The Nightmare Charade (32 page)

Afterward, I rushed out of the psionics classroom, expecting to see Eli waiting for me in the hallway. My heart sank when he wasn't there. I dug my phone out of my back pocket, hurrying off toward Mr. Corvus's classroom.

Where are—
I started to type, then froze as I heard Eli calling for me.

I spun around and saw him coming down the hall from the opposite direction. I frowned, wondering why he was approaching from there, but my curiosity vanished at the broad smile stretching across his face.

“You did it?” I said, my voice breathless with hope.

He answered me with a hug, lifting me off my feet. “Sunday morning,” he said, setting me back down. “Mr. Corvus attends a ten o'clock yoga session every Sunday. You should have a little over an hour to get in and out before he comes back.”

“Yoga?” I said, laughing.

Eli grinned. “Now, now, don't make fun. There's no reason why men can't enjoy that sort of thing.”

“Yeah but most men aren't Mr. Corvus,” I said, imagining our imperialistic teacher in upward-facing dog or horse pose. It painted an amusing picture. Still, most of my humor was an overspill of delight at this news. I reached up and kissed him. “Thank you.”

“What can I say? Anything for you.”

His words heated my whole body, and for a moment, not even Lady Elaine's vision could bring me down.

*   *   *

I texted Paul the news about Corvus the moment we sat down in the cafeteria. It took a while as I had to carefully translate each word into the code.

Corvus will be out of the house on Sunday morning from 10:00 to 11:00. We need to go then. Will the ID be ready?

Paul's answering text came back a few minutes later. It was short and I decoded it quickly:

With any luck.

“What does that mean?” Eli asked, reading over my shoulder.

“No idea.” I blew out a breath. I wanted to ask for more details, but the coding process was arduous, and as before, I doubted I would understand much of the explanation.

“Remind me to give you the moonwort key and a lockpick kit,” Eli said. “You'll need it if Paul manages to pull off his part in time.”

“He has to,” I said. I couldn't bear the thought of waiting another week. Paul had to come through. Everything depended on it.

*   *   *

Friday came and went much like the day before. I checked my phone over and over again for a message from Paul. I hadn't spotted him during biology, and I was starting to worry that he was avoiding me.

But finally, less than an hour before my dream-session with Eli, his text came in.

We're ready.

I could barely contain my excitement, but I did my best to hide it when Lady Elaine arrived. I didn't want her suspicious of my sudden change in attitude. But as we walked along, each step I took felt light and springy, my hope higher than it had been in ages. Just one more day, and then I would finally get to do something to help my mom. And at least a good portion of tomorrow would be taken up by gladiator tryouts.

Lady Elaine and I spoke only briefly on the way to Eli's dorm. There was little to talk about. In the last two days there'd been no news on my mother, other than that the search for her continued. I didn't place any stock in them finding her, not with Bethany having been missing for so long.

There were no new signs in the dream either. Actually, as dreams went, this one was pretty tame. No doppelg
ä
ngers showed up, and the dream was supple enough that I was able to shape the landscape to show us the clearing with the Great Oak. Marrow was there and so was Nimue, but the men with the Borromean brands didn't make an appearance. I was disappointed. If only we had some way of connecting the dreams to Corvus. Then the magickind police would have to search his home. But try as I might it didn't make a difference.

When the dream ended, Eli remained asleep, still under Lady Elaine's spell. I didn't bother asking her to take it off. There wasn't any point with her there. Besides, he had gladiator tryouts in the morning and needed the sleep.

“Good luck, tomorrow,” I whispered to him before leaving. I probably wouldn't see him before tryouts started. He would need to eat breakfast extra early to get there in time for the warm-up. I had plans to catch up on some sleep myself and then to spend some time wearing the shape-change necklace tomorrow. I needed to make sure the difference in size wouldn't screw me up. With the ID, getting through the gate should be easy, but I didn't want to raise suspicions with any weird behavior—like bumping my head on the car door.

