The Hunter Secret (Rite World: Blackthorn Hunters Academy Book 2)

by Juliana Haygert

  “Are we going today?” Erin asked, as if she was eager to go.

  “You still have classes to attend this afternoon,” Randall said. “Why don’t you go this weekend? That should work better.”

  With that decided, Randall dismissed us.

  Erin and I left his office and headed out of the Aster building. She headed back to the library and I planned to walk away from her, but then she sped her steps as if running somewhere. Then I saw it.

  Seated on a bench in the courtyard, Claire shrank into herself while Tanner hovered over her, his body tense and his hands balled into fists.

  I stopped and watched for a moment.

  “You’re stupid!” Tanner yelled. “That’s what you are.”

  Erin halted beside him and pushed him back. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “This is none of your business!” Tanner yelled at her.

  Oh, my blood started to fucking boil.

  “Of course it is my business,” Erin snapped. “If you hurt my best friend, it’s my damn business.”

  Tanner let out a mean chuckle. “I’m not hurting her. I was just telling the truth.”

  Erin’s shoulders tensed. “Get out of here before I kick your ass.”

  Tanner took a step closer to her and faced her down. “I would like to see you try.”

  “I will do it,” Erin warned.

  Gritting his teeth, Tanner pulled his hand back—

  I used my demon speed and suddenly appeared beside them and gripped Tanner’s arm. “I don’t think so.” I pushed him back and he stumbled several feet back.

  Eyes wide, Tanner stared at me. “Where did you come from?”

  “That doesn’t matter,” I said, knowing I had been careless. I doubted anyone had really seen me, but somebody could have. “Now get out of here before I break your fucking face.”

  Tanner shifted his weight for about four seconds before throwing a death glare at Claire, and running away.

  Beside me, Erin sat down with Claire and embraced her friend, who now cried openly. “It’s okay now.” She rubbed Claire’s back up and down. “He’s a jerk and doesn’t deserve you. You’re better off without him.”

  At that, Claire pulled back and stared at Erin as if she had gone crazy. “Better off without him? No, I need him. I love him.” She sniffed, trying to contain the tears. “And I know he loves me too.”

  “You call that love?” The words flew from my fucking mouth.

  Claire’s cheek reddened, matching her swollen eyes. “It’s just … he gets mad from time to time, but it’s not his fault.”

  Erin’s brows slammed down. “And whose fault is it?”

  “Me,” Claire whispered. “You heard him. I’m stupid, so I say some stupid things sometimes.”

  “What?” Erin shrieked. “That’s not true, Claire. Are you listening to yourself? That's nonsense!”

  “I agree with Erin,” I said, trying to help. “He’s a douchebag and you can’t believe anything Tanner says.”

  Surprising us, Claire shot to her feet and glared at us. “Obviously, you two don’t get it.”

  She stomped away.

  Erin stood. “Claire?” She turned to me. “What the hell was that?” She glanced back at her friend. “I should go after her.”

  I shook my head. “Arguing with her right now won’t help. She needs time to cool down.”

  Erin sighed and slumped down on the cold bench. “You’re right.”

  I sat down beside her. “I feel like going after Tanner and beating the fuck out of him, so I can’t imagine how you feel right now.”

  “Beating the fuck out of him would be only half of it,” she said, her voice low. “Claire is such a sweet person. I don’t know how the two of them got mixed up.”

  “Me neither.”

  Slowly, she turned her eyes to me. Even under the dark gray sky, her golden eyes shone as bright as the sun. “What about us? Shouldn’t we stop getting mixed up?”

  “I’m trying, but things keep pulling us together,” I confessed. Maybe if I was mean to her again, or made it clear I really wanted to stay away from her, she would do her part. But when Randall gave us assignments like that, how could we?

  “Don’t you think that means something?” she asked, her voice holding a hopeful tone.

  Feeling like such a fucking liar, I shook my head. “Don’t read too much into it, Erin. It means nothing.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” she whispered.

  Holy fuck, when she pushed like that … it was so hard to hold on. To pull back. To ignore her.

  It was fucking impossible to ignore her. All I could try to do was pretend. I pretended I ignored her.

  Donning my jerk hat, I shot to my feet. “If you’re going to keep talking about that, I’m leaving.”

  Erin lifted her face, looking up at me, a sad shine in her eyes. “Good night, Rey.”

  Wow.

  Why did having her practically telling me to go hurt so fucking much? Perhaps deep inside, I was still hoping she would hold on to me.

  That was terribly twisted.

  “Night,” I said before walking away from her.

  17

  Erin

  Old habits died hard. I didn’t have training with my mother in the morning, but I still woke up at the crack of dawn.

  I freaking hated it.

  At first, I tried to go back to sleep, but when I couldn’t, I got up, got dressed, and went to train by myself. Sometimes I did some exercises in the martial arts classroom in the Hyacinth building, sometimes I went to the gym for some weight lifting, and sometimes I went to the track behind the building to run.

  But this morning, I didn't feel like working out. So, I headed to the library instead. Claire and I had been researching the Demon Kissed Queens legend, but hadn’t found anything useful yet. Claire had even searched her father’s books at their townhouse at the Dahlia Villa, but so far she had found nothing.

