House of Mages and Raven (Shades of Ruin and Magic #4)

Chapter 9

9

Barbie

“ W here is Barbie?” an unkind voice demanded.

“There! Barbie’s there!” Shouts from those buttkissers rose across the floor, and multiple rude fingers thrust in my direction.

The limelight swirled back from Barbie 2.0 to Barbie 0.5 in record time, utterly derailing 2.0’s great entrance. Wasn’t it peachy?

Peachy! Sy preened. She was a firm believer that there was no bad publicity. Let’s give them a big smile. Show your teeth.

I was being sarcastic, I told her. They’re gunning for us.

A band of sentinels, led by Headmistress Ethel, streamed toward me with purpose. It didn’t look good for me.

What for? Sy demanded.

Who the fuck knows? Many things, probably.

We’re in trouble again? So soon? She blinked. Fight or flight?

Usually, it was me who asked that question. It seemed like I didn’t have many options as I looked around. Every table had switched their attention to me, snapping out of their obsession over Queen Lilith and drawing their admiring gazes away from Grace. My geek friends stood up, not knowing how to react in this situation.

No one was shouting, “Team Underdog Barbie!” anymore.

The sentinels who weren’t coming after me blocked the entrance, obviously expecting me to bolt. More sentinels spread around the dining hall strategically, anticipating my flight in every direction. They were determined to round me up. The main force of a dozen men and women made a beeline for me.

They all regarded me as a dangerous career criminal.

Sy smiled. But we are dangerous, and we shall not apologize for who we are. If they displease us, we’ll eat them all.

“Sit this out, Bea,” I whispered to my friend. “Don’t act. Don’t say a thing. And don’t follow me.”

Headmistress Ethel snapped her fingers at me and barked, “Take her!”

“What for?” I shouted as they rushed toward me. “Based on what?”

I darted my wild gaze around. Where were the heirs from the other houses? They’d defended me on multiple occasions. I urgently needed their backup.

“You’ll stand trial in front of all the kings and queens and the Council in the court of Kingdom of Chaos,” Headmistress Ethel summarized without sympathy.

I glanced at the eggs, cheese, and donuts piled on my plate then at the sentinels in gray-and-blue uniforms. They’d surrounded me, but now they stepped back a pace in unison, as if worried that I’d fling my dishes at them. It made me sad that they’d think I’d be crazy enough to throw away food.

“Another trial?” I sighed. “Then it’ll be a long day. I won’t be able to sit through it on an empty stomach. Let me have my breakfast in peace, or at least let me finish my milkshake, and then I’ll go with you like a good little sheep. Deal or no deal?”

Two sentinels at the front looked at their mistress, and Headmistress Ethel spat, “You’re leaving now! You’ll learn to respect your betters.”

“Who is my better?” I asked sincerely before I sighed again. “You see, I didn’t have a lot growing up, but I have this principle that no one takes my food from me.” I flashed her and her minions a savage smile I borrowed from Sy before she ate her prey, and everyone, including Ethel, flinched. I lifted my plate above my eyes to show respect. “See, I even got spam musubi. I gotta eat it.”

Before Headmistress Ethel exploded, the captain of the academy sentinels whispered in her ear, and her expression changed, her temper cooling.

“You’ll finish only that musubi and half of the milkshake while walking,” Headmistress Ethel ordered me. She now understood that by compromising, one would go further in life. Pushing me too hard wouldn’t end well for anyone. “The kings and queens won’t wait for the likes of you.”

I nodded. “Copy that, Lady Headmistress.” I bit into the spam musubi and talked with my mouth full. “I ain’t so special that anyone shall wait for me.”

“You aren’t special at all. Close your mouth while you eat,” Headmistress Ethel said in distaste. “I don’t understand why we even admitted you to my school in the first place.”

I turned to grin at her while following the sentinels. Actually, they rounded me up to prevent me from escaping. “Prince Louis tried to get me a tutor on manners, but I said no thanks, since education is too expensive. Then Prince Killian forced me to be enrolled in Shades Academy. He took it more seriously than you and wouldn’t let me drop the class. I’m not made for organized study, you know. So, if you’ll talk to His Highness about kicking me out, I’d be forever in your debt.”

Some sentinels were trying hard not to chuckle, and some students who had heard my statement snickered.

“Silence!” the headmistress barked at me, her face darkening in anger. “Whenever you open your mouth, something distasteful comes right out.”

“Pardon.” I turned to her and huffed for good measure, my hot breath hitting her in the face. She happened to walk near me, probably not thinking straight, or probably wanting to make sure I wouldn’t have the chance for any shenanigans. “It’s the garlic. The chef added too much raw garlic to the spam. It’s not authentic anymore. Maybe you should go to the kitchen to scold her when you have a chance? No rush, though. Or I can have a talk with her after the trial, if it goes well.” I crossed my left fingers, since my right hand still held the milkshake. “Wish me luck.”

