The Tiny Curse: Werewolf High Book 2(18)

I came to the surface spluttering, with my throat burning from chlorine  and something else, a strange and bitter taste. The horrible noises  still filled the air, distorted in that strange way that sounds always  echoed at an indoor pool. I was too turned around to tell which  direction they were coming from; which direction I should start  swimming. I'd need somebody to fish me out, I couldn't climb up the  ladder, and I really did not want that person to be Astor.

I floated on my back, trying to get my bearings. Astor had said a lot of  things, all of them distressing, but one thing in particular stuck in  my mind. He was sure that the rumors about me and Tennyson Wilde were  true. Which a) just proved how stupid he was because who would believe  that, and b) strongly hinted that he wasn't the cyberbully. I was fairly  sure that the person posting all that stuff about me wouldn't post  anything if they thought it was true. The truth can be defended, proven;  lies can't. The links between the bullying and the spell were too  strong to ignore, which meant that the bully must be the person behind  all the magic, behind everything. If I could find them, I could stop the  whole thing.         

     



 

I started swimming. This was great. If it was finding somebody online,  that was something I could do. That was something logical, something  with practical steps that could be taken to achieve a concrete result.  That was exactly my kind of thing. I just needed to get out of this pool  and get started on it.

I swam and swam but didn't seem to be getting any closer to the edge of  the pool. It was hard to tell if the sounds were dying down or if they  were just muffled from the water in my ears, but I hoped they didn't  vanish completely because it was too easy to lose my sense of direction  when everything was just water. My limbs started feeling weak and I  wasn't sure how long I could keep swimming before my body gave up. I  wish I knew what was going on with the others. I didn't want to call out  for help in case Astor found me, but I doubted they'd find me  otherwise, I was just a speck of debris in a wide, bottomless ocean. I  stopped to tread water for a moment, to rest my aching limbs and try to  figure out what was happening.

It was hard to pick the different sounds apart, but it seemed like the  werewolf noises had stopped. I couldn't hear any growling or roaring or  any of that. There was some thumping, but everything echoed so badly I  couldn't tell what it was or where it was coming from. Then I heard  something that filled me with relief. Somebody calling my name. Somebody  definitely not Astor.

"Lucy, where are you?" called Althea.

"Here!" I said, waving my arms around and kicking like mad to stay afloat. "Over here in the water!"

She stepped up to the edge of the pool, appearing like a goddess on a  mountaintop. She looked around blankly, obviously not seeing me, so I  splashed the water as much as I could to be more noticeable.

Finally, she spotted me, but for some reason she didn't look pleased.

"Okay, just a second," she said. "Sam's chasing after Astor and Tennyson  and Nikolai are trying to calm him down and stop him from hurting  anyone. I'll get you out of there but Astor's pumped wolfsbane into the  pool so I can't come in to get you."

It seemed like forever until she reappeared. I felt so weak, drained of  all my energy. I hoped I could stay afloat long enough for her to do  whatever it was she was doing.

"Okay," she said, reappearing with a long pole in her hand. "Grab onto this."

She leaned over as far as she could, stretching out with the pole for me to grab onto, but still I couldn't reach it.

"Hang on," I said, "let me swim in a bit more."

I swam and swam toward her, but before I could close enough, all my  muscles seized up. Oh man, who knew a leg cramp could be so painful, it  was like being stabbed by a thousand knives. I couldn't move, I had no  control over my own body. I tried to kick out, to keep swimming, but my  body rejected the idea and I began to sink. Stupid body.

As the water closed over my head, I heard Althea yell out. The last  thing I was aware of was a mighty splash and a giant wave coming toward  me.

When I woke up, I was dry, toasty warm and shocked about not being dead.  I was like de ja vous from when Tennyson Wilde had first found me. I  was snug on my chair and the others were gathered around the table,  talking quietly. It only took me a moment to realize that it wasn't all  of the others, only Tennyson and Nikolai, and I remembered what Althea  had said about the wolfsbane.

