Strange Academy (Hot Paranormal Romance) (17 page)

Cross shrugged, and somehow the gesture interrupted her. “The board took all the information at its disposal into account, weighing the need for security against our desire to honor Pippa.” He looked her square in the eye. “The vote was against you. You would never have been invited. This precaution that your memories be erased when you left was the deciding factor. Without this condition, you wouldn’t be here at all.”

The look of pure misery on her face made Gray wonder whether she was thinking not being invited wouldn’t have been a great crime. She slid one hand over her other arm like she was suddenly uncomfortable in her skin. “And now I’m in jail, essentially.”

“I very much disagree with that,” Cross said. “You’re free to leave at any time.”

He said it with such conviction that suspicion rose, prickly and hot, in Gray’s chest. The “stipulation,” as Cross had called it—had Cross been the one to suggest it in the first place?

“This is cruel.” Her voice was small.

“I’m sure it seems that way to you. And perhaps you’re right,” Cross admitted. “But in the end, keeping the secret—keeping these kids safe from forces that would harm them—is more important. It’s more important than your memories. More important than your life. Or mine. Or Gray’s. No one at Strange Academy thinks any differently.”

“Forces that would harm them?”

“Can you imagine what certain governments would do with these powers? Or corporations, for that matter?” While watching her from the corner of his eye, Cross drummed his fingers on the wooden table, clearly considering how much to tell her. “And there are Metas who aren’t part of Temple.”

“Temple?” She snapped to attention at the name, revealing that she remembered it from the night she let Burana into Strange Hall. “I thought Temple was a person.”

“No, not a person,” he said.

She opened her mouth, ready to fire questions. Cross raised a hand for silence. “It’s enough for you to know that Temple is an organization. It’s where the kids go if their senior independent study project goes well. If you respect us at all, you won’t ask to know more.”

Respect? He saw wide-eyed disbelief flash across her face for an instant. Clearly, she wasn’t sure she did respect them. Part of him could understand. How could she respect Metas after this? But for now, he watched her dig her fingernails into her palms as if to keep herself quiet on the subject.

Her face went slack, her voice low. “I don’t understand why it’s okay to do this to me.”

Cross nodded, as if playing around with her head was totally reasonable. “I know it’s difficult for you to grasp, but this is for your protection as much as ours. There are many people who would like to know the location of Strange Academy.”

That was true, at least. But would Sadie get that? Would she connect it with their conversation at the megalith?

“Super villains,” she said. “The Metas who aren’t in Temple.”

“I suggest you stop using any noun that begins with ‘super’ around here. It will help you make friends.” Cross said it with a little smile, but as he continued, the smile melted away. “But the concept is correct. If they knew you had information, you wouldn’t be safe, Sadie.”

“I don’t care.” Her chin jutted stubbornly. “Remove the spell that'll erase my memories.”

Cross looked at her from under lowered eyelids. Were they lowered from contempt or compassion? It was so hard to read him.

“There was concern you might befriend some Metas and coerce them into sympathy. Actually, the board was thinking of the Teachers’ Coven. Pippa trained most of them. They thought the world of her, and they might have been tempted to help you. To counteract this, the spell was linked to the Magic Circle that protects the school. Gray showed you, I believe?”

Dammit, he had shown her. His stress knot turned into a solid rock under his shoulder blade. He’d been the one to tell her about the circle that trapped her here. She would assume he knew about the spell. Maybe even assume that he had lobbied for it with the board or had cast it himself. Gray didn’t want her here, but this...it just seemed so harsh. Cruel, she’d called it.

“So you can’t break the spell.” Her flat tone made the hair on the back of his neck stand to attention.

Cross’s wince didn’t last more than a nanosecond. Even Sadie, in the time it took her to glance at the floor, missed it. But Gray hadn’t.

“That would be a very bad idea.” Cross’s tone was even. “For both you and Strange Academy. As I said, you’re free to go at any time. You just can’t take your memories with you.”

Sadie’s shoulders slumped. Something in his chest started to ache. What was wrong with her? Why wasn’t she fighting back?

Fight with what?
he asked himself. She was outgunned and had no ammunition.

