Spell Book & Scandal

Chapter Ten

His face is scraped, probably from his desperate dive on the pavement to escape the wand blast, and blood is trickling down his face from his nose, but he blinks at me and after a moment, his eyes focus and I exhale in relief. For one horrible second, I'd been sure that he was dead or unconscious. He shakes his head a couple of times, and then he grips my hand.

"Shelby—"

I don't know what he's going to say, though, because just then, there's a sound like a roaring train right behind us. Confused, I look around, and then my eyes land on the gaping mouth of a hippo. While the battle had been going on, it must have swum up to the edge of its enclosure, because now it steps through the shattered glass, its eyes angry, as it opens its mouth again and roars.

Miah grabs my hand and pulls himself to his feet. "What—" he pants, staring at the animal who looks like he's about to charge at any second.

Somebody screams, and all around us, casters and scribes start to run off in all directions. In the chaos, no one thinks to use magic to put the hippo back in his cage and rebuild the glass; instead, we scatter and take off running through the zoo. Miah jerks my hand and pulls me down a path, and I let him tow me along, adrenaline coursing through me. We skid to a stop next to the polar bear iceberg, and Miah lets go of my hand to draw his arm across his face, wiping away some of the blood that's dripping from his nose.

Then, he grins at me. "Bet you've never seen anything like that before, have you Shelby?"

I start at him, totally dumfounded. "That hippo's going to eat somebody!"

Fear flickers across his eyes, and he tenses like he's going to run again. "Listen," he finally says.

I try to slow my breathing, and then I focus, listening. The chaos around us has died down, and I stare at Miah in disbelief.

"Sanderson probably fixed it. It was his fault, after all, pulling a wand like that." Miah sounds bitter, but also sort of amused.

I swallow, even though I'm still freaking out. "You could have—we could have—"

"I know," he says, exhaling raggedly and stepping closer to me. "That could have gone poorly."

"How do you know the hippo's back in his cage?"

"One of the rules; whoever messes with any of the animals has to fix it. Although no one's ever done that before."

I force a laugh. "First time for everything?"

For a moment, the air crackles with energy, and suddenly I realize Miah's standing close enough that I can smell the tang of his blood. He looks down at me, his eyes intense, and my breath hitches in my throat. "Shelby—" he begins, reaching one hand toward my face.

His fingertips have just grazed my cheek when I hear a sound that's even more terrifying than the roar the hippopotamus made. A shrill whistle pierces the night, like a supersonic bird of prey, and I jerk away from Miah, looking around frantically. The whistle sounds again, and Miah grabs my hand as he understands the same thing that I've just realized.

"Caster Force," he says, his fingers tightening on mine. "We need to get out of here now."

I nod, my stomach turning inside out when I think of what will happen if the Force catches us. If my dad catches us. We take off running again, and I try not to listen to the whistles that fill the night. Somehow, we manage to hop the fence near the elephant enclosure without being seen, and Miah leads us through the woods faster than should be humanly possible. When we make it back to the train station and collapse on the plastic chairs, I breathe a sigh of relief, but Miah's shoulders are still tense.

He looks at me, his eyes pleading. "You can't tell your dad about tonight."

"What, do I look like I've got a death wish? Of course not."

"Even if he acts like he knows?"

I shake my head. "He won't have any reason to think I would know anything about all this."

Miah exhales, but his face doesn't relax. "It's just...your dad sort of scares me."

I look at him for a moment, and then a fractured smile creeps onto my face. "You just faced down a scribe with a wand and a crazy hippo, and my dad is the thing you're afraid of?"

He pauses, but then he begins to smile. "When you put it that way..."

I giggle, and in a few minutes, we're both laughing frantically, gulping for air and doubling over. Finally, the hysterics pass, and Miah takes my hand again. "Our secret?"

I nod, feeling a delicious warmth steal through my body that has nothing to do with adrenaline or the fact that I was just running for my life. "Always."

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Want to know what happens to Shelby, Miah, and Christina?  Spell Book & Scandal is out now wherever eBooks are sold: http://jenmcconnel.com/ya-fiction/spell-book-scandal/