Alex had been so deep in thought that she had no idea what he’d been talking about, let alone how she should respond.
“I… uh…” She cleared her throat, trying to stall. Then she reached up and ran her fingers through her hair. “Um…”
“What’s that?” questioned Caspar Lennox, his eyes focused on the hand still tangled in her hair.
Alex lowered her arm and looked at her fingers carefully but couldn’t see anything unusual. “What’s what?”
Caspar Lennox pointed to her middle finger. “Where did you get that?”
Alex curled her other hand protectively around the ring Bear’s brother had given her. “It was a gift.”
“A gift?” the teacher asked, his scepticism clear.
“Yes,” Alex repeated firmly. “A gift.”
“Do you know what it does?”
“I know what it is,” Alex told him, aware of her classmates’ growing interest in their conversation. “But I’m not sure how it does what it… does.”
The Shadow Walker stared at her intently. “See me after class, Miss Jennings.”
Alex didn’t know what to make of his request, but she was relieved when he moved away to continue the lesson.
The minutes ticked down and when the gong finally sounded, telling them their classes were over for the day, Alex waved her curious friends off and remained behind, waiting for the professor to speak.
“How have you come to possess a Shadow Ring, Miss Jennings?”
“I told you,” she said. “It was a gift from a friend.”
“And yet, you don’t know how to use it?”
“I didn’t exactly ask,” Alex admitted.
Caspar Lennox held out a mottled-grey hand. “May I see it?”
Alex hesitantly slid the ring off her finger and passed it to him.
The professor peered closely at it while turning it over in his hands, almost like he was looking—or feeling—for something.
“This is a unique piece,” he said. “Can I assume you received it from Blake Ronnigan?”
Wondering how he could have known that, Alex nodded in confirmation.
“I’ve always considered Blake to be a highly perceptive young man. He was wise, I believe, to give this to you,” Caspar Lennox murmured, still looking at the ring. “Especially given your… unique circumstances.”
Alex opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but he continued speaking.
“When your need is great, you’ll be able to activate the Shadow Essence contained within the stone,” he told her, handing back the ring. “But you’ll have to immerse yourself fully in the Shadow to do so.”
“Ooo-kay,” Alex said, drawing the word out. “I don’t suppose you could dumb that down a little for me? What you mean by the second part?”
Caspar Lennox smiled slightly at her, his sharp, white teeth standing out against his unnaturally grey skin.
“When the time comes, you’ll understand,” he promised.
Alex bit back a snarky retort. Why was everyone saying that to her lately?
Before she could question him further, the professor told her not to daydream during his lessons in the future and dismissed her from his classroom.
After dinner that night, Administrator Jarvis came looking for Alex to tell her that the headmaster wished to speak with her. She followed him obediently to the Tower building and up to the very top floor to Darrius’s office.
“Good luck,” Jarvis said as he opened the door for her.
Puzzling over his words, Alex tentatively entered the room. Sometimes when she visited Darrius he would take her to his private study above the clouds that was linked through the Tower into the Library. But this time Alex could see they would be chatting in his official headmaster’s office. The huge room held an impressive conference table, but her favourite part was the floor-to-ceiling glass wall that looked straight across the academy campus. Right now the waxing moon streamed light across the grounds, illuminating the beautiful landscape.
Darrius was pacing near the window-wall, and when she closed the door quietly behind her, he barely glanced up at her arrival. She took a seat near the end of the table, knowing he would speak when he was ready.
After a few tense seconds, he let out a frustrated breath and moved to sit next to her.
“Thank you for coming, Alex,” he said. “I apologise for the short notice.”
“What’s up, Darrius?”
He reached for a folder that was resting on the table and passed it to her. She opened it without a word, wondering what was going on. Inside were loose papers, each showing photographs of different people, along with their names and other various details. Bardie Hicks… Nicholas Reeves… Lena Morrow… Travis Flanagan… Vera Rosta…
Alex wasn’t sure what she was looking at until she did a double-take on a familiar face.
“Hey, I know her!” she cried. “Well, sort of.”
“Calista Maine,” Darrius said. “Was she the woman you saw in the forest with Aven a few weeks ago?”
Alex nodded. “That’s definitely her.”
Darrius massaged his temples. “I was afraid you would say that.”
“I don’t understand,” Alex said, leafing through more pages. “Why do you have her file? And who are all these other people?”
The headmaster stood and returned to his pacing, a worrying sign that Alex definitely didn’t like.
“Darrius?”
He turned to look at her, and his haggard expression filled her with foreboding.
“After you witnessed Aven kill the Hyroa, I began to do some research,” he said, reclaiming his seat. “Actually, I started when you first told me about the blood-bonding ritual he tried to use on you. Do you remember when I mentioned the possibility of him having Claimed more than one person over the years of his exile?”
Alex nodded again. Darrius had spoken to her months ago about Aven’s charisma and his ability to coerce others into doing his bidding—and how perhaps it wasn’t a natural occurrence, but a result of bonding them to him by blood.
“What are you saying?” she asked.
“When you first mentioned seeing a woman named Calista with Aven in the forest, I thought nothing of it,” Darrius said. “But after you gave a more detailed description of her, I felt a sense of recognition. It turns out that the woman in that file was once a student here at Akarnae.”
Alex wondered why Darrius seemed to think that so significant.
“How many Calistas do you know?” she asked. “It’s not exactly a common name, is it? Why didn’t you know who I was talking about straight away?”
Darrius looked directly into her eyes when he answered. “Alex, Calista Maine graduated from Akarnae over seventy years ago.”
Alex jerked her head back in shock.
“It’s true,” Darrius said, reading the look on her face. “I studied her case file when I first became headmaster because her gift was so powerful and her disappearance was considered a tragedy.”
“Seventy years?” Alex gasped. “That can’t be right. She didn’t look much older than me!”