“Find her before she runs through the academy shouting.” His voice is weak but eyes darken in anger.
“She won’t. Tobias and Ash are in the library.”
Jamie rests his head on his arms and closes his eyes.
“Who locked the door?” Maeve’s scream pulls me from the room, and I run up the steps behind her. She hammers on the door like a madwoman “Tobias! Let me out.”
“Maeve,” she turns to me and I stumble back down a step.
Blood covers the top of her cheeks and her eyes brim red.
Shit.
Her pulse races too, engulfing me with the scent from her perspiring skin and I take another step back. She left the room too quickly, hair in her face—if I’d known she bled, I wouldn't have followed.
My eyesight sharpens and the blood appears luminescent the longer I look. I can’t tear my eyes away and moisten my lips.
“Your eyes.”
She frowns and wipes at her cheek. “Oh.”
Oh?
I step further back as my ears begin to ring and something gnaws at my chest. Clenching my fists, I hold my breath. Jamie’s blood didn't affect me as much as this tiny smear on Maeve’s face.
Maeve pauses and shoves past me, back into the room, and I let out the breath, dizzied by the lack of oxygen.
“Jamie! Call April. Now,” she calls.
I follow and find Maeve standing over him, his head still resting on the desk, and he twists his head to look at her, dazed. “You're bleeding.”
“April is going to die. Call her!”
“What the fuck?” He lifts his head and the poor guy can barely move, as if he’s been trampled or hit. As he pushes into his jacket pocket for the phone, his arms tremble. “Why me? You call her.”
“I need to know.” She grabs at her hair. “We need to go.”
I’m reminded of the crazy Maeve who chased the heartbeat across campus, but Maeve is also the person who predicted Jamie’s death and saved him. “Listen to her, Jamie.” I take her arm. “We’ll find the others and sort this.”
Her eyes hold the same confused distance as the other night too. “I saw something. I’m not sure what, but I’m right. There’s something beneath the academy. If we don't stop April, whatever lives there will kill her.”
The certainty in her tone spurs me into action, but Jamie stays dumbstruck. “Jamie!” she urges. “You have to be the one to call. Ask her where she is.”
He purses his lips and dials, fingers still shaking as Tobias walks into the room, with Ash shoving past him. “What’s happening? Maeve?”
She chews on her nails and shakes her head, staring at Jamie. “April? Where are you?” he asks.
Tobias halts and runs a hand through his hair as he sees Maeve’s face. “Maeve? What did you see?”
“Shush!” She steps closer to Jamie. “What is she saying?”
Jamie shakes his head at her. “Get out of the tunnel. Now. You’re in danger.”
Ash grabs Maeve’s small black bag from the floor and rummages around before finding a pocket pack of tissues. She swats him away as he wipes at her eyes. As he scrunches the tissue and shoves it in his pocket, his eyes meet mine. I nod in thanks.
Maeve snatches the phone from Jamie. “April. I saw you. I know you have runes. I don't know what the hell you're doing but if you don't leave now, you’ll die!”
I hear April reply and then silence.
“Hello? April?” Maeve pulls the phone from her ear and swears. “She hung up!”
As Maeve makes a break for the door, Tobias seizes her arms. “Look at me. Tell me what you saw.”
“I don't have time! I know where the tunnel is. Go. Now.”
Tobias stumbles and we all stare after her as she rushes through the door.
“Do as she says, Tobias,” I urge and follow her.
Chapter Fifty-Eight
ANDREI
The half-empty library prevents Maeve drawing too much attention to herself and once we’re outside, she charges into the dark evening and away from the building. I don't have a problem keeping up as our footsteps thud across the lawns, none of us do, although Jamie trails further behind.
“Ash, hang back with Jamie,” says Tobias as they reach us.
I wait for Ash to protest, but he does as Tobias asks.
Breathlessly, Maeve recounts what she saw and heard, and Tobias speeds up. “Where did you leave the tunnel?”
“I didn't climb out,” she says. “Behind the building near the cows.”
Doubt seeps in. If there were a tunnel entrance near a frequently used building, somebody would know. “Are you sure?”
Maeve stops abruptly and I almost knock into her. “Yes!”
Tobias’s figure blurs again as the single-storey building comes into sight, and I can’t see him until we catch up. I’ve spent time here myself—this old workshop is a popular place for students who want privacy but aren’t lucky enough to have keys to a cottage.
I remember the night I met Matt here, finding him secretly casting a spell from the Blackwood grimoire. I warned him about the mistake he was making, and the idiot never listened.
Maeve shoves by again as she moves along the weed-covered path to the back of the building.
“Here.” Tobias stands by a row of large, square, concrete pavers. There’s a gap in the middle and the paver that belongs there is half a metre away. I step next to him and dirt slides from beneath my feet into a black hole.
“How the hell did she move that?” asks Ash as he catches up.
“Elemental witch. Earth spirits,” pants Jamie as he slumps on the floor, back against the building.
“She’s at that skill level?” asks Tobias in shock.
“I never knew, but I’m not surprised,” he replies.
“Maeve!” calls Ash. I catch sight of her blonde hair as she slips down the hole into the dark.
“Stop!” I call and jump into the void. The space between the ground and the opening is around three metres and I effortlessly land on my feet before reaching up and catching Maeve as she falls.
“I could manage,” she mutters and pulls away from my heroic action.
Tobias appears beside Maeve and seizes her around the waist before she can charge into the dim. “Nice try, Tobias,” she says through clenched teeth. “That won't work this time.”
Huh?
“Andrei,” he says as he releases her. “Stop Maeve running to her death. We don't know what’s down that tunnel.”
“Vampires!” She pulls at where I have her wrists. “We can take them on.” She turns to glare at Tobias. “Don’t say that.”
Again, huh? He never spoke.
Tobias plunges into the shadows and I drop her wrists in surprise. Ash lands heavily on the ground behind us just as Maeve pursues Tobias.
Man, I have a bad feeling about this.
The tunnel runs towards a crossroads and my sight allows me to see Tobias and Maeve ahead. They stop running and I reach them, standing in front of the tunnel end. The rock looks solid, as if somebody gave up hewing out the stone. Rocks are scattered on the floor, many covered in moss and undisturbed.