How to Survive High School Without Really Dying Read online

  He clutched the strap of his backpack. “What’s going on?”

  “Someone in the office wants to talk to you, that’s all I know.”

  Aiden followed him, his breath coming faster and faster. The assistant directed him toward an office he hadn’t been in before. It wasn’t the principal’s office. As soon as he opened the door, he found Dylan pacing in the room.

  That didn’t make him feel any better. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know. No one will tell me a damn thing.” Some of Dylan’s magic leaked out, giving Aiden the sensation of lizard skin in that weird place inside his head that felt magic.

  “Calm down,” Aiden said, thinking he should probably take his own advice. His heart was beating too fast. He stepped past Dylan and sat in one of the chairs.

  “No, I’m not going to calm down. They drag me to the office, they better tell me why. I didn’t do anything.”

  The door opened and Mr. Johnson walked in.

  Aiden edged very close to panic. “Are my parents okay? They’re not dead, are they? Oh God.”

  “Aiden, calm down.” Mr. Johnson held up his hands. “Your parents are fine.”

  “Did one of the wardens escape from jail? Are they coming to kill me?” Aiden glanced up at Dylan. “Us?”

  “Give me a moment and I’ll explain.” Mr. Johnson turned and muttered something. Aiden felt warmth and smooth paper, like reading a book in front of a fire. He realized Mr. Johnson was casting a spell.

  “Oh shit. This must be serious.” Dylan stopped pacing and leaned against the desk.

  “It might raise suspicion to pull you out of class like this, but I needed to talk to you right away. We can cover it by saying I came to you because of the scandal and I’m checking every possible lead.”

  Aiden couldn’t stand the suspense. “What’s going on? Please just tell us.” It came out a little whiny.

  Mr. Johnson took a long breath. “Someone in town was murdered, and the crime scene has traces of fae magic. Dark fae.”

  Aiden was glad he was sitting down because his legs would have given way. “Uncle.”

  “He’s… killing people?” Dylan’s eyes flicked between Aiden and Mr. Johnson. “It wasn’t a warden?”

  Mr. Johnson gave Dylan a hard look. “No.”

  “But fae have to keep their word! He said he’d only go after wardens, no one else.” Dylan clenched his fists, face going pale.

  “First of all, I can’t be absolutely sure that it’s Morgan. We have encountered dark fae before, or people with strong fae magic. They’re rare, but there are others out there.” Mr. Johnson looked like he was just saying that, maybe trying to convince himself. “But Morgan is the most obvious suspect. I wanted to tell you right away because you could be in danger.”

  Little spots danced in front of Aiden’s eyes. Great, here came a panic attack. He knew it wouldn’t do any good, it would only make things much worse, but he couldn’t stop his stupid brain from freaking out. “Is he going to kill us?”

  Mr. Johnson stepped closer and leaned down to look Aiden in the eyes. “I can’t be sure of anything. If he’s feeling vengeful, he might come after the two of you. Or he might be here for an entirely different reason. We closed the portal, but he did get out. Going after you might not be worth the trouble. If he was telling Dylan the truth, then he wants the wardens out of the way.”

  “But you said he didn’t kill a warden,” Dylan pointed out.

  “We don’t know why he killed the man. The body was discovered a few hours ago, and the investigation is in the very early stages. I’ll let you know when I have more information.” He leaned back, looking between them. “Any information I give you, you need to keep to yourselves.”

  Aiden wished he was outside so he could bond with nature to help him calm down. He could barely focus on what the warden was saying. “What if he does come after us?”

  “I’ll put extra protections on your house. Dylan, I’ll talk to your mom, and she’ll take care of your house.” He turned back to Aiden. “I’ll give you and your parents amulets as well. If you are attacked, they should buy you some time. And I’ll put an extra layer of spells on the daggers you use to keep him out of your dreams.”

  Aiden shivered. He still had nightmares about Uncle, but so far they had just been dreams. Not the hyperreal dreams that meant Uncle was actually there.

