School of the Crown Assassins

23

I had been running around the busy library for ten minutes trying to find Axe. I'd even stopped to ask former acquaintances who I had lost touch with for where Axe was, but they said they didn't know where he was or saw him a place where he wasn't anymore. I tried messaging him to no avail.

After about five more minutes of searching, I was ready to give up when darted around a corner and crashed straight into Chance. All of the books he had been carrying crashed to the floor and his bag slipped off his shoulder, the notes and journals falling out of its pockets.

"Chance! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there," I apologized and bent down to help pick up the books.

"It's fine," he waved off and reorganized his scattered belongings.

I gathered his books together, most of them textbooks and notes. I spotted a book that had fallen a little further off, probably slipping out of his bag, and I reached out to it only to realize it was a handwritten journal. The pages were rough and somewhat torn as if they had been used a long time ago. The edge of a folded piece of paper stuck out through its pages. The journal's design looked familiar, but I wasn't sure where I had seen it.

Chance, who had finished cleaning the mess up, took back the pile I had formed and I place the journal on top. He stuffed it in his bag.

"I was gone for two seconds and you all already made a mess," Axe's voices rang out behind me.

"Well, I was gone for a whole year and you made a much larger mess," a female voice responded.

"What mess did I make?!"

"Don't think for a second that I believe you have nothing to do with the murders around school, young man," the other girl responded jokingly.

I got to my feet just Axe shrugged. "Be happy I didn't burn the school down."

I looked over at the girl with light bronze skin native to the East who rolled her eyes and I recognized her almost immediately.

"Trysha!" I greeted Chance's older adopted sister.

"Hi, Indigo," she smiled before pulling me into a tight hug. Trysha normally visited Chance in school at least once every year, but I was still surprised to see her. I had expected her to just wait out the last month until she got to meet him at home after graduation instead of making the trip to Evandor, but then again, she visited school around the same time last year. Of course, then it was to help Chance figure out more about his biological parents, the ones who had died in a fire. Still, I was glad to see her here.

We pulled away and she smiled. "I missed you. And for a second there, I thought I would never get to see you again."

I tilted my head, confused. "What do you mean?"

"The school's killer," she explained. "I was worried she or he would get to you. That's why I'm visiting, actually. Wanted to make sure you guys were safe."

"You're not worried they would get to you?" Axe questioned.

Trysha looked over and raised an eyebrow. "I graduated as a Rank 4 Alpha and have three years of experience as a field operative. No one here would touch a hair on my head."

"I think I could take you on just fine," Axe smirked.

"Why don't you try?" She flicked her wrist and a two-foot metal chain weighted on the end by a ball slid into her hands. She gave it another flick and needles folded out along the chain like thorns. I'd seen her in school enough times my first two years to know that large spikes would spring out of the ball as soon as she swung it through the air.