Slowly, gradually I felt the hair at the base of my neck rise up until they were sticking straight out.
I was being followed.
Even though I glanced around several times to identify them, they remained hidden either by the fog or by some other structure.
Those Fallen Ones not already on school campus were now arriving there.
While I was able to control the panic that typically rose up in me, the hairs dancing at the back of my neck was a painful reminder that I was surrounded by my enemies. A few times I clapped my hand against my neck but it didn’t help much. The hairs simply sprang back the moment I released them. Instead, I concentrated on calming them mentally and had nearly gotten them under control by the time I reached the school parking lot.
The lot was nearly empty, with only a few vehicles driven by faculty members parked in a line closest to the main entrance. I immediately recognized one vehicle in particular parked in a faculty slot, a military-inspired SUV called the Knight XV. It looked like an oversized toy but it wasn’t. It was an ultra-secure, armored vehicle and it had been parked in the driveway of Mr. Hamilton’s home every night I’d been there.
This meant Ms. Beedinwigg had arrived.
I hurried towards the main entrance, sensing the influx of ever more Fallen Ones. My being without protection must have sparked their curiosity, which didn’t bother me in the least until I turned around.
There, emerging from the mist was a unified line of Fallen Ones, walking nearly shoulder to shoulder and stretching the length of the parking lot.
I nearly stumbled.
Fallen Ones rarely traveled together, Abaddon and Marco being the exception. Despite that fact, right now they looked like an army advancing on my school…and on me.
I slid inside the main door and raced down the hallway towards Microbiology. It was vacant and eerily quiet with just my footsteps echoing off the lockers and walls.
“No running,” demanded a voice down the hall behind me.
I slowed to a fast-paced walk but didn’t bother looking back. The voice belonged to Mr. Warden and if he knew who it was running in the hall he’d delay me just for spite.
I made it to the classroom door and had my hand on the knob before the warden called out to me again.
“Hold it.”
I paused, still refusing to turn around.
“What’s the rush, Ms…?” he asked, fishing for my name.
I sighed, feeling my shoulders fall in desperation.
The warden reached me, coming alongside me, and then scoffed. “I should have known.”
Teeth clenched, I finally looked at him. My eyes were narrowed, conveying the loathing I felt for him.
A single thought ran through my mind: He was keeping me from getting to Eran.
“I really don’t have time for this, Mr. Warden,” I said, the words leaving my mouth before I even knew I’d thought them.
His jaw dropped in offense. “You have no respect for authority do you, Ms. Tanner?”
“Not your authority, Mr. Warden. Please excuse me.” I was already turning the knob when the warden stepped closer to me in a move meant to be intimidating.
It wasn’t.
His proximity to me didn’t make me come to a halt. It was Marco. I’d been concentrating on subduing my reaction to the multitude of Fallen Ones assembling around the school that I had effectively blocked my reaction to Marco approaching from down the hall.
“Now…now, Maggie,” he said, his tone leering. “What’s the rush?”
The warden and I turned in unison to face him and to find him standing a few feet from us, arms crossed over his chest and flanked by his clan. His mock coyness, so commonly used in the warden’s presence to project the image of obedience, was gone and he now exuded a confidence so potent that it seemed to fill the hallway and greatly overpowered the warden’s.
He glanced around theatrically before asking, “Where’s Eran? Where’s your guardian, Maggie? Don’t tell me that he left you alone?”
“Guardian?” asked the warden, befuddled.
Marco and I ignored him.
“Right behind me,” I said defiantly.
Marco slowly shook his head. “I don’t think so…”
My face fell to a glare, his slowly followed, and we stood silent and staring at one another, willing each other to make the first attempt at an attack. By this point, I was certain that the warden was suspiciously recognizing that something more than a casual conversation was taking place but to his credit he was smart enough to stay silent about it.
Finally, it was Marco who broke the glare. “You were headed for class, I noticed. A place of sanctuary? Where you feel protected by the presence of other students?” He paused to tilt his head to the side, mocking me. “There’s no reason to rush now is there?” The hint of sneer rose up and then disappeared. “Or is there? Where is Eran…my dear Magdalene?”
