“The pair of you should be in your dormitories. The semester starts tomorrow.”
“Yes, Professor Atherton,” I said. “We’re heading there now.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“Where have you been?”
“We were in the library,” I said, which wasn’t a complete lie. We had been in the library. We’d just been other places since.
“Lyssa was worried about being behind when classes start,” Sam added, and I only didn’t kick him because Atherton was watching us closely.
“I’m glad to see you’re finally taking your studies seriously, Ms Eldridge,” the professor said, staring at me through hooded eyes. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow. See that you don’t loiter on your way back to your room.”
He turned in a whirl of robes, and walked back along the corridor, following the trail of blazing fireballs. I watched him until he was out of sight.
“Come on, let’s go.”
We increased our pace, hurrying down the hallway, until the fireballs hanging near the ceiling became less vibrant, marking our entrance to the less-visited parts of the castle.
“What did you find out from Ethan?”
“Aside from the fact he loves himself?” I shook my head. “Not much. He was just using it as an excuse to make a move on me. He did mention that there was no blood, though.”
“That’s weird,” Sam said, as we rounded another corner. “I thought bites were supposed to bleed? The body’s way of getting rid of infection, or something, right?”
“Yeah, I thought so, too. But she definitely wasn’t bleeding.”
We mulled that over in silence as we walked. We’d almost made it to the dungeon when Sam stopped walking and touched a hand to my arm.
“What’s that?”
“What’s–”
I cut off as I heard a scraping somewhere in the shadows behind us. Straining my ears, I could just about make out the scratching of claws on stone. I spun around and backed away, searching the darkness for whatever awful creature was creeping around down here. Slowly, with bestial grace, it slipped from the shadows.
“Toby!”
I let out a breath and a nervous chuckle slipped out with it.
“I swear that animal is trying to give me a heart attack. Go on, get out of here.”
I shooed him away but he just looked at me through his wide brown eyes, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he looked amused. Whatever. He was the least of my concerns right now. We carried on, and he followed us the rest of the way to the dungeon entrance. The door was shut and I glanced at Sam for a moment, then grabbed the handle and eased it open.
It took my eyes a moment to adjust to the gloom as we stepped inside, and shut the door behind us, leaving Toby in the corridor.
“What are you doing here?” a voice – not Kelsey’s – snapped, and as we turned around, the dull lights flickering over our faces, we saw Professor Underwood’s eyes sharpen with recognition. “Ah, I should have known. Nothing stays quiet for long around here, does it?”
I didn’t reply, because my eyes were darting around the room I’d first glimpsed on Halloween, only tonight it was completely transformed. There was no music, no buffet table, and no students – except one. Kelsey was in a cell at the back of the room, with heavy chains bolting her to the wall.
“It’s probably for the best,” the professor said, kindly. “Kelsey will need all the support we can give her this evening.”
“What’s…” My voice caught in my throat a moment as I watched my friend who was sitting on the stone floor, showing not a flicker of recognition at the sound of our voices. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s in a trance. I hope that by preparing herself fully before the transformation comes over her, she will better be able to control herself when it happens.”
“You seem to know a lot about it.”
“Alas, not enough, I fear. Co-operation between magical academies has its limits, particularly when it comes to sharing pack secrets for the education of one whose very existence is frowned upon.”
The professor rose from his seat and pulled up two more chairs.
“It’s going to be a long night. She won’t be able to hear you in her trance, but I don’t doubt you will be of great comfort to her once the transformation begins.”
*
Professor Underwood was right: it was a long night. I thought I’d seen dark things, felt every type of pain, but when Kelsey’s transformation began, I started to realise exactly how sheltered I’d been. Never in my life had I seen anything so horrific, nor been so helpless to do anything, as when the moon’s spell fell over my friend and wracked her body with agony so absolute that I couldn’t tell the difference between her human and lupine howls of agony. And that was only the beginning, as she clawed and bit at her chains and her own limbs, desperate to escape and answer the call of the moon. At times it seemed like dawn would never come, but eventually it did, and when Kelsey’s human form returned, the three of us helped her back to her dorm, and got what rest we could before the rising sun summoned us to classes.
Under orders from Talendale himself, we gathered in the entrance hall and waited to be escorted to our Botany class out in the academy’s vast greenhouses. At least we were partnered with the Earth elements in this class, which meant I wouldn’t have to put up with Felicity’s sneering gibes until Atherton’s class. It was just as well, given how awful I felt this morning.
I stifled a yawn as we entered the humid greenhouses, trying my best not to let Kelsey see how tired I was – she felt bad enough about last night, no matter how many times we told her we were glad we were able to be there with her. I just hoped whatever was lurking in the Unhallowed Grove, it was caught before the next full moon.
“Good morning, everyone, good morning,” Professor Ellerby said, clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Today we shall be working on a particularly important task. You will all, of course, be aware that poor Keira remains in the hospital wing.”
Immediately, the entire class fell so silent you could practically hear the plants around us growing. Everyone wanted to know what had happened to Keira, but none of the professors had so far said a word about it.
