Chapter 15

15

Ididn’t remember which of the girls screamed. Might even have been me.

I didn’t remember anyone going to fetch Headmaster Leaves, bringing him out along with some of the other professors. I didn’t remember being instructed not to touch anything, although that wouldn’t have been my first inclination, I was sure.

I also didn’t remember being shuffled back to the dorm along with the rest of the girls and changing out of my drenched clothing, unable to stop shivering, the whole of me filled with the heavy lead weight of dread. The rest of the night was a blur until the sun rose, the headmaster making sure the rest of the class kept a healthy distance from us until we could be questioned by the authorities.

The rain had stopped finally. I realized when I followed the rest of the girls into the auditorium for the second time in as many weeks to speak to the headmaster, who demanded an explanation though I knew the detectives who were still on the scene hadn’t found much beyond the identity of the body.

The boy we’d found in the tree last night turned out to be the top candidate for the first-year class, or so rumor had it. From the tone of his voice, even Headmaster Leaves had expected the deceased boy to be the top of our class by the first elimination, with a clear path to earning his place not only at the academy but in Faerie.

Those dreams were stolen from him and yet no one could figure out a motive. It was a waste of life. A waste of talent.

I didn’t understand why either, and it scared me.

Wasn’t it supposed to be safe here? Wasn’t this place my escape from my one true danger in this world: the ceremonial binding to a man who would torment me for his own amusement?

I tried not to think about those things as I sat down next to Melia in the cafeteria afterward. She saw them on my face anyway.

“You look like you’ve seen better days,” she said at once, raising her gaze and chewing as she stared at me. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

“Not much,” I admitted. Rubbing the side of my head, I went on to say, “I’m the one who first saw the guy, Mel. Sweet dreams aren’t exactly on the menu tonight.”

“Yeah, I understand, but you’re going to have a hard time getting through your classes if you don’t sleep.” She watched me shuffle in my seat, uneasy.

I scratched my head. “I’m sorry. I’m a little bit preoccupied with things lately.”

“No one blames you.”

I glanced up at the familiar voice. Mike and Roman stood there for a moment before settling into the empty seats across from us.

“It was a wild night,” Roman agreed. “The police came to our dorm room and went through Loudon’s things. Took most of them away as evidence.”

“You…you…” Melia snapped her jaw open and shut. They’d never sat with us before. It left her visibly surprised and tongue-tied for the first time since I’d met her.

“A dead student,” I mused, my hands still clenched on my lunch tray. “I’m not sure wildnight really covers things. Try insane. Ridiculous. Scary.”

“It came as a shock to everyone,” Roman said. “Poor Loudon. He was a really great person.”

“Does anyone know what really happened? I mean, have they examined the body?”

Mike shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything yet, but I’m sure the staff is trying to keep things hush-hush. My guard detail has been extra cautious while the cops are here.”

I started. “The cops are still here? Why?” And also…Mike had a guard detail?

“To continue their investigation, I’d imagine,” Roman answered as though I should have expected the answer.

“I…I kind of thought the Fae would take care of matters themselves,” I admitted.

“And normally they would, but the kid was half-human, and policy dictates the human authorities must be involved in the proceedings.”

I looked at Mike. “You said your guard detail has been extra cautious?” I hadn’t even noticed his guards. Wasn’t I supposed to be on high alert? Apparently, my observational skills were pretty crummy.

“Yes. They want me to leave here and return home until the matter is settled, but…” Mike paused and spared a glance at his friend. “Classes are going on like normal and I don’t want to leave. If the academy is going forward with business as usual, then I’m staying. End of discussion.”

“What do your parents have to say about the incident, Your Hi—M-Mike?” Melia asked. She’d finally found her voice.

Mike shrugged and grabbed a piece of bacon. “They haven’t said anything yet. I’m not sure if they’re just waiting for more info from the police or if they’re trying to formulate a public statement for the benefit of the school and I’m simply not privy to it yet.”

He took a bite and ripped the bacon in half.

“Don’t worry about it,” Roman answered easily. Somehow, he’d become the voice of reason. “I’m sure it was an isolated incident. We were the unlucky ones who found him, but with the security at the school, I’m sure this isn’t going to happen again.”

I finished my eggs and moved on to my hash browns, dipping them in ketchup one by one. “I can’t help but worry,” I told them all between bites. “This kind of thing isn’t supposed to happen. The academy is supposed to be a safe place.”

Mike reached across the table and placed his hand on top of mine for a brief moment, giving me a light pat. “No one is going to hurt you, Tavi.”

I jerked my hand away. “You can never be too careful.”

I’d saved the best for last, taking a bite of my biscuit and gravy, watching Mike and Roman talking to Melia about our game of Capture the Scroll last night and taking her through it from start to finish.

