Wren smelled of cocoa and chocolate.
“He’s adorable,” Sloane whispered.
“Yeah, he is. Do you know much about mogwai?”
“No. But I’m pretty sure Conah will. Get some sleep, Cora. We can train some more tomorrow if you like.”
“Yeah.” I snuggled into Wren, closed my eyes, and opened them what felt like minutes later to the sound of Sloane’s soft snores, but my body was in alert mode. Something had woken me. My body was covered in goosebumps and the air felt lighter, like there wasn’t enough oxygen. I breathed shallowly, scanning the room. My gaze tracked to the wardrobe sitting snug against the wall like a shadowy, hulking beast, then my heart stalled as a shadow detached itself from it.
Fuck, there was something in the room with us.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I reached for Sloane under the duvet as the shadow moved toward us, slow and deliberate. My fingers brushed her arm, and I was about to pinch her when the moon came out and lit up the shadow.
Not a shadow.
A silvery-gray ghost.
“Meredith?” I sat up, head swimming.
“Hush, child. There isn’t much time. I need to tell you…tell you it all while I remember, while it’s still here.” She tapped the side of her head.
“What?” My body felt odd and fuzzy.
“It’s not what happened. What they say isn’t what happened. What they did to us. The truth. The horrible, greedy truth is … is…” She squeezed her eyes closed. “That night I saw her start it. I saw her and I tried to stop her, and she did this.” Meredith plucked at her clothes, and they were suddenly charred and black. “She did this and she took it. She took it all and now—”
She looked out the window. “No time. No more time. Listen to me. It’s not true. You don’t have to—”
She shuddered and her gaze went blank.
My head was suddenly clear. “Meredith?”
Sloane stirred and opened her eyes. “What the fuck?”
Meredith turned away and began floating toward the door.
“Meredith?” I pushed back the covers and stood. “Stop. What were you saying?” I took a few steps toward her, but my legs had that awful pins-and-needles sensation running through them.
“Cora?” Sloane was right behind me.
Meredith passed through the wall and was gone, and then my legs gave way.
Sloane caught me and swung me into her arms before carrying me back to bed. “What the hell just happened?”
Wren remained fast asleep as Sloane shifted him from the center of the bed and urged me to shift into his spot.
I shuffled into it. “She was babbling stuff. She said she had to tell me something while she remembered.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, stuff about it not being real and about someone doing stuff to her.” I exhaled. “I feel weird.”
Sloane touched my forehead with the back of her hand and then pinched my chin to force my head up so she could scrutinize my face.
“I think she may have drawn energy from you.” She frowned. “It’s not something ghosts are permitted to do. I’ll report this to Anna in the morning.” She climbed into bed beside me and put her arm around me, tucking me into her side. “Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch.”
I wanted to protest at being so up close and personal to her, but her body was hard and soft in all the right places, molding to mine, and I was so fucking tired.
I drifted off to the sensation of her thumb making circles on my shoulder and Meredith’s confused words circling like vultures in my mind.
She’d been trying to tell me something, but what?
Sloane was already gone by the time I woke, but she’d left a note telling me to meet her in the atrium for training after lunch. Meredith’s haunted face came to mind. Yeah, Sloane needed to speak to Anna about that. I was sure the ghost meant me no harm, but she’d managed to sap my energy good and proper. I still felt icky.
As a rule, ghosts weren’t permitted to draw energy from the living. Ghosts were classified into levels from those who were barely corporeal and unable to move solid objects to those who could draw energy from the environment and affect matter around them.
But Meredith was ancient, and last night, she’d seemed confused. What had she been talking about?
Wren groaned and sat up, rubbing his head. “Wren hurting.”
I scooped him up. “Headache?”
He closed his eyes and groaned.
Had Meredith drawn energy from him too? But not Sloane. I guess the tattoos across her back protected her from that sort of thing.
“Come on, let’s get you some food. You’ll feel better.”
I made it to the dining hall in record time carrying my mogwai, but by the time we got there, Wren was unconscious and unresponsive, and a strange silvery film had grown over his eyelids.
Fuck! I ran into the room. “Help, there’s something wrong with Wren.”
Several witches left their breakfast to rush over. I recognized Justine and Kel, the two witches who’d brought Wren to me a couple of weeks ago.
“Oh shit, what happened?” Justine asked.
“I don’t know.” Panic writhed in my belly.
Shit, what was I doing? I needed to get him to med bay. “I need Pippa!” I headed out the door and almost strode into a solid wall of muscle.
Hands bracketed my shoulders. “Cora? What’s wrong?”
Conah? “It’s Wren. There’s something wrong with him.”
Conah looked down at Wren and his brow furrowed. “Is that a…mogwai?”
“Yes, do you know about them, can you help him?”
“Has he been eating a lot? Like all the time?”
“Yes…Wait, is that not normal for mogwai?”
Conah reached out to stroke between Wren’s ears. “He doesn’t need help, Cora. He needs time. He’s entering the first phase of his maturation.” He locked gazes with me. “You’re
