by Kendal Davis
Thorn ducked his head, perhaps trying to hide a smile. “Yes, that is an image I cultivate. Somebody must bear the brunt of the rumors. I never confirm it, but it does not bother me that people suspect it of me. Obviously, my expertise is in fighting.”
I heard my voice come out of nowhere. “But it isn’t really a fight, is it, to attack a mortal with your magic? They don’t have any idea how to fight back.”
“Aha,” he said. “You have acquired a conscience about all this?”
“I wasn’t even told that I’d be killing my own people when I got my invitation to this organization. I wouldn’t have joined if I’d known that.” I knew my words were untrue.
“Even if it meant leaving the Academy, and your mating bonds?” Thorn did not wait for an answer. Every one of us at the table knew we had no choice. Once the Assassins selected us, we were in. That was all there was to it.
Owain reached over to me and took my hand. His touch made a current of sensuality travel up my arm, then disperse along every nerve I had. It didn’t matter how many times we made love; I was hungry for more, all the time. The smile he flashed at me told me he had caught the thought.
Owain spoke clearly, unafraid. “Professor Thorn, what can you tell us about the damage to the school’s fundamental magic? I saw something happen with the stones yesterday that made me very nervous. Is the castle failing?”
Thorn looked at me. “Ask the mortal. Anybody could see that she is holding it together with a spell, at great cost to herself.”
It pleased me to know that somebody had noticed that. “I don’t really know how long I can hold it,” I admitted.
“Not much longer,” he reassured me. “That’s why we are here. The faculty will be sending you away.”
I heard a roaring in my ears as the stress of the situation caught up with me. “You can’t,” I protested. “I need to finish my education at the Academy. It’s a pact I have with the Queen. She has promised to grant me fae immortality once I finish all three years.” My words hung in the air, sounding immature and foolish. I couldn’t explain it any better than that. If I tried, I’d end up blurting out my plan to destroy the Queen if she ever tried to steal my magic again.
That was the true reason that I needed to stay at school and learn more. I had plans, so deep in my heart that I wasn’t sure if even Rook and Owain knew them. I was going to kill exactly one person as an Assassin, and that was the Queen.
It didn’t matter.
Nobody at the polished maple table wanted to hear why I was unwilling to go. They wanted to know why I was being expelled.
“You can’t do that,” gasped Evana.
“Oh, they can,” taunted Lily.
“We’ve only just arrived for the term. Do you think we’ll stay without her?” Rook was combative, his hand on mine now. No matter how dark things looked, it was bliss to hear him defending me.
Thorn shook his head, an unreadable expression in his eyes. “You won’t have to.”
“You can’t expel us, too,” said Owain. “I’m the best student here.”
Both Lily and I turned to him, ready to dispute the title, but it felt a little pointless.
Instead, Thorn’s voice rang out, drowning all other noise. “You will all be leaving the Academy. Tonight.”
8
Owain
The mood in the meeting room was darker than bleak. Nobody liked to be sentimental about it, but the Academy meant the world to all of us. I squeezed Ciara’s hand, wishing I could find an answer to the loss she was feeling.
“Tell us, Professor Thorn, where we are supposed to go after we leave here.” I sounded bitter, and more angry than I’d meant to. “And if we leave, won’t Ciara’s spell fade, putting the castle in even greater danger?”
He leaned toward us all, lowering his voice as if he was about to impart a secret. “Do you think it will?” He sounded deceptively mild. “Or can you recall for me the tale of the spirit of music who found herself caught and kept prisoner in the farthest mountains after battling the darkness?”
Rook snorted in disgust. “Look, Professor. We are younger than you, but we are all adults here. You don’t need to try to distract us from our problems by feeding us silly fairy tales about spirits.”
Lily flipped her long, blonde hair behind her shoulders. “Can I ask if I’m supposed to be expelled along with Ciara? I didn’t cause any trouble, I swear. You should keep in mind that I’m the one who won the best student medal last spring.”
Evana elbowed her. “You didn’t win it, exactly. It wasn’t because you worked hard. It was because you were the most devious.”
“Sometimes that’s smarter than working,” Lily huffed.
Professor Thorn stood up, his jaw tight with suppressed tension. He was used to joking with his students, but there were times in his gym when he dispensed with all playfulness and looked as if he would willingly murder us all. This was, apparently, one of those times.
“Enough.” His words were like ice chips. “You tell me that you are old enough to be serious, so begin now. I am not expelling any of you. You are merely going to be traveling for a while.”
“You brought up that old legend of the high mountains. Is that where we are going?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Owain, you’ve grabbed on to the wrong part of what I wanted you to hear. The spirit. That’s what’s important. The spirit in the story. That’s where you should direct your attention right now.” He looked around at our confused faces and slammed a fist on the table. “The spirit of the castle is no longer here.”
Ciara narrowed her eyes at him. “Did you get this stuff from Alder? He was so focused on the lesson about spirits.” For some reason, her eyes were straying to the door of the meeting room. It took only a moment for me to guess what she was sensing.
