Raelia (The Medoran Chronicles Book 2) (18 page)

The Shadow Walker stared at her intently. “See me after class, Miss Jennings.”

Alex didn’t know what to make of his request, but she was relieved when he moved away to continue the lesson.

The minutes ticked down and when the gong finally sounded, telling them their classes were over for the day, Alex waved her curious friends off and remained behind, waiting for the professor to speak.

“How have you come to possess a Shadow Ring, Miss Jennings?”

“I told you,” she said. “It was a gift from a friend.”

“And yet, you don’t know how to use it?”

“I didn’t exactly ask,” Alex admitted.

Caspar Lennox held out a mottled-grey hand. “May I see it?”

Alex hesitantly slid the ring off her finger and passed it to him.

The professor peered closely at it while turning it over in his hands, almost like he was looking—or feeling—for something.

“This is a unique piece,” he said. “Can I assume you received it from Blake Ronnigan?”

Wondering how he could have known that, Alex nodded in confirmation.

“I’ve always considered Blake to be a highly perceptive young man. He was wise, I believe, to give this to you,” Caspar
Lennox murmured, still looking at the ring. “Especially given your…
unique
circumstances.”

Alex opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but he continued speaking.

“When your need is great, you’ll be able to activate the Shadow Essence contained within the stone,” he told her, handing back the ring. “But you’ll have to immerse yourself fully in the Shadow to do so.”

“Ooo-kay,” Alex said, drawing the word out. “I don’t suppose you could dumb that down a little for me? What you mean by the second part?”

Caspar Lennox smiled slightly at her, his sharp, white teeth standing out against his unnaturally grey skin.

“When the time comes, you’ll understand,” he promised.

Alex bit back a snarky retort. Why was everyone saying that to her lately?

Before she could question him further, the professor told her not to daydream during his lessons in the future and dismissed her from his classroom.

After dinner that night, Administrator Jarvis came looking for Alex to tell her that the headmaster wished to speak with her. She followed him obediently to the Tower building and up to the very top floor to Darrius’s office.

“Good luck,” Jarvis said as he opened the door for her.

Puzzling over his words, Alex tentatively entered the room. Sometimes when she visited Darrius he would take her to his private study above the clouds that was linked through the Tower into the Library. But this time Alex could see they would be chatting in his official headmaster’s office. The huge room held an impressive conference table, but her favourite part was
the floor-to-ceiling glass wall that looked straight across the academy campus. Right now the waxing moon streamed light across the grounds, illuminating the beautiful landscape.

Darrius was pacing near the window-wall, and when she closed the door quietly behind her, he barely glanced up at her arrival. She took a seat near the end of the table, knowing he would speak when he was ready.

After a few tense seconds, he let out a frustrated breath and moved to sit next to her.

“Thank you for coming, Alex,” he said. “I apologise for the short notice.”

“What’s up, Darrius?”

He reached for a folder that was resting on the table and passed it to her. She opened it without a word, wondering what was going on. Inside were loose papers, each showing photographs of different people, along with their names and other various details.
Bardie Hicks
…
Nicholas Reeves
…
Lena Morrow…
Travis Flanagan… Vera Rosta
…

Alex wasn’t sure what she was looking at until she did a double-take on a familiar face.

“Hey, I know her!” she cried. “Well, sort of.”

“Calista Maine,” Darrius said. “Was she the woman you saw in the forest with Aven a few weeks ago?”

Alex nodded. “That’s definitely her.”

Darrius massaged his temples. “I was afraid you would say that.”

“I don’t understand,” Alex said, leafing through more pages. “Why do you have her file? And who are all these other people?”

The headmaster stood and returned to his pacing, a worrying sign that Alex definitely didn’t like.

“Darrius?”

He turned to look at her, and his haggard expression filled her with foreboding.

“After you witnessed Aven kill the Hyroa, I began to do some research,” he said, reclaiming his seat. “Actually, I started when you first told me about the blood-bonding ritual he tried to use on you. Do you remember when I mentioned the possibility of him having Claimed more than one person over the years of his exile?”

Alex nodded again. Darrius had spoken to her months ago about Aven’s charisma and his ability to coerce others into doing his bidding—and how perhaps it wasn’t a natural occurrence, but a result of bonding them to him by blood.

“What are you saying?” she asked.

“When you first mentioned seeing a woman named Calista with Aven in the forest, I thought nothing of it,” Darrius said. “But after you gave a more detailed description of her, I felt a sense of recognition. It turns out that the woman in that file was once a student here at Akarnae.”

Alex wondered why Darrius seemed to think that so significant.

“How many Calistas do you know?” she asked. “It’s not exactly a common name, is it? Why didn’t you know who I was talking about straight away?”

Darrius looked directly into her eyes when he answered. “Alex, Calista Maine graduated from Akarnae over seventy years ago.”

Alex jerked her head back in shock.

“It’s true,” Darrius said, reading the look on her face. “I studied her case file when I first became headmaster because her gift was so powerful and her disappearance was considered a tragedy.”

“Seventy
years
?” Alex gasped. “That can’t be right. She didn’t look much older than me!”

“Calista was declared missing by her family when she was twenty-three,” Darrius said. “No one has seen or heard from
her since then, as far as I’m aware. I think we can now presume that, considering her apparent lack of physical aging, she must have been Claimed by Aven all those years ago.”

Alex bit her lip and pointed to the rest of the file. “What about all these other people?”

“They were also students at Akarnae at one time or another,” Darrius said, his expression sombre. “Just like Calista, their giftings were powerful; unique, even. And they too have disappeared over the years. I fear they may have met the same fate as hers.”

