Rhys stooped down and grabbed a metal chair leg from the floor. Straightening, he hefted it, his gaze flinty.
Where are you? Wolfy asked. I’m in the induction room, but you’re not here. No one is here.
No Pat?
No.
We’re in the cafeteria now , I said.
Why? He growled before I could respond. Never mind. Stay there. I’ll find you.
Easier said than done.
As I started to explain, the lights flickered off, leaving us in darkness. Then suddenly, we were outside.
"What the fuck is going on?" Sarah yelled.
We now stood together in the fenced-in yard. Moonlight poured from the sky, casting an eerie glow on the grass. A quick look around showed that the surrounding fence remained fully intact. There was still no way out of Wadsworth through the yard.
“This is getting old,” Sarah grumbled. “I still don’t know what’s happening. Why do we keep popping from one place to another?”
“All of this might feel random, but it’s not,” my sister said.
“This is intentional?” Sarah said. Cece nodded. “Why?”
Cece shook her head. “That’s what we need to find out.”
“If you’re suggesting that the building is trying to mess with our brains, I’m not buying it.” Her face stamped with fury, Sarah stormed over to stand in front of Aidan. “Enough fucking around. Are you doing this?”
He lifted one eyebrow, his hands splayed wide. He’d lost the shirt and jeans he’d taken from the induction room. Maybe he’d dropped them in the cafeteria. “Why would I?”
“I don’t know,” she grumbled.
I strode toward the window I’d used to spy on the headmaster. Rhys followed me, the chair leg still gripped in his hand.
“Are you going to carry that everywhere?” I asked.
He frowned down at it as he walked beside me. “I should ditch it.”
“Yeah.”
But he didn’t. We approached the window with the lights on inside and stopped in front of the corner with the nick in the one-way glass.
I turned to Rhys. “Why aren’t you throwing it away?”
He looked up from the spear of metal, deep creases filling his brow. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Just chuck it into the bushes and forget about it.”
“I don’t…” He grunted. “I'm going to hold onto it for a while.”
“Well...all right. Just don’t take it to bed with you.” My grin rose, though only for a second. Too many weird things were going on to find humor in the situation.
“There’s only one thing I want in bed with me.” He traced his fingers down my face and nudged my hair back over my shoulder. Stepping in close, he gave me a kiss that seared through my veins.
Just like that, I forgot everything but him. Too soon, he stepped back, leaving me with an urge to tackle him to the ground and show him what it was like to be kissed until nothing existed but us.
Later .
I pivoted on shaky knees and knelt down by the corner of the one-way glass. When I peered inside, there was no one there.
“What are you looking at now?” Sarah asked. “I think we need to go inside.”
Maddy?! Wolfy’s frustration blasted through my mind and I stumbled, falling against the wall.
Sarah rolled her eyes. “What were you looking at?” Pushing Rhys aside, she stooped down and squinted through the tiny opening. “That’s the headmaster’s office. No one’s there.”
You said you were in the cafeteria, but you’re not, Wolfy said.
We’re outside in the yard.
Why?
Good question. Something seems to be popping us from one room to the next, taking us on a grand tour of Wadsworth.
You have no control over the shifts?
Not that I can see. In fact —
With a sudden jolt, we were in the counseling room where Janie had supposedly died. She’d choked right in front of me, and her death had been blamed on me.
Six chairs had been placed in a circle, as if primed for a lengthy session.
Sarah stomped over to one of them and dropped down onto the seat. She braced her arm on the back of the chair and propped her chin up with it, heaving a sigh. Aidan, Cece, and Rhys joined her, taking seats, but the setup creeped me out. Six chairs for the five of us.
Who was yet to arrive?
I expected the door to open and Zombie Nancy to glide in, gibbering something about me needing more counseling. Not going there again.
We’re in the counseling room now , I said to Wolfy. I don’t know why. This entire situation is whacked.
Choosing not to join the others, I walked over toward Nancy’s desk. Rhys and I had already tried to open the file cabinets the last time we were here, but there was no harm in trying again.
