Shadow Girl (Shadow Academy Book 3) Page 3

  “Later.” Mr. Norton flicked his hand, indicating Ren should leave.

  What the heckings did Ren have to discuss? Did he plan to rat me out to Mr. Norton? Tell him I’d gone dark. Mr. Norton knew most of what had gone on but he didn’t know everything. No way would I let them talk in private. Not without eavesdropping on that conversation.

  I folded my arms on the table and buried my head, waiting for Mr. Norton to start talking.

  “Just a moment, I’ll make us a cup of tea.”

  Mr. Norton loved tea. He thought a cup of tea could cure anything. I wondered if he was part British. There was a small kitchen near the scholarship room. No one else knew it was there so Mr. Norton kept it stocked with tea and tea-making stuff.

  I toyed with the edge of the desk, waiting for him to return. What did Ren have to chat about anyway?

  Heck. I really needed to hear that conversation. I jumped up, pulling aside the blind at the window and heaving that window frame open. A bit of fresh air in this room would make it much less stuffy. Grinning, I put a chock of wood in the gap to keep it open and managed to get back to my seat and rebury my head before Mr. Norton returned.

  When he sat the tea on the table, I put my head up.

  “What’s going on?” He smiled and I knew that smile was meant to reassure me but I had nothing going on. Nothing.

  “Everything’s fine.”

  “You and Lucas still aren’t talking?”

  I gave a wonky grin. “He’s a jerk.”

  “Maybe but you two were best friends until recently.”

  Leaning back in my chair, I wondered how much I should say. That tea looked way too hot to drink but I pulled the mug closer to me.

  “He stopped talking to me because I wanted to protect Ren, now he and Ren are all buddy-buddy and I’m still the bad guy. That doesn’t seem fair to me.”

  Mr. Norton got a pack of cookies out of his bag and opened them. I took a handful and crunched them down, hoping someone would return before I had to talk more. I didn’t like silence, not like this. So much buzzed around in my head — the fallout from Mr. Worthington’s death, my guilt about Ren, the weird way Oscar and Angela had been acting — but those were things that needed to be processed on my own before I could discuss them.

  There was one thing that Mr. Norton could help me with, though.

  “Can you help me find a missing person?” I grinned, hoping that would soften his heart.

  “Maybe, maybe not.” Mr. Norton didn’t meet my eyes. “Your parents’ death has been confirmed. I looked into that.”

  “Not my parents. Ren’s mother.”

  Mr. Norton’s eyes widened.

  “She’s still alive. He told me that. I have this plan, see.” I blew gently on my tea to cool it. “I’ll find Ren’s mother. She has no need to hide now that his father is dead. She’s the rightful heir to their fortune —”

  Mr. Norton put his hand up to stop me. “There’s no heir. Not without a body. It takes seven years to declare someone dead without it.”

  I gulped. Yep. He was right. Mr. Worthington wasn’t officially dead. I had to remember that.

  “But she’d be the one in charge, right? They’re still legally married.”

  “I’m not sure. I’m not a lawyer and that’s getting into some technical legal issues. And you have to find her first. If she’s still alive, it seems like she’s pretty determined to stay hidden.”

  I screwed up my mouth, thinking about that. “Maybe she doesn’t know Mr. Worthington’s dead. She might not read the newspapers or go on the Internet. Well, I assume she does go on the Internet since it’s the 21st century and all, but maybe just to pin good recipes or shop for boots. So, if that’s the case, how do you think I should go about finding her?”

  “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to mention he’s dead. You aren’t supposed to know that, remember.”

  Heck yeah. Mr. Norton had a really good point.

  “Maybe I should just confess.” I kept my voice low, mindful of the open window. “Sure, I’ll be put in prison for a long, long time but it’s the truth. I killed him.”

  Mr. Norton’s gaze jolted to the door. “Don’t ever say that again either. You can’t confess. Without a body, no one would believe you anyway. And how are you going to explain things? You can’t tell the police exactly what happened.”

