The Puppet Master: The Paranormal University Files: Skylar, Year 4 Read online

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Really.”

  “Good. Then I’ll consider my mission accomplished and let you enjoy your coffee. But remember, my office door is always open. You don’t have to muddle through this alone.”

  “Thanks,” I said quickly. “I never said it before, but I appreciated all your help when I first started combat magic. Your lessons have helped.”

  Tristal smiled again, dipped her chin in a brief nod, and departed from the library, leaving me to reflect on the true reasons behind my reluctance to accept a job I had never applied for, never shown interest in attaining, and felt absolutely, one hundred percent unqualified to take.

  If Lia died on my watch, the ruin of Tir na Nog would be my fault alone.

  6

  There is No I in Team…but There is in Dick

  An alert on my phone and in my email let me know a special conference had been added to my schedule. As I shuffled into the classroom, still tired thanks to the relatively early hour—for me at least, five p.m. was early—I did a double-take.

  Sebastian had a baby.

  When did Sebastian and Simon get a baby?

  I rubbed my bleary eyes, certain I was seeing things, but sure enough, my favorite shifter instructor had a baby secured against his chest in a sling. A few of my classmates had already gathered around him to coo over the little girl.

  Which naturally meant I had to do the fae thing and hustle over to do the same. Fae loved babies. It was in our blood, practically coded into our DNA to protect the innocent. Or steal them, depending on which lore you were reading. But I swear it wasn’t like that. No fae of Liadan and Oberon’s summer court ever abducted a child for insidious reasons. They guarded them, often taking in the abused and neglected.

  At a glance I saw this child was neither, though there were two torn threads where the lifelines of her parents belonged.

  Dead.

  Sebastian looked so proud though, chuckling at the mixed crowd of students asking questions. Since he was already besieged by a dozen inquiries, I gathered around and listened.

  “I guess I may as well tell you guys everything so you can spread it around the campus as expected.”

  “Hey, we don’t do that,” a vampire girl protested.

  Sebastian cocked a brow, his pointed look at her prompting a chorus of chuckles from the crowd. “Helena came from the Carter family,” he said once the giggles subsided.

  The group hushed more. I frowned. The name rang a bell, then recognition swam to the surface of my memories. John Carter. One of the fallen who had perished alongside us during battle against a power-hungry lich.

  “Louise Carter died a few months before the school year ended, and neither she nor John had other family. Simon and I took this little girl in.”

  “Aww. That’s sad, man.”

  “It’s sentinel life, guys. Always make sure, if you have kids, that you have a backup plan. The foster system isn’t very compassionate to our kind.”

  “She’s so cute.”

  And she was. With her bright green eyes, silky black curls, and olive skin, she could have been the next Gerber baby. Sebastian looked so comfortable with her.

  “All right, everyone, back to your seats please,” Simon announced as he strode through the door. He crossed to Sebastian, kissed Helena’s head, then turned to wait for the class to get seated. I managed to snag a seat between Anji and, to my surprise, Stark. Which is when I noticed not everyone present was a sentinel and not everyone was a student. I recognized a couple of mages, Ben included, and other people I didn’t recognize.

  Simon took his place at the podium while Sebastian worked on the projection screen. Three large white panes lowered.

  “You may have already noticed this isn’t the typical classroom, and those of you who are students won’t be receiving academic credits for this meeting. That’s because your involvement after this hour is wholly optional. We have invited sentinels from across the world, and we are joined by top students from Shangri-La to assist in one thing: destroying the leader of the Hidden Court.”

  In the next second, footage of our battle in Halloween aisles came onto the screen. I grimaced, reliving the moment Gabriel was taken out of the battle in one blow.

  If not for Lia, he’d be dead.

  I didn’t deserve to be her Morrigan when I hadn’t been fast enough to shield my own mate.

  “As you can see, several of our top students stood no chance against her. As the danger level rises, we can no longer afford to deliver anything but full disclosure.”

