Shadow Academy

by Jamie Campbell

  “Have a good time.” I managed only those four words as she dashed off to meet her vampire.

  I didn’t feel like eating much but I knew I should try to have some food for dinner. The alternative was going back to my room where there was a high likelihood of encountering Rosa. I guessed I could have gone to the library but then I would run the risk of staying there all night again.

  The dining hall was the best place for me. I could grab some dinner and then retire for the night. I headed there while the note burned hot in my pocket. It was all I could think about.

  Who had written it? Why had they? What were they going to do? When would they expose me? What was the point of threatening me?

  My stomach churned as the thoughts repeated over and over again in my head. There were no clues about who had written it. If I was an actual witch with powers, I might have been able to do a revealing spell but they were difficult even for the best of the covens.

  I didn’t have magic so I would have to work it out the old fashioned away—with logic. First off, how did they know it was my locker? It was the first time I’d used it so they couldn’t have seen me there before.

  Rosa could have gone through my belongings and found the number in amongst my paperwork. She could very well have been the one who overheard me speaking to my mother on the phone. There was a good chance she would know about me being a roach.

  She was the most likely to have access to the locker information and know my secret. However, I got the feeling that Rosa was a more direct kind of girl when it came to threatening. She would probably feel comfortable enough to stab me in the chest instead of the back.

  So if not her, then who?

  Cress didn’t seem too likely. She was so nice to me and didn’t question my magical abilities. I’d given her no reason to think I was a roach. But she was at the lockers. She could have slipped it in sometime without me noticing. She could have easily distracted me. Could she have lied so openly to my face?

  The only other person I’d really interacted with was Liam. He could have found out my locker number through his father. He potentially had access to all the student records. Just a few taps on the keyboard and my file would have the locker allocation.

  Liam was the best suspect I had. Maybe when I ran into him, he could tell I was a roach. Was it something that others could sense? Maybe that was how the other roach was exposed yesterday.

  If I’d taken more care, I never would have been on Liam’s radar. He wouldn’t know me from all the other thousands of students at the academy. It was possible I had caused my own failure within hours of being at Shadow Academy.

  As I stepped into the rowdy dining hall, sudden fatigue threatened to bring me down. I was still shaken from the note and just wanted to escape for a while. Unfortunately, it was the only place on campus to eat and the woods went for miles in all directions so eating out wasn’t an option without having a car.

  I chose a hot meal of vegetables and fried chicken before adding some apple pie too. If I was going to be miserable, at least I would have some comfort food. Besides, I never knew when I was eating my last meal. I didn’t want that pleasure to be a salad.

  Finding a place to sit was trickier. All the tables were taken up with students excited to have the night to themselves. There was an endless amount of mischief that supernaturals could get up to.

  I spotted Liam sitting in a corner by himself. His table could seat four but he was all alone. He really didn’t seem to have any friends. Either he preferred it that way, or his personality just naturally made it happen.

  As much as I wanted to curl up into a ball and forget about the note, it might have been my only chance to gather some information. The sooner I worked out who had threatened to expose my secret, the better chance I had of stopping them.

  Liam’s table was by the large fireplace. A small ball of flames were flickering in the hearth. It would have felt cozy if I didn’t feel so cold inside.

  “May I join you?” I asked.

  Liam gestured to the empty seats. “If you can find a place.”

  I sat across from him. He was halfway through a hamburger and fries. It looked good enough to have me questioning my food choice.

  “So what’s your deal?” I asked when he didn’t seem to want to start with some small talk.

  He looked up and I caught a breathtaking view of his blue eyes. They were like looking into the stars on a clear night. They had so much depth to them. So much behind them. If eyes were the windows to a soul like the saying said, then I could see into his very deep depths.

  “I’m just trying to have some dinner,” he replied. “What’s your deal?”

  “Same. I never see you eating with anyone.”

  He shrugged. “I guess I like being alone.” His sarcastic tone told me he was lying.

  It was time to be bold. If I provoked him, maybe he would be mad enough to let something slip. “I think people avoid you because they’re worried anything they do or say will end up being told to the principal.”

  He paused, looking at me so directly that I felt awkward. I wanted to look away but then I would seem guilty of something. Would he somehow be able to tell I was a roach just from staring at me like I was naked?

  Finally, he spoke and put me out of my misery. “If that were true, and people avoided me for that reason, it just proves everyone here is an idiot. I barely see my father, and if I did, he wouldn’t want to hear about the shit that goes on here.”

  “What do you talk about with your father then?” I asked. I wasn’t going to be chased away by his grumpiness. I was there to find out information and it was too important to just scamper away.

  “Nothing much. The weather, I guess.”

  He averted his gaze and studied his hamburger for a few beats. In those moments, I could see his vulnerability. He wasn’t just making up these things. He was doing a great job of convincing me.

  I surprised even myself with my response. “I don’t have a good relationship with my father, either.”

  “Yeah? What’s your old man’s problem?”

