Once I’m safely inside the library, I don’t bother to use one of their computers but pull out my tablet. There aren’t any records anywhere of the floorplan of the prison, which doesn’t surprise me, but that information would have been vital. Invaluable. The chances of there being an escape route might be small, but I would love to know the lay of the land before I go busting into the place.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can learn at all. It’s a bit unsettling to discover that no one has ever been able to escape from Magical Prison. Between the guards and the magic-dampening cuffs, there’s no way the prisoners can even think about it. There might be surveillance cameras too. We adopt a lot of human technology and twist it for our purposes. Just look at the internet. We didn’t invent it, but we took it and made our own version.
Great. Now what? The library is going to close in a few minutes. I haven't learned much, and I'm starving and tired. Worse, I have no place to go, no bed to sleep in. I have some fairy friends—none of whom had been in attendance of that makeshift mob—but I can't return so quickly. In an ideal world, I would return with my sister, but I have a feeling the world is far from ideal, and that won't be able to happen.
Honestly, I don’t spend a lot of time away from Roseshield Grove, so I don’t have many non-fairy friends. Who can I turn to?
Nature. Always nature.
There’s a nearby forest, one I’ve walked through before. Sophie and I used to play there a lot when Mom and Dad had been off on their missions. Now that I think of it, I don’t think I’ve returned since their death. I brush that troubling thought aside and walk to the forest, looking over my shoulder every minute or so, but I see and hear no sign of being followed.
This forest houses several paranormal creatures, but maybe they sense the growing darkness that is my life because I hardly see any creatures, not even ordinary bugs or wildlife. I am stomping a bit, my feet falling hard against the ground. With my clothes, I also opted for boots. I knew I needed to blend in, and humans never seem to walk bare feet. I don’t care for shoes or sneakers or boots or sandals. None of them. I’d rather feel nature beneath my feet, but then, humans tend to walk on sidewalks and their tiled floors. You can’t draw energy from them, so I suppose the shoes make more sense for them.
At a clearing, I sit on a tree stump and close my eyes. I try to clear my mind, and that’s when it hits me.
A vision.
Jaidos.
The dragon shifter is in his office. He looks much the same as he had in my first vision. Only his different attire—he’s wearing a red shirt with a black tie this time instead of the inverse previous—reveals that this is another day. Before the previous vision? After? I can’t yet say.
He’s alone, and he’s working on his tablet. This time, I am able to see what he’s working on. He’s typing up notes.
Wesley Marsh
Viola Barella
Austin O’Higgins
Chang Yu
Edmund Franke
The names mean nothing to me, but he isn’t done. Writing yet.
Wesley has a habit of stealing from others, mostly pickpocketing and even grabbing purses and running for his life. He might not have the means to protect his family from starvation, but to be a thief is unforgivable.
I grimace. I disagree. Well, to some extent. If a man is that desperate and can't get a job and his family is hungry, who can blame him for being desperate enough to steal? Yes, stealing is wrong, but dying because of a lack of money and funds is far worse.
Viola has been known to set fires. She hasn’t killed anyone yet, but the insurance money alone is far more than she deserves. Insurance fraud and arson are serious crimes, and she must be taken down accordingly.
It's harder for me to disagree on this one. To set fires to gain insurance? I'm not entirely certain what insurance is, but he mentioned insurance money. Does that mean she set fires to her own houses or buildings to collect money? She's another kind of thief then, a more dangerous one if she's willing to set fires to collect the money. My stomach twists into knots. This is some kind of list of people he wants… Hunted? Slayed? I'm not quite sure yet.
Austin is a drug dealer. He has made a rather enormous pile of money for himself, and he has ruined the lives of so many as a result. He has devastated families, pitted brother against brother, and far worse. He is rather high-profiled, so he will be missed.
I blink a few times. A drug dealer? That doesn’t sound like anything I want to be involved with. For that matter, I don’t want to be involved with a man like this Austin guy either.
Chang has a band of men who will do anything she demands of them. She uses her influence to create fake currency. Many times, that currency changes hands several times before it is eventually detected, and someone innocent is held accountable for her crimes. Chances are high that she will move onto other forms of fraud if given the opportunity.
My stomach churns. These people are making terrible choices. There’s no doubt about that, but what does Jaidos have planned for them?
