Wait!
It dipped, and I think it turned its head, but it didn’t stop flying away. From me. It was leaving me.
I gasped for air as I stood there, watching its retreat.
It left me.
And before it disappeared fully from my sight, its wings beat up and down just as the sun rose a smidgen higher. Bright light glinted from a shiny slickness I could make out from here.
Flynn stared open-mouthed. “Is that—”
Blood.
Slamming my lips together, I spun and faced the direction of the cliff, the area that housed the Menagerie animals. Someone, something, had wounded it at the Menagerie.
And I was going to get an answer from the man in charge whether he wanted to reveal it or not.
Chapter Seventeen
Flynn hurried into the golf cart and I wasted no time setting it to drive.
“We should ask that guy. About the longma.”
That guy. Wolf. He has a name. Use it. I could tackle Flynn’s name game another day.
I nodded. “I plan to.” But not before speaking with Marcy. All day, in all my classes, a low fury simmered beneath my skin. Check yourself. I did. I knew I was mad. And I’d keep my hands to myself lest I emit some anger thorns. Once I had some guidance on that little matter, I could unleash it safely.
When I pulled up to the greenhouse, Flynn didn’t follow me out of the cart. “I thought we were going to talk to Wolf.”
Gee, he can say his name…
“Why are we stopping here?” he asked as he exited.
“We will talk to Wolf. After Marcy.”
It seemed I wouldn’t need to make two trips, though, because both our mentors were in the greenhouse. Wolf, standing tall with an unhappy smirk and growling tone to his voice. Marcy, trying to stand taller with a stubborn glower and firm resolution in her remarks.
“She needs to come and work with me.”
Wolf shook his head. “Why? She’s doing just fine with me.”
Marcy set her hand on her hip and raised her voice, speaking slowly as though she’d said these words a handful of times already. “If she’s Anessa’s daughter, then she’ll need to be aware of her other sects.”
My other sects? More powers. Just what I dreaded. There was no doubt in my mind that they were arguing about me. And who’s Anessa?
Flynn put his finger to his lips and waved me to follow him. We snuck in closer, hiding around a high table of vine-crawling plants from pots.
Déjà vu. Eavesdropping with Flynn again.
Some things never changed.
“She hasn’t shown a sign of any other powers, Marcy, not on or after her elven date.”
Marcy huffed at Wolf. “How do you know she hasn’t?”
He ducked lower to her eye level. “And how do you know she has?”
Marcy slanted up, on her tiptoes, to retort, “Because Ethel overheard that Andeas kid talking about her being mad at him and lashing out.”
“Oh, my God.” I whispered it and Flynn glared at me.
Ren was talking about it, about me already. I knew it wasn’t going to be swept under the rug.
“Before he gets it in his head, or Glorian’s head, that he should try to test her or best her at powers, she needs to know all of them first. So she”—jab of her finger at Wolf’s chest—“should”—another jab—“come work”—now a shove of both hands—“with me.”
I stepped forward from our hiding spot. I was done being talked about. And maybe, if I explained to Marcy what happened, I wouldn’t need to leave Wolf and the Menagerie. “I don’t want to work in the greenhouse. No offense.”
Marcy sucked in a breath and jumped back from Wolf. He froze and glared at me, probably furious I’d dared to eavesdrop on him.
“I don’t want to come work here.” I walked down the first row of tables laden with seedlings poking from trays of soil. A horned butterfly, a glowing mint-green one with navy tusks, flew to me and wove a spiral around me.
“Why?” Marcy crossed her arms at me.
“I’m more attuned with the animals. I like them.” As though I needed to prove the point, I set my hand out and the butterfly sat in my palm, beating its wings together to dust off glowing specks of light.
“You might be attuned to even more,” she argued.
After the thorns from my hand yesterday, I believed her. But I needed to be near the animals and the Menagerie. Especially after this morning.
“I want to stay close to the Menagerie.”
“Gee, I like your company, too, kid,” Wolf said with a grunt.
