Tala Phoenix and the School of Secrets Read online

  Tala Phoenix and the School of Secrets

  Gabby Fawkes

  Dragonfire Press

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  1

  Oh hell no.

  But that clop-clop-clop was unmistakable. Someone was coming this way.

  I scurried through a door I was 99% sure wasn’t usually open. Damn my crap timing!

  If I’d just gone at the same time as the others instead of heading out late so I could go to the bathroom…

  No time – now I was in a hallway I’d definitely never been in before. It was filled with nice big windows, for one thing, and actually smelled like it was being kept up well for another (Mr. Clean for the win).

  Clop-clop-clop.

  Screw me – whoever it was was only a few paces away. Even if the lights were off, where the hell was I supposed to go?

  My gaze clicked around, settling on… an unremarkable door. Trying it got me nothing but a jamming noise that seemed horrifically loud.

  The second door I tried gave way. I quickly went in, eased it shut and edged to the side. Now, I still had a view out of the rectangular door window, but wasn’t directly in it.

  The clop-clop-clop of my pursuer followed me.

  I edged farther away, my back pressing into and moving something as I did.

  Yep, you could just kill me now.

  I was going to be caught. Thrown into the Room. The ones kids came back sputter-worded and staring from– if they even came back at all.

  Admin might even offer me a deal if I told them. The what and who of my after-hours school walk. They were smoking crack if they thought I’d actually hand over my friends, though. Not for the longest stay in the Room would I do that.

  The clops were even closer now, almost at the door. My heart was flapping against my chest so loud they had to hear it.

  But next thing I knew, the clop-clop-clops were passing by, then growing fainter.

  I peered out the door window to see a darkened shape returning to the dark.

  Thank John. The breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding in burst free, while my heart fell about ten stories at once. I leaned forward again, peering out the window, then paused.

  What was that?

  Static. Coming from… Turning around, I saw it. So this was where they stowed the forbidden box TVs (or Corruptors of Impressionable Youth, as Kian called them).

  Apparently, I’d accidentally turned the thing on, because now the screen was showing a news story about a wildfire. I squinted as the camera panned over the scene.

  Hold up - that was no wildfire.

  Amidst the flaming trees were twenty or so creatures… dragons.

  An impressed “ooh” slipped out of my lips. If only the others were here – those special effects actually made this look like a decent movie. Usually, us older kids weren’t allowed to watch TV or movies. Maybe some outdated history doc for Miss Jane’s class, if we were lucky.

  My finger went to the button to turn it off, then paused.

  “Stupid,” I scolded myself.

  Whoever had been following me could be back any minute.

  And yet, my finger shifted to the channel button, pressed it. There was something weird about that movie…

  A few channels up, I saw what it was.

  It wasn’t a movie at all. On this different channel– Fox news instead of Star, there was the wildfire story once again. This one was showing different camera views of the blaze and its massive dragon corpses, had a different smile-plastered camerawoman parroting the same story – wildfires.

  I drew closer. My eyes had always been 22/20 as far as I knew, but still.

  My thoughts were grasping at something, some impression I wouldn’t let land. If I’d just seen two news stories with freaking dead dragons in the middle of a blazing forest fire, didn’t that mean –

  How about no.

  I flicked the channel again, my thumb jabbing hard on the button now. MSNBC had their own newscaster with a legit-looking toupee, who beamed as he spouted more ‘this terrible wildfire’ nonsense. CNN was down on the scene, with a frazzle-haired newscaster who looked like she hated her life, but when the camera panned, there it was – dragons.

  What the actual freaking crap.

  My gaze bored into the TV, willing the image to change, the dragons to disappear. But they didn’t.

  I whacked the TV. Still dragons. I squinted – dragons. Rubbed my eyes – dragons. Closed my eyes, reopened them, flicked the channels some more – dragons, dragons and more dragons – at least on practically every station that was showing the news.

  A whish of movement sounded behind me. I whirled around to see something white slanting across the floor.

  That was it – I slammed my finger into the TV’s power button, threw a final glance out the door’s window, and booked it the hell out of there.

  It was just one of Her cats, I reminded myself. The white one, Ghost. And yet, my frenetic heartbeat couldn’t seem to get the memo.

  Right now, I had a bigger problem anyway. One of the clop-clop-clop variety. Yep, somehow my pursuer was back – at the opposite end of the hallway now.

  As I raced ahead, I inwardly groaned.

  This hallway’s nice big windows were throwing nice big patches of illumination on the floor. Illumination which would light me up like a here-I-am Christmas tree if I ran into them. Even if my pursuer wasn’t yet visible in the hallway’s gloom, I still didn’t have much time.

  I hurried from shadow to shadow, the squares of illumination like sentries as the clop-clops followed me, steady, sure, inescapable.

