Runaway Mortal (19 page)

Misha was tipping back and forth on her chair, chewing on gum, and looking incredibly bored. As usual, Anna was the only one actually studying. She lifted her head to shoot Misha a look of disapproval, but caught sight of me instead.

“Hi, Kat.” She waved me over, closing her textbook and pushing it away from her. “How are you feeling?”

“Loire said Junas fixed me up,” I said, taking a seat. “What about you guys?”

“We weren’t hurt as bad as you were. Uncle Troy made us go to class,” Misha said, scowling at that.

“Oh, he came to see me?” I asked.

Anna nodded. “Yes, Healer Junas put you to sleep, and the headmaster came by to check in on us. We told him everything that happened.”

“What did he say?” I asked.

“He said that he’d find out who was doing this,” Misha said, a gleam in her eye. “But-“

“Anyway, I have some news,” I said, cutting to the chase. “Actually, a lot of news.”

Misha immediately perked up, sitting up straighter in her chair and leaning forward with large eyes. “Oh, do tell. I’m getting sick of Anna reciting dates from the demon invasions.”

Anna looked annoyed and swatted at Misha. “Hey! It’s important to know when these things happened, especially the battles of Heaven. It’s going to be in our exam.”

“Yeah, yeah. The Battle of the Gates was in 1077, the Battle of the Arches was in 1252. Like I could care less about this stuff.”

“The Battle of the Arches was in 1652,” Anna corrected with a roll of her eyes. “I only repeated it, like, ten times.”

Misha shrugged a shoulder, like it didn’t bother her either way. “I was close.”

“You were 400 years off!” Anna protested.

Misha didn’t seem concerned by this. She turned her attention back on me. “See what I mean? She’s insane.”

“Take no note of her,” Anna interjected. “Tell us your news, Kat.”

I exhaled. “I told Loire everything.”

Anna gasped and clamped a hand over her mouth. “You told Loire? Why? What if he tells the headmaster?”

Misha gave me a knowing look which made me avert my gaze. “Oh, isn’t it obvious why she told him? Kat has a thing for him.”

My face felt hot all of a sudden from Misha’s blatancy.

“True.” Anna nodded thoughtfully. “They couldn’t take their eyes off each other at prom. He is very good looking.”

Awkward. So very awkward. Then I remembered that Loire had been a douchebag, and my embarrassment quickly faded into anger. Ugly anger—where I was probably red in the face and looked a little crazy.

“Yeah, well, he can take his good looks and shove it.” I was fuming again.

“What the hell did he do?” Misha asked, jumping into defensive mode.

I took a deep breath and then relayed the events that had unfolded in my room a couple of hours ago. Misha and Anna stared at me, identical looks of disbelief on their faces as I finished speaking.

“Whoa,” Misha said, shaking her head, “talk about a plot twist. Loire’s had the Mortal Blade this entire time? That just blows my mind.”

“It is crazy.” Anna’s beautiful face fell silent and she looked worried all of a sudden. “But if he won’t give it to Kat then that’s a huge obstacle we need to overcome and I have no idea how.”

“Yeah, neither do I.” I sighed, pushing my hair off my face as I glanced around at the shelves that surrounded us. “I guess I could talk to him and try to convince him.”

“It’s worth a try,” Anna said, nodding. “I hope he can see where you’re coming from. I mean, you’re only going to borrow it, right?”

“Yes, of course,” I said, but I wasn’t so sure if I really meant that. “And all this time I thought I was attracted to him, it was just me being drawn to the Mortal Blade.”

“You really believe that?” Misha snorted, shaking her head in disbelief.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, not liking the way she exchanged a quick look with Anna.

“Nothing,” Misha said, shooting me an annoying smile. “Anyway, I have some news of my own to distract us with.” There was a huge grin spreading across her face. “I figured out who’s been attacking you, Kat.”