Did he have to be a smartass all the time? “I want to be near the ancient species wing.”
Now my mentor lost his temper. “I haven’t even let you visit that wing yet!”
“But I need to!”
Flynn stepped to my side and his presence was the support I needed. “I want to be close by in case the longma returns.”
Silence stretched. She gasped. He stiffened. Neither Marcy or Wolf moved after their immediate reaction.
Then in a slow voice, Wolf said, “Layla, there are no longmas.”
“That’s a lie,” Flynn said.
“I’m telling you, kid…” Wolf started.
Flynn stomped forward a pace. “I’m telling you, that’s a lie. We saw it this morning.”
Marcy shook her head. “Where?”
Wolf sneered at her. “Now you’re going to entertain them?” To us, he repeated, “There are no longmas.”
I crossed my arms. “There are. I rescued one last year from an arrow wound. It ran with me every morning. It saved me from the sea monster. And he came back today. There are longmas.”
Wolf shook his head and gripped the hair that escaped his stub of a man bun.
Marcy frowned at me, her face the most serious I’d ever seen it. “There was…” She elbowed Wolf so he’d face her. “Ethel said they ran that blood test last year.” She studied me as she finished. “They found that bloody sweatshirt in the woods of the perimeter. And it was from the longma family.”
“I saw the same damn report.” Wolf lowered his hands and paced. “It was a descendant from them. It had to have been another sub-species that’s been hiding. You know what happened to the last longma. You were there.”
Marcy pursed her lips and her eyes turned glossy. She stared at the wall.
“What do you think happened to the last longma?” Flynn asked.
“There’s no thinking about it. I know. Just as she does.” Wolf pointed at Marcy and he almost softened his intense glare at her. “Under Glorian’s orders—”
“It was Bateson’s idea first,” Marcy quietly interrupted.
“The last longma was hunted and shot by an arrow. We were out on a field expedition, an assignment to locate them, actually it was a quarterly exam exercise—seeking out ancient species. Stuart meant to tranq it, but he nearly killed it. And when Justin…” He looked at Marcy.
She sniffled and then brought her teary gaze to us. “And when my fiancé tried to save it, it lashed out and killed him.”
“There are no more longmas, Layla.” Wolf shook his head like it pained him to admit it.
“There are.” I stormed out of the room, stomping out of the greenhouse and practically running into the sunshine.
“Where are you going?” Marcy called out.
“Layla! Dammit, Layla!” Wolf that time.
“Wait up,” Flynn yelled out.
I smiled at the sound of his footsteps racing after me. At least he wasn’t going to try to hold me back. Instead, he’d have my back, like he always did. I slowed to a stop near the cart and Wolf ran up to block me from getting in.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to prove you wrong. There is a longma out there. I befriended it. He saved my life. And this morning, we saw it flying toward the Menagerie’s roof.”
Wolf shook his head, his teeth clenched and bared. He took my elbow, to physically halt me from passing him, an
d I glowered.
“Let me go.”
A hawk swooped down and cried out. At Wolf, I imagined. Crap. I yanked my arm free and took a deep breath. Check yourself. Fine. What was my energy like right now? Pissed at Wolf. So sorry. I bit down on my lip before I chanced speaking. As angry as I was at him, I didn’t want wildlife acting against him on my behalf.
“I’m going to talk to Suthering. I want answers and I’m going to get them.”
Wolf stepped back, almost into Marcy as she’d come to stand behind him. “Fine.” He splayed his arms out and laughed once without humor. “Go ahead. He knows they’re all dead.”
I shook my head and got into the cart. Flynn had already rounded the vehicle.
“Come on,” Marcy said to Wolf. “We’ll go too. Because I need to hear this one.”
And so we all sped over to the headmaster’s suite.
Chapter Eighteen
“They send students out to track down animals for quarterlies?” Flynn asked as I navigated the straightest path to Suthering’s office.
Seems like it.
