Page 33 of Monster's Reward

“So youhaven’tdiscovered any secret areas in the three years you’ve been a student here?”

He hesitated.

“Exactly.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t make any sense that you would findshadowinformation in any of those places.”

“It does if you assume once upon a time, Blackthorn Academy had shadow-beast professorsandstudents. After all, the school’s been enrolling students since the late 1600s.”

“Show me these secret rooms and passages.”

“Not a chance.”

He let out a low growl of annoyance.

“But I’ll show you a couple of my books.”

CHAPTER10

It wasa terrible idea to bring Jahrdran to my room. I knew it, even as he followed me up the five flights of stairs.

Sure, I could have shadow-walked my way up them, but walking the old-fashioned way gave me a chance to think.

I reviewed the books currently in my room, debating which ones I wanted to show him—and the ones I didn’t—and worrying about which ones might be lying in plain sight.

When I’d first started bringing books up to our room, we’d kept them hidden from prying eyes, just in case. However, as the weeks had passed and no one seemed to notice that I was constantly carting books back and forth from the basement, we’d gotten a little lazy.

Now, I was pretty sure I’d left at least one of the books open on my bed. I just couldn’t remember which one.

I then tried to picture the book and was pretty sure it was lying face-up, pages exposed, which made me wonder whether it wasA History of Shadowsand if so, whether the pages would be blank.After all, Jahrdran wasn’t a shadow-beast, so theoretically, he shouldn’t be able to read the book, just like Jasmine and Mikaela couldn’t.

Except, he was also my mate, which could mean he’d have access to shadow secrets the way he had access to the shadow realm.

As we climbed, I became increasingly aware of the beast stalking at my back.

Shadow raced ahead of us, happily jumping up several steps, then swiveling to make sure we were following her.

She was absolutely thrilled that Jahrdran was speaking to us again, even though I wasn’t sure he really was.

There was a lot left unsaid and he was a seething mass of emotions at my back.

For all I knew, he was following me upstairs to kill me.

My step faltered at that thought, but I powered through, refusing to believe things were that dire.

We finally reached my room and I led the way inside.

I crossed the room and climbed onto my bed, propping my back against the wall, then waited to see whether he would choose a desk chair, Jasmine’s bed or to sit next to me on mine.

He chose a desk chair.

We stared at each other in silence for a few moments, then he said, “Books.”

Right. I debated a long moment, then finally said, “Behind you.”

He swiveled in the chair and saw the stack of books on the desk behind him. He looked through them silently, then glanced at me. “Where’d you get all these?”

“I told you. There are secrets at Blackthorn and I’ve discovered a few.”

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