I nod, my face crumbling even without my lion there to steady me.
“He was angry that I was making plans to visit the Witching Glen with you,” I manage, and my voice doesn’t hold. “He locked me in our suite with magic. Then he bound me so I couldn’t move.” I hold my wrists up even though there’s nothing there anymore. “He used his magic to hold me down. I couldn’t get free.”
Angie’s hand comes up to cover her mouth. “Oh my god. Please don’t tell me he...”
“She’s not dead,” Tiana cuts in, sharp and certain. She looks at me, then back at her mother. “Look at her. She’s astral projecting.”
Tiana turns to Kiara and Samara. They nod in unison, quick and sure, like this is something they understand on a level the rest of us don’t.
“We do it all the time,” Kiara offers.
Angie’s head snaps toward her daughters. The look she gives them could peel paint. They shrug and giggle. Tiana rolls her eyes.
“When we want to snoop or do stupid shit we have no business doing, we astral project,” Tiana explains. “But it requires the body to be protected because you’re in the most vulnerable state when you do. You have to be able to get back to your body.” Her expression darkens. “You stay out too long and you’ll end up stuck. You could wind up in limbo.”
“Limbo?” I look down at my hands. I reach for my lion again and there’s still nothing there, just that same awful silence. “I can’t feel my lion,” I whisper.
“Well, that makes sense,” Tiana tells me. “Seth tried astral projection since he’s a hybrid. His wolf never traveled with him. He hated it.” She pauses. “He won’t even try anymore.”
“This night is just full of surprises.” Angie exhales hard through her nose and points at her daughters. “I’ll deal with you about that later.” She drops her hand. “Go ahead and finish, Mara.”
I swallow. “He kept saying he lost me. But I’m right here. He was feral, Angie. I couldn’t reason with him no matter how hard I tried. He told me he needed me to take a nap, then he kissed me.” The memory of that kiss burns even now, even in this body that can’t feel anything. “Next thing I know I was standing in the library downstairs.”
Angie looks to Tiana. “I’m telling you, it’s Eric.”
“I agree,” I say.
Angie turns back to me. I clear my throat and drop my gaze to the floor.
“Aaron took me into the forest to meet him,” I admit. “He conjured a mirror and introduced us.”
“He did WHAT?”
Her voice cracks through the room. Kiara flinches. Samara steps closer to her sister.
I shrug because I don’t know what else to do. “I could feel something was off about that man. Like his love for Aaron wasn’t real. I couldn’t smell it, but I could feel it.” I try to perk my ears and they don’t budge. I frown. “Lions are very good at catching predatory people. It’s a special sense we have.”
Angie opens her mouth to respond but every single person in the room stiffens at the same time. The alarms. They cut through the building, high and shrill, and the sound is muffled for mebut I can see it hit everyone else. Kiara’s hands fly to her ears. Samara’s jaw locks.
“How convenient.” Angie puts her hands on her hips and tips her head back toward the ceiling. “Goddamnit.” She stomps her foot against the floor.
She tears the air open. A portal splits beside her, blue-gold light spilling across the floor. On the other side I can see the Academy cafeteria. Jacob is standing in the middle of it with a broom in his hand, his body still, his head up and alert from the alarms.
“Help gather the children to the emergency cellar and put a shield up,” she orders Kiara and Samara.
They nod fast. Kiara rips a portal open with a flick of her wrist. They step through together and it closes behind them.
“Go get this damn girl back in her body,” Angie tells Tiana. “I’m going to go find Aaron and put a stop to this shit right now.”
She steps through her portal. It snaps shut behind her and the room goes still except for the alarms still screaming through the walls.
Tiana and I stand alone on the second floor. Neither of us speaks.
“I can’t put you through a portal,” Tiana says finally. “We have to take the long way. So hurry up, let’s go get you back in your body.”
The alarms are still blaring when we reach the faculty wing. The hallways are empty, every door shut. Tiana walks ahead of me with her cloak sweeping the floor, her shoulders set. I follow behind her.
She stops in front of my suite and stares at the door. Blue light pulses around the frame, sealing every edge. Aaron’s magic hums through the wood.
