I placed my heel on the first rung and placed part of my weight on it. It crumbled almost immediately.
Crap. This was going to prove interesting.
Next to me Scooby vanished, only to reappear above me. His head peaked over the trap door.
“Make it look easy, why don’t you?”
Five minutes and two broken rungs later, I pushed myself onto the cobblestone floor of what looked to be Peel’s basement. I stood and brushed dirt and dust off my body. There was nothing to do about my soaked lower legs. I caught a whiff of myself and winced. Not the best start to my conversation.
Scooby began to trot away from me, so I hurried after him, clicking off my flashlight as I did so. Around me firelight glowed from scones set into the castle walls. Unconsciously I pressed my hand to my heart.
Boy, had I missed this place.
The Moddey Dhoo led me to Peel Academy’s back library. This had been the same place where I first encountered Scooby all those months ago. Then we hadn’t been such buddies. He’d been a death omen, and he’d wanted nothing more than to tear me to shreds. Since surviving that encounter, he’d warmed up to me.
At this late hour, no students lingered. This was a good thing … and yet my heart ached to be surrounded by my peers once more.
My hand slid along the wall as I passed into the library, and I breathed in the musty smell of books. Tarp rustled beneath my feet.
“So you don’t get the carpet dirty,” a female voice explained.
My head snapped up, and I met the eyes of Lydia Thyme, Peel Academy’s head librarian.
And, apparently, the third fate.
Chapter 20
“You’re right on time.” Lydia stood behind the check out desk, but now she came around and directed me to a nearby table, the floor beneath it also covered with tarp.
“You?” I squinted my eyes at her. She’d been there at my Awakening, and I’d chatted with her numerous times since then. She’d helped me more than once.
“Yes, me.”
Like Cecilia, Lydia was older. Her skin was a dark, burnished brown, and her black hair was shot through with streaks of white.
“Please sit,” she gestured to a chair covered with a towel. “We have much to talk about and not much time to spare.” She gave me a meaningful look, and I hesitated.
“Do you know—?”
“About your deal with Pluto?” Lydia—Decima—finished for me. “I do.”
I twisted my hands together. “I’m such a fool.” Being here was pointless. It was me going through the motions for the benefit of those few people who still cared about me.
She sighed, sliding into the seat across from me. “You’re human, and this is a game Pluto has played with desperate people just like you for thousands of years. He uses persuasive, believable lies and half-truths to get you to agree to his desires. And, as you already know, it’s you he desires.”
Lydia placed a folder she’d been carrying on the table. “He scouted you, you know.”
“W-what? What does that mean?”
Lydia Thyme opened the manila folder and pulled out a sheet of paper. She slid it across the table, and I took it from her.
It was a printed excel sheet titled “Displaced Supernatural Children.” All but one row had been blacked out. On that row two names had been highlighted. One was my own, and the other …
“‘Rex Inferni’?”
The candlelight flickered at my words.
Lydia nodded. “That’s Latin for ‘King of Hell’.”
I released the paper like it burned me.
“He alerted Peel Academy of your existence. He’s the one that set these events into motion.”
If not for him, I would still be in Los Angeles. I would’ve never been hunted, I would’ve never been Awoken.
I would’ve never met Andre.
“How could no one have caught this?” Seemed to me that if the king of hell wrote in to say that a really special girl he knew should come to Peel Academy, not only would I not be invited, the Politia would probably burn and raze my house while I was inside … then salt the land for good measure.
“The same way no one foresaw that you’d Awake a vampire. Mistakes happen.”
That was the second time I’d heard a fate utter that line. Seemed like a lot of people were dropping the ball when they shouldn’t be.
In the distance, I could hear the sound of sirens. I had no doubt that they were meant for me. Only Oliver, Leanne, and Lydia had seen me, and I suspected none of them were responsible for the sirens. Perhaps the school had been enchanted to notify authorities of my presence as soon as I stepped foot on campus.
My legs tensed, but I didn’t get up. Not yet. “Is there any way at all for me to survive this?” I had to ask, even though I was fucked three ways to Wednesday. I didn’t try hiding the terror in my voice.
“You mean, can I save you?” Lydia clarified.
I lifted my shoulders and my hands, trying to convey that at this point, I was beyond nuances. Any hope would be good enough.
She shook her head. “I was never in a position to save you,” she said. “I’m sorry if someone gave you that impression. Only you can save yourself. It’s always been that way.”
I breathed in the smell of books. A hollowness had established itself at the base of my stomach, and now with her words, it grew, numbing me. I was past saving myself. I’d given that power away to the devil when I traded my life for that of my friends and family.
From somewhere far outside the library, I heard someone hammering on the front door.
“You need to leave now,” Lydia Thyme whispered.
I stood, blinking back the blood that had gathered in my eyes. “Why did Nona send me? If it was all for nothing, then why?” If she said it was another mistake, I might just maim this fate.
Lydia lifted my chin. “It wasn’t all for nothing.” Her thumb moved across my cheek, and for a second I caught a shadow of a smile. “Remember this: the only way out is through.”