Descendants Academy: Young Adult Urban Fantasy, Belle Malory [motivational novels for students .txt] 📗

Before I knew what was happening, a crowd of people filed into the tunnel, their wide-eyed gazes on me, as if I were one of the gladiators out on the field.

“Sheridan!” Ione screeched, pushing her way through. “What happened?”

“A nightcrawler,” Peter answered before I could stop him.

Dammit. I didn’t want the whole school knowing monsters were after me. I had enough problems as it was.

“A horrible mistake, obviously,” he added. “Someone must have summoned it here for the competition.”

Hey, that sounded pretty believable. People would buy that.

Once on my feet, I dusted myself off. “How is Xander?” I said, wondering if he made it. She didn’t have to answer though. He was suddenly there in the crowd, sword in hand, watching me with a pained, almost helpless expression.

This was just the kind of thing he warned me would happen, and I could only imagine what he was thinking.

Ione’s arms came around my shoulders. “Come on,” she said, steering me toward the exit. “Out of the way people! Nothing more to see here.”

As we headed out, Xander disappeared into the crowd. “Don’t worry, he killed the graptor,” Ione said, noticing the direction of my gaze.

Thank God.

I rubbed the back of my head. It still throbbed where the crawler slammed it against the wall, and I felt dizzy. “Where are we going?” I said to Ione.

“The school’s healer.” She held up my arms for me to view. “The nightcrawler’s web is toxic, and you need some herbs to draw out the poison.”

Hundreds of tiny scratches covered my wrists and arms where the webbing had been. Rivulets of blood trickled from several spots. My neck and face felt itchy and uncomfortable too.

“Don’t worry. It’s quick magic. You’ll be fine in a matter of hours.”

35

Grandpa came to visit while I was in the hospital wing. He stared at me in horror, making me think I looked worse than I felt. “It’s all good, Grandpa.” I gave him a thumbs up. “The potion the nurse gave me is better than morphine.”

“On Zeus’s grave, Sheridan. We’ve got to take better precautions.”

As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. My monster problem was officially no fluke.

Grandpa sat on the end of my bed, running a hand over his jaw as he looked me over. “Where did the nightcrawler come from?”

I shrugged, thinking of the tunnel’s various openings. “No idea. Everyone assumed it was part of the competition.”

He nodded. “Probably for the best.”

“I figured the same thing.”

“The Arius boy was competing at the exact time the nightcrawler found you,” he said, shaking his head.

“So? What does that matter?”

“It’s just interesting, is all. It’s convenient the attack occurred while Alexander, your sworn protector, was busy.”

Hmm…I supposed that was true. But I hadn’t anticipated going into the tunnel. The only way someone could know I was down there, is if they had been watching me.

I shook myself, still too spooked to dwell on it. “Have you heard from Dad?” I said, thinking of the message Grandpa sent.

Letting out an unsteady breath, he shook his head. “To be honest, I’m getting a little worried. I figure maybe he decided to come straight here after getting my message. Unless…unless something is wrong.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek, hoping it wasn’t the latter of the two.

“If I don’t hear anything by next week, I’ll go to Davidson myself,” he promised.

I nodded, glad to hear that.

He gently patted my covered legs. “Get some rest, okay?”

“I’ll try.”

I would sleep if I could get that thing out of my head. I shivered, remembering the way its webbing stuck to my skin like miniature razor blades.

Grandpa seemed to guess where my mind was. “I’ll ask the nurse to brew a sleeping potion.”

“Thank you, Grandpa.”

He left the room, and I sighed, leaning back against the pillows. As hard as I tried to shut them out, the voices I heard in the tunnel filled my mind. Most of it made no sense, except one thing.

She is strong, and you are weak.

It was the exact same thing the woman on Twilight Island said.

36

“Minus the frown, you look beautiful,” Ione said, and coming from her, that was a genuine compliment.

“Thank you.”

“Stop thinking about it,” she scolded me, readjusting my updo. Thanks to her knack for hair art, my rose gold tresses were a cascading river of waves, braided and interwoven with tiny vines made of crystals. Her hair was much simpler, a polished blonde chignon.

I couldn’t not think about it though. Between the nightcrawler, Xander kissing me, and the week I’d had, my whole world had been turned upside down. The worst part was that parent’s day had come and gone, and my dad never showed up. That was like a kick in the gut. Grandpa tried reassuring me that it was all for the best, and that he would visit when our circumstances weren’t so precarious, but I didn’t care. I wanted my dad. Needed my dad, and he was nowhere to be found.

“Ready to go?”

I looked in the mirror, smoothing my shimmery gold dress. The winter ball was a formal affair, which meant we could ditch our everyday togas. My reflection showed someone far more stunning and put together than how I felt on the inside.

I took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

“Ready,” I said, stepping forward in the four-inch heels Ione made me wear. I’d spent hours practicing in them for Seduction Principles, and I didn’t even wobble.

Downstairs, a group of Aphrodite students waited in the common room. Peter Hallas was there, dressed in a black and silver suit. He grinned when he saw us, waving us over. For the first time since I’d arrived at Arcadia, I didn’t feel like a complete outsider.

We walked to the Letragon Theater, a picturesque outdoor ballroom on the edge of campus that overlooked a small glassy lake. Music reverberated from up ahead, a song I’d heard before. “Is that…” I glanced at Ione. It couldn’t be. But as we approached the