Winterwood Academy Book 2: Buried

Chapter Two

Chapter TwoI had barely taken a few steps across the courtyard, in the direction of the Sun dormitory—that’s what the boy’s dorm at the academy is called—when I heard the sound of my mobile ringing in my small black side satchel that I’d grabbed in my hurry to get out of the bedroom.

With a groan, I paused and slipped my hand inside to retrieve my phone.

Guilt bubbled in my stomach as soon as I saw my best friend’s face flashing on the screen.

I hadn’t spoken to Peter since lecturer Merrin had whisked me away to The Winterwood Academy. That was totally unlike me. Usually, I saw him every day at school, but I hadn’t even been able to drop him a text to let him know I was going away. What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, I won’t be going to Gilford High anymore because I’m a witch and I’ve been moved to a school for freaks’.

It was time to finally bite the bullet. I pressed the answer button and closed my eyes tight shut as I raised the phone to my ear.

“Hey, Petey,” I said, my voice far too quiet.

“Don’t call me that.” He growled down the phone at me. “You haven’t been at school for a week, and you’ve ignored all my calls and texts. What the hell is going on?”

“Nicola told you I was ill, didn’t she?” I said, my voice still far too quiet to be believable.

At least that’s what Nicola had told me she’d been telling everyone whenever they asked about me.

“Too sick to even text your best friend?” Peter sighed. He sounded hurt. I hated lying to him, but what could I say?

“When are you coming back to school?” He asked before I could say anything. My breath caught in my throat. I never should have answered my phone.

“I’m not coming back to school,” I mumbled, and my hand instinctively moved to the gemstone pendant around my neck for comfort. It was the only thing that seemed to keep me calm these days.

“That’s crazy talk! What’s going on, Bri? Did you get expelled or something?” Peter asked. Was he playing stupid, or was he serious? If I’d been expelled, he would have been the first person I told about it. Surely he knew that? Then again, I hadn’t spoken to him in so long he probably thought I’d forgotten about him entirely.

“Bri, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?” Peter’s voice was soft now, filled with concern.

A week ago, I’d have given anything for him to call me Bri. Anything was better than the pet name he’d picked out for me when we were kids - Red.

But now I craved that pet name. I craved for my old life where I was constantly being hounded by his super annoying, super crazy girlfriend.

I really am going insane. I thought as I tried my hardest to come up with a reasonable explanation for my sudden disappearance off the face of the earth.

“Polly is worried too,” Peter continued, and my stomach clenched at the mention of his adorable little sister. I wondered if she was missing our bus rides home as much as I was.

“Tell her not to worry. I’m okay,” I said weakly.

“You don’t sound okay. Where are you? I’ll come and get you.”

For just a moment, I allowed myself to imagine what it would like for Peter to ride up in his beat-up old Corsa like a knight in shining armour.

I wanted nothing more than to see my best friend again and go back to my old life.

The marks on my back began to tingle as though telling me that was impossible.

Though I’d only caught glimpses of them in the mirror whenever I was showering, I’d been able to piece together what they would look like.

The Triple Goddess symbol sat proudly at the nape of my neck connected to the symbols of the four elements by swirling patterns that looked like wind and flames and waves and even grapevines. It was a patchwork of art that reminded me I was different, even in a school full of witches.

“Bri? Where are you?” Peter insisted, pulling me from my thoughts.

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind me caused me to jump, and I almost dropped my phone as I spun to find Booth standing before me.

“Petey, I have to go. I’ll call you later, okay? I promise,” I said hurriedly into the phone when I saw the devastated yet gorgeous look on Booth’s face.

Before I had a chance to hear a protest from Peter, I ended the call and slammed my phone back into my satchel.

“I heard what happened,” I said past the lump in my throat, “Booth, I’m so sorry.”

Instinctively I reached out to touch his arm. When my fingers found his bare forearm, I found that he was freezing cold. It had to be grief because although it was late summer, it was still boiling hot outside.

“We have to figure this out, Bri.” Booth’s voice was hollow with grief, and the more I looked at him, the more I realised he had been crying.

If he had been any other guy, the thought of him crying would have probably been a total turn off. But Booth was drop-dead gorgeous, and every fibre of my being was pulsing with the need to be close to him.

