Chapter four

Arkadia wolf high

"Aren't they such a lovely couple?" Lucille smirked, and sat next to Oscar at the cafeteria. She watched in annoyance as he stared at Jace and Vanessa, who were talking and laughing at their table.
"With him in the picture, she'll never notice you," Lucille said.
" What do you mean?" He asked.
"Cut the act and stop pretending. I've caught you staring at her many times. You're in love with her." She put on a wide grin.
"If you say so, but what can I do? There's no way I could win Jace." Oscar sighed in defeat.
"Stupid boys, I don't know what you see in her. Anyway if you really love her, I could help you get her to like you," she said.
"How can you do that? they look so....so  divinely joined." Oscar remarked.
"Candid advice, do not underestimate me or you'll be surprised at what I can do."

***

The door opens, and Maya steps into Wilfred's office.
"You called me." Maya closes the door to Alfred's office.
"Yes, I called you concerning Valentine's guards."
"The Lunarike pendant?" She asked, and Alfred replied, "yes. If Valentine had a reason to believe that the pendant is here, then I think it is. The student with it probably outsmarted the royal guards."
"You're right," Maya said, and continued, "What do you suggest we do?"
"We find them, and train them to put an end to Valentine's evil reign and plans."

***

Jace and Vanessa walked into Jace's room, and Jace switched on the lights. The room has two beds standing adjacent to each other. A small wardrobe and table stood next to the beds, and chandeliers dropped from the ceiling.
"This is mine." Jace walks over to his drawer, and brings out a piece of the Lunarike pendant.
"It's broken just like yours," He says, and Vanessa brings out her own piece of the Lunarike pendant, and holds it out next to Jace's piece. To their surprise, the both pieces glowed, and attracted each other, joining to form an half pendant.
"Wow!" Vanessa exclaimed in amusement.
"What is it? And what is so special about it to be wanted by a king?" Jace asked.
"That's for us to find out," Vanessa said.

***

"Today Is the day we carry out our plan," Lucille said as she and Oscar walked to the training field.
"Hello everyone, a race would begin now in your wolf form, once you get to the finish line, you have to hit the red button. Once you do that, a gate will open to the sand in which you'll have to find the hidden key," Maya grinned.

***

"Go." The students started running on Maya's command. Hudson ran ahead of the others with Lucille, Jace, and Vanessa running closely behind him. It was already a month and few weeks here, and they had mastered transformation pretty well. Hudson and Lucille though, had already gotten a hand of it even before being admitted into the academy. On reaching the finish line, Hudson transformed to his human form, and pressed a red button, opening the gate into the sounds. He bent down, and started searching for the key after which Lucille, Jace and Vanessa joined in.

"Out of my way losers." Lucille scoffed, searching through the sand with vehement vivacity. They all ignored her, as they were already used to her rude and proud behaviour. Vanessa and Hudson spotted the key at the same time with their enhanced sight. They charged forward together, and fortunately for Hudson, he was able to grab it a microsecond before Vanessa.

***

"You did well." Vanessa sat next to Hudson.
He looked sideways at her, and replied before looking back at the table.
"You weren't bad either."
"I've noticed that for the past few days, you don't talk with anyone. What of your friends?" Vanessa asked.
"No one wants to be friends with a thief. I was practically caught stealing before being admitted here." Hudson sighed regrettably, still staring at his table.

"I can't and won't blame you, everyone has a reason for doing things. You probably had your reasons." Vanessa smiled at Hudson.
"Well not everyone thinks so," he said.
"At least I do, and I'll support you. Isn't that what friends do?" Vanessa asked making him drop his jaw in surprise.

