Rise Of The Mirror King

Chapter 8: Vacation

By morning, everyone knew.

The academy was louder than usual; students clustered in every corridor, whispering about what had happened during the night. Two students were dead, and nobody seemed to know why — but that hadn't stopped them from deciding who was responsible.

I kept my head down on the walk to class. It didn't help.

People stared. Some went quiet the second I passed. Others didn't even bother.

"That's him." "Symon Wardreth." "Wasn't he the one accused yesterday?" "He was found near the first body, wasn't he?"

I clenched my jaw and kept walking. The second girl had turned up in the cemetery, and I'd been there too — even if nobody else knew it yet. That fact sat in my chest like a stone I couldn't put down.

I reached my classroom and found Amelia standing near the entrance with Lucifero. I headed toward them anyway.

"Amelia."

She looked up. Lucifero stepped between us before she could answer.

"Don't."

"I just want to talk to her."

"You've done enough."

"I didn't kill those girls."

His hand moved to his sword. "Stay away from her."

"Lucifero—"

The blade came halfway out of its sheath, and the students nearby went dead silent. I stopped where I was.

"You're really going to draw your sword over a conversation?"

"You're lucky I'm only drawing it."

Amelia stepped forward. "Lucifero, stop." He didn't move.

"Stay behind me," he told her, not even glancing back.

I looked at Amelia. She looked uncomfortable, but she didn't leave either.

"I need to talk to you," I said.

"And I've told you to stay away from her." His sword came fully free.

The room erupted. Students shrank back against the walls, whispers spreading faster than either of us could stop it. Before things could go any further, a voice thundered down the hall.

"Enough!"

Zudrik strode in with several professors behind him, his eyes moving from Lucifero's sword to me, then to the crowd gathering around us.

"Put it away."

Lucifero hesitated a beat too long for my comfort.

"Now."

He lowered the sword.

Zudrik turned on the rest of the hall. "Everyone, return to your classrooms." Nobody moved. "I said, everyone." That got them going.

He waited until the corridor had mostly cleared before he spoke again, his expression grim. "I've received word from the academy council. Vacation begins today."

A murmur ran through the students still lingering. "Today?" someone asked.

"Yes. All students are to leave the academy immediately." He looked to the professors. "Arrange transportation. Nobody leaves alone."

I stared at him. "What about the investigation?"

"That will continue without you."

I almost laughed. Without me? At this point I was starting to think the investigation was following me, not the other way around.

Zudrik's gaze settled on mine. "Mr. Wardreth. You'll wait here."

I sighed. "Of course."

He walked off without another word. Lucifero glanced my way once before following Amelia, who looked back at me over her shoulder — I couldn't tell what she wanted to say — and then they were both gone around the corner.

By the time a few hours had passed, the academy had nearly emptied. Students filed through the main gates in twos and threes, trunks and bags piled into waiting carriages. I stood outside with my coat pulled over my shoulders when I heard heavy footsteps coming toward me.

Argustin. Symon's steward — the name surfaced before I even had to reach for it. There was no mistaking his build: broad shoulders, rough features, that same animal presence I'd noticed the very first day I woke up in this world.

He stopped in front of me. "Lord Wardreth."

I nodded. "Argustin."

"You've been summoned home."

"By my father?"

"Yes." He turned toward the waiting carriage. "Blackwood."

I looked back at the academy one last time. I'd barely started making sense of the place, and already I was being pulled away from it.

"Fine."

I climbed in. Argustin followed, and as the carriage lurched into motion, I watched the academy shrink through the window until the hills swallowed it whole.

Two students were dead. Nobody knew who'd killed them. And somehow, without doing anything, I'd become the person standing at the center of it all.

I still didn't know what had happened to the old Symon. I didn't know why his mana had turned up on the first body, or why someone had bothered writing his name in blood on a wall.

I still didn't know what had happened to the old Symon. I didn't know why his mana had turned up on the first body, or why someone had bothered writing his name in blood on a wall.

I didn't say any of that out loud. There didn't seem to be a point.

The carriage rolled on toward Blackwood, and I leaned back against the seat. Outside, the hills swallowed the academy whole, gray stone folding into gray sky until there was nothing left to look at.

Argustin didn't speak the rest of the way.

Neither did I.