by Jody Morse
“He actually cried,” Kaden added.
“Aw, poor guy.” Draia frowned. “I don’t blame him, though. This must be so hard for him. He and Ambur were so close.”
“Were so close? You’re talking about her like she’s dead,” I said quietly. The truth was that I really didn’t like talking about her in past tense. I didn’t like anything about this situation at all.
“She’s not dead. I just meant that she’s not here with us.”
“I feel like we should be doing more, you guys,” I told them. “How long can we sit next to Ember and hang out with her and just pretend like we don’t know the truth? And even worse, how long can we just sit around and do nothing while the real Ambur—our best friend Ambur—is off who knows where? Ember said Ambur went ‘on a little trip.’ A trip to where? I find it hard to believe that Ambur would have just gone willingly on this trip and that she wouldn’t have gone ahold of at least one of us by now. I don’t think she’s okay, you guys. I really don’t. Something bad has happened to her.”
“It’s not that I don’t agree with you, Juliana. I want to go looking for Ambur, too. But here’s the thing. I can see that she’s still alive—and I can feel it. I can feel it deep in my gut. If someone who I was as close to as I am to her died, I would just know,” Draia explained to us. “So, I know that she is, for sure, alive. But what I can’t see is where she is. If I have a premonition on her whereabouts, then obviously we’re going to go there. But as of right now, it would be like going on a wild goose hunt or finding a needle in a haystack. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”
“Yeah. I know.” I replied with a sigh. Ambur could have been literally anywhere. The one thing I was certain of was that if Ember had sent her away, somehow, she probably would have wanted to get her as far away from here as possible. But I wasn’t even sure if we should have checked the paranormal realm or the human world for her.
“We’ll just wait and see. Eventually, some clue is going to lead us to Ambur,” Draia said.
“Hopefully a clue that pops up sooner rather than later,” I muttered.
Kadence glanced down at the time on his phone. “We should probably actually get to class soon.”
I nodded. “See you later. Stay safe when you’re alone in the dorm room with her, okay?”
“Girl, you think I’m about to be alone with Ember? I’m staying with Marcus until your class is over,” she told me. “Text me when you’re ready to go back to the dorm.”
“Okay, good. That’s probably a good idea. Neither of us should ever be alone with her.”
“I wholeheartedly concur,” she agreed with a nod. “Have a good class.”
“Thanks.” As I began to walk towards the House of Water with Kaden, he wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him.
Even though this whole situation with Ambur and Ember really freaking sucked, I was glad to be going through it with him by my side.
***
Draia and I made plans to go shopping for Halloween dress the following Saturday. Ember insisted on coming, and how could we say no? If she was Ambur—the real Ambur—we were like the three musketeers, so of course we would have taken her dress shopping with us. If we wanted to pretend that we didn’t know, we had to commit… even though we hated spending time with Ember.
She was just nothing like Ambur. She said and did things at the most inappropriate times. She didn’t care about anyone but herself, which was the total opposite of the Real Ambur. Real Ambur cared so much about animals, mythical creatures, and, well, everyone. Ember only seemed to be concerned about how she could get ahead in life. She had actually gotten angry at me for not letting her copy my answers during our Paranormal Societies exam.
I was so anxious to just get Real Ambur back already because every hour of the day had me wondering if I could tolerate Ember for another minute.
“I’m not sure if Gavin is even going to want to go to the Halloween Dance with me this year,” Ember commented as we walked through the store. “He hasn’t been feeling good lately. I’m really worried about him.”
“Oh, yeah. We’re worried, too,” Draia lied, shooting me a look.
Gavin had been keeping up with this whole sick act so he didn’t have to spend a lot of time with Ember. It was his way of escaping her without doing anything to make her go completely crazy or use her dark magic against him.
The problem was that I didn’t know how long he would be able to keep this charade up for. At some point, Ember was going to realize that Gavin was pulling away from her. If we didn’t find the real Ambur sooner than Draia had made it sound, I was afraid that Ember was going to realize that Gavin knew the truth about who she was. And she definitely wouldn’t like that.
“This dress is so cute!” Ember chirped as she grabbed a bright orange dress from the rack and held it up to her chin, glancing in the mirror of the shop. “Isn’t it cute?”
“It’s cute,” Draia replied. “But it sort of makes you look like a pumpkin.”
“Well, that works. It is Halloween,” Ember said with a shrug.
I grabbed a dress from the rack. It was a black dress with a leg slit and off-the-shoulder sleeves. It was simple, but that was sort of what I was going for… considering I still didn’t even want to go to the Halloween Dance. In fact, my desire to go to the dance had actually gone down ever since Ambur had gone missing. It just wasn’t the same without her on this shopping trip with us.
As Draia picked a crimson red dress with a sequin bodice off the rack, she glanced over at Ember. “Did you hear about the student riot?”
Ember’s eyes lit up. “No! What student riot?”
“It’s supposed to happen on Monday morning,” Draia explained. “In the courtyard. Students are going to be using their magic in protest.”
