We went our separate ways and, as I ventured the halls that were now so familiar to me, I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. The last seven weeks had been insane, but also some of the best of my life.
I missed my old life, but not the one I left behind.
I missed my parents even if they weren’t my birth parents, but that was a life I couldn’t get back. This new one, however, was one I was happy to embrace after the last ten months of hell.
Being so lost in thought about the past, present, and future, I hadn’t been paying well enough attention to where I was going and slammed into the back of someone as I turned into the classroom.
“I’m so sorry,” I exclaimed right before tripping over my feet as I tried to back away. My arm shot out to try to catch my fall, but all I did was grasp on to the ass of the guy I had initially run into, causing him to come crashing down with me.
Thankfully, he was quicker than me and turned in time to catch himself before completely crushing me.
“Hey, Raegan,” Embry said with a familiar wink, his face inches from my own. “A little nervous about the test?”
“Uhhh, I guess. How about you?”
“Well, I was feeling a little tired, but now…” He glanced between the two of us, still on the ground, practically pressed together. “I’m feeling a bit more awake.”
Oh, shit.
Scrambling backward like a crab, I slid out from underneath him as quickly as I could and grabbed my bag that I had dropped.
“I’m so sorry.”
He smirked as he also stood up. “You already said that.”
“Yeah, well, I, uh, wanted to make sure you heard me,” I stammered like an idiot.
His hands cupped my elbows. “Are you alright?”
“Yep. Just great. Gotta find my seat now. Bye.” Rushing away, I heard his deep chuckle as I slid into my seat next to Peyton.
She opened her mouth to say something, but I held my finger over her mouth. “Don’t say a word.”
“But—”
“No.”
“You’re taking all the fun out of witnessing that, you know?” she whined.
“Yep, and I don’t really care,” I replied.
Pulling out my tablet, I was actually surprised Peyton was letting it go. The professor walked in, and I figured I was in the clear until the four of us were all back together, at least.
“So, I take it Enzo is officially being replaced?” she snickered.
Ah, I knew it was too good to be true for her to let the subject go so easily.
“Enzo was never mine to replace, so the answer to your question would be ‘not applicable’.”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes at me and finished setting up her stuff for the test.
Her comments did make me question my attraction to Embry, though. He was the exact opposite of Enzo, so I couldn’t see how my subconscious could be trying to replace one with the other, but it could have been that I was just refusing to consider it.
“Good morning, class. Your final test for the quarter is going to be seventy percent of your grade and will consist of two parts. For part one, you will have today and tomorrow to complete the actual test. The following three days will be spent writing an essay on your choice of topic. You can choose from any topic we have covered thus far in the class. Any questions?”
When nobody raised their hand, my tablet lit up and the test appeared. There were four segments and one hundred questions. Two segments per day. Fifty questions per day. No problem. I had this.
I had to have this.
Forty-five minutes later, I was done with the first fifty questions. I considered going on to the other parts to get a head start on the following day, but my brain was mush and I still had an hour tomorrow to complete them. So, I spent the rest of the time considering my options for my essay.
My first thought had been witches since I was part witch, but as I searched the walls showing pictures of the species we had covered, my eyes landed on the dragon shifters.
In my quest to find my birth parents and figure out who I was, I had done an immense amount of research on dragons. When Headmaster Stone had told me they were rare, I figured it was the easiest place to start in my investigation.
I hadn’t found anything I deemed helpful, but I had learned a lot about their history, especially the reason for them segregating themselves from the rest of the supernaturals.
Their blood was powerful, and many witches used it for dark magic. When young dragons began disappearing, the elders of their clans decided it was time to remove themselves from the supernatural community. Some went into hiding, but most ventured to an off-the-grid area in Europe.
“That was fucking brutal,” Peyton droned, interrupting my thoughts. “How far did you get?”
“Finished half, then thought about my essay subject. You?”
“Same for the questions, and essay is easy. They say to write what you know. I’ll be writing about wolves. Well, one alpha to be exact.”
My brow raised. “Oh, yeah? Anyone I know?”
As we gathered our things and headed for the door, she shook her head. “This guy was the original alpha. Every race has their first alpha, except the elves. They’ve been around too long to know the truth about their history, but the witches, shifters, and vampires all had to start somewhere.”
My mind began racing with questions. In all of my research, original supernaturals never came up. I was intrigued with who they were and what roles they played. Like, was Headmaster Stone an original? Or were they all dead?
“Are any of them still living?” I asked as we traversed the hallway.
“Nope. Well, the dragon one might be, but the last living one that interacted in our community was a sorceress named Malina, but rumor has it, she went dark. Like Satan-level dark. The council caught her, and nobody knows what truly happened in the end for her. That was a couple decades ago, I think. Most of the others chose to die at some point. Nobody wants to live forever when everyone else they love has died.”
“The originals were immortal?” My eyes were probably bulging out of my head, but coming from the human part of the world, I was sorely disappointed I hadn’t learned about this yet.
