Page 28 of Spelled By Truth and Tresses

I shook my head. Jax was slowly becoming obsessed with me. And maybe on top of everything that happened, he regretted giving into my fucking obscene beauty.

My steps slowed, then stopped completely in the middle of the entrance to the female dorms. He stopped with me.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m sorry, Jax.”

He nodded slowly. “Things like this happen.”

I teared up. I was an emotional wreck, and I wasn’t sure why. “You must be upset. You dated her.”

He said nothing for a moment, then ran a hand through his dark hair. “To be honest, Zellie, I didn’t really know her. Sure we fucked a couple times, but saying we dated is a massive stretch.”

The silence of the night surrounding us spoke volumes. It’s as if every creature around knew to stay away from the dangerous abomination I was becoming.

My boots echoed off the stone softly as I paced back and forth. I thought back to all the other incidents that happened at our academy, let alone what we uncovered about the tower.

“Why do these things keep happening at our academy? This isn’t the first-time students have died.”

He scrunched his hand into a fist at his side until his knuckles turned white. “I don’t know. I think for now it’s best if we lie low and put the research into the Black Lily Coven Massacre on hold. We all need some time.”

“Okay.” I hesitated. The last thing I needed was time off. “But we really can’t take too much time off from the project. I doubt a school with regular deaths will have much of a grace period.”

Jax turned on his heel, then left without uttering another word. His anger was palpable, and I couldn’t help but feel like it was directed at me.

CHAPTER 11

The page softly swished as I turned the page of my current fantasy read. It felt so good to have a few hours for myself to blissfully escape in my books.

The heavy black door flew open, and I jumped, nearly falling out of Lalita’s royal blue papasan chair. She launched herself at me, then curled around my body. The chair groaned lightly with the added weight, but there was plenty of room for the two of us within its bowl-like cushions.

“Oh, thank Gods you’re okay, Z. I was stuck in Eleanore’s dorm room all night.”

Fuzzy, comfortable heat bloomed in my chest, then the corners of my mouth tipped up. “L, it’s okay. I’m totally fine.”

Lalita sighed, then squeezed me tighter. “Amara,” she said sadly. “She’s dead.”

I swallowed hard. “I know.”

“There’s a memorial at the field on the western side of campus tonight. Should we go?”

“I doubt she would have wanted me there. It’s not like we ever got along.” I admitted. “You should go, though.” I smiled and smoothed my hand over Lalita’s hair.

“Okay. I’ll see if Eleanore wants to come with me. Will you still be here later?”

I snorted, then replied, “Is my mother still an evil bitch?”

She climbed off my lap and stood, then planted both hands on her hips. A smile slowly spread across Lalita’s face before turning into a full-blown grin.

“Oh, don’t forget the principal canceled today’s classes.”

I nodded. “Any guess on when classes will resume?”

She pursed her lips, then her gaze drifted to the side as if she was lost in thought. “I honestly have no clue. The last time a student died, they closed for a week,” she stated, then shrugged.

The memories from that time flashed through my mind.

A student who was found dead in the bathroom only an hour after he and Thomas had a heated argument in the library. It was eventually revealed that the deceased student had what appeared to be a heart attack, but one could never be certain in a school with magical students.

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