Oxford Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

and would rather turn a blind eye to a late paper than miss their bi-weekly “magic-magic” sessions. Not that she had been late or skipped any of those. Once a nerd, always a nerd.
    As proof of her goodwill, Madison conceded. “I’ll try next week. I promise.”
    His eyes were back on her, and he leaned his upper body forward. His focus drilled through her resolve, assessed her commitment. “You look tired.” This time his voice had more concern than judgment.
    She jerked her head in surprise. Jackson never commented on her physical appearance. Just like he never, ever mentioned Rupert anymore. Those subjects were outside the parameters he had set for their recently renewed friendship. Jackson had promised he would get over her. Maybe he had.
    “I didn’t sleep last night.” She rubbed her itchy eyes and her fingertips scratched her eyelids. “Or rather, I did for a bit. And after that I didn’t want anymore.”
    Ollie sat up and placed his forearms on his thighs. Jackson didn’t move, but the deeper crease between his eyes betrayed his interest. After Rupert and Louise’s failure to pick up on Madison’s need to confess, the attention of today’s captured audience came as a relief.
    “If I sleep, I’ll dream … and really that’s not something I want to do at the moment.” She lowered her gaze and tried to shuffle, the hard floor adding to her discomfort. Despite what the three of them had gone through together, despite the fact that they knew everything there was to know about her, sharing this new secret made her cringe.
    “Is he back? Peter?”
    The two-syllable name crashed in the center of Jackson’s living room. Madison shook her head. Jackson breathed out, his shoulders lowering like a deflated balloon.
    Madison’s gaze shifted away from her tutor to Ollie, and her heart contracted. Memories had drawn his facial features into a mask of raw pain. Through the round shape of his glasses, she saw the tears glittering in his puppy eyes. Guilt crashed through the door to her conscious. If she hadn’t been so freaking useless, he wouldn’t be sitting there, teary and heartbroken. If she hadn’t failed miserably, Pippa would be gossiping while painting her toenails in the brightest red for sale and Pippa and Ollie would still be together.
    Pippa had drugged and abducted Madison, and hidden her in the crypt of St. Giles, one of Oxford’s oldest churches. Jackson, Rupert, and Ollie had joined forces to find them, and when they had, Madison had managed to vanquish Peter. The prayer she used had sent the vengeful spirits to hell, but it had also killed Pippa. The girl had accepted the possession in her plan to get rid of Madison and keep Rupert for herself. When Peter had fallen, Pippa had too.
    Those were the rules of the exorcism Madison had learned from Mamie’s little book of magic. Still, she kept wondering if there had been something she could have done, something else, something more … and maybe Pippa would be alive now.
    “Did you see …” Ollie’s question was left hanging in the air.
    “I didn’t see her, Ollie. I’m sorry.”
    He nodded and leaned against the back of the sofa.
    “It was something, someone new,” she said. “There was no warning, no premonition, nothing. I was at this concert two nights ago, I turned my head and he was there.”
    “How do you know he was really dead?” Ollie emphasized the “really.”
    “His clothes were from another time. The sixteenth century, I’d say. And his face was covered with blood.” The last detail was the closing argument. The guy had been totally dead. Unless it was the blood of his previous victims …
    Jackson geared up to full whacky-magic speed. “Did he do or say anything?”
    “Yeah …” Madison swallowed hard. The saliva slithered along her constricted throat. “He threatened Camilla, Rupert’s stepmother.” She saw the ghost again, his body overpowering Camilla’s silhouette. “He said she would die before the