Instead of answering her, Thorn stepped to the side. When Alder burst into the room, he took the head of the table for himself. A gesture of his huge hand indicated that he was addressing us all, but it was only Ciara that drew his eyes.
“I came here to teach you. If we must leave, then I will still do that; our lessons will continue as we travel.”
“Where?” squeaked Lily indignantly. “Why do we all have to go?”
Alder smiled at her, making Ciara scowl. “We are going on a quest. Your Slayer will need you all there for support.” Before Lily could mutter that she was not interested in supporting Ciara, as I was sure she was about to, Alder lifted his hands to summon a spell.
“We are in an outbuilding now. The stables are not part of the original grounds of the castle. But you can feel this, can you not?” As Alder’s upturned hands began to glow with his earth spell, the planks of wood that made up the building we sat in began to curve and break. A popping sound came from the ceiling above us, making everybody in the room flinch.
Ciara sat up straight in her chair, gasping as if he’d slapped her. “Quit doing that. This is still part of the school, even if it isn’t the oldest part, and I’m trying my best to keep it together. The decay of the elemental bonds runs through here as well.” She took on an overall glow that reached from her silky pink hair to the tips of her toes. I knew it without even looking. “I’ll stop you if you try that again.”
Through our bond, I could sense the picture of wood fibers and splinters in her mind. She was smoothing it all, just as Alder was breaking it.
He allowed his magic to fade. “Good. I wanted to see if you had that much control. You will have to be aware of changes here even as we travel. Can you do that?”
She frowned. “I can do more with my magic than anybody you’ve ever met.”
Evana ventured a question in the resulting silence. “So we are leaving because we are looking for something. We’re trying to find a spirit?” She lifted a hand to press her fingers against her temple. “Ok. For the moment, let’s just say that’s something that could ever really happen, and that it isn’t total nonsense that fae elders tell to keep their kids entertaine
d. Where are we going, and how are we getting there?”
Alder rested his massive arms on the table. “We are going to the deepest forest in the western reaches, where the treetops touch the clouds.”
Evana shook her head. “That’s a terrible idea. We’ll miss school. And it is so dangerous that nobody in their right mind would go there. We’ll be at risk anyway, since we can’t teleport because of the caustic mists of the forest.”
“Your education will continue while we travel. And we won’t be teleporting. We’ll take the winged horses.”
I felt a jerking sense of panic from Ciara. When I looked sideways at her, her cheeks were bright with color. Alder was watching her too, almost as if he took a thrill from upsetting her.
“Even those of you who are unskilled with the winged horses will have to step up to the challenge,” he said. “There is no alternative.”
“Of course there is,” said Rook. “We just don’t go. There aren’t any spirits out there. The whole thing is stupid. If there ever was a little fairy spirit that belonged to this castle, tending to it with loving care, it vanished in the regime after the dark ages. Nothing like that exists these days.”
Alder ignored him. “Come. I have packed clothes for each of you, and food. Your saddlebags are already prepared. Anything else we need, we will find a way to conjure.” With that terse summary, he went to the door and opened it. An inexplicable compulsion ran through me, so that I stood and walked toward him without quite intending to.
“Stop that,” Ciara muttered as the others all followed suit. “It’s a cheap trick, and they can’t even quite see it because they don’t have earth powers.”
Alder nodded gravely at her. “But you do. And that magic is needed right now, to safeguard the only place you’ve ever loved.”
She did not respond, but she walked around the table and joined us, her eyes dark with anger.
When we entered the portion of the stables where the horses were kept, the smell was just as I’d expected. It was warm and grassy, bringing back faint but pleasant memories of my childhood. I hadn’t ridden since then, but I knew that both Rook and Lily were keen sportsmen who visited the stables regularly. Lily would surely have been part of the Pegasus Society if she had not been selected to join the Eternal Assassins. Evana, on the other hand, had never said anything positive about horses that I’d heard.
“I’ve never been out here,” murmured Ciara as she took stock of the animals.
Lily raised an eyebrow. “Afraid? I can understand that. In your dirty, mortal world, there’s no place to ride any more. I can’t believe your people managed to destroy the environment of your world so thoroughly.”
Ciara didn’t look offended. “I know the history of that, too, and I’m not proud of it. But my world has never had horses that can fly. I might not have been able to see any large animals of any kind in person, but I watched every holovid there was about them.”
“Oh, then you’ll be fine,” mocked Lily. “Holovids…” She rolled her eyes in disgust and made her way to the tack room, where our packed bags rested against the wall. Alder had been telling the truth. He’d planned this excursion well, even managing to convince the Headmaster and Professor Thorn to support it.
The man was either crazy or, just possibly, onto something.
Either way, I could see that he shouldn’t expect any help from Rook. My old friend loathed the larger man and the way he spoke so familiarly to Ciara.
Ciara’s response to Alder, though, was more complicated. She was keeping her feelings close to her heart, but what I could sense along our bond puzzled me. It was as if she was longing for him, but he was denying her. I couldn’t understand how any man could. Whatever was going on between the two of them, it was strange, and layered, and as explosive as powder keg.
