Page 19 of The Stone Curse
The coldest it had ever been. She’d never had to siphon so much energy from a room before. My skin crawled with the wrongness of it all.
A low moan filled the room, the sound so mournful and unearthly that goosebumps rippled up my arm and cold fingers of foreboding tightened around my nape.
The air by the window rippled, and a form manifested—gray and wraith-like with a long pale face and dark pits for eyes. Its mouth yawned wide, head canting to one side. I got the impression of long dark hair rippling around its head, but it was too spectral and ethereal for me to make out.
“That’sMelanie?” Curi asked.
“I think so, but it doesn’t look like her. Melanie…” I stood slowly and took a step toward her, but Curi grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t. This feels wrong.”
He was right. The energy she exuded was dark and hungry. The kind of hunger that takes with impunity. But I had to try. “Melanie, is that you?”
The specter moaned and reached for me. It had to be her, right? I drew the vial containing the tincture from my pocket. This could help her. Could bring back her memories, but would it work if she was this far gone?
What if I wasted it?
A wave of dizziness had me reeling. I staggered against Curi, who grabbed hold of my shoulders to steady me. “Whoa…”
“Cam, I don’t feel too good,” he said.
It was Melanie. She was drawing from us, too much too fast.
My knees felt watery “Get to the door…” My voice came out slurred. “Curi…”
I buckled, and the specter rushed me, maw yawning wide, but Curi snagged me around the waist and hauled me out of the room and into the corridor. He slammed the door and stood with his back against the wall, my body cradled to his chest.
“What the fuck just happened?” he asked. “It looked like she wanted to eat you.”
Yes. That’s exactly what she’d looked like. “Ghosts don’t eat people, but spirit ghouls do.”
“What’s a spirit ghoul?”
“A ghost that exists solely to feed on the energy of the living.” I slowly lifted my head, and my nose grazed his jaw. “Curi, I’m afraid that Melanie may be too far gone for us to save.”
CHAPTER 7
Another caramel latte and two cinnamon buns later, I was beginning to feel almost normal.
“You can’t go back to that room,” Curi said. “Fuck, if I hadn’t come with you today…”
I’d been thinking the same thing. “Something did that to her, Curi. We’ve got to help her.”
“She tried to drain your life force, Cam. I think she’s beyond help.”
If Curi hadn’t been there to drag me from the room, who knows how much damage Melanie could have done? She could have killed me.
“You’re still too pale,” Curi said. “I don’t think you should train today.”
“I’ll be fine. Missing training is not an option.”
“Then eat one more of these.” Curi placed another bun on my plate. “I’ll get us refills on our drinks.”
He headed back to the counter, leaving me at our table for two by the window. I bit into the bun and chewed, trying to pinpoint what was bothering me about my encounter with Melanie, and then it hit me. Derek hadn’t materialized. He always materialized if I felt threatened, and Melanie hadn’tevoked that fear, that threat, because there’d been something in the depths of her dark eyes—a plea, a desperation—that had nothing to do with hunger or malice.
I wrapped the rest of the bun in a napkin and hurried to join Curi at the counter. “Curi, get those drinks to go. We need to see Yarrow.”
The academy was wakingup as we headed to the main building. With the elite trials around the corner, we’d been excused from other classes, our only goal to train for the trials. Any later and we might have risked catching Yarrow in class, but this early, he’d probably still be in the tutor wing.
