We reached the library to find it was deserted, most students too traumatized to spend the day catching up on homework. Aftergrabbing as many books as we could, we lugged them to a table near the fireplace. It might be summer, but that didn’t meanthe fire ever died off in here.
Today it was comforting, working together with my friends to keep the darkness at bay.
“Why did you think that defense spell would work?” Sara asked as she opened her book,Monster and Myths.
Opening my own book—Spells to Turn Insects into Weapons—I told them in great detail about the attack in the graveyard. “Maybe it was a weaker monster,” I finished, staring off intothe stacks as I thought it over. “Because it didn’t look like the praying mantis one.”
“It looked like a snake though,” Haley repeated my description back. “What did the one in the water look like?”
A part of me couldn’t believe we were even having this conversation, that my friends were on board with the monster theory.I’d been carrying this around by myself for so long that there was an almost out-of-body experience in revealing it all.
“I caught only the briefest glimpses,” I admitted. “For the most part, it wasn’t visible to me, but I think it looked likethe aliens from those old Sigourney Weaver movies.”
Belle, eyes moving rapidly as she speed-read through pages of her book, said, “I think you should tell the professors aboutthe monster in the lake and the graveyard.”
She was right, but if I did, my father would yank me out of school. Me as a target was completely different to a general attackin a dorm hallway.
“It can’t be Logan, right?” Sara said suddenly, her book opened before her, but she wasn’t looking at it. “I know he’s gotenough power to do this, and clearly it’s someone who is targeting you. Hello, blood oath, but... he’s saved you twicenow and banished that creature last night.”
I’d spent most of my sleepless night after the latest attack running everything through my head, trying to figure outwhat was happening in Weatherstone. “He’s the most confusing, infuriating, frustrating—”
“Gorgeous,” Belle added, and I shot her a flat stare, even if she wasn’t wrong.
“I don’t know what to think about Logan,” I admitted. Outside of lusting after that asshole in my traitorous dreams. “Butthere’s still a chance that he might be behind it all, and these little heroic moments are all just building up trust untilhe levels the college—or murders me. He’s here for a reason. No one just transfers in their third year.”
Belle lifted her book. “Hence why I’m deep-diving into defensive magic. We need more power than you had last night. We needthe full shebang.”
Haley and Sara nodded, faces set in grim but determined lines, and then we all fell silent as we plowed through text aftertext.
“Apparently there are spells that can manifest creatures, but they’re built almost entirely on dark magic,” Haley said suddenly,on her fourth book. She moved the giant tome, wrapped in a musty red leather, to the center of the table so we could see thedepictions. None of the monsters shown looked like the three I’d seen.
“Are there shadows above them?” I asked, peering at the grainy image.
“Possibly,” Haley said, squinting with me. “I wish we had the internet. This old school shit is too slow for my liking.”
Haley was our book nerd and tech girl. In the outside world, she loved to game, and spent years building up her worlds inrole-playing games. Here, though, in the world of magic, that part of her life was left behind. The best she had was her riggede-reader, and she never made it a secret that she missed technology.
“When we have our next break, we’ll all do more research,” Sara said, leaning over to read the text closer. “I don’t think this is the same sort of monster. It’s clear how the dark magic is animating it in these images, and from what you all described, that beast last night didn’t carry any aura of that.”
She was right, so we all went back to our books.
“I know we haven’t explicitly said this,” Belle said a few minutes later, “but we’re working under the theory that the monsterin Aura Hall was after Paisley as well, right? She’s had too many close encounters with these creatures to be a mere coincidence.”
My insides twisted horribly, and even without a feeling of dread, my body was on alert.
“Most likely,” Haley agreed.
Sara nodded. “Either way, Paisley shouldn’t go anywhere alone from now on.” She grasped my hand, squeezing it briefly beforeshe let go. “You were alone in the graveyard when they attacked, and last night if the hall hadn’t been filled with students,they’d have gotten to you much quicker. We need to travel in a group whenever possible.”
In theory, I loved her suggestion, outside of possibly bringing danger to my friends. “I should be telling Dad,” I said, “butprovided he believes me, I’d be yanked out of college before we see the sunrise tomorrow.”
“No!” Belle gasped. “I think we need more information. We don’t even know for sure they’re targeting you. Maybe your magicis sensitive to what’s happening in the school. If they were targeting you, surely there’d have been more attacks than justthese couple. We’re over halfway through the year.”
“All good points,” Haley agreed, pressing her pen hard into the notepad she had in front of her. “At minimum I think it’sworth seeing what the headmaster discovers. If the monsters are out in the open now, it’s going to be more difficult for thisasshole to keep bringing them into the school.”
I didn’t want to leave Weatherstone, so I ran with their suggestions. “Yep, I’ll wait and see what the officials discover. Until then, let’s go with thetravel in groupsplan.”
Belle relaxed now that we’d agreed on a plan that wouldn’t get me yanked out. Even though it had been her suggestion in thefirst place. “It’s going to be difficult,” she said, tapping her finger against her chin, eyes unfocused. “We don’t shareall the same classes, now that we have our affinities.” She shot apologetic eyes at me, as we were all reminded of my uselessness.
