Strange Academy (Hot Paranormal Romance) (38 page)

“Stay in the circle,” he ordered.

She looked back at him once, then straightened her spine and left his protection. The books soared around her like bats with malfunctioning sonar. Gray gritted his teeth and strained against his invisible captor.

“Okay, Sterling.” Her insanity echoed through the library dome. “Here I am. Come and get me.”

The library darkened. Sterling emerged from the sudden shadow. He looked at her through his fringe of dark bangs, as if his head was too heavy to lift. Gray started in shock. The look on Sterling’s face was so black—was his nephew possessed?

The books flew around Sadie and Sterling, who stood focused on each other like duelists.

He struggled, but the invisible grip on him was like iron.
Dammit
. “Get in the circle, both of you.” Couldn’t they see? The falling book didn’t kill Pippa. The killer was the demon who was doing this.

As if to kick the point home, a bird-book flew perilously close to Sadie’s head, missing by inches. A wall of books ended its flight. The impact sent half a dozen hardcovers spewing into the air. The book would have done major damage to her if it hadn’t flown by.

“It’s been a bad year for you, hasn’t it, Sterling?” she said, as if her life wasn’t in danger. “First the divorce, then Pippa. And then you just couldn’t seem to get rid of me.”

Sterling’s hands fisted at his sides.

“Whenever I made you mad, something bad happened. The fire. The apple.”

“I didn’t do it,” Sterling said, in a chilly tone Gray hadn’t heard from him before.

“At Christmas, I yelled at you for playing under the roof. An icicle almost killed me.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Gray said.

“I didn’t do it,” Sterling said, louder.

“You were the only one around when I was hit by lightning,” she pointed out.

“I didn’t do it,” Sterling shouted. “I didn’t mean to do any of it.”

Gray’s heart stopped.
Didn’t mean to
. Sterling’s chest heaved as his words echoed through the library dome. And through Gray’s brain. Sterling winced and grabbed his stomach.

Gray’s stress knot flared under his shoulder blade. He remembered Sterling interrupting his conversation with Sadie about Pippa’s death. “Sterling, when you said ‘I killed her’ in the soccer field, who did you mean?”

“I taught all those poems with dead women in them. Must have been very hard for you.” Only Sadie seemed to keep her cool. “Your ulcer is your raven. Your guilt won’t go away until you talk about this. What happened? Did Pippa make you mad?”

“No.” Sterling leaned forward, arms around his middle.

“How did Pippa get hurt, Sterling?” she asked.

Sterling’s face was an angry mask. “You shut up!” He raised an arm to point at Sadie.

An ancient volume swooped toward her, flapping gray leather wings and rustling pages, on a collision course with her temple.

Held in the circle, Gray was useless. He could only watch the book connect with its target. He could only listen to the dry thunk of book spine hitting skull. He could only cry out wordlessly as Sadie crumpled.

*

***

******

****

*

“Let me go,” Gray ordered the power holding him. He felt his bonds loose, then he fell to his knees next to Sadie. A blossom of blood flowered under the white lock at her temple. A crimson dewdrop rolled toward her closed eye.

Thwack
. The fallen book was lifeless on the floor beside him. He looked up to see a flock of several hundred books circling the library dome. As he watched, dozens stopped flying and started plummeting to the floor.

Shit.

Sterling fell forward on his knees, the angry mask peeled away, tears streaming down ghost-white cheeks.

Thwack
.
Thwack
. Gray cast a magic circle. He’d used up most of the vial and could only manage one so small he had to tuck her legs inside.

Books dropped like bombs. His circle held. They were safe.

At least he and Sterling were. Sadie needed medical help. Now.

Sterling rocked back and forth on his heels, clutching at his stomach with claw-like fingers. “No. No. No,” he chanted. His cries were punctuated by books slapping against the floor as they fell.

Gray wanted to tell him it would be all right. But it wouldn’t be, unless Sadie opened her eyes.

Why were they
here
again? He looked down at the unconscious Sadie in his arms. It was just like in the basement with Regina, in the hallway with the apple, in the soccer field with Sterling. Somewhere, in his panic, he couldn’t shake the feeling they were going in circles, the same thing happening over and over with increasing intensity, waiting for
something
to change, to break the cycle.

