Spearwood Academy Volume Five (4 page)

I
step over the glass and pick up the stones. I’ve probably cut my feet. I don’t care. My body vibrates as if I’m floating on air. The life I could’ve had plays on repeat in my mind. I want that life, and, now, I’ll never have it.

‘Be careful. There’s an opening into another part of the cave coming up. I wouldn’t doubt that the next test will be physical again.’

‘Okay.’’

‘You need to focus. I don’t know what just happened to you back there, but you look like a zombie. Don’t let it get to you; that’s what they want.’

‘Okay.’

Walk through the opening of the cave. A light blue dragon lies at the center of it. My breath catches in my throat. I would recognize him anywhere.
‘Edgar.’

‘
Don’t react to him. They’ll know.’

‘He’s not dead?’

Dragon Edgar stirs and opens his eyes, milky white covers the iris. My hand goes to my mouth. He can’t see. What have they done to him? Has he been down here since they told me he was dead?

He stands and inhales deeply. He can smell me. I jump when he roars and a frost flame erupts from his mouth. Behind him, a green glint catches my eye: the final jewel. I just have to get that, and I’m out of here. Maybe I’ll be able to free him somehow.

I need to shift, so I can communicate with him. I grunt as the shift takes place. Another roar bursts from Edgar. He breathes another frost flame at me, just as the shift ends. I leap into the air to dodge it.

‘Ed, it’s me; stop trying to fight me.’

‘No! Avalon’s dead! Yau playin’ tricks!’

‘No, it’s really me. I don’t know what they’ve done to you, but I’m going to find a way to save you. I just need to take the jewel, and I bet it will transport me out of here. If you shift back, I can take you with me.’

His tail thrashes from side to side, smashing rocks in its wake.
‘No! Must protect the jewel!’

They’ve made him go crazy. He throws yet another frost flames, this time catching my leg and freezing half of it in an ice block. At least it’s not my newly repaired wing.

I’m still able to fly. I go past him for the jewel. I’m not going to hurt him. He jumps up, nearly scraping his sharp teeth against the unprotected flesh of my underbelly.

I shoot a frost flame at his snout. It won’t kill him, but it will make him distracted long enough for me to grab the jewel. He thrashes as he tries to break the ice on a rock, but I have the gem in my shifted hand before he can be successful.
‘I’ll come back for you, Ed. I promise!’
I yell into his mind before I’m transported away. They wanted me to react to him, or to kill him, and I didn’t give them the satisfaction of either.

I shield my eyes from the assault of white light. I blink when I realize I’ve shifted back into my human form. I didn’t do it, something forced me back.

“Congratulations, Miss Roseman. You have made it to the last challenge,” says Perlow.

Next to him stands a small, white table with a velvet pillow and crown on top of it.

“Please, bring your jewels to me.” I step up to him and drop the jewels into his hand. I’m surprised I didn’t lose any of them.

He picks up the crown and places each of the gems in their own holder before reaching into his suit pocket and pulling out a white diamond, placing it at the center.

“Do you know what this is?”

I shake my head.

“It was last used when our family of shifters were able to bear healthy females. It helped with arranging marriages. You see, when this crown is placed on someone from our bloodlines, it instantly will determine whether the person is strong enough to carry on the bloodline. If they are not, they will fall over dead. It was a good way to weed out the weak long ago.”

“So, you want me to put that on my head, so you all know once and for all if I’m worthy of all of this.”

He nods.

I grab the crown from him. If I’m going to die, then I will die. I lay it on my head and wait. I lift an eyebrow at him. “Are they happy now?”

He grins at me. “Yes.”

“Good. Let me out of here.”

He takes the crown from me and places it on the pillow. “There’s one more thing I must do.”

Before I can react, he snaps the golden cuffs back on my wrists.

“I finished the damn trail. What the hell.”

“As added punishment for killing a Royal, you must stay under house arrest for one more month. During this time, you will not be allowed to use magic or be violent in any way. You may go to your classes and then back to your dorm, nowhere else. Mr. Norse will continue to be your chaperone during this time.”

He sounds so robotic. I want to hit him, but I remember what happened when they first put these on me, I was paralyzed from the neck down until they released the magic.

Fuck it all.

‘
I’ll get you out of this. There has to be a way to deactivate those cuffs.’

‘There better be.’

I
want to murder someone. For the third day in a row, Jericho has followed me from class to class and everywhere I go. He still sleeps the living room. This probation period is so stupid. I proved myself. Why are they having Sir Pointed Face follow me around? Can’t Enid do that?

It doesn’t help that his voice grates on my nerves and that my skin crawls when he looks at me, like his eyes are undressing me. He did see me naked back at the Orchard, and that makes it all that much worse.

I don’t want to be alone with him, but I don’t have much of a choice. I haven’t seen Bullock since before the challenge. The last thing he said in my mind was how he planned to deactivate my cuffs so that I could use my powers again. I’ve tried talking to him through thought, but I haven’t be able to. I don’t know what’s happened to him. We don’t share any classes, and his tutoring sessions were removed from my schedule. I hope he’s okay and not hurt somewhere. It’s not as if I can escape and try to find him.

I stop in my tracks. Perhaps, I can escape. I can use the passage in my room to go look for him. I could get lost though. I only know of the passage that leads to Paden’s quarters, and from what it sounds like, a maze resides in the walls of this school. I would need a
Marauder’s Map
just to start navigating it. Maybe Bullock has something like that.

‘Bullock’
I venture for the 100
th
time in 48 hours. Nothing comes through.

Jericho puts hand on my lower back, and I jolt upright, out of his touch. I swear he does that on purpose because he figured out I don’t want to be touched by him. “Get a move on, Roseman.”