Alex felt the room tip. “What are you implying? That Aven has some kind of gifted… army? With all of them under his control? He
hates
humans! Why would he use them? And what for?”

“I don’t know, Alex,” Darrius answered gravely. “But it can’t bode well for any of us.”

It was then that Alex noticed just how tired he looked. He was not the vibrant man she’d first met. Instead, he was a man burdened with the weight of an uncertain future.

“What do you need me to do?” she whispered.

Darrius captured her eyes with his own silver ones. “You know the answer to that, Alex.”

She held his gaze. “You need me to go to Meya.”

With an apologetic look and a tone to match, he said, “I know I agreed to give you time, but the circumstances have changed. We need to know what we face, and we need the Meyarins to be aware of what might be coming. Only you can do this.”

Understanding the truth of his words, Alex knew her answer.

“I’ll do it. I’ll go on Saturday.”

His relief was apparent in every line of his body. “Thank you, Alex. I know how much you don’t want to do this. And I realise how dangerous it may be.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she warned him. “I have no idea what will happen. I may not even be able to find a way there. And if I do, who knows how receptive the Meyarins will be?”

“I have the utmost faith in you.” Darrius smiled warmly at her for the first time since she’d stepped into his office and Alex was relieved to see the cheerful expression back on his face, regardless of why it was there.

“We’ll see,” she said.

“In the meantime, I don’t want you to worry about the rest of this,” Darrius told her, indicating the file on the table.

“I’ll agree to that if you will,” she returned.

“I… Huh. Well, then,” he said, “I guess I’ll try if you will.”

“Deal,” she agreed, holding out her hand to shake on it.

“On that note, it’s nearly curfew,” he said, after sealing their agreement. “I apologise again for keeping you up.”

“No problem,” she said. “And despite how much I’d rather not have learned what you told me, I’m glad you trusted me enough to share. At least this way I’ll have a heads-up if any zombie-like gifted humans come my way in the future.”

Judging by Darrius’s grimace, Alex guessed it was too early to be so cavalier about it.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “Humour is my best coping mechanism.”

That prompted a dry chuckle out of him. “We all have different strategies,” he agreed. “You may be pleased to hear that humour is one of the more normal tactics.”

Alex gasped dramatically and placed a hand to her chest. “Heaven forbid I do anything
normal
.”

Darrius laughed with her, and Alex felt significantly better than she had a few minutes earlier. Whatever was coming in the future, they would all face it together.

That was all she needed to know.

Ten

“Are you sure about this?” D.C. asked.

“Not at all,” Alex answered. “But right now, I don’t think that matters.”

It was Saturday morning and Alex and her friends were standing in the foyer of the Library. Despite her desire for time to slow down, the last few days had passed by annoyingly fast. She’d tried to stall by going to visit her parents again, but they’d been overcome with excitement by some new artefact they’d unearthed. She’d ended up leaving them to their work after a token catch-up that, in Alex’s opinion, didn’t take up anywhere near enough time. And now here she was, standing with Jordan, D.C. and Bear, and trying to summon the courage to continue onward.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Jordan asked, nudging her in the ribs. “Just think of how awesome this’ll be!”

“I agree with Jordan,” Bear said. “This is going to be epic.”

D.C. shared a look with Alex, “Any minute now they’re going to start grunting and beating their chests, cavemen-style.”

“Are we going or what?” Jordan whined, bouncing up and down and acting much younger than his seventeen years.

“We’re going,” Alex confirmed, leading the way towards the staircase on the far side of the room. She had tried to convince her friends to stay behind, reminding them that she had no idea what they would face and how dangerous it could
potentially be. But they would hear nothing of her concerns and adamantly refused to let her go without them. Part of that, Alex knew, was because of their overwhelming desire to see the Lost City, but another part—a larger part, she hoped—was because there was no way they would let her face such an unknown situation alone. Her friends were good like that. Even if they all unanimously agreed to keep any and all details from D.C.’s parents, certain that the monarchs would not be too pleased at the idea of their only child and heir to the throne going off on perilous adventures unknown.

“Do we have a plan?” Bear asked as they started their journey downwards into the Library.

“Nope,” Alex said. “You guys know I have no idea what I’m doing. But my best guess is to start in the corridor of doorways and hope for some kind of direction.”

“Wicked,” Jordan whispered excitedly.

None of her friends had experienced the wonders of the Library quite like Alex had. Sure, they’d heard her stories and witnessed little bits and pieces, but they’d yet to discover first-hand what it meant to be a part of a ‘Library adventure’. Judging by the exhilarated looks on their faces, they were giddy with anticipation.

The staircase continued much further down than it was architecturally built to descend, and only when they reached a dead end did Alex will a doorway to appear in the stone wall.

“Ready or not, here I come,” she mumbled under her breath, stepping into a labyrinth of corridors filled with doorways that continued out of sight. She knew from previous experience that some of them opened to exotic, even impossible places, while others led to more door-filled hallways.

D.C. moved to stand beside Alex. “Where do we start?”

When Aven had captured the two girls, it had taken him some time to find the doorway to Meya, even with his advanced
genes and his direct line of descent from the founder of Akarnae. Alex may not have shared his relation to Eanraka, but she still had something Aven lacked: she was Chosen, and the Library favoured her.

“For the record, I think this is a bad idea,” Alex said.

“But it needs to be done,” D.C. said. “You said so yourself. We wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

Alex slumped her shoulders. “I know.”

Best just to get it over with
, she thought as she stood up straighter, steeling herself with determination.