by Sophia Shade
“I don’t know. She was fine at the trials. She kicked ass, actually. But she said she just started feeling sick at the party.”
“It was probably just something I ate,” Dannika mumbles.
“Of course,” I say. I jump a little, startling Dannika, but I just figured it out. Figured out what’s making the students sick, I mean. “It’s poison,” I continue breathlessly. “The other sick students. It’s in the food!”
“What?” Dannika asks, a shudder in the question. “You think I have the same thing as the others?”
“Doesn’t that mean she’s going to—” Ella starts, eyes wide.
“No! Nothing is going to happen to her,” I say forcefully. “She is going to be fine. We are going to find the source of this illness and the cure.”
We arrive at our room, and it takes Ella and I both to get Dannika settled in her bed.
“Shouldn’t we take her to the infirmary?” Ella asks. “The quarantine…”
“No,” I say. “Nurse Oshae already knows it’s not contagious. There’s no quarantine anymore. Besides, Dannika will be more comfortable here.” I turn to my roommate as I tuck her into the bed. “Tell me, what did you eat?”
She rolls onto her back, rubbing her forehead with a shaky hand. It pains me to see her so sick and weak. Her dark skin already looks cracked like bark. It seems to be taking her over much faster than the others. Maybe the poisoner has stepped up his game.
“A cookie, some crackers, and almond cheese log,” she says.
I nod. “Ella, you stay here with her. I’ll go get the food, check to see if anyone else is sick. We need to make sure no one else gets poisoned.”
“Bring the food to me,” Ella says. “I might be able to reverse-engineer an antidote if I have the original poison.”
“Ella, you’re a genius! You can do that?” I say, fighting the urge to hug her.
“Most poisons are derived from plants,” she points out. “My knowledge of herbs can help me figure out the source.”
“I’ll go get it right now!”
I run back down to the party, heading straight for the food table. The cookies are all gone, but I do find the almond cheese log and crackers. I look around, but I don’t see anyone else acting sick. Hopefully the poisoned food wasn’t the cookies. The almond cheese looks barely touched. Maybe Dannika was the only person to try it. I take the whole plate, covering it with another plate to keep from spilling it, and turn to leave.
“Hey, Imogen,” Erick says when I almost run into him. He steadies me. “I just wanted to tell you how amazing you did today. Sorry if I didn’t make that clear earlier.”
“Oh, thanks,” I say, trying to move around him. “Can we talk about this later? I need to get back to Dannika.”
“What’s wrong with Dannika?” he asks.
I lower my voice. “I don’t want to cause a panic, but she’s sick. She has the illness. I think this cheese was poisoned.”
He rubs his hand over his chin. “Are you sure?”
“About her having the illness, yes. About it being the cheese? No,” I say hurriedly. “But it is the best lead I have right now.”
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
“Ella says if I can find the poison, she might be able to figure out a cure.”
He reaches for the plate. “Why don’t I take this to Ella? You need to talk to Nurse Oshae, Mr. Clawfire, or Headmistress Shadowburn. This is way above us.”
“That’s…actually a good idea,” I say. “Nurse Oshae has been working on this for months. If she and Ella work together, they might find the cure faster.”
I force my hands to let go of the plate. I hadn’t realized how hard I was gripping it.
Erick takes the plate from me, and then rubs my shoulder. “Dannika will be okay,” he says. “You were right about pursuing the illnesses. There definitely was something there.”
“Thanks,” I say. “That means a lot, coming from you.”
“Well, you still didn’t help me find who was behind the attacks,” he says with a wry smile as he walks away. “Maybe you can work on that next.”
“I’ll just put it on my to-do list,” I shout after him. For some reason, I feel better after talking to Erick. A little lighter, a little more hopeful. I don’t know why the same guy who can make me so angry can also give me such comfort. Maybe I could ask him to be my tutor again.
But I can’t think about that now. I need to get help from some of the professors around here. They are supposedly so much wiser and more experienced. Now that we know the source of the poison, surely they can do something.