Selene was asleep when I got back to the dorm. There was no need to enter a dream-seer journal tonight—I'd given Lady Elaine the rundown on our walk back here—so I turned in as well. But sleep was a long, long time coming for me.

*   *   *

I woke late the next morning. For several seconds I lay there in bed, my mind groggy and blank. I'd been so deeply asleep that coming out of it was like trying to swim through jelly. I turned over, vaguely aware that Selene wasn't in the bed opposite me. That was weird.

Crap, gladiator tryouts.
I glanced at the clock beside my bed, saw it was five minutes to ten, and had a momentary panic attack. I leaped out of bed, grabbed a fresh set of clothes, made a pit stop in the ladies', and then booked it out of the dorm. The campus was as deserted this morning as it had been the night before. It seemed the entire school had turned out for gladiator tryouts. When I arrived at the gymnasium, there was standing room only.

Disappointed, I scanned the bleachers. From down here, I wouldn't be able to see a thing. Then I spotted a single, tiny seat four rows down from the top, close to the aisle. I headed for it, and soon realized the occupants of that row were freshmen.

The one nearest the aisle was a girl clearly here by herself. The sliver of a space next to her was only inches in length, but it might as well have been a mile wide in the way it alienated her from the rest of her classmates. The girl had brown hair, a prominent nose, and round full cheeks. When she saw me coming, her eyes dropped and she seemed to fold in on herself. I could almost hear her thoughts—
please don't talk to me. Please don't notice me. I'm not worth noticing. If you talk to me, I might die of embarrassment.

I sighed, understanding that feeling all too well. I stopped one level below hers. Then summoning the biggest, friendliest smile I possessed, I said, “Hey, do you mind if I sit there?”

The girl visibly paled then gave a single awkward jerk of her head.

“Thanks,” I said, my voice overly bright. “You saved my neck. I overslept this morning.”

“Oh, you're welcome,” she squeaked.

I beamed at her. “Yeah, some of my friends are trying out today and they would've killed me if I didn't get here to see it.”

“Uh-huh. That's great.”
Oh God, please stop talking to me,
her expression said, but perversely this just made me want to talk more. I was close to babbling as I told her about Selene, Lance, and Eli, but I didn't care. I wanted to coax her out of her misery. To my triumph, she finally started to relax a little and talk back.

The tryouts started off with the individual evaluation. When the first contender, Nick Jacobi, finally took the field, the crowd whooped and clapped with anticipation. Nick was an Ira demon, the kind that feeds off rage. He put in a strong performance, blasting his way through a line of senior gladiators to capture the flag set at the top of the tallest structure at the opposite end of the court.

Next up was Oliver Cork, a dryad. He fared less well, getting tagged out two minutes into the round. After him came Jarrod Ackles, Deanna's twin brother. He got tagged out four feet from the flag. I didn't know the next two boys, both of them seniors. Both lasted only a couple of minutes before being taken down.

Then finally, it was Selene's turn. She killed it—almost literally. Like Nick, she'd faced an entire line of senior gladiators. But unlike him, she took down everyone with a quick volley of spells. I screamed and leaped to my feet as she grabbed the flag and hoisted it up. Beside me, my new friend Veronica did the same. And when I moved in for a fist bump, she returned it with enough enthusiasm my knuckles stung afterward.

We sat back down and I anxiously waited for Eli and Lance. Only, some twenty minutes later, the announcer said, “And that does it for the individual rounds. We will now move on to the team portion of our tryouts, featuring two-team capture the flag with a mix of senior and hopeful players.”

“What?” I said, gaping.

“I thought you said you had three friends trying out,” Veronica said.

“I do. There has to be some mistake.” With my worry growing by the second, I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. To my dismay, it was turned off. I switched it on and stared at the screen, certain a text from Eli would appear, some explanation for why he hadn't taken the field for the individual round.

There was no text. No voice mail. No nothing.

Once I accepted this truth, I sent Selene a text—
where are the boys?
I followed it up with a dual text to Eli and Lance—
Where are you two?