  “I disappoint him. He thought I would grow up and be…something I’m not. I guess he had a vision for the future and I’ve let him down.”

  Liam took a bite of his fries and then wiped his fingers on his napkin.

  “I’ve been letting my father down since I was born. I killed my mother.”

  “She died in childbirth?” I guessed. He nodded. “That wasn’t your fault. It’s a medical thing. You were just a baby.”

  “That doesn’t change the fact that I’m here and my mom’s not.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Liam wasn’t just vulnerable now, he was sad. I’d somehow struck a real nerve and the wound was bleeding everywhere.

  He sucked in a deep breath and put an end to the unbearable silence. “Do you want to get out of here? I’ll show you exactly what I can do as the principal’s beloved son.”

  It sounded like a challenge. If he was the one behind the threatening note, it was a huge mistake going with him. On the other hand…I kind of really wanted to see what he would show me.

  Perhaps I was a complete idiot, but I found myself nodding anyway. “Let’s go.”

  We finished the last of our meals and I eagerly followed Liam out of the noisy and chaotic dining hall. A few eyes watched us leave together. Hopefully they would remember my face if I went missing after this little excursion.

  Liam set a brutal pace as we rushed down the long corridors of the academy. Portraits of very old—and probably very dead—people lined the walls, their eyes seeming to move with us. I quickly lost track of where we were after going around the endless corners.

  We reached a large wooden door and Liam didn’t hesitate to burst through it. A staircase leading upwards was on the other side. He took the stairs two at a time as I tried to keep up. My legs weren’t nearly as long as his. I was puffing while my calves were starting to feel the burn of the climb.

  At the top o
f the staircase was another door. There was a rush of cool air when Liam opened it. He stepped out into darkness and I followed a few moments later.

  We were outside—and very high up—on a rooftop. All the stars of the night sky were lit up like festive lights strung on a Christmas tree. It looked like they went on forever. I felt very small in comparison.

  “This is beautiful,” I muttered.

  I sensed him standing close to me before he made it into my peripheral vision. I stole a glance and saw his gorgeous face upturned toward the sky. The moonlight hit him at all the right angles. He was almost as breathtaking as the view.

  His eyes flicked to me and caught me staring. I looked away quickly but not fast enough. My face burned red as I blushed.

  “The only perk of being the son of the principal,” he started, “is knowing the access codes to all the parts of the academy. Including the ones completely off limits to all students.”

  “Do you come up here often?” I asked. What I really wanted to know was whether he brought other girls up there all the time.

  He shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Every few days, I guess. It’s so peaceful up here. When it all gets too much down there, this is a really good place to think. I can actually breathe up here. The nighttime view is even better than the daytime one.”

  I understood what he meant. There were so many students there and they all had so much talent that it could get very noisy. Not just audibly but with their energy too. Supernaturals were always vibrating high on a scale of ten with their essence.

  Liam and I looked toward one another at the same time. In those few seconds, it truly felt like we clicked. Like we just knew exactly what the other thought. We were almost the same person.

  We both leaned in at the same time like two magnets that couldn’t fight the forces of our being. Anticipation rippled through me and sent my stomach into a mess of butterflies.

  I hadn’t realized how much I wanted him to kiss me until that moment. It was so strange and yet it was like I had waited for those few seconds for my whole life. I couldn’t begin to understand or explain the sudden feelings.

  But I had to stop it.

  Our lips were just a breath apart when I suddenly pulled back. I was a freaking roach for goddess’s sake. Kissing the son of the principal was the worst thing to do, despite the protests of my body saying otherwise.

  “I have to be somewhere,” I said as I turned toward the door.

  I fled without waiting to hear what he said next. Without offering any more of an explanation. I didn’t see his reaction or listen to see if he would follow me. I had to leave and it had to be now before anything happened between us.

  What the hell was I thinking? I’d only spoken to Liam to find out if he was the one leaving threatening notes in my locker. How had I been caught up in his spell so easily?

  It was wrong, wrong, wrong no matter how I looked at it. I would never let it happen again. I couldn’t be swept up in stupid hormone-fueled lapses of judgment. That wasn’t how I would survive at Shadow Academy.

  I didn’t slow my pace as I hurried down the staircase and back through the winding corridors. I had no idea where I was so I just kept going down flights of stairs until I was on the ground floor. Then I took the first exit I saw so I was outside.

  Once in the gardens, I could orientate myself. I could see the large expanse of the dining hall and the dormitories off in the distance. I was at the back of the academy so I only had to turn left and follow the path until I was back in the female dorms.

  My heart never slowed its hurried beat until I found my room. I didn’t hesitate to open the door and step inside. I then leaned on the wall, trying to catch my breath.

  That’s when I saw what was going on in the room. Rosa was lying on her bed and she wasn’t alone. I guessed she had a boyfriend because there was a half-naked guy staring back at me too.

  “Excuse me,” Rosa said. “Haven’t you heard of knocking?”

