On her fifth trip to the Medical Ward, she wasn’t alone. Everyone in Fitzy’s Gamma Chemistry class was treated after a noxious gas infiltrated their laboratory. That, at least, hadn’t been Alex’s fault.
Nor was it her fault when all fourth year students were quarantined for forty-eight hours after coming in contact with a sick Foofoo in their Species Distinction class.
That’s right. A Foofoo.
As cute as the name was, it didn’t come anywhere close to describing the adorable creatures. Alex’s heart had melted when she first saw the multi-coloured little balls of fluff. Like every other girl in her class—and some of the boys, too—she hadn’t been able to hold back her cooing baby-voice when the Foofoos looked up at them with their big puppy-dog eyes, all but asking to be picked up and cuddled. Which is exactly what Alex and the others had done.
By the time class ended, everyone was sniffling and sneezing—Varin included—and after a quick examination by Fletcher they were sent to his Infectious Diseases isolation room. The illness they’d contracted was the equivalent of a twenty-four hour bug, but the doctor kept them for twice that long to make sure they were no longer contagious.
Despite that particularly miserable experience, Alex couldn’t deny that she wanted a Foofoo of her own.
One of the few classes that didn’t land Alex in the Medical Ward was Core Skills. If anything, though, a trip to visit Fletcher could have only helped improve the subject. For Alex, the class was beyond tedious, since her gift was more like an on-off switch than anything else—with it always turned on. She didn’t have to learn control, unlike most of her classmates with their various abilities.
Despite not needing to practise using her gift, Alex was experimenting a little to see if her willpower could progress beyond herself. Professor Marmaduke had put the idea in her head at the end of the previous year, and since then Alex had wondered if she could share her gift with others in a similar way to Jordan’s transcendence.
So far, Alex hadn’t been capable of doing anything different. Then again, she had no way of judging if she actually achieved what she was trying. Which led her full-circle back to believing that Core Skills was a waste of her time, even if she did now understand the bigger picture behind what it was teaching, at least according to Doc’s insight into the reasons for the academy’s ancient curriculum.
If nothing else, she could say that her Core Skills classes remained predictable, unlike her SOSAC class—or rather, the teacher.
Ever since Alex had returned from her SAS weekend ‘adventure’, Caspar Lennox had taken an unexpectedly keen interest in her. Whenever she entered his room, his dark eyes found her. If she looked up from taking notes, his gaze was on her. When she left his class, his eyes followed her. The Shadow Walker was already creepy enough without this bizarre, stalkerlike development.
Fortunately, he didn’t approach her outside of his classroom. She never saw him anywhere else, but she often had to resist the urge to wait behind after his lessons to confront him about his disturbing stares. Her friends claimed it was all in her head and, while she didn’t agree with them, she chose to follow their advice and let it go.
But that was easier said than done.
“Miss Jennings, please remain behind after class.”
Alex was startled by the unexpected interruption. One minute Caspar Lennox had been speaking about the lords and ladies of Deveraux House, circa two hundred years ago, and the next he was asking her to stay back after his lesson. At her hesitant nod, he continued his discussion as if there had been no change of topic.
‘Baffled’ didn’t come close to describing how Alex felt. She was so intrigued by the Shadow Walker’s request that she barely paid attention to the rest of his class. Thankfully, there were only a few minutes left before the gong rang and her friends and classmates filed out the door, leaving her alone with the professor.
Caspar Lennox sat on the edge of his desk and did nothing but stare at her for a full minute. It was unnerving to the point where Alex found herself fidgeting under his gaze.
“Sir?” she asked when she couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Have I done something wrong
“Not yet,” he said, his musical voice floating over to her. “But the future isn’t set in stone. I have no way of knowing the choices you’ll make.”
It was now Alex’s turn to stare.
“Never before have I come across a human quite like you,” Caspar Lennox murmured pensively.
Alex thought he might have been complimenting her until he added, “I’ve never known anyone who could find themselves surrounded by so much trouble in such a short amount of time. You truly are a unique individual.”
“Uh, thanks?” Really, how was she supposed to respond to that?
The Shadow Walker continued to stare at her. But then Alex realised he wasn’t staring at her, so much as through her. It was like he was looking for something else, something only he could see.
“The Shadow surrounds you,” he said, his bottomless eyes slightly unfocused. “But the Light within you… I’ve never seen anything like it. Even the Dayriders pale in comparison.”
His words left Alex feeling completely lost. She wasn’t sure what question to ask first, so she settled on, “What’s a Dayrider?”
Caspar Lennox blinked a few times until his eyes cleared again, and when he spoke, he acted as if she hadn’t. “Alexandra, we’re all born with Shadow inside us. But, as with anything, it’s up to us to decide what we do with that Shadow. We can succumb to its power, or we can overcome it and use it. Our level of control depends upon our ability to resist the Shadow’s hold on us. It’s a choice we must all make.”
He paused, apparently waiting for Alex to respond.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I’m not sure I understand what you’re telling me. Or why,” Alex admitted. “When you say ‘we’, do you mean your race? And are you talking about Shadow Essence? Like, with your cape and my ring? That sort of thing?”
