Page 32 of Venomous Lies (Greywood Conservatory for the Arcane #2)

Wells

SATURDAY

A s Demir dropped the knife and slumped down, I tried to catch my breath.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Bats, he was trying?—”

“He’s my friend!” Isla cut him off coldly. Long fingers tilted my chin up and urged me to look up at her. “What happened?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I asked as I reached up to touch her face. Where was all this blood coming from? “You’re bleeding. And you can see?”

“Thatcher attacked me,” she said grimly. “When I woke up this morning, I could see again. No idea what changed.”

“Isla, we can’t?—”

“Maybe the person I can’t trust is you , Demir,” she pointed out as she helped me stand up. “I’ve been attacked, and then I find you holding one of my best friends at fucking knife point with no one else around.”

“Isla, it’s okay,” I coaxed, trying to reassure her. “He just didn’t like what I said, but he didn’t hurt me. This is from the fighting."

“Besides the cut on your neck,” she muttered darkly.

“A small prick,” I countered as I looked at the kelpie who couldn’t cover up his jealousy fast enough for me to miss it.

Interesting.

“You said Thatcher is the one that attacked you?” Demir asked after taking a deep breath.

He was looking better than I was, for sure.

His long, black hair was tied back in a ponytail that had somehow gone untouched even in the chaos of the fighting.

Currently, his dark brown eyes were homed in on Isla, imploring her to answer him.

“He did,” Isla answered him. “Where is everyone else? I thought I heard Ambrose and Professor Falke when Echo and I were trying to find our way?—”

“Where is Echo?” I asked her.

“We got separated during everything,” she replied, chewing her bottom lip. Her face scrunched up in disgust. “I need to get the bleeding to stop.”

“I can help with that,” a bland voice offered out of nowhere, making us jump.

The new professor that had helped heal Isla was suddenly just there. He had a calm expression, though I could sense his concern when he looked Isla over, cataloging injuries.

“What happened to your hand?”

She shrugged it off. “I’m not worried about my hand. My head is the real problem.”

With a hum, he carefully approached and softly asked her if he could take a look. When she said yes, he examined her head and her hand before letting out a soft sigh.

“Nothing too serious, head wounds are just notorious for bleeding. We need to get to safety first, then I can help with this.”

“I thought you said?—”

“Nothing is life threatening,” he said, cutting the kelpie off. “There are others that are more seriously injured that I need to prioritize. Let’s go.”

“First, we need to take care of Thatcher,” Demir said, starting for the building Isla had just run out of.

“No need,” Isla called out, making her brother stop in his tracks. “It’s being taken care of.”

I swallowed hard at the power in her voice and the menacing aura that suddenly surrounded my friend.

She was terrifying, awe inspiring, and absolutely breathtakingly beautiful.

“What do you mean? What have you done?”

“What was needed to survive,” Isla said. “We can see about Thatcher once things have settled.”

“You don’t make the calls here, Isla.”

“No, brother, you don’t make the calls here. You’re on Greywood grounds, Demir. This isn’t your place. It’s mine.”

Junichiro stepped in between them. “Isla is right. We have more important things to do than worry about that man.”

“Like what? What could possibly be more important than that?” Demir argued, bristling at the other man’s interference.

“How about her mate who’s ready to tear this entire school apart because she’s missing? Or the others that seemed just as concerned about her absence. Yes, Isla is your sister, but that doesn’t mean you’re the only one that cares about her well-being.”

They had a stand-off, Demir and Professor Junichiro staring each other down. It felt like the world was holding its breath, waiting to see what they would all do. Isla, on the other hand, had turned her entire attention to the herbology professor.

“When and why did it start getting lighter?” Isla asked all of us once Demir gave in.

He growled in annoyance before stomping off, leading the way somewhere.

Slowly but surely, that dangerous presence around Isla eased.

It hadn’t faded completely, but it was no longer right on the surface of her aura.

“Not sure why,” I answered, “but I’m glad. Fighting in that darkness was not easy.”

“Where are the others? Bones, Z, Aizel?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied as the three of us continued following Demir at a safe distance. “We were all separated during the fighting.”

“But we were all at the library at the beginning,” Demir called back to us, letting me know he could clearly hear our conversation. “Might as well go there to try to find everyone.”

“That makes sense.”

“I hope they’re okay,” Isla replied. Worry lined her face as she looked around us, searching for the others. “Are you sure you’re okay, Wells?”

“Yeah.” I grinned at her, hoping to put her at ease. “Honestly, it was just something I said that upset him. Your brother has a bit of a hairtrigger temper.”

As the dark faded more and more, we could make out the shambles left of the campus. Buildings stood, but there were bodies all over, not all of them whole. People rushed around, trying to escape some unseen force.

In some places, the grass looked red because so much blood had soaked into it.

Wolves, kelpies, and shifters of all kinds were sprawled around, trying to catch their breath and recover from the fighting. Even with my inexperienced eye, I could tell we had suffered many losses.

What the hell had happened?!

Isla slowed as we got close to the library, then she came to a stop. She looked not toward where her brother was leading us, but to the forest, her mismatched eyes seeming almost far away.