Locked. Of course.
I sat in the big chair parked behind Nancy’s desk and tipped backward.
I’d suggest you remain there , Wolfy said in my mind, but I have a feeling that, by the time I arrive, you will have been transported elsewhere.
If this doesn’t stop soon, I’m going to be dizzy. And worn out. So far, I couldn’t see any purpose to the shifting.
Dropping my feet onto the floor with a thud, I yanked on the desk drawers, finding them also locked.
A small porcelain box sat on the corner of Nancy’s green blotter. I grabbed it and pulled off the lid. Inside, I found a gold ring set with a big blue stone. The stone pulled me in, reminding me of the time my mom had taken me to the ocean during a storm. We’d stood on big rocks and watched the deep blue sea crash and churn below us. The stone matched the waves. In fact—
“What’s that?” Rhys asked from beside me, making me jump. I hadn’t heard him leave the chair or approach.
I didn’t look up. I couldn’t pull my gaze from the ring. Lifting it off the pink velvet lining, I dropped the porcelain box. A tinkling rang out as it shattered.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Rhys reaching toward me. “I don’t think you should—”
I slipped the ring onto my left index finger.
The five of us suddenly stood in the library.
“ Enough ,” Aidan said with a snarl. He stomped over to the empty librarian’s desk, then turned and glared. “No more.”
“I don’t think we have any say,” Sarah said with a sneer. “Unless you can use some of that special magic you’re purported to have to put an end to it.”
I watched Cece, who seemed transfixed by her palm. The ball, I assumed. “Guys…”
Rhys raised his chair leg, though I had no idea who he planned to hit with it. If someone tangible was shifting us around, I’d tell him to go for it, but our flight around the school seemed to be caused by the building. Or the ball. Who knew? Whacking the walls would get us nowhere.
Wolfy whimpered and leaned into my leg.
When did you get here? I asked him.
I was heading for the counseling room, but there was a pop, and I appeared here.
I rubbed my arms, but my goosebumps wouldn’t go away. My gaze fell on the ring, and once again, I couldn’t stop staring at the blue stone. Creeped out, I tried to take it off, but no matter how hard I tugged and twisted, I couldn’t get it off my finger.
Wolfy…
He whined but didn’t offer anything else.
“Guys…” Cece said again, the urgency in her voice dragging my attention away from the ring. All color had fled her face, and she teetered, as if a stiff wind would knock her over.
Aidan frowned and strode over to stand in front of her. “It’s that ball, isn’t it? I don’t like how that thing is behaving. You should give it to me.”
“I can’t.” She looked up at him and blinked slowly. She swayed on her feet, and we flashed from the room.
CHAPTER FOUR
Cece
“Of course we’d end up in here,” I mumbled, bracing my hand against the wall. Totally disoriented
and wavering on my feet, I’d opened my eyes to find myself in the room where I'd nearly died. “Why wouldn’t we do a drive-by of Wadsworth's most nefarious location on this nightmare tour of weirdness?”
“This can’t be good,” Maddy said, turning in a slow circle as if waiting for an enemy to jump through one of the walls. In fairness, that wouldn’t really have been a stretch, given all the events that had played out in the last couple of days. I half expected the walls to start to close in around us, a la Star Wars . And I was so not down for that. I might have loved flattened food like waffles, but I had no aspirations to live the waffle experience.
Rhys tried the door, but to no one’s surprise, it didn’t budge. Not even for the master of opening doors. But that didn’t stop him from rattling it like a crazy person.
“I think that means it’s locked, genius,” Sarah drawled from where she perched against the far wall. Rhys stopped shaking the knob and glared at her, the chair leg he’d picked up in the cafeteria still in his hand.
“Can we talk about that thing?” I asked, pointing at his bizarre weapon of choice. “Why do you even have it in the first place?”
“I...I don’t know,” he replied, staring at it with a furrowed brow. “I just saw it and picked it up. When I think about putting it down, it just feels...wrong.”
