“If you insist on breaking the rules then I will be the lookout.” Atticus leaped down and darted for the cat door beside the big one. Moments later he poked his head back in. “It is clear. Apparently you two are the only rule-breakers.”
We slipped out and quietly moved across the hall and down the stairs. When we got to the foyer, I froze. Finnick and his friend stood there talking. I wanted to just walk by but Finnick waved. If there were other students, we probably wouldn’t have felt obligated to say a word.
“Hello,” Legacy said. “Shouldn’t you be in your rooms?” She smirked and her hazel eyes slid over to me.
Finnick and his friend bowed to me. “Shouldn’t you, your highness?” Finnick looked between us smiling, waiting for an answer.
If only he knew he was going to die soon, he wouldn’t be so cheerful, I thought but pursed my lips. The heaviness of that thought weighed on me. I wanted to say something so bad but the words wouldn’t form.
“We’re getting something to eat,” I said and tugged on Legacy’s arm. I wanted to get away as quickly as possible.
“Uh, Princess Visteal,” Finnick said, almost as if asking a question. “Your—Uh, I mean Professor Magnevara told us to make sure all the students stayed in their rooms. You should—I mean—you need to go back.”
Heat pierced the skin of my cheeks. They left him in charge and not me? He and his friends were not even seventh year students. I turned slowly. “You’re giving me an order? And what did they tell you to do if one of us should not listen?”
Legacy couldn’t stifle her giggle which made my statement feel less effective. I glared at her and the smile dropped from her lips.
Finnick cleared his throat, probably trying to work up some courage. “Well, she said if you came down you might say something like that. And to tell you that she said to go back to your room. It’s eerie actually.” He sucked in his bottom lip and looked away as if trying to remember something. “It’s almost like she knew you would come down here.”
With Madison’s gift of seeing glimpses of the future, she no doubt did see this coming. Her foresight was interesting, it would show our meeting but not the attack on the horse. Unlike mine, her special ability wasn’t predictable. But of all people, why would she have chosen Finnick to guard the foyer if she’d known I’d come down—does she know of my vision? Does she want me to tell him?
“Finnick, I need to—” my mouth suddenly went very dry and the words got caught.
His eyes narrowed. “You need to what, your highness?”
Panic slowly crept in my veins. How did one tell another they were going to die? What if he and his friend told others what I saw? Then everyone at this school would find out about my ability and he would die anyway. As I said before, everyone always dies how I see it. My parents and I had worked so hard to keep it a secret.
“Just—just don’t go wandering about the halls at night, okay? It might not be safe.” I said it gently so as not to sound like I myself was threatening him, and turned away before he could question me.
Legacy and I headed back toward our room. “Where was Atticus to warn us about those two?” Legacy asked. “We could have found a different way to the dining hall.”
The big white furball had disappeared. Some lookout he was. When we rounded the corner barely out of sight of the foyer, loud chatter spilled into the halls behind us. The professors were back. I halted and turned on my heel. I had to know the details of what they’d found, so we peeked around the corner to spy.
It was hard to pick out any specific conversations given that there were at least twenty five people talking all at once.
Two Collweyan professors headed right for us and Legacy shot me a worried look, the kind that said we need to hide. Looking around frantically I found absolutely no cover. Even the paintings on the walls seemed to know we were in trouble. “Invisibility,” I whispered. “What’s the longest you’ve held the spell?”
Legacy sighed then hastily said, “Like thirty seconds!”
That wasn’t nearly long enough. “Hold my hand.” Maybe with our combined magic I could hold the spell for us. We pressed our backs against the wall and I took a deep breath and whispered, “Vizaro incante.” My body tingled as I felt my magic warm my skin. I willed myself invisible, picturing our bodies hidden from their eyes.
The two professors with white-blonde hair came into the hallway, and if the spell hadn’t worked they’d see us. I slowed my breath, barely letting it pass through my nose, worried they’d hear me. I didn’t want more dish duty.
“There wasn’t even a sign of an animal that could do that on the grounds,” one female Collweyan professor said to the other. “Other than the dead horse. No tracks, nothing.”
“I hope something didn’t follow us here from Collweya.”
They stopped right in front of us and I could already feel the spell taxing my energy; a bead of sweat even slipped down the side of my face. If only magic didn’t cost physical energy, how much more powerful we’d be.
“You don’t think…” one held a hand to her mouth.
“Only time will tell. But for now, let’s not speak of it. We don’t want to worry anyone. It probably was a wolf.”
Thankfully Madison called to the two women and waved them over. Her eyes fell on Legacy and me, as if she knew we were there. I’d bet my crown that she did, though I have no idea how unless she’d seen this part in her vision, too.
When they were out of the hall, I released the spell that slowly drained my strength and power, and both Legacy and I became fully visible once again, bent over with our hands on our knees. My legs could give out on me at any moment and my arms shook just holding my upper body weight. After a few deep breaths, I grabbed Legacy’s arm and trudged back toward our room.
I threw the door open, and there sat Atticus on my bed, balled up, asleep! A pair of socks peeked out of my partially open drawer and I launched them. Making contact, his head shot up and wide-eyed, he looked between Legacy and me.
“Where were you?” I snapped. “You were supposed to be the lookout.”
Getting onto all four paws, he arched his back and took his time stretching. I rolled my eyes and looked to Legacy.
Legacy folded her arms. “We almost got caught.”
“Well,” he said with a big yawn. “If you almost got caught, then you did not actually get caught, so I do not see why you felt it necessary to throw socks at my head whilst I slept.”
I stomped over and snatched him by the scruff. He stiffened and tucked his tail. “Listen here, cat, if you are going to be our feline guardian, the guardian of the Princess of Delhoon and her family, you better not abandon us in our time of need.” I released him then felt bad and petted his head. “Sorry for, you know, grabbing you like that. But I need you to know this is serious. Maybe this time it wasn’t a big issue but next time it could be. There is something dangerous—” no, that wasn’t the right word, there were a lot of dangerous people and things here, “something savage and murderous on the grounds and you need to be alert.”
“Murderous?” His usually half-closed, lazy eyes became wide. Lifting his chin, he said, “My apologies, Princess. I will be a better guardian from this moment forward. I certainly did not expect any perilous problems to arise on the first day. Did someone die?”