I unzipped it, and held it in front of Dastien. He carefully put the jars inside. “Wait. I should wrap them again.” I grabbed a couple of T-shirts, making sure that they were properly cushioned, and then zipped the pack.
My dream of the war on the quad was coming. My gut was telling me that particular nightmare was true, and I had to trust it.
“At midnight, the vampires will come. Then, the witches. And then the traitors from our own pack. We need to figure out who’s good and who’s bad. And we need to get ready. Luciana and Mr. Hoel don’t know that I saw what’s going to happen.” I wasn’t sure if Mr. Hoel was going to kill me tonight, but it was a strong possibility. Maybe if we were ready, I could avoid it. Maybe not. “Can we clear the cafeteria? I want to eat and I want to talk to you, but we can’t trust anyone. Not anyone outside this room. Not yet.”
Donovan nodded. “Don’t you worry, lass. We’ll keep you safe.”
I shrugged the backpack over my shoulders and started for the door. “That’s why I came home.”
The cafeteria was pretty much empty, but one growl from Donovan, and the place became completely empty.
“I’ll get you some food,” Dr. Gonzales said. “You sit.”
I nodded and made my way to our normal table. Dastien took the backpack from my shoulders. “I’ll take care of the jars,” he said as I looked back at him.
“Okay.” I trusted him more than I trusted myself at this point.
As I sat down, I sighed. It felt like I was getting a little piece of normal back.
Maybe everything wouldn’t be okay today or the next day, but we’d get there.
A tray appeared in front of me, and I stared eating and telling the story. Everyone stayed quiet at the table, except for a few laughs when I told them about my attempted witchery. Even I could admit that blowing a hole in the roof was pretty funny.
“So, that’s how I ended up here.” I’d gone through three trays of food while I was talking. Mr. Dawson sat straight and started to speak, but I held up a hand. “A few questions for you guys before anyone says or asks me anything.”
“Please,” Donovan said.
“I’m still feeling drained, even with the food I’ve eaten. I’m not around the gris-gris, but it’s still weakening me. I need that gone before tonight. Any ideas?” If I was going to beat Mr. Hoel, I was going to need all the strength I could get.
“Did you bring it with you?” Donovan asked.
“Yes. It’s in my messenger bag in the backseat of my car. Wrapped in a sock.”
“We’ll burn it. Best way to release whatever’s got a hold of you,” Donovan said. “As for the jars, I do believe setting the power free will bring it back to you. It takes a lot to pull it from you—as you saw. It’s contained for now in the jars, but once we break the seals, the power should be yours again. You’ll be right as rain.”
I stared at the table and swallowed. Dastien reached for my hand under the table. “I can barely hear Dastien and I can’t talk to him in my head anymore.”
“It’ll all come back. You’ll be whole again,” Mr. Dawson said.
“Will I?”
“We’ll make sure of it.”
“As one of the Seven, you need to figure out which wolves we can trust,” I said to Donovan.
“Sebastian has been working on it. It seems Rupert has a good number of wolves supporting him. About half.”
“That’s more than I’d thought,” I said. This didn’t bode well for tonight.
“I thought we fixed the problem wolves months ago,” Mr. Dawson said with a frown. “The ones who acted out with Rupert were punished, but now…it has to go deeper than we thought. Someone more powerful than him…”
“What about the humans?” Chris asked. “If there is a war, we’re going to need to alert them.”
“I think telling them now is a bad idea,” I said. “We’re going to have a battle. There are two outcomes, we win or we lose. If we win, then any that get away will lick their wounds before coming back. Luciana said some covens were with her, but I met a witch from Colorado who said her group was with us. Luciana could be full of it, but there will be some who will back her, even if we defeat her tonight. So, we win tonight. Then, we slowly out ourselves in a good light to the humans and prepare them for the dangers of the supernatural. Then, when the big war comes, we try to handle it as under the radar as possible. If we lose tonight, then it’s all moot. We won’t be around to worry about anything.”