  “I’m staying in Shadow Valley until this is solved. So if anything happens, if you see or hear anything strange, call me, and I’ll be there within minutes.” He patted Aiden’s arm. “I’ll keep you safe.”

  “You can keep yourself safe,” Dylan told Aiden. “We should beef up your training. You need to practice some serious offense.”

  Aiden almost automatically protested, repeating to himself for the millionth time that he didn’t like violence or hurting people, but with Uncle… Well, that might be an exception. He remembered how helpless he’d felt when the warden had attacked them. In that situation, holding her with plant magic and running away had been the smart thing to do, but running away might not always be an option.

  Fighting to save his own life, or other people’s. Maybe it wouldn’t be bad to do things Dylan’s way in that case. “Maybe you’re right.”

  Dylan smiled. “We can start training at the pit again.” Of course he’d consider that a bright side to this situation.

  Aiden sat straighter as another awful thought occurred to him. “So Uncle killed someone random, as far as you know. Are other people in danger then? Everyone in town?” Tiago, Hanna, Maggie…

  “It’s too early for me to speculate, Aiden. This attack might be specific or it might be random. Anyone in town could be in danger, and I’m afraid once the news spreads, the town might panic, especially after what happened a few months ago.”

  That was a mild way of putting it.

  “You should get back to class,” Mr. Johnson said. “And I’ll get back to the investigation.”

  Aiden didn’t know how he was going to focus on anything else today. He’d consider the day a win if he made it through without a panic attack.

  Just when I thought I was getting better.

  * * *

  Toby got onto the bus and ran down the aisle the second he spotted Aiden. “What did you get in trouble for?” he asked as he sat down next to him.

  “I’m not in trouble.”

  “Of course you are. Why else would you get called into the principal’s office? I would totally freak out if I got called out of class.” He shook his head. “I mean, getting detention is one thing, but the principal’s office?”

  Aiden started to sweat. What was the story Mr. Johnson wanted them to use? “There was a murder—”

  “A murder?” Toby’s eyes got huge and round. “Who was it? Does it have something to do with the bad wardens and cops? Oh my God, are they looking for revenge?”

  “Toby,” Aiden said, trying to get him to calm down. “It’s not that. The wardens are just making sure to cover every possible angle.”

  “Did you see something? Where was it?”

  “No, I didn’t. And I don’t know where. Somewhere in town.”

  “So if you don’t know anything and didn’t see anything, and it’s not about the whole corruption thing, then why did they pull you out of class to question you?”

  Moisture trickled from under Aiden’s arms. “I don’t know. The warden just called me and Dylan in—”

  “Dylan too? So they have to think it has something to do with the murders last year or the trial. If they said it’s not, maybe they were lying. I bet they’re lying. Sometimes they do that so they don’t reveal important information—”

  “Toby,” he said again. “Chill out. I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m not going to speculate.”

  Toby bounced. “But aren’t you curious about what’s going on? Aren’t you scared?”

  Terrified. Aiden’s breath got shallow just thinking about it. Morgan is here, and he might be after me. He’s killing people, and I don’t know what I can do if he tries to kill me. He’s way too powerful. I helped close the portal that he wanted open. And even before that I said no to him and blocked him from my dreams. There’s no way he isn’t pissed at me about that. Aiden wanted to run, to find a place to hole up and hide until Mr. Johnson could catch Morgan and lock him away. Or kill him.

  “The wardens will take care of it,” he told Toby, praying that it was true.

  Toby’s sister Tina got on the bus, and Aiden had to endure Toby’s excited explanation to her of what was going on.

  “Oh my God, the murder has something to do with you? My friend sent me an article about that earlier. Is it a revenge thing? Is there a warden or a cop that got away?” Tina asked.

  “I don’t know anything about anything.” Aiden hated lying. What if someone from school got killed because of this? One of his friends? But there was nothing he could do about it. He’d help Mr. Johnson as much as he could, but this was really the warden’s job.

  Mr. Johnson had figured out what was going on with the kidnappings and the evil wardens and their conspirators. Yeah, after three people were murdered.