“We will be repotting and assisting the growth of the Beathanian plant, which will be essential in treating Keira’s injuries. I expect you to work with the utmost care and attention. Each of you will partner with a student from a different element. Quickly, now.”
The class broke itself up, and I found myself partnered with a serious Earth element called Ben Ackerman. I’d seen him in our other classes last semester, of course, but I hadn’t worked with him before.
“Collect one plant and one large pot from my desk please, and take them back to your tables. I will inspect each plant before the end of the lesson, and I expect to see at least half an inch of growth.”
I raised my eyebrows but said nothing. Half an inch was a lot, given that this lesson was only an hour long. Ben, at least, didn’t appear to be worried.
“You get the pot and some soil,” he said. “I’ll choose us a plant.”
And that was where working with an earth element really came in helpful in Botany. Their powers might seem less impressive at first glance, but when it came to being in tune with nature, there was no-one better. All druids had a certain affinity for nature, be it flora or fauna, but none so much as the Earths. I grabbed a pot and some potting soil, content in the knowledge that Ben would bring us a decent plant which would have every chance of making the half-inch growth.
He set the plant onto our muddied wooden desk, running his fingers over the stem lightly.
“Couldn’t you have found one that looked a little healthier?” I asked, tossing a few handfuls of soil into the new pot. Ben’s lips moved a fraction in response, in what I took to be a smile.
“Trust me, we got the best one.”
I squinted at the drooping, sickly-looking plant, then glanced round the re
st of the tables at the array of bushy, perky Beathanians. I did, however, notice more than one earth element looking enviously at our half-dead plant.
“You’re the plant guy. Want me to soak this soil?”
“Just a sprinkle. A little bit more… yeah, there.”
I set the watering can aside and helped him ease the plant from its old pot, taking care not to disturb the roots, but to my surprise, Ben dusted the soil from them.
“Little bit of heat,” he said, “Just here, on the roots.”
I shrugged, then lifted my right hand, holding it above the roots and letting a small amount of heat leak out of it – about the equivalent of holding your hand above a lightbulb that’s been on for a couple of hours. I might have imagined it, or maybe Ben’s hand shook, but the plant seemed to give a little shiver as the warmth reached it. After about a minute, Ben nodded and I dropped my hand, not at all surprised to see the plant looking just a little healthier. We settled it into the pot, and I spent the next half hour alternately applying heat and drops of water, while Ben stroked the plant’s stem and leaves, and occasionally touched his fingers to the soil.
“Very good,” Ellerby said when she reached our table. “This is plant number fourteen, correct?”
She glanced down at the sheet on her clipboard held in her mud-stained hands.
“Let’s get it measured, then.”
She held a stick to the moist soil, and measured to the very tip of the plant, then jotted the number down on her clipboard and beamed at us.
“Excellent work. Over an inch of growth. Everyone else could stand to learn a lesson from you. Get yourselves cleaned up and I’ll escort you all back to the castle.”
Unfortunately, the rest of our classes didn’t go as smoothly as Botany. After breakfast we had Spellcraft and Professor Atherton spent the entire time glowering at me, no doubt wondering why I couldn’t answer a single question, despite having allegedly spent all of yesterday evening ensconced in the library, studying.
Felicity, of course, answered every question I couldn’t, earning her looks of approval from Atherton and glares from all the Fires in the room – except for the ones who were glaring at me. Professor Atherton had decided to assign all of our element group extra homework to make up for my deficiencies. Just as well my work at the gryff barn was still on hold, because I’d never have had time to get this lot done on top of everything else.
The trend continued throughout the week – every professor piled more and more work on us, telling us we had to start getting prepared for our end of year exams. Not that we had any time to revise with all the extra work they were setting. I was so wrapped up with my workload that it wasn’t until Friday evening at dinner that I started to pay attention to the murmurs of some of the other students.
“I heard Janey Dobson from Earth element found him,” Sharna said, her voice a conspiratorial whisper as she looked round the table to make sure everyone was listening. Dean nodded enthusiastically.
“It’s true. No-one knows how long he’d been down there, but no-one saw him at breakfast that morning. No-one even knows if he went to bed the night before.”
“You mean he might have been lying there all night and all day?” Liu said.
“Imagine if Janey hadn’t taken that shortcut,” Sharna said, gleefully. “He could have been there for days before anyone found him. He might even have died.”
Liu shuddered. I set my fork down and looked across the table at them.
“Who?”
“Where’ve you been, Lyssa?” Sharna said, looking stunned that I wasn’t up to date with the latest gossip. “Ethan, of course. He was found in the lower corridors, on a shortcut between Earth and Water dorms. Someone attacked him.”
“Or something,” Dean put in, taking a spoonful of some brown sludge on his plate that I didn’t care to identify.
“Do you think it’s the same thing that attacked Keira?” Sam said. I stamped on his foot before he could let on that we knew more about that than we should. “Or the same person,” he amended hastily.
“It’s a bit too much of a coincidence if it’s not, don’t you think?” Sharna said. “Two attacks only a couple of weeks apart.”
