Chapter 4 #3
I hope you’re right about that. The closer we got to the academy, the more stressed I became.
What if someone had gotten up to check on Wendy?
They’d find her missing, and everyone would freak out.
Then they would, of course, find me missing as well.
Would they think we’d been kidnapped? Would they think I’d kidnapped her?
Maybe they’d assume we were out in the woods after curfew?
Any of those would get us in huge trouble, and whether the dean’s niece vouched for me or not, my ass would be grass.
I had to hope and pray that everyone was still dead asleep, and no one would ever know we’d left.
Pulling the car up the drive was nerve-racking.
Every foot we drove, I kept waiting for one of the teachers to come sprinting out of the woods and pointing accusingly at us.
Thankfully, we managed to park in the garage and close the door without being seen.
We shoved all our trash into the bottom of a small trashcan by the door.
“Are you ready to get to bed?” I asked.
Wendy looked at me, her new fake glasses sitting at the end of her nose. “Yeah. I’m actually getting tired.”
“No wonder. It’s almost two in the morning.” I took her hand. “Come on.”
We marched back to the mansion in the cold, her plastic sack of books swinging at her side.
Instead of using a flashlight or an illumination spell, we chose to head back in the dark, to better cover our return.
A bright light moving across the grounds was a great way to get caught, but it made for a difficult walk.
Wendy’s hand slid from my grasp and she grunted. Turning, I found her on her hands and knees, having tripped on a tree root.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, kneeling down to check on her.
“I’m fine,” she said, wiping her hands and grabbing her bag, “but my glasses fell off.”
We spent almost a full minute running our hands over the grass before my fingers touched the plastic arm of the glasses.
“Got them. I’ll hold on to these until we get inside,” I said, tucking them into my pocket.
“Fine. That was freaking embarrassing,” Wendy muttered as we continued on.
The mansion was completely dark, which sent a wave of relief across my body, like cool water across a burn. If anyone had awoken and found us missing, the house would be in chaos with every light burning. I breathed easier as we snuck back inside.
Getting Wendy into her room relieved even more pressure. I shut the door behind us, leaned against it, and let out a long low breath.
“We did it,” Wendy said, and pumped her fist. “Awesome. We were like secret spies or something.”
“Spies that are up way past their bedtime,” I said. “Get your PJs on.”
“But I was gonna—”
“Read the book, yeah, yeah,” I said, shooing her toward the bathroom. “Whatever you do after I leave is on you, but I’m not leaving until you’re tucked in bed. Hurry up, I’d like to get at least two or three hours of sleep before classes tomorrow.”
“Fine,” Wendy grumbled as she marched to the bathroom.
“Hey,” I said as she walked. “Do you mind if I read this first? It sounds interesting.”
I held the true crime book up for her to see.
“Sure,” she said. “It’ll take me a few days to read the other one between studying and classes and stuff.”
“Thanks,” I said, and slipped it into the small crossbody backpack that served as my purse.
When she returned after changing and brushing her teeth, I tugged the blankets back and helped her in, then pulled them up to her chin. Reaching over, I patted the hardcover book where I’d set it on her nightstand.
“I know you won’t listen, but I’m going to say it anyway. At least then I can clear my conscience. No reading tonight. Go to bed. Okay?”
“Thank you,” she said, her voice soft and quiet, finally sounding like the child she was. “For being my only friend.”
A lump formed in my throat so suddenly that I almost choked. Swallowing hard, I nodded. “Uh, yeah…no problem,” I said, barely getting the words out while my eyes stung and burned. “It was fun.”
“I’m glad I’m friends with someone like you,” she said through a yawn.
“You get some sleep, kid.” I hurried toward the door, desperate for the girl to not see me cry.
“Good night, Veronica,” Wendy called. Despite what she’d said, I knew she’d be fast asleep before she could open her new book.
“Good night,” I said, flipping off the light and closing the door.
Running a hand through my hair, I walked back to my room, moving slowly as I thought about what I’d done that night.
Ideally, no one would ever know, but it still made me nervous that Balthazar would find out somehow.
It would probably be days before I could breathe easy.
I needed to remind Wendy in the morning to keep the book hidden until she’d finished it.
The last thing I needed was Balthazar asking his niece how she’d gotten it.
As I walked, I went through a few magical theorems I needed to memorize for the upcoming tests, and I even tried a few spells.
I managed to change some wallpaper from orange to red and back again, levitated an armchair, and conjured a floating fireball before me, but couldn’t figure out how to condense water from the air around me—it was a simple spell, but it still eluded me.
Instead of drenching the fireball, I had to lower it and stomp it out quickly before it could burn the carpet.
“Keep practicing, Paolo,” I whispered to myself and continued on.
When I was on the stairs leading to my room, I reached down and felt glasses in my pocket. Wendy’s new glasses.
“Shit,” I hissed.
I could have taken them to my room and kept them until I saw her in the morning, but I knew she’d want them when she woke up.
I didn’t want her to freak and think she’d lost them first thing.
She was probably already asleep. If I snuck in, I could probably stick them on her nightstand without waking her.
“What’s another ten minutes?” I murmured to myself as I backtracked.
When I arrived at her door, I paused, frowning.
I had a strange feeling of worry and instinctual fear.
It both pushed me away and drove me onward.
I sniffed the air, using my shifter senses, and I noticed something even stranger.
A scent that didn’t belong. A scent I didn’t recognize.
