Chapter 22

22

Speaking of asshole enchanters…

Barbara and I stared at each other, two sharks eyeing the same prey and wondering who was going to dive first. Who would come out the winner.

I knew it wouldn’t be me.

For today’s visit, Barbara wore her usual overalls, faded and stained with things I didn’t want to think about. Underneath the overalls she had forgone the jacket, opting instead of a yellowed t-shirt. Probably white in the past. The neckline was ripped, sagging away from her neck. She took hobo chic to the next level. Not that I would ever have enough bravery to tell her, or to comment on her haggard appearance in general.

Her crazy gray hair topped a maniacal brain, and underneath the wrinkled and sallow skin, she had a wealth of power. Power she would not hesitate to use to make my life a living hell.

Apprehension rose to a bubble beneath my skin.

“I’m sorry,” I said finally, scrambling for an excuse. Something to make her understand my position. “I’ve been trying to find it for you—”

“Try harder,” she snapped.

I rubbed my neck, remembering the shifter boy’s hot breath, his hands on me, squeezing. “I barely escaped with my life the last time I went to get it. Did you know we had a murderer on campus? Someone else was trying to take out the people guarding your Imperium. He cornered me—”

“I don’t care,” she drawled, cutting me off a second time. “Truly. I couldn’t care less, girl. No one said getting the Augundae Imperium would be easy. Where there’s a great prize, there are sure to be great hurdles. I’m not surprised there are others who wish to have the artifact for their own. That’s not my concern. My concern is you not getting it to me fast enough.”

She stared at me, her eyes flint-hard, and I held her stare for a long moment. I tried to, at least. I suddenly found I’d lost my taste for the fight. “I’m doing my best.”

She harrumphed. Totally done with my bullshit.

“Well, your best isn’t good enough, Tavi, is it? Sometimes I wonder if you are stalling on purpose or if you really aren’t equipped for what I’m asking of you.” Her head tilted to the side and she stared at me with a look I wasn’t used to seeing on anyone’s face besides Persephone’s. “What’s the holdup?”

She wasn’t going to accept my excuse about the killer. And I didn’t want to tell her anything about my newfound power or having to use it.

“I’m sorry.”

“I need the Imperium. Do you understand? Get it for me. Now.”

Words I knew better than to ignore. I cowered beneath her scrutiny as Barbara served another viperous grin. My nerves frayed a little more.

I thought about it for a second and nodded. “I’ll do better.”

“Yes, you will,” she agreed easily. “I won’t tell you again. You know the consequences. You’re starting to make a habit out of disappointing me and if it continues, I’ll begin to think you actually want to be discovered.

My automatic response to that was a scoff. “Are you serious?” No, sarcasm is not going to help you. Keep your mouth closed, Tavi. Zipping my lips shut, I kept my hands knotted underneath the table, not wanting Barbara to see how she affected me. “You don’t need to remind me of what I have to lose,” I said.

She must have sensed what I was thinking, raising her left brow and curling the opposite side of her mouth at the same time. A warning look. A terrifying face, if I might say. “Apparently I do. You aren’t following through with your end of the deal. I will expose you to these people. Make no mistake. Then you’ll lose everything.” Barbara pushed to her feet, still pissed at me. “You get it, I’m sure. It’s the cost of business.”

There was a second of uneasy silence before Barbara disappeared in a gray and yellow plume of smoke reeking of stale cigarettes and musty dampness.

It’s the cost of business. It’s just a stupid artifact, I reminded myself.

I couldn’t make this personal. She’d never been anything but ruthless. I glanced around the room nervously, like maybe the witch had left some kind of booby trap for me to find.

I sat rigid in my seat for the longest time. Even though all I wanted to do was go to bed and forget literally everything, I knew my next step. I had to find a way into the exchange students’ quarters tonight because I was out of time. No more playing around. No more worrying about who would see me and what repercussions I might face.

Or why Barbara wanted the Augundae Imperium so badly.

