Blood Pledged (Arcane Arts Academy #3) - Elena Lawson Page 0,52

pierced my bottom lip, making me flinch. I pressed my fingers to the wound and they came away red.

Fascinating. To think one such as her could trigger such an intense response. Even in the dire situation we’d been in with the local shifter pack a few weeks ago, something had been drawing me to her from the moment we met. I’d toyed with the idea of sleeping with her just to get her out of my system, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.

And I didn’t have a good explanation for why.

I just knew there was… something. By the way she reacted to my presence, I wasn’t the only one affected, but she had others. Witches and shifters weren’t like vampires. From what I could tell, they typically held to one mate, though Harper was certainly a unique case.

Far-off baying snapped me back to the present and I realized I hadn’t even sought cover before zoning out. I darted into the shadows of the school and approached the library door cautiously. There were lights on inside, but no movement and no other sounds to indicate a living person in the area.

Slowly creaking the door open, I slipped inside. Whoever cleaned up the blood left the barest trace amounts in the tiles, but the trail stopped at the back of the room. Had they seriously just killed a girl in plain sight of anyone who might’ve been in here? No, that didn’t seem right at all. There had to be something I was missing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to investigate further. Male voices echoed from further away and, using my preternatural abilities, I slipped between the stacks to avoid them and made it out unnoticed. Into the hallway of the school I couldn’t be caught dead in.

Or undead, as it were.

I was lucky my looks made up for my lame sense of humor.

Since I was there, however, I chanced heading to Harper’s room. Aside from the library visitors, it was eerily empty. I only had to avoid one other person on the way to the girls’ dorms. The door with Harper’s scent all over it was unlocked, so I ducked into the dark room.

Despite the fact that she had a roommate, the intoxicating smell of her dominated the small space. I moved slowly toward her bed, breathing it in, feeling both unnerved by how it affected me and a bit like a creeper. Her travel bag was missing, and I hoped that meant she really had taken the shifters away, maybe to the home I’d found mention of in the journal. If her father died, it made sense she’d inherit the place, wherever it was.

I tugged the book from where I’d tucked it into the waistband of my pants and slid it back into the place she hid things. The bed didn’t so much as creak as I set on the edge, fingering the hem of her blanket. No matter which way I turned it in my mind, I couldn’t understand the sudden infatuation with the witch. Curiosity had started it, sure, but it’d since moved beyond that into something… dangerous.

Not even my queen knew the true reason I kept watch here, insisted I be the one to help the witch unravel the mystery she’d gotten tangled up in. I used my blatant flirting like a shield to protect us both the way I’d use my gifts to protect her life. And though I knew it wouldn’t lead to anything, I would continue to protect her for as long as she would allow.

Sunday night. I could come back then and see her, tell her what I found. Pray the fear I sometimes saw in her eyes wouldn’t make an appearance. I didn’t want her to fear me. No, quite the opposite, in fact.

Releasing the blanket I’d crumpled in my hand, I moved to the window and unlatched it, making sure to close it behind me as I slipped back out into the night.

20

Harper

That night went by in a blur. I couldn’t stop thinking about the moon room and what it meant. Only horrible experiments done by my obviously crazy family came to mind. And then there were the sketchbooks. I remembered, in vivid detail, the drawing I’d done of the House Thorn crest, knowing damn good and well that I couldn’t draw to save my life.

Who had those belonged to, and why were they here? I’d assumed Rose was the artist because she’d appeared right after I’d drawn it, but the