  Until today.

  I was buried underneath a tall pile of books when Claire came running into the library, holding what looked like a thick ledger.

  “I found it,” she said, out of breath.

  I glanced up at her, glad to see she looked okay. Right after her fight with Tanner, she avoided me. Once she let me approach her, she snapped at me if I brought up his name. Now, I did my best to keep that subject bottled up inside, but I swore … if that guy was mean to her again, I would beat him up and do all I could to keep Claire away from him. Even if she hated me for it after.

  “What did you find?” I asked.

  She took the seat beside me and opened the ledger on her lap. “I found this among my father’s book. It’s a catalog of all the books in the academy.”

  “You mean, the ones in the library?”

  She shook her head. “No, I mean in the academy. It lists books in the library, the classrooms, the infirmary, and personal collections, like my father’s, your mother’s, and even the headmaster’s!”

  I stared at her. “But … why?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s handwritten, so I’m guessing my father is trying to keep tabs of all the books around campus. I would say the list is incomplete, but the book we want is mentioned here.”

  I gasped. “You mean, a book about the Demon Kissed Queen legend?”

  “Yes!” She flipped to a specific page and showed me the list. “Here. See? The Demon Kissed Queens book. It’s supposed to be in this library, on shelf H1.”

  I frowned. Shelf H1? Where was that? I walked around the shelves in the library, looking for it, but I only found shelves that went from A to Z. Once that was done, the shelves started again, but with AA, BB, CC …

  I halted in front of the door to the restricted section. I had been there before with Rey, but I hadn’t paid attention to the shelves’ numbering. But where else could it be?

  Claire halted by my side. “You think it’s in there?”

  “That’s my guess,” I said.
/>   “I doubt we’ll be allowed inside, though.”

  I glanced at the lock on the door. “Think we can break in?”

  She turned wide eyes at me. “What? Right now?”

  “No, at night, when the library is closed.”

  She sucked in a sharp breath. “You want to sneak into the library and break into the restricted section?” Slowly, her lips stretched into a smile. “I’m in.”

  I chuckled. “As if you had a choice.”

  Claire and I went on with our regular schedule: classes, break for lunch, more classes. Then she disappeared while I headed to the gym—I bet she went to see Tanner. Later, we got together for dinner, and now we waited in the media room until it was late, and everyone was sleeping.

  It was almost midnight when we finally made our way to the library. At least I didn’t have to wake up early for training tomorrow morning.

  We stuck to the shadows along the building as much as we could, and we listened for any kind of noise, so we wouldn’t run into a guard patrolling the pathways. I still had my pass from my mother, but I didn’t want to use it tonight.

  Surprisingly, the library was unlocked. Well, when there were only students around, why not keep the one place they might study open twenty-four-seven, right? Still, it seemed odd to me.

  In the dark, we made our way to the back.

  We halted before the door to the restricted section.

  “So, what now?” I asked Claire in a low voice. “Do we just break the lock?” As if that would be easy. Maybe if I used my magic …

  “Here.” Claire fished out a card from her pocket. “It’s my father’s access card.”

  Claire had stolen the card from her father. That was quite shocking. “How did you get it?”

  “I stopped by the house between classes,” she said. And I had imagined she had ditched me to spend time with her douche boyfriend. “All I need to do is put it back in place early tomorrow morning.”

  I smiled at her. “You’re a genius.”

  She shrugged. “Not really.”

  “Okay, miss genius, then open the freaking door.”

  Claire swiped the card into the card reader. A green light appeared along with a faint click. She turned the door, and pushed.

  The door opened.

  We rushed inside and closed the door. Not wanting to turn on the lights in the room, I used the flashlight Claire had brought—she was always ready—and searched for the H1 shelf.

  Here, all the shelves were labeled with one letter and one number, instead of one or two letters, so it was easy to follow the alphabet and find the H1 shelf.

  Then Claire told me the book number. I started reading the labels on the spine, searching for the book.

  But when I got to it, there was an empty space in the shelf. My stomach dropped. “It’s missing,” I whispered, pulling back. I stared at the empty space, as if I could conjure the book back. “It can’t be.”

  “No,” Claire said with a gasp. Then she stiffened. “It has to be around here somewhere.” She went back to the table in the middle of the room. “You know when you get a book and leave it on the table, and then later the librarian has to return it to its place? Maybe the book is somewhere, ready to be placed back on the shelf.”

  She went from table to table, and despite thinking we wouldn’t find anything, I searched with her. We looked over all the tables and carts and desks. The book was nowhere to be seen.

  “Someone must have taken it.” I said what had been on my mind since we first saw the book was missing.

  “Wait.” Claire turned to the desk with computers along the wall. She sat down in front of one, fired it up, and searched for the book. “It’s showing here as the book is still available. Which means—”

  “The book was not only taken, but it was taken without permission.”

  Claire glanced at me. “But who? Who could have wanted this book?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t have a clue.” Could anyone else know about this legend, or believe it was true, like we did? I hadn’t even told Rey about it. No one should have known about this.

