Spearwood Academy Volume Two (The Spearwood Academy Book 2) (9 page)

His eyes go wide, he seems shocked by my contempt for
him.  He knows what he did. I will hate him forever.

"We need to go, my watchers will be here soon to serve
dinner."

"Leave your P.A. behind, both of you," says Horace,
as he takes out his card and tosses it to the floor. The others do the same.

Why in the world are they doing that? We never go anywhere
without them. They are all looking to me now.  "Leave your P.A. here,
Avalon," says Dante.

I frown at him. "Why? We are supposed to have our P.A.s
on us at all times. Even during sleep. That is what the rule book says."

He sighs. "I hoped I would never have to do this to you.
Avalon, drop
your
P.A.”

His voice, alluring and strong, compels me to take my
P.A. 
out
of the pocket of my dress and throw it
in the pile. Did he just use the Voice on me? Only master level silver users
can do that. When did he become a master silver user? We just entered
Spearwood. That training comes after we graduate from college.

"Avalon, I'm sorry I have to do this to you. But it is
for your own good, you're not yourself right now. You will follow us and remain
silent until we get to where we are going." Again his voice, like a soft
crashing wave, wills me to do what it wants me to.

H
e
nods to both Paden and Maverick and turns around to go back through the
passage. I follow along, a soft, but peaceful warm feeling making me want to
follow him and do as he asks. Why is all this happening? Why are they doing
this? Making me break the rules of the school to follow them to a place where
the walls can't listen? They sound like a bunch of paranoid drug addicts. Who
would want to watch a school full of teenage boys? I know I wouldn't, it's
probably filled with poor sex jokes and bromance. 

Paden follows closely behind me. I turn my head to look back
at him, I want to ask him if this is one of their pranks, and that has s just
gone too far.  I open my mouth, nothing but a hiss comes out. Dante ordered
me to be silent and so I must follow his command, since he is apparently a
Silver master. What else have they been lying to me about? How long have they
been lying to me? I wish I could make sense of any of this.

Soon we are out of the school and walking through the
courtyard. We weren't there for Paden's butlers to count us for dinner, and we
are out at night when a survival test isn't happening. I have no idea what our
punishment for this will be. I can only imagine. My Dad will kill me and then
them, not to mention their dads will be pissed at them for breaking such simple
rules. They are in place for a reason.

Where is he taking us? The stables? We are going to walk all
the way to the stables when nothing but the night surrounds us? If we still had
our P.A.s we could just call one of our cars to drive us there, such a waste of
time.

Everyone remains silent, before we come to stand in front of
the stables. Instead of getting a servant to help, Dante sneaks us into the
stables and to our horses. He expects me to saddle a horse myself? Why not just
have a servant do it? That's their job.

"Saddle your horse, Avalon." I roll my eyes at him,
as my body follows out his command. At least I have twelve years riding
experience under my belt. I could do this with my eyes closed.

Soon we are all saddled and sneaking our horses out the back
way. We could have just paid off the servant who helped us, he would have said
anything to my Dad or Mr. Perlow if he had enough money in his pocket to shush
him.

We mount our horses and I follow Dante's lead as he heads off
toward the forests, where the border of the boundary line lays. We aren't
supposed to cross it. I want to stop my horse and demand to know what is going
on, but my sheer will alone won’t beat his apparent power.  

"She's riding like a professional,” Horace says to one
of the others.

I want to turn back to him and tell him of course I am, seven
years continually studying a subject will make a person an expert in it. I had horseback
riding lessons four times a week, every week for eleven years and that included
shows and other things. This last year I haven't been riding as much, but it
doesn't mean I have slacked off enough not to look professional at it.

My heart picks up as we enter the forest. There's a school
rumor that says the lost souls of the dead who have passed in Spearwood wander
here at night looking for new bodies to inhabit. I close my eyes. I can't see
in the dark anyway, I will have to trust Maryann to guide me.

"Do you have your eyes closed?" asks Dante, as he
comes to ride next to me.