“That’s…that’s…insane. How could they just test us like that? Sticking us in potentially dangerous situations.”
I gnawed on my cheek. Well, actually, Wolf had already done that to me the first day I worked with him. And in hindsight, it did work. I showed him what I was capable of instead of narrating and describing it. But field searches for ancient species with lethal bodies?
“It’s wrong.”
“Damn right, it is. They’re…they’re using the upperclassmen for their powers.”
A beat of quiet passed as we clinked and clanked the cart along the earth. In the rearview mirror, I saw Marcy driving a sullen-faced Wolf in another cart.
“We saw the longma,” Flynn said, almost like he needed to reassure himself.
“I didn’t just see it, I touched it. I saved it. It saved me.”
“And the last you saw it, it had a collar and chain.”
I nodded. “It had to have been close by before the summer. I’d been calling for help in the water and he’d answered. I don’t know how far an animal can detect my energy, but…”
“He was nearby. Still is.”
I nodded to myself as I jammed the gear into park and exited with Flynn at my side. Hearing him say the words of what I already knew reconfirmed it. No matter how much our mentors could swear they’d witnessed the extinction of the longmas, I—we—knew better.
And as we marched up the stairs to Suthering’s office, I hoped that the man who claimed to be aware of everything at Olde Earth would agree with us.
The secretary glanced up at our entrance and slanted her brows. “Can I help—”
“We need to speak with the headmaster,” Flynn stated firmly.
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Suthering is not avail—”
“Suthering!” Wolf didn’t shout it, but I had no doubt the man could hear him from inside his office. This was a guy who ordered griffins and gorillas to stand to. He had a commanding tone. Pushing past me and Flynn, he let himself into the headmaster’s office.
“Hi, Lynda,” Marcy offered to the secretary meekly. “Love your new style.” She gestured to the older woman’s permed coif. Then she followed Wolf into the office. After a quick glance at each other, Flynn and I took up the rear and hurried into the office before someone could shut us out.
“What’s this about?” Suthering stood from his desk and cast a concerned gaze at our mentors and then us.
“Go on. Tell him,” Wolf prompted me. He paced in the back of the room and held a hand out to the older man.
I smirked at him. “This morning, Flynn and I saw a longma flying toward the Menagerie.”
Suthering immediately frowned. “There are—”
I slumped to the chair in front of his desk. “Aren’t any. Yeah, that’s what my oh-so-patient and stubborn mentor insists.”
Suthering stared at me for a moment and then glanced at Wolf and Marcy.
“Bella,” he said and Cat Breath uncoiled from her perch on top of his bookcase. “Please go patrol.”
Marcy opened the door for the creature. Yawning, the mutant hybrid obediently left with an annoyed air only a feline could pull off. Then Marcy closed the door and locked it. Only then did Suthering face me again.
“Start from the beginning. Quickly.”
Why the rush? He had something more important to do? I refrained from scoffing, though, and did as he asked. From the first time I encountered and rescued the longma. Our runs. Him saving me from the water when the sea monster attacked me and Sabine. Then this morning, his return.
I exhaled harshly as I finished, a bit worn out from the fast summary. Marcy knocked a water bottle at my shoulder. I took it and she kind of sat, leaning her hip against Suthering’s desk.
“I wondered how you’d gotten to shore,” he said.
“You believe her?” Wolf blurted out.
“I have to. She…she’s a Pure, Wolf. You know that. She sees them, she commands them all.”
Marcy dropped her jaw and then said, “But we—”
Suthering held up his hand. “Yes. I vividly remember the hell of that failed exercise. The longma you’d found was killed. It was believed to be the last one.”
“No one’s reported seeing a longma for years before and after the one Stu shot.” Wolf set his hands on Suthering’s desk and leaned forward. “Not a single one.”
Suthering had his fingers steepled and pointed at his chin. He pivoted his point to aim at me. “Until her. And we haven’t had a Pure as powerful as her since…”
“Nevis?” I asked.
