Through the Dark // S.S. [Book One]

Chapter 33

Scott knocks on my open bedroom door and asks, "Lydia and Allison are at the school. Something about a body. Do you want to stay or come?"

"I'm coming."

Scott and I climb into Stiles' Jeep and he drives to the school. Once again, I'm sentenced to the back. "Why is it always the school that things happen?"

Stiles shrugs. "You bring up a good point, sweetheart. I have no idea why."

We get to the school and I immediately ask, "Where is she?"

Allison walks next to Lydia out front and says, "Over here."

"Lyds?" I call. "Lydia?"

She walks over to us and says, "It's the same thing. Same thing as the pool. I got into the car heading somewhere totally different, and ended up here. And you told me to call you if there's a dead body."

"You found a dead body?" Stiles questions.

Lydia shakes her head. "Not yet."

"Not yet"? What do you mean "not yet"? Lydia, you're supposed to call us after you find the dead body."

She narrows her eyes. "Oh, not, I'm not doing that again. You find the dead body from now on."

"How are we supposed to find the dead body? You're always the one finding the dead body."

"Guys." Scott calls. "I found the dead body."

I walk over to Scott and see one of the sheriff's deputies covered in blood lying on the Beacon Hills High School sign.

The next morning in Ms. Blake's class, she's going on about different writing tools. "Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes, all tools the writer uses to tell their story. Lydia, I wasn't aware you had so many hidden talents."

I glance over to Lydia to see her drawing a tree. The same tree she was drawing when Stiles and I tried to get her to use automatic writing to find Deaton.

She looks up at Ms. Blake. "You and every guy I've dated."

Ms. Blake steps back nervously. "Oh, um, well, that was an idiom, by the way. Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture. They're phrases that only make sense if you know key words. Saying "jump the gun" is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race, or a phrase like "seeing the whole board."

"Like chess." Stiles says.

Ms. Blake nods and gives him a small smile. "That's right, Stiles. Do you play?"

Stiles shakes his head. "Uh, no. My father does."

"Now, when does an idiom become a cliche?"

No one answers and Scott turns to me and Stiles. "I think I can get to Ethan. I'm pretty sure I can make him talk."

Stiles frowns. "What do you want to do that for?"

"The druids are emissaries, right? So what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?"

Stiles sighs. "Okay, first of all, I cannot believe that we've gotten to the point where a sentence like "what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas" actually makes sense to me. Second of all, we're gonna have a huge problem getting to Ethan."

"And by the way, Scott, the Darach isn't actually emissary to the alphas." I say.

"What's that?" Scott asks, ignoring my statement.

"Going through Aiden." Stiles answers. "Ever since he's been back at school, they're always together. How are we gonna separate them again?"

I tap their shoulders. "Um, boys?" I jerk my thumb in Lydia's direction and their eyes widen as they turn.