And then, like magic, her chocolate-brown eyes opened. She sat up suddenly, putting her hand to her temple. “Ow,” she said.

It was the best single syllable he had ever heard. He had to fist his hands to fight the desire to crush her to his chest like he never wanted to let her go—which would have been impossible to explain to Sterling.

She looked up, yelped and got into the duck-and-cover position, her arms over her head.

What? He looked up to see what she had. A huge book plunged toward them, its green binding filling his vision.

He flinched, but two feet from their heads, the book hit the dome of his magic circle and bounced off. Seeing this, Sadie inched out of the fetal position.

Sterling hadn’t even noticed. He just stared at Sadie.

She grabbed Sterling’s hands. “What happened with Pippa?”

“I was levitating a book.” His eyes flicked to the gray cover of
The Atlas of Ancient and Medieval Architecture
. “A heavy one. I dropped it. I thought I was alone.”

“What spell were you using?” Gray asked.

Sterling shook his head.

“You’re a psychic, aren’t you? You didn’t want anyone to know because the rest of your family are mages. But you need help to learn to control it. It’s mixing with your mage powers in really strange ways.” She pushed a lock of dark hair out of Sterling’s gray eyes. “You didn’t kill Pippa.”

“Yes, I did.”

“People don’t die from being hit with a book,” she said. “Look, I’m okay. Except head wounds bleed like a son— Uh, never mind. Pippa died because she was old. It was an accident.”

“It’s my fault.” Sterling’s chest shook with sobs.

But he wasn’t clawing his stomach, Gray noticed.

“She knows. Aunt Pippa brought me here to talk to you, to tell you she doesn’t blame you. I don’t blame you for my accidents, either. You weren’t in control. You didn’t mean to light the desk on fire, did you? And the apple; you were mad and it just turned into a potion. Like magic.”

“I’d been trying to learn that spell the night before.” Misery tinged Gray’s nephew’s voice. “I knew it was my fault. Then I wished for something bad to happen to you because you were talking about Ms. Strange dying and then you got hit by lightning. I didn’t know the icicle thing was me.”

“Hmm,” she considered. “Could have been a coincidence. But you cracked the glass in my picture at Christmas because you were mad at your uncle for not taking me with you.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Strange.” Sterling’s voice was a squeak.

“People make mistakes, Sterling,” she assured him.

“Not in the Gray House.” His words punched Gray in the gut.

“Do you want to tell her you’re sorry?” Sadie asked. “She’s standing right behind you.”

“Are you crazy? Why are you saying that?” Gray grabbed Sadie’s arm. Where had her no-holds-barred honesty gone? “Don’t listen to her. Ms. Strange isn’t there.”

“She says she likes your poetry,” Sadie told Sterling. “You write poetry?”

A blush crept up Sterling’s neck.

Why was she doing this? He clamped down his rising rage.

The last book fell. The air was clear. Sterling scraped a hand over his face. He stood like a proud prisoner going to the electric chair. Turning his back to the adults, he addressed thin air. “I’m sorry I killed you, Ms. Strange.”

Gray let his circle fall. This was the first time he’d ever heard a member of the Gray House apologize for anything. In fact, it might be the first time it had ever happened.

He dropped his grip on Sadie’s arm. She put her hand on his nephew’s shoulder. “She forgives you, Sterling. She wants you to call her Aunt Pippa. She’s going to watch over you.”

“Why are you lying to him?” he hissed.

She stood, leaving Gray on his knees. Her chin pointed down at him for a second, before he pulled himself to his feet. Her wry smile contrasted with the drying blood on her forehead. “Your uncle doesn’t believe me.” She dropped her voice to a stage whisper. “I’ll tell you a secret, Sterling. People in the Gray House do make mistakes. For example, your uncle paid Laura Lewis twenty bucks to write his paper on Tom Sawyer. So he never really graduated from Strange Academy.”

He blinked at her. “I never told anyone. How—”

“Remember when I told you I see things in men that aren’t really there? Turns out I see lots of things other people can’t. I have invisible friends now.”

“Uncle Gray,” Sterling said. “I’m ready to die.”

Sadie’s playful mood snapped into seriousness. “What?”

