For a bunch of people who had no problems sending their friend to his fate on the way up the mountain, the crowd was certainly quiet now.
I was furious. I shoved past them all as I ran down the path, leaving them behind.
I made my promise to Logan and I would keep it, no matter what. I’d find a way to get inside the Forest and save him.
My heart ached. He loved me. No one had ever said that to me before. I was determined it wouldn’t be the last time he would say those words.
I was going to need backup—or at least more information on the Forest and Purgatory Mountain. I wasn’t going to be able to just leap in there after him and hope to find a way out.
I made it to the courtyard and began my search for Lacy, knowing I could trust her. I hadn’t seen her at all during the fight with the Watch, and I hadn’t seen her in the mob that had rushed Logan into exile.
I raced into Earth House and went straight up to our room, but she wasn’t there.
Where could she be? I was turning to leave when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.
Lacy emerged from the shadows behind the door, a vacant expression on her face. A thin silver blade gleamed in her hand. “Kill her,” she said, but her voice didn’t match the words. It sounded vacant, and eerie.
“Lacy, let me have the knife,” I said, reaching for the blade that she held in front of her. In her other hand, she held a crystal that was broken and cracked.
“The dragon and the fox will die,” she said, lunging toward me.
I barely dodged her, and she turned to come at me again. I blinked in disbelief when I saw Blake appeared in the doorway. A chill ran through me. I was definitely in deep trouble. I had seen him, following in retreat with the Dark Watch. He was the only reason I hadn't let Logan chase them down as they disengaged from battle. I'd been right all along. He had joined a gang—just not the kind I had expected.
He held a baseball bat in one hand—not at all the weapon I would have chosen to kill someone with. To my stunned disbelief, he swung it, popping Lacy on the back of the head. She sprawled to the floor in a heap.
“Please tell me I didn’t kill her,” he said, looking genuinely worried for someone who had joined a gang of murderers.
“Isn’t that what the Dark Watch does? Kill people?” I asked angrily.
He looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Claire. I didn’t know what I got myself into when I joined up with them. I never would have done it if I’d known you were a shifter.”
“Well, it’s too late now, isn’t it?” I retorted as I dropped to my knees to check on Lacy. A large knot was forming on the back of her head, but she was breathing easily. As her head tipped to the side, I spotted the marks at the base of her neck and knew why she had attacked me.
When she’d saved me in the lake, Victor must have bitten her. Now she was under his control…which meant he was still alive and able to influence her from inside the Forest of Lost Souls. Oddly enough, that realization gave me hope.
"Pick her up," I ordered. Blake hesitated. Anger rushed through me like flames racing toward fresh air. He was part of the reason why Logan had been banished, with his stupid Dark Watch. After all we'd gone through, he'd found himself in a group that would love to see me dead possibly more than anyone else, if they knew what I truly was. Maybe Hadley was right, and the apple really didn't fall far from the tree. I still couldn't make myself believe that. I narrowed my eyes at him. "You owe me. If you were ever even a piece of the brother I thought you were, if you ever really loved me at all, you will pick her up and do anything—anything—to make this right."
He did as I said and scooped Lacy up. “What are we going to do with her?” he asked.
“We’re taking her to Hadley.”
“Shouldn’t we be taking her to the headmistress? Won’t she want to know that she broke a crystal and threatened you with a knife?”
“We’re taking her to Hadley,” I growled. “I’ve already lost all the people I’m going to lose today. We have to hurry if we’re going to get out of here and not be seen.”
“Okay, okay,” he mumbled as he carried Lacy out the door.
I picked up the broken crystal and put it in my pocket.
Hadley was going to love seeing me again so soon.
We managed to sneak out of the house to the front yard without being seen, then we crept down the long driveway that led to the main road. I flagged down a taxi, and we got in. I cradled Lacy’s head in my lap and gave the driver the address to Salem, noticing he was the same driver we’d had earlier.
Odd, I thought.
“What’s wrong with that one?” he asked, gesturing to Lacy.
“Partied too much,” Blake lied easily. “We’re taking her home.”
“Humph,” came the reply as he put the car into gear.
We rode in silence for a long while. Questions were piling up in my head, and when I couldn’t hold them all in anymore, I reached up and pulled the glass shut between us and the driver, praying it would muffle our conversation. Then the questions spilled out.
“When you told me we’d leave soon and be somewhere safe, you meant we were going to join up with the Dark Watch, didn’t you?” I couldn’t help my accusatory tone.
“Yeah.”
“What changed your mind?”
“You did.”
“You’ve lost me.”
“I didn’t know you were a shifter,” he explained. “After you went to class, I met back up with them. I knew the Watch was planning another attack tonight. They got me into Imperium so they’d have a set of eyes on the inside. I was supposed to observe and report back. That’s all, I swear. But when I went back, they had new instructions. They were attacking a specific house this time—one of the houses for the scholarship kids.”
“Earth House.”
He nodded. “The instructions were to kill everyone inside. I argued and told them that my sister was in there, but they said no one was to make it out—that the only kids in those houses were shifters and they all had to die. That’s when I knew I was playing for the wrong team. I agreed to their orders, but only so I could try to get back there and get you out.” He frowned. “They attacked while I was still at the camp. They didn’t wait for me to go with them. By the time I made it, the fight was already in full swing. I had to retreat with them to save face and just made it back to find Lacy trying to kill you.”
“That’s not who she is,” I said, taking her side. “Lacy saved me before. She was bitten by a water serpent, and now she’s under his spell.”
Lacy’s eyelids fluttered, maybe in response to hearing her name over and over as while we argued. “Claire? Where are we?” she asked. “Why does my head hurt so much?”
“We’re on our way to get you fixed up. You had a bit of an accident, but you’ll be fine.” I wasn’t about to tell her that she was a mess from the back of her head being in contact with a baseball bat and her neck being the victim of fangs.
“Okay,” she mumbled, then drifted back off.
“Imperium isn’t what I thought it would be,” Blake said, looking at the mermaid in my lap.
“I can understand that.” It wasn’t what I’d thought it would be either. I’d went there hoping to find a place I belonged. And I’d found that—with Logan.
I looked down at Lacy. And I’d found friends who were like me in more ways than one. Friends who were faithful—when they weren’t trying to kill me.
“So why did the Watch target Earth House?”
Blake shook his head. “I don’t know. Only a handful do, and they never say. All the orders come from higher up the food chain. The only thing we are told is where we’re going and what we’ll do. There is a certain type of shifter they want to eliminate, though. Something in Earth House. After each attack, they take note of what kind of shifters were fighting…which ones were hurt…or killed.” He paused. “I never should have gotten involved with them.”
I didn’t have to ask why he did, because I already knew. Escape. His reason was the same one that drove me to come to Imperium.
But now, the words were pouring out of him.
“Dad was the reason I joined with them initially, though it was only to get away from him at the time. He was always raving when he was drunk about ‘the ones with magic’ who could kill you if you didn’t watch out. I never really believed him until the Dark Watch approached me about joining. Now I wonder if he wasn’t one of them at some point.” He stopped for breath, his gaze locked on me. “But they are both wrong. There is nothing wrong or evil about you, Claire. I’m wondering if they haven’t been lying about everything all along.”
“So now that you know the truth, will you go or stay?” I asked.
“I’ll stay, I guess, so long as the Watch doesn’t figure out that I’ve changed sides and if the headmistress doesn’t find out that I used to be the enemy. After all, who else is going to look after you?”
Lacy must have heard his voice, because a small smile painted her lips. Ever the mermaid, she whispered in a haunting, musical voice, “Welcome to Shifter’s University.”
Blake snorted. “Thanks…I think.”