by Emma Dean
“They can throw something at us just fine from the water.” Ethan pushed upward, sweat dripping from his brow. “If the bubble collapses they will reach us quicker than we can reach the surface.”
“This is my castle by birthright,” Mika told Morgana. “Doesn’t that mean something to them?”
“Our accords no longer exist. Anything underwater belongs to them.” Morgana’s face was grim. “I can try to talk to them, but I can’t hold them back in this form.”
The bubble of air was heading toward the surface, but then what?
“Can this thing go any faster?” Audrey asked.
Mika grabbed Excalibur's sheath and tied it to her belt. “I can lift us above the surface of the water, but I’m not sure I can get us to the island.”
“Even if they attack us, don’t kill them,” Mika ordered, sheathing Excalibur. “Audrey, I’m going to give you my magic. Weave a shield into the bubble once we’re clear of the castle.”
Audrey nodded and Mika set her hand on the back of her neck once again, other hand free. She pushed power slowly into Audrey as she concentrated on pushing the bubble upward as fast as she could.
Mika watched as the surface came closer and closer, Corbin and Lucien in position to protect them all.
A song called to them and she glanced over her shoulder. Mika saw them then – the undine. They were gorgeous creatures with varied tails like fish in a million different colors. Their top halves were human with flowing hair…
But their eyes glowed underwater, some were black as night, and they had sharp teeth like vampires did, screeching that terrible song under the pretty one that made her want to go to sleep. They threw spears at them and Mika was horrified to see how fast and far they arrowed through the water towards them.
Audrey’s magic was powerful and potent on its own, but with Mika’s the spears bounced off the shield. Still, they were forged by fae.
“I don’t know how long my shield can hold up against those,” Audrey gritted out.
Ethan gritted his teeth. “Malachi, can you hold it?”
Malachi nodded, but when Ethan released the air bubble the former captain grimaced, and Audrey’s hands started shaking.
Mika felt useless, but she poured all the power she could into propelling them to the surface.
The second wave of spears made the shield flicker and they were quickly running out of time.
The undine were so close, Mika wasn’t sure they’d make it through the surface before the mermaids would slam through their shield and bubble to drag them all to the bottom of the ocean, drowning them for trespassing in their territory.
There was no time to try and talk, maybe rebuild the accords that Morgana once had with them.
The Witch Queen’s ghost appeared and studied Ethan as he closed his eyes, concentrating and reaching out toward the island. “It’s working,” she told him, urging him on. “Faster, storm witch.”
Mika didn’t ask. She poured the rest of her magic into Audrey and then unsheathed her witch knife. Before Corbin or Lucien could protest, she sliced across her forearm, long and deep. Blood poured into the bubble, seeping into Audrey’s shield as Mika murmured the spell that would create a blood shield. It would hold for as long as she did.
The only catch was damage to her shield was damage to her, but with Excalibur’s sheath…it was a risk she was willing to take. Mika couldn’t lose anyone else.
When the spears hit, she hissed in pain, but it didn’t drain her as badly as it was supposed to.
“The boat is close,” Morgana stated. “You’ll make it if you can reach the surface.”
Mika nodded, not sure how to get that extra bit of power she needed after giving most of it to Audrey. Fae magic was strong, and their weapons broke down a witch’s power unlike anything she’d run across before.
“It’s right above us,” Ethan said as he opened his eyes. He was breathing hard and his skin was pale under his natural tan.
“Here,” Lucien said, offering his hand to Mika. “Take whatever you need to get us to the surface.”
Without a word, Corbin offered her his hand as well.
Before she could think too much about it, Mika sliced both of their palms with her knife and closed her eyes. Taking the power from their blood, she wove it into a spell that had their bubble shooting through the ocean towards the surface like a bullet.
Grounded in the magic, she managed to stay standing, but Ethan, Lucien, and Corbin fell to their knees – Audrey and Malachi were rooted in the bubble and shield.
“There, do you see?” Morgana asked, pointing to a shadow on the surface. “Get to that and I’ll slow them down.”
The ghost of the Witch Queen disappeared, and Mika focused on that small dot, watching as it grew.
Another barrage of spears made Audrey cry out and the shield stuttered. Malachi’s skin was grey and drenched in sweat as he held the bubble.
“Nearly there,” Mika gritted out, concentrating harder.
Then they shot out of the ocean and she aimed for the boat made of roots all twisted together.
All six of them collapsed into the boat as the bubble and shield dissipated. Mika gripped the roots with her blood covered hands and shoved.
They flew towards the island just as the undine broke the surface of the ocean. Spears rained down on them and Ethan blasted them out of the sky with his lightning.
“Don’t kill them,” she reminded him as he turned that magic onto the mermaids.
“Shit why is nothing ever easy,” Ethan snapped, striking the spot next to one of the floating fae.
The warriors screeched at them as Mika shoved the boat again, aiming for the island. Thankfully they were close and technically no longer underwater. The fae watched them go but didn’t follow.
“How are we going to climb up?” Lucien asked, looking up at the cliff.