Edmund is addicted to cocaine. He will do anything to get his hands on it, and he is in danger of becoming a drug dealer like Austin. Edmund’s family has disowned him, and his girlfriend has left him. He has tried two stints at rehab, but neither worked. I have my doubts that he can be changed.
I narrow my eyes. Jaidos is judging these people for their worst acts. If people did the same to me, I could be slain or executed. People shouldn't be punished without all of the facts. Who knows what drives them? I don't know much at all about drugs, but it seems as if they must be powerful. Jaidos even wrote that this cocaine, which I assume is a drug, is addictive.
As far as I know, there aren’t any paranormal creatures that worry about drugs or counterfeiting money or any of the rest.
These names, all of them, belong to humans.
He’s making a list of people to be hunted. At least, that’s what I assume.
Jaidos flares his nostrils, the holes turning to slits for a moment, just as his dragon would have. He taps a finger against his lip.
“What to do, what to do,” he murmurs.
Then, he deletes the notes about Austin, erasing him entirely.
“We can’t move against someone who is so high-profiled,” he says in that same low tone. “The same goes for you, Chang. Who knows what your men would resort to if you were captured.”
Captured? What does he mean?
“Although…” Jaidos hesitates. He hasn’t deleted Chang just yet, his finger a button away. “A bit of chaos wouldn’t be remiss. You humans tend toward anarchy as it is. It might be fun to see what nest we can stir up if Chang is hunted.”
He scrolls up, and his gaze goes left to right as he rereads his notes.
With a nod, he hits send and then sits back with a smug smile of satisfaction on his face. At that moment, he looks more like a cat shifter who just swallowed a little birdie.
“Yes, those four will do quite nicely, quite nicely. Everything is falling into place. In order to better control the humans, we need to know how they act, how they respond, what they can defend against, what they can handle… How to kill them if need be.”
My jaw would drop if I could. Why is he risking saying all of this out loud? It screams false, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a fake vision before.
Those four people, those four humans, were they hunted? Did Jaidos have his way? Did he… What did he do to them?
Just then, Master Vanhylde enters. She doesn’t even bother knocking.
“Headmaster Jaidos.” She nods, her lips flattened in a perturbed thin line.
“Master Vanhylde, what is it you need?”
“I have an issue with a student.”
“And you need me to step in? How unlike you.” His smirk irritates me.
The valkyrie eyes him with disdain. “You may be the headmaster and therefore have more power than I do. As such, you should be the one to deal with this student.”
“And the student in question?”
“Your daughter.”
I blink a few times. Rae’s too young to attend. How can this be? Students start when they’re sixteen! I don’t think I could have been that wrong about the shapeshifter’s age.
“Do what you must to discipline her.” Jaidos waves his hand to banish her as if she’s a nuisance.
“If that is what you want,” Master Vanhylde says dryly, but she makes no move to leave.
“Is there something else?”
“Yes.”
“Well?” He could not sound more irritable if he tried.
“Some believe that you have been a bit… out of touch lately. Is there something you wish to discuss with me?”
Jaidos places his hands on his desk. As with Gerome, Jaidos seems to loom larger than life, his presence overbearing to the point of suffocation, but I have to give the valkyrie credit. She merely draws herself up and lifts her head, not intimidated in the least. I think I might like her, but I can’t quite be sure on that account.
The dragon shifter eyes her for a long moment, and I wait, hoping he might say something so that I can know if the valkyrie is privy to his extracurricular activities, but he just shakes his head.
"I am as I've always been. Overworked. Overstressed. Doing my best to serve my students. As you were, Master Vanhylde."
The valkyrie nods and leaves.
This doesn’t absolve the valkyrie, but it does give me hope that she isn’t involved.
A faint ding has him lifting his tablet. Whatever he sees makes him grin, but I can’t catch a glimpse this time.
"Oh, Master Vanhylde, I forgot one. I'm overstepping my duties as well. Assigning humans to be hunted. My, my, what would you think if you knew? Would you try to stop me? I'm also unstoppable, Master Vanhylde, don't forget that little tidbit. It's necessary. What I am doing is needed. The humans have their place in the world, and it is far past time that they be put into it."
I gasp. What Jaidos did, what he planned… I don’t know what exactly he accomplished versus his goal, but it’s quite clear to me that his actions would have eventually led to the humans learning about the existence of paranormal creatures.
Just what had he been able to do before I killed him? How much of the future is unalterable from this course that seems to only have one inevitable conclusion that is war?