Suthering sighed. “I don’t want to know who filled you in on who that man was.”
“Paige.”
He tilted his head at my answer, almost like acceptance, acknowledging Paige liked to gossip and talk too much.
“You can’t believe there is another longma out there,” Wolf insisted.
“Why not?” Flynn asked. “It’s not impossible, is it?”
“No, but…” Wolf mumbled something under his breath and paced away.
Suthering explained, “They are extremely cunning and stealthy creatures. Exceedingly difficult to capture.”
I sat forward. “But someone did get him. My longma. When he’d rescued me from the water, he had a collar and chain still attached to his neck.”
Suthering pursed his lips and frowned, tapping his finger to the desktop. “I don’t—”
A distinct yowl rent the air and we all jerked upright.
“Bella,” Marcy whispered, looking at the door.
“Shit.” Wolf stepped away from the closed door.
Beeps chirped from the panel on Suthering’s desk. “Mr. Suthering, the council is here for an emergency meeting. I shot to my feet and shared a wide-eyed oh, crap! look with Flynn.
“Shit!” Wolf took hold of Marcy’s arm and brought her from the door. Flynn adopted the same cavemanish attitude and wrapped an arm around my waist, edging me in the same direction Wolf was encouraging us to go.
“There’s nowhere to—” Marcy whispered.
She was right. There were no hidden niches. We couldn’t all fit under Suthering’s desk.
“Bathroom?” Wolf whispered to Suthering, who had stood with us and hastened in the opposite direction, toward the round table section.
He shook his head. “Someone may need to go in there. Then you’d be caught.” Instead, he opened another plain door behind the head seat of the round table half of the room.
A couple of coats hung from a pole, but there might have been space for us to squeeze in if we could melt and remold our bodies. We had no choice and no time. Suthering held the door open as we piled in. In the wrestle for standing space, we wordlessly adjusted like sardines and I tried to mute my grunts. There simply wasn’t enough room to stand well.
Marcy and I hunched over and Flynn and Wolf towered behind us. Towered and bent over at the neck, because if they wanted to stand
fully, their heads would have to go through the single shelf at the top.
Suthering gave us a stern, worried nod and shut the door.
Darkness filled my vision and I shifted my weight in the cramped posture.
“Suthering,” Glorian announced as she entered the room a moment later. We hid just in time. Thank God.
“We’ve decided to hold an emergency meeting and vote,” she said.
Vote on what?
Wheel bearings squealed as the rolling chairs must have been pulled out. Four squeaks followed like the entire council sat down in sync.
“We didn’t decide. I’d rather discuss this later,” Griswold snapped. “I’ve got things to focus on in the lab.”
“For God’s sake,” Bateson drawled. “When aren’t you in love with your studies in the lab? No wonder you’re not married.”
“And no wonder you’re not getting laid,” Griswold retorted. “If you ever did, you wouldn’t be such a b—”
“Enough!” Glorian’s yell cut through the bickering. “We all need to be present to discuss an urgent matter and vote.”
“What urgent matter? The longma sighting?”
I frowned at the back of the closet door. Why’d he offer it up like that?
“What?” Glorian’s reply was weak. Like she’d hoped to shock him with knowing first. “How… Who told you?”
“Wolf,” Suthering answered.
I sighed in relief that Flynn and I weren’t outed as the true witnesses. Maybe Wolf was an easy answer to believe, as though Suthering frequently gathered reports from my mentor.
“How did you learn of it?” Bateson asked.
“I have my sources,” the older woman said. “None of which matter now. We must find it.”
“We don’t have to look for it,” Griswold stated. “Have you forgotten what happened the last time you searched for those damn things and attempted capture?”
Glorian’s sigh was loud enough for us to hear in our hiding spot. “Last time was an accident.”
“Your student shot it!” Bateson yelled. “I still can’t understand how he even had an arrow out there.”
Discovery: Olde Earth Academy: Year Two Page 16