Page 30 of A Curse So Cruel (Fated Mates of Shadowbone Academy #1)
Chapter Nineteen
~ Shade ~
A fter dinner, Kenzie walks me to our dorm before leaving to use the showers. I watch her as she goes, annoyed at myself. I was supposed to beg her to show me to Galen’s rooms. To search for my portal ring, but I don’t have the energy for that right now.
Instead, I drag myself into our room and eye the beg longingly. I could easily fall onto the mattress and fall asleep instantly, but then I remember the dreamcrawler. I cringe as I picture my eight-legged visitor from the night before. Yeah, I’m not ready for that guy just yet.
Turning from my bed, I decide to grab out my sketchbook. Perching in the window alcove, I stuff a cushion behind my back and get comfortable. Moonlight streams through the window, and I squeeze my eyes shut, leaning back as I try to forget what a day I just had.
It’s all good. It can only get better from here on, right? At least, that’s what college romance books have taught me. The new girl usually always has a shitty first day, but things improve soon after that, don’t they?
I groan. What was I thinking by coming here? My mind goes to the tattoo on my back. I’m no closer to learning who I am, and I’m seriously starting to question my ability to survive this place.
Opening my sketchbook, I flip to a blank page and mull over what I should draw.
I think about keeping it simple and sketching my academy ring to commemorate my first full day at Shadowbone, but tingles race along my skin.
The sensation that someone is watching me has my gaze lifting from the page and swiping across the room.
No one’s there. Of course, someone could be cloaked and I wouldn’t really know, but I don’t feel like that’s it.
Turning my head, I peer out the window, and that’s when I spot him.
Bonfang stands at the edge of the forest, the giant wolf looking as regal and menacing as ever.
His piercing red eyes are fixated on me, and shafts of moonlight glint off his dark fur.
For a long while, we simply stare at one another, and then I grip my pencil, letting it glide over the page.
Bonfang stays there while I draw him, the giant wolf sitting amongst the trees. I’m so engrossed in the task that I don’t even notice Kenzie enter our dorm room.
“Wow, you’re so good at that,” she murmurs appreciatively, making me jump.
I blink up at her as she flicks her wet hair over her shoulder. “Don’t stop because of me. That’s Bonfang, right?”
My cheeks burn, and I peer through the window again, only to find the giant wolf is no longer there.
“Yeah, thanks. It’s not that good,” I murmur, turning back to her and closing my sketchbook.
She drops onto her bed. “Better than what I could draw.”
Leaning down, I tuck the sketchbook back under the cushions, and then I remember that bringing items from the human realm is against the rules. “Wait. You’re not going to ask me how I have this?”
“Should I?” She grins. “Shade, I saw Professor Thane carry you today with your ass near his face. When it comes to you, nothing is starting to surprise me anymore.”
“You know what,” I say, swinging my legs down to the floor, “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“You should,” she replies, her expression softening. “It’s…nice having you here.”
“I think the word you were looking for is ‘entertaining’,” I correct.
“How about we go with ‘fun’.” She smiles, but it falls away quickly. “I mean, after Leira…” her words die off, sadness taking over expression like she hadn’t meant to say Leira’s name, but now that it has slipped out she doesn’t know what to do.
“Have there been any more missing students?” I ask gently, because I’d momentarily forgotten students have been getting kidnapped. At the thought, my gut twists.
“Not that I know of,” she replies simply.
I don’t know what to say then. It’s great that no more students have gone missing, but it doesn’t change the fact that Leira is gone. I think about my portal stone, the dreamcrawler, and this place, and another thought comes to me.
“Hey Kenzie?”
“Yeah?”
“You know the stone that they use when they wipe a students’ memory?”
“Mhmm.”
I frown, not sure why I hadn’t asked this before. “Do you think it can give memories back, too?”
She stares at me for a long moment. “I have no idea.”