Seizing Year Four (Grim Reaper Academy 4)

If Francis was thinking what I thought he was thinking, then he was right. I was on the verge of coming up with a crazy idea. I just didn’t know what it was yet.

“Someone’s who’s human,” Lorna and I said at the same time.

“We can’t involve humans.” Sariel stepped up between me and Lorna, forcing us to break eye contact. Seeing us on the same page made him feel uncomfortable. He knew what she was capable of, and he didn’t want her to influence me. “Mila, whatever you’re thinking, stop now. We’ll find another way.”

“There is no other way. Morningstar is out there, jumping from one universe to another, and I can’t follow him.”

“Oh, now you want to catch him?” Sariel cocked an eyebrow.

No, I don’t give a shit about him. I just want my mother. I didn’t say that out loud. Since I saw her last spring, in that dream, reading on the porch, the sun shining in her long blond hair… I’d been asking myself every night… She’s a dream jumper. Her gift is so powerful that people thought she had schizophrenia. So, why didn’t she find her way back to me?

I pulled away from Sariel and turned to Paz.

“You still have that family tree you put together?” He nodded. “Great. See you in your room in ten. I want to go over it again.”

CHAPTER FIVE

I was close to a breakthrough, I knew it. I memorized my family tree and went over it in my head a few times a day. I knew every name, every birth, and every death. I mulled over this alone, as I knew no one else agreed to my plan. I was going to bring a human into this. Someone gifted. Someone from my own family, on my mother’s part. But who?

“Corri, I need you to do something.”

“Anything, Mistress.”

I was in Anthropology with Sariel, Lorna, and Klaus. If Paz had been here, he would’ve read my thoughts. It was a good thing he wasn’t. I pulled out a post-it and scribbled five names from memory.

“Check on these people. See where they live, how they’re doing… you know, stuff like that.”

She flew around my head, then landed on top of the post-it, reading the names under her feet.

“Any idea where I should start?”

“Try Bulgaria.”

“On it.” She grabbed the post-it, rolled it up like a scroll, and zapped away.

“What are you up to?” Sariel leaned in.

“Nothing.”

“It can be dangerous.”

“Oh, shush it,” Lorna hissed at him. She was excited I’d finally gotten off my ass and did something. She didn’t care about dangerous. “You’re all coming to Mabon, right?”

I smiled. “A proper Mabon party in the forest. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Party girl…”

“You know it.”

* * *

Being a revenant had its perks.

I couldn’t feel the cold, so I could dress however I wanted. Corri was still away on her little mission, so there was no one to pester me that no, a proper lady shouldn’t attend a party in a leather bra and a mini skirt. I might have drunk one too many Margaritas while putting on my makeup and fluffing up my long, blue hair. I wanted to show off my tattoos. After all, why the hell did I have them? So I could look at them in the mirror? I pulled on my long leather boots, finished my drink, then teleported right in the middle of the party.

No professors allowed. Just as I liked it. After a whole year of no parties or celebrations, they knew we needed to blow off some steam. They were probably having their own Mabon party somewhere inside the walls of the Academy. There were plenty of secluded room that could be turned into orgy chambers.

“It’s not like that,” Paz said, hugging me from behind. He’d read my thoughts again. “They’re decent people with families at home.”