by Jody Morse
“Me, too.” And for the knot in my stomach to go away. The not knowing was killing me.
Well, that was about to end soon. I was finally about to learn the truth about who I was, whether I was ready or not.
Nervously, I extended a hand and knocked on Headmaster Crane’s door.
“Come in, Juliana,” I heard him call from the other side.
Twisting the doorknob open, I stepped into the room.
Headmaster Crane and Melody Foster were sitting across the desk from one another. They both glanced up at me as I entered the room.
“Juliana, please have a seat,” Headmaster Crane said, motioning to the chair next to Melody Foster.
My stomach felt like it was doing cartwheels as I sat down.
“Miss Montgomery, it’s nice to see you again,” Melody Foster began. “After a thorough review of your bone density scan, bloodwork, and placement exam, we have the results.”
“What am I?” I asked.
“The results,” she said, meeting my gaze, “are inconclusive.”
Chapter 25
“Inconclusive? How is this even possible?”
“We haven’t quite figured that part out yet, I’m afraid,” Melody Foster replied. “This has never happened before. But we have a couple of theories.”
“What are they?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
“It’s possible that you could be two vastly different paranormal races,” she explained. “It’s never happened before, but in theory, it is possible, and it wouldn’t be so surprising for someone with your genetic background. We don’t ordinarily see students who come from so many powerful bloodlines. But there’s also another slightly more… complicated… theory.”
“What is it?” I questioned, almost afraid to know what this theory could have been.
“There’s a chance that the reason we can’t determine your paranormal race is because someone has put a veiling spell on it, masking it from being detected.”
“Why would someone do that?”
“Someone who doesn’t want anyone to be able to learn the truth about what you are,” Headmaster Crane said.
“But why would anyone want that?” I questioned.
Melody shook her head. “It’s hard to say. Without proof that there even is a veiling spell in place, any reasons we come up with will only be theories.”
“So, now what?” I glanced from Melody Foster to Headmaster Crane. “Is my paranormal race just going to forever remain a mystery?”
“We are going to do everything in our power to figure out what you are,” Melody informed me. “We have brought in one of the most powerful witches in the world to try to determine if there is a veiling spell in place. We are going to bring in more genetic analysts to try and see what they can uncover. Right now, I need you to repeat the bloodwork. Hopefully, a new sample will give us a clearer picture. But I can assure you that we will come to an answer, in one way or another.”
I nodded, knowing that there was nothing I could do about this. I could be upset or angry all I wanted, but at the end of the day, my paranormal race remained a mystery. For now.
***
Once I had given another blood sample, I headed out to the lobby where Brett was waiting for me. He was playing a game on his cell phone. He glanced up at me as I approached him.
“Well? What’s the word?”
“There is no word,” I muttered under my breath as I began walking towards the door of the building.
“What do you mean?” Brett asked as he followed after me.
“The results were inconclusive,” I replied over my shoulder. “They have no idea what I am.”
“How is that even possible?”
I shrugged. “Beats me. I’m just a freak of nature, apparently.”
“We’re all freaks of nature, Juliana,” he said quietly.
“I guess.” I sighed. “I was just really hoping to find out what I am today, you know? This whole not knowing is really getting to me.”
“You think you’re the only one who it’s getting to?” Brett asked. “It’s getting to me, too.”
“Oh, please.” I rolled my eyes at him. “I highly doubt it’s getting to you even half as much as it is me.”
“You’d be surprised by just how much it really is getting to me,” he replied, shaking his head. “Not knowing if it’s okay to fall for you or not is killing me.”
Rolling my eyes, I walked ahead of him and made a focused effort to keep him out of my thoughts.
Frankly, I was tired of him letting my paranormal race define his feelings for me. It almost made me wonder one thing.
What if Brett was only interested in me because he knew we could be this werewolf power couple? What if he wasn’t interested in me, but only in what the two of us were capable of together?
Chapter 26
The next couple of weeks completely flew by. I fell into a routine. I continued to learn in my classes, practiced on honing in on my water and fire affinities privately with Professor Ryan, and visited Spike as often as I could. Kaden remained mysterious but flirty, Brett kept following me around everywhere I went, and Everly was constantly giving me dirty looks every time she saw me alone. Ambur and Draia and I continued to have fun any time we got the chance.
Even though the weeks went by quickly, they went by slowly at the same time, and I knew the reason.
Avery wasn’t back yet. I kept waiting for him to come back, and he hadn’t. I wasn’t sure how much longer he would be gone for, but the wait was beginning to get to me. It wasn’t only the being away from him that drove me sort of nuts. I also just kept wondering what was taking so long. What could he have possibly been learning about me?
***
Before I knew it, Halloween was already upon us.
The holiday fell on a Friday, which meant that classes would be cancelled until the following Friday, an entire week.
That afternoon, the girls’ dorms at the House of Mage were bustling with girls getting into their dresses and doing their hair and makeup.
