Shadow Walker (Neteru Academy Books) (41 page)

“Yep,” he said in a casual tone, going to the edge of the stones to peer over them. “Like I said, they hunt and fetch what a Reaper or Shadow Walker tells them to go collect. They would have belched her out of there eventually. It’s not her time. Once she got down there, the Reapers on patrol would have checked with their commander, The Grim Reaper, and she would have gotten a pass—although she’d have been traumatized for life, but hey.”

Sarah squeezed her eyes shut. “I never, ever,
ever
want to be responsible for anything like that. What if she’d burned like that demon did or something?”

A pair of rough hands suddenly held Sarah’s arms tightly, forcing her to peer into Professor Razor’s hard glare.

“What demon, Sarah?” he asked in a no-nonsense tone, almost shaking her.

“Not here at school,” she said quickly. “The one at home. We were out at night—weren’t supposed to be, but that’s a long story.”

“Aren’t they all?” he said, letting her go and seeming somewhat relieved. “But what happened?”

“I got separated from…one of my compound sisters,” Sarah hedged, not wanting to implicate any of her friends in her confession. “Then, out of nowhere, a demon jumped at me. Then everything went black. I started falling, and I went into this…I don’t know. This dark place—a demon hole, I guess. Except it wasn’t like demons were there. In fact, there was this being of light instead. Nana said it was Christine—the daughter she lost a long time ago, who is now my guide. And when she sent me back, the demon was burning.” Sarah looked at her teacher, searching his expression for answers. “Is that where Melissa would have gone?”

A slow smile spread across Professor Razor’s face, then he raked his hair with his fingers, beginning to pace. “I’ll just be damned!” he exclaimed with a wide grin, then he threw his head back and laughed. Staring up at the sky, he said in a loud, booming voice, “First she shadow pulsed a student out of her chair, and now she says she can torch demons? Do you hear that!
Do you hear that?
The girl can already throw shadow fire, and she can even create a shadowbox!”

Not sure if what he was saying about her was a good thing or a bad one, Sarah just hugged herself and stared at him. Her grandmother had just used some of those terms the professor mentioned when they’d spoken in her office: shadowbox, like a cage. And what was shadow fire? She had to learn more.

“Sarah,” he said with a big smile, then went to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, “you are so gifted.” His expression and voice took on a gentler quality that she hadn’t known he was capable of, and he bent down so they were eye-to-eye. “When you went into the darkness, your guide didn’t save you. You saved yourself. It’s called shadowboxing—you put yourself in a black box to hide yourself from what was chasing you. Then you blew the sucker up with shadow fire. Dark energy, not to be confused with evil or dark consciousness… It’s like…the spectrum of ultraviolet light that actually becomes a black light—but concentrated. We call it shadow fire. The demons can’t see it, especially inside a shadow box, but when they trip over it…kaboom.”

He stepped away from her and laughed out loud. “Only fifteen years old and already blowing demons to smithereens. I love it!”

“I did?” she said in a very small voice, but down deep inside his pleased assessment made her stand taller.

“Yes, Sarah, you did,” he said, then folded his arms, still smiling. “Have you ever been so upset or afraid that everything around you just went dark, but somehow you didn’t feel terrified, just safe, like you’d thrown a blanket over your head or something?”

She looked off toward the horizon and thought about his question hard, and after a moment she turned back to him and began sputtering excitedly. “Yes, yes, just this morning! In the shower—I was so upset, I just wanted all this stuff to go away, and my roommates…” She hugged herself again and looked down. “I lost track of time. Everything went dark. It was so quiet and peaceful, then I realized I was late for homeroom.”

“It’s all right, Sarah,” Razor said in a quiet tone filled with pride. “One day, you might grow into shadow sight or even learn to shadow speak or hear what the shadows say. You already hear the little noises your Collectors make, right? If you’re really adept, you might even learn to strengthen your skills enough to regularly shadow travel.”

Sarah peered up at the man who had finally given names and clearer definition to the weirdness in her life. Overcome with emotion, she closed the gap between them and simply hugged him. He awkwardly patted her back and returned her hug. Somehow words weren’t necessary for him to understand what it had been like living with this thing and not having a name for it.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody,” she said, keeping her eyes tightly shut as she held onto him. “I’m so, so sorry for what I did to Melissa.”

