Chapter Two

Ipull out of my mind and look at the other two, "Are you guys all caught up?"

"Yeah," Cole replies.

Erin has a frown, darkening her features as she replies, "We should've known that it wasn't just us that wasn't being taught properly."

"True, but the guys are still being taught, and they're allowed to do the combat class and all of the other classes with no resistance, so it really seemed like they were learning what they should." Cole points out.

"They must have done it fairly subtly for none of them to be able to remember when exactly it stopped," I add. "We're going to find somewhere to practice tonight so that we can train some more with our magic ourselves."

"Oh, thank fuck," Erin replies, and the relief on her face matches Cole's. I know that they've been struggling with it and the lack of knowledge as well.

"I've been doing a bit in my room, but I need more space and more people around me just in case something happens that I can't control," Cole says with a slight grimace.

I nod, "Yeah, I've been doing the same and only practicing with things that I already know how to do."

We talk for a while longer before we realise that no one is planning to turn up to teach us at all, not that they're just late. The bell goes to signal the next period, but we all stay where we are because the majority of our lessons now take place in this one room.

"They're isolating us and keeping us away from the rest of the students," I practically growl as the thought occurs to me.

"I think you"re right," Erin agrees before she grabs her bag and starts to stand up.

"Where are you going?" Cole asks, standing up and grabbing his bag anyway despite not knowing what her plan is or where she's planning on going.

I have to admit that I follow her lead, like hell, do I want to be left on my own.

"Back to my room. There's no point staying here, and the guys can meet us there anyway for lunch," she replies as she waits for us and then starts toward the door.

We're all feeling happier about not being stuck in the room with no teacher and bored out of our minds when we open the door and are met with one of the school's security guards.

I raise my eyebrow at him as he stands in our way.

"I'm afraid I can't let you leave," he says, sounding slightly nervous.

"And why would that be?" Cole asks, an edge to his voice.

The guard shakes his head, "I'm sorry, but I don't know. The headmaster just told me not to let you all leave."

"There's no teacher in here. Are they planning to send one?" I ask, my magic starting to stir with my irritation.

"Er, I don't know," he replies.

"Right, the way I see it, is you can either allow us to leave because there really isn't any point in us sitting in an empty room, or we could force our way past, and everyone's day gets a lot less happy," Cole offers him a choice.

There's only a brief moment of contemplation before he just steps to the side and moves out of the way. We start to walk past him, but before we can, his voice stops us.

"I'm sorry, it seemed ridiculous to me when he made the order, especially when I found out that you hadn't actually done anything to anyone," he tells us.

He's pretty young, possibly in his mid-twenties, and looks thoroughly confused and genuinely apologetic.

"How long have you been working here?" I'm prompted to ask by my magic.

"I just arrived this morning," he replies, "I have to say I'm not liking it so far. All the security team is like damn robots; I know it's a serious job and everything, but there's usually a fair amount of camaraderie and joking around usually, or at least there have been on the other assignments I've had. There is none of that; it's all by the book, completely focused and shit." His eyes widen when he finishes his rant, and he adds, "Shit, sorry, I shouldn't have unloaded all of that on you."

"It's okay," Erin replies for all of us, as our original opinion of him quickly changes.

"If I were you, I'd leave as quickly as possible and request a different assignment if you can," I tell him and then smile as once again my magic whispers to me, "I heard that Black Onyx had some jobs going. That's bound to be more fun than here because they're all warriors. I'm sure they get up to all sorts of amusing trouble."

His eyes light up, "Yeah, that's a good idea. I have a contact there actually. I'll give him a call. Thanks."

"No problem," I smile, knowing that I've done the right thing and that Black Onyx is where he's supposed to be.

"Before I go, you should know that the headmaster is saying that you're difficult to work with and are becoming a problem. I overheard them mention that all three of you were dangerous. I just thought you should know because you don't seem dangerous to me," he shrugs as he turns on his heel, no doubt to go and get in contact with his friend at Black Onyx.

"What the fuck is going on?" Coles hisses as we quickly make our way down the corridor.

"I have no idea, but wait until we get to my room. I can put a shield around it," Erin replies.

"Good thinking, it somehow doesn't feel safe enough to talk freely anymore," I mutter.

The others nod in agreement, neither of them wanting to reply since they both feel the same way that I do. Finally, we get to Erin's rooms that she shares with her guys. They're set out exactly like Cole's and mine, and we're here enough that the room is incredibly familiar to me.

