* * *
Instead of snuggling up in my bed, I stashed my books and changed clothes. Knowingbetterthis 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 notmeantto 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. Iclearlystuck 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 worddilapidated.
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.