  “Is it true this darkling used magic?” someone asked from the audience.

  “It is, which is not unusual,” Simon replied. “Valravns have the same access to illusion magic as they did before they turned. No, what makes this unusual is that she used fae and wizard magic to not only raise a shield, but to travel to the Twilight, as witnessed here.”

  In the footage, Lia vanished with Gabriel, followed by me, then Annalise. Several people gasped and the whispers began.

  “We’re here today for more than theories, but this is a teaching moment, and we’re willing to entertain any ideas from our younger students and potential sentinels.”

  The low hum of excited and intrigued voices filled the lecture hall. I recognized past and present students at the distant end of the room, like Gabriel’s ex-girlfriend Jada in another row beside her wolf shifter friend, Amalia.

  “Valravn are commonly exterminated long before they’ve had a chance to operate as long as this creature has,” Sebastian said, clicking to the next clip. This one displayed a grainy outdoor security image of the creature flying away toward the west.

  The next click produced a still image: a totaled Chevy Impala. The breath stuck in my throat.

  Annalise had been the one to attack my parents.

  I’d always suspected, but they’d never fessed up. Why? To protect me? To keep me from being afraid?

  I was afraid, but I was pissed off too. Not at my family, but at the circumstance. At Annalise.

  “This valravn is strong, both physically and magically. She has wreaked havoc at our New Orleans SBA branch with illusory magic and we believe is behind the disappearances of several fae from Tir na Nog.”

  “The bodies we found missing their hearts,” Stark said.

  “Yes.”

  “What is the purpose of these attacks?” a woman with a Germanic accent asked.

  “As most of you no doubt know, Titania has finally been reborn.” The slide clicked and an image of Liadan came up on the screen, one taken last year at the end of school. She was smiling at the camera, red hair aglow in the sunlight. Simon waited a moment for the murmurs to quiet before he continued.

  “Queen Liadan is still a student at this school and we know she is the target, as stated by Annalise herself.”

  I tried to view the situation with the detachment of a professional, but the events in the store haunted me, filling my head over and over with visions of what could have happened if Lia had been slower to react or Eldan hadn’t come to our rescue.

  What had I been training for these past three years? What good was all of it if, in the moment when it was most required, I choked and succumbed to my own fear?

  Clenching my jaw, I watched the lecture go on, all at once filled with more rage than fear.

  “As evidenced by her acquisition of powers beyond her race, we can only assume if Annalise were to acquire the heart of a phoenix she would gain the ability to thwart death.”

  “This task force will have one main objective—to discover who this Annalise is, where she is, and how to stop her. If you want out, there is no shame. There’s the door.” Simon pointed to the exit.

  No one moved.

  “Good. Then I leave it to you all to propose ideas. Theories. Every person will be heard.”

  “Obviously, she’s eating the hearts of mages and fae, and that’s how she’s attaining power,” someone called out. “And there’s a pretty limitless pool of
those in Chicago. Does that mean we’re all in danger?”

  Sebastian nodded. “It does. It means every single fae and mage in this city is at risk, and vigilance is your only hope. We can’t keep all of you indefinitely on campus grounds or coddle you behind silver walls, because some of you, someone in here, is a likely agent for the Hidden Court.”

  Several voices spoke out in worry and dismay. Students looked at each other through distrusting eyes, as if seeing each other for the first time.

  “Desperate times have called for desperate measures, and we can no longer sugarcoat this matter. It’s important for you to understand the gravity of the situation and what is at stake,” Simon said.

  “What we do know is that no valravn has ever done this before or had as many contacts and beings of the light willing to taint their own souls to assist her. Her words are seductive, but as you can see from what happened to Monica Cunningham, she won’t protect you in the end.”

  The voices quieted.

