creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge (8 page)

“Which I wouldn’t recommend,” Flint adds. “I’m not coming to find you if you get lost in there.”

“Thank you.” I stand along with Ryn and Vi. “But I’m not going to the ball.”

“What?” Raven looks horrified. “Of course you have to go. The Guild balls are
amazing
. And the theme this year is so much fun.”

“I know, I just don’t really … feel like it.”

“Nonsense,” Raven says. “Go play around with all the fabrics and accessories in the room upstairs. You’ll soon be in the mood to dress up.” She heads to the wall as Flint reopens a doorway. Through it, I see the front half of a pegasus waiting patiently outside.

Vi steps closer to me and touches my arm. “I know why you’re not feeling in the mood for a party, but you should go. The sooner you can get over whatever hurt you’re feeling, the better.”

I nod, not because I’ve suddenly decided to attend the ball, but because I know she means well. “Thanks. I’ll take a few things in case I change my mind.”

“Come on, let’s go,” Ryn says to Vi. “I need to forget about today’s drama.”

“Today’s drama?” I ask as the two of them head for the doorway. “What happened today?”

“Nothing,” Ryn says.

“Someone escaped from the detainment area this morning and hasn’t been found yet,” Vi says over her shoulder.

“
What?
”

Ryn stops to glare at his wife. “Does the word ‘confidential’ mean nothing to you?”

“Oh, come on. She’s your
sister
. And she’s a member of the Guild. I’m sure she’ll find out tomorrow.”

“Who was it?” I ask, my heart beginning to pound faster as I wonder if it might possibly be …

“Confidential,” Ryn says firmly. “Confidential, confidential.”

“Hurry up, you two,” Raven calls from outside. “We’re going to be late.”

Ryn and Vi step outside, the doorway seals up behind them, and I’m left standing alone in the quiet of the living room, wondering if it’s at all possible that Zed was the one who escaped.

CHAPTER

EIGHT

“So you’re seriously not coming?” Gemma whispers to me as the mentor at the front of the lesson room, a tall woman named Anise, explains the exact order in which ingredients should be mixed to create the perfect antidote to common poisons.

I add a few details to the scales of the dragon I’ve been sketching on one of the blank pages at the back of my notebook. I’ve been working on this one for several days now, half focusing on it while listening to whatever the mentor for that day is talking about. I try not to let any mentor see the sketch, of course. Who knows if they’d believe me if I had to explain that drawing helps me concentrate. “I just don’t feel like going to a big party, that’s all,” I say to Gemma. “As Olive pointed out, we celebrate our freedom every day simply by being free. Why do we have to make a huge deal about it?”

“Oh my goodness. I can’t believe you just agreed with your mentor on something.” Gemma leans over and touches my forehead. “Are you sick?”

I roll my eyes and swat her hand away with a quiet laugh. “No, I’m not sick.” I glance toward the front of the room again, then flip back to notes section of my book and start copying down the instructions currently being written on the board by an animated stylus.

“Come on, Calla, I need you to be there. I need moral support.”

“Moral support for what?” I raise my eyes to the board and continue copying the words.

Gemma leans closer, lowers her voice further, and says, “I asked Rick if he’d go with me, and he said yes!” She lets out an almost inaudible squeal.

I stop writing and look over at her. “You actually asked him?”

“Yes!” Her voice is a high-pitched hiss now. I can tell she’s ready to explode with excitement, but since we’re in the middle of a lesson, now probably isn’t the best time.

“Congratulations,” I whisper. “That’s wonderful. So you told him how you feel about him?”

“Well, not exactly.” Gemma ducks her head and doodles a pattern on the corner of her page. “I might have mentioned going as friends.”

“Gemma,” I scold, loud enough that Anise looks up from helping someone at the front of the room.

“Miss Alcourt. Miss Larkenwood,” she says. “Why do I get the feeling you’re not discussing the lesson?”

I snap my mouth shut, deciding the question is most likely of the rhetorical sort. “Um …” Gemma mumbles.

“Probably because they’re not,” Saskia says from behind us, loud enough for most of the class to hear.

Since most of the mentors seem to favor Saskia and eat up whatever she says, I expect this comment to land us in even more trouble. But Anise simply crosses her arms over her chest and says, “You’re no better, Miss Starkweather. I’ve heard the words ‘secret admirer’ at least three times during this lesson, and I have no doubt where they came from.”

Suppressed laughter comes from several desks around the room. On the left near the front, though, Blaze crosses his arms and slides further down into his seat with a thunderous expression on his face. Nobody who was in the dining hall for breakfast this morning could have missed his public break-up with Saskia. She kept going on and on about the secret admirer who’d left her a gift of jewelry in her locker yesterday afternoon, along with a note asking her to meet him at the ball tonight. Blaze stood up and shouted for everyone to hear that she could attend the ball without him if she was so intrigued with this secret admirer. I can’t say I blame him.

As Anise turns back to the board at the front of the room, Gemma leans over again and whispers, “Please, please, please come. If things get weird with Rick, I need you to rescue me. Besides, do you really want to miss this year’s theme? All creatures great and small. It’s going to be epic.”

“Why would things get weird?” I ask as I continue writing down potion instructions. “And it’s too late for me to find a date.”

“You don’t need a date. Lots of people don’t take dates.”

I look at her. “So you want me to be a third wheel to your just-friends date with Rick?”

“No, no. You can just … be near in case I need you.”

She looks so desperate, and she
is
my friend. I suppose I can make the effort to get dressed up and go to this ball if it’ll help her nerves in some way. Thank goodness I took a few minutes to venture into Raven’s cluttered design room last night to choose some items I could reach without having to climb into the mess. “Okay,” I say with a sigh. “I’ll come.”

