“Ahhh, I see he kept our tryst a secret. I wonder why?”
I scowled. Diana was loving that I was in the dark, which pissed me off. A nasty retort was on the tip of my tongue, when a blonde girl burst through the front door and threw a massive beam of magic across the room to get everyone’s attention.
“Someone’s dead in the forest!” the girl screamed. “Come quick!”
I shot up and ran out the door.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Iexited the King’s Castle to arrive in pure chaos. Everyone was running around, trying to find the corpse. Someone called out for the person who had spotted the body. It soon became clear that while others had run outside, she had stayedinside. Two third-year girls went back in the dorm to find her, and emerged minutes later with the trembling blonde between them, her skin pale and eyes wild.
“You said you found a body.” A third-year male with a barrel chest and a shaved head stepped forward from the crowd. “Where?”
The girl pointed into the woods that separated the King’s Castle from the rest of Spellcasters. “That way, just off the path, about thirty feet in. I spotted a shining light, and followed it and found—” She gulped, and one girl supporting her patted her on the back.
“Two initiates, go get Headmistress Wake,” the guy with the shaved head ordered. “Everyone else, let’s go find the victim.”
My stomach sank. Did I want to see who had died? I already suspected they were in my year.
Unfortunately for me, Amethyst and Mina, who seemed to have sobered up extraordinarily fast, darted toward the academy before I could volunteer. I could either search or bow out, a coward’s move.
Just call me Corpse-Finder Odie.I sighed and joined those tramping into the woods.
“Did you check for a pulse?” someone asked the blonde who had found the body.
“Yeah, just like Professor Medella taught us. I couldn’t feel it, but his wand was glowing when I first saw him.” She gulped. “I turned to get help, but then, the light went out . . .” Her rambling explanation trailed off.
My ears perked up. What did that mean?
“So he was still alive when you first saw him,” a second-year guy supplied.
“He’s right here!” someone called, deeper in the woods. “It’s a firstie!”
I sucked in a breath and followed the voice. When I arrived at the site, I was totally on edge and as soon as I saw the body a choked sob wrenched itself up my throat.
Efraim lay on the ground, sprawled out as if he were making a snow angel. His face looked younger in death, and there was no blood, revealing that whoever had killed him had done so by magic.
“What’s up with his clothes?” A girl with long, brown hair pointed at Efraim. “They’re torn.”
I looked closer. There were three two-inch-long rips on his shirt.
“Probably just happened during the fight for his life,” someone else said.
Diana approached Efraim’s body, and I scowled, recalling her proclamation that she’d kissed Alex.Where is he anyway?I wondered glancing into the crowd.
A few upperclassman began to murmur, pulling me back into the moment.
Diana had straightened Efraim’s shirt and then pulled the cut portions aside, exposing his chest. There was a mark carved into him—a square with lines through it, and blood smeared all around his skin. I was just about to ask what it was when a third-year girl pushed her way through the crowd and gasped.
“Do you . . . recognize that, Sam?” a guy asked, his eyebrows furrowed.
The girl nodded. “I’m in an independent study with Professor Adyto. That’s a demonic rune made by a lesser demon, as indicated by the liberal slathering of blood well past the normal confines of the cut. The demon must not have run away very fast. He took the time to brand the initiate so he could find him again. I think the demon planned on coming back and getting information from this boy.”
Headmistress Wake, Professor de Spina, and Professor Thrax broke up the party and herded everyone back to their dorms. The headmistress led the initiates to our tower and forbade us from leaving until classes started the next day.
Who the hell would want to go into the woods with a demon on the loose?I sat down on Eva’s bed and tried to gather my thoughts which seemed to be everywhere and nowhere all at once.
Eva shut the door to her room, and turned to face Hunter, Alex, and me. “We have to go back and check out the murder site,” she announced.