  Well, that was a comforting thought. How many people would die this time? And it was partly Aiden’s fault for keeping the secret about what really happened. He didn’t want to betray Dylan by telling the truth, and really, what good would it do? Mr. Johnson was doing the investigation, and he knew everything.

  “So why did they call you and Dylan in? And right in the middle of class?” Tina asked. “I mean, if it was that urgent, they had to think you might know something really important.”

  “They’re just being thorough. Stop trying to come up with wild theories.” Aiden wanted to hide until they went away. Part of him wished he was better at lying so he could tell them something that would satisfy their curiosity, but the other part of him was glad he was such an honest person.

  Honest to a degree.

  Toby and Tina chatted most of the way home, trying to get more information out of him and speculating about who the murderer was and why they’d done it. The victim’s name hadn’t been released yet, but it wouldn’t be long before everyone in Shadow Valley knew who it was. The town was still on edge, and this would definitely make things worse.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Aiden called his parents to make sure it was okay for him to go over to Dylan’s house for dinner. He was supposed to tutor Tiago that night, but things had changed. As soon as he got the okay from his parents, he texted Tiago to cancel. He’d warned him already that he might not be able to help him after school.

  Giving up time with Tiago. There wasn’t much that would make Aiden do that.

  But Uncle creeping around Shadow Valley and killing people was definitely more important that doing schoolwork with his crush.

  Aiden had tried to talk to Dylan about it before gym, but Dylan pointed out that sound echoed all too well in the locker room, so they’d waited until they were alone in Dylan’s room. The anxiety and impatience made Aiden feel like he was going to explode.

  Finally Aiden closed the door behind them as Dylan started pacing his huge room.

  “Uncle,” Aiden said. Just saying it made him break out in a sweat all over again. “God, I can’t believe he’s back.”

  “I can.” Dylan ran a hand through his hair. “It’s all my fault.”

  “No it’s not,” Aiden said automatically.

  “I let him out. He didn’t trick me or lie to me. Well, I guess the lying part might not be true.” Dylan sighed. “He told me if I let him out he’d kill the wardens. He wasn’t promising kittens and rainbows, you know.”

  Aiden didn’t like the reminder of Dylan’s dark side. What Dylan had been willing to do… Black spots flickered at the edges of his vision, and Aiden moved past Dylan to sit on the edge of the bed. “I know.” He told himself to breathe: in, out. In, out.

  He kept picturing Uncle in his true form, the bluish purple skin and the eyes so dark they were like black holes. He imagined Uncle sneaking up on someone with a huge sharp knife, cutting his throat and cackling the whole time. It got even harder to breathe.

  “Hey, you okay?” Dylan moved closer, frowning with concern. Dylan wasn’t the most observant, but he’d learned to recognize the signs when Aiden was having a full-on panic attack.

  “Do you think he’ll try to kill us?” Even sitting up was too hard, so Aiden shifted to lie down. He was embarrassed that he needed to, that he was lying on Dylan’s bed, but it was either that or faint. Fainting was much worse.

  “Calm down, dude, okay?” Dylan leaned over him. His friend actually looked a little pale. “Do you need, like, help or something? Should I get my mom?”

  “I’ll be okay.” Aiden repeated the words silently in his head, trying to convince himself.

  “Don’t worry about him, okay? I’ll keep you safe.”

  Despite everything, Aiden laughed and he couldn’t stop himself from joking. “My hero.”

  Dylan snorted. “I’d say I was your knight in shining armor, but that’s usually the guy that slays the dragon.”

  Aiden’s head tingled and his body went from too warm to chilly, usually a sign that the panic attack would go away soon. “Dragon in shining red scales.” His voice sounded distant.

  “Yeah.” Dylan laughed. “I gotta keep practicing my shape-shifting. Maybe I’ll take you for a ride.”

  “Oh God, no.” Flying with Dylan had been terrifying. Of course they’d been fleeing for their lives, but he didn’t think he would have enjoyed it anyway. Being that far above the ground with nothing to keep him from falling…

  Well, he had fallen.