  Unless it was a super curious person who liked studying legends. But that was a huge coincidence.

  Claire stood. “What do we do now?”

  “Right now? Go back to bed. It’s late and we probably won’t solve this tonight.” It was true, but I was sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep, not when I knew there was a book like that and it was missing.

  I would wonder who took it all night long.

  Defeated, Claire and I started back to the front area of the library. We were lost in thought and almost jumped out of our skin when a low growl started.

  Claire grabbed my arm. “What’s that?”

  Suddenly, a shadow jumped from behind the shelves.

  “A demon!” Claire yelped, taking cover behind me.

  In the dark, I tried taking it in, to determine how to best kill it, while taking a few steps back. It was tall and lean like a human, with pitch black skin, a skeletal face, and horns on their bald heads. Their eyes sockets were hollow, and their mouth was a long slit from side to side, filled with sharp fangs.

  “A darkelth,” I muttered.

  Claire whimpered. “Summon your Dawnblade. Kill it!”

  The demon let out another growl.

  Then it pounced.

  I pushed Claire aside and out of the way, and I called for my Dawnblade. I pulled it back, ready to drive it in the creature’s chest, when the tip of another sword pierced it. The demon gurgled, snapping its teeth at me. The blade was withdrawn and the demon folded forward at my feet.

  I dropped my arm and dismissed my Dawnblade.

  Tanner lowered his Dawnblade. He stared at the demon for a moment, before looking at me. “Are you okay?” I nodded, completely confused. He turned to Claire, who was cowering beside a desk. “Hey, Claire, it’s me.”

  Claire opened her eyes and let out a long sigh. “Oh, Tanner.” She flung herself in his arms.

  Letting go of his Dawnblade, Tanner caught her and squeezed her tight. “I’ve got you.”

  “I’m so glad you came,” she said, still holding to him. “This demon would have hurt us.”

  “Hmm,” I muttered. One, nope, the demon wouldn’t have hurt us. Well, it might have, but I would have fought it and I was confident in my skills now. I would probably never be as fantastic as Rey, but I could kill that kind of demon. I was sure. Two … “Tanner, what are you doing here?”

  “Oh.” He pushed Claire to the side so he was embracing her with one arm and turned his grin at me. Had he already forgotten about our argument the other day? “I was working on my homework and felt restless, so I went for a walk to clear my mind and wear me out. I was walking by the library when I thought I saw movement inside. I’m glad I decided to check it out.”

  “You’re my hero,” Claire said, smiling wide.

  Holy shit, she sounded so nauseating even to me.

  Then his grin was gone. “You two shouldn’t be lurking around the academy so late at night. Come on. I’ll escort you back to the dorms.”

  Slipping his hand into Claire’s, Tanner took the lead and headed out of the library.

  I stayed back for a few seconds, trying to wrap my mind around what had just happened. Why would a demon be lurking around the library like that? Why would Tanner show up at the library in the middle of the night? And who the hell had taken the book?

  Of course, the first thing that came to mind was that Tanner had taken the book, and he somehow had brought that demon to kill it in front of Claire and gain even more of her favor. But that didn’t make sense. And even if it did, it was too obvious.

  Something wasn’t right here.

  With a feeling that bugged me to no end, I followed Tanner and Claire to the dorms.

  18

  Rey

  I talked to Randall about letting Erin out of the next mission. Not because I didn’t think she could handle going to this half-demon settlement with me, but bec
ause it meant I had to spend more time alone with her.

  Each time I spent time with her, my resolution to stay away from her shook.

  Worse than that, the fucking weather. It was already the end of February, and it had snowed two days ago, dumping a fresh coat of white shit all over the campus. I had lived all over the world for the past thousand years, and though I didn’t like extreme heat either, I would take a place with scorching sun over snow any day.

  This Saturday wasn’t any better. The sun was out, but the day was damn cold. Wearing a thick, black coat and beanie, Erin met me in the underground garage.

  She nodded her chin at me as if saying hi and slipped inside my car.

  Oh-kay.

  I tried staying quiet and let her deal with her bad mood alone, but the tension inside my car as we drove to the settlement was too much to bear. That, and her sweet rose scent tickling my nose drove me to the edge.

  Finally, I gave in. “What’s wrong?”

  Eyes out the window, Erin scoffed. “It would be better to ask what’s not wrong.”

  “Then tell me the latest problem,” I insisted, even though I knew I shouldn’t.

  She turned her golden eyes to me. “All right.”

  Then, she launched into a tale about how she and Claire had been researching King Brikan since she found out she was his daughter. They found a legend titled Demon Kissed Queens—about three half-siblings who would defeat the underworld together. She had been trying to find more about that legend ever since, but when she finally found a book that apparently could contain all the answers, the book was gone.

  “When Claire and I were leaving the library, a darkelth demon attacked us, and—”

  “Wait.” I almost jerked the car off the road. “A darkelth demon was on school grounds? And you didn’t tell me? You know I’m still working with the campus security, right?”

  “Right,” she said, deadpan. I glanced at her and found her expression as cold as her voice. She hadn’t told me on purpose. That was what I got for pushing her away.

  Fuck.