His ear flickered backward, and he sank to his haunches. “Oh, dear. You must forgive me. I had no idea you were—” He paused. “I’m sorry. What are you?”
“I’m a witch,” I said, jabbing the wand in his direction. “Obviously.”
“Hmm.” He studied me for another long moment before parting his jaws and letting his tongue loll out in a canine smile. “Special little witch.”
I shrugged. “So they say.”
His ears twitched. “And how is that you came by this unique gift? If I might ask. And I do hope you’ll let me ask. I haven’t had a conversation in ages.”
“Uh… well, it’s kind of a long story,” I said, glancing toward the entrance. Every nerve in my body was waiting for the rattle of footsteps on the spiral stairs. “And I have basically zero time.” The wolf’s broad shoulders sagged with disappointment, so I quickly added, “I’m really sorry?”
“Quite alright, darling.”
The wolf stood and stretched the muscles under his beautiful golden pelt. I had an overwhelming urge to reach through the bars and stroke the soft fur between his ears. I resisted though, on the grounds that it would be super weird when he turned into a person again.
“Are you trapped?” I gestured at him with the wand. “Like that?”
His muzzle dipped in a movement I took for a nod.
“Why?”
“Uh, well, it’s kind of a long story,” he mimicked in a surfer-dude accent that sounded nothing like how I actually talked.
At least I hoped not. I’d never even been to the beach.
“How long have you been here?” I asked, ignoring his rude brush off.
“What month is it?”
“September.”
He seemed to need a moment to take this in. Finally, he said, “Almost a year, then.”
“Then you must know Rhea!” I stepped forward, forgetting to be afraid of him. “Couldn’t you talk to her? Do you know who let her loose? Do you know if she had some sort of file? There was a murder, and—”
The golden wolf growled. “Yes. I am aware of the murder, but I know nothing of any file. Don’t see many computers around here, do you?”
I clasped a hand to my head. There I had gone being stupid again. Why had I imagined Lucas stealing a manila envelope stuffed with papers when obviously it was more likely to have been a flash drive? Just because the Academy taught magic didn’t make it medieval.
But that actually decreased the probability of my theory that Rhea had stolen the file. It wouldn’t last half an hour in a wolf’s wet mouth.
Then I realized what else the golden wolf had said. “You know who killed Lucas?”
The wolf shrugged. “I know who killed a boy. Perhaps his name was Lucas.”
I gripped the cage bars. “Who did it? Professor Phorm?”
The golden muzzle dipped again. “Right where you’re standing, or roughly thereabouts.”
A cold chill ran up my spine as I immediately looked down at the tiny bone fragments littering the stone floor. “Right here?”
“That’s not him,” the wolf said. “His body was removed in a timely fashion.”
Dumped in the woods and made to look like a suicide. I really hated this place.
“But why?” I pressed. “Over what?”
“Letting the she-wolf loose, of course.” He wrinkled his muzzle in disgust. “She was the old man’s prize possession.”
I released a dark laugh. “Are you jealous of that?”
He flashed his fangs. “She was a criminal. A danger to my kind and yours. Now she’s running free, and, well, here we are.”
“Why didn’t he let you go, too?” I asked, neck prickling with unease.
“She wouldn’t let him. And then they ran out of time.” The wolf pointed his nose toward the entrance. “You see, darling, there’s only the one way in or out. If you get caught…”
He dropped onto his back, sticking all four legs into the air. And if that wasn’t dramatic enough, he rolled his head to one side and let his tongue fall out.
“Wonderful,” I groaned. “And the Oscar goes to…”
The wolf jumped up and shook out his coat. “You’re too kind, darling.”
I raked my hands through my hair. Now what was I supposed to do? If I couldn’t turn Braden and Castle back into humans, there was an excellent chance of being eaten if I opened their cages. Then they’d just get put back in their cages when Phorm showed up and my death would be for absolutely nothing.
“Tell me,” the wolf said, sitting and curling his fluffy tail around his hind feet. “What exactly were you trying to accomplish with these brutes?”
“They’re not brutes,” I snapped. “They’re people. I… accidentally transformed them.”
The wolf’s bronze eyebrows shot up, lifting his ears to the top of his head. “You did what?”
“I changed them. I mean, I didn’t want to. Someone made me. It’s a long—”
“Story.” He smoothed his features. “You know, we’d have more time to chat about all this if you helped a fellow out.”
“Oh. I mean, of course. Obviously.” I lifted my wand toward the cage’s lock, but then paused. “How do I know you won’t eat me?”
“I never eat anything I’ve talked to, darling. And you’re proving far more interesting than most things I’ve talked to. You’re safe with me.” His tail thumped against the floor. “I promise.”
