When the Shadows Fall by Elise Noble
CHAPTER 19 - SKY
ON TUESDAY MORNING, we all got together and had another meeting. Emmy and Mack and the rest of the bigwigs had analysed the footage me, Alaric, and Beth got from walking around the academy and come to the conclusion that we were screwed. Various suggestions were put forward, everything from Emmy dressing up as a schoolgirl, which was vetoed because she really was too old—although I noticed Black did look kind of interested when somebody mentioned the uniform—to Nate flying a remote-controlled cockroach around the hallways. Again, that was ruled out because apparently there’d been glitches in the feed yesterday, and if the signal disappeared, several thousand bucks’ worth of gadget would either get stomped under someone’s foot or swept up by the janitor.
“You’re forgetting the other obvious option,” Emmy said.
Black raised an eyebrow.
“Sky aced her entrance exam. There’s a good chance she’ll be offered a place at the school. We can have her wander around with a camera for a few weeks.”
What? No way.
“Are you kidding? I’d go crazy in that place. You said it was just an interview. A little chat. And the only reason I passed the test was because Rune was telling me the answers. I didn’t even understand most of the questions.”
“Fall term at Shadow Falls has already started. Rune, when do you go back to school?”
“September twelfth.”
“So you could coach Sky for almost four weeks?”
“Sure.”
“Emmy, Rune’s meant to be on vacation,” Alaric pointed out. “You know, rest and relaxation?”
“I don’t mind helping. Learning’s fun.”
Emmy grinned. “There we go.”
No, no we didn’t go. Not if I could help it. “Don’t I get any say in this? I’m only three months into my training. I’m still on probation. What about all the other stuff I have to do? Shooting? Running? Climbing?”
“You can pick that up afterwards. Right, Rafael?”
He hesitated for the longest moment. Part of me wanted him to tell Emmy that I wasn’t ready. That she shouldn’t send me out on my own to spend weeks undercover. But I also wanted him to think that I was good enough to hold my own in this team. I’d already let him down twice and somehow got away with it. I wouldn’t get a third chance.
“Can we run through the alternatives once more?”
He didn’t think I was good enough, and that felt like a knife to the heart.
“Nothing we’ve spoken about so far is viable, but if you’ve got a new idea, I’m all ears.”
“We should wait for a support staff vacancy.”
“And draw this out for even longer?”
Alaric’s phone rang.
“It’s the school.”
Everyone sucked in a collective breath.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
Emmy turned to me. “Sky?”
Shit. I was stuck between a rock and a bigger rock. But when it came down to it, I wanted to prove to Rafael that I could do a job without screwing up more than I didn’t want to spend a month in academic jail.
“I’ll go.”
“Super. Alaric, would you do the honours?”
And there it was… The portal to hell had opened up, and I had no choice but to step through.
When Blackwood moved, they moved fast. By six a.m. on Thursday, I not only had a school uniform that fit me, but I also had a full complement of electronic widgets, all disguised to look like something they weren’t. Basically, I had two jobs at Shadow Falls. Well, three if you counted not getting expelled. I was to map out as much of the buildings and grounds as possible, and also install recording devices all around the academy, focusing on the staff offices and any areas off limits to students.
Nate had built bugs into everything—air fresheners, plug adaptors, lightbulbs, pens… I only hoped nobody checked my suitcase because they might wonder why I was carrying five wall clocks. Claiming I had a fetish for punctuality probably wouldn’t cut it. And then there were the three smoke alarms. He’d also designed a box of tricks to amplify the signals, and the fake forestry guys had hidden it in a pile of fake logs near the school’s entrance.
A shadow darkened my bedroom doorway. Rafael.
“So…” he said.
“So.”
We’d barely spoken on our run yesterday morning. I’d apologised—again—and he’d told me I’d been slow on the last mile and I needed to speed up. And then when we got back, he’d vanished while I was taking off my trainers. Perhaps I should have gone to find him, but I had too much to do. I’d needed to call Lenny to explain I’d be busy for the next few weeks, then meet with Rune and Beth for a briefing on boarding school etiquette.
“Be careful, Sky.”
“It’s a school, Rafael. Hundreds of people my age manage to survive there every day.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what? You think I’m going to melt down every other day? I’ll be staying in an all-girls dormitory. There are actual rules if we want to have a boy over to visit.” I’d studied the welcome pack yesterday evening. The school handbook ran to almost two hundred pages. “Bedroom doors have to remain open, and at least three feet must remain on the floor at all times.”
Rafael’s eyes darkened. “There’s plenty a man and a woman can do together with three feet on the floor.”
“For fuck’s sake! I’m not going to be doing any of it.”
“Good. We still have desensitisation to work on. But that wasn’t what I meant when I said to be careful, Sunshine. You’re going to be snooping around, and these aren’t nice people.”
“There’s literally a whole team who’ll be listening to my every move. They’ve rented a house three freaking miles away.”
“A lot could go wrong in the time it takes to drive three miles.”
“I’ll be careful, okay? I promise.”
Rafael ran a finger over the back of my neck, and I shivered. Which was better than having a panic attack, at least.
“I’m gonna hold you to that, mi pequeño rayo de sol.”