“I gotta get to my next class and so do you. Search for Doyens in your tablet library. It’s what they used to call the originals. You’ll find what you’re looking for, nerd.”
She and the others liked to poke fun at me from time to time when I asked too many questions or still got fascinated by the magic around me, but I didn’t have parents who taught me about any of it before I showed up at the academy.
I had been thrown into this world, and it was basically sink or swim for me. I was going to stay afloat no matter the cost, even if it made me a nerd in their eyes.
Halfway through the week, my emotional state was a wreck, but I was feeling good about my finals, so I tried to focus on that. I knew I hadn’t knocked any of them out of the park, but so far, I was fully expecting to pass them all. A C-minus was still passing.
A couple of my classes finished early, and I was down to three classes for the last two days of the week. Plus, Enzo had canceled our tutoring sessions for the week, so I had a shit ton of extra time on my hands to focus on specific finals and the research I had been doing on the Doyens.
There hadn’t been a ton of information available, but I was soaking it up and loving what I could find. Each bit I read about the witches and dragons made me feel like I knew a little more about myself.
Not knowing where I came from was a hard thing to grasp, but I was slowly coming to terms with everything I had been dealt.
I spent most of the afternoon in my room, but when it was time for dinner, I wanted to get out and enjoy the cool evening. Fall was upon us, and it was my favorite time of year.
Though, when I opened my door, I came face-to-face with Headmaster Stone. Startled, I did nothing but stare at him like an invalid.
“Raegan? Are you okay?” he asked, conc
erned.
Shaking my head, I blinked. “Oh, yeah. You just took me by surprise. I’ve never seen you in the dorms before.”
“Well, I don’t typically have a reason to come.”
“But you do now?” Tension laced my voice.
“Unfortunately. I need you to come with me.” His hand swept out, and his robe hung loose from his arm.
Without another word, I walked with him to Magic Hall. Instead of going to his office, he took me to the room where my abilities had been unlocked. Anxiety slammed into me as my hands began to shake; my heartrate increased when I thought back to the painful experience.
When we entered the room, it was completely different from the last time I had been there, and I learned it was normally a conference room for the council. There was now a long wooden table with the academy logo carved into the center set in the middle of the room. Oversized oak chairs with brown leather cushions surrounded the table, and all of the council members were already seated around it.
Headmaster Stone gestured for me to sit at the end of the table as he took the head seat. After I was situated, I took a few seconds to check out the council. Desmond’s face caught my attention first. His skin was sunken, as if he hadn’t eaten in weeks, with deep purple circles under his eyes. His head remained downcast with a frown on his face.
Fiona actually smiled at me this time instead of the scowl she had cast my way when I first met her. Alexander paid more attention to his nails than anything else in the room, and Bennett appeared more like Headmaster Stone, troubled by whatever we were about to discuss.
“Thank you for joining us, Raegan,” Headmaster Stone began. “I wish it was under better circumstances or that it could have waited until after this week, but we’ve put it off for as long as we could.”
“Put what off?” I asked him when he paused.
“When you opened the door to the lower levels of this school, a small amount of essence from a very powerful sorceress leaked out and entered your body. It’s the reason you couldn’t leave the academy grounds with the other students. While the shield is mostly meant to keep people out, there are some beings it’s meant to keep in.”
“Are you telling me there is another person riding shotgun inside of me?” My voice rose, and I tried to keep myself under control, but I was losing it more and more by the second.
Fiona leaned forward and caught my attention with sincerity written in her facial features. “Desmond has been fighting non-stop to try to counteract her, but somehow, she keeps growing stronger. We are hoping that maybe you’ve heard something or experienced anything out of the ordinary that could tell us why.”
Well, that explained why he looked like death.
My mind thought back to everything that had happened since I ventured through the forbidden door. The woman’s voice had gradually become stronger, but without telling Enzo why, I was able to get him to teach me how to shut out voices around me.
I hadn’t known if it would work, because I only told him I was getting distracted in class, but it also happened to work in silencing the woman, for the most part. So, over the last couple weeks, I hadn’t heard much out of her.
Then, there were the gargoyle statues. The sentient beings that shouldn’t have been able to move and watch, but somehow could and only with me when nobody else was paying attention.
My hands rubbed over my face as I considered if it was truly in my best interest to tell them everything.
“It’s okay, Raegan. You can trust us. Tell us what happened to you,” Alexander’s soothing voice sounded in the quiet room.
Lifting my head, my eyes met his and I was momentarily lost within their aqua depths. Tension left my body, and I was no longer afraid to tell the council everything they wanted to know.
My mouth opened, but the words wouldn’t come. Instead, a sharp pain erupted in my head, and the woman’s voice returned. This time, it was louder than it had ever been before.
Don’t tell them, Raegan. They’ll kill you, just like they tried to kill me.
Chapter 12
Alexander’s gaze hardened when I didn’t speak. “She shouldn’t have been able to disobey me. Bennett was right, and we’re too late. Malina’s too far rooted within her.”
