his turn.
“We’ll see you in the morning,” Lucas whispered.
Hunter stood to the side, watching. I touched his arm as I passed him and went into the Academy through the empty dining room. The door closed behind me as the three of them started talking. About what, I didn’t know. Hopefully Lucas and Isaac weren’t pressuring Hunter. The last thing I wanted was for him to go further than he was ready for because they wore him down.
A Spell for Shadows: Rosewilde Academy of Magical Arts Page 6