Chapter Nineteen

Of all the things that I was expecting Misha to say, this was not it. I loved Misha to death, but apart from being boy-crazy and kind of the school floozy, she didn’t focus her energy into much else.

I could tell she was extremely proud of herself—her smile was practically stretching from ear to ear—her statement hung in the air as she clearly tried to build suspense. She was such a drama queen.

“WHO?” Anna and I demanded at the same time, when we couldn’t take the waiting any longer.

“Don’t you want to know how I figured it out?” Misha asked, looking annoyed.

“I can tell you’re dying to tell us, so spill,” Anna said with an amused smile.

Misha didn’t need further prompting. She quickly dived into the grand story of how she figured out the identity of my attacker. “Well, experiencing the attack first hand, I realized that the rocks weren’t actually attacking you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So, they were trying to hug me instead?”

Misha turned red and huffed. “No, I’m saying that they were being ordered to attack you. Someone was pulling those rocks from around us and propelling them onto you.”

“Yes, Misha, that’s pretty clear,” Anna mused. “It was someone very powerful.”

“Not necessarily,” Misha continued. “Sometimes when a person is feeling an extreme emotion, like anger, their power can be amplified. Someone with an earth power was attacking Kat which was why my power wasn’t working well against it.” Misha was talking like she was a professor—it was hilarious.

I was trying to process everything she was saying, but that kind of power was beyond me. Mortals just weren’t capable of harnessing such raw energy like that.

“So, this was obviously a demon attack,” I said, stating the obvious.

“Yeah, and I know which demon it was too,” Misha said, her voice becoming sing-song. “Who knows an erat demon with a grudge against Kat?”

It was so simple that it was amazing we hadn’t figured it out already.

Anna’s mouth dropped open. “Cedee?”

“Yes!” Misha exclaimed, slamming her hand down on the table and making us jump. “Look at all the facts. She’s an erat demon and hates Kat’s guts because she’s Talon’s ex. Plus, she tried to attack since the day she came. It all adds up.”

“It does make sense.” Anna shifted beside me. “We should tell your uncle what you know.”

“Now, where’s the fun in that?” Misha said with a mischievous smile. “Don’t you worry about Cedee; I will take care of her.” There was a dark look in her eyes and I feared for Cedee, wherever she was.

It seemed like Cedee had taken Loire’s comment—to attack me in a dark corridor—to heart. I should’ve known that only someone as pathetic as Cedee would be so driven by her jealousy over a boy that she’d try and kill me over it. She was on the top of my shit list right now. Bitch was going to pay.

“Yeah, she needs to be taken care of,” I muttered darkly.

“There’s no time like the present,” Misha said suddenly, jumping to her feet.

“To do what?” Anna asked, staring up at her.

“To put that puny coward in her place.”

“What are you going to do exactly?” The way disapproval filled Anna’s tone, I knew she was about to lecture Misha on retribution and all that jazz.

“Oh, nothing.” Misha shot me an innocent smile. “Just
talk
.”

I knew right away that this was not her intention, but right now I didn’t really care. I was so wound up over Cedee and what she’d done to me that it didn’t bother me what Misha did. If Misha was right, and Cedee had been the one attacking me, I wanted payback.

“Okay, let’s go and see if she’s in her room,” I suggested. “We can talk to her about it.”

“Are you sure you’re going to just talk?” Anna asked, her voice laced with suspicion.

I nodded. “Anna, I’m not going to hurt her.”
Much.

Misha seemed enthusiastic that I was on board with her plan, and grabbed me by the arm as we hurried out of the library.

“Her room is 112 in the demon dorms,” she informed me as we stepped out into the cold. “I looked at the student records in the Admin office.” She said this in an off-hand tone, like she did this every other day.

Honestly, Misha thought of everything. She may have seemed aloof and reckless sometimes, but when she got an idea in her head, she was thorough about it.