  Another good point. If I started mentioning spirit vampires and a weird house that may or may not be in another dimension, I wouldn’t be looking at prison but the crazy house.

  “But that makes me no better than Angela Blackstone.” I took a sip of tea, thinking this over. “And I need to make things up to Ren. I can’t live the high life while he’s mucking out stables. It’s not right.”

  “If Mr. Worthington hadn’t died, the pair of you would be dead now. Sometimes life isn’t black or white. But the fact that you care about right and wrong does make you better than Angela Blackstone. Now, more importantly, does Ren know you’re looking for his mother?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Do you plan to tell him?”

  Before I could give Mr. Norton my assurances, Lucas and Britney rushed into the room.

  “Sorry,” Lucas said. “We didn’t know everyone else had come back.”

  Not so long ago, I’d have teased them about wanting to stay behind in the woods to make out but instead, I turned my back and sipped my tea.

  Ren came in behind them and the three of them joked around. Then the others got back from the infirmary.

  I finished my tea while they gave Mr. Norton a rundown of what had happened.

  “I guess we should head back to class,” Lucas said.

  “Take the afternoon off. You deserve a break.”

  “Whoa, free day!” Lucas punched the air.

  I handed Mr. Norton my empty cup and headed off with the others.

  The others walked ahead of me, heading for the downstairs dorms, leaving me alone to wait for the elevator. Their voices faded as they walked away from me then the five of them all burst into laughter.

  I didn’t care. And, hey, Ren had forgotten his talk with Mr. Norton so it couldn’t be that important.

  I jabbed at the button again. Where was that elevator? I needed to get back to my room.

  “Cherry, just a moment.” Mr. Norton stood beside me. “If you do want to look for Ren’s mother, which I’m still not sure is a good idea, there is one person who might be able to help you. Anthony Quiller. But, be careful. Because... you know.”

  I reeled a little. I was so not expecting that. Mr. Quiller was not a man I ever wanted to see again.

  Chapter 6

  BEFORE THE ELEVATOR arrived, Ren came back. I glanced at him expectantly but my smile died because he looked at Mr. Norton, not me.

  “Can we talk now?” Ren ignored me completely.

  “Sure.”

  The two of them walked back to the scholarship room and the elevator dinged. I made sure they weren’t watching me, then hit the button for the second floor and jumped back out. No way would this happen without me listening in.

  While the scholarship room was at the back of the school, in a section mainly only used for storage, it was still part of the original building. That meant stone walls and solid wooden doors. I’d learned a trick or two about overhearing conversations in my time, though. First, I considered the tunnel under the scholarship room. I could put my ear to the trap door under the mat but it’d mean rambling through the woods to find the tunnel entrance.

  Instead, I headed out the door at the back of the building and around the side. The window made for the best listening spot, especially since I’d prepared it earlier. I wouldn’t even risk being seen, since the blinds were always down on that room.

  What I hadn’t accounted for were the prickly weeds under the window. No one ever came to this part of the gardens and it looked like the gardeners knew that. No manicured lawns and carefully trimmed rose bushes here.

  I got as close to the window a
s I could without making too much noise. If I had a box to stand on, I’d be able to hear better. That window sure was high up. Instead, I raised myself on tiptoes, my fingers clinging to the window ledge.

  I couldn’t hear a sound, not one bit. Not even the mumble of conversation. Had they left the room?

  Some prickly stuff stung my arm and I moved to avoid it. Still not a peep from inside. I hoisted myself up, trying to peek into the room through a tiny gap where the blind didn’t quite meet the window frame. I should’ve been more careful about that.

  Hoisting myself wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Stupid lack of upper body strength. I tried to find a foothold in the brickwork but got off balance.

  Yikes. I fell on my butt into a pile of weeds.

  It took more than weeds to defeat me, though. I stood up, brushed myself off and tried again.

  Still not even a teeny sound from inside the room but I got closer and closer, my feet finding purchase this time. I could see something, I could see in.

  Mr. Norton. His face peered back at me.

  Sprung.

  I tumbled back to the weeds as the window slammed shut. The glass rattled as he bolted it.

