‘It’s gonna zap me again! Rodrick’s freaky mirror is going to kill me!’
I heard something like water moving about, splashing into rocks and then coming to a stop. I didn’t dare look over the desk again. But under the opening to the bottom where Rodrick rested his legs, I could see what was happening near the mirror. Two feet stepped through the blue light and gently settled onto the wood floor. Leather boots echoed and made their way over to me. Someone had walked through the mirror. As though it was a portal to something or somewhere I wasn’t allowed to witness. And it made sure I couldn’t pass through.
“Miss Blackburn?” Rodrick said my name.
This time I didn’t have a choice. I had to come back up whether or not that damn mirror was going to zap me again. When I finally revealed myself from behind the desk, Rodrick stifled a small laugh.
“I can’t say this look suits you,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow, uncertain of what he meant. When I peered over to the knight’s metal armor he had displayed in the corner I got a brief glimpse of my appearance in its metallic reflection. My hair was nothing but static, sticking up over my head like a frizzy halo. I ran my fingers through it to get it to calm down, feeling a rush of red stun my cheeks.
Rodrick moved around the desk and pushed the chair aside so I could get through. He didn’t appear angry. On the contrary. He reached for my hand and helped me move out away from the desk. The second his skin touched mine the same sparking embers began to burn inside of me like a furnace. His fingers folded over mine, making the tension inside of me wind up like a spring. I took a deep breath, trying my best to ignore it.
‘If this is indeed a curse, whoever cast it did a good job.’
“Do you mind sharing with me why you broke into my study uninvited, Miss Blackburn?” He let go of my hand. My skin went cold the second our skin wasn’t touching anymore.
I couldn’t lose my nerve now. Even if I looked like I had stuck my finger in an electrical socket and went flying across the room only seconds ago, I didn’t want him sensing any weakness inside me.
I stiffened my back and stood up straighter, refusing to break eye contact with him even though it only made my insides warmer. “Because you and everyone else can’t help but keep secrets from me and I’ve had enough.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The curse,” I said simply, letting the words sit between us and watching his expression for any hints of deceit.
He was a man of few expressions. And those he did have, he guarded well. Only now I could see them fade. He raised his chin in defiance and looked away from me.
“Tell me,” I said. “Is it true?”
“Who told you?”
“I don’t think that matters.”
“It matters a great deal to me.”
“Why? Because you think punishing the person who told me is a better way of handling this than just being honest? I want to know if it’s true.”
I could see him clench his jaw. His lips opened slightly. He was about to speak but he stopped himself.
I reached for his hand once more. This time, he tried to pull away as though he was offended. I wouldn’t let him go.
I let the magic in my fingers pierce through my hand and touch his. His magic did the same, mingling with mine and swirling about our fists as though it was a rope tying between our hands, binding us together and pulling us in tighter. He strained to pull away, not liking that I was potentially making him vulnerable.
“I asked someone how to stop this,” I said. “And you know what this is. The tension between us, the… the attraction,” I blurted out, figuring there was no going back. In a twist of events, he looked back at me. “I know you feel it as strongly as I do. And you don’t like it any more than I do. I don’t want anyone forcing my hand. So much has been taken away from me already. I can’t have my future toyed with any more than it already has been. And that includes the man I choose to be with.”
He didn’t speak. Nor did his lips move as if he had something to say. So I kept going.
“There hasn’t been a moment when I pushed that you didn’t pull back,” I added. “Some part of you must not like this either. I tried to ask someone if there was a way to get rid of it. It already placed my life in danger and thrust me into Devon’s arms where I could be his perfect victim. I don’t want something like that happening again. And I doubt you do either.”
He shook his head and let out a long sigh. “No, I don’t.”
“Then help me get rid of it.”
He finally managed to loosen his hand away from mine. Our magic stopped dancing between us and faded away into nothing. He stepped away from me and toward the mirror behind him. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and stood there in silence. I couldn’t decide whether I should speak or not. I had already let too much slip out of my mouth.
“There’s nothing we can do to lift the curse,” he said. “At least for now. Certain individuals are trying but it’s not even necessary for us to hold out hope as long as we’re able to practice the utmost discipline.”
“Discipline?” I muttered. “Are you kidding me? You know how I became a lycan.”
“That wasn’t entirely you’re fault. You were preyed on.”
“Because Devon transformed into you. He knew that you and I were…I don’t even know the right way to put it.”
“You think I was any different?” He walked back over to his desk and placed both hands down on it. His eyes shut and flashed back open as though he was being tormented by memories. “I was preyed on by a lycan as well. A Blackatter. A woman who lived in Spain. There’s nothing unique about the way you were ensnared, Miss Blackburn.”
“Then why did you go out of your way to make me feel like I was incompetent for allowing it to happen? You made me feel like I was a dumb slag that wandered into the arms of a madman with no control over myself.”
Our eyes met once more. This time, there was sympathy in his.
“Her name was Clara,” he said. “She found me in much the same way Devon found you. Only I was attending a festival with my mates. She pursued me with little effort. Not that much effort need be applied when two Blackatters of an appropriate age enter a room.” He shook his head, forcing the memories away from his mind. “I imagine the curse was why your father intentionally married a regular human away from the Blackatter bloodlines. To throw off the Dolch Erbe from his lineage and keep you and your brother safe.”