“But Keira was found outside in the grounds,” Kelsey pointed out. “You can’t think whatever did that to her has found a way inside the castle, it would never have got past the academy’s defences, and the professors would never allow something dangerous to roam the hallways. I mean, they just wouldn’t, would they?”
I placed my hand lightly over hers, and she took a breath for the first time in a minute, looking frantic.
“How else could it have happened?” Sharna said with a careless shrug, completely oblivious to the fact Kelsey was on the verge of panic – which was nothing out of the ordinary for Sharna. When she got her teeth into the latest piece of gossip, she tended not to notice anything else. Which was convenient, because otherwise she’d have seen the blood drain from my face. A second attack. I’d only spoken to him a handful of days before. Sure, he was a jerk, and he was a bit full of himself, but he didn’t deserve to be attacked. And worse, he’d been our only witness, or the closest thing we’d had to one. I’d still been hoping he would remember some detail that would give us a clue. Could that have been why he was attacked?
“We should get going,” I said, quickly stacking my plate on top of Kelsey and Sam’s, who looked startled for a moment but recovered quickly. “We need to make a start on our homework.”
Chapter Twenty
“Hi, mum, it’s me. Lyssa,” I said into the phone pressed against my ear.
“Lyssa, how wonderful to hear from you!” Her voice sounded genuine, if a little shocked. This was the first time I’d phoned since that first time I’d been sitting in Professor Talendale’s office, telling her that I’d come here to study. I looked idly around Talendale’s office now, noting that nothing in here had really changed over the last six months – except me. I’d never been anxious about speaking to my own mum before. And I’d sworn that I wouldn’t have this conversation over the phone, but there were three people in the hospital wing now, and none of them showed any sign of making a recovery any time soon. Academy security had been stepped up, but that hadn’t stopped Professor Ellerby getting attacked just three weeks after Ethan. And if a professor could be attacked, how could any of us be sure we were safe? The answer was that we couldn’t, and that was why I had to make this call. If something happened to me… Well, I just had to know the truth. It was important. Almost as important as hearing my mum’s voice again. Letters just weren’t the same.
“Sorry it’s been so long, mum.” I glanced across the room at Professor Talendale, who was pretending to be occupied sorting his living bookcases, in an unusual display of tact. His efforts weren’t being helped by the shelves occasionally reordering themselves and jumbling up his attempts, which didn’t deter him from trying.
“Lyssa? Did you hear me?”
“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head and focussing back on my call.
“Never mind, it’s not important. What’s wrong? You don’t sound like your usual self.”
I stared down at the desk in front of me, the same desk that had revealed the truth about my heritage, and wondered how this was supposed to go. I’d been right: it wasn’t a phone call sort of conversation. I couldn’t quite seem to find the words.
“I…” I sighed. I couldn’t do it to her. Adopted or not, she deserved the right to tell me on her own terms. “I miss you.”
I heard her own sigh travel down the line. When she spoke again, she sounded years older, and took her time over each word.
“Lyssa, that’s not why you called, and we both know it. You’ve always been able to talk to me. Tell me what’s bothering you.”
I hesitated. I didn’t want to bring this up on the phone, but I didn’t want to lie in what might be our last ever conversation, either, and it seemed like I was going to have to choose one. In the end, I went with the one
that seemed less disrespectful to the woman who taught me right from wrong.
“Am I adopted?” I blurted the words with less tact than I intended, and listened to her sharp intake of breath and the silence that followed with guilt clawing at my throat.
“I– We should have talked to you before you left. We meant to, you know, before you went to university, but it all happened so suddenly.”
It felt like my insides were made of lead. I’d expected her to laugh and ask me where I got such a ridiculous idea from, but I’d been wrong. Very wrong. I was adopted.
“I want you to know this doesn’t change anything, Lyssa. No matter where you came from, I am your mother, and your dad is still your dad, and we love you, very much.”
“And Holly? Is she–?”
“The doctors said we would never conceive. When I got pregnant a couple of years after you came to us, it was completely unexpected. But we love you both the same. You’re both our daughters.”
At least now I knew why Holly was so much better than me academically, why she’d been so much more like our dad. Her dad.
“Lyssa? Are you still there?”
“Yeah,” I said, dully.
“We came to this country for you, Lyssa.”
That sharpened my attention. They’d always changed the subject when I brought up the reason they moved to England, brushing it off as wanting a change of scenery, or there being better work opportunities than in America.
“When your birth mother gave you up, it was with two stipulations – that you kept your name, and that you were raised in England. We agreed without hesitation, and we would not change that for anything. Not for anything. You’re part of this family, and blood doesn’t have anything to do with it. I love you, Lyssa, and nothing will ever change that.”
“I love you, too, mum,” I said, numbly forcing my mouth to make the words. “I’ve got to go. I’ll see you soon.”
I hung the phone up and sat for the longest moment, staring blankly at the living wood desk the phone was sitting on. My birth mother had wanted me to stay in England. So I could come to this academy? Be raised a druid? I snorted softly to myself. That had worked out well. And just as I thought I was starting to find my place in the world, find somewhere I belonged, it turned out I didn’t even belong in my own family. Not either of them.
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