Page 15 of A Curse So Cruel

No one answers, and I’m distracted when the others start to move, Knox and Thane entering the academy. Raith and Galen wait for me to go first, and I’m not sure if they’re beinggentlemanly or simply making sure I don’t try to run. Not that there’s anywhere I can go.

Stepping up a short flight of stairs, I enter a long, narrow corridor that's dimly lit with torches lining the walls. Shadows dance on the patterned filigree wallpaper, and my heart lurches when I make out two small creatures grinning back at me. I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping they’ll be gone when I open my eyes again, but the figures are still there, grinning like they’re excited to see me. It’s creepy as hell.Great. So it wasn’t my imagination.I walk after Thane and Knox trying to ignore them.

“Oooh, look what we have here, Tarlaz,”a husky, feminine voice scrapes against my mind, the last word echoing over and over.“Seems like we have a late enrollment, and they brought her through the back door. Naughty naughty.”

I whip around expecting to see someone else has entered the corridor, but there’s only me and the four guys.What the hell?

“Hmmm, a bit tiny, isn’t she? Don’t get too excited, Elgyn. She won’t last long, this one,”another voice answers, deeper and more masculine, but with that same echo hanging on the words.

“Did you hear that?” I’m not speaking to anyone in particular, but it’s Galen who I end up staring at for answers. He gives me a puzzled look.

“She is pretty, though. Mmm yes, she’ll make a nice snack for one of the dark beings.”The feminine voice cackles wickedly in my head.“They won’t kill her quickly. Not with those pouty lips.”

A chill slips down my back.

“You’ve underestimated new students before. You’re just jealous of her,”the masculine voice accuses.

“Jealous? I won’t be jealous when they’re tearing her limb from limb, shoving their mangled?—”

I can’t take anymore. I clap my hands over my ears like I can keep the chatter out. “Nope! Absolutely do not want to hearthat!” I blurt, because I’m not in the mood to hear about a mangled…anything,right now. Especially not when I’m pretty sure someone is having a conversation about me, and I’m already freaked out enough as it is.

The shadows on the wall make comical surprised faces, their mouths forming exaggerated ‘O’ shapes like characters from a puppet show.

The guys all stop at the same time that I do. Thane and Raith look bewildered, and Galen looks amused.

Knox glares at me. “What the fuck are you talking about? We weren’t speaking, and even if we were, you keep your mouth shut.”

I stare back at him, my eyes wide with confusion.

“Tarlaz, you don’t think she heard us…do you?”The feminine voice says tentatively in my head. At the same time, I notice one of the shadows move, facing the other shadow like she was speaking to him.

“Ha!” I say, my finger snapping up to point at the shadows. “It was you!” I give the guys my best unimpressed expression and plant a hand on my hip. “You could have told me about them.”

There’s a beat of silence, and then Galen and Raith burst out laughing. Thane looks both concerned and amused, and Knox simply continues to glower at me.

“Yes, I think you might be right, Elgen,”the masculine voice answers in my head.

My gaze slides to the shadows. They’re both staring at me intently now, like they’re scrutinizing everything about me and picking me apart piece by piece.

When Galen’s laughter dies down, he gives me a pitying look. “You needn’t worry about them,” he says like he finally understands what I’m getting at. “Thank the devil those shadowscan’t speak. I can only imagine the endless crude chatter we’d have to deal with if they could.”

“Best to ignore them,” Raith chimes in. “Or they’ll follow you ’round the academy like a bad smell.”

Can’t speak? But I could have sworn… What is happening?For a moment, I wonder if I hit my head when we traveled to the shadow realm.Maybe I bumped too hard against Raith’s muscled chest while Kazer ran?I think about arguing with Galen, because I’m sure I heard the shadows talking, but something about the whole situation makes me uncertain. I nod absently like I understand, and when Knox and Thane start forward again, I follow them mutely.

The whole time, the shadows on the wall keep pace with me, and I try to follow Raith’s advice, not looking their way. The last thing I want is to be haunted by these two wherever I go.

“Oh don’t be silent now, love. We know you hear us,”the husky feminine voice says after a short while, and this time there’s an excited edge to her tone. Going from what I’ve heard, I’m guessing she must be named Elgen.“Come on, say something.”

Crap. So it’s not my imagination.I continue to ignore the shadows, hoping they take the hint and go away. When it’s obvious I’m not going to talk, the shadows go about enacting rude situations on the walls.

“Fuck, they’re at it again,” Raith chuckles like it’s a common occurrence.

After a while, the shadows change tactics, reenacting gruesome death scenes. At one point, one of them is pretending to chop off the other one’s head, though the action is over dramatized, bits of shadow flinging off like it’s supposed to resemble gushing blood. It’s ridiculous, and I can’t help the stupid smile that crawls onto my face.

“We see you smiling, girl,”Elgen says.“Come on, talk to us. No one has been able to hear us in centuries. Not even these four. Aren’t you curious?”

Centuries?Admittedly, I am curious as hell, but it still feels like a bad idea to talk to these two.