“It didn’t seem to help him much.”
“I’m sure he realizes that now. The Dolch Erbe’s curse over all Blackatter lines will always cause Blackatters to find one another. And its the same curse that allows them to fall prey to our enemies.”
I blinked a few times, not sure I heard him properly. “What?”
“It’s their way of punishing the vixra for creating strong lycan bloodlines that can fight back against their efforts. They cursed all Blackatter bloodlines to be drawn to one another so they will breed. And once their children reach the appropriate age, the Dolch Erbe finds them and brings them into the fold. It helps them to learn our secrets. To find more lycan and kill them. Which is why you and I can never act on anything we may feel. It’s not real. It never was and we will never know if it will be. Giving into it will only cause us suffering.”
“Was it real with Clara?”
He went quiet, perhaps not expecting me to be so blunt. “I’ll never know.”
“And there’s no way to break the curse?” I asked. More like pleading but I was about to reach my wit’s end. Everyone could present me with problems but so few seemed to have viable answers. I didn’t want to settle this time. I would prod Rodrick in any way necessary until I got more answers. “If there’s even the slightest chance of breaking the curse then we need to investigate it more.” I moved closer to him, feeling an energy brew the second I was only an arm’s length away. I suddenly understood why he almost always remained behind his desk when we did our lessons. He knew p
roximity was the enemy. I could sense him. Smell him. There wasn’t a single tangible feature that I didn’t like. Was this just a curse drawing me to him? Would I know the difference if it was ever lifted?
He moved away from the desk with a look of defeat in his eyes. As though he had finally come to a conclusion but didn’t like it. “Come with me,” he said. “We can’t discuss such matters here.” He took my hand in his once more. My skin set ablaze, scorching through me and making me want to eliminate the space between us. I played with the sleeve of my trench coat on my other hand, resisting the urge and forcing myself to pay attention to what he was saying.
“Where?” I asked.
He pulled me toward the mirror.
I tried letting go of his hand. “No way! That thing doesn’t like me.”
He refused to loosen his grip. “It doesn’t like you because I wasn’t here to permit you to enter. You have my permission now.”
Without another word, he led me to the mirror. The cloudy swirls inside turned blue once more. I saw the shapes ripple like a stone being dropped into a pond. He stepped through and disappeared. There wasn’t a single trace of him except for his hand pulling me forward.
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as I let the cloudy swarm of magic inside the mirror envelop me with Rodrick leading the way.
10
I’m not sure what I was expecting. A grand tower? An enchanted forest? More of the same as far as mysticism and magic that both enchanted and frightened me since I first arrived at L.I.T. When I opened my eyes after stepping through the mirror, we were back in Rodrick’s office. Only it didn’t look like a petite heavy metal rocker chick went flying over the desk with her feet whipping over her head, knocking down everything in her path. It was clean and put together.
“Is this some sort of joke?” I asked a bit confused.
“No. It’s not a joke,” he said, letting go of my hand. The instant he did the cord between us broke once more.
“Then what is this?”
“A space the vixra created for the previous Deans of the Academy, only known to the Deans and those they deem worthy of seeing it. You’re one of the few who have passed through the mirror’s enchantment.”
“But it doesn’t look any different from the other side.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said with a smirk as he went over to the door of his study and opened it for me to leave. “I think you’ll notice the key difference.”
I followed him out of the long hallway and up the stairs leading back to the courtyard. It was empty. And most of all, it was quiet. No students were walking about. Not a single voice stirred around us. The entire fortress was abandoned.
“Do you see now?” he asked.
“It’s more like what I hear. It’s so quiet.”
“Exactly. This space is a realm within a realm. A passageway to a mirror image of the entire academy. Only it’s empty. There are no professors or students. It gives the Deans of long past, including myself, a place to sit and think quietly without being disturbed. And a place to sleep where we’re safe from intruders.”
“The vixra created the ultimate man cave for the Deans of the academy?” I asked, trying to stop the temptation to laugh.
“Only there’s no big-screen television or Manchester United football game playing in the corner of my study.”
He walked down the hallway and out into the courtyard. He wasn’t lying. This area was truly private. We could speak freely here without intrusive ears or the risk of being discovered. Once we were in the center of the courtyard where the benches stood, he sat down and welcomed me to join him. I did so but left a fair amount of distance between us, setting my hands on my lap and trying to display more manners than I showed him when I burst into his study while he wasn’t present. I felt as though I had embarrassed myself. Especially after he was trusting me with a secret such as this.
“Your concerns are no different than mine have been for several years,” he said, stretching his arm over the back of the bench while he faced me. “I’m not the first or likely the last Dean who has searched for a way to break the curse. Blackatters are indeed drawn to one another. Our magic does the work for us as far as making connections to reassure its survival. It’s why many witchlings partner with other witchlings. Magic is a living and breathing soul inside of us. It wants to thrive as much as we do. That includes surviving by way of procreating. The more magical beings veer away from their own kind, the more their magic is diluted. And with that, magic begins to die away.”