The horses surveyed us, their eyes registering their intelligence. These creatures were highly trained, yet suitable for the newest of riders. They could take us to the mists of the western forest safely, no matter what awaited us there. It wouldn’t be easy, but it might actually be a fun trip.
I changed my mind when I saw Alder helping Ciara onto her mount. Her horse was a dark bay, with wide, powerful wings that would serve her well. I wanted to argue that we didn’t need the mounts at all, that we could travel in our own way, with our own magic. Our fae powers could provide whatever we needed. Then I remember that we would be virtually disabled once we reached the caustic white mists of the treetops.
We were heading into more danger than we’d ever seen before.
I was apparently the only one who remembered that the ancient tales were of mists that prevented us from working any magic at all, not just choosing our destination in teleportation. I almost asked Alder about it, but then I saw what he was doing with his hands.
Before he helped Ciara onto her horse, he brought his fingers to her cheek with a light touch. It was a tender moment, and it made me reconsider my opinion of him. He was strange, too forceful and dismissive of the rest of us. I’d been sure that he could not be counted on, but his gentle caress of her sweet skin made me wonder if he could.
Then I hated him again, as he pulled her roughly against him. His broad shoulders and his massive bulk dwarfed her small form. His lips pressed harshly against hers, as if he was making a promise for later. To my amazement, she lifted onto her toes to kiss him back. Her emotions traveled along our bond, showing me her eagerness to claim him into her bed. Our bed.
It was a promise for later.
I just didn’t know if there was going to be enough time for us. There might not be a later at all.
This man was leading us into insanity. If Ciara wanted to follow him, though, then we would be there with her.
As I had the thought, the retractable roof of the stables shimmered and temporarily dissolved. One by one, we took wing, hovering over the grounds of the Academy, taking one last look in case we did not return.
9
Ciara
It felt like magic. Like a wave of total surrender that washed over me for just the tiniest of moments. When Alder’s hands touched me, I was sure at first that he meant only to help me onto my mount. Goodness knows I needed help. The horses were so big, and such animals. I’d never seen anything like them. It had been of my own choice that I’d never come out to the stables during the last year. I’d grown up in a high-rise mansion in New Arabia, with no animals of any kind in my life. Ever.
But now? I was going to have to ride one of these creatures, for more reasons than I could even count. The school would not take me back; I had sensed that much from Professor Thorn. Even though I was the one holding the castle together right now, I could not continue to do that indefinitely. But I had to try. Thorn was apparently taking the place of the old Headmaster when it came to marshaling the forces of the Assassins, and I was still sworn to serve without question.
The real reason that I was going to do this, of course, was because I would be able to spend more time with Alder. Private time. I felt as if my innermost center was on fire with the craving I felt for him. How could he show so little interest in me? I believed he felt the bond. And when he kissed me, I was certain, without question. His lips were rough on mine, yet I welcomed them. He tangled his fingers in my bright hair, pulling me to him as if our kiss would never stop. We needed each other too desperately.
Then, in an abrupt motion, he stepped back. I’d been leaning upwards, reveling in our touch, so that I stumbled a little when he decided the moment was over. I felt my bruised lips shift into a frown.
“What was that about?” I pretended to be annoyed that he’d taken such liberties without my consent, but we both knew my real objection was that he’d stopped.
“It is time to leave now. We will be riding hard until we get to the foothills where the mist begins.”
As I accepted his offer of a lift onto my horse’s back, I had an idea. “Wait. Why can’t we teleport that far, at least? We’d be there in a second, ready to take the la
st part of the journey right now.”
He shook his head. “The horses won’t do it. I’ve asked them. Just accept that I’ve found the best plan, and do what I say.”
For a moment, I hated him. Nobody talked to me that way.
I closed my lips tightly, resolved not to speak to him again. If I didn’t talk, then he wouldn’t have any reason to contradict me. I saw his eyes twinkle as if he’d read my mind. Damn it. He liked being a step ahead of me, but I hated it. Things were not going to continue this way. I’d find the chink in his armor and make him listen to me. A prickling along my spine told me that everybody in the group was going to have to rely on my fae powers soon if we wanted to stay alive.
Then I remembered that I was the only one in the expedition who was mortal.
Double damn it.
They still needed me, if it was going to come to saving the Academy again. That was kind of my personal speciality.
I screwed my eyes tightly shut like a child as my horse flew higher and higher. The one instruction that Rook had whispered to me was that I could trust the horse. As long as I stayed on, my mount would do the work and keep me safe. It was easier to take in those words than to actually implement them; flying with my eyes closed was even more terrifying.
It was a long afternoon, filled with heart-lurching swoops and drops. I’d never dreamed that it was so taxing to the muscles to stay on a horse. When I finally saw Alder motion that we should land, I almost shouted out in jubilation.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Alder took the reins of my horse and grinned at me. He knew from our earth connection that I felt exactly the opposite, but he still needled me.
“I can’t believe people do this for fun,” I growled at him, happily setting both feet on the ground and surrendering the reins to him. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that both Rook and Lily were whooping with exhilaration as they dismounted. Evana and Owain were more subdued, but they looked as if they had enjoyed themselves.