“I’m not going to let you hurt anybody, honey,” he said softly, then held her away. “But that was why I was so angry when I found out that no one had told you.” He released a long breath and shook his head. “You needed to know. Ignorance is a sure recipe for fear. And had you known your power, you could have been trained like a black belt not to get into petty street fights with amateurs, knowing full well you could kill them. But without knowledge, you were just spontaneously ejecting all over the place—not good.”

“My father always said knowledge was power,” Sarah said in a bitter tone, feeling outrage beginning to rekindle within her.

“Yeah, I bet he did, and I’m pretty sure where he got the quote. Be that as it may, let’s not focus on what people did wrong. Let’s focus on your learning, your improvement, your talents, all right?”

“Okay,” she said, finding a smile. It was hard not to be angry, but it was also hard not to feel empowered—and that felt so good. “Can I like…maybe…just come to you sometimes after class just to ask you questions, sir? Like…there’s nobody who really understands this stuff, not even Nana—I mean, Headmistress Stone.” Sarah bit her lip, waiting, hoping, praying that Professor Razor, who only took the super-advanced kids, might share just a little of his time and expertise with her. If she could learn how to use her talents with him, maybe she could learn fast enough to help Ayana. What good were special powers if it didn’t help the people you loved?

He shrugged and stepped back, looking down at her. “I don’t know, Sarah. Are you willing to work hard?”

“I am. I really am,” she said, almost breathless at just the chance to study under him.

“Then I’ll do you one better than just some casual tutoring after class.” Professor Razor stared at Sarah, then he reached into his pants pocket, extracted a little onyx-and-sterling pin in the shape of an Egyptian Ankh and attached it to the collar of her sweater. “There. You’re now officially in the Shadows division. You are not in the Blends talent division anymore. Normally I give these out during the first day of class, but why stand on ceremony? You sure don’t, Miss Rivera.”

“Oh, my God!” she said excitedly, and after a moment she touched the small black pin and looked up. “I don’t ever want anything like hurting another student on my conscience. I promise you won’t be disappointed in me. I’ll study hard. I know this is a big responsibility, and I swear to you that I’ll only use what I learn for the good. I don’t want to be responsible for dragging another kid to you-know-where.”

“I didn’t think so,” he said firmly. “So learn to control your gift and make your Collectors behave.”

“I don’t know how to,” she said.

“That’s why I got the job of working with you. Oh joy,” he said with a lopsided smile and a wink.

By the time she’d gotten back to the purple corridors, homeroom was over and so was first period. Sarah dashed down the hall to make it to Miss Tittle’s English class a full minute early, then put on her most contrite expression, walked up to the high-strung woman and apologized in front of all the other students.

“Thank you for allowing me back into your classroom, Miss Tittle,” Sarah said in a solemn tone. “I am very sorry that I was disrespectful earlier and retaliated against another student. It won’t happen again. And I’ll be at the stables on time—I promise.”

“Well, that is more like it—and I do hope Headmistress Stone reinforced with you how unacceptable disrespectful behavior is.” Suddenly Miss Tittle came to a halt. She stared at Sarah’s collar. “Oh, my,” she said. “Your powers…that explains it…you’re in Shadows now.”

Murmurs broke out in the class as Sarah went to take her seat in the back row next to her brother.

“What’d you do?” Amy Feingold muttered. “Go get a free pass from your grandmother? I guess everybody in the Netpound sticks together, huh?”

“You know they do,” Angelica Roberts griped under her breath.

“Back off,” Al said, giving Melissa’s girlfriends a warning glare. “If Sarah’s a Shadow, it’s because she earned it. And after what Mel’s been doing to Sarah and her friends, then what she said about my cousin Ayana…well, Melissa is just lucky my pop doesn’t go in for hitting girls. But as you can see, my sister can take care of herself.”

Dumbstruck, Sarah slid into her seat. “Thanks,” she whispered, staring at him. She’d thought he was on Melissa’s side from the way he’d gone to her rescue earlier, but it was clear now that he’d simply been upset like everyone else and had just reacted without thinking, trying to save her.

“That’s awesome,” Val said, leaning over to her to bump Sarah’s fist with her own.

