“See, I’m—”
Alex stopped dead.
… Because Skyla was gone.
ind a way
Nine
Alex whipped her head around, frantically searching the moonlit clearing. She was in exactly the same place, mushroom circle included. Nothing had changed, and yet, everything had changed. Because the clay statue was now missing. And so was Skyla.
“This is like a scene straight out of The Twilight Zone,” Alex murmured, her body tense with anxiety. “What am I supposed to do now?”
A whisper in the wind answered her: a musical voice, poetic and lilting.
“Enter in, if you dare,
As one who seeks out Meya;
Be strong of mind and pure of heart,
For your journey begins at Raelia.”
“Cryptic, much?” Alex whispered, more than a little creeped out.
“Cryptic is as cryptic does,” replied the same whimsical voice.
“Are you going to show yourself? Or maybe tell me who you are?” Alex said, squinting into the shadows but seeing no one.
“I would ask the same of you,” the voice said, “but I already know who you are, so there is no need.”
Alex was muddling over that when a figure appeared directly in front of her, startling her so much that she stumbled backwards.
“Lady Mystique!” Alex cried, trying to regain her balance.
“Hello again, child,” the old woman said. “You’ve come a long way since last we met.”
“What are you doing here?” Alex asked, her eyes wide with incredulity. Their last encounter had been at Ye Olde Bookshoppe in Woodhaven—a shop that didn’t actually exist, as Alex had since discovered.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” Lady Mystique indicated to the basket she carried. “I’m picking mushrooms. Raelian mushies are the best you’ll find anywhere.”
Alex gaped at the woman, too surprised for words.
“But I’m more curious about why you are here,” the woman said.
“I’m not here intentionally. I just ended up here.”
“Did you not step into the circle?” Lady Mystique asked.
“Well, yes—”
“Then you are here intentionally.”
Alex didn’t bother arguing the point. “I don’t suppose you’d mind telling me where ‘here’ is, exactly?”
“Look around you, what do you see?”
Humouring her, Alex answered, “A forest clearing inside a mushroom circle.”
“Look closer.”
Alex frowned but did as she was told. As she focused on her surroundings, the moonlight strengthened, illuminating the area. Where the clearing met the trees—just beyond the mushroom ring—Alex could see multiple pathways leading out into the forest. They were all around the edge of the clearing, at least eight different trails, none of which she had noticed before.
“What is this place?” she whispered, feeling a sense of awe.
“This is Raelia,” Lady Mystique answered. “In the common tongue, it translates to mean ‘The Crossroads’. It’s a sacred place. A place of direction, of destiny. Look around and see your choices; which path do you take? Do you go left or right, forward or back? But don’t be fooled, for it’s much more than a geographical crossroad. Raelia represents opportunity. It yields to the desires of one’s heart. It offers temptation, sacrifice, hope and victory. The choice of direction lies with each individual who sets foot within its boundary.”
After a pause, Alex admitted, “I’m not sure I understand.”
“You will, Alexandra. You will.”
“And that I definitely don’t understand.”
Lady Mystique wheezed out a husky-sounding laugh.
“Why does everything have to be so confusing?” Alex asked, rubbing her forehead.
“Oh, sweet child,” the old woman said, patting Alex’s shoulder. “When the time comes, you’ll have the answers you need.”
“I can’t wait,” Alex said, somewhat sarcastically.
The Lady sent her a wrinkled smile. “It’s time for you to return to your friend.”
“Hang on a second,” Alex said. “When I first arrived here you said something about Meya. Any chance you want to elaborate?”
“Goodbye, Alexandra,” Lady Mystique said, with a twinkle in her eye. “It was lovely seeing you again.”
“Wait—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the Lady reached out and pressed an object into Alex’s hands. Then a gust of wind enveloped her body, the ethereal light dimmed and Alex found herself standing outside the mushroom circle.
“Huh, I guess you were right.”
Alex spun around to find Skyla perched against the tree, right where she’d left her.
“Right about what?” Alex asked, trying to make sense of the last few minutes. Peering around, she could no longer see any evidence of the different paths that led out of the clearing. Apparently she wasn’t in Raelia anymore, but back in the Ezera Forest.
“You were right about nothing happening,” Skyla answered.
“Nothing happened?” Alex repeated, turning to give her full attention to the girl.
Skyla sent her a questioning look. “Nothing. You just picked up the statue and came back.”
“Statue?” Alex asked dumbly. She then noticed the weight in her hand and realised Lady Mystique had given her the clay figurine.
“Are you feeling all right?” Skyla asked. “You’re looking stranger than normal.”
“Yeah, I’m—I’m fine,” Alex said, shaking her head to clear it. “Let’s just get out of here
“Wait, I want to try something,” Skyla said. “I need to conquer my fear, now I know I’ll be okay.”
Alex didn’t understand. “What are you talking about?”
Before she could say or do anything, Skyla limped three steps forward and entered the circle.
“No!”
“What?” Skyla shrieked, looking around her. “What is it?”
Alex stared at the other girl in surprise. “You can still see me?”
