Chapter 3

3

VIOLET

"We saw the Hound of the Baskervilles roaming campus," Cassie informs me the moment we arrive at Potions class. The gaggle of girls in their perfectly presented academy uniforms watched my every step as I approached the classroom, but this is not the comment I expected.

"The what?" I look to Rowan and Leif for clarification.

"Hound of the Baskervilles. A mysterious dog," says Leif.

"A case for Sherlock and Moriarty," adds Rowan.

"That is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard," I inform him. "You and I are not investigating a dog on campus, Rowan."

Rowan chuckles. "Not us, Sherlock. The dog is fictional from the Sherlock Holmes books."

"Oh. So, an imaginary entity."

"There was a hound!" Cassie snaps. "Annie saw it too, and not for the first time."

Annie clutches a textbook to her chest and nods. "Prowling around the outside of Darwin House. Looking for another victim. I bet Holly's hurt , not sick."

I fight commenting on the usual human dramatics, although I should be grateful that I'm not the one accused of seeking victims on campus. Marci evidently shared the news that Holly's sick—and showed people the message she received from fake-Holly?

Nearby, Zoe and Nita sit on a bench and chat, not paying attention to the conversation. My jaw tightens. I will not be impressed if Marci doesn't attend the lesson too.

"You didn't see a dog," puts in Logan from where he rests against the wall beside the girls. "You saw a werewolf."

"Good grief. They're fictional too."

"Uh. Shifters aren't fictional," he sneers.

"Wolf shifters are not ‘werewolves'—that's an offensive term," I reply.

"Like I care about offending shifters."

"You should," mumbles Leif.

"What?" Logan asks sharply.

"Nothing."

"And where did this creature go?" I interrupt. "Did it enter the building? Pursue anybody?"

"No, but Helen was outside Darwin House with Zak, and they saw the thing running into the woods." Cassie clutches at Annie. "First Holly disappears, then a were- uh… strange creature stalks humans."

"Not the first time either," Annie adds.

Good. Grief.

"And this hound always appears at night?" I ask scornfully. "And nobody gets close enough to the creature to examine it?"

"What did Mrs. Lorcan say about the mystery dog when you told her?" asks Rowan.

Cassie tips her chin. "That one of the teachers owns a Wolfhound that sometimes escapes staff quarters, and not to worry."

"Well, then," I say.

"Uh huh. The same vampire headmistress who denies the tiara is haunted!" adds Annie.

I take a calming breath and turn to Leif. "Have you heard past rumors of mysterious creatures roaming campus?"

"Yeah, but not recently." He looks to Annie. "Rumors about mysterious paranormal events happen all the time. Especially around Halloween"

"Wild imaginings," I say. "The spirit world does not exist."

"Something is hunting us on campus!" says Annie, voice cracking. "I don't believe that Holly is ill like Marci told me. The thing took her."

I pivot to face Annie again. The curly-haired girl's eyes are wide, pupils dilated as she convinces herself she's in imminent danger.

"Holly left campus in the daytime," I tell her. "You allege this creature only visits at night. Therefore, no, the imaginary wolf did not take Holly."

"Then who did Holly leave with?" she demands.

"She wasn't dragged away by a dog-like creature. I feel someone may've noticed such an odd sight," I say evenly.

"You know something, freak," interrupts Logan. "Not only about Holly, but about the other weird stuff on campus recently too."

"Other weird ‘stuff'?"

"Ghosts of the students who died at the old academy," says Cassie. "We hear them on the nights they haunt campus. Helen told us she saw something in the attics. A figure in the window wearing the old school uniform!"

"And do you have proof?" asks Rowan. "A photo?"

"We'll get one soon," says Cassie. "We're watching every night."

"Good grief," I mutter to Rowan and Leif. "Why has nobody told me this?"

"Because it's normally hysterical girls who've scared themselves with Ouija boards," says Rowan pointedly.

Annie's face sours. "If the academy doesn't find and stop this thing looking for humans, there'll be trouble. Someone else might die!"

Mr. Woodside pokes his head around the classroom doorway, with no indication that he heard the conversation despite the increasingly shrill volume. Without a word, he pulls the door open wider and gestures at his students to enter.

Julius Woodside barely looks at me and my guys.

We've told Julius select facts regarding our discoveries while investigating his sister's disappearance but haven't named Viktor in case he sets about searching for the witch. That would cause issues, especially if Viktor discovers somebody else is looking for him. Informing Julius that Dorian agreed to involve his council in the case settled him a little. Still, we need to be careful what we tell the man with his lifelong, obsessive search for his sister, Madison.

Julius is also rightly convinced we haven't told him everything and—also rightly—believes Holly's disappearance is connected to the investigation into Madison's own, which we've insisted it is not.

As he enters the classroom, Julius continues to steadfastly ignore me, Rowan, and Leif. I sit and try not to imagine Holly in the seat beside me as I watch other students trickle in. Marci still isn't with the other two witches. I'll be annoyed if I subject myself to this pointless class and she doesn't show.

