Free INTEGRATION (Bonfire Academy Book Two) (Bonfire Chronicles) by Imogen Rose Page B

interrupted. “It’ll be very helpful to have you show us where you heard the voice coming from. That’s okay with you, isn’t it, Frau Schmelder?” His tone was hard.
    “Yes. That’s fine.” She pursed her lips. “I’ll call Jagger and find out if Mason has gone to class.”
    Ten minutes later, King Sebastian and I were following the two Trackers down the empty corridors and up the steps to Mason’s room. So far, the two Trackers hadn’t said a word. They seemed to know what to do without receiving any particular instructions. Frau Smelt hadn’t said anything to them, just nodded at them when it was time for us to leave. I wondered if they could even talk. Perhaps they couldn’t, but I wasn’t much interested in finding out, especially since they seemed totally disengaged. They hadn’t acknowledged or even made eye contact with either Faustine’s father or me. Maybe it was because we were demons and they couldn’t stand being in our midst any more than we could in theirs. But I didn’t trust the Trackers, even though they worked for The Smelt. They were shifters, after all.
    Walking side by side with King Sebastian felt familiar in an odd way. For a while, I thought it might be because he was a demon king, like my father, but then it dawned on me that he exuded the same kind of aura as Jagger—dark.
    We must have been a strange sight—two demons following two crazy-looking bloodhound shifters. Thankfully, everyone was at class or at their sessions. Once we reached Mason’s floor, I stopped and showed them where I had been standing when I heard the voices.
    King Sebastian nodded. “I can’t imagine you mistaking an old woman’s voice for anything else at this short distance. All right, let’s go inside.”
    The Trackers slipped the key The Smelt had given them into the lock and then opened the door. Once the door was firmly closed behind us, they walked to the center of the room and stood back to back. I glanced over at King Sebastian, waggling my eyebrows. He shrugged and put his finger to his lips, shushing me.
    I looked over at the shifters again. They had closed their eyes. Their noses started twitching, and I could hear their sharp, shallow intakes of air. The nose jerking became more agitated, with them looking even crazier than before. I could barely contain my amusement, and I noticed the king was having the same problem. I wished The Smelt had warned us. I finally succumbed, letting out a muffled snort when their noses actually started elongating and growing wide at the ends, becoming more and more pronounced, until they took on the shapes of funnels. The skin on the outside of their now-hideous noses had gone gray and was mapped with bumpy red capillaries. They looked totally disgusting. I was happy to forgo a good sense of smell if that was what it took. The two shifters twitched their extended noses around in the air, inhaling deeply.
    I was so enraptured by the proboscis circus that if I hadn’t peeked over at King Sebastian to see his reaction, I’d have missed his sudden change in demeanor. He’d gone from being an interested, amused audience to looking as if he was about to have a fit.
    He had partially transformed. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then exhaled loudly, his face bathed in fury. He held up his hand. “Stop!”
    The Trackers instantly opened their eyes and glanced over at him, their eyes wide.
    “Leave.”
    The Trackers looked at each other, clearly unsure of what to do.
    “You may leave.” King Sebastian waved them to the door.
    Obviously unhappy about the situation, one of the Trackers must have felt compelled to question. His voice was surprisingly effeminate and high. “Sir, I’ve got a scent. Do you—”
    “Thank you. I’ll take it from here. Go back to Frau Schmelder and tell her that I’ll update her later. And that is
all
you will say. Understood?” King Sebastian said, his voice uncompromising. “Thank you for your time.”
    The