I shot Maddy a look of concern and found her staring at her hand. On it was something that glimmered in the scant light of the room. I took a shaky step toward her to better see the jewelry that certainly hadn't been there when we’d started our magical montage from room to room.
“What is that?” I asked. My question seemed to yank her from her thoughts, and her eyes shot to me, wide and a little wild. Not a great combo. But she recovered quickly, her expression smoothing to one that far better suited my little sister.
“It’s a ring...I found it on Nancy’s desk.”
“Let me see it,” Aidan said, coming to join me. He reached his hand out, and Maddy tucked hers in closer. Aidan frowned at her, concern etching his brow. “I need to see it, Maddy.”
Reluctantly, she thrust her hand forward for him to examine. But when he tried to slip the ring off, it quickly became clear that it had no intention of leaving her finger.
“What the hell?” he muttered as he pulled a little harder, to no avail.
“It won’t come off,” she said softly. “I think it’s stuck.”
Aidan shook his head. “Not stuck… attached .” He lifted his beautiful blue eyes to Maddy, and I shuddered at what lurked in their depths. Fear swam in those deep blue pools; fear like I’d only seen when he’d thought my mind had been broken when I’d attacked the headmaster and his keeper cronies.
“What does that mean?” I asked him as Rhys rushed to Maddy’s side. Even Sarah strolled over to see what the big deal was. Even if she didn’t care about us, she was never one to miss out on the drama.
“It means it’s chosen her.”
Sarah leaned over Maddy’s hand and scoffed. “Of course it has. It’s a relic of power. That’s what they do.”
“What the fuck did it choose her to do?” I asked, pinching the bridge of my nose.
Sarah’s ambivalent shrug made me want to go full-on Hulk smash. “Whatever the being who crafted it wants, obviously.”
Anger bubbled up inside me, and I cocked my arm back to punch her. If nothing else, it would at least knock that smug, superior look off her face. But Aidan’s hand gently wrapped around my wrist and gave a warning squeeze that brought my focus back to what was important. My sister.
“Are you saying that I’m a puppet?” Maddy asked, finally finding her voice.
“Possibly...”
Fuck .
“How do I get it off?” Maddy asked, tugging at the ring with newfound fervor. Her eyes darted around the room, searching for something. “Wolfy? Where’s Wolfy?”
“He’s not here,” I said, taking her hand firmly in mine before she ripped her finger right off. “We’ll find him, okay? He showed up last time. Focus on your mental connection with him. We’ll figure this out.”
Those reassurances flew so easily off my tongue. I couldn't be sure that either was true, but we needed hope in that moment, not more panic, even though it was clawing its way up my back.
“Where’d you get that?” Sarah asked, and I looked up to find her staring at my chest.
“Get what? My boobs?” I dared a glance down to see the gold dragon pin—with the same stone as my sister’s ring—sparkling up at me. The one I’d totally forgotten about.
“Looks like sister number two has been chosen as well,” she said with a smirk.
Suddenly my hand ripped from Aidan’s grip and smashed into her perfect fucking face.
“Chosen to beat some sense into you, maybe—”
“Cece!” Aidan said, catching my arm again and pinning it to my side. My other hand still clutched the marble tightly as he marched me away from the others until my back hit the door. “I need you to calm down.” Funny...he looked—and felt—anything but calm in that moment. That now-familiar look of worry was etched into his face, and it did nothing to help my state. “Let me see this,” he said, his finger grazing the gold pin. Then he cursed under his breath. “Why did you take it?” he asked, trying to remove it.
The pin didn’t budge.
“Because I was stressed the fuck out and shiny things calm me down?”
His ice-blue stare bore through me, but even in all his intensity, his mouth curled slightly at my words.
“What am I going to do with you, little witch?”
“Get us out of here? I think we’d all really appreciate that.”
