Year Two: Rebels - Cara Wylde Page 0,24

and on about things we both already knew, was not exactly being of service.

“Find Mila and bring her here. I need to talk to her.

“On it!”

Excited, she flew in circles for a bit, then disappeared in a puff of pixie dust.

I sneezed.

Well, at least Corri would be reunited with her first mistress, and I was almost sad I wasn’t going to be there to see it.

* * *

I didn’t go down to dinner. I had plenty of food in the fridge, since the girls working in the kitchen were so happy I was back that they went above and beyond to stock it with my favorite food. They knew I often had breakfast and dinner in my dorm-room. I wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, which was weird for someone who was probably the most popular girl at the Academy. I would’ve thought they’d forgotten about me, but no. Now that they knew I’d spent half a year at the Karmic Asylum, they seemed to be even more fascinated with me. Except this time, their fascination was mixed with something akin to fear. Having been hospitalized meant there was something wrong with me, and the fact that I’d been released and I seemed to be fine didn’t do much to clear my reputation. In their eyes, – and here I was talking about both students and professors, – I was a peril to the supernatural society. I was a freak. I’d killed the most powerful Grim Reaper alive when I was only a child, I was over two centuries old even though I was human, I was a dream jumper, and now I’d also been released from an asylum for the most dangerous supernaturals. From an asylum that never released their patients. And despite all that, Grim Reaper Academy still wanted me. Headmaster Colin still wanted me, and the Supernatural Council hadn’t yet intervened, although it was generally known that they were suspicious of me.

There was something about me, they all probably thought. But what? And what did it mean to them?

They were so self-absorbed. I wasn’t here for them, and I wasn’t here to become a Grim Reaper. I was here because… Because what?

I wanted to save the world from monsters.

Maybe I was the one who was self-absorbed.

I was poking the last pieces of a generous slice of cheesecake around my plate when Aunt Katia materialized out of thin air. She looked transparent at first, then little by little, she gained substance. I dropped my fork. I jumped off the bar stool in my open-space kitchen and hugged her.

“Oh my God, finally,” she whispered in my hair.

I squeezed her for dear life.

“I missed you so much. Where were you? I needed you, I didn’t know how to reach you,” I said as I clung to her.

“Honey, I was here all along. When you didn’t come to visit me, I came to see you. Imagine my shock when I found you at the Karmic Asylum! I tried to talk to you, but they had already pumped you full of meds, and you simply couldn’t see me, hear me, you couldn’t even sense my presence. I touched your face, your hair… I pinched you! Oh my God, I tried everything! It was as if I didn’t exist. I visited you almost every day, watched over you…”

I pulled away, holding her at arm’s length. “Did anyone see you?”

“No. I only came to see you in your room, and usually at night. You couldn’t sleep. If those meds had at least helped you sleep, but you spent most of your nights tossing and turning or staring at the ceiling. You’d only fall asleep in the morning, and then they’d wake you up to take your meds before breakfast. It was horrible! Unspeakable! I couldn’t understand why you couldn’t sleep, because I peeked in the other rooms, and most of the patients had no issues sleeping. I thought it might have had something to do with your being a dream jumper. The potions they made you drink inhibited your natural talent to dream and travel, so they also messed up your sleep. I asked around back at home, but no one could confirm that to me. You’re the first human in history to have been put in the Karmic Asylum.”

I laughed bitterly. “Wow. I always seem to be the first to do the stupidest, craziest things. I should be breaking some supernatural world record soon.”

She didn’t find that funny. She took my face between her