A scent that sure as shit did not belong to Wendy.
“Wendy?” I said, as I opened the door and stepped into the room.
I skidded to a stop. The bed was empty. The covers and sheets had been dragged off and lay in a puddle on the floor by the window. A window that was shattered. Jagged shards of glass around the edge made the opening look like the maw of some horrifying beast.
“Wendy!”
She was gone. Someone had taken her. My mind reeled with that knowledge, but my body was frozen with indecision. Should I go to the window and see if her abductor was visible? No. I needed to get to Balthazar. He had to know. He was the strongest in the academy. He’d know what to do.
I spun on my heels and sprinted, fear and horror filling me like some rancid vase.
Wilted flowers sucking up the awful brackish imaginary liquid within me.
Screaming his name, I rounded the corner and rushed for his quarters.
Already I could hear that I’d woken some people.
Doors opened and groggy voices called out, but that wasn’t important.
I needed Balthazar to find his niece, to find my friend, and save her.
Usually, I’d have knocked and waited, but time wasn’t on our side. I could ask for forgiveness later. Even as I grabbed the knob, twisted, and bolted inside, I noticed a faint metallic smell, odorous and wafting from beneath the door, growing stronger as I lunged inside.
“Balthazar? You’ve got to wake up. Hurry, Wendy’s been…
” I trailed off as I gazed into the shadowy room.
If I’d been confused by what I found in Wendy’s room, then what I looked at now made no sense whatsoever.
Down the hall, through an open door, I could see his bedroom, and no one was in the bed—in fact, it looked perfectly made, as though no one had slept in it all night.
Instead, Balthazar sat on the ground, his back pressed against his desk.
The first thing I thought was that it was a strange way to sleep at two in the morning, but then I saw the blood leeching out around him. Reality clicked in place like puzzle pieces snapping together. Pop-pop-pop.
Four deep puncture wounds sat on his chest, a curtain of blood flowing down to his lap, then out and around him.
A fifth wound lay right on the side of his ribs, a heavy hunting knife lay buried in his lung.
Even from where I stood and with his head tilted down, I could just spot his sightless open eyes.
“Balthazar?” I said, my voice shaking as I stepped forward.
Then, as the light switch of decision snapped on, I understood what I was looking at. The scent of blood, the wounds….
I screamed and rushed toward him, panic roiling as I pulled him to my lap.
“No, no, no, no…” the word kept tumbling from my lips as I cupped Balthazar’s face, his cheek cold on my hand.
I mumbled a quick healing spell, the only one I could remember, but I either didn’t do it right, or it was too late to work. His eyes still stared down at the floor, unblinking, fully unfocused.
Unconsciously, I reached out and grasped the handle of the knife.
I knew if he was alive, it would kill him, but I had already come to the decision he was already gone.
There was an infinitesimal chance that taking the knife out might fire off some nerves that could kickstart his heart enough for me to try and heal him.
Gritting my teeth, I yanked the blade free.
The blade made an awful, sickening, sucking sound. Tears streamed down my face as I stared at the thick, ruby liquid running down the blade, over the hilt, and across my knuckles. Still warm.
“Veronica! What have you done?”
My head snapped up, my whole body shaking. Brooke and Virgil were staring at me in open-mouthed horror. It was only then that I realized what this looked like. I was in the dean’s quarters in the middle of the night, cradling his body, covered in blood, and clutching the murder weapon.
Holy fucking shit. I dropped the knife, letting it clatter to the floor.
“It’s not what you think,” I cried, quickly pulling myself out from under Balthazar.
“You stay right there,” Virgil shouted, pointing at me, then at Balthazar. “You killed him. I can’t believe you killed him. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I didn’t kill him! You have to listen. I came here a minute ago because Wendy—”
“Did you kill her too?” Brooke gasped, putting a hand to her mouth.
“What? No, that’s not—”
“Dear gods in heaven!”
Two of the professors stumbled into the room and fell to their knees beside Balthazar’s body. I looked on in horror as they scanned my body, taking in the blood smeared on my hands, arms, and chest.
“You stay right there. Don’t you move,” the older of the two men said warily as he stood.
Shit. This wasn’t good. No way they’d believe I didn’t do this. Horrified panic had my hands and arms shaking with adrenaline. If they took me in, I was as good as done. They’d have me sent to a witch’s penitentiary or maybe even executed. I needed to get out of here.
“You come here,” the professor said waving at me, the wariness having been replaced by a mixture of loathing and rage. “You come here, right now!”
“Be careful, Karmody,” the other said, eyeing me with suspicion. “She’s a shifter.”
I swung my hand behind me, summoning all the power I had and concentrating on a spell I’d been trying to learn the last month. Either I had a breakthrough, or my fear gave me more power and focus than I’d ever had in my life, because a transfer portal opened, exactly as I’d prayed it would.
There was no time to even think or wonder where the portal would spit me out. I jumped through, leaping an instant before the professor could grab hold of me. Right before the portal vanished, I heard Virgil screaming at me to come back and pay for what I’d done.
I fell to my knees, my head bowed, sobs racking my body. When an alarm blared behind me, I flinched and looked behind me.
“Oh, damn,” I hissed.
In my haste and with my lack of practice, I hadn’t been able to summon a portal away from the school. Instead, I’d dumped myself right outside the front door.
Scrambling to my feet, I rushed toward the trees, moving as fast as I could, while the alarm roared. I shifted into my wolf form and did the only thing I could do.
I ran.