Draia made shoes for all three of us: a pair of black and silver sparkly mid-sized heels to go with Ambur’s black gown, a pair of tall, red heels that popped against her gold sequined dress, and, for me, a pair of low, light pink heels that complemented the emerald green dress I was wearing.
Ambur did our hair and makeup, choosing a half-up, half-down-do for herself with charcoal eye shadow and pink lipstick that matched the hot pink highlights Draia had added to her hair. Ambur gave Draia a bronze-colored smoky eyeshadow look and bronze lip gloss, and a beautiful French braid that cascaded down her back with a few loose curls in the front. And for me, she opted for a dramatic purple eyeshadow and rose-colored lip gloss, and loose curls that fell over my shoulders.
“We all look hot,” Draia commented as she stared at us in the mirror.
“Smokin’,” I agreed with a nod.
“What do you think, Max?” Ambur asked Draia’s familiar.
The cat jumped onto Draia’s dresser and stared at us. “I think you ladies look gorgeous, and I really hate that I’m a cat right now.”
At that moment, there was a light knock on the door.
Glancing at the time, Ambur frowned. “It’s a little early. Our dates shouldn’t be here yet.”
I opened the door and was surprised to find that no one was standing on the other side of the door. But there was an envelope just floating in thin air.
Grabbing the envelope, I glanced down at the writing that was scrawled on it. Juliana.
Closing the door, I turned to my friends. “That was odd. There’s no one there, except for this envelope.”
Tearing into it, I read through the words written on the paper enclosed.
Juliana,
I know the truth about what you are. Meet me at the fountain tomorrow at 10 p.m. Don’t be late and don’t bring anyone with you.
There was no name attached to the letter.
A shiver crept down my spine. Something ab
out it just felt… off. It almost felt threatening.
And, realistically, how was it possible that the anonymous sender could know the truth about what I was if Melody Foster couldn’t even figure it out?
“Well? What is it?” Ambur asked.
I hesitated. The letter said I couldn’t bring anyone, but it hadn’t said that I couldn’t tell anyone. So, I handed the letter to Ambur and Draia for them to read.
Once they were done, Draia glanced over at me with wide eyes. “Are you going to go?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, honestly. “Would you go?”
“I don’t know. What if they’re telling the truth and they actually know your paranormal race?” she asked.
“And what if they’re lying?” Ambur countered.
“Why would anyone lie about that?” I wondered with a frown.
“Who knows. But, even if they claim to know what you are, how will they prove it’s true when genetics testing can’t even prove it?” Ambur questioned.
“True,” I agreed. I hadn’t even thought of that, but she was right. How would I know they were telling the truth? Unless they could somehow make me shift or bring my fairy wings out, there was no real way to know for sure.
“And it’s strange that they want to meet you at the fountain. At night. There’s no nine p.m. curfew during the week of Halloween since it’s a holiday and we follow weekend curfews. But it’s still late, and they want you to meet them alone,” Draia said. “It just makes me think of the way Ashleigh died.”
“Me, too,” Ambur agreed. “I don’t think you should go. I just have a really bad feeling about this.”
She wasn’t the only one. My arms were completely covered in goosebumps.
There was a knock at the door again. When Draia flung it open, Gavin and Marcus were both standing on the other side.
Kaden wasn’t here yet.
I felt the slightest twinge of jealousy. I couldn’t help but feel like I may have been going to the dance with the wrong guy. Not that I’d had any other options, but I just couldn’t help but feel like Kaden was keeping me at a distance, for some reason.
We made a lot of small-talk and he flirted with me—at least, I thought he was flirting—but he hadn’t asked me to hang out after school in weeks. The last time had been when he’d told me he wanted to show me something and he never ended up showing me whatever it had been. I was sort of disappointed about that.
I wanted more from him… and I was going to make that clear to him tonight.
***
Kaden finally came to our dorm room, just as we were about to leave for the dance without him.
“Sorry I’m so late. I got caught up with something,” he apologized as he entered the room. The moment his eyes landed on me, he said, “You look stunning.”
I smiled. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”
That was clearly an understatement. I drank him in.
He looked absolutely gorgeous in the black suit and tie he was wearing. He wore his black hair slicked up with gel in the front, and his steel blue eyes popped against the color of the tie he was wearing.
Yeah, Kaden Connor was sexy as hell. There was no doubt about it.
“Shall we head over now?” Ambur asked.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said, moving out of the dorm room. Thankfully, Brett didn’t need to be my security guard tonight, since we were going to be in a group and I had a date—a date who had already saved my life.
When we arrived at the dance, which was held in a huge ballroom above the Dining Hall and across from the school library, I took in all of the décor. Orange and purple lights lit up the dance floor, and there were pumpkin centerpieces at every table, which was covered in orange and black linens. Bats—which I was pretty sure were taxidermized—hung from the chandeliers. A guy who I hoped was only dressed like skeleton (as opposed to actually being a skeleton) was the dance DJ, and there was an apple cider station with bartenders.
