Nightworld Academy - L.J. Swallow Page 0,33
to collect.”
Andrei appears by my side. “You should talk to your boyfriend, not stress about Katherine’s dumb show.”
I snap my head around. “Matt? Talk to him about what?”
“Oh, come on. You know. His magic addiction. I’m not the only one who skipped class today.”
Cool trickles into my veins. “What are you implying?”
“I have some insight into addiction, Amelia.” He chews on his lip. “I have somebody skilled who’s helping me combat mine. Matt doesn’t—make that person you.”
“I’m trying to help him,” I protest. “And this isn’t your business.”
“Hmm.” He rubs his chin. “Fair enough.”
Andrei resumes his position on the wall and pulls out his phone. Who’s he waiting for?
“A girl, of course.” Andrei side-glances me with a sly smile.
I swallow. This guy is more powerful than I realised, if he can read my mind. Few students have the ability to read another’s mind, unless they’re closer than we’re standing.
Uncontrolled human blood lust and the ability to invade students' minds? Matt isn’t the only person who needs to watch his back. With his mother as Dominion leader, many would prefer him in Ravenhold.
The door to the hall glides open and I sidle through to close the heavy wood behind me as quietly as I can. I chose my quietest shoes and dumped my school blazer in exchange for a baggy hoodie. If anybody spots me and approaches, I’ll hear them and run before they get close enough to look beneath the hood.
As I move against the wall and around the hall’s perimeter, I strain to hear or see. The room is blanketed in shadows and the single door to backstage closed. I don’t dare switch on a light and use my phone torch instead, keeping the light low to the floor. I pull a keychain from my pocket but the door’s unlocked.
Well, there’s a black mark against the new stage manager’s name: this door must be locked after every rehearsal.
Unless someone left it unlocked deliberately. I bite down on a nail and listen, but the only sounds come from my clothes rustling and my breathing.
Where would I find a broken light? The stage manager’s office is bare, apart from a couple of scripts and notepads with set design ideas that I left on a table. I glance to the corner where Matt first kissed me and smile to myself, before pulling back to attention. Outside the office, there’re boxes of ropes and wires, and I push my way through. Nothing.
Now I’m sure nobody else is here, I switch on my phone torch and shine the light along the hallway and into each dressing room. Nothing. I’m about to give up and leave, until I spot a small floodlight about thirty centimetres wide resting against the wall behind large, wooden boxes piled up for set construction.
Crouching down, I aim the torch beam at the light. The glass is cracked.
Gotcha. Jamie can pick up memories from objects; I’ll find out who sabotaged my lights.
The door to the backstage bangs and a light flicks on at the other end of the hallway. Footsteps cross the floor. Whoever this is doesn’t care about being caught. I shrink back against the wall with the light in my arms and listen.
Two sets of footsteps.
“Why did you interfere?”
My whole body stiffens at Katherine’s voice. A male voice replies, but I can’t hear his words.
“I told you, I had things under control with the hex bags and bringing my parents into this. I didn’t need you to do something stupid. Why don’t shifters ever consider the consequences?”
Katherine’s blonde hair shines despite the darkness as she crosses towards the dressing rooms, and a broad-set guy lopes along beside her.
“I had to pay the bloody witch for those bags and waste my energy glamouring her.” Katherine huffs. “Then you spoil everything by dropping a bloody light on Celeste’s foot.”
As she reaches the dressing room, Katherine switches on another light. The light bulb is dim, but enough to reveal Clive is with her.
“Babe, I was trying to help,” he says and strokes her hair.
She shakes him off. “Physical damage may be a shifter’s way of getting what they want, but I’m more subtle. Besides...” She jabs him in the chest. “I was standing next to Celeste when the light fell. The bloody thing could’ve landed on me.”
“Ronan cast a spell to stop you getting hit. We wanted to make sure nobody suspected you, because why would you sabotage a light that could fall on you?”
“You’d trust a witch? Half of them are