The calm I carefully surrounded myself with to cushion against imbecilic student behavior blows away the moment Chase walks into the room—with his arm around another girl's shoulders.

"Violet." Leif spots him too and attempts to grab my blazer sleeve, but I'm out of my seat and in front of the pair before they can take their seats.

Chase's long black curls are loose today, touching his jaw, and he regards me, not moving his arm that's oh-so-casually draped across the girl. "Found Holly yet?" he asks.

"Holly isn't missing. She's sick." I flick a look to smiling Annie, who no longer worries about giant dogs in the safety of Chase's embrace. "And apparently you're not missing her. She's only been away for a day!"

"We were never exclusive," he says and looks down his nose at me.

"Holly believed you were." I bite back more vitriol as Leif violently shakes his head at me.

"Yeah? Then why hasn't Holly replied to my messages?" he says, with a hint of a smile. "Seems she isn't missing me ."

And if I make any protest, I'll add suspicion that Holly is missing, not sick. I point at the girl's blazer. "That's an interesting brooch."

Annie curls slender fingers around the oval silver brooch edged with rose gold, eyes wary for a second. "This isn't like your haunted tiara, you know."

"I did not suggest that. And there is no such thing as a haunted… anything."

Annie drops her hand away and has the audacity to push past me. My mouth opens again, and I'm yanked backwards as Rowan pulls me towards my desk.

"Violet. Sit down," he whispers.

"Look at Chase!" I hiss at him and Leif.

"He's Chase," says Rowan and pulls out his textbook.

"A disgusting specimen of a witch?" I violently pull back my chair to sit.

"Pretty crappy of Annie to do that to Holly," says Leif.

"Mmm." Resting my forearms on the desk, I survey the class that will bore me stupid for forty-five minutes. Then straighten. Mr. Woodside arranged the desks into a u-shape, as he often likes to stand in the center, which means all students can see each other. I'm facing whispering human girls—not unusual for me—but that isn't what's causing me to stare back for once.

Brooches that match the one worn by Annie.

I examine each person in the room. Why didn't I notice this earlier? Not every human girl wears a brooch, but the majority do. Girls only. Perhaps the guys have a different adornment? Pendants beneath their shirts and ties?

Notably, witches and vamps aren't wearing the same jewelry item.

"Rowan." I nudge him. "Almost every human girl possesses a protective brooch."

"Protective?" He cranes his head around me. "How do you know? The brooches could be a TikTok thing."

"Pocket watches? No. They're not."

Leif chuckles. " TikTok. Social media. An item suddenly becomes popular on the app, and then everybody has to buy one. The girls all wore identical headbands a few months ago."

"Why?"

Leif shrugs. "I ask myself the same."

"But witches and vampires use this clock social media?" Leif nods. "Yet nobody brainwashed them into parting with their money for a tasteless item."

Every, single time I take part in an academy lesson, I'm introduced to something new to confuse me. Not the lesson's content, since most is below my own abilities, but the student quirks.

"Do you know any of those girls?" I ask Leif.

"A couple of them, but not well."

"Ask one if you can look at their brooch," I say, and he gawks at me. "Ask where they acquired them. Tell them you want to buy me one."

"Uh. Later?" he asks as Mr. Woodside slams books onto his desk.

"But don't," I add.

"Don't what? Talk to them? I'm confused, Violet."

"Don't buy me a brooch. I'm not a fan of jewelry, nor do I want to join the brainwashed masses." I nod at Rowan. "Buy him one."

"What?" Leif rubs his forehead.

"In case you hadn't noticed, I don't wear brooches," says Rowan.

I take a deep breath. "Good grief. For psychometry , Rowan."

Mr. Woodside's unhappy face sours further as Marci walks into the room. "Late again?"

Marci and I lock narrow-eyed gazes. Late again . Interesting. I study her as she crosses to Nita and Zoe, immediately chastised by Mr. Woodside for whispering to them.

Is Holly hidden somewhere by the coven and Marci needed to take her food and water? Yesterday afternoon, I shared a theory with the guys that either Marci or another student may've hidden Holly on campus and magically cloaked her somehow. The four of us searched everywhere that we're both allowed and not allowed, including the building housing the professors' quarters. Not inside , but I'd surely detect Holly's presence if she were in the vicinity. None of the witch professors here have particularly pure bloodlines, hence not the strongest magic.

I blink away the thought. Watching Holly's shows and movies has warped my mind. Of course, Marci wouldn't abduct and hide Holly.

But somebody else within Thornwood Academy might.

As the class gradually settles into the upcoming monotony, I drift away again. What about these sightings of a mysterious canine figure? Shifters don't visit campus at night, and magical wards keep out unwanted guests. Mrs. Lorcan might be telling the truth about a professor's dog, but she's lied about Holly's whereabouts and hasn't informed her parents yet.

This, and the ghostly happenings, could be mental illusions created by growing unease amongst the human students, but I can't discount that there is something or someone sneaking onto campus at night.

Which means I'll need to do some sneaking of my own.