Touch of Sibyl

Chapter Eighteen

The next day was spectacularly boring. My classes dragged by, and I was as invisible as ever to the other students. All anyone could talk about was who'd hooked up and split up at the bonfire yesterday and how all that was going to affect the homecoming dance tonight. Even the professors seemed to have given up on getting the students to do any actual work today, because all my morning classes turned into study periods.

Really, though, they were all just raging gossip fests about the homecoming dance. Who was going with whom, what designer dresses everyone was wearing and how much they cost, which dorm was going to have the best after-party and the most kegs. Pretty much the same conversations that the kids would be having back at my old school. Except there I might have actually been going to the dance, instead of staying in my room all night long like I would be here.

In a way, though, I was glad that I wasn't going to the dance. Because mixed in with all the talk about hookups and breakups were whispers of another ritual. Apparently, every year before the homecoming dance the staff and students at Mythics gave thanks to the gods for watching over them for another season, sort of like a harvest celebration. I shivered, thinking about the scene that I'd witnessed at the bonfire last night-the silvery flames and the old, ancient force that had stirred in the air around them. I'd already reached my limit of magic mumbo jumbo for the week-I had zero desire to see any more.

Everyone was so excited about the dance that there was almost no mention of Jessy Ashton. Only a couple of days had passed since she'd been murdered, and it was like it had never even happened. Everyone else seemed to have forgotten about the Valkyrie already, even though she'd been the most popular girl in our class.

It made me sad and angry at the same time. Especially since I couldn't seem to let go of it. I still couldn't forget seeing Jessy that night, her dead blue eyes staring up at me like she wanted me to help her.

I still couldn't forget the fact that it should have been me lying there in all those pools of blood.

Lunchtime rolled around. I got my usual grilled chicken salad, along with a bottle of Honeycrisp apple juice and a piece of chocolate-crusted key lime cheesecake that was depressingly small. Seriously. The pale, creamy sliver wasn't even as wide as two of my fingers put together. I loaded everything onto a clear glass tray and retreated to an empty table in the quietest, most remote corner of the dining hall that I could find.

I ignored the salad and all of its elaborately cut veggies, cracked open the sweet, tart apple juice, and drained half of it in one gulp. Not hard, since the drink portions were almost as meager as the dessert ones. I eyed the plastic container, wishing that I'd gone ahead and gotten two juices like I'd really wanted to instead of just one--

A tray plopped down across from me, making me jerk back in surprise and almost drop my juice on the floor.

Danica Cruz dumped her enormous purse onto the table. Her bag covered up Jessy's mythology book, which I'd been planning on reading more of at lunch. But that wasn't the strangest thing Danica did. She actually sat down at my table.

Like-like we were friends or something.

I eyed the Valkyrie, wondering if she'd somehow been possessed or something. If somebody had dripped her blood into Loki's Bowl of Death and made her a willing slave--

"So," the Valkyrie said, cracking open the lid on her Perrier. "This is where you eat lunch. All the way in the back here. What are you? A vampire who's afraid of sunlight or something?"

Vampires? Were vampires real, too? I wondered, but I didn't want to look stupid and ask, especially since I didn't know what Nica was doing here in the first place.