Horse Stone (Book 1 of Ilyrian Series)

Chapter 38

"Hadley?" someone asked in concern and gently shoved my shoulder. "Wake up. We've been looking for you everywhere. Lunch is almost over."

I groaned and swatted at the person that shoved my shoulder, not wanting to wake up and face the world around me. I didn't want to leave the comforts of the dark, where I didn't have to deal with anything or anyone.

"Should we call Papa?" someone asked. "I mean, I have no idea why she is right here passed out. She has been crying. You can tell by her face. Did she have another panic attack?"

"I don't know. I'm going to see if I can't find the librarian to see if he knows something. Maybe he knows why she is here on the ground asleep."

"Ok, see if you can't call Papa. I think she needs to go home early again, or at least go to therapy."

"Ok."

Again, someone shook my shoulder. "Come on, Hadley," the person said. "Wake up. We're going to get Papa here to take you home."

"No," I mumbled again and swatted at their hands. "Leave me alone. I don't want to get up. I don't want to deal with anything anymore."

"Well, too bad. Wake up before I go find some ice cold water and dump it on you."

I groaned but opened my eyes to see a blurry Gwen kneeling over me with concern written all over her face. Sighing, I rubbed my eyes before I started to sit up, and Gwen moved so that I could.

"What happened?" Gwen asked. Her voice shook, and I could tell that she was worried about my mental state of mind. "Are you ok?"

"Drained," I replied. I shook my head to clear the fog in my head and cleared my throat, feeling exhausted and tired. My mouth felt dry, and I knew that I sounded like crap. "I just feel so drained and tired, and my head's starting to hurt." I bit back a groan and placed my head on my knees when it did start hurting.

"What happened?" Gwen asked. She frowned when I shook my head. "Hadley, I can't help if you don't tell me what happened."

"But there is nothing that you can do," I said, sounding lost. I cleared my throat again and licked my lips. "I need to get home, as you had said. The Headmaster won't like it, but..." I trailed off, not knowing if she would pick up on what had happened.

Gwen's heated gaze was on the side of my face, and I had a feeling that she gathered that the Headmaster had done something that had upset me. "What did he do?" she asked, her voice holding a slight warning to it. She breathed through her nose when she caught me flinching away from her and let out a soft sigh. "I'm not going to hurt you, Ley, but I want to know what he did."

I shook my head, not answering her. My heart pounded in my throat, and a small blanket of fear wrapped around me, squeezing me tight. My hands shook, and all I wanted to do was run, to get away from this place that held a lot of fear and anguish.

"Hadley," my sister said. She grabbed me by the arms and pulled me into a hug. Slowly, she started to rock back and forth, rubbing her hand up and down my arm while I slowly tried to get myself to stop panicking. "He won't hurt you," she said, but I could tell that she sounded a little unsure.

"Ya," Nina chirped. She made Gwen open her arms before she hugged me. "If you need something to blow up near him... I could whip up something quicker than you can say hot potato."

"And get kicked out of school," Adrian said, coming over to us, followed by Izzy. He offered me a grim smile, his eyes a darker color and filled with worry. Are you ok? he asked, his voice soft. You scared me when you ran.

I hesitated but nodded to Adrian's question before I turned my gaze to my little sister. "I don't think you should do that, Nina," I said softly. "I don't want you to get hurt."