Chapter 49: CHAPTER 49

LYRA ANDREA SILVERTONGUE

“What is it, Clarisse?”

“You tell me, Lyra. You’re the one to run off with that Were-fox to the goddess knows where,” Clarisse responds.

“She had some information about Jade. That’s why I went with her,” I reply as we walk back to the Academy premises.

Something is off, and I know it. Ever since I got into Grimhowl Academy, it’s like an endless circle floating around me without a direction.

The light in the sky has fully disappeared, with only the silver moonlight to show for it.

And just as we are about to make it back, the corner of my eyes catches someone walking past the dark corners so the light doesn’t catch them.

But we are above curfew, and as such, no one should be seen outside. Not even I and Clarisse.

“Let’s go back to the den, Lyra,” Clarisse mutters, but the sudden change of direction from the person in the dark makes me focus all my attention on him.

There’s a way he moves that triggers a part of my brain. He slips into the Academy’s staff halls, one restricted for all non-staff members.

“Did you see that?” I ask Clarisse, but the knotting of her eyebrows and frowning of her face tells me she isn’t buying into it.

“And so?” Clarisse responds, but the harshness in her voice is the only thing to pull me off balance.

“What do you mean, and so?” I retort. “No one is supposed to go in there. You don’t want to find out what he’s doing in there? Or if possibly the crown we took from Tartarus is what he’s looking for?”

“It’s dangerous, Lyra,” Clarisse responds. “We are already past curfew, and goddess knows what is lurking out by this time. We need to get moving.”

She’s right. And we are not the guardians.

But just as we are about to continue making our way back to the den, something glows where he is; bright like an ember, and I know I won’t be able to sleep this night if I don’t figure that out for myself.

Clarisse senses my nervousness, and accompanies me towards the glowing substance.

“Won’t you like to share partial control with your wolf?” I mutter to Clarisse who rolls her eyes at me.

“And won’t you like to get your own wolf?” Clarisse retorts, and now it’s time to roll my eyes at her. “I hope we don’t die this night, Lyra, or my ghost will hunt you in the other side.”

“Very funny, Clarisse,” I respond to her jest, just as we get to the entrance of the hall.

The object keeps glowing as we pull closer, and the minute we go through the door, who we find isn’t what we are expecting.

“Adam?”

The name slips out of my mouth before he gets the chance to see who is in front of him.

“Lyra,” Adam responds. “What the hell are you doing in here?”

“We could ask you that same question, Adam,” Clarisse steps out from behind me, and Adam knots his brows when his eyes lands on her.

“You,” he retorts. “I should have known you’d be on my tail.”

I return my gaze to Clarisse, searching for some sort of an understanding to what in the sevens is going on right now. But just as I’m about to raise my voice, a pair of heels and boots clicks and thuds on the tile floor down in the hallway, and the three of us have no choice but to conceal ourselves inside the room.

“Time is upon us, professor. Damon is coming, and we still haven’t figured out a way of cracking the language. Without it, we cannot open the rift.”

And all too familiar voice echoes in the hallway, and my mind snaps back to when I and Emily had walked this hallway.

It’s the voice of the woman with professor Damien.

The one we couldn’t identify her identity.

“And what of your daughter,” Damien retorts. “Can’t she help speed up this entire process?”

“She says she’s not ready, Damien,” she responds. “We can’t rush things, Damien. She has to take the natural path, or we risk losing everything we’ve built.”

The voices go quiet as their footsteps passes the room which we are hiding. Yet, it makes me wonder why I have never come across this particular woman before.

I turn to look at Adam, that’s when I see him with the crown from the last realm.

“What are you doing with that, Adam?” I ask, but Adam suddenly shifts his gaze back to Clarisse.

There’s a particular look on Clarisse face I have never seen before. The way her muscles are more relaxed compared to the timid girl I know.

“What’s going on, Clarisse,” I ask, but her strong gaze on Adam won’t budge.

“We are called Darthor,” Adam responds, and I shift my gaze to him. “You’re not supposed to know about our existence, yet, Sael’vara.”

