Chapter Six

When in doubt, tell the truth. We weren’t out after the dark hour, but still, we were at Headmistress Millington's mercy.

I threw an apologetic glance at Seph, who was thankfully blinking the glassiness from her eyes, and hoped she understood this was for the best. "Headmistress, Seph here was sleepwalking. I followed after her to make sure she was okay while at the same not waking her forcefully since I've read that's the wrong thing to do when the exact cause is unknown."

"Seph, is this true?" the headmistress asked, with a slightly less bitchy accusation in her tone as before.

"I…" She looked around at the trees soaring above us and shook her head as if trying to clear it. A splash of moonlight glinted on her still-wet cheeks and on the top of her bald head. "I have no idea how I got out here. I'm sorry, I…I was sleepwalking?"

"You were," I said, putting my hand on her shoulder.

"Oh…" She sounded so lost, so gut-punched with the shock of finding herself somewhere she didn't remember going. 

"Have you done this before?" A note of apprehension slipped into the headmistress's voice.

I looked at her sharply. What did she know and how did she know it?

"No, never. Um…” Seph scrubbed the tears from her cheeks. “Is this something we could keep between ourselves and not tell my family?"

I wanted to second that, but I sealed my mouth shut since my family thought I was attending White Magic Academy.

The headmistress looked to both of us and then waved her hand for us to follow. "Let's take this inside so we can discuss it further."

Seph and I shared a look, and then followed Headmistress Millington's brisk steps toward the academy's entrance. With the headmistress and Seph alert and crashing through the forest with me, my heart didn't feel like it was going to crack open a rib to escape, but unease still scraped down my back, nonetheless.

I didn’t like this. Any of it. I reached into my pocket only to find the dead man’s hand closed. I needed answers, but when would I get them? And would Seph survive that long?

The headmistress tapped open the door, just a touch rather than twisting one of the large knobs, and then turned to Seph with a gasp as she seemed to realize something. "How did you get the door unlocked?"

“I…" Seph blinked and then looked at me.

"She unlocked it like she had a hundred times before. Is that important?" The question snapped through the night, louder than I'd intended.

Headmistress Millington swept us inside, floating in her billowing gray cloak across the stone floor so fast, we had to hurry to keep up. With a wave of her hand, the door closed and locked us up tightly again.

"Headmistress," I said, unwilling to let my question go unanswered.

She led us into the Gathering Room, empty and dark and creepy as hell, but as soon as she stepped in after us, the torches lit along the walls.

"Gustafson, tea, please," she said.

A metal-spiked black pot of tea and three cups with saucers appeared on the freshmen table as well as a plate of cookies. No Gustafson in sight. Odd, and deeply unnerving. Who else lurked around us that I couldn’t see? Who else had seen me when I thought I was alone?

"Help yourselves, ladies." The headmistress crossed to the table and sat, and we settled in opposite her, filling our teacups and each taking a cookie, more out of politeness than anything else. "Did you see anything out there? Hear anything?"

Seph nibbled her cookie. "I was sleeping, so…not really."

I picked up my teacup with both hands, my nerves pulled so tight they trembled. "I don’t know. It might have been a trick of the shadows, but mostly I was focused on Seph."

She caught my eye and turned the corner of her lips up in a tiny, grateful smile.

"Did Sepharalotta say anything?" the headmistress asked.

I sawed my teeth over my bottom lip and stared into the depths of my tea, then glanced at Seph with a wince. Why did it feel like I was throwing Seph to the wolves by talking about her as if she weren't here? "She said, 'It's here' and 'I can't go in there.'"

"And you have no idea what she was referring to?"

"Well…" I cleared my throat and shot Seph another apologetic look. "She also said she couldn't go into the gym earlier today before she fainted."

“She fainted?” Headmistress Millington paled, and she covered her nonexistent lips with her hand, her fingers shaking.

Her reaction snagged the breath from my lungs. I could only guess what Seph must be thinking. Something was definitely wrong.

"Please, Headmistress, my brother…" I blurted, my voice so shallow that I wasn't even sure what I'd said. I snapped my mouth closed, wanting to continue but at the same time not.

"Your brother…" The headmistress stared at me for a long moment, and then recognition dawned in her sharp dark eyes. "Leo Cleohold?"

I nodded, wilting a little at all the stirred emotions just at hearing his name. Seph watched me closely, likely wondering what Leo had to do with her, and I set my teacup down before I dropped it.

"He came here for an interview,” the headmistress said, and the same delight that filled everyone’s faces when they talked about him lifted hers. “I offered him a job on the spot. He had a stellar background in all kinds of magic, but I'm sure Graystone is glad to have him."

She didn't know. Of course, she didn’t know. I picked up a cookie and jammed it into my mouth to stall.

Headmistress Millington must've seen the flicker of hurt in my eyes I was sure was there, because she leaned forward, her forehead creased. "Did something happen to him?"

The bites of cookie lodged halfway to my stomach, and I set it back down on the plate, my insides churning. "He's dead."