  More images flashed up on the screen. Monica’s school picture, as well as Tricia’s, arranged side by side, with other photos beneath. Former students, the ones who had abandoned school to join the Hidden Court. But there were other faces as well, the tags beneath identifying them.

  “Every face you see here is someone who willingly aided the Hidden Court. Monica Cunningham is dead, but Tricia O’Keefe remains at large.”

  Something occurred to me as the photographs of known Hidden Court members went by. Each and every one was a student now gone, vanished from the campus to never return.

  Where were the older vampires and shapeshifters? Were the mages too wise to fall for her tricks?

  No. The Plague Doctor had also bought what she was selling. So had Tricia.

  But why were there no faculty members vanished from the grounds?

  They’re still here, slithered an insidious thought through my mind.

  “What about staff?”

  Every eye turned on me before I realized I’d actually spoken my thought aloud.

  “Elaborate, Skylar,” Simon prompted.

  The part of me that wanted to sink into my seat and vanish was overpowered by the angry part of me that wanted to nail every single Hidden Court asshole to the wall.

  “Think about it,” I said. “We know she’s swayed adults to her side before. The doctor from last year is a prime example, and she had an elder vampire working with her too, if Carmilla is to be counted. She’s known where we’re going to be, and I’m pretty sure school trips aren’t posted to the campus website. She’s known who is with who during school breaks.”

  At that, a smile crossed Simon’s face. “Well done, Skylar. We hoped one of you would come to that conclusion. It’s something we’ve realized too.”

  “There’s something else. A few years ago, a hag tried to abduct me, but now that I think about it, I wonder if Lia was also a target. Someone has watched my family and me. Someone chose a doctor at the hospital where Liadan’s charge is employed. I believe…someone knew, before we were certain, that Liadan was likely to become Titania.”

  All eyes turned to me. At that moment, I understood how Harry Potter felt whenever he became the subject of attention each book, the source of ridicule and scorn and jealousy. I saw sympathy reflected in compassionate gazes, envious stares, and downright scathing glares.

  I didn’t need to read their minds to know what the latter thought.

  Of course, it’s all about you again, Skylar. You’re in the middle of everything.

  Was Holly right? Was I an asshole, inserting myself into every situation?

  “Any ideas on how that might be?” Sebastian pressed. “Remember, no idea is a bad one. Whether right or wrong, any thought has merit.”

  “Well…” The door opened and I sensed Gabe before I turned and laid my eyes upon him. He must have put on one hell of an act to be released from medical for this. Sebastian cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to the front, away from my mate. “There’s a prophecy regarding Titania’s rebirth, right? Is it possible Annalise knows it? That someone passed her the information?”

  “Wholly possible, with no small number of potential suspects,” Simon said sadly.

  “Wait, what prophecy? There’s a prophecy?” asked a mage student in fancy, gold-trimmed cobalt robes. I recognized him as a member of the Nichols family. I told myself that if I was half as cocky and arrogant as that asshole wandering around in full wizard regalia on a normal afternoon, Holly’s comments would have merit. “Is anyone going to share this prophecy with the rest of us so we can have a shot at helping too?”

  “Yeah!”

  “Due to laws regarding privacy, a prophecy may only be shared in a public setting by the recipients to whom it refers,” Sebastian said politely.

  Now I understood why we had all been called here, why Gamayun had been summoned to the palace, and why all other pieces of the puzzle had fallen together.

  I rose, and every eye followed me. No one spoke.

  “Born from the sculptor of cinder’s fame, the Light Bringer will ignite the Eternal Flame.” That much all my friends knew. It was the piece we’d all had since I first carried the Heart Flame until Lia was ready to receive it. But the rest… I swallowed and resisted the urge to look back at Gabe, since I’d been too much of a coward to share it with him. “In days to come, twice a sacrifice must be made for two lives to be saved. Yet into darkness all will follow until raven wings are lost to shadow.”

  Sebastian must have been typing as I went, because a new screen popped up on the projector, the prophecy written out for all to see.