His smile widened, then fell when his eyes settled on the dragon pin. My heart sank to my shoes, and I wondered if he knew more than he was letting on about Maddy’s and my ‘chosen’ status. I didn’t want to be suspicious of him anymore, but old habits die hard, and there was something about the tension in his jaw that I couldn’t ignore. That, and the hesitant energy that coursed through him into me.
I looked past him to where Sarah stood on the far side of the room, seething. Then the magical ball that had kick-started this shitstorm flared in my hand. I closed my eyes and focused what little energy I had left on it and it alone, blocking Aidan out entirely. He let me go as if I'd shocked him and took a step back, his energy retreating along with him. And with that retreat, a surge of something I’d never felt before crashed through me, overwhelming everything in my body. I saw flashes of something, like memories that weren’t my own, whiz through my mind, just like how we’d jumped from room to room without reprieve until we’d landed in the death room.
Pain wracked my body as the torture I caught glimpses of in my mind became reality. I winced with every blow, cried out with every lashing, and it continued until I collapsed to my knees, screaming. Faint voices reached me through the pain, but I couldn't make them out, the pounding of my heart and rush of blood in my ears too much to overcome. And the pain...the unrelenting pain and anguish that I didn’t understand wouldn’t stop, no matter how much I begged. It wasn’t like the voices that had tormented me before. This was something new. Something different. And something far, far worse.
But then it stopped, a flood of sadness washing it away before it rendered me forever useless. That sadness faded to frustration, then to anger—and by the time I could force my eyes open and drag myself to my feet, it had built into a rage I'd never experienced before; one based on an eternity of injustice and oppression that I couldn't begin to fathom, but somehow understood as if it were my own. Because, in that moment, it was.
I stood there, staring at my sister and Aidan and Rhys and Sarah, and let loose a bone-chilling sound that shook the very stone encasing us in that room. Debris rained down upon them, but not me. A golden orb surrounded me, protecting me from it—from them, too. From anyone and anything that would ever try to harm me. Capture me. Imprison me. I’d never let it happen again.
And as soon as I was free, al
l who had betrayed me would pay.
***
“ Cece ,” a voice called as my eyes fluttered open. “Cece, say something.” Aidan’s face loomed only inches away, his eyes searching mine for a sign that I was all right. My head was cradled in his arms, and his chest heaved rapidly against my cheek.
Am I on the ground?
“How’d I get down here?” I asked, struggling to sit up. His hand looped behind my back and eased me upright. I managed to sit on my own, but he didn’t pull away. Even when Maddy crouched in front of me, he didn’t move.
“Cece,” she said, trying to keep her voice steady and calm. She sounded just like her mother did when she wanted the truth from us but was terrified to hear it. “Do you remember anything at all?”
“Umm...kinda? It all seems hazy.” I looked beyond Maddy to where Rhys and Sarah stood, concern on the former’s face and wild curiosity on the latter’s. “I remember punching that bitch,” I said, smiling at the memory. “I remember Aidan pulling me away…and then nothing.” Maddy looked to Aidan, the two sharing a silent moment. “What? What happened?”
“You were writhing in pain,” Aidan began, his eyes crinkling as though the memory itself hurt him. “When we tried to reach you, you started glowing like you did that night when we were looking for the source. I tried to push past it, but it blasted me across the room.”
“And then you stood up and made this ungodly sound,” Maddy added. “I thought it would bring the building down.”
“Then you just...collapsed.” Aidan’s voice was hollow when he said those words.
“You looked fucking crazy,” Sarah chimed in. “It was like you were possessed.”
At her words, flashes of memory inundated my mind. The rage. The anguish. The need for vengeance. The yearning for freedom. Those were not my emotions—not solely, anyway. Maybe Sarah wasn’t that far off.
“I’m okay,” I said, my gaze drifting to Aidan, “but we reeeeally need to get out of this place. Like right now.”
“That would require getting out of this room first,” Sarah said unhelpfully.
Rogue Reformatory: Breakout (Supernatural Misfits Academy Book 3) Page 3