More than the decorations, what I noticed was that nearly every girl we passed just stared at Kaden and me in envy. I could just imagine what the rumors about me would be after this. Nearly a month had passed since I’d arrived at the Academy, and people were still talking about me. Now, I was at the dance with, undeniably, one of the hottest guys in school. That was bound to lead to rumors.
Well, if people were going to talk about me, one thing was for sure. I was going to give them something to talk about.
It seemed like Kaden must have been thinking the same thing.
As soon as we hit the dance floor, his lips came crashing down on mine.
The entire room just seemed to fade away into the distance, and for a moment, it was just the two of us there on the dance floor.
Sparks flew between us, but not the literal kind, thankfully.
When we broke away from one another, I glanced up to find that nearly everyone in the room was staring at us, but there were two pairs of eyes from the far corner of the room that stood out the most: Everly’s icy cold daggers, and Brett’s, dark and brooding.
***
As the night went on, I couldn’t help but notice that Kaden seemed sort of… flustered.
I wasn’t sure what it was, exactly. It just seemed like even though his body was there, he wasn’t there mentally—almost as though he was a shell of his usual self. I kept thinking that his mind was on something, but I wasn’t sure what.
A part of me wondered if it was the kiss. Was it possible that he regretted kissing me, or the attention that came with the kiss? Did he regret coming to the dance with me at all? He had never given me reason to think he was embarrassed to be seen with me before, but what if he didn’t want to associate with me for some reason?
I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that he felt more and more distant the longer the night went on.
“You guys, the dance is almost over!” Ambur squealed around eleven o’clock.
“And that’s a good thing?” I asked with raised eyebrows.
Truthfully, I had never really gotten into the whole school functions thing, but for once in my life, I was actually having fun—aside from Kaden’s weirdness, that is. That was a bit of a buzzkill.
“Now the real fun is about to begin,” Draia said with a nod. “It’s carnival time!”
She and Ambur dragged me out of the ballroom. I grabbed Kaden’s hand and pulled him with us.
As we headed down the stairwell and out of the building, I stared out at the courtyard, which looked bigger than it normally did at night. It was lit up with all sorts of carnival rides and attractions. There was a Ferris Wheel that looked like a large pumpkin, spinning in the air. There was a ride that resembled Tilt-A-Whirl, except all of the cars were shaped like coffins.
The scent of carnival food wafted into my nostrils. There were funnel cakes shaped like ghosts, ghoul green snow cones, and orange, purple, and black cotton candy. There were also games—pin the teeth on the werewolf, bobbing for apples, and so much more.
“This is amazing,” I commented. Don’t get me wrong. I had been to plenty of carnivals in my day. I liked carnivals enough, but there was just something about this carnival that felt so… magical.
I heard the sound of fireworks and watched as one lit up the night sky, forming an orange pumpkin with a green stem as it dissipated into the night.
“Wow,” I murmured, glancing over at Kaden. “That was incredible.”
“What’s more incredible is watching it with you,” he whispered. Then pushing my hair back, he kissed me again.
With the fireworks shooting off in the sky above us, I lost myself in his kiss. I didn’t think anything could have ruined that perfect moment in time.
And then I heard the screams.
Chapter 27
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I watched, in horror, as three raven shifters swarmed around a group of girls, clearly sizing them up.
They continued to scream, as people stepped away in fear.
I turned to K
aden. “You have to do something!”
“Me?” He just stared back at me with wide blue eyes.
“You know how to stop them,” I said pointedly.
“I know how to stop one of them. I’ve never taken on three at a time.”
“If you don’t try to stop them, they’re going to carry those girls off and kill them! You saved my life, so you have to at least try to save theirs, too,” I insisted. “Please?”
Kaden glanced over at me for a moment and then moved closer to the raven shifters.
I watched as he raised his arms above his head. Green bursts of light shot out from his fingertips, and I heard a zapping noise.
All three of the birds wavered in the air. It was as though they were frozen in place.
They were powerful, though. They flapped their large black wings against what was happening to them, managing to stay afloat.
Kaden continued to use his magic against them. More bursts of green light shot out at them.
It wasn’t working, though. His magic was just enough to prevent the birds from coming any closer, but it wasn’t enough to make them come falling to the ground completely. They just hovered above everyone.
It made me wonder why it wasn’t working. Maybe there was power in numbers. When he had saved me from them, killing that raven shifter, there had only been one.
The girls who the shifters had been going after moved back further into the crowd.
And then something happened. Kaden’s magic suddenly stopped working at all.
“What’s going on?” I asked, taking a few steps closer to him. I was afraid that he had somehow used too much power and was draining himself from using anymore.
“Someone’s stopping it!” Kaden shouted over his shoulder at me. “Someone is working against my magic.”
I glanced around, trying to figure out who could have been working against him. But nobody stood out.
At that moment, one of the raven shifters seemed to detect where the magic was coming from. It stared down at Kaden, its black eyes pouring into his, menacingly.