* * *

Instead of snuggling up in my bed, I stashed my books and changed clothes. Knowing better this time, because I refused to be caught again.

I stuck to the secret passages, with a fae light floating in front of me illuminating the darkness. Lessons learned.

The small orb led me along the way and my footsteps cut through the layer of dust on the floor. Melia had been right when she told me not many knew about these secret passages through the castle. She’d learned about them from her mentor and passed on the knowledge to me. I’d be forever grateful.

Trying not to cough, I climbed higher, taking the turns not because I knew where to go but instinctively sensing the correct direction. The passage brought me out a few halls over from the exchange student quarters and I slipped through the shadows, wearing black on black, hair knotted at the nape of my neck to keep a low profile.

This was going to suck and I knew it with every fiber of my being. I pushed through those feelings because this wasn’t a time to feel sorry for myself or give in to the thoughts of failure; that was the quickest way into Kendrick’s heavily muscled arms and ham hands. Good for beating. Good for violence.

Or so the tales went of the bloody alpha of the Grimaldi wolf pack. I had no reason not to believe them.

The moment I climbed out of the passageway and sealed it behind me, I faced the doorway where I’d gotten stuck last time. I knew what I had to do and steeled myself. This wasn’t the time to wait around for someone to let me in.

No more games.

I turned myself into a pen once, didn’t I? It meant I had the power. Picking nervously at my cuticles, I tried to steel myself for this next bit. Because I knew it would hurt. I’d never forget how it felt to be an inanimate object.

Closing my eyes, I placed my hands against the door. Melia had told me I could become anything I saw in my mind’s eye as long as I held the picture of it with conviction. As long as I believed in what I could do.

I had to convince myself, utterly, to become one with the door. To basically become a part of the school’s walls until I walked through them.

The thought terrified me.

Mainly because I didn’t know what would happen. Whether it would take a good chunk of time to accomplish or be over in an instant. How it would feel. What it would cost in terms of power.

Two seconds and two breaths later, desperation pushed me into action.

Making sure to keep my breathing even, I pictured the door in my mind’s eye, having memorized the lines of it. Then slowly, with a large thrust of magic, I felt my hands disappear into the material of the door. With a final glance cast over my shoulder, I muttered the necessary words to narrow my magic, tolerating the dull pain welling beneath my clavicle, and stepped forward. Until my arms and legs became the texture of the wood and I could no longer move. Pain like I’d never felt before attacked my brain, because it was the only part of me left to feel.

I held the image of the door in my mind through it all, and came out on the other side wanting to scream at the agony, clutching my stomach as blood dripped down from my nose. My magic had been strained to the utmost, my muscles frozen as the transformation process spread through me, setting everything inside of me on fire, the ice shifting into agony.

Too painful, my mind cried. Much too painful. Like someone had taken a vegetable peeler and scraped a layer from my core.

Not something I wanted to keep doing.

Clearly, I was not meant to become one with the walls. A futile effort…or maybe not.

I was inside. I had to remember my purpose. The silver lining to all of this. If I made my way through a few more walls I would be done, Augundae Imperium in hand, ready to complete my bargain with the bitch witch.

I’d gotten in without being seen—a small miracle in itself—and kept my footsteps as light as I could, making my way toward the target—that locked door at the end where the chaperone had caught me the last time I tried this.

My luck didn’t hold long because despite the late hour, several groups of students still wandered the hallways. Making sure to keep my nosebleed from leaving a trail, and trying not to be seen, I ducked into an empty room to wait for them to pass. If they saw me, they would know I didn’t belong. I clearly stuck out like a bull in a pen of sheep.

Closing the door behind me with a soft snick of sound, I leaned against the wall and held my breath. Any deep inhalation would lead to a cough, because damn, can we say dusty? The old classroom I found myself in gave new meaning to the word dilapidated.

Why hadn’t this room been taken care of prior to the exchange students’ arrival?

