for their power. It’s been done before, by people like Greyhorn. Of course it’d be done again. I knew from the get-go there was something foul about him. Madness does that to people. We can spot monsters from a mile away because we, too, are monsters.
I pull on some clothes as quickly as possible, grab the book and Echo, and rush into the common area. I barely step outside into the corridor when a hand clamps on my mouth and pulls me into a dark corner.
“Shhh, it’s me,” Jonah hisses in a whisper. “Where are you going?”
Even in the shadows, I can see Jonah’s eyes, flashing like blue almost silver jewels.
“I’m going to find Sage. She’s been taken…” my voice cracks on the last word, and I wipe my eyes with my shoulder. Echo wriggles in my arms and I pet him soothingly.
“By who?” he demands, his breath hot on my cheeks. “It’s five in the morning.”
“I woke up, and she was gone. Her bed was a pigsty, and that’s so not like Sage. She always has this weird thing where she tucks her covers underneath her…mattress…what are you doing up at this time?”
Jonah lets me go and steps back. “I couldn’t sleep. You’re sure Sage is missing? Missing-missing?”
I nod, tears pricking my eyes. “Y-yes. And I think your uncle has taken her…taken them all.”
He’s silent for a long, painful moment, just staring deeply into my eyes.
At last, he holds out his hand and says, “I know where to go.”
Shuffling the book under my arm next to Echo, I take his hand and follow him downstairs to a familiar office. Jonah doesn’t bother knocking on Gage’s office door. He turns the handle and steps inside. I’m surprised to find Gage leaning against the mantlepiece, staring into the fire.
“Shadow raven, allow me to formally introduce you to my cousin, Gage.”
Rushing over to Gage, I set Echo down on the sofa and blurt out, “Gage, I need your help! I know this sounds crazy, but the headmaster is the one behind the abductions! And he’s taken Sage! I don’t know where, but I need your help to find her… I can’t imagine my life without Sage… I can’t! I won’t!”
Gage touches my arm, the pressure barely anything at all. “Calm down, Vina. You’re all right.”
“My friend isn’t,” I whisper, just managing to hold back a sob.
Pitch slips out from my body, and in shadow form, peers into Gage’s face.
I look up into Gage’s face, searching for an answer I don’t quite know the question to.
Until I find it burning in his gaze.
“You knew, didn’t you? You knew all along he was behind this?” I feel sick saying the words.
Gage gives a hesitant nod. “I suspected.”
Pitch’s anger shakes the ground, knocking a candle off the mantlepiece.
The noise makes me flinch as tears well in my eyes. “And you never said anything? To anyone?”
“I…I needed concrete evidence.”
Rage flares inside of me, and all I see is red.
Before I’m even aware of what I’m doing, I slap Gage on the face, my hand searing from the impact. And then I go to slap him again, but Gage grabs my wrist and yanks me close.
“Let her go,” Jonah warns, and I feel him standing close to me.
“Just shut up!” Gage snarls at him, his eyes never leaving my own. I can see something within them other than anger. Fear. Guilt. Regret. Shame. “Vina, I’ve been trying to solve this case for three years. I knew my father was up to something, but without hard evidence, the High Wardens would never have believed me.”
“Tell that to all those innocent people he’s taken!”
He blinks at me as though I’ve just hit him again. Slowly, he lets go of my wrist, and I’m almost tempted to strike him for extra measure. I mean, he practically knew what his ‘father’, a/k/a our psychopathic headmaster, has been doing all along, but he never once said anything to me, o to anyone, for that matter.
“Forgive me, please, Vina? I’ll make this right. I swear to you.”
I move away from him, a sea of conflicted emotions swirling around like a whirlpool in my mind.
“Right now, I need to find Sage and the others. Where do you suspect he’s taken them?” I demand, keeping my voice harsh and without feeling. I’m not sure I can forgive him right now. I’m too fucking livid to think straight.
Gage looks between me and his cousin, and then sighs. “Over