“I killed Aunt Pippa. So I’m dark and I have to die,” explained Sterling, looking like a little soldier with squared shoulders and chin held high. “Gray House rules. And Uncle Gray always follows the rules.”

*

***

******

****

*

The sun was brighter than Gray had ever seen it, in a sky that had never been so blue. Tiny baby birds twittered in the green trees lining the path to Chapter House. Only sheer willpower kept him from whistling along with the birds.

Instead, he slipped on his sunglasses and hummed inside his head. Maybe he swung his briefcase a little more than absolutely necessary. All was right with the world and, better than anything else, Sadie was a Meta.

His heart had threatened to burst when she’d wrapped herself around Sterling and refused to let go. She’d glared at him and growled the Gray House would have to execute her first. He had never loved her more. This was, of course, after she’d revealed her Talent for talking to the dead.

It had taken a quarter of an hour and he’d had to cross-his-heart promise, but he’d convinced both of them no one was being executed for an accident. A series of accidents. Sterling could learn to use his psychic abilities. They—he and Sadie—would get Sterling the best teachers.

His chest swelled with anticipation. Sweet, feisty Sadie was a Meta. He liked just thinking it.

He had given her a day to cool down. Now, he just needed to get her alone and tell her what was going to happen now. Maybe after the staff meeting. He quickened his pace to get to there a few seconds faster. The students loitering on the Chapter House steps barely registered in his brain.

“I knew it,” said a blond kid wearing a black leather jacket, as Gray jogged up the steps. News of Sadie had ripped through the campus like a thunderbolt. There were also rumors of Sterling’s involvement in Pippa’s accident. He didn’t know how to deal with those, but she would. She’d make everything all right. He’d leave all the emotional stuff to her from now on.

Shakti, sitting a step down from him, spoke. “You did not.”

Black wings sprouted from the leather-kid’s back and an extra head appeared on each shoulder. Gray stopped climbing the stairs and slipped his hand into his pocket for a defensive spell before he realized it was Nikkos. Iphigenia the hydra nipped at one of the kid’s ears. “Iffie only bites people she likes,” Nikkos said. “Iffie doesn’t like Nons.”

Strangling students is probably frowned upon,
he thought. “You could have shared that information with the rest of us,” Gray said.

Sadie was already in the staff room when he arrived. A small crowd surrounded her, no doubt congratulating her on her newly discovered Meta-dom. He would have muscled his way over to her, but there was an extra space beside Parker Klark he couldn’t ignore. But soon, oh yes, he and Sadie would add another rumor to the ones flying around campus.

“Why are you humming?” Klark eyed him with suspicion.

“I’m not humming.”

“A second ago, you were humming something. Was it Air Supply?” Klark asked.

Sadie’s lilting laugh caught his attention.

She was talking to Tao Zhang. Tao Zhang suddenly became a very important person in Gray’s life. He felt his gaze go dark. Did she intend to act like he didn’t exist?

“We have a lot in common.” Tao Zhang’s voice rang over the buzz of conversation.

She cocked her head. He didn’t like the head-cocking one bit.

Tao Zhang smiled. His teeth were obscenely even and white. “Until three years ago, I was a tax accountant.”

“You’re kidding.” She tucked her hair behind her ear.

Whatever Klark was trying to say to him drowned in the river of expletives running through his mind. The last time she’d tucked her hair behind her ear, she’d been astride him, calling out his name. Over and over. With increasing volume. And passion.

Did she think she was flirting with Tao Zhang? She would have to understand she was
not
flirting with Tao Zhang.

Klark said something as Gray pushed his chair back from the conference table. Gray ignored him.

His way was blocked on both sides, so he used the arm of his chair to step onto the long table at the center of the room.

The other teachers fell silent as they gaped at him. All eyes watched as he maneuvered around the florescent lamps hanging from the ceiling and marched down the table.

He jumped down behind Sadie’s sweetheart ass. She didn’t turn around. He caught her slim waist in the crook of one elbow and pulled her lithe back to his chest. He ignored the audible gasp filling the room. He thrust his other arm toward Tao Zhang, his hand open at throat height.

“Mine,” he told Tao Zhang.

Tao Zhang raised empty hands in surrender. Gray’s anger calmed a little. He became aware of the staring crowd. “Mine,” he told them. The word felt good and true.