Chapter 21: The Truth About the Rabbit
“LUNA! Luna!”
Mia was walking around campus, calling the rabbit’s name as she went.
She’d only just learned that the rabbit had a name. She’d heard Mathias yelling it and realized he must have named it.
Henrik had grimaced but managed not to laugh, realizing that Mathias deserved respect for taking on the rabbit’s care by himself.
Or at least, that’s what Henrik told her. Maybe he really did laugh, though. Knowing Henrik, she wouldn’t put it past him.
Hmm, I was sure it ran off somewhere in this direction…
After it had sprung out the window, the rabbit had zoomed off in the direction of the dorms.
Henrik headed off to the boys’ dorms and Mia to the girls’.
Mia had looked in every potential hiding place with a carrot as bait, but Luna was nowhere to be found.
As she was heading to the boys’ dorm, Henrik walked up, coming from that way. When their eyes met, he shook his head. He hadn’t found Luna, either.
“Oh dear, what are we going to do? Poor Mathias will be so upset…”
“Maybe it just hopped back off to its original owner.”
Perhaps Henrik was right. Mia had forgotten that it wasn’t Mathias’s rabbit to begin with.
Hmm, the original owner…
With everything that had been going on, Mia had forgotten all about the rabbit’s hypothetical owner. And nobody had come forward to say they were looking for a lost pet rabbit.
Keeping pets is forbidden, so they probably couldn’t say anything. Hmm, I do wonder about it, though…
As Mia walked along by the perimeter wall, she noticed the old building standing beyond it.
But it wasn’t the sight of the unfamiliar building that brought Mia to a stop.
Two people were standing in a remote corner of the grounds up ahead.
One of them was familiar even from a distance. Black hair and the biggest frame of anyone at the academy.
It was the other person, though, who really caught Mia’s attention.
Tall, with golden hair.
Mia felt like she was in a dream.
Mia clenched her fists, nails digging into her palms. She was grateful for the pain.
“Felix…”
It was Felix standing beside Mathias, an awkward look on his face.
“Sorry, Mia. Sorry for saying I was tired…and for bailing.”
Mia shook her head hard. There was Felix’s normal, sunshine smile again. She was so happy, she couldn’t believe it.
“Do you think it would be all right for me to rejoin the team?”
“Of course!”
Felix smiled beautifully. It was nothing like the fake smile he’d been wearing lately. It was full, and open, and shining.
Oh, I love that face!
As Mia stood there filled with emotions and wonder, Felix looked guiltily away. Then he turned to face Henrik.
“And you too, Henrik…my bad for causing concern, yeah?”
“I figured it wasn’t for real. So your plan ended in failure, huh?”
Henrik grinned as he posed the question. Felix’s magnanimous expression faded, and he grunted a bad-tempered “Oh, just shut up.”
“What plan ended in failure?”
Mia looked at them both quizzically. Henrik turned to her.
“Isn’t it obvious? The seduc—MMPH!”
Felix suddenly leaped, clamping his hand over Henrik’s mouth.
“Seduc? What does that mean?”
Mia looked at Felix.
“Ignore him! He’s just roasting me again! You know…you suck, you suck!”
Felix was wearing a pasted-on grin, which made Mia blink at him in confusion. Henrik and Mathias both sighed, rolling their eyes.
“Uh, anyway…have you guys found the rabbit?”
Felix managed to smoothly change the subject.
But Mia was still wondering what went on during Felix’s absence from the group. In particular, what happened with Angelica?
There were so many things she wanted to ask him, but it was enough that Felix had returned to the fold.
Despite all the unanswered questions, Mia knew they had to focus on the issue at hand.
“So you’re helping Mathias too, Felix?”
“I’ve checked all the school buildings and the campus grounds.”
Felix nodded, looking relieved that the subject had been successfully changed.
Then he paused, looking up at the nearby wall.
“Hey, what’s that old building there?”
“I heard it was an old school building.”
Henrik supplied this information, and Mathias added to it.
“This is the magic practice area. This is actually where I first found Luna.”
“Really?”
Mia was surprised. This school building clearly hadn’t been in use for a long time. The high wall blocked most of the view, but it was clear the building was crumbling and falling down, with a big NO ENTRY sign. The building was on the way from the dorms to the library, but Mia had never really thought to try to peek over the high, sturdy wall surrounding it.
