Page 22 of Malcroix Bones Academy

I only know when it ended.

A third flash, seemingly from closer, made me jerk…

Then nearly lose my balance.

“That isquite enough,Ms. Minx,” the now-familiar voice of Forsooth said irritably. “I’m going to recommend that every member of your entourage be charged the maximum fine, each, for your blatant disregard of the rules.”

I opened my eyes. Forsooth aimed a finger at the female reporter.

“Oh, and expect those photos to be confiscated, Ms. Minx,” he added.

By then, I had fallen out of that strange, telescoping darkness and stillness.

I felt like I’d just woken up.

The realization made my face grow hot. I glimpsed figures now standing behind the inspector’s desk, watching and murmuring from behind their hands, leaning towards one another’s ears. When I glanced around where I stood, I realized the onlookers had crept closer on all sides, and now circled me and Forsooth.

“Miss Shadow?” the inspector queried kindly.

My eyes jerked back to his.

“You’re all finished, Miss Shadow,” Forsooth said, smiling warmly. “Thank you so much for coming in. Your results will be communicated to you by the end of the day.”

His eyes shone, twinkled even. I puzzled at the knowing look there, and the subtle, friendly-seeming message behind it.

Then the round spotlight on the floor switched off.

The circle under my feet began to lower.

It happened so suddenly, I nearly stumbled, yet so smoothly that I didn’t. I barely had time for a last look at Forsooth’s face. Then I was staring into the curious and kind face of the bear crouched under Forsooth’s table, and saw it wave a friendly paw with curved claws at me as I dropped.

I raised a hand in a returning wave.

Then the bear disappeared, too.

6

A Different Life

Everything went pitch black, then sharply light.

By the time I finished blinking into that sudden illumination, my feet stood solidly on a red-carpeted floor, and Aunt Ankha stood in front of me, tapping her foot, her sweater-clad arms folded across her narrow chest. Two, dark blue, inhumanly shining eyes in a silvery coat stared at me from behind my aunt’s legs.

It was a wolf, made of pale silver and blue light.

Apparently, my new, strange vision wasn’t confined to the gymnasium space above.

I stared at the wolf, then at my aunt’s face.

The hard angles of Ankha’s fleshless features hadn’t changed. Her own dark-blue eyes held the same impatience, the same annoyance, the same coldness. But now a wolf with an eerily similar face crouched behind her, clearly meshing with the silver cloud of light faintly outlining my aunt’s form. Somehow, despite the perfect beauty of the silver wolf and its deep blue eyes, it didn’t soften Ankha’s energy at all.

If anything, it made me even more leery of her.

“Well?” Ankha demanded.

She tapped her foot, and the wolf’s tail swished back and forth, more like a cat’s than a dog’s friendly wag. It watched me like it was assessing for weaknesses.

I glanced around the room.