Page 39

Chapter

Thirty

Bloom

H aunting and Hellhound

Shame bred more shame when Nero Ravencrux, the powerful immortal professor was involved.

Dante and Orren marched me back to the tower like a prisoner. I kept my eyes on the uneven cobblestones, my cheeks scalding

“These things happen, Bloom,” Orren said, his attempt at comfort falling flat. “Don’t feel too bad.”

“It’s okay to feel bad,” Dante countered. “Dwelling builds character.”

They exchanged glances over my head, that silent communication I’d been excluded from.

I whirled on them. “Why is it that everyone’s exchanging stealthy looks? As if everyone knows the joke I’m not in on?”

Dante opened his mouth, then choked, his face flushing dark. He staggered back, gasping as if the words had been ripped from his throat and erased.

“Are you okay, Dante?” I called.

He stepped back, closed his eyes, and muttered a curse. A moment later, his breathing steadied.

“You’ll just have to figure it out on your own, Carrot!”

“I figured,” I snorted.

When we entered the tower, the ward admitting us, every student in the hall turned to stare. Some drank; others played cards or chess. If any of them had been in Tabula Rasa, the illegal underground club, and seen me, at least they hadn’t witnessed Ravencrux spanking me.

A small mercy.

I didn’t have to shove my way through; the crowd parted for Dante and Orren. Not just because they were both giants of men, but because they now carried broadswords strapped across their backs. In all my previous encounters, they’d never been armed like this.

The witch librarian had mentioned Ravencrux and his team were fighting intruders. I would’ve asked them about it if I weren’t in such a foul mood.

I didn’t make eye contact with anyone as I rushed up the black stone stairs. Witchlights glowed beneath the ceilings.

“I’m in the tower now,” I said. “You don’t need to escort me to my room.”

“An order is an order,” Dante countered. “Nero said ‘tucked in,’ remember?”

“I had a few drinks. Danced a little.” My control snapped as we reached the middle of the staircase.

“Yet everyone acts like I committed a capital offense while no one holds you accountable for kidnapping me. On my first day here, I watched a student get stabbed in broad daylight and the whole school barely blinked. And when that redhead was murdered?—”

Both men stiffened at the mention. Their reaction was instant, telling. Of course they knew.

Should I press them for answers or dig deeper on my own before tipping them off?

“No one seemed concerned about the redhead,” I emphasized, watching Dante and Orren flinch, “being thrown past my window! What the hell is going on? What’s wrong with this school? What is fucking wrong with everyone?”

Orren scratched his nose, and for a second, I swore a flicker of hellfire sparked in his nostrils.What was his tie to the hellhound?But I couldn’t ask, not without revealing I’d broken into Ravencrux’s study.

Sebastian had pressed me for updates on the investigation he’d set me on, but before I could respond, the other immortals swarmed in, all eager to punish me for those drinks. Never mind that I wasn’t the only one who’d ignored curfew. Just the only one who hadn’t known the rule.

“I’m sorry you’re upset, Bloom,” Orren said.

That was it? No explanation, no apology? I bit back the urge to scream. But Orren had always been the kindest; lashing out at him wouldn’t help.

We reached the door of my chamber. Before I could pull out the key, Orren pressed his palm on the door, and it swung open.

“Magic,” he said, smiling.

I narrowed my eyes. “You can open anyone’s door?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“ So privacy doesn’t exist here?”

Orren glanced at Dante, and the brute gave me a flat look.“You’re worried about privacy when there’s danger everywhere?”

Orren stepped between us. “Don’t upset her, Dante. She’s had a bad night.” He turned to me with that sweet smile. “I’ll stand guard outside your door.”

“There’s not necessary,” I said. “And you should rest too.”

His amber eyes, flecked with crimson, warmed at my concern.

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ll sleep right here. No one gets past me. And if you hear snoring, ignore it.”

Gods, why me?

Arguing with Ravencrux’s men was pointless. I’d learned that the day they dragged me here.

I shook my head, stepped inside, and shut the door without another word. Let them take the hint.

Sindy rose from her bed, settling into a meditation pose. “Where have you been, Bloom?” Her hazel eyes widened as she took in my appearance. “You’re drenched. What happened?”

“Curfew violation happened. I’ll explain tomorrow.” I headed straight for the bathroom. “Right now, I need a shower.”

She frowned. “I looked everywhere for you after my shower. Weren’t you the one who said we redheads should stick together?”

“You’re right,” I admitted, pausing at the bathroom door. “Goodnight, Sindy.”

I didn’t wait for a response before shutting the door behind me.

It was supposed to be a beautiful night with a canvas of stars. But the constellations twisted into eyes, watching me. Dozens of them. Hundreds. Tracking. Knowing. Never losing sight of me.

They held the same secret I’d seen in the four immortals’ gazes at the academy. The secret everyone understood but me.

It burned in my chest. I needed answers, but time bled away with each frantic heartbeat. I needed an ally in this viper’s nest of knowing glances and hidden truths.

Then the eyes turned vengeful.

Suddenly I was running, fear sharp as a blade in my windpipe, each breath forming a stream of frost in the air as I pumped my feet harder, faster. The thunder of hooves vibrated through the frozen earth behind me.

Pain exploded through my skull, an ice spear tearing through bone, its jagged tip bursting from my forehead in a spray of crimson. My final sight was Nero astride his black stallion, face contorted with rage, with grief, with agony beyond this world.

I woke up and sat bolt upright, my scream cutting off. The inhaler was cold in my shaking hands. I sucked in desperate gulps of air as the nightmare’s claws released my lungs.

