Wilde Abandon (Ashcroft Academy Book 3)

by K. M. /Kelly Charron

  Chapter 4

  Ainsley

  “Would you believe it if I told you that this is my first Ashcroft party?” Harper flipped through Ainsley’s closet. “I don’t see why your outfit matters, though. You’ll have your coat on the whole time. Besides, Justin already likes you.” Harper pulled out Ainsley’s black satin formal dress and a blue and green long sleeve plaid shirt. “It doesn’t matter if you wear this or this.”

  Her friend was right about the outfit. Justin wouldn’t care what she wore, and she didn’t even know for sure if he was interested in her that way anymore. Besides, they had much bigger things to concern themselves with. What was wrong with her? Thinking about a guy, albeit a hot guy, when there was a dangerous shapeshifter eating the insides of helpless animals and morphing into unsuspecting people? It was just poor form.

  The thought of going straight to bed seemed more appealing than ever, but she needed to get to the party. When she found Justin or Sydney, she could let them know that the shifter had impersonated Winslow and that she suspected touch was how it morphed identities.

  “Hello, earth to Ainsley,” Harper said in an exasperated tone.

  “What? Oh, sorry.” She felt a slight heat in her cheeks.

  “Anything you want to talk about? This is the third time you’ve zoned out in the last hour.” Harper closed the distance between them and held an azure cable-knit sweater up to Ainsley’s chest. Tilting her head, she said, “I like this one. It brings out your eyes.” Pulling it down, she slumped back onto the foot of the bed. “Does this have to do with your dad? Did you find something on his laptop, after all? I haven’t wanted to ask, but you’ve been acting increasingly weird.” She gave a wry wink, “And that’s coming from me.”

  Ainsley wanted to tell Harper everything, but she decided to go with partial honesty instead. Her dad had liked to say that any convincing lie had some truth to it. “I haven’t spoken to any of my old friends in weeks, and the last few times that I talked to my mom, I had to call her.” Sitting next to Harper, she reached over and collected the sweater from her lap. She stroked it, getting lost in its calming softness. It reminded her of the blanket she’d slept with as a child.

  “I’m sorry, Ains. I know it’s hard. You move away, and everyone you left behind only has to miss one person, but you have to miss them all.”

  “You warned me it would happen. I just didn’t think my mom would be a part of the abandonment.” The truth was, she hadn’t called her mother in weeks, and her mother hadn’t tried to contact her, not even a text or email. It was just more evidence that Ainsley was a painful reminder.

  “And no, I haven’t found anything else on the laptop. Could you try and hack in again? I know you’re crazy busy, but it’s important to me.” She could barely meet Harper’s eyes.

  Harper paled slightly. “Um, about that. I hope you’re not mad, but I took a crack at it last week.”

  Ainsley’s throat thickened, and she could barely swallow. “You what?” Her mind raced with all the possibilities of what could be in there. There was a reason her dad had encrypted them, after all. Oh, God.

  "I know. I probably shouldn’t have done it without telling you first, but I was hoping to surprise you with the news. And I didn’t want to disappoint you if I failed again.” She looked at her hands. “Please don’t be angry. I wasn’t trying to invade your privacy, I swear. I mean, you’d already asked me to do it once.”

  “Yeah, with me there!” Ainsley clarified, but she cut herself off, not wanting to make Harper suspicious. As far as Harper knew, those files were just a mixture of generic work notes and home movies.

  Harper’s mouth opened. “Uh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. It seemed really important for you to gain access, so I—”

  Ainsley put a hand up. “It’s okay. I’m overreacting. This is more about me being stressed out than anything you did.” She sucked in a calming breath to steady the shakiness in her body. “Were you able to get in?” She bit the inside of her mouth as she waited for the answer.

  Harper stared blankly at her. Ainsley’s stomach tightened as the air left her lungs. Oh no, she’s seen something.

  “I still can’t break through his firewall.” She looked despondent. “I’m so sorry.”

  Ainsley fought between disappointment and relief. “It’s okay. We can try again later.” She realized now that she might have to fill Harper in on everything after all. She had no way to know what would pop onto the screen once Harper finally got in, and it wasn’t like Ainsley could do this without her.

