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Dru’s voice sounded less dazed, clearer and sharper. “Tell me everything.”
The guys and I filled him in on all of it. How Owen had somehow untethered the school from the earthly plane by moving things around in a hidden room in the lowest level of the castle, how whatever had been in there was nothing but dust now, and how the wards were failing, students were starting to lose their shit, and Toland seemed to have no idea what to do about any of it.
“And we were attacked last week by a whole horde of monsters,” Jayce added. “Someone knows we’re here, or if they don’t, they probably will soon. We don’t have much time.”
“If we don’t get this school back to earth, the whole Custodian program dies,” Kai said roughly. “You willing to be the last of your kind?”
“There’s no need to be dramatic.” Dru sounded mildly reproachful, but he didn’t hesitate long before adding, “I’ll have to do some digging. Since I can’t call you back, you’ll have to call me.”
“Do you have a direct number? We’ve been trying to reach you at Sticky Mick’s for weeks. It’s not exactly convenient to guess when you might be in a thirsty mood.”
This pause was longer than all of the others, and if it hadn’t been for the noise still filtering in from the background, I would have assumed he’d hung up. Eventually, I heard him sigh.
“You can’t tell anyone I gave you this number. It’s top secret.”
“Understood.”
He rattled off eleven digits and had us repeat them back to him twice. Kai wrote them down, rolling his eyes. Work smarter, not harder seemed to be his motto.
“Call me tomorrow at this time,” Dru said.
“We will,” I said quickly, wondering whether it actually would be the right time, given the crazy way that days seemed to pass here. “And when we do, let us know how close we came to getting it right.”
“What?”
I shook my head. “Time’s screwy here, and I haven’t figured out how yet.”
“Crap.” Dru tsked through his teeth. “I forgot about inter-planar disturbances. Well, do the best you can. It shouldn’t be off by too much, and I’ll try to keep my phone on at all times, just in case.”
Kingston shrugged. “All right, man. We’ll talk to you tomorrow. Or whenever.”
Dru hung up, and I tucked my knees under my chin and hugged my legs, glancing at the men around me.
Ugh. It’s gonna be a long twenty-four hours.
Chapter Seventeen
Patience had never been one of my virtues, and unsurprisingly, being turned into a supernatural being hadn’t changed that.
As Hannah slept peacefully in her bed on her side of the room, I lay awake in mine, staring up at the ceiling long after the blazing sun had gone down outside the cave.
Dru had told us to call back in twenty-four hours, but he might as well have told us to call him in twenty-four years, as far as I was concerned. I was certain that by the time we made the call tomorrow, I’d be sporting a long white beard, Rip Van Winkle-style.
Huh.
I entertained myself for a few minutes by shifting my appearance slightly to give myself a white, flowing beard. Everything else stayed the same, including my dark chocolate hair, and I wound strands of my hair around strands of my beard, making a black and white twist.
A soft knock at the door made me jump, and my whole body instantly went on alert. Had Dru somehow managed to call us back? Had he gotten in touch already? Or was something else wrong?
I threw the covers back and leapt out of bed, darting quietly to the door on bare feet and yanking it open.
Jayce stood on the other side, his hand still raised. When he caught sight of me, he made a little choked noise in his throat, and his eyebrows flew up to his hairline. Then he doubled over, laughing as quietly as he could—which wasn’t very quiet at all.
Not wanting him to wake Hannah, I stepped out into the hall and shut the door just as he drew himself upright, mirth still dancing in his light blue eyes.
“Uh… nice beard you’ve got there.” He chortled again. “Trying out a new look?”
Oh, fuck.
