Page 9 of Monster's Melody

“I still think the professors’ wings makes the most sense,” Kasi insisted.“Who wants to walk all the way outside to the forest or the stables or wherever to get a bottle of wine for dinner?”

“But their wings aren’t in a cellar,” I said.

“Maybe there’s a secret passageway between the two,” Mikaela suggested.

“Well, that would suck,” I said, “because we can’t go sneaking around in the faculty wings searching for a secret entrance.That’s a sure way to get expelled.”

“I vote we search the stables,” Elliot said.“If there’s an access point that’s not in the faculty wings, it’ll probably be there.”

I sighed.“Dangit.Thatwouldbe a good spot.”

“Sweet,” Kasi said.“I’ve been wanting to see where the dragons sleep.”

“I’m out,” Mikaela said.“No way am I going into those stables, not for all the wine in the world.”

“Oh, come on, Mikaela,” I said.“It’ll be fun.An adventure!”

“You’re insane.”

A few moments later, with Mikaela protesting the entire way, we entered one of the secret tunnels Elliot had found his first year at the Academy.

We were out of breath by the time we reached the end of the tunnel, having been walking at a steady incline for a solid five minutes at that point.

The tunnel seemed to dead end, but then Elliot pressed something on the wall in front of us and a part of it just sprang open.

We stepped out of the tunnel and my mouth dropped open when I saw that we’d just exited from inside the trunk of a huge tree.

“How is that even possible?”Mikaela exclaimed, clearly thinking the same thing I was, that the incline we’d walked hadn’t been steep enough for us to walk out of a tree trunk.“We should have at least had to climb a couple steps to get above ground.”

“Better not think about it too much,” Elliot said.“It’ll just make you crazy.Come on.We’re not that far from the stables.”

Shadow, who’d gotten bored with our search and had wrapped herself around Kasi’s arm, settling onto her skin as an adorable tattoo, lifted her head and glanced around.

As we walked around a couple more trees, she detached herself from Kasi’s arm and leapt down to stalk at her side.

When we reached the stable, she stretched out into a long, cat-shaped shadow and streamed beneath the stable doors.

“Shadow!”Kasi hissed, but she was already gone.“Damnit.I guess Shadow and I will scope the place out.Wait here.”

I scowled.“Fine, but if you find the entrance to the wine cellar, I expect you to come back for us.”

“You’re not going without me,” Jahrdran said sternly.

Kasi grinned.“Well, then, let’s go.”She burst into shadows and streamed beneath the stable door, following Shadow’s path.

Jahrdran let out a rumbling grunt, burst into his own shadow-form, one he’d gained when he’d mated Kasi, then followed.

“I don’t like this,” Mikaela said.

“Ah, don’t worry, love.I’ll protect you from the big, bad dragons,” Elliot said, slinging an arm around her shoulders.

“I don’t like it either,” I said.“They’re having all the fun without us.”

“I worry about you sometimes, Jasmine,” Mikaela said.

“I don’t know why.”

“Skulking around a stable filled with fire-breathing dragons is not my idea of fun.”