Chapter Seventeen

"Idon't know," I say as they both closely study me, still spinning around me and starting to make me feel dizzy.

"Something has them riled up," Hunter says with a frown as he starts to scan the room, looking for signs of danger.

I hold my hands up, making my familiars pause, finally and ask, "What's wrong? Do we need to leave? Go somewhere? What's going on?"

Knot communicates with me in the unique way that she does, and understanding fills me as I stroke them both, trying to calm them and reassure them that I'm okay.

"They were blocked from coming to me. They've been stuck on the edge of the academy grounds and only just made it back in; they couldn't even do their usual fade-in and out thing to get to me," I explain to the guys, who all look incredibly curious.

"That explains their panic," Hunter replies.

"Why couldn't they get in though?" Kai asks.

I shrug, still stroking them, "I have no idea, and neither do they. They said something was blocking them, but they don't know what."

"That's really strange and something that we need to make sure that we look into. We don't want that to happen again," Levi says, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't think they're going to be going anywhere without me for a while," I reply, and they both chirp in agreement, nodding their heads just in case we were in any way unsure that they were agreeing with my statement.

"Good."

"Sage," the Goddess"s voice rings through the room completely out of the blue, and judging from the guy"s faces, they can hear her too.

"Yeah?" I reply when she doesn't say anything else.

"Ican't get hold of Cain; he won't reply, and I'm worried about him after he found his friend like he did. Can you find him and tell him to come home, please?"

"Erm yeah, of course I can," I reply, my mind whirring over the wording that she's used.

"Thank you, he's in the stables. Please hurry," she replies, and then, just like that, her presence disappears.

"That was weird," Kai states.

"Yeah, but when the Goddess asks you to do something, you do it," I reply as I stand up. "I take it you're all coming with me?"

"Yeah," Kai replies.

"Obviously," Jax says.

I chuckle as Ghost makes himself comfortable on my shoulder, resting his head on the top of mine, and Knot turns into her fox form and practically glues herself to my leg.

"Yeah, they aren't letting you out of their sight for a while," Levi smirks.

"Nope," I reply as we head out the door.

I've only been to the stables a couple of times, but I'm relatively sure that I remember the way, and so I set off in the direction. Thankfully, it"s not late enough that we're likely to be stopped and questioned by the teachers, so at least that's one less thing to worry about.

As we make our way through the academy and then out onto the path that leads to the stables, we're all silent, keeping an eye on our surroundings since we're definitely not safe here, but I'm still playing Nyx's words over in mind, she said to tell him to go home and the way that she spoke about him, the emotion in her voice was similar to how I would talk about one of my guys.

It makes me wonder just how well Cain and Nyx are acquainted. I had thought that he was just someone that she chose to help us, but now I'm thinking that it might be more than that.

"Cain?" I call out when we get to the stables. The last thing I want to do is to make him jump, and considering we don't know exactly what kind of supernatural he is, I think it"s just safer for everyone involved if he knows we're coming.

"Sage?" he asks, sounding confused as he comes out of one of the stables, straw stuck all over him. He sees us all and then immediately starts asking questions, "What are you doing down here? Is everything okay? How did you know that I was here?"

"Nyx sent me. She told me that she couldn't get hold of you and that she wants you to go home," I tell him, getting straight to the point since I know that she's worrying about him.

Cain's eyebrows rise slightly as he then mutters, "Whoops, I'm going to be in so much trouble." Before I can question him on what he means, he says louder, "All lessons are canceled tomorrow; be extra cautious. I will be back tomorrow evening."

I then watch in equal parts awe and shock as he simply disappears, no magic sparks, nothing; one second, he's here, and the next, he's simply gone.

"Well, that was, erm, interesting," Kai says with a confused frown.

"You don't think he's one of Nyx's men, do you?" Jax asks the question that I'm sure we're all thinking.

"I think that after that, it would be silly to think that he wasn't," I reply.

"Yeah, that would actually explain why he knows so much, things that no one else knows," Levi says, and then adds, "Come on, let"s get back to our room. I don't like being out here this late and so exposed."

"Me neither, especially after what just happened in the library," Maverick replies.

As we walk back, my hands intertwined with Kai and Hunter's, I ask, "Do you think there's any chance that he'll give us a straight answer if we ask him about it?"

"He hasn't so far," Hunt replies.

"No, but it hasn't been so blatantly obvious before," I point out.

