Wizardess Heart And The Dark Unicorn

Chapter twenty-three

  
      I looked around the room feeling both nostalgia and disgust build up in me. I wonder how many of these students were working with Embri and how many were simply caught in the middle. The kids were eating their breakfast before they began to start their day. Klaus was standing beside me watching everything like a hawk. Thomas and Vincent were across the room trying to blend in with the rest of the Nightingales. I had given them a quick over view on what was expected of the students and a fair warning to watch everything that they were given. I didn't trust the school enough to drink or eat anything from the tables, so I only held one of the cups in my hand to make it seem like I had been drinking from it. "We have an audience." Klaus whispered into my ear which caught me slightly off guard. I looked over his way, only to see that he had been looking behind me towards the balcony overlooking the room. I followed Klaus's eyes to Embri who was glaring down at us. He looked irritated with a hint of amusement. I raised my hand to give him a peace sign, but keeping a hold of the cup it held as I gave Embri a smug smirk and a wink.

It was a way to make him leave and I got what I wanted, but not before his jaw clenched and he shot the dirtiest look my way. "I'll admit that you have a way about you that keeps people at bay."
I'm not sure if that was a compliment or an insult, but I'm going to take it as the former. "Thank you." I whispered back as I lowered my hand. My eyes scanned the students before landing on Thomas and Vincent. They looked back at me worriedly. It's alright, everything will be okay. Maybe if I keep telling myself that, I'd believe it....eventually.
"You couldn't keep me at bay." Klaus's comment drew my attention away from his brother and Vincent. He chuckled once more seeing the aggravated expression that he seems to have grown accustomed to. "Though it wasn't from the lack of trying, was it?"
Despite my attempts to stop the smirk that wanted to see the light of day, it still showed more resilience than I had. "No, but it seems that you're just as stubborn as I am."

   I moved to head out of the hall with him falling into step beside me. "This coming from the queen of stubbornness, I'm taking that as a compliment."
I rolled my eyes just before I caught the movement of Thomas and Vincent leaving the hall from the other door. "Weirdo." That was the best comeback I had while my mind replayed the Embri encounter that had played out.
"So where are we going anyway?" He asked as we moved towards Thomas and Vincent who were waiting for us now near the end of the hall inconspicuously.
"We are going to figure out what Embri is up to. Did you see how he was happy that I was holding a cup? I think that they put something in it, which means that whatever they have planned is going to happen today." I answered as I moved around the corner so that nobody could see us talking to them. The less their seen with me the better.
"Yeah, I saw that too and that doesn't make me feel any better." Vincent replied without turning towards me. "That means that they're gunning for you specifically or anyone with you."
"We knew that already." I hissed back before I looked down the halls to insure that we were alone. Klaus grabbed my hand and squeezed it. He wants me to calm down and I really should but with repeating everything that we already figured out.
"We can throw them off guard, by switching up the groups." Thomas mentioned quickly.
Klaus was the tense one now. So he doesn't like the idea of us splitting up? In truth he was keeping me safe a lot of the time. "If they get Klaus, they already said that they'd use him as bait." I replied casting another glance around the hall when I heard distant footsteps. "There's not time to decide. We have to scram before we're caught." I mentioned before I pulled Klaus away from the hall and moved into the nearest room, which turned out to be a closet.
I could hear an amused chuckle from above my head and the gentle wind tickling through the strands of my hair. "Nice choice Kayle."
It's not like he could see it, but I rolled my eyes anyway. "Shut up Klaus." I whispered back quickly as the footsteps grew closer to our hiding spot.
Another chuckle slipped from him, getting me to look up towards him, but only seeing vast darkness. "Look who's being bossy now." His voice lowered so nobody could hear him but me.
Feeling a bit like he needed to be reminded about the fact that he's known at the "Emperor" of Gedonelune, I spoke again. "I've learned a few things from you."
"Not as much as I hoped." He joked back seeming to hide something from me. That's when I felt him slip something into my hand. "Try not to lose these this time."
When he clasped his hands around mine, I could feel the objects he placed within them. "Klaus, why are you giving me the communicating earrings again?" I asked hurriedly. Is he going to try to do something stupid?
I felt warmth on my forehead and the gentle push of his lips. "It's just in case we get separated." Or are you going to try to sacrifice yourself so I get away? Before I could question him about my growing suspicion, the footsteps stopped somewhere close by.
"And she's nowhere to be found?!" Embri's voice snapped just outside the door making my heart race in worry. He sounds like he's at the end of his rope.
A timid voice answered the anger that seemed to be pounding the walls. "We searched everyone, but she's not among the bodies."
Wait did he just say bodies? What did they do to everyone? "I don't care if you're searching them again. Find her!"
Klaus seemed to slow his breathing down so he could hear the next response. "What about those she has with her?"
So they know about them too? So much for the element of surprise that we thought we had. "I don't care about them! I need her for the experiments! She's the only one who's been successfully brought back and I need to know how!" His yelling made the guy he was talking to exclaim out in surprise and I instinctively tried to move farther back in the closet, but Klaus stopped me when he felt what I was doing.
"Don't move Kayle." He whispered after leaning closer to me. "They'll hear us if you do." I know that, it's just a bit hard to listen to this and not get a little worried.
"But headmaster, they'll protect her if they can."
I began to feel the dark magic begin to swirl outside the door as Embri's anger bubbled over the top. "Then don't give them that chance, kill them."
I think that both Klaus and I tensed at those words simultaneously. He's got a brother out there and I have three friends in the thick of it. "Y-yes headmaster..." Whoever he was, he didn't take his time in leaving the hallway.
Embri let out a heavy sigh as the dark magic and his anger faded. "I will find you Kayle. I swear it. I will bring him back."
Bring him back? Who is him? So this situation is the same as what Azusa had planned for me? Wonderful.