Malina.
I knew that name. I had been reading about the original supernaturals, and she was the first sorceress. The online library, which was like a massive Wikipedia for all things magical, told me about her dark years, and I remembered Peyton mentioning she had disappeared almost twenty years ago. Suddenly, it all started to make sense.
Malina wasn’t dead like people assumed. She was locked in the basement of Shadow Veil. Worst of all, I was now connected to her somehow.
“Raegan.” Bennett regarded me like a wild animal. “Do you know who Malina is?”
Deciding there was no point in hiding it, I nodded my head. I’d comply for the time being, but there were no promises I would tell them everything, depending on how they responded as the conversation progressed.
If Malina was truly in my head, I certainly wasn’t going to trust her, but she had made a valid point. I needed to watch my own back, because I couldn’t count on anyone else to do it.
“A woman speaks in my head sometimes. She doesn’t say much. Mostly cryptic stuff about power and not leaving her. Until just now, I didn’t even know her name,” I finally said.
Desmond narrowed his eyes at me, appearing to strain from the effort as sweat broke out on his forehead. With a loud sigh, his shoulders dropped. “She’s telling the truth.”
Headmaster Stone reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve done enough today, Desmond. Why don’t you go rest?”
His mouth opened to say something, but even that seemed like it would take too much effort for the sorcerer. Instead of responding, he shuffled out of the room, barely lifting his feet as he walked out of the door.
Once he was gone, the attention of the room was back on me, but nobody spoke for nearly a minute as tension rose.
“Malina is getting stronger, and we don’t know how. Are you sure there isn’t anything you can tell us that would be helpful?” Fiona urged. “I know we weren’t very accepting of you when you arrived, but it can’t be a coincidence that this is all happening now. We want answers just as much as you do, and we’d like to work together.”
Holding her stare, I considered her words. She was right about not making me feel good when I first arrived, but I hadn’t held it against them. Honestly, I hadn’t even thought much about the day since Headmaster Stone had told me I was allowed to stay.
I was a stranger who had no history. Could I really blame them for their initial reaction? No, I couldn’t.
“There is a pull I feel toward her. I fight it almost daily. Some days it’s weaker than others, but it’s always there. Enzo helped me block her out for a while without knowing it, but when she really wants to get through, like when Alexander tried to force my hand—”
Another agonizing force swept through my head, and I fell out of the chair onto the floor. My hands cupped my ears as I tried to drown out the screeching noise. Only there was no blocking it out. It was coming from the inside.
You will obey me, child. You are no longer allowed to speak to the council about me. I own you, and if you try to disobey me, the consequences of your actions will be swift. I advise you not to test me on this.
Then, there was silence.
I could see the faces of the council hovering above me. Their mouths were moving, but no sound reached me. I lay on the floor, dazed from the power surging through me. The heavy oily darkness I had only experienced when I was inside the dungeon was flowing freely through me with no end in sight.
Panic surged through me as I thought of any way to stop it, but the magic was sucking the breath out of me. Paralysis took over, and all I could do was stare wide-eyed at the council as I was certain death was about to claim me.
Desmond came rushing into view, looking like he’d do
ne a few rounds with death as well. He and the headmaster argued about something for a few seconds, but the determination on Desmond’s face was unwavering. Whatever he wanted, he was going to get.
Finally, Headmaster Stone backed up, giving Desmond the space he had apparently demanded. His lips moved slowly, and I tried to focus on them. I was pretty sure he said, “I’m sorry”, but what for I had no idea.
Then understanding smacked me in the face.
If I thought what Malina was doing to me was painful, I was sorely mistaken.
Desmond’s magic fought with mine and Malina’s. The war within me had my back arching and my body contorting in angles I was positive I’d be paying for in the morning. After what seemed like an eternity, sound filtered through my ears.
“The girl isn’t strong enough to withstand them both, Alistair, and he’s bleeding. Do something before that bitch kills them both.” Bennett’s angry voice was the first thing that registered with me and the furiousness that went with it scared me almost as much as Malina.
“Raegan can do this, and so can Desmond. He’s not drained,” Headmaster Stone replied.
“Yet,” Alexander retorted from somewhere, but nobody replied.
The only sounds in the room were those of Desmond’s grunting and my wincing as I tried to help him push Malina out of my body.
“I can’t remove her essence completely. It’s as if Malina is a part of her in a physical sense,” Desmond heaved out the words with strained effort. “What do you want me to do?”
“Just do your best to make sure she’s not hurting Raegan and be done. That’s all we can do for now until we know more,” Headmaster Stone said, his tone solemn.
They didn’t win this fight, child. I don’t want to hurt you, but you had to learn a lesson. I am in control here. You will do as I say or there will be more moments of pain. Don’t think for one second that they can save you. I’m getting out, and it’s in your best interest to remain in my good graces, or my need for you will no longer hold significance to the bigger picture. Now, go rest. I need you stronger than your current state.
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