Ember looked seriously intrigued by this. “What is everyone protesting?”
Draia glanced over at me. We hadn’t talked about why this fake riot we were making up was going to take place.
“Everyone wants a longer break for Halloween,” I said, pulling the first excuse that came to mind out of my ass. “A week isn’t enough. Everyone is trying to get a month.”
“We could really use a month-long break, couldn’t we?” Ember asked as she eyed a light pink ball gown. “You can count me in.”
Draia snorted. “You’re going to riot?”
“Aren’t you guys going to?” Ember glanced at each of us. “I mean, doesn’t a longer vacation sound nice?”
“It does sound nice, but I don’t want to get into trouble,” I told her.
“I also heard this riot is going to get really violent,” Draia said. “Rumor has it that there are going to be paranormal beings from the House of Darkness there, too.”
“Really?” Ember’s eyebrows shot up as her eyes lit up even further. “The students from the House of Darkness never mingle with anyone else.”
“That’s because this riot is going to be huge,” Draia told her. “It’s going to be the riot of the century.”
“Wow. We have to be there.” Ember pulled her cell phone out then. “I need to go make a call, you guys. I’m just going to step outside, but I’ll be right back.”
Once she slipped out the front of the store, I glanced over at Draia. “Who do you think she’s calling.”
“Probably Headmaster Crane.”
“I guess we’ll see.” I paused and then glanced over at her. “Any feelings yet on when we’ll see the real Ambur again or where we’ll find her?”
Draia shook her head sadly. “Nothing.”
***
Draia had been right about who Ambur was calling. When we got back to the school, there was triple the amount of security working the grounds.
We had just reached the courtyard when we heard Headmaster Crane speaking over the loudspeakers. “Students, it has been brought to my attention today that you’re planning a riot on Monday. I just wanted to let all of you know right now that this riot will not be taking
place without repercussions. Any students who join this riot will be facing suspension and academic probation. So, before you decide to riot, just know that there will be consequences for your actions.”
Draia and I exchanged a glance.
Our shopping trip had confirmed one thing: Ember and Headmaster really were working together.
Chapter 20
Before I knew it, the Halloween Dance was already upon us. I tried to put on a smile and do my best to try to at least seem like I wanted to go to the dance, even though it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do.
I knew I should have been more excited. This was the first—and, aside from Christmas break, probably the last—thing Kaden and I would get to enjoy together as a couple for a long time. Soon, our lives would be centered on this war. The war that I didn’t even want to happen.
“Can you believe it’s already been a year since the day you saved my life?” Kaden asked as we swayed together to a slow song.
With my arms around his neck, I stared up into his eyes. “So much has happened since then.
“You mean like the fact that I’ve fallen completely in love with you?” His steel blue eyes locked on mine, piercing straight through me.
“I’m in love with you, too,” I whispered.
He kissed me then, right there in the middle of the dance floor, with people dancing all around us. Not that any of them mattered.
No, right then and there, it felt like he was the only one in the entire world. He was the only one who mattered, anyway. It was just me and him.
We danced for the next four or five songs, which seemed to take an eternity to play because we were so lost in one another.
I knew it was a night that I would never forget.
Then finally, Kaden broke away from me. “I need to use the men’s room. I’ll be back, okay?”
I nodded.
As he walked away from me, a waiter came around serving refreshments.
“Would you like some punch, Miss?” he asked me, motioning to the tray of plastic cups of punch he was serving.
“Sure.” I took a cup of the punch and drank it. As the fruity punch hit my tongue, I instantly knew that something was… off. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it didn’t exactly taste right.
My eyes scanned the room, and that was when I realized something. There were no other waiters serving refreshments. Whoever this waiter was, someone must have sent him directly to me.
Someone who, I was certain, had spiked this drink with something. Something that had given it this odd flavor… and was now making me feel strange.
The room was suddenly beginning to spin, and I felt extremely lightheaded. I glanced around the room for someone I recognized—Draia, Marcus or even Ember—but there was no one around me.
And that was when everything went black.
Chapter 21
The sharp pain of my throbbing headache woke me up the next morning. My eyes fluttered open as I took in my surroundings.
I was laying on the pavement in the center of the courtyard. The sun was just beginning to rise, casting its warm glow all around me.
How the hell had I ended up here?
I thought back to the night before. I had been dancing with Kaden and then drank that punch… the punch that I was pretty sure had been spiked with something. I still wasn’t sure what was in that punch, but whatever it was, it had caused me to blackout. There was no other possible explanation for it.
But the weirder part was how I had ended up here, right in the middle of the courtyard, just feet away from the fountain. It really didn’t make any sense. After the Halloween Dance had ended the night before, the carnival had taken place. How had I ended up here on this ground without anyone noticing me? And more importantly, how hadn’t Kaden and my friends figured out I was here?
It was as if I had somehow been dumped here after the Halloween Dance had ended. Which left a big question: Where had I been since I had drunk that fruit punch the night before? And what the hell had it been spiked with?
