Chapter 36
SADIE
The forest was a different creature now it was full of voices calling out Serendipity’s name.
As if she was merely lost, and not kidnapped by a professor the students of Lunova trusted.
Maybe if I’d been here longer, and taken more of his classes, I might have grown to trust him, too.
He might have fooled me into thinking he was a protector of the academy, and not the tormentor hunting victims in its halls.
Elix, Paige, Rogue, and I kept to the shadows as we followed the call of voices shouting Rogue’s sister’s name. Every now and then, furious shouts of Beaufort’s name joined it.
He’d always given off a creepy vibe to me, but it had come as a shock to most people.
I heard the betrayal in their voices as they yelled his name, the same betrayal I felt when Gran got rid of me.
Everyone in the Academy had either been sold or abandoned, so it made sense that the professors would become proxies for their family.
In a way, it was as if they’d been betrayed by their own uncle or father.
I pressed my back to a tree when one of the senior slayers came close enough for her shadow to fall over us.
The others flattened themselves against trees around me.
I wondered if their hearts pounded as loudly as mine, if a cold rush of fear went down their spine at the thought that this wasn’t just a slayer, but Beaufort himself.
What if he’d already killed Serendipity, and returned for more victims?
I let out a breath slowly when the person that came into view was a tall woman in her twenties, with a ponytail and hard eyes that scanned the trees.
Her glare pinned that place where I hid, and I swore her eyes even met mine, but there was no flesh of recognition, no sign at all that she’d seen me.
I was finding it hard to breathe by the time she moved on, searching the trees beyond where me and my friends hid, no sign at all that she’d seen any of us. I understood why a moment later when I saw Rogue brush bloody fingers off on a handkerchief. She’d hidden us with blood magic.
“That was close,” Paige breathed, shaking her head and pulling her hood up over her hair. I did the same, the drizzle in the air turning to a light rain that could become a deluge at any moment.
“Too fucking close,” I agreed shakily. “Elix? Rogue? Are you okay?”
Elix gave me a thumbs up, and Rogue batted her hand, as if it was nothing. “I’m completely fine.”
Yeah, she was fine except her hand hadn’t stopped shaking for long minutes, and there was a manic edge to her eyes as she assessed the forest. As if she’d more than meant what she said about killing Beaufort. As if she needed it.
“Come on,” Paige said, “I saw a path over here. It’s as good a place as any to start our search, and I didn’t see anyone go down it yet.”
Panic shot through my heart like a hot poker when I saw the path she indicated was the one that would lead to the cottage.
“Not that way,” I said quickly. “I saw Reed go down that way.”
Paige made a face, but she didn’t look at me with suspicion, more confusion than anything. “Are you sure you saw Reed?”
I hoped no one heard the way my voice shook when I said, “Definitely.”
Paige turned herself firmly away from the cottage path. “Well, fuck that. I don’t want to get on Reed's bad side. That woman is scary.”
Elix nodded rapidly, damp blonde hair clinging to her cheeks.
“This way,” Rogue said, and set off marching through the trees before we could process her words. There was a franticness to her movements now, all her grace gone.
The route carried deeper into the forest than I’d been before, in a completely new direction where the trees were tall, older, reaching out sturdy branches to knot into a curtain overhead.
Acorns littered the dirt trail we followed; I avoided stepping on them as I listened closely for signs of footsteps or a struggle or Serendipity’s cries.
I didn’t want to say it, but we’d been walking the forest for an hour, and we must’ve spent half an hour before that gathering weapons and finding waterproof coats. The chances of Serendipity still being alive were slim.
Elix walked beside me, her gaze fixed on the path beneath us, sweeping to search the gnarled roots and mounded dirt on either side of us.
Rogue had her head tipped back, her nose in the air as she searched for any sign of her sister’s scent.
Once, half a mile back, she’d sworn she caught a glimmer of something familiar, but by the time we hurried in that direction, it was gone.
And she couldn’t say for sure whether it was her sister’s scent, or simply another slayer.
Deeper into the forest we went, until I wasn’t sure we’d ever be able to find our way back to Lunova Academy.
Nerves tangled in my belly at the thought of being lost out here, in the trees that were home to more than just my wolf pack.
I hadn’t encountered other shifters, but it was only a matter of time.
When we reached a fork in the path, Elix grabbed my sleeve to stop me, and I called for the others to halt.
“What is it?” Rogue asked desperately. “Did you see something?”
Elix crouched and indicated at the ground under us, a place where the path was scuffed, a long drag mark heading down the right fork in the path. Beside the drag mark were heavy footsteps trampled into the dirt.
Rogue burst into a run at top speed, faster than any of us had a chance to match.
“Shit,” I hissed, and raced after her, the others right with me.
“What's our plan for if we find him?” Paige asked breathlessly.
In reply, I slid a knife out of the sheath on my thigh. “Rogue and I will keep him occupied. You and Elix sneak around and get Serendipity out of there.”
Our training might have given us knowledge in fighting, but it had done nothing for stamina because I was breathless by the time we caught up with Rogue.
Paige and Elix slipped into the darkness behind the expansive oak trees, using their vast leaves for cover as I ran on ahead.
What I found in the small clearing was worse than anything I’d imagined. Rogue was already disarmed, bound in ropes on the ground. She was the first thing I saw, and then my eye followed the long drag mark to where Beaufort had Serendipity, equally bound.
An ancient oak tree stretched out its twisted, spiralling limbs over the clearing, adding strange shadows to the ground around the stone well that Beaufort was in the process of dragging Serendipity towards.
From within, a hissing sounded, more feral and bestial than anything I’d heard before. Something was down there. Something old and monstrous.
And Beaufort was feeding slayers to it.