Caspar Lennox looked at her steadily and continued, more quietly than before, “Sometimes the Shadow can overwhelm us. The power it offers… The temptation can be too strong to resist. If we yield to it, it’s almost impossible to return to the Light. Unless there’s someone willing to help us find our way back.”
Alex was well and truly confused, finding herself with more questions than answers. But before she could figure out what to ask the professor, he snapped his head to the side as if he’d heard an unexpected noise in the room.
“Remember my words, Alexandra,” he said, rising from his seat with the ever-present cloud of shadows swirling around his feet. “Remember my warning.”
When she continued to look at him in bewilderment, he added a firm, “You’re dismissed.”
She had little choice but to leave, despite the fact that she didn’t know why he’d asked her to remain behind in the first place.
“What was that about?” Jordan asked when she met her friends in the food court for dinner a few minutes later.
“I have no idea,” Alex said, shaking her head in bemusement.
“Huh,” Jordan hummed, but he let the subject drop, probably sensing her confusion.
“Any chance you can help me with my Chem assignment, Bear?” D.C. asked their friend, pulling some broccoli from her stir-fry and wrinkling her nose at the vegetable. “I don’t get what Fitzy wants me to do with the Gorgonite. Is it supposed to react in water or in the air? Or just when it’s heated up?”
“I finished that assignment a few days ago,” Jordan jumped in before Bear could answer. “I can help if you want?”
Alex looked at Bear to find him glancing back at her with an equally knowing—and amused—look on his face. In their eyes, Jordan was so obvious. But, amazingly, D.C. seemed oblivious to his increasing attention of late.
At first, Jordan had kept his intentions subtle. He’d walked D.C. to class, asked her to hang out with him in the Rec Room, and offered to study with her in the Library—as un-
Jordan-like as that was. But lately he’d stepped up his game, much to Alex and Bear’s entertainment.
“You don’t mind?” D.C. asked, looking at him from under her eyelashes.
Alex hid a smile and wondered if perhaps her roommate knew exactly what Jordan was doing. What a conniving little… princess. Alex almost laughed out loud at the idea of D.C. knowing all about Jordan’s infatuation. Because that meant she wasn’t discouraging him—which in turn meant she, just possibly, reciprocated his feelings.
Alex could already imagine their cute little strawberry-blond children frolicking around the palace years into the future.
“What are you thinking about, Alex? You have a weird look on your face.”
She coughed awkwardly and said, “Uh, I was just thinking about… cheese.”
Cheese? Really?
“You know, mozzarella,” she added, seeing their disbelieving expressions. “It tastes so great. All stretchy and… uh… flavoursome. Like rubber.”
To add emphasis to her nonsensical words, she picked up the slice of pizza in front of her and bit into it, “mmmm-ing” as she chewed.
“Right,” D.C. said, looking at her strangely. “Anyway…”
Alex was relieved when they returned to their conversation and the attention left her again. She swallowed her mouthful and glanced up to catch Bear’s twinkling eyes. He probably knew exactly what she’d been thinking—most likely because he’d been thinking the same thing. She mock-glared at him, and his grin widened.
“All right, enough Chemistry,” Bear said a few minutes later, and Alex nearly choked on her food at his double meaning. “Let’s talk about Kaldoras.”
“What’s to say?” Jordan asked. “I can’t wait for Gammy’s apple pie.”
Alex felt her mouth watering in anticipation. Bear’s grandmother made the best food Alex had ever tasted. When she’d stayed with the Ronnigans last Kaldoras, she’d been introduced to Gammy’s famous apple pie—and she could honestly say it was too incredible for words.
“I spoke with Mum yesterday and she asked me to confirm you’re all coming back to Woodhaven with me,” Bear said.
“You know I’m in, mate,” Jordan said, shoving a meatball into his mouth and swallowing quickly. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”
“Me too,” Alex agreed, mentally replaying a recent discussion she’d had with her parents about the upcoming holiday.
Alex had been visiting her mother and father at least once a month to check in on them, and thankfully they rarely asked any in-depth questions about what they referred to as her ‘elf problem’. It seemed they were content to accept that Akarnae was the best place she could be. Alex, for her part, had decided she was better off not updating them on her latest encounters with Aven, instead opting for the ‘what they don’t know, won’t hurt them’ mentality.
During their most recent visit she had asked if they were okay with her spending the holidays with Bear’s family again. It turned out that her parents were anticipating being up to their elbows in what they’d discovered to be fossilised bat guano—the Library was scarily well detailed with its depiction of the ancient Freyan ecosystem—so Alex’s mother and father had accepted her request to stay with her friends for Kaldoras. She was beyond relieved, given that the alternative was for her to spend the Christmas-equivalent buried alongside them in long-dead animal droppings. Thanks, but no thanks.
“Dix? How ’bout you?” Bear asked.
“Yeah, my parents said I can come,” D.C. said. “It was easier to convince them since your dad’s a Warden”—This also happened to be one of the main reasons Alex’s parents were so accepting of her request to leave the safety of the academy— “but I think they’re a little nervous, especially with you-know-who running around out there.”
Alex snorted into her glass of water and her friends turned to look at her.
