Page 9 of Mortal Shift
“Excellent. Let’s be on our way, then.” He paused and looked at me. “So much more peaceful. I don’t know why I didn’t just do that to start with.”
I glowered at him, and then he took hold of my arm.
“Deep breath,” he said cheerfully. “And try not to throw up. These shoes are new.”
And then the entire world fractured around me.
Chapter Four
I doubled over, retching, and found myself staring at a pair of highly polished shoes. Zane’s shoes. Right. Crap. I clamped one hand over my mouth and forced myself to straighten, sucking in gasps of cool air through my fingers.
Zane eyed me with a resigned expression.
“At least you didn’t actually vomit, I suppose.”
I gulped hard and wiped the beading of sweat from my forehead, not wanting to admit how close I’d come. My stomach was still churning, and if I lived to be a hundred, I never wanted to experience that again.
“Are you actually trying to kill me?” I demanded, and then quickly clamped my hand over my mouth again as the nausea came back for a second attempt.
“No,” he said coldly. “Buttheymight if you keep showing weakness.”
I looked around, noticing my surroundings for the first time. We were in some sort of hallway, the walls made of gray stone and the ceiling high above us. Archaic fire torches cast a flickering light in the halls, and I was pretty sure those cobwebs up near the ceiling weren’t early Halloween decorations.
Whatever had just happened, we weren’t in my apartment anymore. And we weren’t alone.
A trio of figures stood watching us, and I recognized one of them from the party last night. Jax. He didn’t look pleased to see me, and nor did the other guy or the woman he was standing with. One look at her face told me if I’d been hoping for some female solidarity, I’d have been disappointed.
“So,” I said to Zane, my eyes lingering on the trio. “This whole academy thing… Not a prank.”
“No.”
“And that was some sort of magic you used to get us here?”
“Yes.”
“And Cole is my…” My breath caught in my throat a moment and my heart hammered in a way that I definitely didn’t want to encourage. “Mate?”
“He is.”
“Well, that’s just great. But here’s the thing. I have responsibilities back home, so lovely as it was of you to show me all this…” Not that ‘lovely’ was specifically the word I’d use to describe this whole little misadventure, “I really need to be getting back to them. So if you can just do that whole transporting thing and drop me back there, that’d be great.”
Zane’s jaw tightened. “You are required by the council to attend Darkveil Academy, and attend you will. Make no mistake, Ms. Ellis. Darkveil Academy is a dangerous place, but attempting to leave will be far more so. Your human life no longer matters. Your fated mate—your soul mate, if you prefer—will likely one day be the alpha of his pack, and you will be by his side.”
“Uh, don’t I get some sort of say in that?”
His forehead creased in confusion. “Why would you want one? Cole is your fated mate, your perfect match in every way. There will never be another partner who suits you the way he will. Why would you wish to squander that? Most humans spend their lives looking for such a connection.”
“I’m not most humans.”
“Clearly.”
“So, just to recap,” I said, toying with my bag strap, “I’m stuck at this Darkveil Academy, where people may want to kill me, because Cole is some sort of mystical soul mate, and you expect me to turn my back on my real life?”
“Yes,” Zane said, with a note of impatience in his voice. “I really don’t see what is so hard for you to understand.”
I barked a harsh laugh that had the heads of our three spectators pivoting in our direction again.
“You know what? Never mind. Why don’t you just take me to whoever runs this place, and I can explain it to them.”