Nails scratched across the glass window, echoing eerily in the dark chamber.

“Our queen!” The dead wailed, their faces sunken, their eye sockets filled with desperation and shadow, their black lips moving as one.

I hissed. “Not this shit again. Go away!”

More dead pressed against the window, their skeletal fingers scraping the windowpane.

The witchlights flared to life as Sindy jolted upright, fully awake now.

“What the hell?” She scrambled backward, her back hitting the wall.

“You can see them too?” I asked in a rasping voice.

“Shit, yeah.” She stared at the window, eyes terrified.

“Are they the dead or the nighthaunts you warned me about?” I asked, trying to calm my breathing.

“How would I know? And I don’t want to find out!” she said. “Let’s get Professor Ravencrux!”

“He’s not here,” I said, but I didn’t explain how I knew—how something in my bones could now sense his presence. Or absence. “I drove off the phantoms before. I can do it again.”

Sindy’s eyes went round. “You what?”

“We have to try something,” I said. “But first I need to figure out why they’re back and what they want. I don’t want them to keep visiting us in our sleep.”

“Fuck, this has really happened before?” Her voice shrank to a whisper, as if she was afraid of being heard by the dead. “Why is this even happening? We have the wards.”

“Maybe wards only work on the living.” My teeth worried my lower lip as options raced through my mind. The dead didn’t breathe, but my chest heaved like I’d run for miles. “Maybe they only prevent the rival students and professors from getting into our tower.”

Fog crept over the window as more and more dead gathered outside, skeletal fingers pushing the glass. The pane rattled under their weight.

“They’re going to break in!” Sindy shrieked.

The door burst open, and the three-headed hellhound charged inside.

Sindy screamed. The door slammed shut behind it, sealing us in and keeping other students from rushing to our aid, or worse, stumbling into the chaos.

“It’s fine,” I said, pulling Sindy into a tight hug. “He’s friendly. A nice hellhound.”

But wait. Orren was supposed to be guarding the door. Was Orren the hellhound? We had shifters in the house, so it wouldn’t be unusual for him to take that form. And if he was the hound, then who was Nero Ravencrux? Hades? The devil? I shook my head, refusing to let paranoia take hold.

The hellhound stalked to the window, snarling at the dead. Hellfire flickered across his three snouts, glinting against his silken black fur. But the dead didn’t retreat.

They wailed, voices scraping like rusted hinges.“My queen, don’t forsake us!”

“You came to the wrong place,” I growled, stepping forward.

Enough. I’d spent my life enduring harassment from the living. I wouldn’t tolerate it from the dead, too.

My hands lifted, and my Weaver magic answered.

Silver fire flickered at my fingertips, invisible to the world, but to me, alive with radiant light.

I pulled power from the air, the earth, the distant stars, weaving threads of energy that twisted and danced between my fingers.

Patterns formed on their own, writing themselves into existence.

First, the warp—vertical strands of pure energy, shimmered like moonlit water. Then the horizontal threads slid into place, guided by instinct. With every motion, the tapestry grew, rippling outward in waves of golden light.

Ancient sigils burned within the weave. Greek letters twisted with something ancient and primal. The net expanded, spiraling into a design so intricate it hurt to look at.

I hurled it toward the window. The glass offered no resistance.

The dead screamed, a sound like wind through shattered chimes, before dissolving into smoke. A heartbeat later, only smudges remained: ghostly fingerprints and fading mist, the last traces of the vanished.

Sindy gaped at me. “Did you just do that, Bloom?”

I smiled, my pulse quickening. “Apparently.”

The hellhound trotted toward me and rubbed one of his heads against my leg. I absently scratched behind his ear, the fur soft beneath my fingers.

Sindy pointed at the hellhound. “And that’s Cerberus, the hellhound?”

He bared his teeth at her, and I flicked his snout. “Behave. Sindy’s a friend.”

The hound’s heads drooped, then his entire body sank to the floor. His middle head settled on massive paws, eyes sliding shut.

I guessed that meant he wasn’t leaving, and I didn’t have the heart to haul him out.

“We should get some sleep,” I sighed.

Sindy hesitated, then retreated to her bed, dragging the quilt up to her chin like armor.

Sindy shifted under her quilt, her form still shivering. “Maybe I never should have accepted the invitation to this school.”

The witchlights dimmed one by one, leaving only the faint glow of the orb by the door.

“At least you got an invitation,” I said dryly.

She turned toward me. “Did I tell you Forsaken Academy sits atop the gate to hell?”

“Only about a dozen times,” I replied.

Fear had drained her. Within minutes, her breathing steadied, her auburn hair catching the witchlight in deep crimson streaks. The sight unsettled me. She wasn’t in any less danger than I was. If Angelina’s death was a warning, Sindy could easily become the next message.

I wouldn’t let that happen.

Crouching in front of the hellhound, I found one pair of eyes still open, watching.

“Will you protect Sindy please?” I asked. “Blink twice for yes.”

He did.

I buried my fingers in the hellhound’s thick fur, drawing comfort from his warmth as he leaned into me. The nightmare’s icy claws still prickled across my skin.

A darker thought took hold. What if these weren’t dreams? What if I’d been experiencing the final moments of those women, who wore my face but dressed in the fashions of other eras? I wasn’t them. But I’dfelt their slices of pain, their chokes of terror, as real as my own breath.

The sheets twisted in my grip as chills settled in my bones. I needed to hunt this killer down, before my own death stopped being a vision and became the last thing I saw.