Kai nods, "She has a point; I mean, the Goddess herself asked us to tell him to go home. There's not really any other interpretation of that other than Cain's home is with the Goddess."

"Yeah, that's true," Hunt concedes, "I guess the only thing that we can do is ask and see if he'll tell us."

We're all silent for a moment as we make our way back up the sweeping staircase. There are so many fucking stairs in this place.

I don't know whether it's just because I know that someone has just lost their life here, but I feel like there's a heaviness, a sadness in the air, and the whole academy seems to feel somber, more silent than it usually would be. I have no idea how the teachers are going to handle it since it's apparent that the Order murdered him and the teachers are all being controlled by the Order, but I seriously hope that he's given the treatment that he deserves in death and I hope that Cain managed to get hold of the Enforcers so that it is dealt with how it should be, and his family is made aware.

If they aren't, I have a feeling that his family may never know what's happened to him, and I will not allow that. I make a silent promise to myself that if the Enforcers don't turn up, then I will find out who his family is, and I will tell them as much as I can. I know that Cain will agree with me and most likely want to be involved too.

"What a day," I mutter as we walk into our familiar space. Ghost and Knot leave me for the first time as they venture further into the space and go through all of the rooms, "I think they're checking to make sure that it"s safe."

"They're certainly on high alert," Jax says, "although I don't blame them, they couldn't get to you, and the Order is practically embedded into the school. This isn't a safe place for us to be. The Order has also now made a clear and obvious threat on our lives, with what was written in that poor man"s blood on the wall."

"Yeah, but we knew they wanted to kill us," I say, admittedly sounding rather blasé about it, but right from the very beginning, they've wanted to kill us. The fact that they've now written it down makes no difference.

"Are you feeling stabby?" Kai asks, a knowing glint in his eye.

"Yes," I say bluntly and then decide to elaborate, "I feel like the Order is making all of these moves, and we're not really doing anything. We were when we were trying to find the artifact in the library, but now we can"t do that because they killed someone in there and most likely moved the damn object."

"I know, I'm definitely feeling frustrated myself. I think we've just got to try and figure out where they've moved the object and make a plan for how we're going to destroy it," Levi replies.

"You're right," Maverick agrees, "I mean, finding the object is really only half of the battle, isn't it? We've then got to work out how we can break the spell that's controlling everyone."

"Yeah," I sigh, "I think I'm going to head to bed."

The guys watch me all worriedly as I head back to my room. I'm okay. I'm just annoyed by the lack of progress and tired. Today has been full-on and emotional.

∞∞∞

As we expected, classes were called off today, and none of us were exactly sad about it. In fact, I was pretty relieved because it meant that they were acknowledging that someone had died, which hopefully means that it's being dealt with properly and not swept under the rug. Having said that, all of us have been on the lookout today for the Enforcers, and they are yet to turn up, which is not reassuring in the slightest.

"Promise me that you're going to be extra careful?" I ask Jax as I chew on my lip nervously while watching him get ready to go out for a run with Hunter, Nate, and Kyle.

He stops what he's doing and pulls me into his arms, gently pulling my lip out of my mouth and then soothing the teeth marks that are left behind with a flick of his tongue and a soft kiss.

When he pulls back, he rests his head against mine and says, "I promise that I will be extra careful. We're going to stick together. I only need to be in the water for a short amount of time, but I do really need to go; I'm starting to feel unwell."

Instantly, my worry increases because he hadn't mentioned before that he felt unwell. I pull back so I can study him, "Are you sure that it is because you haven't been in a natural water source?"

He nods, "Yeah, my magic is telling me that's what I need."

"Okay, I know you need to go, but I really wish that it was safer and that we were sure that it wouldn't be classed as practicing magic after hours and get you in trouble," I reply.

He kisses my forehead, "I know we won't be gone long."

He kisses me again, and then Hunter takes his space, "I promise that we will keep an eye on each other, we're going to remain vigilant and we won't stay out longer than we need to."

I nod, "Stay safe."

"We will," Jax says, and I can see the excitement thrumming through him at the prospect of refueling and getting in the water.

As he opens the door, Nate and Kyle appear outside of it with a worried looking Erin. She walks through and comes to stand next to me.

"I'm going to stay with you and worry, because I'm going to drive the others mad worrying if I stay at home and I know that you're going to be worrying just as much as I am so we can do it together." She explains.

A wave of relief goes over me, "Yes, that sounds really good to me. We can eat our weight in snacks while we worry."

