“I don’t see why not. Why? What’s on your mind?”
It was only a theory and a weak one at best. Until I had solid proof that Spencer had caused my injury and somehow imbedded dark magic inside me, I’d keep working on it. He didn’t know my hand had healed, so I might be able to trick him into thinking he’d still weakened me. “I want to test my theory that Spencer caused the cut on my hand. If I bring a pair of gloves to class, can we ward them against dark magic?”
“Are you going to tell me what’s really on your mind?”
Could I trust her? The guys, I trusted. With my life. With my heart. We were all family. Did that extend to Stace since she’d stepped into the mentor role? A warmth enveloped me, helping me with my decision. It had to be Cressida guiding me once again toward Stacey Layden.
“I don’t want Spencer to know the dark magic is out of my system and my cut is healed. I also don’t want him to be able to do something like that again.” I shrugged. “Warded gloves.”
She remained silent for an awkwardly long time. “What have we got to lose?”
18
I skipped Primary, not having the brain power to deal with both Clay and Spencer at the same time. I needed to be honest and open with one and lie through my ass with the other. Until I could apologize to my air elemental in private, I’d avoid seeing him in public. Not because I worried about him doing something. I didn’t want anyone else to know what’d happened in the ruins last night.
Clay was weird about skipping Primary, so I texted Leo. He didn’t answer, not that I blamed him. I did try to boil his blood. I wouldn’t answer my texts either. I then texted Clay. Again, no answer. With a frustrated sigh, I blew the hair out of my eyes and left my dorm room. There was more than one way to reach my guys.
The sun hit me as I walked outside, reminding me it was midafternoon on the last day of August. The heat immediately sank into me, making me uncomfortable, so I made a beeline for the shade of the trees lining the grounds. The closer I got to the borders where the wards protected the academy grounds, the more the oppressive heat smothered me. I removed my sweater and slung it over my arm. Still, the warmth of the day made it hard to breathe. It had to be the humidity. We didn’t have much for humidity in Montana. Since this was my first August in Washington, I wrote it off as me needing to acclimate to my surroundings.
The bushes on the other side of the barrier shifted, catching my attention. They’d done the same thing my first day at the academy. Rob had thought it was me causing them to tremor restlessly. Back then, I had no idea how to control my powers and hadn’t argued. Now that I could, I knew for a fact it wasn’t me causing them to shake.
I glanced up, confirming the wards were in place. The ones I could see shone softly. I reached out, passing my hand through the invisible wall. It glowed and smoked where I disrupted the field and shot an uncomfortable burst of heat up my arm. I pulled back and checked my palm, panting in fear at the sight. A strange, pulsing yellow glow reappeared under my skin where the cut had been.
“Reed!”
I spun around and quickly tucked my arm under my sweater as Rob sprinted toward me in full school uniform. He never ran and rarely wore his entire uniform, so my guard shot straight up. “It’s Stacey Layden.”
Panic stopped my heart. “Stace?”
“She’s missing.”
“I just saw her this morning.”
“Come on.” He took my hand and immediately teleported us to the office in the main hall. Lulu paced one side of the office in a scarlet muumuu that matched her frizzy hair. The impeccably groomed Dean Carter paced the other side. They spotted me, and both stilled.
“What’s going on? Rob says Professor Layden is missing?”
The headmaster nodded. “She and I were supposed to meet for lunch. When she didn’t show and didn’t answer her phone, I asked Lulu to find her.”
She regarded me, the lines in her expression deep with worry. “No one’s seen her since 3C this morning.”
Under normal circumstances, I’d tell them all to relax, that a woman spending a few hours off the grid wasn’t anything to freak out about. But this was Stacey Layden, and the shit going on around us was anything but normal. I had some weird dark-ass magic happening inside my arm that burned and glowed when I pushed it through the protective barrier. I had a handler I was pretty sure used that same dark-ass magic to enhance his powers and—whether it was by accident or design—transferred that dark-ass magic to me. I was so going to use this to finally expose him for the dark elemental he was.
Holy chuck wagon, Katy. Way to make this all about you.
An alarm screeched from inside Rob’s pocket, scaring the bejebus out of me. He pulled out a phone I didn’t recognize and stared at the screen. “What the…”
“What is it?” I asked, my voice shaking as more panic raced through me. I nodded at the phone. “What is that?” Now I was the one freaking out.
“It’s an alert.”
No shit. “An alert for what?”
“I’m not sure. I just got this today as part of my new job with the Council.”
I was so going to kill him if he didn’t tell me what the hell was going on.
“It’s called an ECAD—Elemental Call Alert Device. Every member of the patrol is issued one to alert them when multiple scents are picked up. It usually indicates a battle. Let me see that.” Dean Carter accepted the phone
