Chapter 7: Returning Back

The carriage slowly rocked on the uneven road calming me down to the point where I fell asleep leaning against the wall. Horrid smell in the carriage was still present as real as Drake and Professor, which turned out to be Headmaster of the Academy and whom all of the people never saw. Sudden jump of the carriage, perhaps over a large rock, woke me up, leaving my clueless mind to figure out where I was and what was happening. Once I did, I cautiously glanced at Drake then at Professor making sure that they were still and there was no signs of danger. Who was I kidding? There always was danger.

Drake was looking out the window while Professor was reading a heavy �" looking book, glasses on his face and his focus was completely on the words. My look moved back to Drake catching him staring at me with a grin. My first instinct was to throw the pillow behind my head straight at his head, to wipe that cocky smile off his face. Although once I remembered that Headmaster was sitting right beside me, I relaxed back against the cushion and narrowed my eyes at Drake whose grin turned into a smirk and he mouthed few words that I was able to catch. “How are you?” He nodded to my head, worrisome look flooding over his face.

My hand reached back to my head causing me to flinch when I found some dried out blood and pulled the hand away wiping it on the dirty dress. I was hurt much more than I thought it would but how? His story just mentioned that I fainted into Mr. Duke’s arms and that was it. How could I have hurt my head when I hit nothing? Noticing  puzzled look on my face, Drake whistled softly bringing my attention back to him and nodded continuing to mouth the words. “Don’t worry. It’ll go away. Anyways, I have a question.” He paused asking my permission and when I nodded curtly, he  added on. “What was your best kiss?” Ruthless smile took over his once gentle face and I flung my another shoe at his face hoping to hit it pretty hard.

He caught it doubling over with laughter, therefore receiving a pillow at his head. Instantly he looked over up glaring at me while I wore a proud smirk which erased as soon as Professor looked up from his book at both of us and frowned. “What is going on here?” We both shook out heads with attempt to look as innocent as possible. Headmaster narrowed his eyes slightly at us before returning to his book grumbling underneath his breath about having a job that was meant to deal with kids. 

Drake gestured for me to come over beside me receiving a scowl in his direction from me. I crossed my arms looking out of the window, partly glad that tops of Academy’s towers were already seen which meant we were near and partly annoyed since I’ll have to go back. Warm fingers wrapped around my wrist and wrenched me to the opposite seat, yelp dying in my throat when I noticed that Drake was still holding on to my wrist that was beginning to hurt and he was staring at my face. He leaned so close to my face making me feel his hot breath of my cheek and his burning silver grey eyes met mine stealing all the breath away as he whispered close to my skin. “You haven’t answered my question, Violet.”

I opened my mouth to say that I’ve never been kissed but the carriage stopped roughly right in front of the gates before the Academy, beautiful palace and as horrid as ever. His gaze skipped to building and back to me sternly, perhaps a bit of disappointed in the sudden stop to our starting conversation. Feeling of disappointment also dawned on me making color rise to my cheeks but I opened the door and walked out into the fresh air to keep Drake from seeing my blushing face. I could almost cry out or just cry with happiness when fresh air filled my lungs, cleaning them from the horrid smell of carriage. At last we were back.

The moment we stepped inside the Academy, everyone went still, looking us over and judging our dirty looks and clothes as if they never saw anyone like that. The girls gave me judgmental looks, perhaps because I was standing too close to Drake or too far away, but either way, they seemed to hate me. To annoy them with purpose of getting back, I stepped closer to Drake, snaking my hand into his and making it look like we were a couple. Also that did not mean wrapping myself all around him with a death glare at every person that looked at us. No, I was simply talking  to him, laughing as we followed after the Professor somewhere.

Thinking that all of this pretend act was true, Drake squeezed my hand in a gentle way and looked forward then back at me with a dashing smile. “So what was your best kiss? And with who?” Once again, before I could reply, Professor cleared his throat bringing both of our attentions to him and nodded for us to come inside his office.

As soon as we were inside the huge room, Professor closed the door behind us, leading us to the desk that stood in front of the window that looked out on the land that belonged to the Academy. The greenhouses were filled with most known poisonous plants and herbs that could cure almost any disease; stables held beautiful, trained and the fastest horses in the whole Britain; caves in the forest for our dragons; large fountains in the courtyard and so on. Indeed the Academy was filled with wonders but still one of the best wonders was the underground library in which I spent almost all of my free time.

The office now was the whole different story. It was absolutely stacks with rows of books, some new, some old and ripped pages were laying around, just like that with marks on edges of them as if it was something important. I picked one of those pages up on the way to meet my punishment and begun to read the page slowly in my mind.

The stories of this ancient creature were all been rumors. There was no any creature that could behold death, dark, birth and light together as one. If creature seen or had impersonated someone, kill that beast instantly. It was called Echo.

Then the side note read:

See inside the Bibliotheca for any other reference.

Professor cleared his throat and paper floated out of my hand back down on the ground as I looked up to his elderly face filled with wrinkles. Then he begun to speak with slight tone of bass. “As you see, I had come myself in person to get you two out of the clutches of Duke. How far have you gone this time, Violet? And what about you, Drake? Already caught and humiliated for the first week being here. How can it be? The most knowing students were caught and are standing right in front of me complete covered with dirt and blood. Can someone explain me this? Why were you inside the forest for first place?” He huffed, waiting for one of us to pitch in.

Drake and I looked at each other then back at Professor with me speaking. “It went nothing like that. We were simply taking a walk. Then someone jumped on us and dragged us of the forest back into that mansion.” I finished with a shrug, careful in choosing my words, although I did not expect Professor to laugh out loud, making Drake and me flinch. When he was finished, he set his hands down on the desk and leaned forward, glare in his eyes showing perfectly. “Stop. I know that all of what you said was not true and don’t try to object.” He paused then hung his head with a heavy sigh. “I’ll call you back into my office later in the day. You can both go.”

