“Find Alex,” I commanded sternly.

The red smoke twisted its way down to my feet and lay there heavily, like some kind of bizarre lap dog.

“Find Alex Florides,” I urged it again, feeling irritated all of a sudden.

Still nothing happened. Abruptly the sound of voices floated over the top of the buildings towards me, and I felt a surge of sudden fire flicker inside me at the thought of being discovered experimenting with something that I’d already almost killed someone with. As soon as the heat hit my system, however, the inveniora took off rushing away from me and towards the edges of the compound at a hurtling speed. Invigorated into action, I took off after it.

Unlike other manifestations of the tracking spell that I’d seen, mine didn’t veer even slightly. It shot through the air like an arrow, leaving behind a trail that could have been drawn with a ruler. I didn’t have time to pause to think about it, however, I just ran, trying to keep up with the front of it. Before too long it reached the edges of the grounds, zipping its way into an impenetrable bed of flowers, bushes and trees. Without thinking twice, I followed it in, ignoring the scratching branches that pulled at my skin. My own progress was now considerably slower but, if anything, the inveniora itself appeared to pick up speed. I hopped and ducked and dodged my way through the thicket, cursing Alex and wondering what in the hell he was doing hiding in the middle of a bush. The powder blue robes that I’d been forced to wear yet again impeded me even further, continually getting caught on various branches and brambles. The hem that was trailing at my back snagged stubbornly onto some kind of thorn and I had no choice but to stop to use my fingers to free it. When I stood back up, I realised that the inveniora had stopped just up ahead and was hovering in the dark still air.

My heart was suddenly thudding deep in my chest. I couldn’t help but think of the last time I’d wandered into a thick corpse of fauna and come across the cloth deposited behind by Iabartu. Worry filled me with what might have happened to Alex and whether, once again, it would end up being my fault. Gingerly picking my way forward, I pulled up my robes to avoid catching them further on anything else, but tensed all my muscles in case I needed suddenly to attack.

As I got closer, I realised that the red snaky smoke was hanging right in front of a looming bricked wall. Obviously I’d reached the outer fringes of the academy grounds, and that beyond here the mages’ influence dissipated. Did that mean that Alex had left the compound? Puzzled, I leaned forward, realising that there was a crumbling gap in the stone next to where the inveniora had stopped. Without thinking I reached out to push my fingers through and touch it. As soon as I did so, however, I felt something wet.

Rubbing my fingers together to work out what it was, I peered at them through the gloomy cover of the trees. Whatever it was, it felt thick and gloopy. Definitely not blood, I registered with a dim surge of relief, but definitely not anything entirely natural either. It hadn’t rained for days, so it couldn’t be a puddle of mossy rainwater that had collected, and there was far too much of it to be dew. Anyway, it was completely the wrong time of day for that. I lifted my fingers to my face and sniffed, cautiously, then immediately recoiled.

Whatever it was, it smelt dark and rotten, not dissimilar to the unpleasant whiff that cockroaches somehow managed to give off. What the fuck was it? I could see now that the strange liquid was dark and shiny, with something of a purple tinge to it. I didn’t like this at all.

I was about to call out to see if Alex was for some reason on the other side of the wall, when I heard my name being faintly called from behind me, albeit from some distance away. I wiped my fingers on a nearby leaf, trying to rid myself of the gloop and then turned back. The voice called again, and I frowned, now more puzzled than ever. It sounded like the hippy mage himself.

Eventually emerging back from out of the undergrowth, I spotted him, hands on hips as he stared at me.

“Mack Attack, where the hell have you been and what the hell have you been doing? Sheesh, I’ve been looking all over for you!”

Pissed off, I glared at him. “Well, I’ve been looking for you too, Alex. I’ve been all over the sodding compound and then when I couldn’t found you I conjured up some inveniora to find you and…,”

“You did what?”

“You heard me,” I snapped.

“Dude, that was an idiot move to make.”

“Well, dude, it led me here didn’t it? What have you been doing in the bushes, eh?” I waggled my eyebrows at him to prove I was serious.

Alex just looked confused. “I have no idea what you’re on about.”

“You’ve never been in there?” I jerked my head back to where I’d just come from, somewhat deflated.

He shook his head, looking at me as if I was crazy. “No, I’ve not. And besides, until you reach level three you can’t control inveniora to run any kind of proper search. You’ve been running around aimlessly, with some kind of stupid death-wish on your shoulders.”

