“Seriously?” Sabine scoffed. “Just like that?” Then she eyed me. “It’s your fault. You show up and just ruin the mood.”
“Later, Sabine. Hash it out later. None of us should be out here right now.” Flynn followed his firm suggestion with a look around.
She shrugged. “I was doing just fine before you two showed up. He’s a junior. They’re a little more lax on curfew with them.”
While she patted her lips and wiped at the corners, I curled back in disgust. She looked like a damn vampire or something. Jeez.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said to me, perhaps realizing we should just leave Sabine to herself and let her deal with getting out of the library building unnoticed.
“Wait,” Sabine said after we’d turned our backs on her. “I don’t know how to get back. It’s a damn labyrinth in here.”
I shushed her as she clacked in her heels after us. God. For someone who reveled in being bad and sneaky, she was clueless. Or maybe she’d dressed up for the night since she’d had a “chaperone” to get her around.
“Quiet.” Flynn put his hand at the small of my back, as though to hurry me away from her, and glared at her. “Follow us and just be quiet before someone sees us.”
“Too late.”
I closed my eyes at the familiar voice ahead of us.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Paige stood just before the exit doors, her hands on her hips and her face twisted between shock and fear.
“Are you guys nuts?” She glanced in the direction of the library. “What were you thinking?”
I had been thinking that three was a crowd. With the four of us out here, it was too risky. Granted, Paige was allowed to be there, but—
A door opened behind us, and Paige gasped. She’d probably be in just as much trouble if she were caught with us. “This way!” She darted to a different door, and we rushed after her.
Outside, we hurried to the safety of the night’s shadows, sticking to walking under the canopies of evergreens dotted throughout the formal gardens bordering the building.
“What were you guys doing?” she asked once we were halfway between the Main Library and the general split pathways for the dorms.
“I was just looking for a good time.” Sabine jutted out a hip. “Don’t know about this dork.” She smirked at me and crossed her arms, shivering.
Well, if you’re cold, wear a jacket. And you know, button up your shirt?
“Why is Ren trying to get rid of me?” I asked, instead. Despite the adrenaline rush of almost getting caught and the annoyance of running into Sabine, it was fresh on my mind. Why? Why was he singling me out?
Flynn stepped to my side and stuck one hand in his pocket. “Was he talking about you?” he asked me. “How do you know?”
Paige snorted. “Of course, he was talking about her. Hello? You’ve never noticed how he glares at her? Or are you too busy staring at her yourself?”
He scoffed, “I don’t stare—”
“Oh, come on,” she retorted.
I wanted to grin at this comradery, Paige’s support, like a bestie. But—
“Why?” I lost the urge to smile, ignoring the fun of putting Flynn in the hotseat about paying attention to me. “Get rid of me like how?” Surely, we couldn’t be talking about murder…
“Whoa, whoa. Back. It. Up.” Sabine mimed a reverse command. “Get rid of her? Ren?” She huffed. “Well, yeah. He gets crabby when she beats him at quarterlies, but whatever.”
“He wants you gone,” Paige confessed. “Out of our school.”
Sabine gasped. “But if she’s gone, I gotta go too!”
Gee. Show your true colors, why dontcha?
Paige shrugged. “You were never supposed to come anyway.”
Sabine’s face got stuck in a slack-jawed moue of protest.
Suck on that, sista.
“Why does he want her out of the Academy?” Flynn asked. “And what’s a Diluted? Who’s Nevis?”
“Or a High Diluted? And a Pure?” I added. “What the hell are those?” We’d stumbled on a whole new jargon that made no sense. Latin, I could handle. This terminology was something altogether foreign.
Paige looked back and forth between us, her eyes so wide the whites were almost too bright in the shady nook we’d claimed. “Uh…”
“Paige!” I stepped in her space, my hands fisted. “He’s…he’s threatening me! You cannot pull this crap now. Tell me. Tell us what’s going on!”
She grimaced like she’d throw up. Fine. She could be nervous. I’d still make her tell me the truth after she was done dry heaving.
Yet she hedged. “Well…”
“Paige,” Flynn warned.
Sabine raised her hand like waiting to be called in class. I’d almost forgotten she was there. “Is it like sports stuff or something? Rival team nicknames for the houses?”
“Not quite.” Paige crossed and uncrossed her arms.
“Then what?” I threw my hands up and growled. “You’re not supposed to keep secrets from your friends!”
Her lips set in a firm line before she exploded at me. “Oh yeah? Then why didn’t you tell me about your family? Why didn’t you tell me what really happened to that sweatshirt?”
My family? There was nothing to them. Dad and Sabine? Dad still thought I was a freak. And the only other member and most annoying one was standing right there with us. The sweatshirt…
If Paige could ask about my sweatshirt, like she doubted my vague nonanswers about it before, she had to be informed. Does she know about my longma? I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat and set my most steely glower on her. How dare she grill me about trust like that?
“Tell me, Paige. Please. What the hell is this school about? Why is Ren after me?”
She inhaled low and slowly. Then said, “Olde Earth Academy is the only institution in the world for elves.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
No one spoke.
I stared at Paige.