  “The fuck does that mean?”

  “Prophecies are never literal. They’re abstract and symbolic,” a mage said. “We learned that in Divination Studies. Obviously, the Eternal Flame is Queen Titania, but the raven wings could be anything, including Annalise herself.”

  Speculation broke out among the others, but I felt eyes on me. Glancing up, Holly’s stare was first to cross my vision until my gaze traveled to Gabriel. His tight jaw and thin lips told me everything I needed to know. My mate was incensed, and he had every right to be.

  We’d have to talk about it later, and we would, but for now, I hoped that I hadn’t made a monumental mistake by sharing the prophecy in full.

  Because if I had, if Annalise didn’t have it already but someone in this room was her spy, then I had just handed her everything she needed to know.

  * * *

  Dragging my feet wasn’t an option when it came to meeting up at home with Gabriel after the meeting.

  I had messed up. Now I had to own it.

  Faced with his fury, I made a brief stop at the door of our friendly dryad neighbors and begged for a pint of their best apple moonshine before letting myself into our apartment. Gabriel was sitting on the couch, in front of a dark television.

  My mate wasn’t much of a shouter. He expressed his anger in silent disappointment, which I imagined he’d inherited from his father. He prided himself on remaining cool and calm—collected at all times.

  Which meant from the grim expression on his face, that he was probably frothing with rage on the inside when his gaze didn’t raise to meet mine.

  “I brought a peace offering,” I said, debating between straddling his lap or sitting next to him. My muscles tensed to do the former, then I shifted on the balls of my feet.

  He glanced up at me. “I don’t want a peace offering. I just want you to be honest with me from the start instead of me finding things out because I walk into a damned assembly.”

  “Gabe, I’m sorry.” I set the bottle aside and gave in to my instinct, sliding onto his lap and clasping both hands behind his neck. “I’m sorry. It was stupid.”

  “Why wouldn’t you tell me something like this?” He didn’t raise his hands to my hips as he normally would, only looked at me with that same cool, detached expression.

  “I was still going over it all in my head. I hadn’t meant to tell anyone. Not yet an
yway, and certainly not before I talked to you. The timing was…really off, and I’m sorry.”

  “The timing was off?” he asked, voice incredulous.

  “No, no. That’s an excuse.” I sighed. “There really is no excuse for it. I didn’t want to share what I was told because it’s dark and depressing and disappointing, and the way I handled my knowledge of it was childish. I simultaneously wanted to rage at it and forget it ever existed. I thought if I told you, it would just…make it more real. Then everyone asked during this meeting and it suddenly felt like everyone’s business.”

  “You should have told me. We’re mates, Sky, and mates don’t keep secrets from one another.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. Really, I am. How many times do I have to say it before you believe me?”

  He sighed and glanced away. “I do believe you, but I’m hurt that you still don’t trust me with your burdens.”

  With those few, honest words, I felt like the world’s worst person.

  I was the world’s worst person. The absolute worst mate. I wanted to hate myself, but then I sucked back the dismal thoughts swirling through my mind. I hugged him tight and sobbed against his shoulder. “I’ve had the worst thoughts on my mind and I don’t feel worthy of any of this.”

  Gabriel stiffened at first. Gingerly, one hand touched the small of my back. “Sky…”

  “When you were knocked out, I felt so—so helpless!” I sobbed, finally letting it all out. “How can I b-be a sentinel when I fr-fr-freeze up? Let alone Lia’s M-Morrigan.”

  “Sweetheart, I—goddammit. I can’t be mad when you’re actually upset.” He gave in, embracing me as tightly as I held him. “Look, we’re in this together, baby. We gotta be a team.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I fucked up, and I was stupid.”

  “You’re not stupid. You did a stupid thing, but you’re not stupid.”

  The tears I’d wanted to shed for weeks—restrained since the day Gamayun revealed the prophecy—flooded down my face all at once.