Heart of Ice and Stone

Chapter 4

I'm stretching at the track, when Devil comes up to me. "Headmistress has a new mission for us." It's still early in the morning. I nod and follow him.

"What happened?" he asks, breaking the silence.

"What do you mean?"

"Yesterday, you were fine and then javelin's told to go to the office after lights-out and today, you both look like hell."

"What are you talking about?" I ask, incredulous. I looked just fine, last time I checked-which I supposed was yesterday.

"You really haven't looked at a mirror today, have you?" I shake my head.

Another silence passes. I hesitantly ask, "Did Javelin tell you? About what happened?"

A fleeting shadow passes over his face before he answers. "No. But he didn't need to."

"So, aren't you going to do something about it?"

"You've already destroyed yourself," Devil responds softly, right before he pushes open the door to a room I've never been in.

Javelin and Mist were already there. Javelin nods once to us, but doesn't meet my eyes. "Good, you're here. This mission's more complicated than yesterday's simple one.

"We need to go to a nearby town and retrieve some files from two schools, one high school and one middle school. This is an overnight mission, which means we'll be staying at one of the Academy's places. We're going to go there today, and tomorrow we'll retrieve the files. We'll need to stay another night and then on Monday, we'll travel back to the Academy. We're going to have half an hour to pack our bags and make sure to pack enough for two days and nights. Any questions?"

"How are we going to reach there?" I ask.

A grin twists his features as he finally looked into my eyes. "We drive."

. . .

We stared at the envelope, lying on the bed. We'd just returned from classes, when Mist found an envelope sticking out of her notebook.

There was no address on the envelope.

"So," said Trinity, elongating the word. "Who's opening it?"

Sana continues staring at the envelope, her eyes wide open. "I guess I should, since it was in my backpack." She picks up the envelope and slips out a folded piece of paper.

After unfolding it, Sana reads,

"To Mist,

As much as I'd love to play games, it's be lovely if you would

respond to my offer. Also, my friend Javelin sneaked in a note to Echo.

Looking forward to seeing you again.

Signed,

Devil."

Mist slips out another note and wordlessly hands it to me.

"Don't believe everything you're told," I read aloud.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asks Mist. I shrug.

"He could've at least made it rhyme," grumbles Trinity.

They start chatting about rhymes and which rhyme they would've used. My focus drifts to the window. Only a couple weeks ago, it was freezing cold. Now, you could see flowers blooming on the trees. What did Zander mean? And why would he tell me that?