I heard the sound of footsteps then. Pulling myself up off the ground, I scanned the area to see where they were coming from and that was when I spotted them: two security guards.
“It’s short for Penelope, I think,” I heard one of the guards saying. He glanced down at a paper. “Berlynne Penelope Jones is the name. The investigation is currently underway.”
“And how did she die?” The other security guard asked him.
Sadness and shock both washed over me as his words sank in.
Nellie had died?
How was this even possible?
“Firedrake sword, straight through the heart.”
I felt like I was going to be sick.
“And they have no idea who did it?” The second security guard asked.
“Nope. Headmaster Crane is calling it a random attack, but you and I both know that isn’t the case. It’s not exactly easy to get your hands on a Firedrake sword. They’re very rare. We’re supposed to check to see if any of them were stolen from school grounds.”
“Let’s go check out the Armory then,” the second security guard said.
As the two of them walked away, I frowned. I didn’t know that Paranormal Academy even had an Armory. I wondered if that was where Brandon got the weapons to teach our Magical Weaponry class.
It still felt so unreal to me that Nellie was gone forever. I had liked her so much. I also couldn’t help but wonder who would have wanted her dead. It didn’t even make sense to me.
At that moment, my cell phone chimed loudly with an incoming text message.
Opening the message, I didn’t recognize the number on the screen.
Job well done last night! Nellie is gone forever thanks to you. There are a series of tasks I need you to complete for me. I’ll send you the instructions soon. And before you even consider backing out of this, just remember that I have video footage proving you murdered Nellie Jones. That’s all for now, stay tuned. Love ya, bitch!
A knot tightened in my stomach. I reread the text message again, trying to make sense of it all.
Was it possible that this text could be true? That I really was the one who had killed Nellie? Even though I didn’t remember killing her, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I didn’t remember anything about the night before. Had someone spiked my drink and after I’d blacked out, I had actually killed Nellie?
I didn’t want to believe that could be true. I wasn’t a killer… as far as I knew. Except now, there was actually a chance that I was a killer, that I really had killed her.
Something strange happened then: something I had never experienced before in my life.
Kaden’s face filled my mind, and a weird feeling passed through my veins. For some reason, I just knew that I had to get to him. I had no other choice. I just had this overwhelming sense of urgency to get to him right away.
Something was going on. I wasn’t sure what it was, but something had happened to Kaden. And from the weird feeling I had in my gut, I was pretty sure that whatever it was, it couldn’t have been good. I began to run in the direction of the House of Were.
As I entered the building, my stomach felt even weirder than it had before. When I reached Kaden’s room, I began to knock on the door.
I knocked on the door three times and then waited. He didn’t answer the door.
I found myself knocking again, this time louder and harder. Within a few seconds, I was basically banging on the door.
If he was asleep, there was no way that my knocking wouldn’t have woken him up, which made me think that this weird feeling that I had was real. Something was going on, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
“Juliana, what are you doing? It’s like seven o’clock in the morning on a Saturday,” a familiar, sleepy voice said.
I glanced over my shoulder to find Brett standing behind me, staring at me like I was a crazy person.
He glanced down at his watch. “Actually, it’s not even seven o’clock in the morning
on a Saturday,” he corrected himself. “What are you doing here so early?”
“Do you know where Kaden is?” I asked.
“I’m sure he’s probably just taking a shower or something,” Brett replied.
“When it’s not even seven o’clock in the morning on a Saturday?” I questioned out loud. “No one actually takes a shower at this hour.”
But that didn’t stop me from heading down the hallway to the boys’ bathroom.
“Wait. You can’t go in there. I’ll see if he’s in there.” Brett chased after me and then headed into the bathroom.
A moment later, he came back out and then shrugged. “No, he’s not in there. Are you sure he didn’t go home for the weekend?”
“I was just with him last night at the Halloween Dance,” I replied. “He had no plans to go home. Something’s happened to him, Brett. I’m telling you.”
I could just feel it in my bones and deep in my gut. Something wasn’t right.
I didn’t think he was dead the way Nellie was. No, I was pretty sure he was still alive. But something was wrong. I felt this overwhelming sense that I had to get to him in time, though.
“I’m sure you’re worried over nothing. You should just go back to bed and call him later,” Brett suggested.
I shot him a look and then headed back down the hallway and outside. I thought about it for a few long moments before I figured it out.
There was only one place I could think of where Kaden could go that could land him in a lot of trouble. One place where he had gone in the past without telling me, even though he’d promised me to never go alone.
The castle.
***
As I dove beneath the water, I reached the golden dragon. I was prepared to tell it to open the portal, but to my surprise, the portal was already open.
I swallowed hard. I knew what that meant.
I was pretty sure I was right. Kaden had gone to the castle without me. And I was pretty sure that something had happened while he was there.
Damnit. I had a really, really bad feeling about this.
Because of the raven shifters, I had already lost one of the guys who I had fallen so hard for. I couldn’t lose one Kaden, too.