I turn my head in his general direction, I force my eyes
open, and frown. There are no glowing ghosts around us, yet.

"You can speak now, no screaming at us or I will force
you into silence again."

"We could get into serious trouble for all the rule
breaking we have just done. I have no idea what kind of punishment we will
receive for this, but it won't be detention."

He laughs. "I liked you better when you were carefree,
now you have the same rod stuck up your ass like the rest of us."

"When have I ever been carefree, Dante?"

"Just a few hours ago. You didn't let anyone stick you
in a corner. That's why you're Fire to me."

I shake my head. "No, you started calling me that
because I started a fire in my parents green house. We wanted a bonfire, but
did it inside."

He says nothing for a moment and then laughs, again. .
"Really, that's the lame reason they made you believe?”

My hands grip the reigns tighter. "It's not lame, I love
that memory."

"It's not real though."

"Stop it. I'm not the crazy one. Dad did something to
you guys and now you are all acting nuts."

"Are you sure he didn't do something to you?" he
asks.

'Well, at least they are on the right trail,'
says the voice in the back of my
mind.

"Of course not. Dad would never do that to me.  I
still can't believe he did it to you guys. He knows you are off limits, but I guess
he must have had a valid reason for doing so in the first place."

"You think so?"

We enter a clearing
a
smaller than my bathroom cabin stands in front of us. A waterfall, gives off a
strange glow. It lights up the entire clearing. Dante rides into the clearing
and gets off his horse near a lone tree. I wrinkle my nose. We're going in
there? A bulldozer just needs to come through here and tear this place down. It
won’t be big enough to hold us and I'm fairly certain it should be condemned.

I
get off Maryann and tie her to the tree with the others. "Are we seriously
going in there? It looks dirty and like it will cave in on us if we move too
much."

"What?
Dirt bothers you now, princess?" asks Lusk.

I
look at him. He has been calling me that since I woke up from my nap. He's
never called me princess before.

"Why
do you keep calling me that?"

He
shrugs. "It's what I call you, just like I call him," he points to
Horace, "Charming."

I
touch the wood of the cabin. "Ugh, this place is going to get my dress
dirty." Dante opens the cabin's door and we all step over the threshold.
My mouth falls open. The inside doesn’t match the outside. Everything looks new
and bigger than it should be.

"Why
haven't I ever been told about this place? It takes a group effort in order to
create magical places like this."

"You
seriously have no memory of coming here before?" asks Horace, as he leads
the way up a flight of spiral stairs.

"Of
course I don't, why would I? I think I would remember a place like this. I've
always wanted to see one in person. I wanted to make my doll house one, but dad
wouldn't let me tempt the magic on my own."

T
he first flight of spiral stairs leads up to a massive
library and sitting area. The fireplace already has a roaring fire, as if the
place had been expecting us.

I
take a seat on the long and curved couch.  "Why are we here? You've
all essentially kidnapped me. I don't even want to think about what Mr. Perlow
and my dad will do when they've figured out that we broke so many of the rules
at once."

The
most of the others sit down, but Paden and Dante remain standing. Both of them
are frowning, with their arms crossed over their chests.

"I
didn't do this to her, I swear. Her mind has been warped," says Paden.

"How
much of her is still the Avalon we know though?" asks Dante.

Paden
takes a step toward me." I know everything about her old self. My father
has had a watch on her since she was a child. Maverick was one of them. Avalon,
answer this question. Who is your favorite
Harry Potter
character?"

Here
they go again, talking like I'm not even in the room. I wrinkle my nose at the
thought of
Harry Potter
. I never really cared for the books. "I don't
know, I don't like reading fiction. Ginny, I guess."

"Not
even a few hours ago she would have said Hermione," says Paden.

Maverick
rubs his eyes. "Not to mention she only ever read fiction books when we
went to school together.”

"We
need to know how deep they went. I have a question that only she and I know the
answer to," says Amr, with a sigh.  "Who am I to you?"