"Perfect," she replies.

"Honestly, you two, we're going to be fine, and we can stay in contact using the Bond Lines. If anything goes wrong, then you will know immediately," Kyle points out and then adds, "but we're quite capable, and even if we did need backup, we could hold our own until you guys all arrive."

Erin smirks, "Yes, we know, but we love you, and it's our prerogative to worry about you."

"What she said," I agree, my head buried in the cupboard and my arms already loaded with comfort food.

Hunter's voice is amused as he replies, "We'll be back soon. You guys enjoy your snacks. Love you, Sage."

"Love you too," I reply around a mouthful of cake as I dump my armful of snacks next to Erin, and she immediately dives in.

As the door closes, Levi comes over and drops a kiss on the top of my head since my mouth is still full of cake, "They will be fine, and we're all ready to go if they sound the alarm."

I nod, "I know. I'm just even more anxious than I normally am, thanks to everything that's happened recently."

"That's understandable," Maverick replies this time, his nose buried in a book.

"What are you reading about?" Erin asks, around a mouthful of food.

"Mav?" Kai asks when he doesn't reply and just carries on reading, clearly completely absorbed in whatever it is that he's reading.

Mav looks up to find us all watching him and seems completely confused as to why we're all watching him.

"What?" he asks.

"What are you reading?" Erin asks again with an amused smile.

Realization crosses his features, and he smiles, "Oh, sorry." He apologizes and then jumps straight into the explanation about what he's reading excitedly, "So, I had an idea earlier, or overnight. The amount of power that the object has to hold in order to keep constant and continuous control over the teachers in the academy is immense, especially if you take into account how long it's already held control over them and that they have no intention of letting go of that control any time soon right?"

"Yeah, that makes sense," Levi replies for all of us as he takes a seat next to me and reaches over me to steal some snacks, which earns him narrowed eyed stares from both Erin and me.

He only smirks, though not bothered at all.

"Well, the object that needs to hold that much power is going to have to be pretty resilient and strong in itself," Maverick continues, "which made me wonder if there were specific types of objects made out of specific things that would be able to hold a significant amount of power, including the spells to conceal it with no issue."

"Fuck, that's a good idea," I reply, and then ask, "Did you find anything?"

"Yeah, thankfully, the list of materials that can hold that amount of magic easily over a sustained period of time is pretty short, which was more than I could've hoped for. It means that we can go through the list and then see if anything in the castle is made of those things. I have a feeling that we'll know when we see the object because it will be kicking off so much power."

"That's brilliant. It certainly gives us something to focus on and shrinks our search parameters," Kai replies.

"Yeah, it does. Although the academy is huge, and who knows where the Order could've taken it, it's still going to take us a while to find it," Maverick says.

"Yeah, but at least we know what we could be looking for now." Erin points out with a smile.

Hunter

Iget why Sage is worried. There are a lot of threats to us at the moment, and it's not safe for us to be separated, but we really don't have a choice. We need a good run, and Jax needs to swim in a natural water source in order to keep him at full strength. There was also no way that we'd be able to bring all of us with us, we would've been far too noticeable, and it would have almost been asking for the teachers to find us and give us shit.

There's just too many of us as a whole group, that and some of them wouldn't be able to keep up, which means we wouldn't be able to run as hard as we need to. Which is fine sometimes, but when we don't know when it will be safe enough to have another proper run, we need to run hard and not move slower for other people. Thankfully, Jax, for whatever reason, can move almost as fast on land as he can in the water and, because of that, can easily keep up with the rest of us.

"What's the plan?" Kyle asks as we head out of the back of the academy and toward the woods.

It's late, which is when Cain suggested we go just to avoid any unnecessary attention, which I was pretty happy with anyway because I love night runs. The academy comes alive with a whole host of different sounds and creatures and feels a lot more peaceful.

"We'll run to the lake and then let Jax do his thing, maybe cool off ourselves for a short amount of time, and then we'll carry on and head toward the trail to do the loop," I reply.

"Sounds good to me." Nate replies and then adds, "We're going to have to be as quick as possible because Erin is not happy that we're out here."

"Neither is Sage," Jax replies.

"Did you guys hear from Cain yet?" Kyle asks as we make our way to the head of the trail, getting ready to transform into our animals.

I shake my head, "No, but I wouldn't be surprised if he were staying out of our way since he knows that we're going to have questions."

Kyle smirks, "Yeah, that makes sense."