There was a light layer of snow covering the ground as we stalked across it, the imprints of our boots revealing the dead grass underneath. The trees, except for the evergreens, were dry and bare; their branches looked like gnarled and twisted hands. I missed the leaves in autumn; their colors had been warm and cheerful. Now they were just dead and depressing.

“There’s her room.” Misha pointed to a door to the right.

“What about her roommate?” I asked as we approached Room 112.

“Don’t worry about that. Her roommate was Julianna Lawrence. She moved to Europe.”

I had no idea who that was. There were too many demons at the school to remember them all by name.

Misha knocked on the door twice and then moved out of sight of the peephole. I guess Cedee wasn’t a very paranoid person because she opened up the door very quickly.

“You weren’t gone-” she started to say, but faltered when she saw Misha and me. “What do you want?” There was an edge to her voice, but a wane in her words that made it clear she was worried. She had definitely not been expecting this.

“It’s so nice to see you too, Cadence,” Misha said, her tone pleasant. “Why, we would love to come in. Thank you for inviting us.”

There was a look of horror across Cedee’s face as Misha and I pushed into her room. I shut the door behind us and stood by it, watching as Misha slowly approached Cedee, who was backing away from her.

“What do you want?” Cedee demanded, her eyes darting left and right in panic. “You can’t be in here!”

Misha lifted up her hand and a ball of electricity appeared in the air, levitating a few inches above her palm. She bounced it up and down nonchalantly, completely ignoring Cedee’s protests.

“The funny thing about being an erat is that you have to be surrounded by your element in order to use it. For instance, this room,” Misha said, gesturing around the room, “would be completely useless for an erat because there’s nothing to channel their power from. Did you know that?” The electric ball hovered a little closer to Cedee.

Cedee eyes were wide as she gaped at her like a goldfish, not taking her eyes off the electric ball which was slowly drawing closer to her.

“How silly of me,” Misha giggled to herself. “Of course you know that, considering your element is earth, right?”

Cedee’s face froze and she didn’t respond. Fear was etched deep into her features, and I felt a sudden rush of satisfaction that she was getting her comeuppance.

“The great thing about being an ectra,” Misha continued, “is that we don’t have limitations like that. My powers work just as well indoors as they do outside, as you can see.”

The bulb of the bedside lamp suddenly burst, and Cedee shrieked. “What do you want? Why are you doing this?”

“I think we all know why I’m doing this.” Misha gave her a cool smile. “I believe you have something to confess.”

I had never seen this side of Misha before. She was so cold and calculating. It sent shivers up my spine just watching her. I guess this was her true demonic side coming out. She was a natural at this.

“Y-you can’t bully me into admitting anything,” Cedee said stubbornly. I had to admire her for that. I wouldn’t have dared challenge Misha who clearly had the upper hand. “You’re going to get into a lot of trouble for this.”

“Am I?” Misha sounded amused. “I’m sure Headmaster Delware wouldn’t be too hard on me. I am, after all, his only niece.” She fluttered her eyelashes innocently, and the electric ball flew away from her and straight towards Cedee’s face.

Cedee screamed and pressed her eyes together, not realizing that the electric ball had stopped inches from her face. I breathed in amazement. Misha’s control of her powers was unbelievable.

“I haven’t done anything!” Cedee cried, cowering behind her hands. “I don’t know what you want me to say?”

“You attacked me!” Anger boiled within me, and I stepped forward, fists clenched. “You attacked Anna and Misha, too! We could’ve died!”

“You’re crazy! I didn’t do that!” Cedee peeked from her behind her hands and lowered them slowly. “But at least you’d stop distracting Talon if you were dead.”

“I know you did this!” I was in her face now, pointing at her. “You did this because of Talon! Is this a joke to you?”

Cedee’s eyes filled with cold fury. “Haha, yes this is all a big joke. My feelings for Talon are a joke.”

She was really starting to get on my nerves. I sighed and took a step back, trying to calm myself down. “I don’t get why you act like Talon is some amazing guy. He definitely isn’t. He’s not perfect and if he doesn’t care about you then you shouldn’t give him the time of day. Find someone who’s actually into you.”

