I went into the dark room and turned on the light, closing the door behind me. Without Aaron, the room seemed even barer than it had before, which I wouldn’t have thought possible. He had some books on his desk, but it appeared they were only his textbooks.
There was nothing else sitting out anywhere in the room, except for two books on the small bookshelf in the corner. If his textbooks were all out on his desk, what could he possibly have on the bookshelf? I walked over to it. As I got closer, I realized that it was full of large old books. They seemed to appear out of nowhere. I took a step back and it once again looked like two lonely books. I stepped forward again and the large tomes reappeared.
“It’s a displacement charm.”
I jumped and spun around to see Aaron standing in the doorway, dressed in all black. He shut the door behind him.
“I didn’t mean to…I wasn’t snooping…much,” I said, stumbling over my words in an effort to explain myself.
“Don’t worry about it,” he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I trust you. After all, you’ve sworn to protect my beloved and if that doesn’t make you worthy of my trust I don’t know what will.”
It surprised me to hear him call Shaylee his beloved. I’d known he had feelings for her, but he’d never expressed them so openly.
Gesturing to the bookshelf he said, “I keep my most important books there. I placed the charm on them so any students who got a look in here would think it’s empty.”
“Some of them look ancient.”
“Well I’ve been around a long time, Jaden,” he said with a chuckle.
“Yeah I know,” I replied. “It’s just easy to forget how old you really are.”
“Why are you here, Jaden?” he asked, his smile disappearing.
“Well, ever since I promised to protect Shaylee…ever since when I’m in the same room…”
“You can sense what she is feeling. You feel her emotions as though they were your own,” Aaron finished for me.
“Yes,” I replied with relief.
“I’m no Warrior, but I believe that usually happens with the Warrior’s Oath.”
Having it confirmed, a great deal of tension left me. Even though I’d been pretty sure that was what happened, I’d needed someone to confirm it so I knew I wasn’t crazy.
“I guess you spoke to Shaylee,” he continued, sitting down on his bed.
“I did. She has a huge welt on her arm in the shape of a hand,” I said, sitting down on his desk chair. “She also told me that last night at dinner, the reason she screamed was that there was a voice telling her to run. She says it’s the same voice as the man in her dream.”
Aaron took the news calmly, but his face was slowly taking on a greenish tint.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“What we can,” he replied, which didn’t sound promising to me.
“What does that mean? I pressed. “I know I said I didn’t need to know everything, but this is about protecting Shaylee. That means I need to know. You said you trusted me.”
I was starting to get frustrated. I didn’t need or want to know every single detail, but if I was going to put myself in harm’s way, I needed to know more than what he was telling me.
“I do trust you, Jaden.” His expression and voice had softened. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to keep things from you, I just wanted to think it through before sharing.”
“Oh, sorry,” I said, feeling ashamed by my pushiness.
“Someone is tracking Shaylee,” he said, carefully studying my face as he spoke.
“What do you mean?”
“The spell that was used creates a connection. He can use it to find her. Anywhere. It has to be a member of the Council.”
“The entire school is loyal to the Council,” I said, about to panic.
“The school is loyal to the Council, but not directly involved,” he replied, not sounding at all concerned about the school. “Shaylee’s been safe here for years. I doubt anyone here reported our activity. If they had there would be Council Mages and Warriors all over this place, not one man using a spell. Do you know anything about the Dream Spell?”
“I don’t really know anything about magic,” I replied.
“It’s old magic,” he explained. “Rarely used. It was regulated long ago so that only the Council or someone of higher rank could use it, because once the connection is made it’s almost impossible to undo. I assure you; I didn’t do it. That only leaves…”
“The Council,” I said, finishing for him.
He nodded.
“What do you mean it’s almost impossible to undo?”
“The only way would be if the person responsible released Shaylee from the connection, or if he died.”
“Great,” I said, dejectedly. “What if we contacted the Resistance? Maybe they could help us.”
“It’s too dangerous. Right now, the Council only suspects she’s a threat, otherwise they would have torn this place apart by now. If we contact the Resistance and the Council discovers it they’ll destroy this place in order to make sure she never makes it through the transition. Or if we managed to run and the Mage tracking her followed her to the Resistance, the Council would destroy them.”
“Then what are we going to do?” I asked, more concerned than ever.
“Two days,” he said. “We only have two more days.”
Seeing the determination in his eyes, I realized for the first time the depth of his feelings for Shaylee and how far he was willing to go for her.
“All we can do is make sure she’s as safe as she can be,” he continued. “We shouldn’t leave her alone. It’s even more critical now that we know she’s being tracked.”
I nodded in agreement. After what I’d just heard, I was determined that no matter what they couldn’t pry me away from Shaylee. I would die first.
Chapter 16
Shaylee
I walked down a long corridor. The large