  Thinking about it wasn’t helping his panic attack at all.

  “Maybe I’ll just show off then. You can watch from the ground and be in awe of my awesomeness.”

  He realized Dylan was trying to distract him, and it warmed his heart. “I’m surprised you haven’t done it in the middle of gym class.”

  “Oh no. I gotta save that as a surprise. Spring exhibition maybe?”

  Right. The thing where they showed off their magic skills in front of their parents and whoever else wanted to come. Aiden hadn’t been able to do it last year, still much too afraid of the kind of flashy magic on display there. And because Aiden hadn’t gone, Dylan hadn’t gone either. He wanted to make up for that this year.

  “How am I supposed to top that?” Aiden asked.

  “You’re not.” Dylan grinned at him.

  “I could use a glamour to copy you. I won’t be able to fly, but I’ll look just like you.” The tightness in his chest started to ease.

  “You’re really that good? How come you haven’t shown off before?” Dylan frowned. “Is that the stuff you practice with Tiago?”

  “No, Phoebe.” Very slowly, Aiden sat up and propped himself against the headboard. “I’m okay now. I just need to sit for a while.” Until the shakiness passed.

  Dylan pulled his computer chair out and moved it next to the bed. “Do you still want to talk about it?” he asked as he sat. “Or will it make you freak out again?”

  “We need to talk about it.” He wasn’t sure if it would do any good, but he was going to think about it anyway, so why not at least give himself the illusion that they were doing something about the situation?

  “Ok. Well, I agree with Mr. Johnson.” Dylan laughed. “I can’t believe I just said that. But yeah. Maybe Morgan will come after us, but I don’t think that’s likely. He got what he wanted out of us—out of me. He’s out. He’s free.” Dylan tapped a hand against his knee. “If he really wanted revenge for us closing the portal or whatever, wouldn’t he have come after us first?”

  Logical. Just be logical about this, and don’t let your stupid emotions run away with you. “Yeah, probably.”

  “And we’ll keep an eye out. Mr. Johnson is laying protection spells on your house; he’s staying in town.” Dylan’s lip curled just a bit. “And we’ll train together until you’re as badass as me.”

  Aiden chuckled. “No one is as badass as you.”

  “True.” Dylan stroked his chin. “You can be badass number two, and I’ll be badass number one.”

  “You’re such a dork sometimes.”

  “Takes one to know one.”

  Aiden laughed, and it felt like shaking off most of his worry. He would never feel safe knowing Uncle was lurking around town somewhere, but Aiden didn’t want to live in constant fear. Last year had seriously sucked, and he didn’t want to go through that again.

  Aiden drew his knees up. “I wish I could be as brave as you.”

  Dylan’s smile fell. “If you want to know a secret… sometimes I wish I could be as nice as you.”

  He couldn’t help it. Aiden reached over and gripped Dylan’s arm. “That’s what makes us such a good team.” The truth of it hit him like a bell ringing inside his head. “We’re good at things the other person isn’t. We’re there to help each other out.”

  To his surprise, Dylan took his hand and squeezed it. “I…” His eyes looked a little wet. “Yeah, you’re right. You’re… you’re like a brother to me. You stick by me even when I’m being a jackass.” He took a deep breath and let Aiden’s hand go.

  Dylan stood. “Enough of this mushy crap. Want to kill some zombies?”

  “Okay.” When Aiden swallowed, he found he had a lump in his throat and his eyes felt kinda moist. He’d been through a lot with Dylan. Somehow they’d get through this too.

  CHAPTER NINE

  It wasn’t anyone he knew, not directly. Just a guy who ran one of the shops in town. But he had a wife and two little kids. And it was Dylan’s fault he was dead.

  He paced up and down the gravel pit. The news was all over town now, that someone had been murdered in Shadow Valley. People were freaked out just like Mr. Johnson thought they would be. That poor guy. He had a name—Maurice Keating—and came from a powerful family of witches.

  If Dylan hadn’t been stupid enough to let Morgan out, that man would still be alive. His kids would still have a dad. Dylan’s stomach twisted.