  Bollocks.

  No point trying again, I rushed back to my dorm.

  I threw myself on the bed, sinking into the soft mattress. I really did love this bed. It helped heal all my hurts.

  I had to stop worrying about Ren’s talk with Mr. Norton anyway. I had bigger fish to fry. Fish like contacting Mr. Quiller and finding Ren’s mother.

  Mr. Quiller, why would he know about Ren’s mother anyway? I guess he’d been a business associate of Mr. Worthington’s until they’d had a falling out. But still, would he have information? Maybe he’d helped her escape Mr. Worthington’s evil clutches. Something like that. Mr. Norton wouldn’t have told me to look him up if he couldn’t help. But then how did Mr. Norton know about that kind of secret business?

  My head swam just thinking about it.

  Even if Mr. Quiller had the information, how could I approach him? We weren’t exactly on dropping in to visit terms. Not even speaking terms.

  He’d tried to kill me. He’d failed. Those were the terms we were on.

  I needed some way to contact him.

  I grabbed my phone and did a quick search. Yeah, as I suspected, Mr. Quiller didn’t have a phone number or anything publicly listed. I tried to think of other ways to internet stalk him when a knock at the door startled me. Since Ren had moved downstairs, no one on this floor wanted to speak to me.

  I tried to ignore it but they kept knocking.

  Sighing, I got up off the bed to open the door.

  Oscar.

  I blinked then closed the door.

  He kept knocking so I reopened the door, knowing that this would not end well.

  “Ah, hi.” His face turned a reddish color and he didn’t meet my eyes. Nothing like the mean, blustering Oscar I knew. “I thought, since you’re no longer tutoring Ren, you might want to tutor me instead.”

  “I’m still tutoring Ren and, to be honest, I think you’re a lost cause.”

  Oscar had never concentrated in a single class he’d taken since he started here. He probably hadn’t legit passed a class since kindergarten. He could be the smartest student in the school for all I knew but all he cared about was clowning around and bullying. If he wanted me to tutor him, he had some ulterior motive and I wasn’t going to play into one of his stupid schemes.

  “I can pay you.” Oscar grinned.

  “I don’t need your money.” As much as I hated what Mr. Worthington had done, it gave me a warm glow inside to say those words and mean them. They were words I thought I’d never say to anyone in my life.

  “I can —”

  I slammed the door shut. Oscar had nothing I wanted.

  Nothing.

  Wait, maybe he did. Rich people had access to all kinds of information.

  I slowly opened the door.

  “There’s one thing I want. Get it for me and I’ll do one tutoring session with you.” I held up my finger. “One.”

  He exhaled. “If we’re making a deal, then screw the tutoring. We’ll hang out in the village instead.”

  All my senses tingled. I didn’t want to make any kind of deal with Oscar and that sounded awfully like a date.

  I screwed up my mouth not sure if I should do this. “I need Mr. Quiller’s contact details. Farran’s father.”

  “Why?”

  I folded my arms. “That’s my business.”

  “I get them and we go on a date, right?”

  I took a step back and Oscar just took that as an invitation to enter my room. Before he stepped over the doorstep, I pushed him back out.

  “It’s not a date. It is nothing like a date. Don’t even say the d-word. It’s hanging out for the afternoon. As friends. No bodily contact.” Even an afternoon of hanging out seemed too much Oscar for me but I had to do what I had to do.

  “Call it what you want. I’ll get you those details.”

  He grinned and I slammed the door before he winked. He’d planned to wink. I knew it and I had no stomach for Oscar’s winking.

  What had come over that guy anyway? He’d made no secret of how much he despised me. He’d taunted me and even physically abused me any chance he’d got. If he’d been any normal student, he’d have been turfed out of this school long ago. But the elite rich don’t get thrown out. Not while their parents are paying the huge tuition bills.

  I messaged Britney to see if she wanted to meet me. She was the only person in this school I could trust but she usually had plans with Lucas. I needed girl time, not “girl plus boyfriend who now hates me” time.

