Of course, the witches were just like the Senseque. How could it have been otherwise?

“Let us pass now!” Grace sounded extremely impatient. However, I couldn’t let them go and just mess up the lives of others.

“I’m sure her mother has a reason for not telling her.”

“Ms. Adams is irresponsible if she keeps her daughter from us. She could be stripped of her memories as well as her powers for conspiracy or concealing a potential danger!”

I bit my tongue.

“Bayla is no danger, believe me. In fact, she sleeps in the same room with you.”

“It’s a matter of principle, Julian. Let us through now, or we’ll move you out of the way.”

That certainly wasn’t going to happen, Grace.

“I won’t let you erase her memories.”

I hope I had made my point.

“That won’t happen if we tell my mother in time before Gloria finds out.”

Grace was stubborn. Maybe she was right. Thanks to Amara Blair, my family and I were allowed to live in her district. Gloria, on the other hand, was one of the Quatura who wanted us all dead.

“But I didn’t feel her magic...” Julie remarked quietly.

Grace turned to her thoughtfully. “Neither did I...”

“Are you really sure, Julian?”

Damn it. Me and Emely not being able to smell her was one thing. But if the two of them couldn’t even sense Bayla’s magic....

“Do you think she’s an ungifted?” Julie asked, grabbing the almost translucent stone hanging from a silver chain around her neck.

“Julie, this could be why her mother didn’t bring her to us.”

A twinge in my stomach distracted me.

The fear had returned, and I had images in my head, just like before. This time, it was a room I remembered well, even though I had only been there once before: Bayla’s room.

The cousins took advantage of my moment of weakness to sneak past me, down the stairs.

“Whatever about Bayla. We need to get to Moenia.”

Those were the last words I heard before the images took me and I sank to the floor.

Chapter 35

Bayla

Back and forth, back and forth.

I turned to the mirror, hitting my head as if it was my fault, as if I had actually dreamed it all.

Maybe it had just been a misunderstanding, a stupid coincidence. How many times had I not had delusions?

The guys, Nash and Julian, maybe they were just strong… But Vivienna...

Back and forth.

And the eyes, that might as well have been the sun. But this huge creature with its threatening look, which had suddenly appeared where Emely had been standing before...

Back and forth.

I couldn’t keep telling myself that a wolf had simply appeared there. Maybe the professor was just crazy. What if that had been his dog, who also happened to be named Emely? It was possible that he had brought him to campus with him.

God, Bayla...that was no dog. That beast had been as big as a damn pony, and I hadn’t been dreaming.

I didn’t want to believe it, but what if all those myths about supernatural creatures were true? What if the wild wolves in the woods of Blairville weren’t wild wolves, but...?

No.

I shook my head hard as goosebumps spread all over my body.

Thump.

Panicked, I froze in my movement.

What had that been?

Fear rose up inside me. The very same fear that had helped me run from campus to Mum’s dodgy summer house, where I had been pacing my room, terrified, until just now. I had been trying hard to find an explanation for the recent events. Unsuccessfully.

Now, I was fully back in the present. That noise had definitely come from downstairs, and all I knew right now was that I was home alone.

I had locked the door behind me, which didn’t make it any better, and the fact that I had taken karate back then only gave me the barest hint of hope.

Creak.

Oh, no.

“No, no, no, no, no...” I whispered desperately, but then pressed my hand over my mouth, realizing how stupid that had just been.

If there was a list of potential serial killer victims somewhere, I was certainly on top of it.

Creak.

Shit.

Some wild wolf was running around the first floor, possibly trying to eat me, and here I was, typically me, standing in my new room, panicking, looking for a place to hide.