Mika was starting to feel the exhaustion set in, but they were so close. “We’re not.”
She aimed the boat around the curve in the island toward the beaches. Sheer panic pushed her through the waters like a speedboat and Mika was so exhausted she didn’t pull back in time.
The boat flew onto the beach and they all went flying. Mika felt the sand get into every nook and cranny as she slid through it toward the grassy hills. Heaving air into her lungs, she tried to stand but she was so tired.
Stumbling back to her knees, Mika grimaced as she tried to get to her feet again. “Everyone alive?” she asked, wobbling slightly as she stood.
“Somehow,” Lucien replied. “Everyone is alive and relatively unharmed.”
Mika turned to see the undine in the ocean, waves crashing around them as they stared at her. Malachi helped Audrey to her feet and Ethan flopped onto his back in the sand. Corbin had his eyes on the undine, unmoving as he waited for them to do something.
“Are you sure you don’t want us to kill them?” Corbin asked.
“Not today,” Mika murmured.
Morgana appeared by her side and the undine submerged without making a sound. “They weren’t pleased with me,” the ghost admitted. “But if you start the ritual for peace, they’ll listen. You need allies and they rule the seas with their armies.”
Mika was no queen, but she didn’t say that out loud. She would need allies regardless of her title if she wanted to change the world.
And everyone was afraid of the fae, even the Council.
Good thing Matthew was starting at the university this fall.
10
Mika entered the lecture hall on her first class of the new semester: The Seven Levels of Hell – the Myth.
Pausing in the doorway, she watched as other students chatted and made their way to open seats in the large classroom. They all jostled each other and yelled and exclaimed excitedly when they weren’t lost and asking for directions.
It gave her a small moment of panic. She’d forgotten how many people attended the University of Morgana and there was a whole slew of fresh new witches wi
th awe on their wide-eyed faces.
Just getting to her first class had expended more emotional energy than she preferred. Three more classes after this and Mika wasn’t sure she was going to make it. Maybe she should drop one or switch it to a different day.
“Mika!”
She looked up to see Malachi at the top of the stadium seating, jerking his head to the empty spot next to him. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward, twisting her fingers with a muttered word to create an invisible shield around herself that settled against her skin – the same one she’d used in the challenge.
It allowed her to push past other students without having to feel their skin on hers, such an intimate and raw sensation. If she were going to make it through three more classes after this, she needed every edge she could get.
She sat next to Malachi, on the inside so if anyone went down the aisle, they wouldn’t accidentally hit her. With no one behind them she felt better and released the breath she’d been holding. “I didn’t know you were taking classes on hell this semester.”
“Considering I met the prince of hell just a few weeks ago, I changed all my classes when I got back for training,” Malachi admitted, shifting to give her more space. “I’ve officially declared a double major as a hunter and a healer.”
“I didn’t know they allowed double majors.” Mika watched as the other students settled in.
She hadn’t seen Matthew yet, and he hadn’t reached out to her. Mika had thought he might end up in Oleander House, but so far nothing.
“They allow anything. If you wanted to stay here for the next ten, or fifteen years, and study every degree they offer I’m sure they’d let you.” Malachi studied Mika and she knew he saw more than she wanted him to. “The shield is a nice touch and very subtle. How are you managing after yesterday?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Expending that much power exhausted my magic. If I end up losing it again the result won’t be as catastrophic. My blood magic is locked down though. I use it enough that it doesn’t feast on everything and everyone anymore. It’s the other magic I’m…struggling with.”
“Massive quantities of power is a double-edged sword,” Malachi agreed. “I’ve been reading about the warrior witches and…” he trailed off when he realized Mika was staring at him.
“How? What books?”
He looked around the classroom furtively and then lowered his voice. “Lucien took me to his library on one of my days off while you were indisposed. They let me borrow what I could hold as long as I returned it when I was supposed to.”
Mika blinked. “They let you in?”
For the first time since before the summer she saw him smile but it was empty. “Lucien said they’d let Bucky Barnes borrow, but not Captain America. Would you care to explain this joke to me?”
She turned back to the front, cheeks heating. That meddlesome fox was going to be the death of her.
“What did the books say?” she asked, pulling the textbook out of her bag, pointedly ignoring the other thing.
Malachi’s smile didn’t drop, if anything it grew sharper. “I’ll let you avoid the question for now, but I’m not going to forget about it.”
She pretended to be very busy setting up her tablet to take notes.
“The books suggest creating power stones. A crystal or gem that can hold magic. Some can be created, and then others you find or purchase. They’re like batteries. You drain your magic into them over time and when you replenish to your full strength you have double the power. It kept some of the weaker witches alive, and they were able to buy power stones if they needed the extra magic for whatever reason. But when warrior witches died off, or were forgotten, the practice vanished. Probably to keep the weaker witches enslaved to some degree.”
Malachi pulled out a few pretty rocks. “Agate and calcite were popular because they came in so many different colors,” he explained, pushing a gorgeous purple agate, and a creamy mango calcite toward her. “But crystals like this were common. This one on the other hand holds more power.”