  Ainsley stood and pulled the sweater from Harper’s grasp. “This is perfect.” She slid it on and bundled up in a jacket, scarf, and hat. She was even wearing a pair of tights under her jeans.

  “So, you’re not mad at me?” Harper asked sheepishly.

  “No, but please wait for me to be there when you try again, okay?”

  Nodding, Harper said, “Cross my heart.” She did her best to look nonchalant as she pulled on her coat. “So, did you say Jax was going to be there?”

  Ainsley kept her voice steady in reply. “He is. But remember what I told you, he and Gabe haven’t been broken up for that long. They went out for a long time.” She didn’t want to say the next, obvious part, but felt it was needed. “And he is … gay, Harper.”

  “I know he dated Gabe, but I’ve also heard that he might like girls too. Sexuality is a spectrum, after all, and besides,” her voice turned frazzled all of a sudden, “three months is practically a year in teen time. I’m sure he’s over it by now.”

  She didn’t argue since she didn’t know Jax well enough to know his orientation with any accuracy. The last thing she wanted was for Harper to get hurt, though, whether it be from a crazy shapeshifter or a broken heart. “Ready?” she sighed, glad to change the subject.

  Harper beamed at her. It was the kind of expression that pulled at Ainsley’s core.

  “Be open, Ains. Tonight could be the night that changes everything, for both of us.”

  She hoped to God that Harper was wrong.

  Chapter 5

  Sydney

  The November air felt crisp against Sydney’s skin. She inhaled deeply, and the earthy smell of dried leaves relaxed her—well, as much as anything could relax her. She’d been grief-stricken since Máthair Bello announced that Langston’s magic was gone.

  How would he ever forgive her?

  Sydney still heard the gasps from Langston and Jake inside her head. They echoed and rattled there, and she had no means to escape them—not music, not meditation, and not sleeping. But doing nothing was worse.

  She needed to be proactive and catch this thing before someone else she cared about suffered. So here she was, on her way to a stupid party in the middle of the woods where the shifter could be hiding in plain sight as any of Ashcroft’s thousand-plus middlings. Going was a necessary evil. She planned to end the shifter’s reign of terror tonight.

  All the apprentices promised the Elders that they would stay inside the dorms tonight, but since Sydney was already lying and hiding so much, why not add this one? She and her friends couldn’t sit idly in their rooms as instructed with the shifter on the loose. Considering Langston’s current state, it hadn’t taken much convincing to get everyone on board to sneak out into the woods. It could be any one of them next if they didn’t stop the entity.

  Sydney, Justin, Ava, Jax, and Khourtney trudged through the damp grass alongside hundreds of other students. That was the wondrous part of an outdoor gathering—no restrictions. The Ashcroft staff turned a blind eye to them, which always surprised her since they seemed to love micromanaging every other aspect of students’ lives. Maybe they figured it was better than students trying to party inside, possibly damaging one of their overpriced tapestries or stuffed birds.

  “I know I agreed to this, but now that we’re here I can’t help but think that this is a seriously stupid idea,” Justin said before they passed into the tree line. “It could be anywhere.”


  “Which is exactly why we’re here,” Sydney replied. She shouldn’t have to explain the importance of this.

  The blackened woods gave way to a small pool of light where a bunch of students had set up outdoor lanterns and a makeshift bar.

  “If we can trap this thing, think we can get their magic back?” Ava said.

  “Maybe,” Sydney shrugged. “Assuming it still possesses their powers within it. We have no idea how the shifter siphoned them away or if it can even use it. But we should consider all the possibilities.”

  Sydney watched Khourtney wrap her arms around herself and guessed it was more from nerves than cold.

  “If this thing was powerful enough that it took two apprentices and three Master witches to drive it off, imagine what it can do if it’s somehow able to use a witch’s additional magic, too,” Khourtney said.

  Sydney's blood pressure rose as nausea ate away at her stomach lining, making it feel like it had holes in it. But she wouldn’t show fear. The others were looking for her to lead them.