“Yay!” Gemma squeezes my arm, then lowers her head and scribbles across her page as Anise looks back at us with a frown.

I give Anise an innocent smile. She looks away, and I cover my mouth as a wide yawn takes over. Dreams of my time locked up in Zell’s dungeon continue to disturb my sleep every night and it’s taking a toll. The dreams always vary slightly. Sometimes Chase is there, sometimes it’s the boy I pushed off the top of the chef school building. Last night it was Gaius in the shadows, calling my name in barely audible tones. He struggled against some invisible force, crying out to me again and again. It sends a chill across my skin just thinking about it.

I blink the memory away, then swat at a surveillance insect as it buzzes too close. Honestly, can’t they keep those things hovering around the ceiling instead of getting too close to a person’s mouth when she’s yawning? Do the people who have to watch all these recordings really need to see inside my mouth?

“Ow!” The bug bumps into the back of my hand and stings it before zooming away. I rub at the tiny red spot as Gemma and several other trainees look up.

“Miss Larkenwood?” Anise says. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, sorry, I’m fine.” I rub the red spot that’s already disappearing. “The bug just startled me, that’s all.” I guess it was a real one after all.

“At least it wasn’t a mischievous sprite,” Gemma whispers. “I was in second year when one of them blew laughing dust into my face during a lesson. I had to be escorted out because my giggling was totally out of control. So embarrassing.”

The remainder of the lesson passes without incident. For the next lesson, we all traipse down to the fifth-year lab on one of the lower levels to practice the potion we’ve just been taught. Our training sessions took place this morning, which means when our time in the lab is done, we’re finished for the day. Excited chattering fills the room as we gather our things and head out. Most of us stop by the lockers to grab our training bags, and at least half the class gathers around Saskia to see if she’s been gifted more jewelry by her secret admirer. I ignore them all and open my own locker. I reach for my bag, but my hand stills as I see a folded piece of paper on the top shelf. I hesitate, frowning, then pick it up and unfold it.

Calla,

Come to the ball tonight. Meet me beneath the stained glass clock at 9 pm.

Looking forward to a dance with you,

Your secret admirer

I almost burst out laughing. This is
definitely
a joke. I look around to see if anyone’s watching me, but all eyes are on Saskia as she hunts through her locker. She steps back and lets out a huff. I guess there’s no gift for her today. I look down at the note again, wondering if it’s the same as the one Saskia got yesterday. Is this the kind of thing that makes her giddy with excitement? If so, I don’t understand it. I find this note creepy, not romantic, and I plan to stay far away from any clock I see at the ball tonight.

I push the note into my bag, shut my locker, and wave goodbye to Gemma. “See you later,” I say, trying to sound enthusiastic. I turn and walk past my classmates. Instead of heading for the foyer, though, I walk in the opposite direction toward the training center. Everyone else is rushing off to get ready for the ball tonight, but Olive scheduled an extra hour of training for me. She probably thought she’d be ruining my ball-preparation plans by doing so. Little does she know I’d far rather spend my evening in the training center than in a ballroom.

* * *

I enjoy my workout, so I keep going for longer than an hour. But eventually I have to leave if I’m hoping to look half decent tonight. I don’t have much of an outfit yet—just a collection of materials I thought might look good together—and it’ll take some time to get the basic clothes casting spells I know to work together to produce something wearable.

I hurry along the corridor and out to the foyer. There’s no one else here except the faerie walking casually down the stairs with his hands in his pockets. Clearly he isn’t attending the ball tonight. Or if he is, he’s not worried about—

Hang on.
I look closer, then freeze on the spot as the faerie reaches the bottom step and keeps walking. “Zed?” I whisper in horror. He looks my way. Panic crosses his face, and his steps falter slightly, but he keeps moving. Toward me. He stops beside me and smiles.

“Calla. What are you still doing here?” Up close, he doesn’t look nearly at ease. His shoulders are tense and his smile is strained.

“You …
you’re
the one who escaped?” I whisper, leaning closer to him. No one said a word today about someone escaping the detainment area, so I’d almost forgotten about it.

“Stop looking so shocked,” Zed says, never allowing his smile to fade. “If someone walks past, you’re going to give me away.”

I straighten and look around before returning my gaze to Zed. “How the heck did you escape?”

Quietly, he says, “You’re not the only one with a Griffin Ability.”

My lips part, but I don’t know what to say. We never speak of Zed’s Griffin Ability, but I haven’t forgotten it. That strange, disturbing power of his. One touch, and he can make a person relive his or her nightmares. Trouble is, Zed gets to feel the same terror his ‘victim’ is experiencing. It’s not the most pleasant of Griffin Abilities.

“I thought … I thought you said you never wanted to use that power again.”

“I had to get out somehow. After I touched the guard, he was disoriented and scared enough that I was able to get the key from him.”

“And you? Weren’t you disoriented and scared?”

He looks away. “I … I was scared. But I wasn’t seeing the things he was seeing.”

I swallow. “So you’ve been hiding inside the Guild since you escaped?”

“Yes. All over the place. An empty lab, the library, the healing wing, a storage area. Wherever I had to. I’ve been waiting for a quiet moment to walk out of here without anyone noticing.” He looks toward the entrance room at the side of the foyer.

“And when you get in there?” I ask. “You’re going to do it again? Scare them, so you can get out without being scanned?”

“Yes.” He hesitates. “You’re not going to stop me, are you? You’ll let me go?”

I feel guilty about letting someone escape the Guild, but it’s
Zed
. He’s my friend, and he hasn’t done anything wrong. “You’re not a criminal,” I say. “Of course I’ll let you go.”