Spearwood Academy Volume Three (The Spearwood Academy Book 3) (3 page)

The lantern’s ended a while back, and we’ve been walking non-stop for at least two hours. My legs wouldn’t mind a break right about now. At least there’s a wall I can hold onto.

‘I don’t understand why you can’t see in the dark. I can, and this is the same body. But our scale color is different too, so maybe that has something to do with it.’

‘They’re different in color?’

‘Yes. My scales are gold, but when you are in control, they are a dark grey.’

‘Gold? So that means the scale Dante has fused to his skin is yours?’

‘Yeah. I can’t believe that actually worked. Right before you took back over, he got hurt. I don’t know how I knew it would work. Gut instinct, I guess. When you go away, I will be back under the curse again. Roseman took my crystal, so now I will have to change at night. I have no idea how we will do that in New York. Not exactly a lot of places where a giant lizard can hide. Ever seen Godzilla?’

‘What does the curse do?’

‘
It forces me to turn into my dragon form every night. It’s excruciating.’

‘If we are in in the same body, why don’t I have the same problem?’

‘
That’s what I would like to know.’

We stop walking as we come to a dead end. Maybe we are taking a break, but why here of all places?

“Why did we stop?” Triton asks.

Bullock presses his hand against the wall in front of him. “We’re here.”

“I was expecting something more, like a shop, or at the least the Sea Witch,” Maverick says.

“This isn’t where she is. This is just the back entrance into her shop for people who don’t want to come in through the front. She runs a Chinese food restaurant as a cover.”

He puts his other hand to the wall now. Like a mirage, a simple wooden door shimmers into place and becomes solid.  Opening the door, he reveals a red and gold room on the other side. The scent of herbs and food drift toward us. Bullock moves inside first. The guys have me go through second with them following in behind and circling me.

Except for us, there’s no one else to greet us. The magical door closes behind us with a soft
click
, and a bell rings throughout the room. “Just a minute!” Footsteps sound just outside the door. “Fuckin’ kid! This was my last clean shirt for the week.” A girl who can’t be that much older than me, opens the door. Her hair an ombre of pinks and purples in two braids, and her eyes a deep green.  She wears a white, button down shirt—the sleeves pushed up, showing off her tattooed arms. The front of the shirt has some sort of fresh stain on it—and black slacks.

“Derren!” She runs to him and gives him a hug around the neck. His arms go around her as he hugs her back. She pulls back from him and smiles. “I haven’t seen you in months. Thought you finally decided to run away. You promised to take me with you, when you figured out how to break my curse.” Her eyes fall on the boys and then me. She’s so plain.

‘
I think she’s really pretty. Her hair is cool and her ink is interesting. I have never seen designs like those.’

‘Of course you would like her; look at yourself. What are you going to do when I’m not around to make you pretty?’

‘I’m fine with the way I am.’

She touches her hair and straightens her shirt. “You brought guys with you. Really hot guys.” She sends him a glare, but a playful smile still traces her lips. “Thanks for the warning.”

“This is an emergency, Vex. I need Angita’s help to fix my friend.”

‘
Friend? That’s the first time I’ve heard him refer to me like that.’

Her eyes light up. “I’m sure you don’t need her. Which of these guys do I get to fix?”

The boys step aside, revealing me to her. Her smile falls, and she snarls. She looks me up and down. “She looks fine to me.”

I cross my arms, and she mimics me. What crawled up her butt and died?

‘
Seriously.’

“Her mind has been warped. We need Angita to fix her.”

Vex walks up to me. “Warped? Let me see for myself.” She takes hold of my chin; her hands are ice. I try to pull away. Her nails dig into my skin. “Don’t fight me girl. I’m older than your species. You don’t want me fucking more of your mind up, do you?”

I swallow hard and keep myself from moving. Her eyes stare into mine. She blinks, and in an instant both her eyes have turned entirely black. My vision goes tunneled. Images of my life and the other version of me swarm my mind’s eye. Blood rushes through my ears, like crashing ocean waves. Her hand releases me. I fall back, bound for the floor. Strong arms catch me. I stare into the blue-green eyes of Maverick. Flashes flood my mind.