“Elves,” she repeated. As though she might have thought we hadn’t heard.
“Elves?” Sabine asked.
Paige nodded.
Sabine frowned. “Elves? Like the Keebler guys. Elmer and Buckets?”
Flynn and I narrowed our eyes at her. Paige looked at her like she’d spouted a horn.
“Those cookies. The shortbread and fudge in the middle?” Sabine rotated her hand as though to encourage us to think of her favorite junk food.
“No, not like that, Paige said.
Elves? I pulled on my earlobe.
“Real elves,” Paige explained.
“Like Santa’s?” Sabine tried again.
Paige rolled her eyes.
“Elves?” Flynn asked.
“Like Tolkien’s?” Sabine asked. I was impressed she’d know the books. She was the anti-reader of the world. Wait, no. Orlando Bloom. The movies.
“Uh, well, he knew a few good ones.” Paige tried to smile.
“Tolkien knew elves?” Flynn gaped at her.
“Elves?” Sabine asked.
Paige nodded.
I blinked, trying to find rational thought again. “Elves.”
“O. M. G. Stop saying it.” Paige sighed. “Yes, elves.”
Sabine paced next to us, lifting her face long enough to toss us a laugh. “Prove it.”
“I think Layla already has,” Paige replied.
I squinted at her serious face. “Uh, what? How so?”
Paige’s usually cheerful demeanor was gone. She soberly asked, “What did you do to the longma?”
Oh, my God. I knew it. I knew it. It was a longma. And someone else knows about it.
All I did was help it. I couldn’t speak, and I felt Flynn’s stare burning on my face.
“Uh, hello?” Sabine had stopped pacing and shoved her head between the staring contest Paige and I had started. “What’s a log man?”
“Long-ma,” I hissed at my sister.
Paige ignored her. “What happe
ned to it?”
“It’s gone.” I lifted one shoulder and fought tears. If Paige was asking after it, it had to mean something bad. She wouldn’t be giving me reassurance that it was fine. “I…I don’t know what happened to it.”
Tears glossed over her eyes too as she stared back at me.
“Elves?” Flynn said again.
Paige broke her gaze on me. “Please. Just stop saying it already.” She massaged her temple.
“It’s just kind of…out there.” Flynn rubbed at the back of his head.
Sabine’s chortle was an ugly sound to break up the tension. “No, this is stupid. This is some messed-up crap, Layla. Now that you actually have made a friend, you do some stupid punky thing. A childish prank like this? You’re still so la—”
“Lame!” I shouted at her. “Fine! I’m lame. So leave. We didn’t ask you to be here.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “This is bull. Elves don’t exist. And here you are, pulling off some idiotic joke, talking about some fake thing…” She grunted as she paced away and then back to me. Here we go. Full diva.
“Don’t even,” we said in unison. She barked it out like a command, and I mocked it out in whiny sass.
“Seriously. Don’t even try to do that lunatic stuff here. If we’re kicked out of this school because of your craziness, I’ll—”
“What?” I yelled at her. “What? What will you do?” I’d already accepted that I was not crazy when I’d saved the longma. And now with Paige basically stating I was right, confirming longmas existed and that she knew I’d been in contact with one, I was one hundo p confident I was nowhere close to crazy. Unique, maybe. But that wasn’t my problem. Sabine had nothing to hold over me.
She didn’t answer and stormed off.
We all stared at her retreating figure until the night swallowed her from our sight.
Flynn broke our silence. “What’s a Diluted and a Pure?”
He’s not going to doubt this whole elf thing?
Paige exhaled like the weight of the world was dumped off her shoulders. “Different classifications of—”
I clutched her hand and hushed her. Strolling from the direction we’d come from were two pairs of eyes. Luminescent orbs of nocturnal animals. In a steady gait that promised they weren’t lazing around or bored, I watched Cat Breath and its partner surveying the outdoors.
Dammit. Not only did they use dogs for surveillance… This was what Mr. Suthering had been referring to, the security around these meetings.
“Shit,” Flynn whispered when he’d looked at them scouting about.
I couldn’t even waste time to revel in the fact he saw them. Hell, if this whole school was for elves, and Paige was determined I was one, then I wasn’t as unique as I’d thought.
Hey!
Cat Breath pivoted to face me.
Get lost!
The second cat-lizard cocked its head at us.
“Do you…” Paige escaped my clutch and squinted at the darkness. “Is something there?”
Before I could reply, she rushed off. “I was only going to the bathroom. They’ve got to be looking for me. I’ll…” She volleyed her attention between us and the library building. “I’ll explain more later. I promise. But I’ve got to get back in there before they get suspicious.”
And then she was off, leaving Flynn and me alone in the dark—literally and physically.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I savored the bite of cold in the air as Flynn and I stood in the garden, the night shadows sheltering us from the enormity of the castles of campus surrounding us. It was almost like déjà vu, standing here with him just as we had the night before. Then, we’d planned to seek answers by sneaking out and spying on that meeting. Now, we had too many. We had more information than I think we ever could have bargained for.
“Elves.” I said the word again. As though repetition would pave a path in my head for logic.