“Sorry, your words just surprised me,” she said.
“Well, I can’t exactly shout his name in the middle of the food court, can I?”
Even though she knew the question was rhetorical, Alex couldn’t help but chuckle and say, “Next you’ll be calling him He-Who-Must-Not-Be—”
“Good evening, students,” interrupted Zain’s deep voice as he approached their table. “Alex, do you have a moment?”
She nodded and stood to her feet. The other students had become more used to his intimidating presence, but he was still a sight to behold, especially when he did something as normal as walk through the food court. Plus he was decked out in full warrior gear as per usual, including his sword and various other weapons strapped to his belt, along with his bow and quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder.
Alex mentally shook her head as she followed him out the doors and away from the buildings. She had no idea what he’d been thinking with his intention to remain anonymous. But for whatever reason, no one had yet learned of his origins—as impossible as that was. Were they blind?
“What’s up, Zain?” Alex asked when he brought them to a halt near the edge of the forest.
He took in her curious expression and said, “You’re such an enthusiastic young mortal. I only wish your eagerness to find answers would overlap into your Combat training.”
“Don’t start that again, Zain,” Alex said in a frustrated voice. “Just hurry up and tell me what you want.”
The Meyarin had cornered her a number of times over the previous weeks to find out why she wouldn’t attempt to access the power of Aven’s blood in her veins. He couldn’t understand her aversion to the idea, even when she continued to remind him that her Combat class was made up of decidedly human students who would notice if she began to kick their butts to kingdom-come. Their differences of opinion had led to the two of them arguing until they’d agreed to disagree. Or, that was Alex’s standpoint. Zain continued to believe she would change her mind if he bugged her enough.
“What’s your rush, little human?” he asked, leaning casually against a tree. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you didn’t want to be seen with me.”
She was unimpressed with his annoying, but not unexpected, big-brotherly attitude. Over the weeks their relationship had developed to the point where he’d begun to deliberately antagonise her, just like any sibling might do. His jovial and carefree attitude made it easier for her to not fear his daunting power, but at the same time, she’d never had a brother before, and now she knew first-hand just how irritating they could be.
“You might have all the time in the world, but I have to get to SAS in ten minutes,” she told him. “Start talking, or I’ll start walking.”
He laughed at her no-nonsense expression. “You’re so much fun to be around when you’re all snarky like this. King Astophe was right about your spunk.”
“Zain…” she warned.
“All right, all right,” he said, rolling his eyes before turning serious. “Roka wanted me to update you.”
This wasn’t the first time the prince had passed a message along to her via his guard. Alex appreciated the communication more than she could say, since she hardly felt worthy of the royal Meyarin’s attention, let alone his continued sharing of information.
“Okay, shoot.”
Zain smirked and, in the blink of an eye, he pulled his already strung bow from his back, notched an arrow, and let it fly. A bloodcurdling scream filled Alex’s ears and she whipped her head around to see Skyla facing them with her back pressed flush up against a tree—almost two hundred yards away. The girl was frozen in shock, and Alex realised why when she saw that Zain’s arrow was embedded into the tree’s trunk at the crease where Skyla’s neck met her shoulder.
“Zain!” Alex hissed incredulously. “You could have killed her!”
The Meyarin snorted. “Please, Alex. Give me some credit.”
Right. He was Meyarin.
But Skyla didn’t know that.
Alex hurried over to the terrified girl with Zain ambling slowly behind her.
“You??
?re all right, Skyla,” Alex assured her classmate, yanking the arrow from the tree and shoving it into Zain’s hands. “You’re not hurt or anything. You’re fine, see?”
Skyla’s frantic eyes jumped from Zain to Alex and back again. “You—You tried to kill me!”
“It was only a warning.” The Meyarin waved away her accusation. “I don’t tolerate eavesdroppers.”
From two hundred yards, Alex doubted a Meyarin would have been able to eavesdrop on their quiet conversation, let alone a human like Skyla. The trembling girl gaped at him but then, to Alex’s astonishment, she averted her gaze.
“I was on my way to SAS and I saw Alex talking with someone,” Skyla said in a small voice. “I was just curious.”
“Curiosity is an admirable trait,” Zain said. “But as you’ve now learned, it’s also dangerous. Take more care in the future, Miss Fay.”
Skyla nodded her agreement and scurried away from them, heading off to class without a backwards glance.
“I’ll be quick,” Zain promised Alex, drawing her reeling thoughts back to him and continuing their earlier discussion. “There’s nothing new to report from the last update. I’m still trailing Aven, mostly focusing my attention on his gifted humans—the ones we know of, anyway. I haven’t discovered any of his plans, and that worries me. I’ve spoken at length with Hunter and we’ve been joining forces, hoping that we’ll get a lead. So far nothing has turned up. I have to wonder if one of Aven’s gifted allies has some kind of disillusioning or protective gift. Every time we get even slightly closer to figuring out what he might be doing, we lose the trail.”
Zain began to pace back and forward, his frustration showing through his tense movements.
“What can I do?” she asked.
“Just continue what you’re already doing,” he answered.
She knew better than to argue with him, since that had never helped her during any of their previous conversations.