Sitting in an apple tree with the sunset on the horizon. Two others are sitting with me.
‘Don’t worry, Lon.  You won’t have to transform alone tonight. We have a surprise for you.’ My head turns to the voice; a younger Maverick sits to my right.

‘What the Hell was that? Was that one of your fake memories?’
asks the inner Avalon.

‘No. Yours?’

‘
Hell no. It can’t be. I hate that guy.’

‘That’s not what I felt in that memory.’

Maverick’s grip on my arm tightens. “Are you okay?”

I pull away and nod. “Yeah, at least, I think I am.”

Vex turns to the rest of the boys. “How many times has she had her mind warped?”

“This is the first time,” Dante says .

Vex shakes her head. “No it’s not. She’s had it done to her at least three times. Bits of her soul’s personality are fragmented. The older embedded memories were done by a professional. The new ones are sloppy and half-assed done.” Her green eyes turn to me again. “That’s why you are hearing another part of yourself in your head. Wasn’t silenced well enough. I’d say the modification before last was done a year and a half ago. The memories aren’t very old. The first warp was done about a decade or more ago.”

‘What?’

I stagger back into a long red sofa. “What?”

“Someone doesn’t want you to remember something. Why? I haven’t got a clue.” 

“Girl, go run the restaurant. I will take over here.”

A tall Chinese woman stands at the door. Her beauty almost takes my breath away. Long ebony hair falls down to her waist. Scarlet lips stand out against her pale skin. Between her fingers, she holds a long black cigarette holder; the scent of clove fills the room. She wears a black pencil dress with a gold peacock embroidered on the lower half.

Her perfect lips surround the tip of the cigarette holder, and she takes a long drag, all the while watching me with her black eyes.

“Are you aware what my fix will do to you, girl?”

“No.”

“Everything that has been done to your mind will be undone. All versions of you, real and fake, will be mixed and twisted. It will take your mind months if not years to heal, and you will have to figure out for yourself what the truth is.” Her voice does not match her young body.

“Why can’t you leave the real and take the fake?” Horace asks.

Angita gives him bored eyes. “Do I look like a brain surgeon, boy? It is simple to embed false memories; it is impossible to remove them.”

Lusk clears his throat. “So she’s going to be like this version for the rest of her life?”

“No. I said she would me mixed with all versions of herself, reforming her soul and making it whole. It’s up to her when it comes to believing her memories and unfolding her true self. I’m simply sewing her back together.”

Paden steps forward. “But she will remember everything?”

“Every last detail that her mind held onto before it was warped.”

‘Do you want this?’

‘Yes. That girl said I had my mind warped a decade ago. I need to know the truth, even if it takes me years to figure it out.’

‘I guess this means I won’t be gone for good. Think you can deal with that? You’ll finally have a fashion sense.’

‘
You hope. I’m stubborn.’

‘
So am I.’

I sit up straighter, overcoming my shock. “How much?”

Another drag off the cigarette. She takes some steps toward me. “You assume I want money. I don’t need money.”

I lift an eyebrow. “I don’t get the feeling you do things pro bono, so what do you want in return? My soul?”

A graveled laugh leaves her, and she tips her head back. After a moment, she stares at me hard.
“I’m not Lucifer, girl. I’ve met that fallen angel, and I can assure you I don’t deal in souls. Too riddled with loopholes.”

“Then what do you want?”

“I want a scale—”

“Take one of mine,” Dante says. Shifting his arm and pinching one of his scales between two fingers.

Angita holds up her hand, freezing him from going any further. “Boy, if I wanted a male scale, I have plenty of resources. Your kind are prevalent.” Her attention comes back onto me. “I want one of hers. Rare, valuable.”

“Fine.” I shift my arm now. I ignore the pain that aches into my bones. My dark grey scales sit on top of my skin.

