AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She’s fine too. She’s sleeping right now. She got quite a workout. Let’s get to dinner because we have a meeting afterward. I’ll explain everything on the way.”
CHAPTER 12
Dinner was a subdued affair.
Elliot held my hand all the way down to the cafeteria, where he had me sit so close to him, I might as well have been sitting in his lap. I understood, of course.
Everyone was worried.
Strangely, though, I wasn’t.
I let the conversation roll around me, and while the otherswere speculating out loud on how Zowen might be stopped, I was reviewing everything that had happened in this last confrontation and how we’d managed to send him fleeing.
I finally came to the conclusion that it had to be my fire.
It wasn’t the same as before, not since our time in the Shadow Realm, where it was tempered by darkness and infused with shadows. It was wilder now, with a bit of darkness at its center and ice along the edges.
My fire had made all the difference the night before. During the confrontation in my nightmare, it had frozen the shadows for key moments before they’d attacked again.
Today they’d driven the shadows completely back.
By the time we arrived in the library, I was ready to discuss some of my theories, though when I saw how many professors and staff members were waiting for us, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
“Good, you’re here,” Headmistress Blackthorn said. “Come join us.” She waved to the two long tables that had been shoved up against each other, creating a sort of boardroom feel to them.
Seated at the table were a number of professors, the dean of students, the librarian and Mrs. Caldwell.
They’d left one side of the table free, so the five of us took seats there. Somehow I ended up in the middle, with Kasi on my left and Elliot on my right.
Headmistress Blackthorn took the seat directly across from me.
At that moment, the door to the library flew open and Professor Fotheringham came bursting in. “Sorry, I’m late. Sorry, had to take a detour to Wellspring. Cluri was running a bit dry.” He said this as he tilted his head to the left to the tiny man sitting on his shoulder.
I squinted. I thought it was a man anyway.
Headmistress Blackthorn let out a huge sigh. “Do not tell me you are walking around this Academy with a clurichaun on your shoulder!”
Interesting. The little man did look like a ruddy-faced leprechaun. He was even wearing the requisite red jacket and hat.
Professor Duggan let out a guffaw of laughter. “Still haven’tfound the right spell, eh, Callum? You know, I could help with that.”
Professor Fotheringham just gave him a withering glare, then sat down on the one empty chair left at the table, which happened to be between Duggan and Blackthorn.
“You’re the one who got me into this situation, ya miserable bampot.”
Blackthorn shook her head. “I don’t even want to know. Just do not let that creature loose in the Academy, donotgive him access to our cellars, and under no circumstances are you to take him to class with you!”
Interesting. I couldn’t help but notice the way Cluri perked up the moment cellars were mentioned.
I’d never actually heard the Academy basement referred to as a cellar before,so now I was intrigued. If the little guy truly was a clurichaun, I was betting the detour Fotheringham had to make was for some sort of spirits.
My suspicion was immediately proven right when the professor pulled out a tiny bottle of what appeared to be whiskey, twisted the cap loose and passed it up into the clurichaun’s hands.
Cluri let out a chortle of joy and started to drink.
Now I had to wonder if the professors had their own hidden wine cellar somewhere on the property, a wine cellar Blackthorn didn’t want a clurichaun getting his hands on. Considering we were in the library, which was already in the basement, I was thinking this wasn’t the cellar Blackthorn had been referringto.
I leaned forward to look toward Jasmine and saw her looking my way, eyes shining with excitement. Oh, yeah, I saw a treasure hunt in our near future.
