The Villain Keeper (23 page)

“Ms. Primrose,” Officer Levine said in his calm, placating manner, “my job is to protect your school and your students. This may have been rudimentary and not very powerful, but it's still an explosive. And if someone's setting explosives, I need to stop them.”

The chill crept from the room. The sense of something powerful dimmed. “It's in your nature. It's in your rights.” It sounded like that irritated her beyond measure. “Fine, investigate what you will. But my people know better than to do anything to tarnish the reputation of my school. It's my prize jewel.”

“Thing about people,” Officer Levine said. “Knowing better doesn't always mean they do what they should.”

From the door, the overly dramatic voice of Rath Dunn rang out. “What's happened?”

“Keep him out,” Officer Levine said, and from the way he said it Officer Levine didn't like him. “Follow your lockdown procedure until my people are able to process the area.”

Ms. Primrose's noisy shoes tapped, tapped, tapped back toward the hall. “Let the man do his job,” she snapped. The room remained chilled. “Everyone, get where you need to be chop-chop.” In the hallway, her footfalls faded.

Caden heard Officer Levine exhale as he paced around the room, stopped by the window, then the door. When he walked near the desk, he sighed. “You wanna come out now?”

C
aden unfolded, lowered to the ground, and crawled from under the desk. His knees were covered in dirt and pencil shavings. “I'm innocent of this destruction,” he said.

Officer Levine raised his brows. “You just happened to be hiding under the desk when the door blew off?”

“I took cover to avoid being blamed.”

“Uh-huh?” Officer Levine inhaled, and his nostrils flared. With a shake of the head, he said, “Go wait in the hall with Jenkins for now.”

“I don't want to wait in the hall.”

Apparently, what Caden wanted mattered not. Jenkins stayed with him in the hall. “My sister won't stop talking about that horse you found,” he said.

“I didn't find him. Sir Horace is a kindred soul.”

“Well, she thinks your kindred soul is getting out of the stable and jumping the fence at night. Always comes back the next day, though.”

This was nothing Caden didn't already know. “A Galvanian snow stallion cannot be fenced.”

A moment later, Rath Dunn stalked around the corner. He looked surprised when he saw Caden. If Rath Dunn hadn't suspected him initially, he had suspicions now. “Caden,” Rath Dunn said in a voice like daggers, “why are you outside my classroom?”

Caden wanted to ask him about the vials, demand to know their purpose, but perhaps it was better Rath Dunn not know Caden had found them. He stepped closer to Jenkins.

“Boss is driving him home in a few,” Jenkins said.

It was a futile attempt to protect Caden. It was noble enough in its way, and Caden mustered some gratitude. For his part, Rath Dunn didn't acknowledge Jenkins at all. He kept his gaze locked on Caden.

“No matter,” Rath Dunn said. “We'll have lots of time to talk during detention next week.” With a cruel grin he turned his back and peered at the twisted lockers.

Jenkins moved toward him. “Sir,” Jenkins said, “you need to leave.”

Rath Dunn ignored him. He inspected the splintered pieces of door and the crushed lockers, and ran his finger along the sharp edge of the torn metal. “Powerful,” he muttered.

He switched from his leisurely pace so quickly that neither Caden nor Jenkins had time to react. One moment he was looking at notepaper sprouting from pink metal, the next he was pushing Caden against the wall and hissing in his ear.

“This seems beyond your skill set,” Rath Dunn said. “Very interesting, indeed.”

Then he let go and was moving on. He slowed as he passed the broken door of his classroom and looked inside as if he was memorizing everything. After a moment, he walked down the hall and around the corner. His laughter echoed in the halls. Long after the fact, Jenkins put his hand on his weapon. His hair was frizzy like an odd red halo, his mouth contorted into a confused line. “What was that about, kid?”

This was not the time to explain interrealm travel to Jenkins. There might never be a time for that. Caden, however, would not lie. “He is enemy to my people,” he said.

School was released early, and Officer Levine did drive Caden and Tito home. He stopped the car beside the metal sun sculpture. Brynne ran out from the house. As soon as she saw Caden, relief seemed to come over her in waves. Rosa followed her out.

While Rosa talked with Officer Levine, Caden, Tito, and Brynne huddled on the porch.

“You turned off your phone.”

Yes, Caden had. He could learn this tech, too, but he'd
no time for idle talk. He told them about the vials in Rath Dunn's desk. He told them of Ms. Primrose and her office. He told them of the forgotten languages she claimed to have spoken.

As he spoke, Brynne's expression became more and more concerned. “Forgotten languages?” she said. “What's that mean?”

Truthfully, Caden didn't fully know. He crossed his arms. “Languages that hurt the head to hear and the tongue to speak. One sounded musical, the other abrasive.”

“That sounds like the tongues of power, spoken by the Elderkind.” She peered at Caden for a long while. “And you said Rath Dunn had a vial marked ‘Essence of Dragon'?”

“Yes.”

Tito, too, was frowning. He and Brynne looked at each other like their thoughts were aligned. Tito spoke first. “One of my foster mothers wore a perfume called ‘essence of desire.'”

The perfume. That's why Rath Dunn wanted it. It was part of the ingredients he was collecting.

Brynne twisted her hands together. “She really is an Elderdragon, isn't she?” That realization had slowly been building in Caden's mind, too. And if that was the case, it was likely her perfume was a powerful spell component.

“Dude,” Tito said, not seeming to realize the weight of this realization, “you're not slaying Ms. Primrose.”