“Don’t call me that,” I hissed.
There was only a brief gap before he retorted, “I’ll call you whatever I want.”
The warden, realizing the interaction between Marco and me was escalating, stepped in. “Hey now-” he declared, moving between us.
Marco immediately met the warden halfway, nearly slamming his chest into the warden’s. “Leave us be,” he commanded.
“I’ll do no such-”
“Leave us or you will be hurt.” The sincerity in Marco’s tone left no question as to whether it was a veiled threat.
I had no doubt he would carry out his warning and actually prepared for it to happen when movement next to us caught all of us by surprise.
The first students of the day passed by, oblivious to the conflict they had just intruded on.
A quick glance around told us that more students were filtering into the hallway. Any attack by Marco or his men at this point would be detrimental to his objective at getting me alone.
Apparently, Marco deduced this to be the case too since he stepped back and reassembled his fake smile. “I’ll be around,” he said in warning to me.
“I’ll count on it,” I replied.
Marco and his men headed back down the hallway, resembling a small band of militia carving a path through the students now beginning to flood the hallway.
Only when Marco had nearly disappeared into the sea of wandering heads did the warden release his breath. He turned towards me, apparently wanting to rehash what had just happened but I didn’t give him the chance.
I was already stepping through the door of my classroom in search of Ms. Beedinwigg.
The room was empty so I moved to the window in hopes I could catch sight of her outside. The fog had nearly dissipated by this point and I could see that her vehicle was still in the parking lot.
Then I heard her voice.
“Maggie?”
Twirling around, I ran through the maze of desks towards her, not waiting to reach her before trying to explain all she needed to know.
“Slow down,” she instructed me. “You’re not making any sense.”
I struggled to stop myself and take a deep breath. “I need your help. I need to know where to find the prison holding the Fallen Ones captive.”
She stared back at me, hesitant. “Why?”
“Because Eran has gone there and I’m afraid…I’m afraid for him.” I groaned loudly in frustration. “I don’t have time to explain everything in detail. Please…just tell me where to find the prison.” I was becoming nauseous at the thought of Ms. Beedinwigg not helping me…because it certainly didn’t look like she wanted to.
“Maggie, why do you need to know where to find the prison?” she asked carefully.
“Because I’m going there,” I stated.
“No,” she stepped back, shaking her head. “You’re not ready.”
“Not ready,” I fumed. “You trained me. You’ve made me an expert in combat, weaponry, defensive strategy. I can control my reaction to Fallen Ones. I know the ways they fight…I’m ready.”
“You are not,” she replied simply.
Seething, I bent over; hands on my waist, trying franticly to come up with something, anything that would convince Ms. Beedinwigg that I could survive the mission. In the end, that didn’t matter. There was only one thing that did.
“Eran is in a German prison surrounded by our enemies. I will not let him die there.”
“Eran’s in prison?” said a voice from the door. “In Germany?”
It was Bridgette Madison and her expression was both shocked and excited.
“Bridgette, class will start late,” said Ms. Beedinwigg with a commanding tone she usually reserved for my training sessions. “Close the door.”
She did but not before I heard her express, wide-eyed, to someone beside her, “Eran’s in prison in Germany.”
Those few words created a cataclysmic reaction that only I and Ms. Beedinwigg foresaw. There was just one thing to do with a wildfire, stymie it; and the only way to do that was to remove the elements that were passing on the fire.
Knowing this, Ms. Beedinwigg ran for the classroom door and flung it open, calling in the students waiting in the hallway. They filtered in but not quick enough, she nearly heaved a few through the door.
Still, the damage had been done. The gossip traveled down the hallway, from student to student until whispers of it diminished in the distance.
I approached Ms. Beedinwigg, slowly, uncertain what to do now. “Marco,” I said quietly so that the other students couldn’t overhear while still earning her attention as she ushered the last of the students inside. “He knows I’m here without protection.”
