Olivia had dressed as Ivy to wangle tickets to a concert. Surely she could do the same to help her new friend’s career? If there was one thing Olivia was short on right now, it was friends. And Holly had really been there for her when she needed someone. In Olivia’s book that counted for a lot.
She remembered what it had been like at the start of her acting career. Auditioning for The Groves had been terrifying. It would be fine to help Holly get the pictures she needed – just one more time dressing up as Ivy.
It was the right thing to do.
Wasn’t it?
Chapter Seven
Ivy woke with a start. She’d heard something – and there it was again – the creak of a coffin lid opening. She squeezed the side of her digital watch and the screen lit up. Midnight. Ivy peered out of her coffin to see Petra slipping out of hers, quietly closing the lid so as not to wake the other girls. She watched as Petra shoved her feet into a pair of trainers sitting near the door and crept out of the room.
Ivy lay back down on the cool, velvet lining of her coffin, staring into the darkness. Petra’s going to see Etan. I just know it. Love made people do crazy things. Ivy’s eyelids were heavy. She’d had only a few hours of sleep and she wanted to let Petra go. She’d already been in a whole heap of trouble after Miss Avisrova had seen the article about ‘Ivy’ being at The Pall Bearers concert. She’d been made to clean out the cages for every bat in the school! I’m not getting myself into any more scrapes for anyone, Ivy thought now. No way.
But could she stay in this warm coffin and leave Petra to get herself into a whole heap of trouble out there? What would Olivia do in a situation like this? Ivy opened her eyes and gave a loud sigh. Of course, it was obvious what Olivia would do – she’d go and help Petra.
Why me? Why do I have to feel guilty about leaving a schoolgirl to go out into the dark on her own? Ivy rubbed her eyes. She couldn’t let Petra get into trouble, and trouble was exactly what Petra was going to find if she tried to cross the Gauntlet to see her crush.
Ivy opened her coffin, crawled out and shut the lid, pushing the middle of the Wallachia crest emblazoned on the top to lock it. She slid into her black tennis shoes and threw her coat on over her T-shirt and sweatpants. Soft snoring could be heard coming from the other coffins in Ivy’s dorm room. Her room-mates were fast asleep. Petra had better appreciate this, she thought, as she crept out of the door after her.
In the chilly corridor, Ivy thought she heard a rustling noise behind her, but when she whipped round, no one was there. That was strange. Her vampire hearing never usually failed her.
She carried on down the hallway, slipped the bolt back on a large ornate door and gently closed it behind her.
Outside, Ivy hugged herself, rubbing her arms. At night, the grounds of Wallachia Academy were the most eerie thing she had ever seen. The whole place looked like a graveyard on Halloween. The stone façade of the school building glowed ghostly pale in the moonlight. The trimmed hedges looked alive in the night breeze. Every creak of a branch and crunch of leaves sounded threatening.
Ivy tried to tune her hearing to focus on Petra. She could hear Petra’s trainers sinking into the soft grass and soil. She picked up her pace. Yep – judging from the direction of her footsteps, Petra was definitely headed for the spooky, booby-trapped forest that divided the girls’ and boys’ dorms.
Ivy hurried over, not caring whether she was heard or not. She found Petra at the edge of the wood, staring at a narrow passageway that began between two birch trees.
‘Are you nuts?’ Ivy hissed.
‘No, I’m in love.’ Petra clasped her hands together. ‘My whole heart aches. Do you know what that feels like?’
‘Of course I know what that feels like. My own boyfriend is all the way back in America, which, let me remind you, is much further away than the other side of a forest.’
Petra flapped her hand, batting aside Ivy’s comment. She was holding an envelope, which Ivy was sure contained another drawing or sappy poem. ‘If you really loved him, you would never have left.’
‘What?!’ Ivy didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. Vampires and their ridiculous ideas of romance! Maybe it was a good thing they weren’t fully integrated into society – they’d set the world back three hundred years. Ivy took a deep breath. ‘This isn’t going to solve anything,’ she told Petra. ‘You’re only going to get caught in one of the booby traps, a teacher is going to have to rescue you, and you’ll be in an epic amount of trouble. What would that accomplish?’
Petra pressed the back of her hand to her forehead in true dramatic fashion. ‘You don’t understand. I have to prove myself to Etan!’ She charged into the woods.
‘Wait!’ Ivy barrelled in after her.
The forest was pitch black. Even with vampire sight, Ivy could barely see through it. She could only just make out the dim figure of Petra running ahead. They hadn’t got ten metres in when Petra tripped over a hidden wire. She stumbled forwards, landing in the dirt. The wire triggered a wasps’ nest, which swung down from a tree on a rope. Ivy tackled Petra, pulling her off to the side just as the nest smashed into another tree trunk. Buzzing filled the air. But before they could run, the ground gave way beneath them. Ivy scrambled back, pulling Petra with her.
The forest floor opened up into a pit. Ivy peered over the edge. There were no spikes, like in medieval movies, but instead a foul-smelling pool of black goo gurgled inside.
Petra was swatting frantically at the wasps flying above her.