I nodded happily and turned around on my heel, marching towards the door but noticed that Drake wasn’t neither behind me or beside me, so I paused behind the door looking back into the office to see that Drake and Professor were talking in hushed tones, both seeming angry about something. My eyes narrowed as I tensed my hearing hoping to get something good out of their conversation but they still kept it at minimum so eventually I gave up and headed back to the girls’ dorm with bare �" feet.

Once I was inside my room, I shut the door behind myself and let my exhausted body to drop on the couch with a heavy sigh leaving me along with rest of my energy. The corset around my torso was hugging it tightly almost leaving without any breath, this time literally,  so I had to stand back up and undress my way to the closet where I took out comfortable clothes and hugged them close. All the dresses and corsets with hats tired me completely out even though I didn’t wear them as much as other girls did.

I dragged my feet over to the bathroom and turned on the faucet before undressing and stepping inside the warm water. Blissful sigh escaped from me as I relaxed completely in the water and closed my eyes imagining myself laying somewhere on the sunny island with waves crashing ashore. Yes, everything was magically fine, peaceful, and... Another loud clank came from the window this time it sounded like it was going to break it.

Low groan came from my mouth as I continued, or at least, tried to relax in the water, hoping the noise would go away. Another sound came from the window keeping my mind from being relaxed as much as possible. At last with third sound from the window, I stood from the bath and wrapping a towel around my body, I marched over to the window and opened it looking out at the ground. Why did it happen every time I try to relax?

Unsurprisingly, Drake stood from down below wearing a grin that could have swooned or wooed any other girl except if they weren’t just out of the bath and towel was the only thing around them. He spread his arms and waved them in the air as if getting attention from me that he didn’t get before. Only then I noticed that he was standing in complete elite clothes with a tie and excellent coat on him. With narrowed eyes, I leaned forward speaking softly. “Bloody hell. What are you doing here, Drake? You are not to be here or anywhere around here. Haven’t you read the rules?”

He shook his head laughing loud enough for someone else to hear. “No! How can I read the rules when I didn’t get them?” I scowled in returned and prepared to close the window but he spoke again interrupting me. “Come on. Climb down. I have something to show you.” He gestured for me to jump and only then I closed the window going back to my room to dress. The stones kept going at the large window until they stopped. With a frown, I straightened my white shirt with corset over it and saw that Drake was already standing on the balcony smiling.

The white long �" sleeves shirt fluttered underneath the cold window as the large window and door opened from the balcony and Drake stepped inside, his hands in his pockets with a hat on his head. “Where do you think you are going?” I stepped away glancing at the door then down at the hidden dagger underneath the closet and back up to Drake who was already leaning against the closet with that defying smirk. “I’m doing what I want. You have no power to stop me, dear.” He started walking towards me determinedly, his hands still in his pockets as I took another step back.

That was until the double doors slammed open and Melanie stepped inside, almost instantly jumping into Drake’s arms that made me sigh with relief. She looked at me with death glare and mouthed the words. “Touch him and I will kill you.” In the answer, I sneered right in her face and turned around hoping to get some privacy to change. However, more girls and boys stood in the doors staring at me, only me. My face threatened me to get red with embarrassment but I just stood straighter and clutching the towel closer to my body, I faced them with an icy glare. “If you are staring at me, you better get out of here than a mouse.”

Almost instantly they left, practically running away from my room and I turned back to Melanie who was still clutching to Drake. I scowled showing off the best one yet also managing to make Melanie shrink away. “Get out of here, love birds.” Drake opened his mouth to say something but Melanie just nodded and dragged him out of my room, his gaze never leaving mine. The second the doors shut, I put away the towel and dressed again into the boy clothes, loving how they fitted me perfectly. Never being fan of the dresses had paid off.

I laid down on the couch that was in front of the fireplace, cuddling closer with a pillow and closing my eyes. The second I did, the deep sleep enveloped me almost instantly pulling me towards the hall of memories and dreams, showing me random pictures but they were going too fast for me to get to see them. My frown creased on my forehead, pictures rushing past me much faster the horses did until I came to a complete stop with bold but beautiful letters in front of me.

He’s back.

 

Soft rustle near me woke me up, pulling me back to the reality and away from the strange message. I pried my eyes open, forcing myself to sit up and look around groggily only to find that it was already night with moon up high in the sky. The rustle came again, this time much nearer, sounding as if someone was shuffling around in their clothes or...

Dagger went up from my boot and with flick of my wrist, it connected with the wall, dull thunk echoing through the empty room. Then soft grumbling came right underneath the couch and another dagger was pierced through the fabric, receiving a yelp from underneath. With satisfied smirk, I stood from the couch, my back protesting as another figure stood up as well running his hand through his hair until the figure said. “You just cannot live a day without hurting someone, can you?”

My hand traveled to tug down the shirt that rode up to my stomach as I squinted to see who was the person who had a really familiar voice. With my mind set, I brushed back my blond hair into a braid muttering. “Sheesh. If only you left me alone, Drake, then I wouldn’t had to do that.” The light slowly went up in the chandelier right above us as I wore a proud smirk  to see how horrified Drake was. Only problem was that it wasn’t really Drake. The light was absorbed by honey with brown colored hair then perfect features with warm brown eyes that were sparkling the day I saw them. Fear struck me deep as I stumbled back a step unable to say anything. The person finally chuckled softly, making my eyes go wider. “Oh, come on, Violet. Where the welcome that I wanted?”

With my heat hammering against my chest, the light had completely absorbed the person and he stood right in front of me. The message was right. Aaron was back.