Page 10 of Ares' Shield
“Let’s hope that it’s not Circe.”
Jayden pulls open the heavy wooden door and natural light floods the space. I can’t get out of the building fast enough.
I breathe a sigh of relief as we step out into the warm sunlight.
“Where should we look for her?” I ask, scanning the quad.
“Maybe the cafeteria?”
“She never seems to be in the cafeteria when we need her either,” I say but start toward the cafeteria anyway.
I don’t want to have to go to the faculty accommodations. We could get into trouble as it’s off-limits and the damn forest there is hostile.
The dryads don’t let students in there. They protect the faculty area fiercely. Having trees reach out and grab you is terrifying the first time it happens.
Raven raises an eyebrow when she sees us walk past her but doesn’t comment.
“Have you seen Rebecca?” I ask.
“No, she wasn’t in the cafeteria. Why?” Raven asks.
“I need to speak to her.” I scan the quad again, hoping she will just pop up.
She does that often enough, but never when we need her.
“You might have to go to no-man’s-land to find her.” Raven shivers.
My thoughts exactly. I hate that place almost as much as the admin building… almost.
Jayden shifts next to me. “Maybe we should try the cafeteria first. That way we can at least say we looked everywhere before we go that far.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to get beaten up by trees again unless I have to.”
Raven falls into step beside us as we walk into the cafeteria, but of course Rebecca is nowhere to be seen. The cafeteria is emptier than it was before.
“Fuck, I really don’t want to go out there,” I grumble.
“C’mon, I’ll protect you from the evil dryads,” Jayden says, chuckling.
“You’re not funny.” I narrow my eyes at him.
We rush out the door, back into the sunshine, and round the building. The faculty housing is at the back of the property behind all the other buildings and down a dirt path.
The trees reach out for us and snag at our clothes as we rush down the path.
“Seriously? We are looking for Rebecca. It’s kind of an emergency.” I smack a branch that’s doing its best to gouge my eyes out.
A dryad steps out from behind a tree with a scowl, her hands on her hips.
“You aren’t allowed to go this way.”
“Yes, we understand. You have made it abundantly clear that we aren’t welcome here, but we don’t have a choice.” I shuffle my feet, irritated.
“You can’t. It’s forbidden.” She stomps her foot.
“Then go find her for us and we won’t have to go this way.”
This shouldn’t be so hard, but my stinging arms and face will thank me for not going any farther, that’s for sure.
