Winterwood Academy Book 3: Hunted

Chapter OneBooth This last week has been the hardest of my life. As if losing my roommate wasn’t bad enough, my almost-girlfriend had died in my arms, drenched in her own blood. To make matters even worse, I was forced to act like nothing had really happened. Grand Priestess Celestria had swept into my mother’s office almost as soon as Bri took her last breath, and what else could I do but let her take her body? After all, she was the Grand Priestess, and we still had no proof that she had anything to do with the deaths at school. She’d told us that Bri was just another victim of the fate that befell our kind. One of the poor unfortunate kids whose body wasn’t strong enough to house the power inside her. She claimed it had burned her up from the inside just as it had Cam and the other kids before him. I didn’t buy it, and I certainly didn’t buy Celestria’s caring Grand Priestess act, the same one she offered up when she met the witch council on the steps of the main academy building just a week after Bri’s death. Although I stood in the crowd of students who had turned out to welcome the council, my mind was elsewhere. I’d barely slept for a week. Whenever I closed my eyes, all I could see was Bri’s pale, stricken face and the blood that had pooled all around us, dripping from her eyes, nose, and mouth as though something had exploded inside of her head. If I hadn’t known any better, I might have accepted Celestria’s explanation, but I did know better, and I’d watched our Grand Priestess take Bri’s body out to the unmarked graves just as she had all the other kids. It was that I was thinking about as I stood in the courtyard. The hum of people all around me was drowned out by my thoughts. I stared up at the facade Celestria was putting on. She’d donned a classy black dress, and her usual Moon Goddess pendant glistened in the sunlight as she shook the hands of every single council member. One by one, they walked up the steps to be greeted by the woman who could have received every award for best actress. Just looking at her made me feel sick to my stomach. I wanted to follow the council members up those stairs and greet her myself. Only it wouldn’t be a handshake. I imagined wrapping my thick hands around her scrawny neck and choking the life out of her for what she had done to Bri. It wouldn’t bring her back, but it would certainly make me feel better. At least for a moment. That way, she would never be able to hurt another student. But I wasn’t stupid. I was no match for the likes of Celestria. I knew it, and she knew it. That was the only reason that me and all of Bri’s friends were still alive. There was no way in hell that Celestria didn’t know that we knew something seriously wrong was going on. It had been different with the deaths of the other kids. They’d died in their beds during the night, but Bri was different. She’d died in my arms, and Celestria had been close behind, too close for her not to have followed Bri to the office. Celestria was smart enough to know that we were onto her, but the way she smiled at the council members told me she didn’t care. There wasn’t a single ounce of concern on her face. That was until one member, in particular, stepped up to face her. Even from the back, I could tell that the girl was much younger than the rest of the council members. She was at least a foot shorter than anyone else on the steps. There was something familiar about her, in the way she held herself and the red hair that was pinned atop her head. Celestria’s expression seemed to fall as she came face to face with the girl. All the colour drained from her cheeks, and I couldn’t help but feel as though she had seen a ghost. It wasn’t until the girl had shaken her hand and turned to offer the rest of the crowd a smile and a wave that I saw what had startled Celestria so. I was so shocked that my knees threatened to buckle, and I found myself grabbing hold of the Goddess fountain I’d been standing in the shadow of. Bri! My mind whirled at the sight of her. The last I’d seen of her, she’d been turning cold and grey in my arms, but now she was as radiant as the day I’d first seen her sitting across the cafeteria with her friends. Her skin was as pale as porcelain, attracting the late summer sun and causing her hair to look as though it was licked with flames. Before I knew what, I was doing, my feet began to carry me through the crowd. “Hey! Watch it!” A short and overly plump guy growled at me as I shoved my way past, but I barely heard him. Grabbing at shoulders and shoving people aside, I reached the bottom step of the academy building in a matter of seconds. Just as I opened my mouth to yell her name, I felt Celestria’s cold stare turn on me. My lips clamped shut, and I struggled with my good sense to hold my tongue, at least until the greeting ceremony was over. “Students of Winterwood Academy!” Celestria yelled as she turned towards the crowd, but every single student and lecturer was staring at Bri. No doubt because they’d all heard of the fact that she had died a week ago. A hum of confusion filled the courtyard, and I heard several mutters close by as questions began to flit about. “Isn’t that Brianna Winters?” One girl questioned the student beside her. “Isn’t she dead?” Another guy yapped, and his words caused me to cringe. She was dead. I thought. She is dead. My good sense was fighting frantically with what I saw before me, but in the end, it was my eyes that won the battle. How could I possibly believe she was dead when she was standing right beside Celestria? Not to mention the fact that our Grand Priestess had looked like she might have a heart attack the moment she saw her. “Students of Winterwood,” Celestria tried once more to gather the crowd’s attention, “Please welcome the members of our High Witch Council, Grand Priestess Livina Atwell, Grand Priest Atticus Squire, Grand Priestess Fredrika Lovegood, Grand High Priest Augustus Maxwell, and his daughter Adreanna Maxwell!” She reeled off the names pointing at each council member in turn from the fair-haired Livina to the fiery-haired beauty, and my mind began to spin. Is she seriously trying to tell me that’s not Bri? “Please give them all a round of applause!” Celestria boomed, and she began the round, clapping her own hands energetically. Still looking confused, the crowd was slow to take up the round of applause, and I found myself totally stone still, unable to move a muscle until Celestria turned to gesture the council members into the building. “Wait a minute!” I hissed under my breath as I took the steps two at a time to grab hold of Bri’s wrist just as she was about to follow the last of the members inside. “Excuse me!” She gasped, snatching her hand away. She looked at me as though I was something on the bottom of her shoe. “New girl, don’t you recognise me?” I chuckled as I brought myself up to my full height, squaring my shoulders. She examined me for a moment, looking half intrigued before brushing me off with an upturned nose. “You’re cute, but not that cute.” She shrugged. “Maybe if we were the last two people on earth.” “Bri, stop playing games with me. It’s been a hellish week,” I growled as I grabbed hold of her by the shoulders. “Who the hell do you think you are?” she demanded as she tried and failed to release herself from my grip. “Bri, I don’t like it when people play games with me.” I glared down at her, and when our eyes met, I suddenly realised that hers had changed colour. They were no longer the familiar grey-blue eyes of the girl I was always dying to kiss. Instead, they were a deep, dark sapphire blue, almost black. And the more she glared at me, the darker they became. “I don’t know who you think I am, but you have me mixed up with someone else,” she snarled at me. Bri’s eyes have changed colour before, I reminded myself, perhaps she just needs a reminder. With all the passion that fired up inside of me the moment I laid eyes on her, I leaned down and kissed her with almost bruising force. Her lips were warm and tender beneath my own, and for a moment, I felt as though she was relaxing against me. Then, suddenly she was gone from my arms, and my ears began to ring as she planted her palm with shocking force against my cheek.