“I don’t understand. Why do you people want to play with my brain?”

You people
. Gray’s stomach sank.

“This school is more important than any of us, Sadie.”

Sadie looked like a balloon someone had let the air out of.

“I was so wrong about—” Sadie straightened her back. Her eyes looked wet. “About you, Christian. I misjudged you. I saw something in you that just wasn’t there.”

“Pippa wanted you here, Sadie. She believed in you.”

“She believed in me enough to trap me here. I guess I couldn’t trust her, either,” she said. “You see, I’m the worst teacher in the world. So there’s no point in any of this.”

“The kids seem to have more respect for you since they found out you slapped Regina.”

Shit. Cross knew about that? He seemed to take it in stride. Very strange.

“I can’t teach,” she said.

“Then we’ll find you another job.” Cross’s blue eyes were pure ice, though his tone of voice stayed even. “Too bad you didn’t take library science. We need a temporary replacement for Eton English. He took a leave of absence after—” Cross cut himself off sharply. “After the recent accident. Our janitor is about to retire. Give me until June to find your replacement. Then you can replace him.”

“I didn’t struggle through six years of university to scrub toilets for the rest of my life,” she said, a little of her fighting spirit returning.

Cross shrugged and stood.

“I want Aunt Pippa’s books back,” she demanded. “I know you took them. Anyone else would have gotten caught.”

“Agreed. We’ve been through them all now and taken the spells out from between the pages.”

“Dr. Cross.” Her tone was so flat Gray barely recognized it. “What’s your Talent?”

“Are you done with the photocopier?” Cross asked.

*

***

******

****

*

Sadie stared down the fifth graders, ignoring the pine smell of her replacement desk as it tickled her nose. With the holidays starting tomorrow, she had planned to read
A Christmas Carol
with them, but after finding out about the Meta conspiracy to keep her here, she felt less than festive.

And, of course, there was that kiss. Heat inched up her neck at the memory. The air turned dry, rasping as it went into her lungs. When Gray had tossed her up on the photocopier and planted himself between her thighs like he belonged there, she’d almost let him do what he seemed to want to. Okay, “almost let” was the wrong adverb/verb combo. “Strongly encouraged” was more like it. Very strongly.

The way they’d been cut off—well, she was grateful for it now, though it had rankled at the time. What a disaster it would have been, having sex with Gray.

The kids fidgeted, as if sensing something was wrong. She’d been staring silently at Carmina’s empty seat since the period began twenty minutes ago. Maybe Gray had done Carmina a favor, sending her home. She didn’t fit in, either, but at least she could leave this awful place.

Sadie just felt so...drained. Gray and the other Metas had the upper hand, no matter what she did. If they wanted her here, she came. If they wanted her to forget, she would.

The one thing she couldn’t forget was a name. Eton English. The principal had said it in the middle of telling her about the whole memory spell thing. She’d only made the connection later, and it had made her skin fizz like someone had poured ginger ale on it. The librarian. The librarian who has disappeared after Pippa’s death. Had he been in the library while Pippa was dying? Had he seen something? Had he
done
something?

Feeling like an idiot, she shook off the suspicion. She’d believed her aunt had been killed for too long. It had started to affect all her thinking. But a new idea had imprinted itself on her brain, one she couldn’t shake. The poisoned apple hadn’t been some kid's harmless prank. Neither had the desk fire.

Nikkos put up his hand. Iffie hung by a single claw from the suspended fluorescent lights above Nikkos’s desk, eyes closed, snoring softly. Sadie nodded at him.

“What are you doing?” Nikkos asked.

She shrugged.

“Did you really slap Regina?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. Let them press charges or whatever. “And she got an F on her history paper.”

“This is stupid,” Henry complained.

She walked over to his desk. “What is?”

“You’re supposed to be teaching us stuff.”

“Really?” She mirrored his contemptuous attitude back to him. “Do you want me to?”

Henry’s square jaw seemed so familiar, but she couldn’t place it. “Lorde Gray doesn’t need English. I don’t either. I just want an A.”

“Okay,” she said.

“I don’t—” Confusion muddled Henry’s thick eyebrows.

“You get an A. Happy?”

“Uh...” Henry said.