I head down to the infirmary. When I arrive, several professors are there, all crowded in the back of the room. I make a beeline toward them, seeing they are hovering around a student, one of the first to fall ill. I peek through the crowd, and gasp at what I see. He has completely turned to wood. Flowers and ivy are growing from him. If it wasn’t a dead person, I would think it was an exquisite statue. I don’t see Nurse Oshae anywhere, but when Damon sees me, he grips my arm and leads me back to the hallway.
“What are you doing here?” He shakes me a little. “You shouldn’t have seen that.”
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” I ask, even though I know the answer.
Damon doesn’t reply.
“How many more have died?”
“He’s the second,” he says. “And two more students will follow them very soon.”
“The students who fell ill most recently, does it seem to be progressing faster in them?” I ask, a cold pit in my stomach.
“Why would you ask that?” he asks, scrunching his brow.
“Does it or not?” I press.
Damon nods. “But Nurse Oshae—”
“Hasn’t told anyone. I know. But Dannika has it,” I say. “She was fine at the trials, then fell ill at the party. She looks terrible, much farther along than the others at her stage.”
Damon exhales loudly. “Yes, whatever hex the person is using seems to be stronger now, working more quickly.”
“It’s not a hex,” I say. “It’s poison.”
“A poison? How do you know?”
“I think it was in the cheese Dannika ate at the party.”
“Poison? In the food? How…mundane,” he says. “We were so busy looking at a magical property to the illness we never considered it was something as simple as poison.”
“We need to tell Nurse Oshae,” I say. “Ella says if the poison is plant-based, it should be easy to find a cure.”
“She’s not here now,” Damon says. “But I’ll tell her as soon as I find her.”
“And?” I ask.
“And…what?”
“And what else are you going to do?” I ask. “We need to find the poisoner.”
“How?” he asks. “We’ve tried every spell to reveal them, and nothing’s working. Now we know why. Because they’re not using magic. There’s nothing else we can do.”
“Stop thinking in terms of magic. We need to find out who had motive and opportunity. Inspect the kitchens. Interview the cooks.” Finally, all those hours watching CSI will pay off!
“That’s quite enough,” Damon snaps. “We have our own ways of dealing with things here. Just go tend to Dannika for now…” He grips my elbow and turns me away, as if shushing a child.
“And wait for her to die?” I ask, spinning back toward him. “Your way has gotten us nowhere. These students have been getting sick and dying all year, and you and the other professors have done nothing!”
“Now, see here, missy,” Damon says, obviously growing hot.
“Don’t you dare talk down to me,” I growl. “Until thirty seconds ago, you still thought this was a curse. Dannika would be dead if I just left this up to you. Now are you going to help me stop this poisoner or what?”
“That’s enough!” Damon says, his eyes flaming. “You don’t know what you are talking about. Go back to your room. Now!”
“No!” I say. “I’m goi
ng to stop this killer and save Dannika with or without your help.”
Damon raises a finger to my face. “You—”
“That is enough,” a calm voice says.
When I look up, the headmistress is standing a few feet away. She continues over to us, then reaches up and places her hand on Damon’s arm before lowering it. “Let her go. She has earned the right to follow up however she sees fit.”
We both gulp. I’m not sure what exactly she means by that, but I don’t wait around and ask. I simply back up, then turn and run down the hall toward the kitchen. At least one of the administrators around here isn’t a bumbling buffoon. The headmistress sees my value, and I won’t let her down. I will find the killer.
I’m just not sure how.
The food was poisoned, so it makes sense to check the kitchen first and talk to the cook.
“You what?” the little kitchen brownie asks. She is short and stout with wild strawberry-blonde hair. She lifts her stained apron and uses it to wipe off her hands.
“I was wondering if you had any food here from the human realm,” I say. “I have such a craving. I can’t remember the last time I had a Twinkie.”
