Page 29 of Venomous Lies (Greywood Conservatory for the Arcane #2)

Ambrose

SATURDAY

I laid back on the chaise in my room, fiddling with my pipe, considering if I should smoke more. The drug wasn’t working nearly as well as it had just months before.

Numbing myself to give myself distance sounded like a great idea, but some gut feeling told me I needed to be alert.

I scoffed and tossed the pipe onto a table.

The source of all my issues could be placed squarely at Isla Hallowes’ feet.

Isla and Echo had been missing for twenty-four hours. Whatever magick she had used wasn’t one I was familiar with, and given the expressions of almost everyone around me, they hadn’t had a clue either. Taking a breath, I let myself fall into the memory.

Demir lost it, while, oddly enough, Bricriu kept it together. Calmly, he stared at the spot where Isla had been before turning his gaze to her friends.

“Where the fuck did my brother go?” Aizel questioned.

“With Isla,” Julian answered calmly, his face almost void of expression. He, too, was staring at the spot where Isla had just been standing. “She took him with her… Wherever that may be.”

“But how did she do that?! Isla doesn’t have that ability,” Demir questioned, looking toward Falke.

Nobody responded. I had no idea what Isla had just done or how, and it seemed like no one else had answers either.

“We should go search for them,” Aizel said after a bit, but I shook my head.

“There’s no point. There’s not a trace of the magick left behind to track,” Falke replied instead, his voice gruff with frustration.

“We can’t just do nothing,” Zhara argued. In the moments after her friends’ disappearance, her blue eyes had started to glow with her wolf’s presence.

Julian’s calm voice interrupted the argument that was about to break out. “We never said we’d do nothing. Let’s try to keep it together until she shows back up. There’s something I need to look into.”

Since then, Julian has also been busy.

That new professor Junichiro had stopped by to check on Isla, but when he was told of her disappearance, he had merely nodded, no commentary. Granted, he didn’t know Isla like I did, but I was starting to get the feeling that my opportunity for a taste of the witch was slipping through my fingers.

I’d be damned if that happened.

A soft knock drew my attention, but before I could answer, it opened to reveal Julian. The vampire looked disheveled, his crumpled, wrinkled clothing unlike his usually well-put-together self. He had an urgency lighting his face as he briskly strode in.

“Tell me you haven’t indulged as of yet.”

“No, I decided against it. For now.” I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out what was going on with him. “What’s going on?”

“I know how Isla was able to leave the room yesterday.” He started pacing back and forth, as if he were too restless to keep still, and I watched him closely.

“How?” I asked softly when he didn’t continue.

“With my magick.”

Any question I was about to ask died before it passed my lips once he turned around and on the back of the vampire’s neck was a mark that could only be one thing.

Bitterness coated my tongue. How much evidence did I need that she was claiming others while running from me? I swallowed it down as he waved away my question.

“It doesn’t matter,” he deflected. “But hopefully she’s someplace safe because I’ve heard some rumors of Thatcher being MIA.”

“What do you mean?” I sat up, desperately focusing on this update in favor of pushing off the problem that was Isla. “Thatcher is gone?”

“He hasn’t been on campus for the last six hours, and we need to figure out why,” Julian said grimly, finally coming to a stop. “Falke is already searching the forest for any signs. Demir is looking on the campus grounds.”

“Where do you want me to go?”

“Join Falke,” he said, rubbing his face. “I’ll go with you, and hopefully, we can find something.”

“Where is Bricriu?” I asked as I stood up, carefully smoothing down my coat before we headed to the door. “He’s going to need something to keep him busy.”

“He’s outside.”

Sure enough, he was standing there in his full bone fae form, the wind clanking the bones along his shoulders together. When nearby students saw him, they immediately ran the other way.

But Bricriu didn’t notice any of that.

His pale eyes were focused on the forest.

“Do you sense anything?” Julian questioned.

“No,” Bones replied softly. “But she’s alive, that much I can tell.”

“Anything else?”

Bones was about to answer when a hum of magick filled the air. My mouth immediately dried, lips parted in shock when a rush of pain, fear, and dread teased along my body. Bricriu and Julian hissed in pain, then the world went dark.

An unnatural night had taken over. I closed my eyes, bathing in the screams I could hear in the distance as that feeling of dread spilled over the campus like a dome.

“What the hell?” Julian muttered from somewhere in the darkness. “I can’t see.”

“You wouldn’t be able to,” Bricriu stated, calm and unbothered for the moment. “It’s Unseelie magick.”

“It has been a while since I’ve felt this,” I commented, trying to keep my voice even. “But the real question is, why is someone here doing this?”

Before we could speculate further, a keening wail made everything freeze. My body, my mind… I had never once felt like prey until that very moment.

Fight or flight was a human response… yet this thing inspired it in me .

Whatever the hell that was… was new.

The keening wail transformed into a howl, then a scream. There was no pain in that sound now, no anger… Just hunger.

“What was that?” Bricriu asked .

“We’re going to find out,” Julian answered, somehow keeping his voice even. “We need to try to protect the students.”

“How the fuck are we going to do that in this?” I asked, waving around at the suffocating darkness even though he couldn’t see it.

“Figure it out. Let’s go.”

I grumbled until screams of panic sounded from somewhere nearby, followed by Falke yelling at them to get inside the buildings.

“I’ll go to Falke and provide back up.”

Not waiting for a response, I carefully made my way toward the sounds of fighting.

No… No. This can’t be happening.

Calm down. It has to be someone else.

Of course it’s someone else.

Anyone else.

“Kian! Where are you?”

“Ambrose!” Falke roared, then I heard the clattering of hooves against the stone of the steps. “Is that you?”

“Obviously,” I replied dryly, dodging out of his way as he fought whatever was near him. “Where are the students?”

“I told them to go into the buildings..”

“That won’t help,” I informed him grimly. “I’ve faced this before, and there is no hiding from it.”

“What are you talking about? It’s not the time for riddles.”

“You can’t hide from nightmares,” I said softly, knowing he’d be able to hear me despite the fresh wave of screams. “There is no hiding from yourself.”