Page 22 of Dance With Death

Best friend? I’ll fact check that one.

“Unless Holly posts something else on Instagram or replies, I won’t believe she’s okay,” adds Isabella.

Soft footsteps cross through the shelves. Mrs. Eldridge glares at us. “You should know better, Rowan. This is a quiet space. Use the meeting rooms if you need to discuss anything.”

Marci tips her chin. “We’re at the top of the library. Who’ll hear us?”

“Irrelevant,” snaps Mrs. Eldridge. “Rules are rules.” She eyes the table. “All books in this section of the library are not available to borrow. I suggest you replace them when you’re done.”

With an exaggerated sigh, Nita stands and scoops a couple of books into her arms, the other girls doing the same. “Which meeting room is free?” she asks coolly.

“McGowan Room.” Mrs. Eldridge thins her lips, and as she watches them go, she calls out, “I expect to see those books back on the shelves by the end of the day, or there’ll be trouble.”

The girls don’t reply.

Mrs. Eldridge turns back to me, blocking my way. “How are you, Rowan? We haven’t spoken much recently.”

“After your threats to report me and get me expelled?” She merely stares at me. “We’re not investigating the tiara.”

At the moment.

“Which upset Julius even more.” Her expression sours. “You should never have interfered.”

“I’m not having this conversation again,” I reply, not giving a crap about impertinence. “I’m busy. Studying.”

Mrs. Eldridge is still on Violet’s suspect list for academy subterfuge, but now isn’t the time to quiz the woman. There’s something else I need to check up on.

“Thank you for moving the girls,” I say, give a tight smile, and walk away.

I examine all the shelves close by, looking for an empty space between the books. I’ve spent enough time in this part of the library that I have a precise mental catalogue of what belongs where.

Here.

Missing spell books.

One is potions related and another an encyclopedia of runes. What are Marci and her friends using them for? Humans can’t cast spells and don’t study either subject.

As I head back to my desk, another thought strikes. Why didn’t Mrs. Eldridge ask about Holly? Because she didn’t have time, or chose not to because the librarian knows where Holly is?

8

LEIF

Violet’s strange thoughtfulness that led her to spend time with me came as a bolt from the blue. An afternoon with the girl I love soothed some of the aching fear that she’d reject me now because of my link to Viktor.

Last night, I didn’t get a chance to ask anybody about brooches, so after my date with Violet, I approached one of the girls who still talks to me, although she fidgeted and looked around all the time as we spoke. Lucy couldn’t tell me where to buy a brooch for Violet, nor would she say where hers came from. Then Lucy proceeded to show me a jewelry website suggesting something different to buy Violet.

Although tempted to order the small pin of a pink poodle, solely to see Violet’s reaction, I resisted.

An eerier atmosphere settled over Thornwood Academy over the last weeks. Wes’s murder, the incident at the spring ball, mysterious wolf sightings, and Holly now presumed missing has driven a greater wedge between the humans and supes. Many never leave Darwin House after dark, always moving in large groups if they leave the grounds for town. The tensions in class spills into arguments and threats by humans against supes that teachers struggle to calm.

Wes’s nightly crusade to bully supes was limited to a small group of human assholes, but that attitude towards supes has infected more of Darwin’s residents. The gloom and chill hovering around the academy add to the sinister possibility that a mysterious creature might appear this evening, but there aren’t any humans looking for fights with witches. I’ve heard whispers someone will die on the full moon, but this isn’t the first time ominous rumors have spread. Werewolf and full moon? We all know what prompted this gossip.

I meet Violet and Rowan in the shadows of the cloisters where Violet sits on a stone bench beside Rowan, and I lean against the opposite wall. Grayson refuses to walk around campus at night, but his reason isn’t fear of other supes. If another attack happens, and somebody saw him wandering around beforehand, Grayson will struggle to escape accusation. The same applies to Violet, but, of course, she doesn’t care.

To be honest, I’m not in the mood for anything apart from somebody fixing my mind. Until that happens, how am I supposed to focus on anything else? Although, considering what happened to Oz in his cell that night, leaving makes more sense in case Dorian decides I’m too big a threat and kills me too.

Yeah, like I can ever escape him—or the shifter elders, who are occupied with deaths and necromancy. At least that means the elders dropped their crusade against forcing me to join them. For now.

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