***

Vanessa

Vanessa walked to the hall of weapons in search of Jace. She knew that was his favourite place here apart from their special spot. He had grown to love weapons, and already knew his way well with swords. He even sometimes trained her privately in their special spot. Her lips curled up into a smile; remembering their training sessions, when Jace would wrap his arms around her from behind, and hold her hands, which were tightly clutched onto a sword. She could feel his breathe linger on, and tickle her neck as he directed her hands. His smell: a mixture of dried sweat, magnolia blossoms, and a male cologne. He would also tell her how nice her hair smelt, and would inhale it's scent deeply. She turned down the corridor, and felt someone was spying on her. She looked back, but saw no-one. She began to walk faster before a voice stopped her, "where do you think you're going princess." She felt her heart jump out of her mouth; her heart beating extremely fast when she saw a man right before her. Who was he? What did he want from her? Why was he after her? This were the questions running through her mind. The man ran his fingers through the wall, drawing a door shape, and magically, a real door appeared there. He opened the door, and before Vanessa could make a move to run, he grabbed her ruthlessly, snarled at her, and pushed her in. The room behind the magically created door was dark and creepy. Every sound made seemed to echo through the room's walls. Vanessa watched in surprise as the man stretched out his head, and silver ropes appeared on them. He grinned mischievously, and whirled the rope in the air, before releasing it towards her; the rope pinning her to the wall.
"Who are you? You can't leave me here, please." Vanessa cried, not bothering to struggle, knowing the rope was silver. He ignored her cry, and instead, turned around, left the room, and closed the door, leaving her alone in the dark room.
"Help me." Vanessa cried out.

***

Amber

Amber sat on her bed in her room, listening to music on a purple and black headphone, as she sketched something on her drawing pad: as usual. She looked towards the door; a knock on it echoing through the to room. She shrugged reluctantly, before standing up, and walking towards the door. She unlocked the door, and opened the door to see Jace.
"Is Vanessa here?" Jace asked.
"No."
"Good." He sighs and walks in
Amber walked back to her bed to continue drawing, surprised at how wierld he was behaving. She mistakenly knocked off her pencil and colours; her focus, distracted. She bent to pick it, and as she stood up, her face awkwardly met with Jace's, who was standing right in her front. She noticed the look in his eyes, it was like..... She wasn't sure, but then it kicked in: realization.
"Oh no, he couldn't do this, Vanessa is my friend." She screamed within myself.

***

Vanessa

"Somebody heellp." Vanessa cried softly tired from screaming. She finally stopped screaming for help, as she felt her voice disappear: giving up. She looked towards the door to the room; a click from the door echoing through the room. The door slowly opened, letting light seep inside a little, showing a masculine feature.
"Jace." Vanessa sighed in relief, but to her surprise, as the person got closer, she saw it was Oscar, Jace's roommate.
"Vanessa." Oscar called her, and brought out a silver knife, using it to cut Vanessa loose. On getting free, Vanessa leaned on Oscar weakly, hugging him.
"Thank you, I thought I'll die here," Vanessa said weakly. 
"You're welcome." Oscar patted her back gently, and a mischievous smile lit up on his face, behind her back.

***

After regaining her strength, Vanessa walked back to her room. Oscar had left her in the room, and gone back to get her some food and water. When he had stepped in at first, she had thought it was Jace but was disappointed when she saw it was only Oscar. Jace was also probably looking for her, she thought, or hoped. It didn't really matter anyway. What mattered was that Oscar had been there to save her, or she would have died of starvation. Then she began to wonder, had Oscar been searching for her? Or had he accidentally stumbled upon the door. The door was not there before, so he had probably entered to check out what it lead to. She had to rest before going to meet Jace, he would have been looking for her all over. The shocking thing however was that someone wanted her dead. She didn't really know who she had offended or hurt, and why they would want to hurt her. She reached her room, and turned the door knob, opening the door to see the shock of her life.
"What!" Vanessa yelled, seeing Jace kissing Amber. Amber jumped up in fright, and broke the kiss on hearing Vanessa's voice.

Vanessa stood there in shock expecting Jace to try to explain or something; to tell her that it wasn't what she thought it was. But to her shock, he simply walked past her, leaving the room.