“Okay,” I said, releasing a long breath. If I couldn’t rescue Braden and Castle tonight, at least I could save this guy. “I will. But first… I came here to change my friends back, but it’s not working. I’m not strong enough on my own. But if I stay much longer, I’ll get caught, and if I get caught…” I flopped my head over and stuck my tongue out.
“Indeed.”
“So can you tell them what’s happening?” I cast a miserable look into Braden’s cage. “I don’t know if they can understand me anymore. Whatever this is—” I gestured between the wolf and myself, “—it only works with shifters.” I paused, remembering something she’d said. “Are you by any chance related to Rhea?”
He shook his head vigorously. “Don’t insult my breeding!”
“Oh. Okay. I’m sorry. It’s just she said I could only talk to her, or maybe only to members of her bloodline—”
The wolf snorted. “Poppycock! Shifters don’t have bloodlines. We’re all sterile.”
“Really?”
“Truly.” He lowered his muzzle, looking up at me through golden eyelashes. “It’s not something about which I, for one, would lie. I have no idea why that… that… feral dog would feed you such nonsense. But you can’t believe a word she says.”
My head throbbed with knowledge. There was too much to sort out. I would take the golden wolf with me and figure it out on the road. I shook off all other concerns for the time being.
“So can you?” I prodded. “Tell them I’ll be back for them? I’m not abandoning them, I just need… help.”
The golden ears drooped. “I would if I could, darling, but your friends… they aren’t shifters. Or else you’d be able to tell them so yourselves.”
“But you’re all animals,” I argued.
He shook his head. “No, dear. They are animals. I’m a shifted human. It’s not the same thing. They’re brains… This is a lot to explain… Maybe we should head out? Talk on the way?”
I took a step back, lowering my wand. “No. Tell me first. Then I let you out.”
The golden wolf heaved a great sigh. “Do you want to know why I was singing?”
“It’s not super high on my list of concerns.”
“I was singing to stay human.” He paused and looked at me. “It’s a little trick I learned from the she-wolf.” His lips wrinkled with a bitter snarl. “Most shifters in our shoes—or lack thereof—lose their minds within a matter of weeks. But she was down here for over a decade. And she discovered that when she felt herself slipping away, she could sing. And so that’s what I do, da
rling. All alone here in the dark. Day in and day out. I sing. Everything I can remember.”
“That’s… really… sad,” I said slowly, furrowing my brow. “But what does that have to do with anything?”
He rolled his eyes and stamped his feet impatiently. “When a shifter shifts, our brains meld. We have a little of both. But the longer we stay shifted, the more the human part deteriorates. Sooner or later, we lose it completely.”
“I’m still not following,” I groaned. “Spit it out.”
“Whatever you did, however you managed it, you turned your friends here into, well, brutes. Not shifters. There’s no language in those brains.” He laughed and motioned his muzzle toward Serenity and Leia. “Believe me. I tried to chat up those two beauties as soon as they arrived. Empty as can be.”
My shoulders slumped. “Will they get it back? When I fix them?”
“I’ve no idea. It’s not something that… happens.”
I turned and trudged back to Braden’s cell. He was snoring loudly. I looked over my shoulder into Castle’s cell. Once more, her shiny green eyes peered at me from the darkness. A pang of guilt shot through my heart. If they were all just regular animals now, then whatever Phorm did to them, they wouldn’t be able to understand. Serenity and Leia wouldn’t even know that they had brought it on themselves.
“Someone’s coming,” the golden wolf said. “A little help, please?”
Panic flung my arm out, sending a bolt of red magic into the cage lock, blowing it apart. The wolf cringed and cowered as metal rain down on his face.
“Let’s go,” I said, already moving toward the exit.
The golden wolf reared up on his hind legs and gave the iron gate a shove. It flew open with a rusty scream, and in a flash, the beautiful animal—shifted person—was standing at my side. His head reached higher than my waist, and when I let my fingers brush the lifted hackles on his back, I could feel the power in the muscles underneath. Maybe together, we could get out of this alive.
I cast one last look over my shoulder. My eyes clenched shut of their own accord, and a few tears sprang free, dribbling down my face.
“Castle… Braden…” I swallowed the emotion, tried to make my voice sound strong and sure. They might not understand my words, but perhaps my tone. “I will be back. I promise you that.”
“I’m sure they’re touched,” the wolf barked. “Now let’s run. Surprise them, and we might have a chance.”
With that, the wolf leaped through the hole I’d blasted in the wooden door. And even though it killed me to leave them, I followed suit. They were safer here than anywhere else. That’s what I had to keep telling myself. But I would come back. With an entire army, if that’s what it took.
“Ah, it would be Kim’s daughter, wouldn’t it?” a voice wheezed from the darkness ahead. “Circle back, did you?”
