Page 24 of Monster's Mystery

Several students nodded their heads at my words, and I felt a bit better.

“My notes will be at the library after lessons today,” the professor said.

There were a few grumblings, but on our way out the door to the next class almost everyone reassured him that we would solve this mystery.

I only had one class left, Charms & Potions, before I had to go and meet Professor Akhtar about my schedule. Mrs. Wainwright was waiting for us at the front of the room, her thick black-framed glasses perched precariously on the tip of her nose.

I always wanted to push them up, just to see what she’d do.

“I hope you’re prepared for an intense semester,” she said dreamily.

I wasn’t fooled by the distracted quality of her voice. Despite it, she was extremely exacting in her testing, and was probably one of the most difficult professors to please. Potions were her specialty, and if she came across even one clump in her assessment, she docked you marks.

“We’re going to leave behind the charms and potions that you would find in your spellbooks. The ones we will be studying are more theoretical than practical, and yet, you will force them to bend to your will and become reality.”

My eyebrows rose at the hard, steel-like tone in her voice at the end of her speech, and I glanced at the students to either side of me to see if they felt the same way. Most of them were whispering amongst themselves, so I knew I wasn’t alone in my surprise.

“We will start with the simplest, moving on to the most complex and dangerous just before the holidays.” Her eyes shone with excitement before regaining their dreamy state. “But first, we will start with practicing our protective shielding. Please repeat after me...” Professor Wainwright incanted the standard safety spell that would protect us from any backlash from a charm or potion gone awry.

The class repeated it, the words feeling like slipping into a comfortable pair of pajamas. It was an easy charm; one of the first ones any of us had ever been taught.

“Very good,” the professor said. She pointed her finger at a student to my left and said something I didn’t quite catch.

The boy’s nose started dripping blood.

“Strong, but not enough,” the professor said. “Heal yourself. I am going to teach you the next level shielding charm. By the end of this semester, you should be able to cast and hold each of the five levels of shielding for a minimum of an hour.” She said the second level shield spell and we repeated it.

It was a spell I was familiar with, but I was glad for the chance to practice.

“At the end of the class, I will randomly test the strength of one of your shields,” Professor Wainwright said. “Keep them strong.”

Power shields weren’t all that different from the invisibility shields that Aiden and I used, so I wasn’t too concerned. I wished I could tether it to an object, though. Then I could spare my entire concentration for the rest of the lesson.

When we walked out of class, several more people had nosebleeds and we had the professor’s warning echoing in our ears to practice.

I nearly bumped into Aiden in the middle of the second floor foyer.

“Have you seen Geoffrey?” he asked. “He wasn’t in my class just now.”

I frowned. “I talked to him at lunch. Bruce was going to ask him about his missing roommate, Justin.”

“All right, let’s go find Bruce.”

He wasn’t too difficult to locate, once we found the class for camouflage that he was in. He was talking to the teacher.

We waited outside the door impatiently until he joined us. “Hey, I thought we were meeting for dinner to discuss the mystery?” he said. “Geoffrey hadn’t seen Justin after breakfast yesterday.”

“He’s missing,” I blurted out.

Bruce’s eyebrow rose. “Yes, I know Justin is missing. That’s why we’re asking about him,” he said as if I were a toddler.

I laughed. “Not him. Geoffrey.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that Geoffrey is missing now, too?” Bruce’s eyes widened almost comically. “I left him in the cafeteria. Are you sure he didn’t just go to his room or something?”

Aiden twisted his lips into a grimace. “He might also have met with a teacher or counselor regarding the death of his roommate. I may have jumped the gun on this one, Siobhan. Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. My mind leapt to the same conclusion as yours.” I tapped my chin as I thought quickly. “I have to meet Professor Akhtar now. Bruce, you go see if Geoffrey is in his room. Aiden, you go to the office and talk to the staff there. They would have seen him if he went to talk to a counselor. We’ll meet for dinner.”

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