The words sounded so empty, so…flimsy because he wasn’t just dead, he was gone. Forever. Even if I could, or wanted to, necromancy didn’t work well with people. They came back…murderous, which was why we had a whole class of cautionary tales. Except this Ryze guy apparently could raise people with no problem.

Seph covered her mouth and blew out a heavy breath. "Oh, Dawn. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." The headmistress put her hand over her heart and stared down at the table, bewildered. "Your family must be devastated.”

That was one way to put it. My parents cried almost constantly while I immediately started plotting revenge.

“Before…” Headmistress Millington began, “you said 'my brother' when we were talking about Seph. Why? Did your brother sleepwalk?"

I looked at Seph, not sure if I should say because I didn't want to scare her, yet if I didn't, I might not get the answers I didn't know I needed until tonight. She and Leo were linked…somehow. Gently, I curled my fingers around Seph’s hand and squeezed.

"Yes," I whispered.

Seph stiffened, and her hand felt like ice in mine.

"He's not you, though. It was different for him," I blurted, trying to reassure her.

"When did he start sleepwalking?" the headmistress asked.

"The night after he came back from his interview here."

"And he died when?" Seph asked, her voice fading in and out.

I winced, hating this whole situation so much. "A week later. To the day."

"A week…" Seph laid her palm flat on the table like she was about to launch out of here, for good.

Headmistress Millington narrowed her eyes, like she was searching through a memory. "He was here…"

"Yes, I know," I said absently, tightening my grip on Seph.

The headmistress shook her head. "No, I mean after his interview. He came back and said he was hearing…voices."

My breaths stalled. He'd never said a word about that to me. Why? Why, when I could've tried to help him before it was too late? What else had he not told me?

"What kinds of voices?" I whispered.

"He wouldn't say, but he asked for help.” She squeezed her eyes shut briefly. “Help that I couldn't give to him."

"Why not?" My voice shook with fury and heartache, so familiar to me now, I wasn't sure I could ever feel anything else.

"It wasn't that I didn't want to,” she said calmly. “It was that I couldn't, so I took his problem to those who could help him, and when I didn't hear from him again, I thought he…I thought the problem had gone."

"How did he die, Dawn?" Seph asked, so low I almost didn't hear.

I opened my mouth to speak, but the bitter words clung to my tongue.

"How, Dawn?" she pleaded.

"Murder," I finally pushed out, but I bit down firmly on all the rest. Ramsey was mine to deal with, my secret to bear.

“Oh gods…” The headmistress surged to her feet and turned away from the table, a hard shudder rustling down her cloak.

Seph nodded, her eyes flooding, and slipped her hand out of mine like I'd wronged her by telling her the truth. And I had. A heavy, rotten ball of guilt pricked its thorns into the bottom of my gut and stuck there, festering. She didn't deserve this, and I would do everything in my power to keep her far away from Ramsey.

But the question still hung above my head, deadly and sharp: Why? Why Leo? Why Seph? Why was this happening?

Headmistress Millington spun around to face us. "Ladies, I need you to go to your dorm room. Right away. Sepharalotta, try not to fall asleep until I get there in a few minutes. Don't speak to anyone about this."

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I need to go," she tossed over her shoulder on the way to the doors.

"Go where? To help? The last time someone came to you for help—" I broke off, the cruel words dying in my throat. It wasn't her fault Leo was dead. 

She stopped suddenly in the doorway, and tension vibrated across her shoulders. She turned, a hardness to her usually kind eyes. "The last time someone came to me for help, I tried, which is exactly what I'm going to do now.” She opened the doors and pointed. “To your room. Now." She disappeared into the entryway.

Seph rose like the weight of the world rested on her shoulders, and I'd put it there.

“Hey,” I said to her while we headed for the stairs. "You aren't alone in this. Okay? I go where you go until we figure this out and stop it, and we will. No question."

"I shouldn't even really be here. I come from a long line of royal necromancers, talented, powerful ones who can raise plants with hardly a thought. But guess who the first person is who couldn’t successfully raise anything in my family's entire history?" She looked at me, helplessness shining bright in her eyes, and it struck me deep. "Me. And now this…this whatever is happening? My parents are already disgusted I'm here because my necromancy hasn’t come naturally to me like it did to the rest of my family. They’d never say it, but it shows, and if they get even a single hint of trouble here, they'll pull me out. Then I'll just be a stain on the family name. The outcast, even more than I already am."

"We won't let that happen. I promise," I told her as we started the climb to our room.

"How?” she pleaded. “No offense, but what are you going to do?"

Murder. Before Ramsey got to Seph, I'd kill him. If this played out exactly like my brother's last week of his life, then I had less than that to get it done. I would. I had to. I touched the dead man’s hand in my pocket. Closed. So tomorrow at our training session in the gym could be my next chance if we were alone. I’d demand answers of him first.

And then I’d have my revenge.

The thought filled me with such cold, wicked joy that I looked away to hide my smile. "Can you just trust me for now and find out later?"

"If by later, you mean soon,"—with a big, shaky sigh, Seph looped her arm in mine—"then yes, I trust you."