  Shit, shitola, shitake… shit!

  As the clops grew louder, I twisted my head back. It was lighter here, and now a shape was starting to materialize in the gloom. Which meant I had about two and a half seconds to get the hell out of here or get caught.

  I threw myself behind the first thing I saw: the water fountain.

  Bless the outdated bulky metal box!

  There, with my arms around my legs, my labored breathing into my thighs, I waited.

  Stupidest thing of all was that, despite the fact that I was as screwed as the kid who dives under the table for hide and seek, I still had hope. The clops were advancing and my hiding spot was laughably poor at best. All my pursuer had to do was look to their left and down and…

  ‘Ago, agis, agit,’ I chanted in my head. The verb conjugations kept my breath from coming out in giveaway gasps. As much as I hated the class itself, Latin made me focus. And right now, I needed to not focus on the fact that I was about to get caught sneaking out after hours, with no viable excuse whatsoever. Although a scrap of paper would’ve been best – nothing like crumpling and tearing up paper to ease addled nerves. I
nstead, all I had to stare at was the giveaway white of my wristband and the metallic sheen of the water fountain I was crouched beside.

  Hang on – where had the clops gone? I listened to be sure.

  Absolute silence.

  A look to my left had my heart-stopping answer.

  Oh, hell no.

  Right there were a pair of stockinged legs.

  2

  Not just any legs, though. With their blush-colored ribbon-trimmed stockings, they had to be Hers, the Headmistress’.

  But they couldn’t be. As far as I knew, she’d virtually never been seen outside of her office. No one knew why, although all you had to do was talk to her once to see that she wasn’t in her job from an overflowing love for children.

  Stale old rose smell wafted over me as the water fountain rumbled. Yep – that was her, all right. Drinking water from the very fountain that was the only thing keeping me from being caught. For now.

  Shit – no, ago, agis, agit… she was backing away, pausing again.

  From my spot, I could just make out her head roving like an owl, eyes behind her spectacles unblinking.

  Cue: heart attack.

  The Headmistress continued on. I wasn’t out of deep water yet, though.

  Little feet pattered along the tile floor. I stayed stock-still.

  Not the damn cat…

  But the tabby face that turned my way wasn’t any cat – it was Cog. He cocked his head at me, but kept on trotting towards his master.

  Lucky for me it was the nice cat. I made a mental note to sneak him some tuna next time he was by the dorms.

  Soon they were both out of sight, even out of hearing range. Which meant it was get-the-hell-out-of-here time.

  I sprinted as fast and quietly as I could back the way I’d come, then on to the way I’d been going.

  When confronted by the pitch black of the staircase, my first thought –as certain as the slamming down of a judge’s mallet – was, I can’t do this. But then I muttered “dum spiro spero” to myself and raced up the stairs – straight into something.

  “What the hell?” the something said.

  “Kian?” I said, staggering a few paces but keeping my balance.

  In the dark, her black-clad, rail-thin form was half visible. In her hoodie’s shadow, the oval of her tan-skinned face looked like a trick of the light.

  Although I still couldn’t see my other friends, I’d bet Demi’s pale full-cheeked face was creased with concern, while Jeremy’s Bob Dylan hair was all over the place, his pinecone-colored eyes bugging out slightly. An intensified version of how my flyaway blond hair and WTF-just-happened hazel eyes probably looked right now.

  “What the hell, Tala?” Kian said.

  “Trying to meet you guys, obviously.”

  “When, in 2020?” she demanded. Even though it was too dark to see, I could just tell she had her hand on her hip.

  “Nah, too early for me,” I said.

  The sound of Demi and Jeremy cracking up calmed me somewhat, before I remembered.

  “Listen, I almost got caught – had to duck down this hallway I’d never seen before. But I saw this TV with these….”

  I trailed off. It sounded insane in my head, and I’d seen the damn dragons myself. How was it going to sound to my friends?

  More than that, how was I going to explain it to them?

  I took a breath. That was the thing – I couldn't explain it to them. I just needed them to see it.

  Because right now, it did sound insane. I needed my friends to see what I had. Not just to explain it to them, but to prove I wasn't crazy.

  “Just come with me,” I said, grabbing where I was pretty sure Kian’s arm was.

  “You lost it?” she said, ripping it away. “You almost got caught and you want us to go that way?”

  “There’s something you guys have to see,” I insisted.

  “Not tonight we don’t.” Kian’s voice had a distinct that’s-that tone about it as she continued down the winding staircase. “If there’s teachers roving about, I’m taking the long way back to our room.”

  A morose silence, then Jeremy’s alto, more halting than usual. “Do we have to?”

  “There’s always the Room instead,” Kian said sweetly.