“Nothing went wrong. It didn’t cloud up like last time or try to smother anyone!”

“You were lucky,” Alex said grimly. “This kind of stuff isn’t a toy, Mack Attack. There’s a reason why there are trainers making sure nothing goes wrong when the Initiates practise.”

“Jeez, who rattled your chain? Chill out, Alex.”

“You’re telling me to chill out? Seriously? The girl with the worst temper this side of the equator? Because she’s not actually a girl, but instead a fucking dragon?”

“I’m not a dragon,” I stated emphatically, “I’m a Draco Wyr. And if it wasn’t for that fact, then you wouldn’t have anyone to help you sneak into a fucking nest of vampires to steal a bloody chunk of wood!”

Alex and I both glared at each other. I realised I was letting my temper once again get the better of me and tried to calm myself using Bryant’s deep breathing suggestions. At the same moment, I think Alex also recognized the idiocy of the situation and relaxed.

“Sorry. I’m finding all this very stressful, I guess.”

“Me too, Mack Attack, me too.” He stretched his hand out. “Friends?”

I took it and shook vigorously. “Always.” We smiled at each other and the tension evaporated.

“I’ve cleared things with the Dean dude,” Alex said. “He’ll let you go out and party it up on Saturday. Did Lord Shifty cause you any problems?”

“No,” I answered. “He was actually pretty easy to convince.”

Alex was exultant. “See? I told you! And all those times that you thought that he’d smite you down for not being a shifter. He’s actually a fairly reasonable guy.”

“I’m not convinced of that yet,” I grumbled. “He’s still on some kind of power trip.” The ‘wear something pretty’ command continued to irk me. “I have to find something to wear for the party too.”

“Don’t worry, mate. I’ll sort that side of things out. Come on.” He held out his arm for me to take and we started walking back to the scattered buildings.

On the way back, I told him about the Fae book. Alex was astonished. “Seriously? Are you sure it’s the same book?”

“I’m positive.” I added in the details that I’d managed to translate so far.

“Whoa, that’s far out, Mack Attack. So you really are descended from dragons, then.”

“I don’t know, Alex. This could all just be legend. And it might not have anything to do with me. It certainly doesn’t clear up anything as to the reasons for why my mother dumped me with the shifters, or what else my blood can do.”

“It’s a start though. I can’t read Fae so I can’t help you in that department, unfortunately. Why don’t you get in touch with your fairy buddy?”

“Solus? He won’t come near anything to do with the mages or the Ministry, you must know that. Anyway, he’s a Fae, and they’re untrustworthy by nature.”

“You trusted him enough with your friend, Mrs. Whatserface.”

“Alcoon,” I said absently. “Mrs. Alcoon.” I felt tug of guilty melancholy at the thought of the older woman. “I didn’t have all that much choice at the time. And he got what he wanted in return.”

“Which was?”

“To find out what I really am.”

“You told him? About the Draco Wyr stuff? Mack Attack, you just said you couldn’t trust him!”

“I also just said I didn’t have a choice. And I suppose he’s not given me up so far.” Although the stupid fairy had tread pretty close to the line a couple of times, I thought ungratefully.

“Six days’ time, Mack Attack. Once this party’s over then we can concentrate on getting you up the levels and out of this place as soon as possible. Then you can sort out Mrs. Alcoon, and the Fae, and find out who you really are.”

Amen to that, I whispered to myself.

Chapter Fourteen

The following five days scampered by remarkably quickly. Lessons started up again on Monday, and I received exactly the same terrified rabbit-caught-in-headlights reaction from both Slocombe in Kinesis and Barton in Evocation. And I had the same success in both those lessons as I’d had the previous week, which of course amounted to absolutely zip. Nada. Nyet. I was getting damn good at staring at stones, however.

I’d been hoping for a little more from Illusion, as at least this time I had a full lesson’s worth of time with which to learn. But again, nothing really happened, other than me being forced to count to ten several times over whenever the trainer started up her hacking cackle at my pitiful efforts. I was learning to keep my mouth shut at least, and I managed to go the full week without maiming anyone or damaging any more property. There was no time with Alex to spend on Divination; instead we took the opportunity of having the peace and quiet to be able to discuss and plan out different scenarios for my impending heist. I was just trying hard not to focus on what could happen if I got caught by the vamps.