creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge (2 page)

I’ve been running ever since.

“Calla?”

My eyelids spring apart and I find Gemma looking down at me. “Yes?” I croak.

“You’re okay.” She smiles in relief. “I thought Saskia might have knocked you out properly.” Gemma is one of the few people at the Guild who likes me enough to come over and find out whether I’m unconscious or not. Almost everyone else, including my oh-so-friendly mentor, would probably use this failure as another opportunity to point out that I don’t belong here.

“Don’t worry,” I say, pushing myself to my feet. “Saskia isn’t that good.”

Gemma chuckles as we head for the edge of the Fish Bowl and push through the swirling misty layer. “Don’t let her hear you say that.”

We walk toward the collection of training bags floating against the wall. I glance at her with a half-smile. “How about if I shout it instead so that
everyone
can hear?”

Gemma rolls her eyes. “Do you really want to poke the dragon like that?”

“Which dragon are we poking?” Perry asks, swinging a sweaty arm around Gemma’s shoulders as he joins us.

“Saskia,” I tell him.

“Perfect. I’ll get a stick.”

“Don’t you dare,” Gemma says, smacking at his hand until he removes his arm from her shoulders. “Why don’t we go to my place and do that history assignment instead?”

“Gemma.” Perry shakes his head with great seriousness as he looks down at her. “That is one of the worst suggestions you’ve ever made.”

“I can’t, I’m sorry,” I say before she can ask me. “Olive has another assignment for me. She told me to report to her directly after the last session.”

“Now? But you just finished training. You need a break.”

“It’s fine. I don’t mind.”

Gemma narrows her eyes. “You don’t mind, or you don’t have a choice?”

I consider her words. “Both.”

She shakes her head. “You know Olive is going to keep piling more and more on top of you until you either refuse or crack beneath the weight.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that. I don’t plan for either of those things to happen, though.” And the added work is a welcome distraction from the thoughts that are never far from my mind.

Thoughts of Chase.

Stop it.

“Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I pull my training bag out of the air and swing it over my shoulder.

“Okay. And don’t forget about the history assignment,” Gemma calls after me. “I know you haven’t started it yet.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I call back to her. I haven’t opened a single history textbook in the past ten days. They all make reference to Draven at some point or other, and he’s the last person I want to read about right now.

I stride along the corridor toward the main foyer. I’m almost there when a figure steps out of a nearby lesson room and stops in front of me. My stomach plummets at the sight of Violet. She and Ryn have been gone since the day of the wedding—the day I discovered the truth about Chase—which has made it easy to avoid talking to either of them. I thought they were away until tomorrow. I thought I had at least another twelve hours before they ambushed me. “Uh, how was the honeymoon?” I ask.

“Hmm, let’s see.” Vi places her hands on her hips. “We had a wonderfully relaxing time and didn’t once think about you or Draven.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Judging from the number of mirror calls I missed from you and Ryn in the past ten days, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that was complete sarcasm.”

“Missed? It felt a whole lot more like you were intentionally ignoring us.”

“I was,” I admit, “which you should be thanking me for. It was your honeymoon. You were supposed to forget about the real world.”

“And forget that the guy who almost
destroyed
the real world is actually alive instead of dead?” Her expression is incredulous. “Were
you
able to forget about that in the past ten days?”

I let out a loud bark of a laugh and fix a grim stare on the floor as my mind skims over the days since the wedding.

Day one: I slept in as long as possible, ran laps around Carnelian Valley until my legs could barely hold me, refused to let myself cry, contemplated burning Chase’s coat, and ended up stuffing it into the back of my closet instead.

Day two: I relished the distraction of lessons, poured every ounce of energy into training, splashed my feelings onto an angry painting—which I
did
end up burning—and successfully saved a businessman from being eaten by an ogre on his way home from a late night meeting.

Day three: I woke up early and found myself missing Chase more than anything. I got up, got dressed, and took two steps along an Underground tunnel before coming to my senses and realizing what a foolish idiot I was. I visited Mom instead, still trapped in her enchanted sleep in the Guild’s healing wing.

Day four: Olive discovered I’d never fought with a staff before. My entire afternoon was spent practicing the basics, and I welcomed the distracting pain of every blister.

Day five: I cried. Then I pushed down the hurt and confusion and focused on the anger instead. My evening assignment went well.

Day six: More staff practice. More blisters. More training, training, training.

Day seven:
Don’t think of him. Keep training.

Days eight to ten:
Keep training, keep training, keep training.

I fold my arms over my chest and look at Vi. “Yes, of course, I was able to
completely
forget about him.”

She purses her lips before saying, “I don’t need a wild guess to know that was also sarcasm.”

“Well done.”

“This is serious, Calla. Ryn and I need to know everything you know before we go to the Council with this.”

Go to the Council
… The thought makes me sick. Everything about this situation makes me sick. “Well, you’re going to have to wait a bit longer.” I step past her. “I have an assignment right now.”

“This is more important than any assignment,” Vi says, catching my arm.

“Have you met my mentor?
Nothing
is more important than her schedule.” I pull my arm out of Vi’s grasp and keep walking.

“Calla!” she shouts after me, seemingly shocked that I’m walking away from her.

“Calm down,” I say, turning and continuing to walk backwards as I speak. “Nothing happened in the past week, did it? Nothing happened in the past ten
years
, so what’s another day?” I spin around and head across the marble floor of the main foyer. I reach the grand stairway on the other side and take a step before hearing a commotion somewhere behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I see two guardians struggling to restrain a man near the entrance to the Guild.