  Demi glanced to me, and I shrugged. “She’s probably right. Going the other way is too risky. Let’s go the long way.”

  Even as I said it, my heart sank. The long way involved feeling along the walls in even worse pitch-pitch-blackness than this, and hoping to God that whatever rando not-wall thing you felt was just dirt or grime instead of some displeased spider.

  As we set off, I told them what I hadn’t had time to before. “I almost got caught by She Who Does Not Want to Be Named.”

  They all cracked up at that, before I shushed them. As funny as our fav name for our Headmistress was – and apt, seeing as no one knew her first or last name or would tell us it – this was way more serious.

  “But it wasn’t actually the Headmistress,” Demi said, sounding nervous now. “Right?”

  “It was,” I said. “I don’t know what she was doing, but she almost caught me.”

  We fell silent after that. I was still trying to get my head around what I’d seen.

  Maybe I did just need an extra dose of meds. This was a school for mentally ill orphans, after all. Even if our psychologist was always vague on the specifics – whether we had your garden-variety depression or anxiety, or the more fun crazy-makers like schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder.

  At the place where the dormitory separated into male and female sections, we bid each other a quick goodbye– “see you tomorrow” – “don’t go crazy overnight, will ya?” Only once we were back in our room did Demi, Kian and I dare talk in our normal voices.

  “Damn.” Kian looked me up and down, her Hot Tutu lips curved into an impressed smirk. “You look like she really did catch you.”

  I could only smile weakly.

  Had Kian applied her fav lipstick before leaving or while they we waiting for me? Not that it mattered. My thoughts were disjointed, pointless. Probably some kind of defense mechanism so I wouldn’t think about what I’d seen.

  Ahem – what I’d thought I’d seen. What I was 99% sure I saw, and – what there was no way I could’ve.

  In one fluid motion, Demi smoothed down her waist-length light brown curls and squeezed my hand supportively. “Close call, but we did it.”

  A second later, something chocolatey-smelling was shoved in my face.

  “Go on,” Kian said. She whipped a wavy mocha strand out of her face with an annoyed head whish.

  I eyed the proffered mint aero square uncertainly. “I don’t know…”

  “I do.” She deposited it in my hand and went over to her closet to change. “You almost got caught. You take it.”

  “But we only get one once a year after –”

  “Founder’s Assembly, obviously. Anyway, maybe now that frigging rat will leave my stuff alone.”

  “He’s a mouse,” Demi piped up. Her mauve rosebud lips were set in a firm expression. “And his name is Maurice.”

  Alt-J band T-shirt halfway on, Kian turned to fix Demi with the most disdainful of glares. “Do not speak to me of that adopted menace of Jeremy’s. One of these times I’m going to step on it, I swear.”

  At the horrified sound coming out of Demi, Kian sighed. “Not on purpose.”

  I sat on my bed, letting the mint-chocolate bliss hit my taste buds. Everything else – me being almost caught, what I thought I’d seen – but couldn’t have –pleasantly receded.

  “Want to go to the hidden hallway tomorrow?” I said before I could think better of it. So much for the chocolate being a break from tonight’s craziness.

  My stomach did a little backflip as the nerves got to me. I forced my expression into what I hoped was a poker face.

  I didn’t need my friends to call me out. I knew I was asking a lot already. After all, I'd nearly been caught
tonight. How could I ask my friends to take that kind of risk, especially with the possibility of being locked up in the Room as punishment?

  A shiver creeped up my spine. I didn't know what happened in there – and I didn't want to. All I knew was that kids went in, and their bodies came out. But not their minds.

  "Maybe," Kian said, while Demi's face went grave.

  Think of something.

  “Okay, this wouldn’t be just for the adventure,” I admitted to them. “Not like our usual after-hours roof chills.”

  We all knew those were just us having fun. Breaking the rules – our only way of showing that we still had free will, anything to call our own in this horrible place.

  “Okay...” Kian said, raising a brow which said, Elaborate…

  But I didn’t know how. Not without telling them about what I’d seen on that TV. What they wouldn’t understand or believe until they’d seen it themselves.

  Sure, the whole seeing-dragons-in-the-wildfire thing was probably just a terror-induced hallucination. But I had to know for sure. Even if it turned out it was just my meds not working how they were supposed to.

  You don't believe that.

  That was true. I didn't think I was crazy. But right now, that belief was being tested hardcore. And the only way to find out was to convince my friends to come with me tomorrow.

  “All this to show us some TV that you won’t even tell us what’s on it?” Kian said.

  “It’s better if I show you,” I said. “It’s too hard to explain.”

  “If we got caught…” Demi said.

  “If we got caught sneaking out after hours at all it’d be a Room sentence, for sure,” I pointed out.