  Justin stopped to check his phone. “Ainsley and Harper are here.”

  “Super,” Syd quipped, unable to help herself.

  “Give it a rest for once,” Justin said. “She’s in this whether you like it or not. Actually, she’s in this because of you.”

  “I sort of like her,” Khourtney said, making sure to avert her gaze from Sydney, “for a middling.”

  “Then you’re an idiot,” Sydney sniped. Rage chased out some of her sickness, which was just what she needed. She needed to get angry—no more victim mentality.

  “Now, now kids, play nice,” Jax said. “It’s too bad Langston refused to come.”

  Sydney snapped her head to face him. “Would you hang out here knowing the shifter could attack you again? He can’t defend himself.” God, did she have to spell everything out?

  Ava stopped in her tracks. “For once, can we please put the snarky bullshit aside, at least until we figure this out? We can’t defeat this thing if we’re at each other’s throats every second.”

  Ava wasn’t normally the rational, reasonable one in the group, but she had a valid point. “Fine,” Sydney acquiesced. “For Langston. But those middlings better not push me.”

  Justin met her gaze. “You might want to watch that attitude, considering that you’re dating one now.”

  Syd clenched her jaw. “Don’t say that. Langston is not a middling. We’re going to get his magic back. He will be whole again.” She spit the words out. “He’s your fucking friend, Justin. Try supporting him.”

  Justin put his hands up in surrender. He’d made his point.

  The heat in her blood had barely cooled when Ainsley and Harper bounded over. Why in hell would she bring Harper, when she knew they had so much to discuss? Ainsley had better not have told her moronic, Thor-loving roommate anything.

  “Hi guys,” Ainsley said in a tentative voice. She motioned around her. “I almost couldn’t find you. This is crazy. I can’t believe the school allows this and that no one calls the cops.”

  Syd allowed herself the joy of rolling her eyes. “Why would they? The trees absorb the noise, most of the faculty are comfortably at home, and it’s not like there are any houses nearby. We’re not bothering anyone.”

  “Where are the kegs?” Harper asked, looking just as awkward as she sounded saying it.

  Ava grinned, “You want a beer?” she laughed.

  “I drink beer,” she said as if trying out the line.

  With an amused glance, Khourt said, “I think Dr. Pepper is more up your alley, but come with me. I know something you might like.” Putting her arm around Harper, she led her to the bar—a fallen tree, lined with liquor bottles and a few pony kegs.

  “So how will we know if the shifter is here masquerading as a student?” Jax appeared particularly wound up this evening. “I mean, it has to be here. I can’t see it missing an opportunity to hunt for one of us. How do we sniff it out?”

  Brooding, Justin narrowed his gaze on Syd and said, “We don’t—unless we want to risk getting killed or having our magic ripped from us, too. I don’t know about everyone else, but neither sounds like fun to me.”

  Jax gripped Justin by the shoulders. “Look man, I know this is shitty, but we can do this. There are six of us. We’ll outnumber it. We’ll get the symbols, recreate the room, and lure it there. If a handful of witches could do it four-hundred years ago, then we can do it now. Our spells and power have only gotten stronger over the centuries.”

  “First of all,” Sydney broke in, “there are five of us, not six. Ainsley doesn’t count.” She scoffed at the very idea, rolling her eyes. “But, I agree with you, Jax. We can do this, and we will, but we have to be careful.” The memory of her, Jeremy, and three Elder witches attempting to subdue the shifter gave Sydney pause. She’d hold her tongue, though, and not say anything that would plant doubt in her backup. It wasn’t going to be as easy as Jax believed, but they had to risk it.

  “What are the chances that it’s left Danvers and has moved onto some other town, looking for witches there?” Ava pulled out her phone and began reapplying tonight’s hot pink lipstick with her camera app.

  “Are you serious?” Khourtney asked, indignant. “Why are you fussing with your makeup?”

  Ava didn’t stop the swipe of the silver tube across her lips, but she still managed to say, “There’s no law against not looking hot while on the hunt. Who knows, maybe our super freak will find it attractive.”

