Jonah watches the basilisk shifter leap into the shadows with an odd slant to his mouth before he goes on. “You can also make use of the gym if there’s no class going on, watch a movie in the media room, just take a walk—it’s all?—”
“Peri!”
A slim, wide-eyed figure sprints down the hallway to meet me. Fen pushes past the guys and grasps my hands, her gaze darting to my new badge and back to my face.
She beams at me, not an anxious droplet in sight. “They told me I could come hang out with you as long as I didn’t spread the word that you’re stopping by. It’s been such a long time. Is everything okay out there? What do you want to do while you’re here?”
I have to laugh at her breathless torrent of words. “I’ll tell you what I can. Things are… confusing. For now, I think I’d like to get off my feet.” Little twinges are starting to radiate up through my ankles. “Wasn’t there a movie you said you wanted to show me the last time I was here?”
“Right, right!”
She tugs me toward the rest of the school, but Jonah steps in front of us. “Actually—we’d better make sure the way is clear. I’ll see that you get exclusive access to the media room for the next couple of hours. Why don’t you travel there through the shadows so you’re less noticeable—it’ll be easier on your feet too.”
He puts that considerate spin on the request, but my momentary exhilaration fades.
I slink through the shadows after him. Fen darts along beside me, chattering about the latest school gossip.
The media room is totally vacant by the time we arrive, which gives the space with its cozy sofa and armchairs an oddly lonely vibe. I guess Raze will come join us soon.
But as I tuck my legs up on my chair while Fen searches for the movie, the sense that I don’t really know this place creeps over me.
I just gained a new level in my schooling, but I can barely participate at the school. Will I ever belong even here?
Viscera’s crackling voice rises up from my memory.All these mortal beings stacking up their bricks and bolts, trying to shut us out.
It twines with Hail’s harsh words just a few hours later.Almost every human would stamp us out if they knew how.
Even Rollick seemed to think we don’t really belong anywhere in the mortal world—not out in the open, at least.When humans and shadowkind collide, it almost always ends in disaster.
Is that really true? Iseverythingthis school is working toward pointless in the end, because we’ll always be hiding, risking lighting the fuse of a full-out war?
That can’t be right, can it? Jonah’s human, and he doesn’t hate us. Toni works with shadowkind all day.
Gracie, my former captor’s daughter, freed us all from our cages even though she knew her father would turn his rage on her.
But the question swells at the base of my throat until I can hardly breathe. I need to know just how big a blunder we could be risking.
My gaze slides toward the door. “Actually, Fen… Would you mind if we watched the movie another time? There’s something I’d like to look up while I’m here.”
Fen tips her head, brightening with curiosity. “More mate bonds stuff?”
I have to laugh. “No, I think that was a dead end. But this is a shadowkind academy… There have to be records about things shadowkind have done here somewhere, right?”
“Oh, yes, there’s a whole section in the library. But what are you looking for?”
I swallow hard. “I want to find out everything I can about the battles between humans and shadowkind.”
20
Jonah
Ipause outside my office door, asking myself why the hell I walked down this hallway in the first place. Kicking myself for letting instinct take over.
This room isn’t mine anymore. I doubt Rollick has ordered all my student files and classroom notes be confiscated, but I’m not supposed to be accessing them.
I have no more classes to lead. None of the shadowkind I taught are technically my students now.
I’m just a random human wandering around a school that was never meant for me.
