“Cleaver, buddy,” I say gently, and he immediately changes, wagging his tail with his tongue lolling out as I untie his leash. “I’m sorry, Professor,” I say uncertainly, wrapping the leash around my hand. “He’s never been like this before.”
“That’s the only reason I didn’t kill him,” Helsing snarls. “I know he’s normally friendly. Take him.”
“I’m sorry,” I say again, and Helsing’s expression softens.
“It’s all right. He probably doesn’t like when you’re gone. Did you have fun at Oktoberfest?”
“Yeah,” I reply.
“It’s a good time. I’m too old for it now.” He turns to his computer. “And Black—don’t forget what you’re doing.”
I nod seriously. “I won’t.”
As I leave Helsing’s office to head to the residence wing, I pass through the djinn’s hallway. I pause for a moment to glance inside the door at the phylactery on its pedestal. Something about being back reminds
me why I’m taking revenge. My momentary lapse in resolve is discarded, and I’m ready to see my plan through.
With only six weeks until Christmas break, Piers and I work furiously to make sure we have our hunt planned out in time.
I don’t bring up the fact that he was at Oktoberfest but continued to act sullen and, to be honest, quite pathetic the whole time. Let him wallow a bit. It’s the only way I can stand to play this charade by his side.
Chalk it up to the turmoil of emotions turning over inside me, but I start having horrendous nightmares as soon as we get back. They’re mostly stress dreams about the hunt, dreams that wake me in the middle of the night panting with a tightness in my chest. I’m annoyed by them more than anything. Sleep is precious when you’re up late researching migrant patterns of agropelters between sneaking a peak at passages about djinns.
I’m even more annoyed when during creature studies, there’s an announcement for an assembly this afternoon.
“They said it’ll be short,” Erin says consolingly as I express my frustration.
“Even half an hour is too long at this point,” I tell her. “I need all the time I can get.”
She hums sympathetically. “It’s crunch time for me, too. Luiza’s coming on my hunt with me. Dad said he’d allow it, even though she’s not technically a student.”
“Oh? Spending Christmas with Luiza?” I waggle my eyebrows at her. Her face turns red and she turns away to read her textbook, which is upside down.
When it’s time for the assembly, I ignore Sawyer beckoning me to sit with him and instead sit with Erin. I’ve been pretty much ghosting him since Oktoberfest. We got too close again, and I can’t let that happen. Thankfully, Erin doesn’t notice—I haven’t told her about the Ferris wheel encounter, and I want to keep it that way.
Headmaster Novac is onstage, and to my surprise, so is Roland Skinner. The lawyer sits on a chair behind the podium, flipping through a thick binder. His briefcase sits by his feet.
Novac approaches the podium and silence falls immediately. He smiles kindly out at us.
“Hello, students,” he says. “This will be a very short assembly, as I only have one thing to say. It could have been done as an announcement, I suppose, but I wanted to be sure I had your undivided attention—from you too, Mr. Miller,” he adds.
I, along with everyone else, turn. The boy, Miller, turns red as shuffles to put away his phone.
Novac chuckles a little. “Right. I just want to remind everyone to be in by curfew. This is imperative now, as monster activity in the area has been increasing over the last year. There will be harsher punishments for anyone caught loitering after curfew because of this.” He shrugs as students turn to whisper to each other.
Professor Helsing steps up towards the podium, his face turning a beet-red as he bellows out, “Silence! You twits are gonna die if you go out alone, you hear me?”
His eyes scanning the crowd bring silence.
“That’s all!” Headmaster Novac says, pausing a moment to clear his throat and cast Helsing a heaping helping of side-eye in the process. “Dismissed.”
As everyone stands, I make eye contact with Piers over the crowd.
“Library?” he mouths at me, pointing toward the door. I nod.
Headmaster Novac has already left the stage and is heading for the door, but Skinner heads straight for me, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
“Not in the mood, dude,” I tell him, swinging my backpack over my shoulder and walking away. He falls into step beside me anyway.