carved from stone.
And my eyes widened in horrified realization.
Seeing I understood, Wraith smiled. He rose and went to a wall, petting it fondly. His hand sank a little way into it. “This school is all me. The brick is not brick, but my red flesh. The stone is not stone, but my white bone. So it’s only natural that I can pass through these halls quite freely. It’s my own body to command.”
“You called yourself Wraith Woods,” I said. “Shit. I thought you were giving an obviously fake name, but it’s the exact opposite. You’re literally Wraithwood Academy.”
“Yes,” he said. “Especially in this incarnation. As I said, the mages killed me. It’s just very hard for one of my kind to be killed completely. A little of me remained in the walls of Wraithwood, and combined in unexpected ways with the experimental magic performed inside me, magic that the founders never thought possible. I am a little strange now,” he conceded. “I’m somewhat diminished. I eat secrets instead of leviathans. But I have enjoyed my new existence.”
He withdrew his hand from the wall, which seamlessly returned to its original state. “Let me bring you more water.” He went to the bathroom, and I heard the rush of the tap. As he walked back, he put his finger to his teeth and bit down, allowing his blood to drip into the water. “Demon blood is good for you,” he explained, even as his wound closed without a trace.
I looked askance at the red plastic cup he handed me, realizing what the metallic taste to the water I’d drunk earlier had been. Then again, I’d been walking inside Wraith’s body this entire time; drinking his blood seemed downright tame in comparison.
And I was already feeling better, I realized, in body if not in spirit. My headache was gone. The haze of exhaustion was fading. I took the cup and downed its contents.
“So why are you here?” I said, pushing myself up into a proper sitting position. My shackled wrist throbbed under its crust of dried blood. “Can you free me?”
“I can,” said Wraith, settling down across from me and rebuttoning his shirt. “But that’s not all you need.”
“No,” I said, feeling the cold return. I couldn’t run without Mom. “I don’t suppose you can help me raid Redbriar Manor too?”
Wraith shook his head. “I can’t stray far from my original body.”
I gave a hollow laugh. “You’re answering questions for once, but I can’t say I like the answers. You’d better leave me here like this, then.”
Wraith frowned faintly. “Actually, I think I’m answering them in the wrong order. Forgive me. I’m out of practice. I should have told you why I’m here first.” He tilted his head, then said, “Caboodle.”
“What?”
“That’s Acubens’s nickname. The one he didn’t want you to know.”
I stared. “That’s longer than his actual name.”
Wraith shrugged. “Arcturus was telling the truth, by the way. He didn’t come up with the nickname. Acubens came up with it himself, when he was eight, and then made everyone else call him by it. Kit and caboodle. He thought it was clever.”
“Jesus christ.” I muttered, a ghost of a smile on my face. “Why is he like this.” But as silly as it was, I knew this was a secret that meant something to Acubens, with his prickly dislike of not being taken seriously.
“He allowed me to tell you so you’d know he was sincere,” Wraith continued. “He begs to talk to you. He wants to know what he did wrong. Why you’re acting so strangely.”
“You mean… Cly already went by.”
“Yes, she left just before I did. You don’t have to worry about her showing up anytime soon; Lenora Hastings found her.”
Lenora from the ill-fated party. Cly wouldn’t be rid of her anytime soon. But more importantly... “Acubens noticed something was off? He didn’t just… assume he was so great that I came running back for forgiveness?”
Wraith tilted his head. “It was fairly obvious.”
“That makes me feel better,” I admitted. It comforted me, that I couldn’t be written out of my own life so easily. That I’d carved my mark too deeply into the fearsome Nightfelds to be erased. I drew strength from it.
“I want to meet with them,” I said. “Arcturus. Acubens. And… Darshan, if he’s willing. Tell him about the danger involved, but I owe him the truth, if he’ll listen. Can you do that?”
Wraith stirred and smiled. “Allow me to strengthen myself first,” he said, his eyes gleaming. “Tell me a