Over the next week, while the college was still filled with council members and elders investigating the attack, I did theminimum study, shelved personal research, and focused completely on stalking Logan Kingston. Yeah, it broke the pact, butI was too embarrassed to mention it to the girls. No doubt they’d think it was my obsession with him and not the very realfear that he was up to something suspicious.
Most of the time I watched LoganandNoah because they had quite the bromance going on. Even conversing in Italian, which generally ended in one of them gettingpunched. So I could only assume they liked to sling their joking insults in foreign languages.
It would be adorable, if I wasn’t desperate to know what they were chatting about.
In other regards, I’d learned they enjoyed the gym, working out for two hours every morning, dressed in tanks and shorts.This was the point I kicked myself for not figuring out this plan earlier—I almost died at the sheer volume of ink on Logan’sbody. I hadn’t gotten close enough to make out any of the images, and I absolutely didn’t want to know.
Liar.
After they tormented me at the gym, they took a swim in the lake, and then attended most of their classes for the day. It was growing more apparent to me why I never crossed pathswith him in general. He didn’t seem to enjoy the confines of the buildings, spending most of his time outside. He also never ate breakfast, which was about the closest personality trait I’d seen to finding his psychopath side.
Every other part of him was normal. So. Freaking. Normal.
Normal and powerful. That part was innate, as he went about life as a spellcaster, blessed by the goddess to use the energyof the world itself. It surprised me how rarely he took shortcuts though. He never used magic to assist in weight training,which explained the corded muscles under the canvas of his tatted arms. He also never used it to power himself through thelake as he swam laps. He was disciplined, calculated, and appeared to consider every decision before he made it.
By the time Friday night rolled around, and I was once again staring at the curtains of Nightrealm Hall, I found myself frustrated,both sexually and otherwise. This was a stupid-as-fuck plan, and it wasn’t working.
Logan was the perfect student during the day, and I couldn’t access his room at night to know what he was up to. My last hopewas to catch him leaving his room at night, which meant I had to sacrifice precious sleep and wait him out. It was risky,of course. For the first time, my stalking wouldn’t be during daylight hours, but desperate times and all that jazz.
After getting ready for bed, I slept for a couple of hours, groggily coming awake when my alarm beeped at midnight. Dressingquickly in dark jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt, I threw my sneakers on and made sure the thorny spell was in my pocket.
The last second before I left the room, I grabbed all three of my crystal necklaces, and slipped them over my head.Help me out tonight, Gran, I prayed silently.
This was the first time I’d worn them since returning, andas I pressed them to my skin, there was a buzz of energy along my spine. I hadn’t had time to delve into the crystal theory yet, but part of me already believed they could elevate my magic. I hadn’t forgotten that when I got rid of the monster in the graveyard, I’d been wearing a crystal.
My conclusion was that the reason the spell didn’t work the second time was my lack of crystal connection.
Leaving my room, I closed the door quietly and moved as stealthily as I could into the dimly lit hallway. Witch lights werescattered enough that I could slip into shadows on my way toward Logan’s room.
The curtains were closed as always, and I peered inside to find that there wasn’t a single light in this hall. A void of eternaldarkness. I shook off the tingles along my spine. They weren’t the bad ones yet; this was general unease.
I couldn’t sit outside of his door, so I made my way over to a small window seat in Aura, set in a wall recess. This spotkept me out of sight but let me view the Nightrealm curtains. Knowing this was going to be a long night, I settled in, wishingI’d thought of bringing coffee. Even cold leftovers from dinner would have helped.
At some point, despite my best efforts, I drifted in and out of sleep, and this time my dreams were much darker than usual.Silver tendrils of the inkiness that had filled Nightrealm chased me through an endless hall, and when I jerked awake I realizedthat my hands, which were wrapped around the necklaces, were glowing.
Releasing them, I shook my head to clear it, and that’s when I felt it: my warning system was in full swing, the tingles racingdown my spine. Too scared to move, but knowing I had no choice, I shifted forward a few inches and heard a scrape from fartherdown Aura.
Holding my breath and praying I’d imagined the sound, I moved slowly until I could peek around the side of the window seat.Please be a student.Even before I saw it, I knew from the energy roaring through my body that my silent plea had failed.
It was another monster, slinking through the hall, moving from shadows to light. Terror choked me, rising from my chest intomy throat, as the horrific creature leaped and landed ten feet away from me. Scrambling to my feet, I blinked as it disappearedagain, almost as if it’d never been fully here to start with.
Too petrified to scream, I groped in my pockets for the vial, and when I pulled it free I popped the lid to remove the thorn.The monster appeared in the light once more, rearing up on its hind legs. This beast was nothing like the other three, withantlers, huge and webbed, standing three feet above its head. A head that was cylindrical in shape, and I swore only one hugeeye blinked at me before the creature flickered and then vanished again.
How did it keep vanishing?The others hadn’t done that.
My brain came back online, and I turned to sprint, only for it to reappear and slam its heavy weight onto me, knocking theair out of my lungs as I landed hard. Feeling my chin split, I cried out and dropped the thorn, but managed to find it again,almost stabbing myself in the process.
Its weight vanished, and I flipped to my back, to find it flickering into existence once more. This time it attacked, a clawedfront arm emerging from its fur, slicing across my shirt, leaving an agony of burning in its wake. The pain was instant andexcruciating. Shocked cries spilled from my lips, as I forced myself to keep moving.
If I stopped fighting now, I’d be dead in the next few seconds.
I slammed the thorn into its skin, with only a momentary panic that its thick, dark hide might repel the attack. It sank in with ease. My incantation breathless as my power surged, and I fought the pain and darkness dancing on the edge of my vision.
The creature reared up once more, but it didn’t strike, backing away and desperately gnawing at the thorns in its arm. Thespell hadn’t disintegrated the monster as I hoped, but it gave me a chance to escape all the same.
Pulling my body along the floor, leaving an impressive bloody slide that would get a serial killer hard, I managed to gainsome distance and stagger to my feet. Adrenaline kept the pain manageable, and bymanageableI meant absolutely destroying me with each step as I clutched my ribs. It was a deep wound, warm blood pulsing against myhold.
Ragged breaths caught in my chest as I stumbled along the hallway, footfalls quiet against the carpet, which absorbed theblood dripping from my side.
