Chapter 11
We had another week of finals and then our third year at Blackthorn Academy would be done. For Elliot and Jahrdran, though, their fourth and final year was drawing to a close.
Kasi and Mikaela were practically vibrating with anxiety the closer we got to the end of the year as they faced the reality of their mates not returning with them in the fall.
Thankfully, Vorzak and I were in the same year together, so wouldn’t have to suffer through a separation the way the others would.
Truthfully, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if both Elliot and Jahrdran ended up sabotaging their own grades in order to return a fifth year with Mikaela and Kasi.
One thing, I did know, though: there was no way the two of them would be abandoning their mates next year. They’d be back, if not at Blackthorn Academy itself, then in the nearby town of Wellspring.
Over the next week, as we barreled toward our last final of the year, my dreams of the shadow army continued.
The dream always started in the same place, with endless crowds of people streaming by, their sorrow heavy in the air, weighing me down.
We’re lost, they whispered.
Gone.
Why won’t you find us?
Unfound.
Why won’t you fight for us?
Fight!
Night after night, I woke with either that command ringing in my head or the whispered threat/promise, We’re coming.
Sometimes I dreamt all night long, and the whispers blended together, so they became a litany of Fight! We’re coming. Fight! We’re coming. Fight! We’re coming.
Then one night, the dream changed.
The streams of people slowed, then slowed again and again, until there were only two.
Two wrapped in each other’s arms, more shadow than flesh, their sorrow unending.
We cannot leave her.
We must.
We can protect her.
The shadows will consume her.
But to leave her—
It’s the only protection we can offer.
She’s too little.
She will be strong enough to endure.
She’ll be so alone.
She will be strong enough to endure.
I woke in tears.
When Vorzak demanded to know what was wrong, I struggled to explain.
“I don’t understand what’s happening, but I think the dead are speaking to me,” I finally said.
“Necromancy?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Backsight maybe.” It wasn’t a power I’d ever wanted and if it was manifesting now, I’d rather give it back.
“Visions of the past?”
I nodded. I didn’t want to say it, but I was terrified the couple I’d just dreamt about were Kasi’s parents.
They’d been in so much pain, saturated in a sorrow that weighed down the world. “It was too far back, too much in the past. There was nothing I could do to help them.”
“Help who, my love?”
“The people in my dreams. The ones who are nothing but shadows now.”
Vorzak and The Hissies tightened around me and he murmured in my ear, “Then they are long gone from this world, sweet Jasmine, and they are not yours to save. Try to sleep now.”
Though I needed the rest, I fought it as long as I could, for when I slept, the dead walked in my dreams.
Eventually, though, I dropped off again, and as expected, they came calling once more.
This time, though, it was the shadow army, marching on Blackthorn Academy again. Streaming from the shadows in unending waves, they whispered,
We’re coming.
We’re coming.
We’re coming.
We’re coming.
We’re coming to fight.
We’re coming.
* * *
The next morning, I felt haunted, as if those shadowy dreams had followed me into the light, as if their whispers surrounded me still, their demands to fight a wisp of sound just beyond hearing range.
Despite that heavy feeling inside, when we joined everyone at breakfast that morning and I saw Mikaela, a rush of energy filled me. “Oh, my goodness. Toe beans,” I squealed, hopping up and down because they were so damn adorable.
“What? Where?” Mikaela glanced down at herself.
“Your face!”
Mikaela opened her phone’s camera, holding it up as if she was going to take a selfie, and stared at the screen, tilting her head to examine the two perfect little pawprints walking across her left cheek.
“I wonder.” She pushed her sleeve off her left shoulder and revealed two bigger, back pawprints there.
“Huh. I didn’t feel a thing this time. She’s getting better at this. ”
“That’s it,” I said. “I’ve decided.” I plopped down at the table, Vorzak at my side. “I’m getting a familiar because I want a kitty to play with too!”
“Uh,” Vorzak rumbled beside me, but whatever he was going to say was drowned out by the others’ comments.
“Do sirens have familiars?” Kasi asked.
“Who cares? I’m getting one anyway.”
“I don’t know,” Elliot said. “If sirens had familiars, don’t you think they’d be fish?”
“Catfish!” Mikaela exclaimed.
“Gross!” I glared at them. “I’m getting a cat that meows and that’s that.” I’d barely finished my statement when I had a face full of angry snakes hissing and lecturing me.
Hissies.
Kissies.
Yes.
Kitties.
No.
I giggled. “Just because I want a cat doesn’t mean I don’t love you guys, too.”
This set off another storm of hissing.
Hissies.
Love.
Jazzy.
Not.
Kitties.