And felt suddenly like a bucket of ice-cold water had been thrown over me.

There was no water, not really. But there was cold. The cold bit down deep to the marrow of my bones and I stared at my hands, the skin rippling before my vision went blurry. I grabbed on to the side of the table when it felt like an earthquake shook me, unable to keep from groaning.

“Hey, girl. Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

I glanced up to see Melia rising, crossing around to crouch at my side to bring her to my eye level.

Clearing my throat, I tried to think of a reason why my potion spell had apparently broken. I felt my shifter senses returning, vision finally clear and sharp, sense of smell rising to the point where I could focus on the sweet-smelling sweat on Mike’s forehead.

“Is there garlic in this?” I pointed to the gravy then hissed as a rush of cold had my fingers shaking. It was the only explanation I could find. Sure enough, the more I tuned in to the scents, the more I could make out the tang of garlic.

Melia reached out to steady me when I tipped to the side, my balance off. “I’m not sure. Why? Are you a vampire?” she joked, though I could hear the concern in her tone.

The rest of them laughed while the whole of me filled with dread. Did they see me for myself? Was there anything different, now that I’d been exposed?

“I have to go.”

I bolted out of the chair, leaving my tray behind and fighting to clear a path out of the cafeteria.

It didn’t matter what anyone thought. All that mattered was reaching the dorm and getting a new vial of potion. I kept one hand raised to my face as though to shield it as I ran. One vial behind already, I thought, pushing through the door to my dorm out of breath.

At least the room was empty.

I fumbled up the ladder and thrust my pillow to the side, flipping the latch on the box and grabbing the second vial. Chugging it down. The concoction again tasted absolutely disgusting but it worked immediately. There were no crazy side effects this time. I didn’t fall to my knees on the edge of death’s door. My head swam a bit and I watched my skin crawl as though an army of ants were making their way from wrist to elbow.

Disgusting.

But it worked.

I felt an invisible blanket of haze and heat fall over me, a dulling of my shifter senses until my inner wolf sank down with a low growl.

Damn garlic.

Who put garlic in sausage gravy, anyway? I hadn’t been thinking about the possibility. I hadn’t been thinking about anything besides the body we’d found. I was going to have to be much more careful in the future.

* * *

My first class of the afternoon began at one, giving me enough time to compose myself before I sat at what had become my usual desk. I struggled to focus and make a good impression when I couldn’t seem to get my brain on the right track.

A dead half-Fae boy.

A contender for top of the class.

No apparent motive. No real leads.

I couldn’t make sense of the text in front of me. The teacher’s voice had become a blur of syllables and none of them were clear. Part of me wondered if things like this happened often and the school just pushed it under the rug…or if my being here had something to do with his death.

No, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with me. I didn’t even know the boy. No one here knew about my wolf side. The potion made sure of it. Besides, if they did, they would come after me, not anyone else.

A knock on the door interrupted the lecturing professor and she stopped, magic fluttering around her fingertips. “May I help you, Ma’am?”

I didn’t recognize the woman at the door, although her face was vaguely familiar to me. “I need to see Miss Alderidge, Mr. Meuller, and Miss Elspeth, please.”

I stood slowly along with two others and we shared a look. They’d been outside with me last night playing Capture the Scroll when we found the student in the tree. My heart dropped to the bottom of my feet. The headmaster had spoken to all of us. Now it was the police’s turn.

The three of us followed the office assistant over to a private room just off the headmaster’s quarters. I recognized his title on the nameplate outside the door. We were told to sit, trying not to stare at each other as we were urged into the office one by one by a man with a shiny pewter badge pinned to his jacket lapel.

The human inspector the school had called in. It made sense, I told myself, for him to talk to us as well. He was doing his job and trying to get a sense of what had happened last night. It didn’t lessen my terror.

I tried to wait my turn while my insides churned and the rest of me felt hot and itchy. The two others were called in first, their interviews lasting less than fifteen minutes total before they walked out past me with pale faces and gazes averted. Soon I waited alone.

And couldn’t help but overhear the low murmur of voices coming from the other room.

“I refuse to allow a werewolf into my school. Tell the force to send someone else.”

My spine went iron-straight and I nearly fell out of my chair at the words.

A werewolf. Had they somehow figured out my secret?

Had Nurse Julie really seen something weeks ago when she’d scrutinized me with the knowing look in her eyes?

Oh no…

“I might be a werewolf but I work for the human world. Do you want humans to know about your magic school by revealing my true nature to them and asking someone else to take the case? Because I’m the best on the task force and the only one truly equipped to deal with your little problem here.”

