Page 86 of Shadow Caster
He stood and walked over to the sink and continued to clean his arm. “You can leave now, Justice. Go rest. The shadow knights have cleared the mist of raiders so the trial will be going ahead as planned.” He met my gaze in the mirror, his expression unreadable. “Try not to die.”
* * *
Okay,so I’d promised to steer clear of Minnie, but tomorrow was the trial. It was life and death. And just in case I didn’t make it … I needed to say goodbye. Which was stupid because she no longer knew me, but still.
She opened her door with a polite smile. Same red bob. Same jade eyes, except there was no excitement to see me. No recognition.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I heard what happened to you. I just wanted to pop over and say how sorry I was and just … basically, say hi.”
“Did I know you?”
“We used to be roommates before I—”
“Oh, I heard about you. The female shadow cadet.” She studied me carefully. “Harper didn’t tell me you were my roommate.”
Of course she didn’t. “It may have slipped her mind.” I bit the words out.
“Oh, gosh, yes. She’s been inundated trying to fill me in on things. I don’t know how I would have coped without her these past few days.” There was real warmth in her tone. She canted her head. “Were we friends? I mean, did we hang out?”
This was my chance to tell her the truth, to tell her how she’d saved me, and how close we’d been. This was my chance, but I was leaving in a few hours. I was going to be walking into the catacombs in the mist and allowing myself to be sealed in, and I might not come back. Even if I did survive, my life belonged to the shadow knights.
And that felt right.
Minnie was a warm past. A beautiful memory.
She was looking at me expectantly. “Were we friends?”
“Not really.” I shrugged. “I mean you were kind and invited me to stuff, but I wasn’t really into it. Still, I wanted to say thank you. For being kind to me.” On impulse, I leaned in and hugged her.
She stiffened and then slowly, achingly, she hugged me back. Fuck, I was going to bawl.
I pulled away quickly. “Yeah. See you around.”
Walking away from Minnie, I allowed the grief to wash over me. I allowed the single tear to fall and then dashed it away.
I rounded the corner, and the orange-eyed gargoyle that Payne had dismissed the other day blocked my path.
I glared at it. “We’re not in lockdown anymore.”
He shoved a piece of paper at me and then walked into the shadows and vanished. I studied the spot he’d disappeared. Was he still there or had he shadow phased like I could? That was a question for another day. I unfolded the paper.
Meet me in the lab, I found something. Not a virus.
Master Payne.
My pulse kicked up. It wasn’t a virus that had taken Minnie from me. Just as I’d suspected, there was something or someone out there that had targeted students, and Master Payne had answers.
I made it to the med bay in less than five minutes. The med bay foyer was shrouded in darkness, and the quarantine room was inky black and locked tight. The lab too was pitch black. I flipped a switch and lit it up. The microscope was still set up, but the pot of gunk was gone. There was no sign of Master Payne.
I took a step forward, and my boot tip contacted something. I crouched to examine the object. Green and bright and attached to a broken chain. It was an amulet. The same amulet Madam Mariana wore.
I plucked it off the ground just as the door behind me opened with a snick.
Madam Mariana stood in the doorway. Her gaze went from the amulet dangling in my hand to the microscope. Her face drained of color, and my scalp prickled in foreboding.
I gripped the amulet tighter. “Where’s Master Payne?”