She showed no sign of alarm and instead rapidly deduced the situation we were in. “Then the rest of them will know it too soon enough.” A glimpse of concern surfaced and then fell away. “We need to get you out of here.”
“To the prison,” I insisted and before she could oppose I added, “It’s far enough away and it’s the last place they’ll look for me.”
Ms. Beedinwigg tilted her head to the side and nodded in a surprise gesture of agreement. Then she addressed the class.
“Students, I have to run to the main office for a moment. Please review your notes from last class and begin reading the next chapter on your syllabus.”
She delivered the instructions with ease and patience that no one questioned her and a moment later their heads were down and reviewing their notes. All, that is, except for Bridgette. She continued to stare, inquiringly. It didn’t matter. Ms. Beedinwigg and I left the room then, effectively ending any further information that she could turn in to juicy gossip.
The hallway was empty again, with students and faculty behind closed doors, steadily learning today’s lessons. Ironically, my world, my existence had suddenly changed. Homework left undone had no meaning to me any longer. I didn’t care that I was absent from class or that I didn’t have a lunch to eat today.
My focus was on Eran and reaching him before our enemies could.
Apparently, so was Ms. Beedinwigg because she was already tearing the dress from her shoulders, revealing her black leather suit below it and the weapons attached to her waist which she secretly carried beneath it. With her free hand, she snapped the glass chain from her neck and pulled the pins from her hair, freeing herself as she had done during training. If any of the students had stepped out of the door at that moment, they would have wondered where Ms. Beedinwigg had gone.
She was ready for battle.
I followed her though she didn’t head towards the warden’s office. I didn’t expect her to. Instead, she took the hallway leading towards the main exit, right where her vehicle was parked.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be so easy to reach it.
Just as we turned the corner leading to the main hallway, my radar triggered, sending a concentrated wave of electricity from the back of my neck and down my spine. This, I had never felt before, neither the strength of it nor the extension of it through my body.
Unprepared for it, I moaned and bent over in pain, stumbling against Ms. Beedinwigg.
“Are you all right?” she asked nervously, taking my arm to support me but refusing to stop or slow her pace.
“The fight…” I said. “It’s coming.”
In reaction, Ms. Beedinwigg lifted her head to look around. Her voice was ominous when she spoke next.
“No…It’s already here.”
I looked up just in time to find a Fallen One collide with a blinding white light, directly ahead of us. They twisted and tumbled along the hallway, leaving slight dents in the concrete floor as they slammed each other down.
“Eran’s army,” I explained to Ms. Beedinwigg. “They’re defending us.”
“Good. We’re going to need them,” she replied, her pace remaining the same despite the number of fights we were starting to encounter.
To our left the boy’s bathroom door swung open to reveal a Fallen One being tackled by two bright lights, its wings flapping madly to steady itself against the attack. To our right, down the staircase, a pair of Fallen Ones were approaching two bright white lights, wings up and arms forward, their bodies in a crouch.
“Why are the Fallen Ones fighting now?” I asked, my body still rattling from the intensity of my radar reacting.
“They were waiting for a fight, Maggie, one that evidently isn’t coming. So they’ve started their own.”
“It looks like they’ve worked themselves in to a frenzy over it.”
We watched as a Fallen One swooped down the hallway towards us, a bright white light catching it before it could reach us. Still, just before the light yanked it backwards and down a side hall, it leaned forward towards me taking a swipe and coming dangerously close to my ribs. Ms. Beedinwigg spun around my body in a fluid move before I could even react. The movement ended with a moan and a brief stagger but she recovered and kept moving towards the doors.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, noticing her wince as she placed a hand to her own ribs.
“Not badly. Keep moving,” she ordered. “They didn’t expect you to be without your guardian and the opportunity to kill you is too great for them to pass up.”
I blinked, the realization washing over me so great it made my breath catch in my chest. “Are you…Are you saying they’re all going to try and kill me now?”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” she replied flatly, keeping her eyes on the doors ahead in her unwavering attempt to reach them.