Chapter 28

KATHERINE

The first class of the day was Elemental Science and there were only five minutes left before the class started but my friends weren’t here yet. I had texted the three of them to know if they were skipping class but none of them had responded and since they were the only ones I knew in this class, the classroom felt a lot bigger without them here. It felt like my safety net was gone.

I did know Dave, Priyanka’s mate, and he was in class, sitting at the other end of the room and chatting with the people around him, but I didn’t ‘know’ him so I couldn’t exactly go to him. I pursed my lips and glanced at the other students in the class who were having conversations with their friends before realizing I was the only one alone here.

I needed to make more friends.

I let out a harsh breath, propping my chin on my fist, just before the chair next to me scraped against the floor and I glanced over to see who it was.

“Where are Pri and Lenore?” Josie asked, glancing around the class, and my shoulders sagged in relief while she dropped her backpack next to mine on the floor.

“I don’t know. I thought you were with them.”

Josie shook her head and took her seat before pulling her phone out of her pocket. “Oh, you texted me,” she muttered before the classroom’s door and my lips parted slightly when Blake walked in. His face was bruised but he still had a smile on his face and just like in the dining hall, everyone became quiet. Then a moment later, some girls rushed over to him and began to talk all at once, asking him if he was okay and what happened.

He managed to extract himself politely and when he began to head towards me, I wondered if he was going to sit next to me again before realizing Josie was already there. He did take the seat in front of me though and after settling in it, he turned to face me. “Hey.”

“Your face…” was the first thing that came out of my mouth and he lightly touched a spot under his black eye. Even when he had been beaten up, he still looked glorious.

“I rushed into a door.” The lie rolled off his tongue easily and if I hadn’t seen the interaction between him and Theo in the dining hall, I might have believed it.

“Was the door named Theo?” Josie cut in with a snort and Blake heaved a sigh before bobbing his head with mock sadness on his face. “You’re not going to tell us we should see the other guy?” she added and he shook his head sideways before Josie leaned forward, patting his shoulder. “There, there.”

This was the first time I was seeing the both of them interact and I remembered Josie telling me Priyanka ‘hated’ Blake before wondering what had happened between him and the rest of their friend group.

Was he the ‘he’ that Theo mentioned when he showed up in Lenore and I’s room?

“David!” Josie’s chair scraped against the floor as she stood before she headed towards Priyanka’s mate and I returned my attention to Blake.

The thought of him ending up being my mate popped into my mind as I stared at him and my cheeks heated up before I cleared my throat. “Thank you,” I said and he raised his brows slightly. “For the help yesterday.”

“What help, Katya?” he asked in a playful tone and my cheeks heated even more at the way his nickname for me rolled off his tongue. I then processed his words and when I understood what he meant, I muttered an ‘oh’ before responding.

“I don’t know. What help?”

He discreetly gave me a thumbs-up at that, making my smile widen, before he faced forward once more.

****

“You’re the first person I’ve seen showing ‘this’ level of excitement due to becoming a member of our club,” one of the club members, Jackson, said and I tipped my head to the side, still unable to contain my smile at being ‘this’ close to finding my mate.

It was finally evening and I was sitting in the CMES club house, waiting for the meeting to start.

“Is that so?” I replied and he shook his head at me, smiling, as he handed me a packet for the club before moving to Josie to hand her one too.

There were only eight new members of the club – three girls and five boys. Ten people had found the ten keys but two hadn’t found their coins and that’s why we were eight. One of the five boys was Zac who I already knew had a mate before getting here and according to the conversations I’d heard the other four having, they also had mates.

So I was really down to Blake and Hunter, and that was part of the reason why I was smiling so much. I kept imagining what being with either of them would be like.

“Why were you even so determined to join this club?” Josie asked and I lifted my brows. “I mean, there are no benefits. The only thing you get is a heart attack from running into a malevolent spirit during one of their ‘activities’.”

I hadn’t really thought about that part of being a member of this club and I didn’t want to yet because it sounded terrifying. The ghost we’d run into in Renfield Hall wasn’t malevolent, but I kept waking up last night because I thought I heard him rasping in my ear.

‘Ugh.’

“I’m just really interested in ghosts. Ghost hunting, ghost catching… All the ghost-related activities.” I still didn’t want anyone to know that I was at Blackwood to find my mate.

“Uh-huh. You know they don’t actually catch ghosts, right?” Josie replied, sounding like she didn’t believe anything I just said, and I couldn’t help but smile at her tone. She shook her head sideways and glanced at Jackson who was still handing out packets. “Jackson, where’s Lenore?” she asked, reminding me that I hadn’t seen my roommate throughout the day.

Josie and I had seen Priyanka after the Elemental Science class and she told us she didn’t know where Lenore was either. She wasn’t replying her messages or answering her calls too.

“She’s not coming.”

“Okay. Where is she?” Lenore replied and Jackson shot her a confused look. “Don’t give me that look. You always know where she is. You’re like a Lenore tracker,” she added and the boy’s face flushed at that just as he handed the last person a packet.

“Shut up, Josie.”

“Yeah. Shut up, Josie,” Zac chimed in behind us and Josie shot him a scathing look.

“Fuck you, Zac.”

“Get in line.”

“Eww!”

I couldn’t back my laugh at that and a tapping noise came from the front of the room, making me stop and look up to see Hunter and Theo there. They looked as serious as they did the night they gave us the test but when Hunter’s gaze landed on me, a small smile crept onto his face.

‘Ah…’

“Welcome to the CMES club house,” Theo started. “I trust that you’ve already introduced yourselves to each other.”

As a couple of ‘yes’ filled the room, the front door opened and Poppy walked in before pausing when she saw me. Then her face contorted in anger and I groaned internally, preparing myself for whatever she was going to say.

“What the fuck are you doing here?!”