The wolf lunged, but Professor Phorm stamped his cane at the last possible second before the fangs closed around his neck. The wolf froze, suspended in mid-air.
“Now, Meena, was it?” Phorm squeezed around the wolf. “I’m glad you’ve turned up. I wanted to talk about your impressive display of transmogrification this evening. Perhaps we can come to an understanding? Make all that nonsense about class rings and expulsion go away?”
My wand rose and fired.
Phorm clutched his chest where the red bolt landed. His knees buckled, and the cane clattered to the floor. His body followed a split second later.
The golden wolf tumbled through the air and landed in a heap at the bottom of the spiral stairs. I gaped at Phorm.
Had I really killed him? Just like that?
The wolf stood and shook out his fur so hard his jowls and ears flapped noisily. He blinked in surprise.
“Brutal,” he said with a note of appreciation that rather unnerved me.
But it was too late to second-guess him now. The wolf and I were a team. I hopped over Phorm’s body and bolted for the stairs. “Let’s get out of here.”
Running up the spiral was twice as hard as running down had been. I tripped and bashed my knees on the step’s metal edges several times, but the wolf was always there to nudge me onward. Finally, after what felt to my burning thighs like decades, we reached the yellow door. It was closed now.
Gasping for air, I pressed my face against the small window set into the door. Cloaked figures crowded the hallway, too many and too close together to count. My heart twisted, thinking of Dash. Had his lie been found out? And what of Wallace? I was surprised he hadn’t caught up with me first. Had they done something to him, too? Resting my forehead on the glass, I berated myself for the trail of destruction I was leaving behind.
But I was leaving.
Stepping down a few steps to get some working space, I lifted my wand and traced the pattern I’d seen Wallace trace before his own office doors. Squeezing my eyes shut, I visualized the first place that popped into my mind.
“Oh my,” the golden wolf breathed.
I opened my eyes. Sunlight streamed through the window. A laugh—slightly crazed—bubbled out of me. I slammed the door open and stepped out of the stairwell onto the edge of a cliff. The wolf bounded after me, immediately throwing himself into the soft green grass with puppyish glee.
I turned around and slammed the door shut on Broken Wand Academy. It hovered for a moment in the air before blinking out of existence. I stared out over the ocean, breathing in the salty air. I decided nothing good would come from looking at the rocks below, so I turned back to the forest of towering trees. Somewhere beyond it lay the road my mother’s car had run off of. It was the last place in the world I wanted to be, which is why I chose it. Who would ever think to start their search here?
Turning my back on the cliff, I walked over to the wolf and flopped down on my back, allowing exhaustion to creep into my bones. My eyelids instantly felt heavy.
“You never told me your name.” The wolf’s face appeared over mine, grinning. A bit of drool fell on my cheek.
I sat up, wiping my face. “Meena,” I said. “Meena Song.”
He held out a paw. “Well, Meena, you can call me Dan.”
Chuckling, I shook his paw. “Nice to meet you, Dan.”
What was it with these shifters and no last names?
Dan settled on his haunches, wrapping his tail around his paws. “Pleasure is all mine.”
A cool breeze drifted in from the ocean, ruffling through my hair and his fur. We sat like that for a few minutes, just savoring the sunshine and freedom.
“And where will you be off to now?” he asked at length, through a wide yawn.
“Um…” I scratched my head. “I don’t know. I mean, I know where I’m supposed to go, or at least where someone I halfway trust told me I should go, but I have no idea where it is.”
“That sounds… problematic.” He furrowed his brow. His markings were even more striking under the sun. His fur gleamed like, well, gold.
“But…” I sat up straight, a smile daring to creep across my face. “Maybe you do.”
He cocked his head. “Oh?”
I shifted onto my knees, facing him, excitement growing. “Yes. It’s a shifter school. It’s called… oh, damn it… what is it? Gladhollow?” I groaned and thumped my temples. “Come on, Meena.”
Dan’s eyebrows shot up. “The Gladwell Academy?”
Relief flood through me, and I grabbed the ruff of fur around his neck. “You know it?”
“Oh, yes.” The golden wolf flashed his toothy grin. “I know it well.”
End of Episode Four
Discover the Gladwell Academy of Shifters and uncover the truth about the greater Veiled World universe. Will Meena find her way to this mysterious school?
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More Books from Marisa Claire:
The Winter Sacrifice (Veiled World)
D
ragon Games: Legion Academy
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Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to Torment Publishing! Without you this book would not have happened. I love you guys.
Thanks to all the early readers and the support of my fans.
Thanks to my family for their support!
Credits:
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Jack Llartin – Editor
Broken Wand Academy Page 39