“Come here,” I said gently, and before he could offer any kind of protest, I stepped forward and slipped my arms around his waist.

Booth was well over a head taller than me, and I had to turn my head to the side just to stop myself from being smothered by his hard rock pecs. The sound of his heart beating against my ear grounded me even as he wrapped his arms around me.

Although he was grieving, I’m not sure which one of us needed the hug more.

“We will get to the bottom of this,” I promised him in a whisper, all too aware that several students passing us on their way to breakfast were openly gawping at us.

No doubt Rhea, the head b***h of the school, would soon learn that I’d been fraternizing with the guy she’d staked her claim on, but right now, I didn’t care.

I pulled back just enough to look Booth in the eye.

When he opened his eyes and looked down at me, his striking blue eyes were glistening with tears.

“Cam makes four dead in the past month, Bri. We have to do something,” He said in a throaty voice that told me he was trying his hardest to keep himself together.

What can we do? We’re just students. I thought. In any normal situation, we probably would have gone to the head of the school, but this was no ordinary situation, and Celestria wasn’t going to help. She was part of the problem. I wasn’t sure yet how she was connected to the deaths, but I knew in my gut it was more than just hiding the bodies in unmarked graves behind the cemetery wall.

“What are we going to do?” I shrugged, finally pulling myself out of his arms.

I could have stayed there forever, but I was already uncomfortable with how many people had their eyes on us.

Why couldn’t people just mind their own business?

“Will you meet me tonight?” Booth asked, his eyes growing hopeful, “I need to see what Celestria does with Cam’s body, but I don’t think I can handle it on my own.”

Although the thought of following our Grand Priestess during the middle of the night into the cemetery didn’t really sound like an appealing date to me, I found myself nodding.

“Maybe we should tell someone?” I heard myself say, and I watched Booth’s eyes grow wide.

“No! Bri! We can’t trust anyone.”

“I don’t mean the lecturers.” I shook my head and thought quickly, “What about my roommate? She’s trustworthy, and I don’t like the thought of going out in the middle of the night if nobody knows where we are. We could be the next ones who end up dead.”

Who was going to figure all of this out if we went and got ourselves killed?

Booth seemed to think over my proposition for a few moments before he finally nodded.

“Fine, but nobody else can know about all of this,” He insisted, “At least not until we know more.”

I nodded in agreement.

Relief washed over me. The thought of having someone else to talk to about all of this made the weight seem a little lighter. Not much but a little.

“Will you walk with me to breakfast?” I asked.

Booth looked doubtful, and I felt an invisible wall suddenly come up between us.

“I’m sorry, but no. I’m not hungry, and I don’t really want to be around everyone right now.” He shook his head and stepped away from me as though he was fearful I might try to touch him again.

I couldn’t really blame him. I’d only been here for a week, and already the thought of losing my roommate made me feel sick.

“Where should I meet you?” I asked.

“Behind the temple at midnight,” Booth replied, and I could feel the grief coming off him in waves. I’d have done anything at that moment to make him feel better.

And so I did the only thing I could think of. I leaned up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his cheek.

When I lowered myself back down again, I found that he was smiling. It was a weak smile that barely touched the corners of his lips, but it was something, and I’d take anything I could get.

“Are you sure you don’t mind coming with me?” he asked.

“As if you really think I’d let you go out there alone!” I exclaimed.

That’s when he gave me a proper smile, and I felt myself go weak at the knees. “I always knew you were special, Brianna Winters.”

My breath caught in my throat. The sudden urge to tell him what had happened in the library last week was almost overwhelming.

Now isn’t the right time to tell him that I’m a Winterwood. I reminded myself, unsure as to whether there would ever be a right time to tell anyone that I was descended from the family whose most prized possession sat in our library. Not to mention the fact that the whole academy was named after us. I didn’t even know the half of it myself.

“Are you okay?” Booth’s expression darkened then, and he examined my face so close that I felt like his eyes were physically touching me.

I needed to get out of there. I could never keep my mouth shut around him. He was just too beautiful.

“Yeah,” I said hastily and began to make my way past him, “I’ll see you at midnight.”

I probably shouldn’t have said that so loudly, but all I could think about was getting away from his searching eyes.