I had no idea the magic department used this place!
Mia peered in closer. There were numerous cracks in the walls, through which a bunny could have easily hopped through.
Wait, was that hole always there?
Mia thought back. She’d passed this wall many times, but she just couldn’t remember.
“The rabbit fled in this direction. If it’s not in someone’s dorm room right now, then this is the only place it could have found to hide in. And if this is where you found it, then maybe it chose to return here?”
Everyone nodded. Henrik’s guess sounded right to them.
Peeking through the hole in the wall, they could see the building inside. It looked like a ruin.
It was overwhelmingly creepy.
Despite what seemed like once-sturdy brickwork, the building was a mess. Windows busted in, huge cracks in the walls. Rusty pipes poked out of a section of broken wall like gnarled fingertips.
The four of them exchanged glances. Then Felix said what they were all thinking.
“Shall we go inside?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“IT was somewhere around here, I think…ah, there it is.”
Under Mathias’s guidance, they followed the wall around to find a door half-hidden behind an overgrown mass of ivy.
“There’s a door here?”
Mia was surprised. She’d passed this wall so many times and never noticed. Henrik and Felix both shrugged. Frowning, Mia tried the door.
It wasn’t locked.
The other side of the wall was filled with a jungle of weeds and overgrowth. It felt like someone was hidden, watching them. But there was nobody there, of course.
A sudden rustling sound made them all jump.
Looking around, Mia gasped as she saw little brown ears popping out of the undergrowth.
“Luna?”
At the sound of her voice, the ears vanished in fright.
The team moved further into the abandoned area, leaves crunching underfoot. They reached the wall where the NO ENTRY sign was hung with rope.
“Luna, come.”
Mia reached out. The next moment, a pair of red eyes flashed. The rabbit leaped out of the long grasses, and Mia felt her hand suddenly burn with pain.
“Ouch!”
Red lines bloomed across her hand. The rabbit had scratched her.
Mia clutched her injured hand.
Was that rabid rabbit really Luna?
Mia watched as the rabbit hopped and leaped away, disappearing inside the ruined building.
“Luna! Wait!”
Mathias called out and was just about to chase after her, when…
“You kids! What do you think you’re doing?! This place is off-limits to students!”
A professor had suddenly appeared in the doorway, yelling at them. It was a magic teacher—Associate Professor Bahr.
“Get away from there! If it collapses, you’ll all be killed!”
As they hurried back out of the off-limits area, Felix grabbed Mia’s wrist. Gazing at the bloody scratch for a moment, he suddenly and impulsively brought it to his mouth.
Woah!!!
✦ ✦ ✦
In a panic, Mia tried to pull her hand away, but Felix would not let go.
Was he trying to lick the wound clean?!
“Stop it! You don’t know if it’s infected!”
Mia was horrified. She knew wild animals could carry terrible diseases. But she also knew from experience that Felix rarely listened to reason.
Just as Felix’s mouth was about to make contact with the wound, Henrik grabbed Felix’s wrist and tugged it away from Mia’s hand.
“Don’t be such an idiot, Felix. That’s not a viable method of disinfection. We need to wash it with soap and water right away or Mia could suffer from infection.”
Henrik’s voice was steady, but there was an angry edge to it that was quite frightening.
The next moment, Felix grabbed Mia and swung her up into his arms.
“Woah! What?! Felix!”
Mia felt the blood rush to her head. Felix had lifted her like this before, when she got frozen solid that one time and spiked a fever. Back then, though, she’d been too foggy from what was going on to really process it.
Felix’s chest was surprisingly broad, and his arms were firm and strong around her. And right above her head was Felix’s handsome face. He was gazing down at Mia with deep concern.
Mia felt a fever coming on then, too. A Felix-induced fever.
“Felix, I’m perfectly capable of walking!”
Mia felt like her cheeks were burning. Unable to bear it all, she squeezed her eyes shut.
“No talking! This is an emergency!”
Barking this order at Mia, Henrik, and Mathias, Felix then began to run, sweeping Mia off to the infirmary faster than the wind could blow.