A snicker bursts from Sunny’s lips. “Nothing more than a drowned dog. Our room keys are the only bones still floating around. You haven’t seen yours yet . . . here.” She holds up an aged brass key. The shaft is long and ornate, with two jagged teeth on the end. The head looks like a skull.
Although the design is eerie and unsettling, I force a smile. “Gives new meaning to the term ‘skeleton key.’”
Sunny grins back. “Right? But the teeth are all different, and the room numbers are engraved on the back. They each open a different door in the academy. So no need to worry about anyone breaking into your dorm.”
“Other than someone with a penchant for stealing keys,” I tease.
She lifts her palm as if swearing an oath. “I vow to only use my powers for good. So see? Nothing weird going on here. Other than the author basing a few characters on real people, those phantom stories on that forum are all nut-buck. Yeah, there’s an underground river, but no one’s ever found an entrance to any subterranean house. Not even at that other opera place in the city . . . the one that this building inspired.” She’s over by my shopping bags now, digging through them. She pulls out my French fairy tale book and stares at it as if mesmerized.
I try to suppress the image in my mind: the gardener with those familiar glimmering eyes, creeping along the halls at night and clanging hundreds of skeleton keys, searching for his stolen bones . . . because I’m not at all convinced they belonged to a dog. “What about the sounds the students heard?”
Sunny diverts her gaze from the book and lays it back in the bag. “Oh, it was just ol’ Diable prowling around. He’s the resident tomcat. Bug ugly and feral as a fox. He looks like a walking SOS pad. The bells on his collar caused the jingles. And he likes to yowl. It can sound like a baby’s tantrum when he really gets going. Don’t even know why he stays since he won’t let no one touch him. He must’ve belonged to somebody once . . . his name’s written in jewels on his collar. The boys say he’s a ghost cat, due to how he sneaks into our rooms even when they’re locked.”
My eyes widen.
“Sorry,” she says, snorting again. “Being so far out in the country, this place can be creepy as a field of devil’s tongues. The graveyard out back don’t help. Some of us have even seen strange lights coming out of the abandoned chapel at night, but the school has bailiffs who stand guard outside the front and back entrances to enforce the eight o’clock in-house curfew. So there’s no sneaking out. But honestly, if anything is haunted, it’s the forest.” She says it as if it’s an afterthought, although her voice is ominous.
“Why do you say that?” I ask, not sure I want to hear anymore.
“Well, I don’t get out there much myself, so this is all hearsay.” She frowns. “I’m bad allergic to bee stings so the woods are off limits. My ma wouldn’t even let me come here without a year’s supply of EpiPens.” She shrugs. “Anyways, the boys roam out there sometimes. They’ve gone so far as the cottage. And they’ve seen things. Or I should say heard things . . . things that ain’t right.” A chagrined expression crosses her face. “I mean, aren’t right.”
“Like . . . ?”
“A field mouse that croaks like a toad, a lizard that squeals like a wild pig, a fox hooting like an owl. The guys get real inventive when they’re trying to scare us girls.”
My tongue feels dry again as I remember the mewling crow that I assumed I imagined.
Sunny seems to read the discomfort on my face, because she adjusts her tone. “Aw, just listen to me yammer on. Forget everything I said. They’re all made-up stories anyways. And I’m only one door over. Come pounding anytime you get scared.”
I mutter, “Thanks,” but I won’t be getting close to anyone while I’m here. There’s no way to pretend I’m even a little normal. Within a few weeks, I’ll have a reputation for stealing the limelight that will be impossible to live down, and no one will want to be my friend.
“About Katarina.” I wind my hair into a side braid, tying the ends in a knot. “Is she the kind to hold grudges?”
Draped in shadows again, Sunny digs around in her pocket then lifts out what looks like a cigarette. She touches it to her lips, sucks in a breath, and blows out. The end lights up in response, like an LED glow. “You bet she is. And not only did you show her up, you managed a ride in Jackson Reynolds’s arms. That’s more action than she’s seen in the year and a half she’s been prowling after him.”
Great. Could things get any worse? If only I could tell Katarina she has nothing to worry about. I’m not going to pursue something physical or romantic with anyone. Not after what happened back home with Ben. Just being carried down the stairs by this Jackson guy triggered enough of a reminder to stay true to that promise to myself. But there’s no way to bring up something that weird. “Okay . . . so, you’re saying I’ll be Kat’s new scratching post.”
“And unlike Diable, her claws are way worse than her hiss.”