Several minutes went by with no reply from anyone. I soon realized why Selene wasn't answering when she came running out onto the game field with four teammates. The match started, and I watched it unfold, my worry for Eli taking a backseat to the more immediate worry for Selene. I wanted her to succeed, but the team they were up against was good—they'd already taken down two challenging teams. Mere minutes into the match, three of Selene's teammates fell in rapid succession, including Nick Jacobi.

The four players on the opposing team—three seniors and one hopeful—started to surround her. They did it slowly, certain of their victory. I half-suspected they were giving her a chance to surrender, not wanting to hurt the only girl.

But once again, Selene proved that underestimating her was a bad idea. The entire audience gave a gasp of surprise as Selene leaped into the air, her two massive black wings expanding out around her. Somehow she'd managed to modify her uniform to allow for her wings to come through.

Culpepper,
I suspected. It seemed maybe she'd borrowed more than a couple of helmets.

With Selene now airborne, the other team didn't stand a chance. She swooped down on her enemies, terrifying them into making mistakes, spells and curses shooting wide as she dodged in between them. Her spells found their mark though, executed with perfect accuracy.

By the time she went for the flag—flying up to it rather than taking the long way over the structures—there were no enemies for her to worry about at all.

The audience erupted into applause when Selene once again held up the flag. She carried it down to the floor, landing gracefully in the middle of the field, her black wings fanned out behind her like billowing royal robes. Then she marched it triumphantly out of the game field, serenaded by the cheering, whooping crowd.

“Wow, she's amazing,” said Veronica.

“Tell me about it,” I replied. Then standing up, I said a quick good-bye and hurried down the stairs to the gym floor. I pushed and elbowed my way through the crowd and dashed into the girl's locker room.

“Selene!” I shouted.

She stopped and spun around. Her face lit up as she saw me.

“Where's Eli and Lance?” I said, racing over to her.

Her triumphant look blurred into confusion. “What do you mean?”

“They didn't compete for the individual round.”

“What?” Selene's eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I'm sure.” I resisted the urge to shake her in my panic. “Have you seen them?”

“No. Not once all day. I've been avoiding them on purpose.”

I exhaled, fighting back fear. “They're not here at all, Selene.”

“Did you try their phones?”

“Both. No answer. Something's wrong.”

She nodded and then started pulling off her gladiator gear, her black wings retreating into her body. “I'm finished with my tryouts. Let's go check their dorm.”

Five minutes later, we were pounding on the door of their dorm room. Ten seconds after that we were busting our way inside. There was no sign of either of them in the living quarters, and Selene and I got in the way of each other as we both attempted to go through the door into the sleeping quarters at the same time. Selene won, heading in first. Her scream of alarm struck me like a knife to the chest. I gasped without knowing why, my terror multiplying.

Then I managed to peer around her. I didn't scream and I didn't faint at the sight before me, although I wanted to do both. Lance was lying in an awkward heap on his bed, as if he'd fallen backward into it. His head was tilted back, almost out of view, but I could see enough to spot the blood seeping slowly out of a gash on his temple.

With my heart fluttering in my chest, I turned my gaze to the other bed. It was empty. Eli wasn't there.

Eli wasn't anywhere.

 

24

Hidden Target

Lance's injury was serious enough that they took him to Vejovis, the magickind hospital. Detective Valentine organized the search efforts for Eli—entire squadrons of police officers, Will Guards, faculty and staff, even students pitching in to comb every known inch of Arkwell.

I wanted to search for him, too, but I was sent to the principal's office for my safety, four armed guards posted outside the door into the conference room. Selene went with Lance to the hospital. I was worried for her, knowing that Lance's father would be there sooner or later. But that worry was nothing compared to what I felt for Eli.

Several hours later there was no sign of him. Deep down, I'd known there wouldn't be. Even before Lady Elaine came to tell me her suspicions, I'd known he'd been taken by the same person who had my mother and Bethany Grey, the same person who had possession of the Death's Heart—a phantom with the ability to come and go as he chose, leaving behind no trace, nothing but the absence of people I cared about.