Her lip flares. “No. I want your original form.” One of her long nailed fingers comes to press into my forehead. Electricity burns through my body. I bite my lip until it bleeds. My arm shakes, as the grey turns to metallic gold.  With her other hand, she rips one of the larger scales from my body. I let out a scream, before she lifts her finger from my head.

I shift my arm back. One large black and purple bruise covers the whole of it. I wince and wipe the blood from my lip.

She bites the scale with her back teeth and smiles. “Yes, this will do just fine for payment. I will return in one hour with the broth required to repair you. You will need at least two anchors to tie you to your old self, something or someone who knew you before your mind was warped.” She tosses the scale in the air and catches it, before leaving the room.

Where am I going to find something like that?

A
pregnant silence falls over the room, as all their eyes stare at me, as if I know of any anchor that knew of me before my mind was warped.

‘
Edgar is the only person I can think of, and he . . . he died.’

“I have no idea,” I say out loud. 

“Maybe one of us can do it; you said we’ve known you for six years. Maybe, that can cheat the system somehow?” Amr asks.

I shake my head. “No, I don’t think it works like that. It would have to be someone or something that was in my possession before, Dad . . . I mean Roseman, did this to me.” I glance at Maverick. Were those memories real? I was young in them, really young. If they are real, then that means he knew me and so did someone else.

‘Paden? They are brothers after all. Why would I have not known Paden when I knew Maverick? Paden also knows a ton about me. Things that not even father knew. I never posted my real name or personal email to anything. He shouldn’t have been able to find anything, and yet, he knows my secret fantasies.’

‘
That does make sense.’ I look to the brothers now. “When that girl was digging in my head, she uncovered something. I’ve only seen one memory, but it doesn’t belong to either me or the version of me that I can hear in my head. So that must mean it’s from before, and I don’t think I was four or five. Maybe seven. I was sitting in an apple tree, just at the beginning of a sunset. There were two others with me. Maverick and I’m assuming Paden.” I point to Maverick. “You told me that you two had a surprise for me that night and you called me Lon. No one has ever called me that. Is that memory real or fake?”

The brother’s look at each other, before their eyes move to gaze at the ground. There’s my answer.

‘
So my memories of Maverick being my tormenter weren’t real?’

“She wants to know if her memories of Maverick tormenting her are real?”

Paden shifts his feet. “No.”

‘I don’t understand.’

I swallow hard. “Why lie to her?”

Maverick’s unique blue eyes meet mine. “We were forbidden.”

Triton folds his arms. “When did they warp her mind?”

“It was just before I went off for my first year at Spearwood, you were six months away from turning twelve.”

‘
That means Maverick was around for a year after I was warped, when I thought he was Damien incarnate. So the memories of him always coming around were real?’

The door that the woman left through opens, and she comes in carrying a tray with a single silver chalice. “Have you decided on your anchors?”

“Yes.”

She looks to Maverick and Paden. “Go sit with her then and place a hand on her shoulders.”

How did she know it was them that I chose?

They sit on either side of me. A warm hand touches each of my shoulders.  An odd sense of Déjà vu flows over me; it’s almost like that memory.

She lowers the tray to me. “You must drink it all, or it will not work.”

I take the chalice. Steam rolls off the almost clear broth; it doesn’t smell too bad.
I press the rim to my lips and open my mouth. Bile, the second the liquid touches my tongue, is all I taste. My body fights me to spit it out, but I force it down. I need this to work. I need to know the truth. The last drop passes my lips, and I throw the chalice away from me.

My muscles seize and convulsions start. Is this what a seizure feels like? Why am I still aware of my surroundings? My skull feels too small to house my brain.

“She needs a third and earlier anchor, you two aren’t enough!” yells Angita.

A door slams off in the distance.

“What the hell!” Dante yells.

“This will help her.” I know that voice.

A wooden box comes into my line of sight. I feel like I should know it somehow.

‘
The locket.’

The person bends over, their eyes meet mine. One blue, one green.

‘Kearn.’