The red in my cheeks was returning. I did my best to push it back. Lothar didn’t make me a bundle of nerves the way Rodrick did. Rodrick was older, sophisticated, and in all likelihood, too good for me. Or at least it felt that way when I was near him. As though I was reaching for a height that I would never measure up to. He was unattainable. That didn’t stop everything inside of me from wanting to try. Almost like he was a challenge that I had to meet. And eventually, conquer.
I shut my eyes and gave my head a small shake, breaking away the thoughts stirring about inside my mind and hoping to God he didn’t notice.
“Ellinor has been helping Deans of the Academy and certain powerful witchlings gather the resources to break the curse for over a hundred years,” he said. “It was cast sometime during the 19th century but no one is certain of the exact date. It’s a topic rarely discussed because not much progress has been made. I think it embarrasses the vixra that they haven’t been able to break it.”
“A hundred years? That’s not possible. Ellinor doesn’t look a day over sixty.”
“The magic inside vixra is some of the purest in the world. It heals them the same way ours heals us but on a much grander scale. That includes slowing down their aging process. The vixra age one year for every five human years.”
‘So when I sat in your office with Ellinor I was speaking to a woman who was born in the late 17th century?’
I had to make a conscious effort to keep my jaw from falling to the ground.
‘Wait! That would mean Adeline is old too. She appears in her mid-twenties or so. That would mean she’s over a century old!’
Suddenly, I felt smaller than I ever had since first arriving at the academy. Perhaps people weren’t always trying to keep secrets from me. I simply hadn’t been apart of this world long enough to know all of its secrets. And maybe I never would. There was so much to learn.
“She wasn’t alone,” he said. His eyes downcast toward the ground. Whatever he was about to say made him increasingly uneasy. “Your brother was helping her. It’s one of the reasons Operation Shift was created. Its purpose goes beyond bringing Blackatters together to give them a safe place for their training in Hungary. Its primary function is to break the curse. Ellinor wasn’t about to share this detail with you until you survived the trials and perhaps even after you completed your education at the academy. Your brother was committed to the cause. He asked for the position specifically so he could pursue a lead in Paris. From what I was told, it was meant to be his final test before becoming an official Vontex. I believe our enemies got to him before he could verify his lead and report it to Ellinor. The Dolch Erbe found him and somehow converted him. Whether by free will or force, they managed to break his bond to the lycan.”
“If that was his true intent, surely you must know that this wasn’t by choice. It has to be the curse. The Dolch Erbe targeted him because he was helping to break it. If we break it maybe there’s a way to free Dirk from the hold the Dolch Erbe has over him.”
“You can’t get your hopes up, Miss Blackburn.” His voice was deep and anything but reassuring. He was preparing me for disappointment. “Many Deans of L.I.T. and powerful vixra witchlings have tried and failed to break the curse. Pursuing it has resulted in many deaths. We have to tread carefully.”
“We?” I muttered. “You mean you’re going to help me?”
“Only because I think I’ve known you long enough to understand that once you catch a sce
nt you’re unlikely to let it go. The second I turn my back you’ll run to Paris to pursue Dirk’s lead there. Which will certainly result in your death. Especially since you don’t even know the conditions that must be applied for the curse to be broken. Conditions that have prevented us from breaking it for centuries.”
“What conditions?”
“Nearly every curse has a crack. A way to break it. It may be finite but it almost always exists. Most aren’t willing to look hard enough and believe most curses are too complex to break. Which don’t get me wrong. Many are. But in all the recent research performed about this particular curse, I’ve been given hints of information. The only known conditions that are needed to break it are to gather the same tools that were used to cast it. A witchling from each echelon, a kruxa, a luxra, a vixra, one vampire, and one Blackatter lycan with crowning magic. They reflect the original highest inner circle of the Dolch Erbe under the grandmaster. He was a fallen Blackatter. Just like your brother. The witchlings of this inner circle created the curse in an unknown location inside Paris in the 19th century. Much of the city has changed and it’s made it incredibly difficult to discover the original location where the curse was cast. We can’t break it without knowing where that location was. Or without the wand used to cast it. An ancient ivory wand known as the svethulka. The counter-spell to break it must be conducted on the exact same spot of land with a luxra that can wield the svethulka. Only the most powerful and well trained luxra are said to have the skill to master it. It took Ellinor centuries to discover its existence was real. I suspect your brother might have discovered the location of the curse’s origin and the location of the svethulka. Perhaps that’s what brought him on the cusp of danger.”
I tried to force the pieces of the puzzle together inside my head. Dirk made this cause his life purpose. He wanted to help break the curse. For so many months, I felt nothing but rage for what Devon did to me. It was as though my entire life had been stolen. Every pursuit and desire I had for myself was ripped away. Only now, I felt a hint of gratitude toward Devon. Because I understood now more than ever that becoming a lycan was the only way to get my brother away from the Dolch Erbe and continue the work that he started. Devon turned me into a lycan for his own selfish reasons. And yet, he unknowingly created an enemy.
Resist Page 10