Caden frowned. “I doubt I could.”

“Well, good. Then don't try it.”

Brynne looked pale. She paced across the porch. “She could kill us all,” she said.

When trying to save a stolen girl, one must expect to encounter anything, even enemies and Elderdragons. Caden considered Ms. Primrose's silver hair and iridescent skin. Like Rath Dunn, she hadn't killed them. “I'm certain she's the Silver.”

The tension and worry in Brynne seemed to lessen slightly. The Silver Elderdragon was known for much more mercy than the vicious and chilling blue.

Caden looked out at the sculptures. Ms. Primrose did seem to want to eat someone. “Either the Silver or the Blue.”

Brynne widened her eyes. “She can't be the Blue,” she said, but Caden was unsure.

B
rynne bit her lip and looked fearfully around. “The Blue? Are you certain?”

After a day of dragons and explosions and an aching arm, Caden found her response amusing. The dragon wasn't on the road or hiding in the woods. “She wants to meet you.”

“What?” Brynne said. Her eyes narrowed and her cheeks turned red. “What did you tell her about me?”

Perhaps it was better to be kind. He set his hand on her shoulder. “Nothing,” he said. “I told her nothing.”

Caden was saved from Brynne's then-building wrath by Rosa. She came back to the porch while Officer Levine drove away, then gathered them around the small kitchen table. She stared at Caden for a moment. “You look pale.”

“I'm fine.”

Caden could have sworn that she did have magic of the mind, for she said, “Show me your arm.”

“I already did,” Caden said.

“Again,” she said.

Reluctantly, he removed his coat. The large contract Ms. Primrose had given him hung heavily inside as he leaned it over his chair. The purple detention sheet crinkled from the other pocket. Rosa looked only at his wound. The color drained from her face. She grabbed a cloth, knelt next to him, and wrapped it around his arm.

He fidgeted away from her tending. He had no mother, and he didn't need one. “An Elite Paladin ignores his pain, he concentrates on his duty, he fights the—”

She held up her palm. “I want you to stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop Razzon. Keep your answers confined to this realm.” She squinted at him and, after a moment of silence, she said, “I can see the appeal of a world of kings and magic. This world can be gut wrenching.”

“In one of the lower kingdoms, the penalty for desertion is to be split open across the belly. That's gut wrenching.”

“This realm of yours seems violent.”

“Yet, you don't believe it exists,” he said.

She gently taped the bandage. “I want you to face what's happening here and now.” He let her fuss for a moment. His arm did feel better wrapped and tended. It occurred to him it was a good time to give her the detention slip. While
she worried, perhaps she wouldn't get mad.

He reached for his coat and pulled out his detention slip and pink-bejeweled phone. “I need you to sign the form,” he said. He smiled and pushed it and the phone to her. “Ms. Primrose was adamant.”

Then again, maybe she would get mad. Rosa turned as red as an elvish firestone. She took the phone and seemed to scan through it. Brynne quietly left the kitchen. Tito started laughing.

Rosa turned her full military gaze at him. “Tell me, Tito,” she said, “do you also have a phone?”

Tito stopped laughing. He, too, went pale. “I wouldn't swipe a phone, Rosa,” he said.

“That's not what I asked, and you're listed in Caden's contacts,” she said, and she said it quite astutely in Caden's royal opinion.

They were grounded yet again.

“I don't see how this is punishment,” Caden said.

He rested back on his ugly pink and orange quilt. The attic room felt cozy, but it was difficult to get comfortable. Today was Friday. The new moon would rise Monday night. He released a breath and let the events of the day play through his mind.

Tito was also ill at ease. He huffed and turned into his pillow. “No computer, no TV, no phone.”

“Brynne will steal the phones back. Lest you forget,
she's a thief and a magic user.”

Tito seemed unpleased by that. He turned around enough to glare in Caden's general direction. “That's a bad idea. Rosa's already irked,” he said. Tito flopped back on his bed. “Rosa's mad and we're one day closer to losing Jane for good. I shouldn't have taken that stupid phone.”

Caden thought about Rath Dunn. He was connected to Jane's disappearance. Caden was almost certain. But how? And what was the purpose of the vials? “Rath Dunn is up to some evil plot. I'm sure of it.”

“With the vials?”

“Maybe they're spell ingredients.” Caden closed his eyes. Rath Dunn wanted Ms. Primrose's perfume—that was the essence of a dragon. He'd taken Caden's blood. It seemed it hadn't worked, but that partially explained the “Blood of Son.” What about the “Magical Locks” and “Tears of Elf”?

Caden opened his eyes and looked at Tito. There was something he'd forgotten. “There's more. I heard Officer Levine speak to Ms. Primrose.” He told Tito about the janitor and the backpack.

Tito was visibly troubled. “That sounds like Jane's pack.”

“I know it's worrisome,” Caden said. “She disappeared at night, no doubt snared in the magic sand trap of the mountain. Why would her backpack be disposed of at the school?”

“I was more concerned about what it means about Jane.”

“We have until the new moon to find her.”

“That's only three more days.”

Caden held Tito's gaze. “We have the contract Ms. Primrose gave me—she meant it to help us in some way. Jane yet lives. We'll find her.”

Tito leaned forward; his hair fell over his face. Bent and hunched, he looked as if he'd been punched in the gut. “She's been missing for over a week,” he said. “If she's okay, why'd someone throw away her stuff?”