Cole and I don't say anything as we wait for Erin to do her thing and watch as the red and gold magic swirls in the air as she weaves an intricate shield and sets around the room, making sure that there are no gaps and that it is completely soundproofed.

"Okay, all done." She grins and then adds, "You know it still fascinates me that I can do that."

"I know what you mean. Sometimes, I just have to take a step back and look at where I was and how far I've come. I was so fucking alone, and now look at me; I'm surrounded by my chosen family and people I love," I reply, getting a bit more emotional than I intended.

"Aww, group hug!" Cole practically yells and then jumps on us both, squeezing us tightly.

"Alright, enough of this mushy shit," Erin grins as we all separate, "should we tell the guys about what happened now?"

"I think we should wait; we've only got an hour until they're here for lunch, well, my room, and I'm now starting to think that it's very unlikely that they're not keeping an eye on the guys and listening into them," I reply.

"Yeah, I agree. I also think that we need to get to the bottom of what's going on as quickly as possible because what that guard said suggests that they're trying to make people fear us," Erin adds.

Cole nods as he walks over to Erin's small kitchen area and starts making drinks for us all, "I don't know what they're hoping to achieve though. Why make them hate us?"

"I have no idea, and that's what worries me," I reply.

"They've got some pretty good books in the library here on the history of the Centres. Maybe that's where we start?" Erin suggests, "Maybe we look at their pasts to try and understand our present."

"That's a really good idea," Cole replies, and then frowns, "would checking them out put some suspicion on us like they'll know that we're onto them?"

I shake my head as I accept the drink he's offering me, "No, I don't think so. I mean, we're Centres. I think it would be understandable that we'd want to know more about our history."

"Good point," he replies and then looks at the clock on the wall, "we've got quite a while before the guys get here. Do you want to go and get some of the books now? At least it will give us something to do, and we might even be able to have some answers ready for them."

Erin shrugs as she finishes gulping down her drink, and I do the same, "It beats sitting around here."

"I've never been good at staying still," I add with a smile and stand up. "Erin, have you got a bag that we can carry them in? Even though it would be expected that we want to know about our history, we don't want to be too obvious and gain attention that we don't want right now."

"Yeah, one second," she replies.

It's not long until she's back with a backpack, and we're heading out of the door and through the quiet hallways. I suppose, in a way, it's a blessing that we didn't have a teacher today. It gave us a chance to do some actual research and find out a bit more about just how differently the teachers are behaving. We know that we need to be cautious now. We know that we need to be cautious now, even more cautious than we, or at least I, was already being.

Thanks to it being during lesson times still, the library is empty. There's not even a librarian on duty, which is odd since the doors are unlocked, and if there's not someone here, then they usually lock them.

"They're this way," Cole says as he leads us through the tall shelves.

This place is truly stunning; it"s like a maze of books, and you could easily and happily, in my case, get lost in here. The thing that makes this place of dark wood shelves and intricately carved ceilings even more magical is, well, the magic. You can feel it buzzing through the room, coming from the books, the various artifacts that they have in spelled cases, and the actual shelves themselves. This place doesn't really need a librarian; it knows what you're looking for and gives it to you. The librarian is more there to make sure the library itself doesn't misbehave.

I heard that once someone disrespected it in some way, and it clonked him on the head with a book. I thought it was hilarious and well deserved personally, but now, because of that they keep someone here at all times so that it doesn't misbehave.

It"s one of my favorite parts of the school, even though I'm yet to explore it properly, despite how long we've been here.

"Cole, are you sure you know where you're going?" Erin asks, and I tune back into the conversation.

"Yeah, I found them by accident the first time, and they're way back in the maze of the library," Cole explains.

"Huh, almost like they're trying to keep our existence as just part of history," I mutter.

"Well, until you came along, there were very few left, and then you found all the ones the Order had kidnapped, and the Fae Realm is full of them again," Erin replies with a smile. "Just in case that came across wrong, I am very glad that you came along."

"But those supernaturals that were the strongest and enjoyed the perks that came with that, with us gone, are now mad as hell because the Centres, who have always been known to be some of the strongest supernaturals around, are back," Cole points out sounding somewhat absent-minded as we reach another split in the shelves and he looks from side to side with a slight frown.

"You may be onto something there. Maybe the school is trying to get rid of us because they're afraid of how strong we'll be," Erin suggests.

I'm about to agree with her when my magic stirs, "That doesn't ring entirely true, although I do think that the school is trying to make at least the students feel that way about us."

