Page 43 of Monster's Reward

Shadow let out a happy, rumbling purr and set her head next to the giant leopard’s head.

“I had no idea Mikaela was a leopard shifter,” I said.

“She’s half shifter, half witch, but she’s never shifted before,” Jasmine said. “Her magic manifested, but her leopard never appeared. That’s the way it goes sometimes. You get one set of gifts, but not the other. Whatever happened to her must have woken her leopard with a vengeance.”

I reached out and stroked Mikaela’s head. Her fur was the same shade as her hair in human form. “You have to wake up, Mikaela.”

Shadow let out a soft whimper.

“Where is everyone anyway?” I glanced around, surprised the nurse wasn’t in here, fussing over Mikaela.

Jahrdran and Jasmine exchanged a look that had the hair on the nape of my neck standing up. “What? What’s going on?”

“When I got back from getting snacks yesterday, you and Mikaela were gone,” Jasmine said. “Then the alarms went off. A moment after that, you two came falling out of the closet.”

“When the alarms went off,” Jahrdran said, “all I could think of was getting to you.”

“He came bursting into the dorm room and helped me carry you two here. Everyone thinks it was an intruder that set the alarms off,” Jasmine said. “Then, when they realized how badly hurt Mikaela was, the whole castle went on lockdown.”

“They’re out at the docks right now,” Jahrdran said, “trying to figure out if someone used the magical ferry without authorization, and if so, how to keep it from happening again.”

“He didn’t use the magical ferry,” I said, staring down at Mikaela, remembering how she’d looked, completely relaxed, sprawled across the bed right before those damn shadows had wrapped around her. “He came straight from the shadow realm, just appeared in our dorm room.”

Jahrdran blanched. “Who did?”

I just looked at him and he shook his head. “No. That’s not possible. He should be dead. Hehasto be dead.”

I hated to tell him what I was thinking, what I’d been thinking since we’d stood outside the library and eavesdropped, but he had to know. He had to prepare himself. “If the professors are right and hewasn’ta shadow-beast, that means your people were never actually hunting the killer at all, soyes, he could still be alive.”

“It’s been two hundred years,” he said desperately.

“And we were just attacked by the shadows,” I told him.

Despair settled over his face and I stepped forward to hug him again. “It’s all right. We’ll figure it out.”

“Please tell me you’re not talking about who I think you are,” Jasmine exclaimed.

I stepped back and looked up at Jahrdran.

He nodded, a resigned look on his face

I turned to face Jasmine. “It’s the Shadow Killer. He’s back.”

As if my words were some sort of prophetic announcement, the alarms went off again.

CHAPTER13

“Jasmine, stay with Mikaela,”I ordered as I ran toward the door of the infirmary.

Shadow, stay with them both.

“Where are you going?” Jasmine cried out after us.

It was a good question.

I froze just outside the door of the infirmary, uncertain of where to go, or if Ishouldgo anywhere at all.

Jahrdran stood behind me, one hand on my shoulder, telling me silently that wherever I went, he would be at my side.

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