“Good.” All eyes were on her. “Anyone else want an A?”

Dot inched her hand up, as if it might be a trick question but afraid not to take the chance it wasn’t. Marius’s hand followed. The rest grew bolder. Every hand in the class went up, except Sterling’s. He just scowled at her.

“An A for everyone, then.” Sadie returned to her desk.

The buzz of low conversation started.

“As long as you’re quiet,” she added. The buzz stopped. The class traded confused glances.

*

***

******

****

*

Gray was not checking up on Sadie. If he just happened to walk by her classroom, it didn’t mean he felt guilty she was trapped here. Well, she was trapped if she didn’t want her mind wiped. Just walking by on his free period didn’t mean he wanted to see her one last time before Christmas vacation. Or that their searing kiss on Mr. Photocopier had haunted his thoughts.

Listening at her door, he heard a quiet classroom. The back of his neck prickled, warning danger. All the other teachers were doing loud Christmas activities. The muffled laughter leaked from classrooms into the locker-lined halls. But Sadie’s room gave off a worrying silence.

He was above spying. Besides, he couldn’t see anything through the frosted glass of the door. He knocked on it.

Sadie answered, standing framed in the doorway. Her black suit was tight. Her hair was pulled back tight. Her jaw was tight. There was a thick aura of
don’t mess with me
surrounding her, like a cobra with its hood up. No doubt she was still thinking he’d known about the spell that would erase her memory if she left Strange Academy.

“Do you need to talk to Sterling?” she asked.

He looked past her to the neat rows of students sitting silently at their desks. Stunned faces looked back at him. “Can I speak to you, Miss Strange?”

She stepped into the hall, the thick heels of her shoes clicking on the tile.

“Is something wrong, Sadie? Your fifth graders look like they’ve been hit by a Mack truck. What happened?”

“I gave them all A's.”

He heard her words; he just couldn’t make them make sense in his mind. “You gave them all A's?”

“I gave them—” She started to repeat herself, then stopped. “Did you want something?”

“Why did you do that?”

She shrugged. “It made them happy.”

They hadn’t looked happy. “Damn. You’ve lost your mind. A crazy person is teaching my nephew.”

“Well, at least he’ll get a good grade.” There was something unpleasant about her grimace of a smile. “And he’ll have a nice, sane Meta teacher next year. If you’ll excuse me, Mr. Gray, I have to supervise my students.”

He caught her wrist as she touched the doorknob. “Sadie.”

She looked into his eyes. The soft skin under his fingers contrasted with the stony look on her face. “Someone wants me out of here badly enough to try to kill me,” she said.

His temper fired up, stoked to a roaring blaze. But no. He willed himself calm. He wasn’t going to raise his voice to her. For one, they were in a very public place. Anyone could walk by at any time. Her fifth grade class, with Sterling in it, was just on the other side of the door.

More importantly, he had to admit, he sort of understood her perspective. His stress knot gave a sympathy burst every time he thought about the spell on her. The one that kept her here. The idea that she might think he had anything to do with that still bugged the shit out of him.

“I don’t know what Carmina was thinking,” he said. “She wouldn’t be in alchemy anymore if it were up to me.”

Sadie turned back to him, with a flounce of her dark braid. “Cross said he knew that Carmina didn’t do it.”

“Cross also suspended Carmina,” he reminded her. “Listen, no one around here wanted you gone more than me.”

Her slight pout sent his mind reeling back to their hot moment on the photocopier. “I note the use of the past tense in that last sentence,” she said.

Wanted
. Yeah, he’d said it. Probably that whole sympathy thing—but he wasn’t about to admit that to her. “You still don’t belong here, which is why you can't deal with these accidents.”

“It’s not like they happen to other teachers.”

“Yes, they do.” He carried on, despite her skeptical glare. “Last year, an incomplete magic circle in a kid’s senior project let a water demon loose to destroy the old pool building. Hell, yesterday, I had to contain a failed potion that would have expanded infinitely, turning everything in its path to stone. These kids don’t have control of their powers. That’s why it’s an honor to be invited to teach here. All the teachers deal with all this stuff all the time. You just don’t have any defenses.”