Broken desks and a seventies-era teacher’s desk and chair were the only pieces of furniture in the room. Several of the desks were overturned, lying on their sides amidst the dust and decay.

It seemed a little ridiculous that Leaves wouldn’t have cleaned this space up if he knew we’d be hosting guests. It was a little creepy, like something out of a horror movie. Would little ghost children pop out of the desks? Prepared to torment with rulers and books for eternity?

The door to the classroom had a small filthy window breaking up the wood and I cautiously peered out, waiting for an opening to make my move.

I’d be waiting for a long time for an opening that never actually came, apparently, because a guy and girl were headed right toward the door with their hands linked between them and looks hot enough to scorch even me.

Panicking, I scrambled for a second door—a closet?—just in time to avoid them when they burst into the room. Their scuffling footsteps covered the sounds of mine, and I didn’t need to see them to know what they were here to do.

Judging by the moans and the sucking sounds, they’d been looking for a make-out spot and they’d found one.

Jeez, what were the odds, I wondered, feeling my cheeks heat at being stuck in the closet, listening to them rounding third base. But I understood why they would want to. Maybe, once everything blew over, I could find a spot like this for Mike and me. I wished the two of us could be together this way.

Yeah, right. In my dreams.

I swallowed a snort of laughter. Trying to ignore the sounds of heavy petting, I thought of Mike, of how crazy he made me on multiple levels. This kind of convoluted train of thought did nothing for my emotional health and yet it certainly helped distract me from the…slurping of tongues and rustle of clothing.

Nothing else to do but wait it out, I indulged in more fantasies about Mike and me and it was like wrapping myself in a warm cozy blanket, oblivious to everything going on around me.

When I finally tuned back in to the real world, I no longer heard the moans and groans. Were they finished? Was it safe to come out now? Not quite. I heard murmured voices as they talked softly to each other. With my superior hearing I had no trouble catching the conversation.

“I think it’s ridiculous,” the girl was saying. “I’m serious.”

“What do you mean?” This from the boy.

“The box, silly. Headmaster Cote just had to have us bring the damn artifact with us, and having it this close makes doing magic seriously hard.”

Okay, apparently my luck was returning.

I leaned close enough to have my ear against the closet door. Yes, keep talking. Tell me everything. I pressed my hands against the wood.

“I know, Syed, and I hate the damn thing too, but it’s not like we had a say in it. Headmaster Cote said we had to bring the Augundae Imperium with us and you know as well as I do there is no arguing with him,” the boy insisted.

Holy. Crap. Yes! They were talking about the Augundae Imperium.

“We’ll be rid of it soon, though. Right?” the girl asked. Her name was Syed? I’d never met her. Not surprising, since the exchange students avoided us like the plague.

“Yeah, I think so. I can’t wait.”

Another rustle of clothing. A slight moan. Then the girl said, “I don’t understand why we have it in the first place.” She sounded out of breath.

The boy sucked on his lips. At least, I assumed they were his lips. I could be wrong. “Well, I heard it’s supposed to fulfill some kind of prophecy. This is all second-hand information, you know, but the king is supposedly hot to get his hands on the thing. As I am hot to get my hands on you.”

“Mmm. Jean-Claude, stop it!” A giggle.

She definitely didn’t sound like she wanted him to stop but that was none of my business.

“Be happy,” the boy soothed. Kissing her somewhere. “We’re the ones chosen to bring it to him in Faerie. We’re important.”

“Mmm, yes. Oh, yes!” A slight coo accompanied by another moan. “I like being important.”

“You’re important to me, Syad.”

Then I heard the blessed sound of the door closing behind them. They’d finally had enough of each other I supposed.

Slowly I pushed open the closet door, heart pounding, and glanced around the now empty room.

Did I say holy crap already? Because holy crap.

The Augundae Imperium was here; the students had confirmed it. Not like I doubted Barbara’s word, but…it was here and important enough to fulfill a prophecy…

And I was about to steal it to hand it over to a questionable-at-best witch.