I was now worried sick about the trial. It only proved that we lived in uncertain times.

Headmistress Ethel pursed her lips tight, dashing away from me before I could send her another strong huff. As a group, we passed by Grace. She and I stared at each other for two long seconds. This close, I could confirm that she was my carbon copy. Yet I couldn’t feel her magical signature. She was veiled by another power. Before I could study her further, the academy team whisked me past impatiently. I also had more urgent matters at hand than dwelling on my doppelg?nger.

I stepped through the door amid the ranks of sentinels that stood too thick to prevent me from fleeing. They were serious, but I wasn’t going to flee. I decided to see through the trial. I wanted to see Killian in court and look into his eyes when he told lies to my face.

I glanced over my shoulder. Bea still trailed after me outside the group, her face pale, her eyes full of worry, and her blue hair flapping in the wind. I used a firm expression to tell her to stay back.

Then Pucker popped up in his phantom form beside me.

I’m going with you, Barbie, he said.

It’s not a game, I said. They’re going to put me on trial. We might meet some of the most dangerous supernaturals in the court, and I don’t want them to see you.

Don’t worry, he said, grinning. They won’t see me. Where you go, I go. That’s what a familiar is for. I’m your backup.

Thanks, I feel so much better now, I said. But I’d prefer you to stay behind and keep watching the Veil. I don’t want any Shriekers to sneak in while you aren’t there to guard it.

Now you see how important I am, don’t you? he asked in contentment. Well, here comes the cavalry.

A team of warriors from the House of Chaos headed to intercept us, Cassius and Rock in the lead. The two groups met in the middle, and I jerked to a stop as well.

“Lord Cassius,” Headmistress Ethel greeted him. “We’re on official business.”

No one had told me that Cassius, a.k.a. the Silent Blade, was a lord.

“As are we, Lady Ethel,” he said without emotion, his icy blue eyes swiftly inspecting me as if to check if I were wounded, and I winced to show him that my face hurt from anxiety. “I’m taking Miss Barbie from your hands.”

I suddenly got why Cassius had lagged behind instead of accompanying Killian to the court. While Rock was formidable, he couldn’t pull rank with the headmistress—but Lord Cassius could.

“Free me, Sir Werewolf and Lord Silent Blade!” I shouted their call signs to pump fear into Headmistress Ethel’s gray heart so she’d let me go. Who didn’t fear Silent Blade, even though no one dared to call him that to his face? And if I really wanted to escape, no one could stop me, except Killian. But I’d learned that it was better to play their system than fight alone with blunt force. Mist of Cinder was home now. “They’re dragging poor me to trial before I could even eat my breakfast, even though I haven’t done anything wrong.”

The sentinels had taken my plate and milkshake away. I was now empty-handed.

“We’ll take it from here, Lady Ethel,” Rock growled. He always had a soft spot for me and hated to see me suffer.

“I must bring Barbie to face their Majesties and the Council for her crime.” Headmistress Ethel thinned her lips. “She has to answer for murdering Princess Medea in cold blood.”

“The accusation is baseless, Lady Ethel,” Cassius said, and I nodded my agreement. “You aren’t in the clear either as the traitor druid’s associate.” The headmistress’s face paled. “But I’m not going to debate it with you now. I’ll escort Barbie to the court of Kingdom of Chaos. The king and queen will see her.”

My heart sank. I still had to go through a trial, and the queen was Medea’s mother.

“It’s unnecessary to change hands, since I’m bringing Barbie to the court of Kingdom of Chaos as well,” Headmistress Ethel said. “Barbie is a student of Shades Academy, after all.”

“She’s a member of the House of Chaos and a subject of Kingdom of Chaos first,” Cassius said coldly. “It’s our right to bring her to the court, as King Vasiliy ordered.”

Menace rolled off the Silent Blade, so potent that the temperature dropped around us. Ethel stumbled back.

“I and my team will join you then and see it through,” Headmistress Ethel said.

Cassius shrugged. “Be my guest.”

I sighed. All that had changed was that I’d be escorted by a friendlier group. The academy sentinels opened a path, and Cassius and Rock stopped a few feet in front of me.

“Let’s go, Miss Barbie,” the lord ordered. “Time is of the essence.”

“Talk like an immortal,” I murmured.

The chaos warriors immediately moved in to surround me and pushed out the academy sentinels like one well-oiled machine.

And then we were on the move again, with the academy sentinels trailing behind.

This was going to be a long day.

My heartbeat picked up as I thought of seeing Killian again after his absence of three days.