Allie passed a note to her quickly, and Sarah read it, then hugged herself with a big smile. The paper had little smiley faces and hearts all over it, and said: We are so sorry. Sit with us at lunch. Still BFFs, right? Hyacinth mentally shouted OMG! I’m so proud of you! so loudly that Sarah squinted. Donnie shook his head and looked completely amazed. But Tami’s eyes held something Sarah didn’t want to quite name. It seemed to be a strange combination of hurt and deep sadness—along with resentment. That stabbed Sarah in the heart, numbing her good news, muffling the voices around her.

“You go, sis,” Miguel said with a wide grin, drawing her attention away from Tami.

“Sweet,” Wil said with an affirming nod. “I’ll see you in lecture. Razor is…what can I say?”

“Okay now, class, let’s settle down,” Miss Tittle said, tapping the edge of her desk with a ruler. “This is all very exciting and positive, given some of the more unfortunate incidents we’ve been experiencing, but Sarah will still do detention. Disrespect is not allowed under any circumstances. Of course, there is also the matter of Melissa’s injuries, however, I was made privy to some of the details surrounding that situation, and she is in trouble herself for pranking several of you earlier. Even while this nasty business of the missing students is being addressed by the administration, we must adhere to rules—must keep a sense of normalcy. Understood?”

Both Amy Feingold and Angelica Roberts gasped.

“You little rat,” Angelica muttered under her breath, glaring at Sarah.

“No, more like a big rat,” Al said, defending his sister in a low, warning tone. “
I
told when I took Melissa to the infirmary, so if you’ve got a problem, tell Mel to see me. And for the record, my grandmother doesn’t play favorites. Like I said before, if Sarah’s in Shadows now, you can be sure she earned her place there.”

“Yes, well,” Miss Tittle said, walking over to the board. “As I said, all of this nonsense must stop from here on. Melissa is in trouble, believe me—even though we must verify the voracity of Al’s claim,” she added, her tone skeptical, “given that he might be motivated as a sibling to, umm…shall we say,
embellish
circumstances on his sister’s behalf.”

Amy cut Al a mean-spirited smile as Angelica rolled her eyes at him in triumph.

“But Melissa must heal first, and what becomes of her for conspiring to harm a fellow student is a matter for the administration, not the speculation of this classroom. As to you, Miss Rivera,while your reaction to Melissa may be viewed as self-defense with cause—if we find out these allegations are true, and if you thought you were under attack again—regardless of your latent shadow talent, you must learn how to control said gift, and you most assuredly cannot disrespect an instructor, least of all, me. There will be order in this Academy!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sarah said, just happy to not be expelled. She glanced at her brother and gave him a rare smile of gratitude. Miss Tittle was such a sore winner. But that didn’t matter. She now had something and someone to work with. For the first time in her life she didn’t feel like a complete weirdo. There was a name for what she had and for what she was.

Sarah briefly closed her eyes and tried to send some light to Ayana with her mind.

S
arah wasn’t sure how she’d made it to lunchtime. She went through the motions for the balance of the morning feeling emotionally wrung out and numb. Ayana was missing, plain and simple. Wil alone seemed to know that, above all things, Ayana’s disappearance had injured her soul, and his sad eyes told Sarah he understood that in every class.

“Hey, Sarah,” he said quietly, waiting for her at the door as class broke up. “I just want you to know how sorry I am about everything you’re going through. I’m here if you need me.”

“Thanks,” she said in a barely audible tone. “Means a lot.”

Then she watched as Val, Al and the others from her compound walked toward her. Sarah noticed how Tami hung back and seemed to separate herself from everyone. Resentment flared, but she dragged her attention back to Wil.

“I understand,” he said, nodding toward the family coalition heading her way.

He didn’t have to say more; she knew what he meant. This was a time for her to be surrounded by the people who would be grieving with her. There would be time later for those who supported her individually, but right now everything was still too raw.

Val reached her first, followed by Allie and Hyacinth, then Donnie and Miguel. Sarah watched her brother stand back with Tami.

“Everything is gonna be cool,” Val said gently, touching Sarah’s arm. “Al’s gonna talk to Tami—hip her to a few things. But you need to eat.”