Chapter 116

KATHERINE.

It was Tuesday night and I was at a campus bonfire that some students had put together, claiming it was to honor the students who had died this semester, but I’d been here for a couple of minutes and it seemed like the gathering was just an excuse to get drunk. I heaved a sigh as I searched the faces in the crowd once again and when I still didn’t see the person I was looking for, I returned my attention to the Discovering Biomedicine textbook in my hand. Yes, I brought a textbook to the bonfire. Exams were starting in a month – it was supposed to be in three weeks, but it was pushed back by a week because of everything that had been going on in the school – and I was in academic danger because I was so not prepared for it. But maybe trying to study at a bonfire wasn’t one of my best ideas.

Whoops of delight erupted from the crowd, drawing my attention, and I searched the faces in the crowd again but still didn’t see her. I was looking for Lydia and one of the reasons I’d come here was because I thought she’d be here seeing as the gathering had been advertised as some sort of wake for Chelsea, the other missing students that had been found dead, and Lilika, but I guess I was wrong. The second reason was that Theo and I were going to the old clinic that night to talk to Isabella and this was where he wanted us to meet up.

“Katherine Roxley,” a familiar voice called out and I looked up to see Zac strolling over to me in the stands before a small smile crept onto my face.

“When did you get back?” I asked since he had been part of the students whose parents came to get them two weeks ago.

“In the afternoon.” The moment he got to me, he plucked my book right out of my hands. “Are you studying? Seriously? At an event to commemorate our fellow students?”

I raised a brow and snatched my book back. “More than half of the people here aren’t commemorating anyone and they don’t care about what happened to those students. You fall into that category.”

A line appeared between his brows at that and he actually looked offended. “That’s not true,” he said and I lifted my brow further because the people I constantly saw him with were assholes to lower-ranking pack members. “Lilika and Williams were my friends.”

“Oh,” I muttered before shooting him an apologetic look. “I’m sorry… Chelsea was my friend.”

He nodded and gestured at my textbook. “Exams aren’t starting for another four weeks though. You’re making me feel like a bad student,” he said, drawing a smile from me before I plastered a confused look on my face.

“Don’t you always feel that way?”

He flicked my forehead the next moment and I frowned at him as pain radiated in that spot before kicking his knee as hard as I could. “Ah!” He lifted his leg, reaching down to hold his knee, as he hopped backward. “Geez, you’re just like Josie.”

“When is she coming back?”

“Whenever Lenore and Priyanka are.”

“Is he bothering you?” someone cut in a low voice and I whipped my head to the side to see Theo standing a little distance to the right. His words had been directed at me, but his eyes were on Zac and his brows were furrowed.

“Me? Bothering her?” Zac asked, glancing at me, before letting out an obnoxious laugh. “She wishes,” he added and I shot him a look before Theo’s gaze bounced between the both of us.

“Let’s go, Katherine.” He turned around and began to head out of the stands while I quickly gathered my things.

“Go where?”

“Mind your business,” I replied to Zac before calling out to Theo, “Wait up!” His steps slowed just slightly, but he didn’t pause to wait for me, and that was enough for me to catch up with him. “Hey.”

“Hmm.” He didn’t say anything else till we were out of the field and on the path that led to the old clinic. “Why are you reading at a bonfire?”

I flashed him a smile. “Why not? Reading in the darkest and noisiest places imaginable is fascinating,” I said and he gave me a blank look that didn’t give away what was going through his mind before shaking his head sideways.

“I can see why you failed your Mechanics test.”

My eyes widened while my mouth fell open. “I failed?!” I asked before I realized that he couldn’t possibly know that since we weren’t in the same faculty, just as the corner of his mouth turned up and I gave him a dirty look. I then roughly shoved him away with my side. He reciprocated the action and I gaped at him before I realized he was smiling – a wide smile that lit up his face like the light of a thousand suns – and I couldn’t help but smile too. “You enjoy my company.”

“You’re delusional,” he responded and I rolled my eyes.

“Admit it. You do.”

He tsked, still smiling, and returned his attention to the road before coming to a stop, his brows snapping together. That made me focus my attention ahead too and my eyes rounded. A pile of rubble was all that was left in the place the old clinic had stood this afternoon, and I blinked at the scene in front of me a couple of times before I finally accepted that we hadn’t taken a wrong turn. We were in the right place… and the old clinic had been demolished.

“Oh my God,” I muttered before absent-mindedly taking another step forward and I noticed that there were a couple of people standing around the rubble, their hands stretched out towards it. I then glanced at Theo. “Theo, what– what are we going to do?” I didn’t know if demolishing a haunted building affected the ghosts that were haunting it, but if it didn’t–

“Nothing,” Theo said before gesturing at the people standing around the rubble. “They’re cleansing the land. There’s nothing we can do here.”

****

Apart from being tricky, dark magic was also dangerous hence why it was banned. Some spells were straightforward while others were ‘not’, and the spell we’d have used to talk to Isabella if the old clinic hadn’t been demolished and cleansed was a straightforward one. Now that her ghost was no longer lingering here, we’d have to summon her first before talking to her and that would require a not straightforward spell that could get out of control very fast. That was why Theo hadn’t tried to summon his mom yet and he was still trying to figure out how to remove the dangers attached to the spell, so we wouldn’t be able to talk to Isabella till he did that. He was optimistic about achieving that soon though, so I was too, and it was all I could think about as I lay in bed.

I heaved a sigh and rolled onto my side before picking up my phone which was next to me and I realized Uncle Lander hadn’t called me today. I frowned. He’d been calling me several times a day since he came to school to get me two weeks ago so this was weird. ‘Is everything okay?’ I thought as I sat upright and dialed his number.