“Elves,” Flynn parroted. He turned toward me and studied me. Calm, no longer shocked. “Do you…do you believe her?”
I did. I had to. I gathered the courage to nod, but he continued on.
“You see them too?”
I inhaled hard and fast at his question. Too. Did I see them too? I was right! He had the same ability I did. A sense of belonging soared so high and harsh I almost hugged him.
A bark broke through the still gardens. Another followed. Again. Crap, they were heading toward us.
“Layla, you need to tell me exactly how the hell you got past the dorm guards,” Flynn hissed. He stepped in front of me, as though blocking me from the onslaught of animals.
Those damn cat things had to have alerted some patrol. I clenched my teeth together. Damn it all. I was going to get caught red-handed sneaking out. And spying. With a boy. I’d be kicked out.
“I tossed them a hot dog from the cafeteria with some sleeping pills some pothead in the dorms had,” he admitted.
I shot him a glare. Drugging them? Didn’t he know how dangerous it could be to give OTC meds to a dog, without knowing its body mass and—
“And I don’t have any on me now!”
Closer and closer, the barks surrounded us.
“This one’s on you.”
Oh, thanks. I frantically scoured the darkness ahead of us. Trees towered over us, and we were backed against the wall, the stone smooth and impenetrable. And unclimbable. I knew these guard animals were coming our way, but all I could make out were the impeccably carved arborvitae bordering the space we’d hid in.
“If you can adopt a dragon-horse for a running buddy, you can get us the hell out of this,” he muttered.
When he put it like that… I took a deep breath. Challenge accepted. Honestly, this wasn’t any different than anything I’d faced at the shelter. And now I knew these animals could listen to me. I was…somehow…an elf?
“Calm down,” I said to the darkness.
Flynn scoffed, “Easier said than d—”
Be quiet. I’d been calling to the dogs, not soothing him. Still, the barks stopped. I pushed in front of him just as the troop cleared before us.
All right. Maybe I’d underestimated. This wasn’t the same as facing pups at the shelter. The web-footed and lion-maned breed had come for us.
“Stop.”
The six mutants ceased running and waited in a line. A wall behind and before us. Cold, immobile stone at our backs and large—massive and drooling—beasts in front. These were similar to the one I’d seen at the dorm door, but they were significantly larger. Still, they had listened.
“Sit.”
They didn’t obey.
Dammit. Sit your butts on the ground now, please!
They sat.
I whooshed out the breath I’d been holding. Okay. Maybe these guys were just more temperamental.
I want you to lie down. Now.
Three of them lowered to their bellies. The others remained standing, staring impassively at us.
“Holy crap,” Flynn whispered over my shoulder.
I pointed out my finger, doubling up on my command with the universal physical command. Aiming my finger down, I repeated, aloud now, “Lie down, please.”
Two more dropped to the river rock of the garden bed.
One to go.
I approached the line of them, carefully walking ever so slowly. At the first one, I petted its head, ruffling the long hair of his brown fur. One by one, I gave them affection, Flynn right behind me. When I reached the one standing, I did the same. He didn’t flinch or snap at my touch, letting me pet him.
You stay here and be quiet, boys. We’re going to go, and you will not follow us.
The pony-sized dogs grumbled lowly but sat. Seemed a little love went further than commands.
In the distance, more barks sounded.
All six of the animals cocked their ears.
Don’t let them find us. Go. Stop them.
In a rush of grunts, the six dogs gathered into a pack and took off.
Holy something was right. Not only had I stopped them from trapping us, but they’d also obeyed my orders to hide us. I ignored his comment. So he could see these things like me, but he was impressed that I could command them? A mystery for another time.
“All right. Let’s go.” I didn’t wait for Flynn to agree and we ran to the dorms.
We made it back to the dorms without incident, and if I’d had the freedom to muse about it, I would have been so stoked that I could control or order these creatures simply with a thought. Flynn must have respected the urgency of getting inside ASAP, because before he headed into his half of the Green House, he insisted, “We’ll talk in the morning.”
In my room, alone, I undressed and got into bed. It was already too late to be up. Even though I wanted to wait up for Paige to come home, I couldn’t fight the overwhelming pull to relax. After the adrenaline rush and combination of shocking news I’d learned that night, I crashed right into a dreamless sleep.
When I woke the next morning, it was later than I normally got up. There was no way I’d have time for a run. And as I tossed my blanket from my legs and swung them over the edge of the bed, I realized there was no point. The bigger part of my morning runs were the chances to be with the longma, and as Paige had practically confirmed the night before, something had happened to it. It wouldn’t be waiting for me. Anxiety surged within me, a furious burn of apprehension coursing through my veins. I still had to get a final answer. I’d hold whoever had harmed it accountable.
I rubbed at my eyes and a knock sounded on the door again. Glancing at Paige’s bed, I frowned at my roomie sleeping away below me.
Who could that be?
It must have been what alerted me to wake. I scurried off my bed and landed ungracefully on the carpet and went toward the door.
“Layla?” Paige’s sleepy voice came from the beds. “Who’s that?”
“I don’t know.” I opened the door a crack to find Flynn waiting there.
Secrecy: Olde Earth Academy: Year One Page 17