"Yeah, they're kind of like the teachers in that they aren't as friendly as they were before, not that they were overly friendly, but better than the total avoidance that we get now," Cole agrees with a frown.

"I wonder why it's taken us so long to really see it?" I ask.

"I know," Erin replies, her fingers running over the spines of the books and a slight smile on her face. "I think it"s just very gradually gotten worse. I mean, it wasn't like you turned up, and then everything immediately went to shit."

"It happened so gradually that we didn't notice until it got extreme," I reply.

"Erm, guys, speaking of not noticing something until it's obvious, where the fuck are we?" Cole asks a thread of panic in his voice.

I immediately start looking around and find myself confused at what I'm seeing. What the fuck. The library is nowhere in sight. In fact, there aren't even any books in sight. We appear to be in some sort of tunnel. The roof is stone, along with the curved walls and flat floor. I have no idea where we are; I haven't been here before, and from the giant cobwebs all around, no one else has been either.

"I don't understand," Erin mutters as she looks around too.

Behind us and in front of us is just tunnel. There's not even a vague sign of the library.

"Maybe we walked through a secret door somehow?" I suggest, somewhat hesitantly, because this is weird as hell.

"I don't remember opening a door," Cole says, "I think that's something that I would have remembered doing."

"Just help me check the walls," I reply.

We all spread out and press different parts of the wall, I'd be worried that we look like we've lost our minds, but there's no one fucking here to see it anyway.

"Okay, I think it's safe to say that we were not brought here through some sort of secret door." Erin sighs.

"Well, what the fuck do we do now?" Cole asks with a frown.

"Get in contact with our men and hope they can follow the same path and remember how they got here so we can get out," I suggest.

They both nod and fall silent.

I focus on my Bond Lines and try to talk through them, only to hit a brick wall. The lines are still there, but I cannot get through to my men at all. I feel my anxiety rise, and with it, that Darkness that hides underneath my magic starts to stir, becoming restless as it senses my fear. It's not the fear of not being able to get to the guys; it's the fear of not knowing if they're okay or not. That is what is making me panic.

"Whoa, Sage," I hear Erin exclaim and open my eyes, only to find her shorter than she should be.

"You"re floating," Cole points out the obvious and then adds, "take a deep breath, and gently lower yourself to the floor."

I do as he says, taking deep and slow breaths until all parts of my magic are calm again, even though I'm on edge.

"I'm assuming from that display of power that you couldn't get through to your guys either?" Erin asks me, the panic in her eyes as well.

"No, I couldn't."

"What do we do?" Erin asks.

"Keep walking, I guess," Cole suggests, "there's no point in us staying here. We may as well keep moving forward."

"There's a saying in there somewhere," I reply as we all start to move forward.

"What if there are bugs down here?" Erin asks.

"Dude, you're a powerful supernatural, and you're scared of bugs?" I question.

"Rightly, so I think, supernatural bugs are bigger." She retorts.

"I'm with Erin. I really hope there aren't any bugs down here," Cole adds, a shudder going through him.

"Yeah, actually, on second thoughts, I'd rather we didn't come across any either," I reply, and then add because it's only just occurred to me, "Erm, guys, why can we see?"

"What do you mean?" Cole asks, and then his eyes widen as he once again looks around us and realises the same thing that I have.

"We're in a tunnel, presumably underground, and we can see. There are no sconces, no light orbs, or anything like that, and yet we can see as if it's day," Erin replies.

"What the fuck is happening?" Cole replies and then holds up his forefinger and thumb, "I am this fucking close to freaking the fuck out."

"That was a lot of fucks." I point out, slightly amused despite the situation. Admittedly, this is the most fun that I've had for ages.

I do wonder what it says about me that I am happiest in a dangerous situation.

"You three are terrible. Will you just listen,"the Goddess"s voice echoes around the tunnel.

"Who the fuck was that?" Erin asks, as Cole just stares wide-eyed at me.

I grin happily, "That was the Nyx. If she's communicating with us, then I'm assuming that this has something to do with her."

"Huh," Cole says, and then adds, "I thought she'd be more wise sounding, you know, goddy."

I wrinkle my nose, "I don't think ‘goddy' is a word."

He shrugs, "Probably not, but you knew what I meant."

"Er guys, regardless of how she sounded, maybe we should do as we're told and listen as she said. She is, after all, a mother freaking Goddess," Erin hisses, looking around like we might get smited, smoted? Does anyone actually know the answer to that?

It would be super handy if we were in a library right now.