“A Twinkie?” she nearly spits. “That is just sugar and lard. How can you be craving that when I make the best quality food in both realms?”
“The heart wants what it wants,” I say with a shrug.
The cook scoffs, but then toddles off. “Twinkie my right arse…” she mumbles.
I don’t really want a Twinkie. Well, I didn’t, but now that I’ve thought about it, I wouldn’t mind if she did scrounge one up. But anyway. I’m hoping she will be gone long enough for me to find…something out of place. Some evidence of the poisoning.
I’m not alone, though. There are other brownies and wee folk running around. The stove and ovens seem to be alive as they turn on and off on their own to keep the food from burning. Thankfully, no one seems to pay me much mind.
I have no idea what I’m looking for as I rummage through the pantry. There are so many bottles and ingredients, and they all look like poison to me. Ornate glass jars hold powders, liquids, and plants I’ve never seen before. Some sparkle while other bubble. This is completely pointless.
I do find some more of the cheese that Dannika ate. I take it with me. If this cheese isn’t poisoned, we will know it wasn’t poisoned by someone in the kitchen, but by someone at the party. It might not help us narrow down who the poisoner is, but it will be more information than we have now.
Suddenly, I hear a crashing from across the room.
“You little sot! What are you doing?” I hear the brownie cook call out. “What’s that you got?”
I run over to see what the commotion is. The cook is going completely boggart on Myra Atticus, Nurse Oshae’s daughter, the girl who went missing at the faèdahunt.
“Myra? What are you doing here?” I ask.
“I caught her trying to meddle with my food,” the cook screeches.
“What?” I ask, startled. “Myra, is this true?”
“She’s crazy.” Myra holds her hands up. “I was just looking for a snack.”
“In the back pantry where I keep the disgusting human food samples? Not bloody likely,” the cook yells. “What were you doing there? Out with it! I’ll have you whipped for days for meddling in my kitchen.”
“Let’s just calm down,” I say.
“Calm down?” the brownie screams. “How dare you! I’m the queen down here. What I say goes, and I say both of you are going to go just as soon as I find out what she was up to.”
Oh gods, so this is what happens when a brownie goes boggart.
“I wasn’t doing anything,” Myra says. “I was just looking for a snack.”
“What a pack of lies!” The cook jumps up and grabs Myra’s arm, shaking her. Out of Myra’s sleeve, a small book falls out and hits the floor. I reach down and pick it up.
“Secretum alter ab terrae,” I read.
I realize I’m reading Roman letters, not Fae, but I still don’t understand the words. Terrae? Is that Italian? French? I’m not sure. Actually, it looks like the books I saw in Ferria’s room. A language I can’t read.
“Myra, what is this?” I ask.
“It’s nothing,” she says, grabbing for the book. “Just something for one of my classes.”
“We don’t use human books in our classes.” I hold it out of her reach. “What’s this all about?”
“It’s nothing. Certainly not any of your business.” She narrows her eyes.
“Well, if you’re hungry,” I say, casually pulling the cheese out of my pocket, “why don’t you eat some of this?”
“No thanks,” Myra says a little too quickly. She even backs up a bit, as if she is afraid of it.
“Why not?” I ask, thrusting it toward her. “It’s just a bit of cheese.”
“I…I just don’t like it,” she says, but she has gone pale.
“You dare insult my cooking, now?” the cook yells. “Just you wait! I’ll have you banished out of here so quickly…”
“Come on, Myra, just a bite,” I say.
Myra smacks the cheese from my hand, and snatches the book at the same time. I lunge to get it back, but she’s too quick. Before I can manage to get a good hold, she tears it away and tosses it into the fire.
“No,” I yell.
I dive in after it without thinking. The flames are hot, but they don’t burn me since they aren’t intentionally made to hurt me. Being a fire Fae has its perks.
I move my arms through the fire, both waving out the flames and absorbing the heat at the same time. I didn’t know this was even possible, but it just seems natural. But by the time I put the fire out, the book is destroyed.