"She'll be fine," said Nikolai, quietly. "We'd know if she wasn't."

"I don't know, everything feels confused." Tennyson Wilde was different than I'd ever seen him, pale and red-eyed.

"We should've let Sam kill him."

"That wouldn't help Althea," said Tennyson. "Besides, we shouldn't -"

The beeping of his phone cut off what he was going to say. He fumbled as he picked it up.

"She's okay," he said, expelling a long breath. "Mother says they were  able to administer the antidote in time however Althea is still quite  ill and won't return to school until she has regained her strength."

"It was lucky I returned when I did. You should've seen her, boiling  alive with the commoner clutched in her hand. I should get a medal or  something." Nikolai tried to sound flippant but the worry in his voice  betrayed how much he cared.

I stayed perfectly still on my cushion as I listened. I didn't want them  to know I was awake. Althea had jumped into the pool to save me and  almost died. It was all my fault. Well, not all my fault. Let's be real,  it was mostly Astor's fault. But still, a bit my fault, and I felt  horrible. Althea was literally the only person at the whole school who  had been consistently nice to me, had always believed in me, and it made  me sick that she was hurt on my account. I totally understood Nikolai  wanting to get revenge on Astor for it.         

     



 

They sat in silence, lost in their thoughts, until Nikolai abruptly  pushed back from the table. "I'm going to check on Sam. We need to get  back to Astor with our response."

Tennyson hardly seemed to hear him. I wondered what they needed to talk  to Astor about, he'd said that he didn't want anything from the Golden  but he was clearly in a position to demand anything. He'd said he had  cameras in the pool, so he most likely had concrete evidence of werewolf  activity. I had no doubt the Wildes had enough money and influence to  cover up any sort of wolf-related scandal, but it would probably be  annoying and there would always be people who would believe any rumor,  even if it was proved false. Plus, their mother sounded kind of strict, I  bet she wouldn't be pleased if the boarding school shenanigans of her  kids ended up exposing their entire world.

It made me wonder what Sam's life had been like since he went to live  with the Wildes. Had he been welcomed like part of the family or treated  like some sort of scientific anomaly? I felt like the more time I spent  around these people, the more questions I had.

"You shouldn't blame yourself," Tennyson Wilde said quietly. "If that's what you're doing, you shouldn't."

For a moment, I wasn't sure he was talking to me. He'd always been the first to blame me for anything that went wrong.

"You may be worried that we will give in to that person's arrogant  demands to hand you over but I am not in the habit of submitting to my  inferiors. Any mistakes that were made in this case were my own and I  will not let anyone else suffer for them. I will find a way to bring him  to justice."

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked him. "You didn't hit your head or something?"

He didn't answer me, just kept staring at his phone.

Sam was back to normal the next day, but the air of gloom still hung  over everyone. It was clear that every one of us blamed ourselves for  what had happened to Althea. Well, except Nikolai.

"We can't give in to that guy," he hissed across the breakfast table.  Astor had just sent through a message containing a list of demands and  the footage from the pool. It was pretty incriminating. "Let him do his  worst. Look at this list, he wants us to wait on him hand and foot!"

"He wants access to our facilities only because he suspects we are harboring Lucy and he hopes to find her," said Tennyson.

"And who knows what else," said Sam, staring down at his untouched plate  of sausages and eggs. "He probably wants to sneak around and find out  even more of our secrets."

"I don't like it either but I'm not sure we have any other option."  Tennyson Wilde pushed back from the table and stood, picking me up and  taking me away from the delicious saucer of bacon I was nibbling at. "I  will consider it but I don't think it's wise."

For once, I agreed with Tennyson Wilde. Having Astor creeping around the  Golden House could only mean disaster. And more panty-sniffing  probably. Some time during Biology, though, Tennyson must have changed  his mind, because he found Astor at lunch and slapped a key card down on  the table in front of him.