  “The idea is to stay under the radar, to sneak up on it.” Sydney grabbed the lipstick out of Ava’s hand, twisted it closed, and shoved it in Ava’s pocket.

  “I saw the shifter,” Ainsley said out of nowhere.

  Sydney, like all of them, jolted to attention. She crossed her arms and tilted her head in disbelief. “You … saw the shifter? When? Where? And why the hell are you just saying something now?”

  Ainsley swallowed hard. She looked nervous. Good, she should be.

  “I saw it last night when you were all in the Nest. I went for a walk on campus, and then Justin texted me to say the shifter had attacked Langston and another boy. He said not to be alone anywhere, so I was heading back to my room when Professor Winslow came up to me. He was acting really weird. It was something about the way he spoke to me, the way he acted, and then his eyes changed. They looked almost reptilian. They went from blue to this yellowy-gold color, and his irises elongated like a lizard’s.”

  “Seriously?” Sydney straightened, staring at her. “What did he say?”

  “He—it—was being cryptic. I felt like it was playing a game with me. He told me I needed to be careful out there alone in the dark. Before I could stop myself, I asked him what he was.”

  “You what?! Dead giveaway, newbie.” Sydney ran her hand through her hair. She had to remain calm. “So, it knows you’re onto it?”

  Ainsley held a hand up. “I don’t know. Let me finish. He looked at me very strangely, like he was trying to figure me out, and said, ‘Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing.’ I have no idea what he meant, but maybe it has to do with my immunity to magic.”

  Ugh, of course, she would make this about her. “Come on, come on. We don’t have time to be amazed by your special trait right now. What else happened with the shifter? Why did it let you go after it all but outed itself?”

  Justin moved closer and grasped Ainsley’s hand. “It’s okay, you can tell us.”

  Ainsley smiled and batted her eyelashes at him. Sydney was tired of all her innocent lamb bullshit.

  “That’s just it,” Ainsley continued. “It was like it enjoyed the banter. He didn’t seem aggressive, just creepy. I think he liked the fact that I was on to it. He kept watching me—as if he wanted to see what I’d do next. It’s like I was a test or an experiment.”

  “What did you do?” Jax asked, still hyped up.

  “I tried to act like I thought he was Winslow, said I’d see him in class, and then I got th
e hell out of there.”

  “Well, that’s anti-climactic,” Ava quipped.

  “There’s one more thing,” Ainsley said.

  “Can’t wait to hear it. We’re all mesmerized by your grand triumph,” Syd said, dismissing Ainsley by looking at the party, her arms crossed tightly. Why had it revealed itself to her and not done anything? If it had taken to modeling identities, why not Ainsley’s?

  “It was wearing leather gloves,” Ainsley said, dropping the sentence like she was handing them the clue they’d all been waiting for.

  “Sorry, but I think we’re going to need a little more than his fashion choices,” Sydney said, ready to end this conversation.

  Justin glared at her, but he was smart enough to keep quiet.

  “Don’t you see?” Ainsley’s voice grew impatient. “I think the shifter was wearing the gloves to keep his form from changing. I think touching—direct, skin-to-skin contact—is how he takes on someone’s appearance. He becomes whoever he touches.”

  Sydney’s heart quickened; she felt her eyes widen with recognition. Finally, something that made sense. Her intuition told her that what Ainsley was suggesting was true. “Wow, you’re not completely useless, after all.” She kept her voice flat, unwilling to give Ainsley the idea that this, in any way, made up for her part in this nightmare.

  Justin cleared his throat. “There’s something you should know, Ains.”

  Sydney narrowed her gaze on him. What was he going to reveal now? Couldn’t he keep his mouth shut? “Justin,” she began.

  He ignored her and kept talking, “Remember when I texted you about the shifter attacking last night? It… Well, it was bad.”

  “I figured when I didn’t see Langston. Is he okay?” she asked tentatively.

  “No, he’s not okay!” Rage burst inside Sydney. She had to keep her voice down, to control herself so other students wouldn’t develop more of an interest in her than usual. But it was too late. A few of the nearest students glanced over, gawking, so Sydney sent a gentle magical incentive for them to turn around and walk away.