  Yay! Britney messaged back to say she was free. We’d meet in the library. I gathered up my books and things. I wasn’t a no-friend loser at all.

  I got to the library before Britney and saved us a table in a quiet corner. The library wasn’t the best place for girl talk but, since Britney wasn’t allowed on my floor, we didn’t have many other options. Britney had been recently banned from the cafeteria for going nutso. Mr. Norton had tried to get that decision reversed but without mentioning magic potions and stuff like that, he couldn’t really explain properly. And we’d get zero privacy in the common room.

  Anyway, everyone else would still be in class and we had the library to ourselves.

  “Hey, Cherry, how’s it going?” Angela slid into the seat beside me.

  No way. Just no way. I was not in the mood for dealing with her.

  “How come you’re always in the library when I’m here? I mean, you don’t seem like the library type.”

  Angela smiled. “Really? I like stuff like books and learning.”

  “Last time you seemed more into beating up my friends and me.”

  Angela turned away. “Sorry about that. It was kind of a misunderstanding. I thought you’d attacked Ren. Silly me. Obviously, you knew more about Ren than any of us. I never realized he was like that...”

  I raised my eyebrows. Angela knew about Ren’s powers?

  “How did you even know he’d end up poor? I dodged a bullet there.”

  Ah, so that was what this was about. And now Angela thought I was rich, she wanted to be my best friend.

  “Nothing’s changed, Angela. Ren’s still the same person he was, and so am I. No matter how much money I have, I’ll still be a poor person all the way to the bone.”

  “But you don’t have to be. I can show you how to be rich. Like a makeover.” She cast her gaze over my outfit. “You could definitely do with a makeover.”

  Luckily, I saw Britney walking through the library.

  “No thanks. Anyway, my study buddy’s here so nice talking to you. And shouldn’t you be in math class right now? I’m pretty sure Mr. Norton didn’t give you a free pass. I’d hate to have to mention I saw you lolling around in here.”

  It took Angela a minute but she got up and moved away. I wasn’t sure how far away she moved, though. Defini
tely not back to class.

  “Let’s go for a walk outside,” I said to Britney when she got to the table. “I’m sure Angela’s lurking around, eavesdropping.”

  “Sure thing. I need some fresh air.”

  I’d never known anyone to need fresh air as much as Britney did. Once we were away from the building, I told Britney about the Oscar situation.

  She side-eyed me and giggled.

  “That’s not helping.”

  “Oscar!” She giggled again. “I mean, he’s not unpleasant looking and —”

  “And nothing. He has the personality of a warthog. Well, maybe. I mean warthogs might have fantastic personalities and I’m insulting them by comparing them to Oscar. But my point is, I do not want to date him. Ever.”

  “Because you want to date Ren.”

  “Yes.” Wait... I spun around, slapping Britney’s arm. “No. Not because of that. Because Oscar is... well, Oscar.”

  Britney nodded. “I know. Even if I joke about your date, I can’t forget that he and Blake attacked us at the gatehouse and beat us up in the library and are just jerks in general. Be careful when you go out with him. You have no idea what that guy has planned.”

  “You don’t need to tell me twice.” I kicked a pile of leaves and sent them in satisfying swirls across the grounds. “He lays so much as a finger on me and he’s a goner.”

  Britney joined me in kicking the leaves until they were scattered all over the grass. Then she ran back and got a rake. Yeah, I guess it would’ve been a jerk move to undo all the gardeners' work. If I was going to be the new, improved Cherry, I could learn a lot from Britney.

  “Why do you need information from Oscar anyway?” she asked.

  “I need to find Ren’s mother.” I took a deep breath, the air so cold it hurt my lungs. “Mr. Norton said I should ask Mr. Quiller for information.”

  I waited for Britney’s disapproval and for her to persuade me not to look for Mrs. Worthington but that didn’t come. If Britney was going to be my being good role model then she’d pretty much given me the green light.

  “What’s with this sudden attraction to dangerous guys?” Britney stopped raking and stared at me. “That man is no good.”