My eyes widen, and my jaw drops, slightly.

Did he just call me what I think he did?

I turn to Clarisse, and there is no element of surprise on her face. She shuts her eyes and presses her lips into a thin line.

“We have to go back to the den, Lyra,” Camile breaks silence after what is consider to be the longest confusion I have ever been in my entire eighteen years of living. “Emily and I will explain everything better for you.”

“Emily?” I retort.

“Yes, Lyra. She is part of this organization,” Clarisse responds before taking her eyes back to Adam. “We will gather on the fourth night the moon shoots in the sky. Don’t get caught.”

Her voice sink into my ears, and I can’t believe a single word coming out of her mouth right now. Coupled with what Camile told me about the real reason why she gave me the black book. So, I shut my ears and play along.

The walk back to our den isn’t a loud one, but the voices in my head is enough to fuel an entire conversation.

Clarisse bangs on the door, and Emily opens up.

They both take more than a second look at each other, right before Emily returns her gaze at me.

“Whatever Camile must have told you, Lyra, do not believe a word that came out of her lips,” Emily utters, and my brows knit at them.

“We know you feel betrayed, Lyra,” Clarisse cuts in. “But the Darthor’s are never meant to reveal themselves to anyone, but the one with the Elder blood.”

I try to grasp the magnitude of what both of them are saying, and yet, I find myself sinking deeper with every failed attempt at having an understanding.

“Camile showed me a tomb written with the actual prophecy in it,” I respond. “She says everything I have been doing has been orchestrated by you, Clarisse.”

Clarisse widens her gaze at me, before taking them back to Emily’s.

“Camile used to be in the Organization with the rest of us,” Emily responds. “But after what happened with Jade, she lost hope, and decided to leave.”

“What are you guys saying?” I bark out, and both of them take in a lungful of air.

“What we are saying is, we anticipated your coming to this Academy, but we weren’t too certain if you were truly Sael’vara the prophecy speaks about,” Clarisse mutters.

“And why did Camile tell me that I was handed the black book on purpose?” I ask, and they both let out a sigh.

“That’s because it’s supposed to corrupt you, just the way it did with Jade,” Emily responds.

My throat goes dry immediately as a swallow passes through it. I take a step back as if I’ve been pierced by an arrow, but in reality, their words are the spikes puncturing the sides of my rib.

“So, you all have known about my sister all these times, and none of you cared to say a word about it?”

My voices come out heavier than expected, just as my heart becomes too heavy for me to carry.

Camile was right. She had always warned me about trusting those closer to me, but I’ve been too blind to see the truth.

And the truth is the people I call friends, contributed in the madness, and eventually the death of my sister.

My eyes become too heavy as tears gathers at the corner of my eyes. The world feels as if it’s been put in its axis and sent for a spin off. The ground beneath my feet collapses, and gravity takes it pull on me.

Emily takes a step forward, and take another back.

“Lyra, please…” she mutters, but before she can finish saying the words spilling out of her lips, I bolt out of the door, straight into the woods.

I cannot bear to stand a second in their presence. And knowing that they themselves know that I’ll eventaully end up like my sister, still going ahead to give me the curse book, shows how much of a truth Camile was saying.

I keep running until my legs grow tired as I place my hand on one of the trees to support my gasping breath, just as the tears keeps pouring out of my eyes.

But when I lift my eyes forward, down to the center where the moonlight rests on, the sight in front of me has an inaudible gasp hanging within my throat.

There’s a crescent before me, her eyes bleeding white as a pair of black looking eyes sinks its fangs down the side of her throat and draws blood from her neck.

But when the monster locates me within the shadows, he removes his fangs from her throat, and the length of it has been taking a few steps backwards, till my back comes crashing against a nearby tree.

I want to scream at the horror before me, but my won voice fails me at that moment.

Yet, the shape of his face is oddly familiar. And when he turns completely to the light from the silver moon.

My jaw drops completely.

It’s… our professor of Dark arts.

Professor Damien.

Fucking hell.