Skyla frowned at her. “Why are you acting so weird? Oh, never mind, just come and help me out of here, will you?”
Alex hesitantly stepped into the circle once again. But this time nothing happened. No wind, no change of scenery, nothing.
So, what was that about? Alex wondered, helping Skyla hobble back through the forest.
“Can I see the statue?” Skyla asked.
“Sure,” Alex said absentmindedly, distracted by her thoughts.
She handed the clay figurine over, and the moment they both physically connected with it, colourful light exploded around them and they were whisked through the air, abruptly jerking to a halt a second later.
“Just in time, ladies.”
Alex jumped at Hunter’s voice, throwing Skyla off balance and causing both of them to fall unceremoniously to the ground.
“Great entrance,” Jordan joked, reaching a hand out to Alex while Tom moved to help Skyla.
“Thanks,” Alex said, as he pulled her to her feet. “What just happened?”
“Pre-programmed Bubbledoor,” he told her. “Once you retrieved whatever object Hunter sent you to find and the both of you held on, it activated. Didn’t your note warn you?”
“Uh, no,” Alex said, rubbing her bruised behind. “Definitely no warning.”
“All right, class,” Hunter called out. “Now that you’re all back—some in better condition than others—let’s see how well you fared.”
He asked them to step forward and hand over their strange assortment of objects. Kaiden and Jordan produced a bulky backpack, Tom and Pipsqueak held out a large canvas painting, and Declan and Blink passed over what appeared to be a live animal—something very similar to a squirrel. Alex decided she was better off not knowing how they caught it, let alone how it had activated a Bubbledoor. Some things were best left a mystery.
When Hunter held his hand out to Alex and Skyla, Alex
passed him the statue.
Hunter peered at it closely, as did Alex, since she hadn’t looked at it properly yet. It was a small figurine of a mushroom. An appropriate choice, considering.
“What’s this?” Hunter asked.
Alex felt her brows draw together. “It’s the figurine of clay. The one we had to retrieve.”
He glanced from the mushroom to Alex, looking at her closely.
“Right,” he said, drawing the word out before turning to speak to everyone again. “We’re finished for the evening. If you need to see Fletcher, make sure to visit the Med Ward before curfew. We’ll meet again on Thursday night.”
They started to leave as a group after Hunter’s dismissal, at least until he called out, “Alex, a word?”
“I’ll wait for you at the edge of the forest,” Jordan offered, and she sent him a grateful smile.
Once everyone had left, Hunter asked, “Do you still have the note I gave you?”
“Sure.” She reached into her pocket and handed over the instructions.
His eyes flicked over the words and then he looked up at her, gesturing to the mushroom figurine. “Do you want to explain this?”
Feeling confused, Alex said, “What do you mean?”
“And how did you get back here without the picnic basket?”
She blinked stupidly. “Picnic basket?”
Hunter made an impatient sound. “Read the note again, Alex.”
She took it from him and did as ordered. The handwriting was the same as earlier… but the words were different.
Follow the arrows and retrieve the picnic basket.
Beware of traps.
The Bubbledoor will bring you back.
“It didn’t say this before,” Alex whispered, reading the note again. “And I didn’t see any arrows.”
“What did it say when you first read it?” Hunter asked.
Alex recited what she could remember of the poem and told Hunter about where it had led her and Skyla. She didn’t mention Raelia, though. The story was already odd enough without the supernatural element. And while she knew the people of Medora were no strangers to mysterious happenings, she wasn’t quite ready to own up to what she’d experienced with Lady Mystique. Not out loud. Not yet. She’d talk about it later with her friends, but not in the middle of the eerie forest with her intimidatingly perceptive teacher. Instead, she simply told him about the mushroom circle in the clearing and how the statue had brought them back.
“Interesting,” Hunter said when she was done. “Are you sure there’s nothing else you want to tell me? Like how an unauthorised Bubbledoor transported you back here?”
Alex swallowed and looked away from his piercing eyes. She had no idea, but if she had to guess, her finger would point straight to Lady Mystique.
Silence descended upon them until Hunter finally exhaled, “All right, we’ll leave it at that. You can go now.”
She nodded and made to escape his intimidating presence, but he called her name again just before she was out of earshot, so she paused and turned back to him in question.
“You did well, tonight,” he said. “The traps you avoided after the picnic basket weren’t intended for you and Skyla, and I’m impressed you noticed them. I know you don’t want to be in this class, but you’ll eventually realise you belong here.”
Before she could argue otherwise, he turned around with a swirl of his cape and disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
“He really didn’t give you the note?” Jordan asked later that night in the Rec Room, after Bear and D.C. had been given the rundown of their class.
“Apparently not,” Alex said, She grabbed another chocolate bar from the pile, in desperate need of comfort food.
“I can’t believe your crazy Lady Mystique has returned,” Bear said. “And that, once again, you were the only person to see her.”
“I know,” Alex agreed. “I have no idea what she was doing there, but I doubt it was mushroom picking. The entire thing was so surreal.”