When I turn around, Myra is gone.
Nineteen
I rush out of the kitchen into the hall and look in either direction. I don’t see Myra. And since she’s not using magic, there’s no magical signature to follow.
Questioning her, or getting my hands on that book of hers, was the best shot at finding a cure. With the book destroyed, the only place the poison recipe and the antidote exist are in her head. I have to find her.
I sprint down one hall, peering into rooms as I go, then back up another. Everyone’s still at the party. There’s no sign of movement anywhere.
The school’s too big. I’ll never find her. I don’t know a whole lot about her, but I try to mentally revisit what I do know.
She’s a fire Fae. I know that because her last name was almost Flareburn, but she knew well enough to change it.
Nurse Oshae is her mom, a druid healer who had no idea who Myra’s dad was.
And all this time, Myra’s been running around making people sick while her mom’s been trying to make everyone better again.
How does that happen?
I shake my head, trying to focus. Looking for Myra probably isn’t even the best use of my time. I’m wasting precious minutes trying to find her, when the book is destroyed and it’s not likely she’s going to tell me anything even if I do.
We need a different solution. But it took us this long just to get this one. What other solution could there be?
I run back to my room, feeling dejected. I was so close to some sort of answer. Myra is behind the poisonings, but I don’t know why. And now she’s gone, so I can’t get the antidote from her.
When I open the door, Ella, Erick, and Caleb are inside. Ella has set up a little apothecary station on my desk, while Caleb is running a cloth over Dannika’s head. Erick is sitting by himself, but jumps up and hurries over to me as soon as I walk in.
“What happened?” he asks.
“So much.” I’m out of breath, but manage to get out. “Myra Atticus is behind the poisonings.”
“What?” they ask at once.
“Are you sure?” Ella asks.
“How do you know?” Caleb asks.
“Did you tell any of the professors?” Erick says.
“Our prof
essors are totally useless.” I flop down on my bed across from Dannika. She’s fast asleep. “How is she?”
Caleb shrugs. “Not much change. She’s just been resting the whole time I’ve been here.”
“Which is good,” Ella says. “She will need her strength to heal.”
“Will she heal?” I ask.
Ella looks down at her hands. “I don’t know,” she murmurs somberly. “I have found trace elements in the cheese that shouldn’t be there, but the poison could come from anywhere. It will take me forever to isolate it.”
“Myra had a book with her. Something called…ugh…Secret alter terrae, or something like that,” I tell her. “Does that ring a bell?”
“You mean Secretum alter ab terrae?” she asks.
“That’s it,” I exclaim. “You know it?”
“It’s very rare,” she says. “My mother has a copy. I could go get it from her. But it isn’t something a student would have. It’s not a textbook. The library doesn’t even have a copy.”
“What is it?” Caleb asks.
“It’s an old human book of ritualistic dark magic,” she says. “It’s Latin for Secrets of the Earth, and dates back to the medieval period. Most of it is inaccurate, to the say the least, except for the few recipes for potions and spells.”
“Oh, Latin!” I say, snapping my fingers. “I knew I was close. She must be using a poison from that book.”
“It’s possible,” Ella says. “I’ll go get my mother’s book. See what I can find out. I’ll have to find someone who speaks Latin to help me.”
“I’ll help,” Caleb says.
“You speak Latin?” I ask, raising my eyebrows.
“I’m a prince.” He spreads his arms, puffing out his chest a little. “We speak all languages.”
“Well, that’s handy,” I say. “But we need to hurry. Two students have already died. They’ve completely turned into wood.”
Ella grabs her bag, heading for the door. “Well, if I can save Dannika, I can save the rest of the students,” she says.
She and Caleb hurry from the room, leaving me behind with Erick. He still seems anxious and awkward. I sit by Dannika and continue wiping the warm cloth over her forehead like Caleb had been. I rub her cheek and shudder. Her skin feels hard. This poisoning is progressing so fast. I hope Ella can work quickly enough.