I snorted. “Okay, okay. I’ll just have to get my kitty fix from Shadow and Miki-Leopard.
Not.
Kitty.
Fix.
Hissies.
Fix.
I opened my mouth to reply, but they apparently weren’t done.
Kissies.
For.
Hissies.
Not.
Kitties.
“Yes, that’s true,” I soothed as I dropped kisses on each very agitated head. “All my kisses are for you darlings. I love each of you very much.”
“Total suck-ups,” Vorzak grumbled at my side. “Always stealing my mate.”
I turned and stared at him. “Are you serious right now? The Hissies are part of you. They are you. You cannot possibly be jealous of them.”
He scowled. “I can when you give them more kisses than me.”
At that, I burst into laughter. Seriously, this man was as ridiculous as his snakes.
Of course, that didn’t stop me from climbing onto his lap so I could deliver as many kisses to him as I’d given The Hissies.
Obviously, his kisses were of a much longer duration and significantly hotter.
After that completely entertaining breakfast, I headed off to my next final in an excellent mood.
That mood stayed with me through my Culinary Arts final, which was super fun because it combined two of my loves—cooking and eating. Plus, bonus! I aced it.
Amazing as it seemed, I actually returned to the cafeteria for lunch in an even better mood than when I left it several hours before.
Mikaela and Kasi, however, were not in good moods at all. In fact, they seemed downright depressed.
“What’s the matter? Did your finals go that poorly?” I dropped into a chair across from them and stared.
Shadow was right under Kasi’s chin, nudging her and rubbing against her, almost as if she could sense Kasi’s emotions. I hadn’t told anyone I thought I’d been dreaming of her parents, but maybe she’d been having her own dreams.
“Jahrdran passed all his classes,” she said glumly.
“Elliot did too,” Mikaela said. She had her head down on the table and was looking more miserable than I’d ever seen her.
“Okay, that’s good news, though, right? I mean, I was kind of worried they’d throw away months of work just to stick around another year.”
Kasi and Mikaela both lifted their heads and glared at me.
“Hold up. You wanted them to fail?”
“No, of course not,” Mikaela snarled.
“It would have been nice if they’d considered it, though,” Kasi said. “But no, they both had to ace every single final.”
“So rude,” Mikaela agreed.
“But I thought your extreme sports final wasn’t until tomorrow,” I said to Mikaela.
“It’s not, but there’s no way those two are going to throw that final.”
“Exactly,” Kasi agreed. “It’d be like admitting they were weak or something.”
They both let out a scoffing noise.
“Interesting,” I said. “Just so you know, they’re headed this way, so you might want to act a little happy for them. You know, because this is their last year and all, and it’s kind of a big deal, to pass all your classes and actually graduate.”
Mikaela just snarled at me, in a very leopard-like fashion, while Kasi flicked her hand in dismissal, shadows streaming in the wake of the gesture.
When Jahrdran and Elliot reached us, it didn’t take them long to realize something was wrong.
“Who upset you?” Jahrdran demanded as Vorzak dropped into the seat beside me.
“No one,” Kasi said, a mutinous look on her face.
“What’s the matter?” Elliot asked Mikaela.
She just hissed at him and turned away.
He reared back, a startled look on his face. “Did you just hiss at me?”
“No. Miki-Leopard did.”
He looked shocked. “Miki’s mad at me?”
“What’s going on?” Vorzak muttered in my ear, a fascinated look on his face as he stared at the other two couples.
I smirked.
“Don’t you dare,” Mikaela hissed.
“They’re upset because some tiny, selfish part of them, deep, deep inside, really hoped their mates would fail their finals.”
“Jasmine!” Kasi and Mikaela glared at me.
“What?”
“I’m confused,” Vorzak said.
“Me too,” Jahrdran said.
“Why would you want us to fail our finals?” Elliot demanded. “That’s not very nice at all.”
I snickered. “Are you two really that oblivious?”
“What?” They both exclaimed, but I’d already seen it. The gleam of laughter in their eyes.
“Stop torturing your mates,” I snapped.
Elliot grinned. “Jahrdran and I have put in an application for an apartment in Wellspring for the fall. You didn’t think we’d let you come back to Blackthorn without us, did you?”
Mikaela squealed and tackled him, even as Kasi whirled and yanked Jahrdran to her for a heated kiss.
It was into that joyous mix of laughter and relief that Zowen returned for the final time.
His shadows grabbed Mikaela, Kasi and me and yanked the three of us into the Shadow Realm together.
The battle that followed was intense, raging between the two realms as Zowen tried to smother us in his shadows.
We fought too fiercely for him to hold us, though.
We fought not just for ourselves, but for all the innocents Zowen would target next.