Page 30 of Mortal Blood
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Come on.”
We found Jax in the shifter common room, and I didn’t need shifter hearing to know the whispers flying around the room were about us. Jax met us at the door, his lips set into a hard expression that didn’t quite hide the worry lurking in his eyes.
“Is it true?” he asked, before either of us could get a word out.
“I don’t know,” Cole said. He glanced around the room at the shifters shooting looks in our direction. “We need to talk. But not here.”
Jax nodded, and the three of us slipped outside.
“Where are we going?” Jax asked. “Your dorm’s that way.”
“We’re not going to the dorms,” Cole said tightly. “We’reheading for the wall.”
“The wall?” I asked. “What’s wrong with the front gates?”
Cole pushed open the door to the grounds and we stepped into the open air, not breaking our stride.
“You’re under council orders not to leave the grounds. The gates are out.”
I twisted a quick look at Jax to see if he was going to object to breaking council orders, but he just nodded.
“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Cali found a hole in the academy’s wards,” he said, one half of his mouth curving briefly into a rueful grin.
“Hey!” I objected. “Who saidIwas the one who found it?”
“You were though, right?”
“Be glad that she did,” Cole cut across us. He was right; this wasn’t the time. There was no way of knowing what we’d find when we got to the pack. And who we wouldn’t…
“She’ll be okay,” Cole murmured, as a shiver wracked my whole body.
“It’s like you said,” I brushed off his well-meaning—but meaningless—assurances. “We don’t know anything yet.”
He only nodded at that, because we both knew my mom’s safety wasn’t something he could promise, not if Kallan had been telling the truth.If. I clung to that word, my single glimmer of hope that was holding back the panic.
“Someone ahead,” Jax grunted, tensing. Cole’s attention twisted forward and it took my eyes a second to pick out the figure in the falling dusk, lurking at the base of the wall—right where the hole was.
“Shit.” Cole paused. “We’ll need to—”
“It’s Ling,” I blurted.
Cole and Jax both snapped their heads round to stare at me.
“How can you be sure?”
I shrugged. “I just am. Can’t you tell from your wolfy senses or whatever?”
“At this distance, with no wind?” Jax shook his head.
“It’s her,” I insisted. “And we’re wasting time we don’t have.”
I started forward and heard the pair of them hurry a couple of steps to catch up and then fall into step beside me.
“Huh,” Jax said after a couple of dozen strides. “What do you know?”
I ignored the distinctly unflattering amount of surprise in his voice and lengthened my stride.
“Ling, what are you doing here?” I asked as we reached the wall.