My eyes widened as I figured it out at last. They weren’t talking about me. Whoever Headmaster Leaves argued with, they still hadn’t found me out. I glanced left and right, making sure there was no one else in the room with me. Then crept forward and pressed my ear against the door to hear better.

“I’m simply not comfortable letting someone like you handle the case. You’ll pardon me if I have a little hesitation to move forward with this investigation,” the headmaster stated. I heard his fingers drum against the desktop as he sighed.

Fabric rustled. “If neither of us says a word, then your kind and my kind remain hidden. Safely. But you have to let me do my job without question. You can’t follow along behind me or sit in on my interviews. You certainly cannot speak to my superiors at the station about having me removed.”

“Without question?” Headmaster Leaves squawked. “You’re asking a lot, Wilson.”

Someone growled, the sound ending on a groan. “I’m asking for the minimum you would afford a detective of any other kind. Stay out of my way and I’ll find your killer. End of story. Do you understand?”

The headmaster didn’t like the other man’s closing statement, if his indignant sputter was an indication of his feelings.

The door swung open and I scrambled back, nearly making it to the chair in time before Leaves and the detective strode forward. The werewolf detective, I told myself, schooling my face into a semblance of nonchalance even as my heart raced. Headmaster Leaves didn’t even look at me on his way out the door, his teeth clenched and a muscle twitching in his jaw. Apparently, he’d been booted from his office for this.

“Miss Alderidge?” the detective barked out, staring down at me and not liking what he saw.

Were my cheeks flushed? I swallowed hard and nodded.

With a sniff he gestured for me to follow him. “Come.”

I paused for the briefest moment.

“Well, come on!”

I jumped at the sound of his voice and poured on the speed, closing the door behind me.

Lean and sinewy, the detective moved with the supernatural grace inherent to shifters, a kind of predatory slowness coupled with a surety and confidence matched by no other species.

Clearly the detective had worked hard to cultivate a thuggish appearance. I could understand how the headmaster would underestimate him even if the man weren’t a werewolf. Still, beneath the loose cut of the jacket I noticed muscle and definition. Not a handsome man, but the detective defined masculinity from his black hair to his scuffed boots.

God, I hoped he sucked at his job.

He gestured for me to take a seat and I did so with as much poise as I could muster. Not much, as it turned out. I almost fell off the edge of the seat when I missed it by an inch.

“Miss Alderidge, are you feeling all right?” His nostrils flared. “Your heart is nearly beating right out of your chest and I can sense your perspiration.”

I tried not to tug at the white button-up shirt I wore beneath my school blazer. “I’m fine.”

“And you’re the one who found the body?” he barked. When I stared at him, the werewolf chuckled. “I apologize for diving right in. You’re my last interview of the day. I’m Detective Douglas Wilson, by the way, lead investigator on this case.”

I wanted to tell him it was nice to meet him but I couldn’t manage to force the words out. “How can I help you?” I asked instead.

“I want you to take me through everything from last night. We’ve heard from some of the others about the game you were playing.” He glanced down to consult a piece of paper in front of him. “A game of Capture the Scroll? From what I understand, your reflexes were better than your peers expected them to be. That is the singular consistent statement to all their versions of events.”

The rest of the blood drained from my head. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry to tell you they underestimate me in a number of ways. I’m not well liked.”

“Why, Miss Alderidge?”

I shrugged, uncomfortable with his attention. “I’m new. People who have already found their group of friends don’t usually take kindly to newcomers. Especially those who are half-human.” I tried not to stress the last word too much.

Detective Wilson continued to stare at me with his shoulders tense and his face giving nothing away. “I find it a little hard to believe. Your entire incoming class is made up of new students who surely do not all know each other. Why should you be singled out?”

I shrugged again. Calm those shoulders! “Your guess is as good as mine,” I told him.

He wouldn’t even blink and a wave of terror crashed down on me. Was Detective Wilson able to smell me even under the effects of the potion? I had no way of knowing. The room was suddenly too small, too hot, the walls closing in around us.

“Why don’t you tell me everything. Take me through the evening as you remember it.” He grabbed a pen from his jacket pocket, setting the tip against a fresh sheet of paper. “Spare no detail.”

I walked him through my memories of last night, answering whatever questions he had no matter how strange they seemed. The clock ticked on and I noticed thirty minutes had passed. I’d missed the rest of my class.

He kept me longer than he’d kept the others.

“I think we’re done for the day,” Wilson stated finally, leaning back in the chair after another ten minutes of questioning.

“Okay. Thank you?”

Was it the appropriate thing to say in this kind of situation?

“If you remember anything else…call me immediately.” He slapped his business card down between us before standing. Cracking his neck with a single twist of his head. “You’re free to go. For now.”