I
frown. What does he mean? "You're my best friend. I don't know what you're
wanting from me. Why are you guys acting like I am the one who is insane?"

He
shakes his head. "They took everything."

Triton
nudges Amr. "What was she supposed to say?"

"This
morning, right after we escaped you guys, we found out something pertaining to her
and me. The reason I wasn't affected by her pheromones, is because I'm a close
relation to her. We're twins.”

"What?"
We all say in return.

I
shake my head. "I think I would remember if I had a twin, Amr. Besides,
I've met both of your parents and you've met mine, you know that. Quit acting
crazy."

"I'm
not acting crazy, Avalon. We didn't know each other as children. You were left
at a barn when you were a baby and a farmer took you in and cared for
you."

I
shake my head again and stand up. "I'm really tired of all this. Dad told
me you would all be acting strange, but I didn't believe him. He said you would
be back to normal in the morning. I'm going to go now and find my way back to
Spearwood, so I can get some food and go to sleep. I can't wait for this night
mare to be over."

I
start to move forward and Paden pushes me gently back into the couch. "I'm
sorry, but you're not going back there until we figure out all that is wrong
with you and how to fix it. Now, please stay seated."

I
frown. "You guys can't keep me here. Eventually dad will come looking for
me. He always talks to me before I go to bed for the night."

Paden’s
eyes go to my chest. "You're not wearing the crystal I gave you, where is
it?"

"What
crystal? You've only ever given me this, in terms of jewelry." I hold my
left hand and show him my engagement ring."

"The
moon has been out for a while now, why hasn't she changed? The crystal was the
only thing keeping her from transforming," says Triton.

"Transforming?"
I ask. They're acting like I'm some kind of werewolf.

"Your
curse," says Dante. "You're forced to transform at night if you
aren't wearing that crystal. Your transformations cause you pain."

I
lift an eyebrow. "I transform at night, huh?" I look down at my body
and then back at them. "I'm pretty certain I am still in my human
form."

"Transform
something for us then, your arm," says Dante.

I
sigh and raise my arm for them. With little concentration, my grey dragon
scales rise up through my skin and my nails grow into long mother of pearl
esque talons.

I
clench my teeth as a fire of burning pain moves up my arm and through my body.
Instantly, the scales go back under my skin, which looks bruised all over. I grab
my arm and pull it to my chest. What the Hell? This has never happened before.
I've never had pain while transforming. "That hurt. Transforming has never
hurt before, or left behind this bruise.”

"Apparently
they didn't get rid of all the side effects of the curse," says Triton. I
ignore his voice. 

"Her
scales were grey," says Horace.

"It's
not like I get to pick the color. It's either white or grey with the air
element. You know that," I say through gritted teeth. The pain is a
  dull
throbbing ache now, all over.

"Avalon,
you're scales are gold. We've all seen them with our own eyes. Our dragon forms
don't change color, ever. Something has been changed within you to make that
happen. You weren’t solely just air before, you were undecided," says
Bullock.

"I
know I’m not that great at using air magic, but I've always been air. That's
why Dad hired you to be my air magic tutor."

Dante
rubs his forehead. "You keep saying Dad, who are you talking about?"

I
roll my eyes. "Well, my name is Avalon Roseman, so that must mean my dad
is Oliver Roseman, the Head of the Governors."

They
all go stiff. "I didn't think you were serious when you told us your full
name back there," says Dante.

"Well
I was. Please can I go now? I know I can't fight all of you, but that doesn't
mean I won't try. I can't stand these psycho versions of you. I have no idea
what Dad was trying to do when he experimented on you, but I don't think it
worked. He's getting an earful tonight. He knows you guys are off limits for
his experiments."

"Avalon,
stay seated and be quiet," growls Dante. His voice once again manipulating
me into doing as he says.   He turns to face the others. “Does anyone
know what he did to her?”

Paden
nods. “He warped her mind. Took memories out and replaced them with new ones.
He did a really good job, but warping is never perfect. There has to be pieces
of her old self still hanging around. That old part of her will fight, I just
know it.”