Jordan’s night, by comparison, had been much more normal. He and Kaiden had followed the directions on their note telling them to search for a backpack hidden up a tree. Together they had avoided all of Hunter’s traps and easily made it back within the ninety-minute window.
“I’m more curious about this Raelia place,” D.C. said. “It sounds… mysterious. Meaningful. Important.”
Alex looked over at her friend and noted the expression on her face. “You look worried, Dix. What’s up?”
D.C. shook her head. “Nothing. Just thinking.”
Alex opened her mouth to ask her more, but Jordan jumped in first.
“So, what happens next?” he asked.
Alex licked melted chocolate from her fingers. “I have no idea. Lady Mystique mentioned something about Meya, but she wouldn’t say any more when I asked her to clarify. And then she talked about Raelia being a crossroad and said I’d know what that means when the time comes.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” D.C. said quietly, looking down at her hands.
“Yeah,” Bear agreed. “Let’s face it, Lady Mystique has a habit of throwing you in the deep end.”
Alex groaned. “Can we talk about something else? Something… normal?”
It turned out that ‘normal’ took more energy than any of them had left after their full day of classes, so they didn’t hang out for much longer before returning to their rooms.
Once they were alone in their dorm, Alex asked D.C. if everything was okay.
“Sure,” D.C. said. “I just haven’t been sleeping well lately.”
Alex understood what her friend was talking about. Being back at the academy and surrounded by people—not to mention the added strain of their exhausting classes—definitely disrupted their sleeping habits. It would probably take them all a few weeks until they were back in a working routine and feeling properly rested again.
“Come on,” Alex said, turning out the light. “Time for sleep, then.”
The next few weeks flew by as Alex got used to her new schedule and ignored the urge to do something more proactive about Aven and Meya. She finally began to settle back into academy life, immersing herself in her subjects—the old and the new. Just like last year, Combat and PE continued to be the most challenging classes for her, but now she could add Stealth and Subterfuge to that list.
It turned out their first SAS class had been an easy introduction, because every class since then had left Alex bloodied and bruised from her attempts at being stealthy in various circumstances. Hunter had also begun teaching them to recognise—and practise—subterfuge in different real life training scenarios, both in and out of his class. By far, Alex’s least favourite assignment was when she’d been tasked to break into Professor Marmaduke’s sleeping quarters to retrieve a personal item as proof of her intrusion. She had to execute it so that she was present when the Core Skills professor discovered the theft, and Alex then had to find a way to sneak the item back to the room while convincing the woman that she must have imagined the entire thing.
Miraculously, Alex had actually succeeded in her mission. It helped that her willpower gift prohibited Marmaduke from reading her mind. Without it, Alex never would have pulled off the deceit.
She’d been taking SAS classes for four weeks now and still didn’t want to be an active participant. But she’d finally come to accept her position, sometimes even enjoying what she learned from the surprisingly patient instructor. Despite his downright scary demeanour, Alex couldn’t help but respect Hunter—not that she’d ever admit that out loud.
“What do you think, Miss Jennings?”
“Sorry?” Alex said, snapping back to the present. She was in her SOSAC class, with Professor Caspar Lennox staring down at her from his formidable height.
“I asked for your opinion,” the teacher repeated, his melodious voice washing over her.
Alex had been so deep in thought that she had no idea what he’d been talking about, let
alone how she should respond.
“I… uh…” She cleared her throat, trying to stall. Then she reached up and ran her fingers through her hair. “Um…”
“What’s that?” questioned Caspar Lennox, his eyes focused on the hand still tangled in her hair.
Alex lowered her arm and looked at her fingers carefully but couldn’t see anything unusual. “What’s what?”
Caspar Lennox pointed to her middle finger. “Where did you get that?”
Alex curled her other hand protectively around the ring Bear’s brother had given her. “It was a gift.”
“A gift?” the teacher asked, his scepticism clear.
“Yes,” Alex repeated firmly. “A gift.”
“Do you know what it does?”
“I know what it is,” Alex told him, aware of her classmates’ growing interest in their conversation. “But I’m not sure how it does what it… does.”
The Shadow Walker stared at her intently. “See me after class, Miss Jennings.”
Alex didn’t know what to make of his request, but she was relieved when he moved away to continue the lesson.
The minutes ticked down and when the gong finally sounded, telling them their classes were over for the day, Alex waved her curious friends off and remained behind, waiting for the professor to speak.
“How have you come to possess a Shadow Ring, Miss Jennings?”
“I told you,” she said. “It was a gift from a friend.”
“And yet, you don’t know how to use it?”
“I didn’t exactly ask,” Alex admitted.
Caspar Lennox held out a mottled-grey hand. “May I see it?”
Alex hesitantly slid the ring off her finger and passed it to him.
The professor peered closely at it while turning it over in his hands, almost like he was looking—or feeling—for something.
“This is a unique piece,” he said. “Can I assume you received it from Blake Ronnigan?”
Wondering how he could have known that, Alex nodded in confirmation.
“I’ve always considered Blake to be a highly perceptive young man. He was wise, I believe, to give this to you,” Caspar Lennox murmured, still looking at the ring. “Especially given your… unique circumstances.”