  “I shouldn’t have to knock on my own dorm room,” I replied, seething. I got that she didn’t want a roommate but it wasn’t my fault I was assigned there.

  “Get out!” she shrieked before throwing a pillow at my head.

  I considered fighting with her and standing my ground. Perhaps I could have done on another night. But after what just happened with Liam, I was too shaken. My mind couldn’t cope with anything else.

  I picked up the bag I’d dropped when she startled me and stepped back out of the room, slamming the door closed behind me.

  This place was killing me. Running home wasn’t an option. I would have to find the best way to cope and deal with it. I was stronger than the academy, I could do it.

  Ha!

  I kept repeating that mantra all the way to the library. Perhaps I should have just moved my things there and lived amongst the bookshelves. At least it was quieter there.

  The library was once again largely empty. I could stalk amongst the shelves and not be noticed or bothered by anyone. It was somewhat calming to be surrounded by books. They each offered me an adventure, should I be brave enough to open the dust jackets.

  I picked a relatively new book that could only be a maximum of forty years old. It was on the Supernatural Civil War. I couldn’t stop thinking about it because it was so recent. Normally when I thought of supernatural history, everything happened at least a couple of hundred years ago.

  The book quickly reeled me in and I was hooked. The war really was as big and all-consuming as Professor White had made it out to be. There wasn’t one faction that stayed out of it. Vampires, werewolves, seers, shapeshifters, and witches were all engaged in a fight to the death until there would only be one person standing.

  Literally, one person. They were killing everyone until there would be nobody left. Their weapons were their powers. The vampires had their speed. The werewolves had their strength, the seers could anticipate the next actions, shapeshifters could be anyone they wanted to be, and the witches could throw spells as deadly as bullets.

  My grandmother would have been around during the civil war. We didn’t speak with her very often. She was my mother’s mother and for some reason they had a fractious relationship. I could only remember seeing her a handful of times during my childhood. Each time my mother would go as stiff as a board until she left.

  My other grandparents on my father’s side would have been around too. I couldn’t remember either of them ever speaking about it. They were both passed now, having been in a car accident a few years earlier. That accident changed my father in many ways, he was a harder version of himself ever since.

  My mother’s father died shortly after she was born so he wouldn’t have lived during the time of the war. Obviously, I’d never met him and my mother didn’t have any memories of him. He was just a name to both of us.

  I would love to have known what they did during the war. They could have witnessed so much. They could even have been involved in some way. It sounded like every supernatural was called to arms, there was no way to sit at home and pretend it wasn’t happening.

  As much as I was desperate for information, calling my grandmother wasn’t an option. I wouldn’t even know what to say to her. And it wasn’t like I had her phone number or anything.

  The book was fascinating and I soon found myself dissolving into the pages. They described the different methods each faction used to fight, where it all happened, and how it ended with the Peace Treaty of 1985.

  They also mentioned how it began.

  A witch and a vampire fell in love.

  That was it. A simple act of love had caused so much friction between the factions that a war had begun because of it. How could so much hate and devastation come from two people falling in love?

  It was crazy to think about it. I guess it started with them and their respective covens and clans. Inter-faction dating now was still taboo but it wasn’t like it didn’t happen. I’d witnessed several pairings in the dining hall alone ton
ight.

  Love was love, as many said.

  Perhaps the result of the war was everyone being able to love whomever they wanted. If that were the case, at least something came from it. Still, all those deaths…

  My eyes were straining to read any longer. I flicked the book closed and settled deeper into the armchair. It wasn’t as comfortable as a bed but I didn’t have to listen to Rosa and her boyfriend moaning.

  I slipped into sleep easily and let my dreams take over until morning.

  Chapter 6

  The first order of the day was sorting out my dorm room situation. Surely in a place as big as this, I could move to another room. I stood outside of the receptionist’s office until she opened up.

  “I’d like to request a change of dorm room,” I said decisively, hoping it was a real thing that could happen. And quickly too.

  She didn’t look up from her computer. “We don’t have any vacant room. No switching allowed.”

  “But my roommate hates me. Please?”

  “Is your life in danger?”

  “Probably not. At least, I don’t think so. Maybe?” I wondered how far Rosa would go to have a single room again.

  “No switching unless you are certain your life is at stake. Can you solemnly vow that your life is at stake?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Then no switching.”

  Just what I wanted to hear. “Then I need a key for dorm 396,” I said.

  She finally looked up from her computer. Her eyes travelled up and down me as if she’d never seen me before in her life. I guessed we all looked the same to her. “Dorm rooms don’t have keys. It’s the honor system here.”

  “My roommate keeps locking the door. There has to be a key.”

  She pursed her lips and shook her head. “That is not an academy-approved modification. I will have to issue a breach notice.”

  Great, that wouldn’t make me look like a snitch at all. Rosa would love me. “Can you not? Maybe I was just mistaken or something. Maybe the handle was just stuck.”

  Her disbelief was written in every one of her features. “Is that how you want to play this? Because I can issue a notice with a twitch of my finger.”