Cedee let out a maniacal laugh that raised goose bumps on my arms. “That’s easy for you to say; you’re the one he wants!”

She suddenly lunged at me and I fell back against the floor, my head hitting the carpet with a dull thud. Cedee was hitting me like a wild animal that had been set loose, and it took me a few seconds to realize that a demon was getting the better of me.

A demon was beating my ass in hand-to-hand combat.

With that in mind, I brought up a knee and socked her in the gut. She groaned and rolled off me, clutching her stomach as she tried to get up. I jumped to my feet, ignoring the throbbing in my head, and swung my leg in a low roundhouse kick, which sent her sprawling to the side.

Misha rushed to my side, her electric ball following her, and sent it hurtling towards Cedee. Cedee let out a shriek as her hair literally blew up into an afro. It was the funniest thing I’d ever seen.

Misha tried to stifle a laugh. “I hope you enjoyed a taste of your own medicine. Lucky for you, we’re not evil like you. We’re not going to try to kill you.”

“I didn’t try to kill anyone!” Cedee spat, breathing hard. Her hair had some serious frizz going on right now, so it was hard to take her seriously.

“Yeah, yeah,” Misha said rolling her eyes. “Just stay the hell away from Kat. Do you understand?”

I pulled Misha aside. “Are you sure she‘s the one behind it? She keeps saying no.”

Misha waved a hand at me. “Don’t worry. She’s just lying to you. Who else would try to hurt you? No one. She’s the only one who has reason to-”

The door burst open and we all jumped back, startled. Talon was standing in the doorway, his face showing surprise as his eyes fell on us. We were probably a bizarre sight to see.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded, stepping inside and surveying the scene in front of him.

“Oh, thank Satan you came, baby!” Cedee exclaimed, immediately bursting into a fit of sobs. “They’ve been torturing me.” She scrambled to her feet and ran into Talon’s arms.

Oh, my God, she was such a drama queen. How Talon put up with her was beyond me. I couldn’t stand her whiny voice for more than a second before wanting to stuff her mouth with dirty socks.

Talon stared at Misha and me, bewildered. “Is this true? You’ve been
torturing
her?” He said the word as if he didn’t quite believe it himself.

“Hell no,” I said immediately. “We’re not like her.”

“What happened to your hair?” he asked, looking back at Cedee. “It smells like burnt rubber.”

“I gave her a perm,” Misha said smoothly. “She needed an exciting change.”

Talon stared at her, dumb-founded. “You electrocuted her? You used your powers on her?” His face was slowly turning red and he looked livid.

“I didn’t hurt her.” Misha rolled her eyes. “Relax a bit.”

He turned to me, seething with rage. “I can’t believe you let this happen, Kat!”

“You don’t know what Cedee’s been doing,” I said, annoyed that he was jumping to her defense and taking her word over mine. “She’s not so innocent.”

“I told you I didn’t do anything!” Cedee shrieked, her high-pitched tone reaching banshee level. “Are you guys stupid or something?”

Disbelief clouded Talon’s eyes and his mouth formed a tight line. “Get out now, both of you!”

Misha grabbed my hand and started to pull me out of the room, but I stopped walking as I reached Talon. I was beyond angry. I couldn’t believe that, once again, Talon didn’t have my back. I couldn’t believe how selfish he was.

“Did you ever care about me?” I demanded.

Misha tugged on my arm. “Kat, let it go.”

“No! I’m not going to let it go.” I pulled away from her and shoved Talon. “Did you ever give a damn about me, Talon?”

His eyes darted over to Cedee who looked like she wanted to stab me. “Why are you asking me this right now?”

“Because I want to know!” I reached out to shove him again, but he grabbed my hands. “After what you said the other day, I don’t know if I should believe you or not! Once again, you’re choosing a side that’s not mine.”