‘
You
better believe I will.’

My
eyes go wide at what the voice says. How can I hear my own voice, speaking
separately from my thoughts?  I shake my head. Now that’s just crazy.
Almost as crazy as these guys. I hope my dad finds me soon and changes them
back to normal.

“How
do we fix her?” asks Triton.

“I’m
not broken and even if I were, I wouldn’t want your help.” I glare at him,
swallow hard, and look toward the fire.

“He
obviously wants her to dislike Triton,” says Horace.

“Why
do you hate me so much?”

I don’t
even look at him. I can’t believe he is acting like he doesn’t know. “You know
what you did.”

“Obviously,
I don’t, or I wouldn’t be asking.”

“Drop
it. We have more pressing matters to discuss. Like how we are going to get her
back to her original self,” Dante’s irritation takes me by surprise, I have
never heard him get this way. “What reason would he have for doing this to her?
What advantage would it give him?”

“Taking
away her undecided elemental ability is something that one of the Ancients
wants. A different one wants her to remain undecided. There is talk of war, but
I don’t know what it is for,” says Bullock.

“How
do you know all this?” asks Horace.

“I’m
an Outcast. They speak in front of me as if I’m invisible and stupid. They
sought me out and captured me because they knew of my abilities when it comes
to magic and air magic. They don’t know I heard them, but while transporting
me, they said I was in the school for the sole purpose of when she came along.
They didn’t know if they would have to capture her with force or not. This was
the last year she had a choice in the matter. Eventually, she came willingly,
so they didn’t have to take her from her home. As for someone to fix her, I
think I know of someone. A sea witch that has a shop in New York, she’s known
for being able to cure or curse anything.”

Dante
runs a hand through his hair. “Then we need to figure out how to get out of
here and get her there. It seems like Roseman has plans for us as well. We need
to get out of here if we want to avoid his grasp on us.”

They
are serious about this? They are actually planning to run away from Spearwood.
They truly have gone insane. Nobody has ever run away from Spearwood and lived
to talk about it.

Horace
pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “How are we going to get out of
here and to New York without being spotted? It’s not like we can just walk out
the front gate and be home free.” He thinks for a second. “We could use a Void.
Bullock could you transfer us there on your memories?”

“Yes,
I should be able to transfer all of us, but we need to get further away from
the boundary of Spearwood. We are still too close, the Watchers would detect
the use of such powerful magic.”

Dante
begins to pace, his hand to his mouth, as he thinks. “They will be looking for
us and there are Guardians at the base of the mountain. We will most likely
have to fight our way through, which means we don’t have to hold back anymore.”

They
are serious. Do they have death wishes?

“Should
we do full transformations or only our wings?” asks Maverick.

“Both,
not all of us can do the full transformation yet.”

“Are
you really serious about this?” I ask. “I wasn’t aware you had the college
level training to pull off full transformations. Though, since
he
,” I gesture to Dante, “seems to have mastered the Voice,
I shouldn’t be that surprised.”

“There
still seems to be a lot you don’t know. I guess that’s a good thing, it means
that Roseman doesn’t know them either,” says Horace.

“If
you think I’m going to participate in this asinine plan, then you have another
thing coming.”

Amr
sits forward and puts his hands together. “She’s right, how are we going to get
her to follow us, when she’s not in her right mind?”

Dante
stops pacing and looks at me. He frowns and I give him a glare that should put
him six feet under. “Leave her to me. It won’t be permanent, but I should be
able to draw out the pieces of her old self that still remain. Hopefully she
can keep her hold over this new version until we get off the mountain and
through the Void. Once we’re in New York we will have to figure out another way
to keep her from running. I don’t know if I will have enough power at that
point to continually use the voice on her.”

‘I
won’t let you down, Dante.’

My
heart hammers in my chest. There’s no mistaking my own voice. Is this the part
of me that they say is the real me? She wants to go against Dad’s wishes. “You
won’t get away with this,” I say to them all, including myself.