A man I recognize.

A guardian who allowed everyone to believe he died in The Destruction.

The first person who taught me how to fight.

In shock, I grab the banister. “Zed,” I murmur. “What are you doing here?”

CHAPTER

TWO

I glance away quickly, my hand tightening around the banister. No one can know that Zed and I are connected in any way. It would make things worse for him, and it wouldn’t exactly help me either. He’ll be in enough trouble for never having given up his guardian weapons without adding the fact that he’s secretly been training someone for the past several years.

From the corner of my eye, I watch as the two guardians drag him across the foyer and into a corridor I’ve entered only twice. There’s a well-guarded gate not far along that corridor, and then a glass elevator that drops down, down, down. Then another gate, and then rows of cells separated by thick bars.

How did he get caught? How, after years of staying far from the Guild, did he wind up in the clutches of two guardians? And what will his punishment be?

Knowing there’s nothing I can do for him right now, and fully aware that I’m late to meet my mentor, I hurry up the stairs toward her office. I expect to find her ready to spit fire at me, but instead she raises her gaze from the unfurled scroll in her hands and fixes me with an expressionless stare. “What are you here for?”

“Uh, the assignment you said you had for me?”

“Oh.” She returns her attention to the scroll, her thumb running along the broken edge of the red wax seal. “I gave that to Ling.”

I stand in the doorway, wondering whether I should dare ask why she gave my assignment to the other fifth-year trainee she mentors. “Um—”

“She’s been asking for extra assignments. She was here on time. You weren’t.” Olive’s eyes scan the reed paper, never glancing up at me.

I fiddle with the strap on my bag and try to figure out whether I’ve been dismissed or not. “So …”

“No, you don’t have the night off.” Olive rolls up the scroll and throws it into a drawer, which she slams shut before standing. She combs her fingers through her short hair as she watches me, probably deciding what training exercise I’m least likely to enjoy. She lowers her hands to her sides. “You’ll be running laps around the old Guild ruins for the next two hours, and you’ll be wearing your tracker band so I’ll know you’re not skipping a single second of it.”

Terrific. So instead of sitting at home trying not to think of what Chase is doing, I’ll be running in circles trying not to think of what Chase is doing. Wondering whether he’s been cooking up evil plans since his fall. Pondering what reason he might have had for helping me. Trying to figure out how someone so terrible could seem so … caring.

STOP. IT.

“Not impressed, I see,” Olive says. She sifts through the untidiness of her desk until she finds the box that contains her trainees’ tracker bands. “Does the idea of improving your fitness seem like a waste of time to you?”

I carefully arrange my features into what I hope is a pleasant expression. “Of course not. None of this is a waste of time. I appreciate all the extra training you give me.”

“I see. Well, since you’re so appreciative of the extra training, let’s add in some more. You’ll do thirty minutes of running and spend the remainder of the time on the obstacle course. The one set up on the ruins. I want it completed perfectly five times in a row before you’re allowed to leave.”

I nod, relieved that I won’t have to spend two hours doing something so mindless. “Thank you.” My smile is closer to being genuine this time, which only seems to annoy Olive further.

“You’d better—” A crease forms between her eyebrows as she focuses on something behind me. An annoyed puff of breath escapes her lips. “That time of year again,” she mutters.

I look over my shoulder and see two first-year trainees practicing their levitating skills on a large sign that reads
Liberation Day
. The sick feeling I’ve been trying to escape rises up once more. In trying so hard to forget about Chase, it seems I’ve forgotten Liberation Day is coming up this week. Now I won’t be able to forget either of them.

I turn back to Olive. “Don’t you enjoy celebrating our freedom?” I ask quietly.

She tosses my tracker band to me. “I celebrate my freedom every day by simply
being free
. I think it’s entirely unnecessary for the Guild to go to such great expense every year to commemorate the day Draven’s reign ended.”

I’ve heard about the magnificent balls hosted by the Guilds every year on Liberation Day. I used to dream of attending, but Mom would never have let me, even if I’d been fortunate enough to receive an invitation from a Guild member. This is the first year I’m allowed to attend. This is also the first year I’d rather be anywhere else.

“Am I dismissed now?” I ask as I secure the leather tracker band around my wrist.

“Yes. And don’t be late tomorrow night. We’ve scheduled an assignment race for the fifth years. You’ll all begin at the same time and extra points are awarded based on the order in which you complete the assignment and return to the Guild. Now go. You’ve already wasted enough time this afternoon.”

* * *

I enjoy the outdoor obstacle course: vines and broken stone walls and stumps of wood placed strategically by mentors over the years. A still pool of water—formed by rain gathering in the crater left behind from the explosion that destroyed the old Guild—marks the end of the course.

I’ve just swung across the pool for the second time when I hear the sound. I drop onto my feet, release the rope-like vine, and squint into the dim blueish light. It was the snap of a branch, as if someone—or something—was moving through the trees nearby.

Of course my first thought is of Chase. It always is these days. Is he hiding amongst the trees, watching me? Has he been waiting for me to show up so he can speak to me? After all, he knows I train on the ruins sometimes.

Then it strikes me, with sickening abruptness, that he was the one who
created
these ruins. He is the
sole reason
this Guild no longer exists. I bend over and breathe deeply, willing the nausea away. How is it that I stood beside, that I spoke to and laughed with—that I
touched
—someone of such evil intent and never realized it? Is he so good at hiding that part of himself?