Was she trying to get to her greenhouse? Now?

What was calling her?

Even Junichiro was searching the trees as if searching for the answers to those questions.

“Witchling.”

Isla snapped out of it, spinning around and gasping as my mouth went dry.

Standing on the other side of us was her mate, Bricriu, in his full bone fae form—seven feet of bones, long white hair in a braid down his back.

He smiled menacingly at his mate. The stark ivory of his form only highlighted the bright-red blood splattered all over him…

along with a few other things I didn’t want to acknowledge.

What the hell had he done to his opponents? Torn them apart?

Probably best not to ask.

“Bones!”

Without hesitation, she rushed over to him and leapt into his arms, snuggling in as Bones wrapped his arms around her.

She murmured soft things that I couldn’t make out as she tucked her head against his neck. I didn’t miss how tightly she held onto him or the way he closed his eyes and squeezed her close.

“Who hurt you?” he muttered, his long fingers running through her black hair.

“I know everyone is going to ask the same things over and over again. Why don’t I give the answers just once?” she suggested as she leaned back, though she didn’t attempt to get down.

“Then I’d suggest we get back to the library,” Professor Junichiro said, nodding in the direction of the building. “Before we attract more attention.”

As if his words had reopened my senses to the world around us, I suddenly realized how silent it was and shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. We were the center of attention, with all the nearby survivors watching us as if they were just waiting to see what we’d do next.

A movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, and I swallowed hard. There was no way. I had to be imagining things… But as Isla and Bricriu started following the professor’s lead, I saw the familiar face again.

“Wells?” Isla called.

“You all go ahead. I just want to check something, then I’ll be right there,” I told her with a smile, waving them on.

I forced my expression to remain calm, not wanting to alarm her.

I had to be seeing things. There was no way he’d be here.

But I had to be sure.

Isla and the others just nodded, and I waited for them to be almost at the library before I followed him.

Ignoring the people that were recovering, I slunk between buildings until I was suddenly slammed into the side of one.

I grunted at the impact of my body against the stone and heard a familiar laugh in reply.

“Well, if it isn’t Wells Hawthorne, the disgraced witch.”

“I don’t know if we can even call him that. After all, his family disowned him,” a vicious voice mocked from behind the man grinding my back into the stone. “Guess we should just call you Wells of no coven.”

“Call me what you will,” I ground out as the girl that I used to love walked out from behind a man I used to consider a friend. “What are you doing here?”

She smiled, the edges so sharp it felt like I was being cut open. How could I have ever thought I liked her, much less loved her? She might be pretty, but there was nothing good or warm in the person looking me over with such disdain.

Magick wrapped itself around my throat, tightening like a hangman’s noose. I gasped, and black spots clouded my vision as I tried to get air.

“They didn’t realize the gold mine they had sitting right under their noses,” she bragged, blue eyes glowing with cruel amusement. “But don’t worry, we enlightened them. They promised all kinds of rewards if we brought you back alive.”

“Why?” I croaked. My body began losing the fight for air, those black spots growing larger until I had tunnel vision.

“Because I can.”

ECHO

I had tried looking for Isla in the darkness, but it was no use. No matter how much I stumbled around, I couldn’t find her anywhere.

So much for protecting her with my life .

“Echo!”

Whirling around, I desperately searched for my brother. I’d know my twin’s voice anywhere.

He called out again, his anguish so real I felt my stomach twist and drop. Roars of different supernaturals filled the air as I tried to stumble my way to him.

I cursed as I tripped over a half wall of stone, but I ignored the pain. Finding my brother was more important than the inevitable bruising.

“Aizel!” I yelled out, trying to find him.

Zhara said my brother’s name soon after, which was followed quickly by a growl and what sounded like two wolves fighting each other not too far off. Whimpers, snarls, and the sounds of two creatures colliding made me wince.

Hopefully, she was going to be okay.

“Echo, you wretched—” a shrill voice screamed in the wind, and I stopped, frozen in place. Every part of my mind started to shut down.

She can’t be here.

She doesn’t know where to find me.

I’m safe.

I have to be safe.

Please tell me ? —

“Well, isn’t this fun?” a dangerous voice crooned from nearby. “So many little nightmares, so much fun. But a deal is a deal?—”

My mother’s voice was ripped away, choked into silence as I collapsed onto the ground gasping for breath.

“What… What the fuck is going on?”

“Let’s go find your friends, incubus.” The man’s voice sounded closer, and then I was hauled up to standing.

I wobbled on my feet but managed to keep myself upright, and that was when I caught a glimpse of my rescuer.

White-blond hair, scarily handsome, and pain that rivaled the cruelty dancing in his pale eyes as he watched me find my feet.

“Who—?”

“So many questions,” he said, amused. He considered me for a moment, completely unbothered by the darkness around us. “You can see me.”

“Of course I can see you. You’re right here,” I replied, confused about what he was saying until it hit me.

I couldn’t see anything else—the half-wall I’d stumbled over, my mother, my friend, or my brother.

“But you couldn’t see the others,” the mystery man mused aloud as he tilted his head the other way. “What are you?”