In his hand was a fat sapphire. Mika took it and was surprised to feel it was empty – void of anything.
“Sapphires aren’t cheap,” she said, holding it up to the light.
“Exactly. If you could afford the darker crystals, you could carry more power without the weight. They were usually cut into hexagonal or tetragonal shapes so you could easily carry them on a belt.” Malachi showed her a picture of a belt that looked like it could hold bullets, but instead there were rows of slim, cylindrical crystals cut into interesting shapes.
“I’m assuming this was mainly used in battle?” she asked.
He nodded, putting his phone away. “Though they weren’t allowed in challenges or duels for obvious reasons.”
“Could I borrow those books when you’re finished?” she asked, handing him the sapphire back.
“Sure.” Malachi slipped the rocks back into his bag, but then pulled out a handful of crystals that looked like columns or prisms. “Here are some lapis lazuli and jade. Both were used by rulers. I’m sure one of these will work for you.”
Taking the stones, she didn’t know what to say. “Have you been storing power?”
“Every day since I read about it.” Malachi’s face grew clouded once more.
She knew what it felt like to need to be constantly prepared – to wonder what would come for her next.
Tucking away the stones she kept one that she liked the best – a lapis lazuli that felt warm in her palm. The blue was dark and glittered. Veins of gold shone, and Mika wondered how much power something like this could hold.
How much would a sapphire hold? Or an emerald? Maybe even a ruby.
“All right class, let’s begin by going over the subjects we’ll be covering,” the professor stated as he walked in.
Mika looked up and locked eyes with Ryan.
He was the professor for this class?
“Just take a deep breath,” Malachi whispered. “Unless you want to drop this class, you can’t kill him.”
She released her death grip on the desk and did as Malachi suggested. Mika slowly inhaled, and then held it while she stared at the witch who had the audacity to fling words in her face like she was the monster and hadn’t done everything she could to try and get her sister to yield.
Other than dying there wasn’t anything more Mika could have done.
“Clearly we’ll be covering the supposed seven levels of hell,” Ryan went on, smiling as if he didn’t know, or didn’t care, that Mika wanted to rip his face off and feed his eyes to the undine. “We’ll go over the various human and witch literature on the subject, and then we’ll study the infernal books on the subject and the accounts of those who’ve actually been there.”
Some idiot raised their hand and Mika took another deep breath, counting backwards as she did so. The rage settled back under that blanket of blissful numbness and she let out a shaky breath, wriggling her fingers to ease some of the ache that holding back had caused.
“I thought witches weren’t allowed to come and go in the hell realm?”
“That’s right,” Ryan said, pointing at the kid like he’d done exceptionally well. “Most witches can’t. Though there are rumors certain classes of witches can, as well as various shifters. Some witches not gifted with this two-way road have chosen to live in hell and send back their research. Others were taken by demons and eventually returned. They say if you can make a deal with the devil, he’ll allow you the freedom to come and go as you please.”
Ryan looked up at Mika then and held her gaze.
Vividly she remembered leaving Morgana at the end of the spring semester and his mention of the City of Dis. Ryan was a conundrum and a mystery that Mika didn’t currently feel like figuring out, she wasn’t stupid though. She was definitely going to keep an eye on him.
Malachi leaned over slightly. “Does he know you’re related to Lucifer?” he whispered.
“I don’t know. I don’t r
emember seeing him at the challenge, but considering how much he insists Claire and he were best friends I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d been there, lurking.” Mika ran her shaking hands through her hair, feeling the effects of the adrenaline after it left her system. “Do you think he would care if I was?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like him.” Malachi shook his head and leaned back in his chair. “There’s something off about Ryan.”
She couldn’t agree more.
“So, who here has read Dante’s Inferno?”
A few hands rose up, and even though she’d read it Mika didn’t bother to participate. She was pissed and ready to ditch this class. This wasn’t what she’d been hoping it would be. Reading the textbook was already done thanks to her speed-reading charm. Not to mention every book on this plane about hell that she could get her hands on.
Mika had been hoping to have a professor who she could ask questions of, who could point her in the direction of more obscure information and data regarding hell – something that might lead her to the inception of the Hellfire Society and its origin.
But with Ryan? She knew he’d never been to hell. He was nothing more than a know-it-all scholar and after what he’d said to her, she wasn’t going to sit here and listen to him drone on for the next four months.
Without a word Mika stood and gathered her stuff.
Everyone in the class went silent and turned to watch her walk down the steps toward the door.
“Not what you were hoping for, Ms. Marshall?” Ryan asked.
Mika stopped at the bottom of the steps and stared at the male who could get under that numbness and stoke the fury and rage unlike anything else so far. “I apologize, professor. I thought this class was going to be taught by an expert.”
Walking out of that room felt so good and Mika paused in the now empty halls to breathe in deep. The air felt clearer even though she knew it wasn’t. She wriggled her fingers and dispelled the shield, instantly feeling more like herself again.
Now all she had to do was figure out if she wanted to replace the class or use the free time to her advantage.