AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My father looked wary. “When we destroy the traps, we’ll disrupt the deep magic inside. It’s going to be an enormous release of energy. Nobody will be able to miss it.”
Lucas grimaced. “In other words, Mrs. Bethany’s going to know we’ve messed up her plan. Not later, when we start telling the human students right away.”
From his place within the gazebo, where he sat on one of the long benches, Balthazar said, “And she’ll act. Immediately. When we do this, we have to be ready for the repercussions.”
“She Wouldn’t actually kill — ” Another vampire, I wanted to say, but I couldn ‘t, not after seeing what she’d done to Samuel Younger. Mrs.
Bethany had nurtured this plan as her dearest wish for two centuries, and she wouldn’t hesitate to destroy anybody who got in her way. When I looked at my father, he nodded once in confirmation.
“She would,” Dad said. “And she’s played favorites a lot this year — among the faculty and the students. I suspect other vampires are in on her plan. If we don’t want to get staked or worse, we need to get out of here as soon as we’ve set the wraiths free.”
Lucas turned to my parents — the first time I’d seen him directly speak to one of them since that initial altercation with my mother at the top of the school year. “Any chance she’s going to be gone for a while anytime soon?”
There was an awkward pause that made me cringe, but then Dad seemed to pull himself together. “No such luck. But we could come up with a distraction, maybe. A crisis to get her off the grounds for a day. She’d hear about it when she got back, but that would buy us some time to cover our 202 tracks.”
“She’ ll know I’m in on it,” Lucas said. “After I turned her down flat the other day — she’s got to know. But hopefully I can cover for the rest of you.”
Mom cleared her throat, like it cost her some effort to speak to Lucas politely. “Mrs. Bethany will suspect us, too, especially if we’re involved in getting her off campus. So we should just agree now that it was the three of us. Nobody else.”
“Hey, that’s not necessary,” Balthazar said.
“Spare me the noble routine, okay?” Lucas shot him a look. “Nobody wants that woman on their bad side if they can help it. So don’t be stupid.” To my surprise, Balthazar grinned. “You’re a good friend, Lucas. Though You’ll never admit it.”
They shared a smile, and I could see my parents realizing that — against the odds — Lucas and Balthazar had actually gotten fairly tight. For some reason, the fact that I loved and accepted Lucas didn’t have as much impact on them as that simple proof of friendship.
Vic made aT sign with his hands. “Time out from the male bonding, okay? There’s one thing we haven’t talked about — Bianca.”
“What about me?” I said.
“You ‘re, like, Superghost, right? So You’re exactly who Mrs. Bethany is gunning for.” Vic looked from person to person, as if hoping someone would contradict him, but of course nobody could. “Okay, so how do we stop her from figuring out that you’re a wraith? And that you’re here? Because she’s got to be on the lookout.”
“You’ve all been really careful,” Mom said. Her eyes briefly met Lucas’s, as if thanking him for helping to protect me. It was a small moment, but it made me want to hug her harder than ever. “She has to know that Bianca’s changed into a wraith, but maybe — maybe Mrs. Bethany doesn’t realize that she’s here. If she did know, wouldn’t she have tried to capture Bianca before now?”
I had to admit that was a good point. The traps weren’t for me specifically; Lucas’s room hadn’t been targeted.
Mom continued, “I don’t like not knowing how much Mrs. Bethany knows, but hopefully it’s about to be a moot point. Within a couple of weeks, 202 I suspect the three of us will have left Evernight Academy forever, and . .. You’ll come with us, won’t you, Bianca?”
“Wherever you guys are.” I leaned my head on Lucas’s shoulder, with enough weight to make him smile. The glowing strands of my hair fell across his chest. “That’s where I’ll be.”
Afterward, as everybody prepared to go back into the school, I went invisible, becoming no more than a vapor trailing overhead. Balthazar, I noticed, rose from his seat but didn’t walk away with the others, lingering at the gazebo a moment longer. The moonlight outlined his silhouette amid the scrollwork iron and the ivy.
I drifted a little lower and whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Sure,” he said, though his voice was odd. I remembered the Autumn Ball two years ago, when we had walked out here together to watch the stars; it was the night I’d told him that I loved Lucas, and I was still learning how deeply that had affected him. Was he recalling that night, too?
Balthazar looked up in my general direction and said, “Lucas is heading up to double — check the traps, make sure they’re well hidden. So he won’t be going to bed for at least an hour or so.”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“I want you to come into my mind when I’m dreaming tonight.”
Immediately I knew why he was asking, what he planned to do. “Balthazar … I don’t know if that’s a good idea. We’re headed into a fight. You need your strength.”
Til be all right. It’s taken me a long time to face what I have to do — but I see it now. We can’t put this off any longer.” His expression was unreadable, but his voice was firm. “Trust me.”
After spending a couple of months second — guessing him at every turn, for something that hadn’t been his fault to begin with, I owed him that, didn’t I? “Okay. I’ll come.”
We went back into the school. The great hall’s grandeur was in shreds — the candles were out, the flowers had been knocked on the floor by panicking students, and the orchestra’s bandstand had clearly been abandoned in a hurry. Balthazar unfastened his bow tie and cuffs as he went up the stairs; his footsteps echoed on the stone. After what had happened earlier tonight, I was willing to bet that most people remained wide awake and would be for hours, but nobody was risking wandering around alone at midnight.