I walk again, pressing my arms to my sides; I’d reach back and punch him square in his pointed face, but I rather not have my body locked up again by the cuffs.

“At least I get a view to look at,” he mumbles on his breath.

My spine goes more ridged. Just passing the recreational rooms now, we aren’t too far from the dorms. My eyes dart around the room, I wish there was someone here. I would grab them and drag them to my dorm to hang out. Everything in my gut tells me I should not be going back to my dorm with him right now. I go to the game room door. Maybe I can find someone in there.

“Na-ah, Roseman, your recreational privileges have been revoked. Remember, no having fun while you’re on my watch.”

I try the door, but it doesn’t budge, probably because he still has Enid in his possession. He pushes me ahead of him again. I stumble, but manage to catch my footing; I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me fall. I send a death glare back at him. He would be six feet under right now if my stare alone had power. He grins at me.

We make it back to the dorm. My heart hammers in my chest, and my stomach turns. Something bad will happen at any second. He opens the door and lets me in. I hurry across the living room to my bedroom. If I can just get in there, I’ll have the alarm to protect me.

I place my hand on the doorknob. His hand goes around my wrist and pulls me away. I stumble at his strength. “Come watch a movie with me, Roseman. I’ve been wanting to watch one with you all day.”

I try to pull out of his death grip. “Yeah right, you want nothing to do with me on a normal basis.”

“I do now.” He throws me to the couch. I land on my back.

I try to roll off the edge to get away, but he pins my arms above my head. This can’t be happening. No, I won’t accept this. I kick my legs, making contact with his stomach. He grunts as I knock the air out of him, but he doesn’t move away.

The magic of the cuffs moves down my arms and throughout of my body, paralyzing me from the neck down. “I’m trying to fucking defend myself!” I yell to the Watchers as if they can reverse the magic.

“You’re a pretty little thing.” He shifts a single, solid-black talon and moves it down the center of my white polo, making the fabric fall way and revealing my plain sports bra. My cheeks flush with heat. How dare he!

“I will kill you!” I growl.

“You can’t even move.” His fingers ghost over my stomach, moving to my skirt. Hot tears prick the corners of my eyes. I swallow hard. I have to figure out a way to stop this from going further. My heart
thuds
in my chest as his claw tears the hem.

Bam!
The door to the dorm splinters as it slams into the wall. Jericho stops cutting my skirt and looks up just as someone rams into him, toppling the couch and sending me to the floor.

My eyes widen. Lusk? He picks Jericho up and smashes his head into the floor before landing his fist on the side of his face. Blood spurts across his white button up as he punches the other side. “Sick.” Another ram of Jericho’s head into the floor. “Fucking.” He breaks one of his fingers. Jericho screams. “Bastard!”

The hurried footsteps of more people enter the room. There’s at least two of them. One moves to get Lusk off Jericho’s unconscious body and another undoes the magic of my cuffs, allowing me to move again. I stand and pull my shirt close. Perlow stands in front of me, and Dr. Quinn comes to stand next to him, a wrestling Lusk in his arms. “Let me go, I’m not finished with him yet!” He screams.

“Yes you are, Mr. Mirren,” Perlow says. “What happened here? Your’ P.A. alerted us that something was wrong and you were in need of assistance.”

“He was trying to rape me. He knew I couldn’t fight back because of these damn things.” I hold up my wrists.

“I apologize for that, Miss Roseman. Mr. Norse will be removed as your guard. I will let your father know about this. For now, your P.A. will serve as your tracker.”

I want to ask him why that wasn’t done in the first place, but I keep my mouth shut. I know he has a cover to protect. “Thank you.” I glance at Lusk and then back to Perlow, hoping he sees the unspoken question in my eyes on whether or not Lusk is brainwashed as well. He gives a nod of his head.

“Make sure daddy makes the bastard suffer.”

“I will be sure to pass that message along.”

“What should we do about him?” Dr. Quinn asks.

“Leave him. He helped me,” I say, hoping my fake pull as Roseman
daughter
will work even though they both know I’m not truly warped.

Dr. Quinn looks at Perlow, who gives a nod. Lusk pulls away from him and fixes his shirt.

Perlow gives a clap of his hands, and two servants come into the room. “Pick him up and take him to the dungeons. I’ll deal with him later. Do you required medical attention, Miss Roseman?”

I shake my head and cross my arms tighter around my middle. “Okay. Then I will be here if you need me.”

Dr. Quinn and Perlow leave, following the servants who drag Jericho along the floor, not at all caring about whether or not his head hits the doorframe on the way out. I give a small grin. I hope he felt that down in his bones.

Lusk turns to go, but I grab his arm, stopping him. He faces me. “Thank you,” I say. He gives a nod of his head and tries to go again. “Wait.” He stops.

“Why did you save me? I thought you hated me?”

He faces me again. “I don’t like you, but I wouldn’t want anyone to go through that. You’re P.A. alerted me to what was happening. Since I was the closest person, I came here first.”

“I’m sorry . . . for what I’ve done to you in the past.”

“The past is the past. Nothing can change that now.”

“Do you want to stay here? I don’t want to be alone.”

He frowns. “I don’t know who you think I am, but I don’t want to be another of one your flavors of the week.”

I bite my lip to force down the tears that threaten to spill again. He truly is one of the brainwashed. “I’m not that kind of girl. I swear. I’ve never done anything past kissing.”

“Sorry. I need to go. Get Mathis to come over and spend time with you before dinner.”

I swallow hard and nod my head. “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

He leaves now, and I run for my room, closing the door behind me.