by May Dawson
Or maybe I shivered because of the crackle of magic I could feel before I even reached the wall. Powerful magic that made the downy hairs on my arms stand up on end. I rubbed my arms with my hands as I made my way through the trees toward the long, stone wall.
“What the hell are you doing?” Lex demanded.
I spun around to find him standing behind me. He shoved his hands into his pockets restlessly, his jaw working as if he was furious.
“Hi,” I said. I wasn’t sure what to say.
“Hi,” he ground out in response. Maybe hi hadn’t been the way to go. He raised his eyebrows, his face cool. “Well?”
“The dean is trying to hide the fact that no one can shift,” I blurted out. “I think the covens are about to attack. I was going to tamper with the wards just a little, so he’ll put the campus on full alert.”
He stared back at me, and his face shifted with different feelings. He definitely looked perplexed. And angry. And strangely enough…relieved?
He raked his hand through his hair. “So no one can shift?”
“I just said that.”
“It’s not just me,” he muttered. “I thought it was just me. That I’d lost the ability…”
That was why he’d seemed so angry. He was scared. He must have tried to shift to follow me and then freaked out. Did individual wolves sometimes lose their abilities? “Can that happen?”
“Hold on.” He held his hand out toward me. “You’re not the one asking questions here. You were going to tamper with the wards?”
“Just a little.” I held up two fingers, almost touching.
“You think the witches are attacking the school, and you were going to tamper with the wards?” His voice was disbelieving. It was like we hadn’t covered this already.
“I was going to put them right back up again,” I explained. “But the dean doesn’t want to cause a panic. I think this is a reason to panic, don’t you?”
He folded his arms over his chest. “You’re convinced you’re smarter than the dean?”
He wouldn’t like my honest answer, but there was no good way to answer that. “Not in every way…”
“Holy shit,” he muttered.
“Have you ever fought one of the covens?”
He stared at me, his blue eyes smoldering.
“I have,” I said. “When I was a kid, I watched a coven attack my pack. They called up creatures from other worlds, monsters and demons. They used mind control to make wolves betray and kill each other. We had heavy weapons, we could shift and it was still…”
“I’ve heard about that,” Lex said. He still looked angry, but he braced his hand against a tree, as if he was willing to stay a while, to hear me out.
I took a deep breath. It wasn’t like me to lay everything I thought on the line; I spent most of my time either with the pack who knew me well, or with humans I couldn’t tell anything. Now I had to tell Lex more than I wanted to get him on my side. “Until there’s peace between the wolves and the covens—or until all of us are dead—we have to be ready to fight. That’s why Piper started the school, and it’s why I’m willing to put up with anything to be here.”
The covens would never stop attacking until we ended the last of them. If I hadn’t already known that before today, I knew it now, when I couldn’t even shift. “Right now? It’s one of those times. We have to be ready.”
“If the dean knows the coven’s put some kind of spell on the school, why hasn’t he called out the student patrols?” he asked.
“My sister asked him to,” I said. “But he thinks there could be other reasons why no one can shift. He doesn’t want a panic over nothing.”
“He doesn’t want to lose any more students,” Lex muttered. “Not everyone is happy to send their kids to fight in this war.”
“So he’s hoping it’s not a direct attack,” I filled in.
“I don’t know for sure,” Lex said. “It’s just a thought. Maybe he knows something neither of us does.” The look he flashed me was pointed.
“Maybe,” I said. “But I was in the room when he refused to call out the academy patrols. It didn’t seem like he knew anything more than anyone else in the room.”
Lex’s lips parted in a disbelieving smile at my frank assessment of the dean. “You’re going to have a tough time here.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to get that feeling,” I said. The strict hierarchy might be the end of me. “Also, I’m starting to get a feeling you all need me.”
His smile widened at that. “Your arrogance is strangely adorable. But I think you’re going to find this school very humbling if you come, Northsea.”
Funny how right then, despite everything—Jensen, the dean, Lex—I couldn’t imagine not coming. I belonged here, even if no one else believed that.
I shrugged. “Are you going to help me or get out of my way?”
“Once you bring the wards down, you won’t be able to raise them again,” he said, snapping out of the brief flirtation between us. “So no. I can’t let you open a hole in the school walls when you know we’re in danger. That is idiotic.”
“I’m going to put them right back up again,” I said. “It’ll trigger the alarm back at the school, and—”
“You don’t know how to do that,” he said.
“Watch me.” I was unusually magical for a werewolf. It was the kind of thing that Callum wanted me to keep under wraps, but when someone told me I couldn’t do something, I longed to teach them how wrong they were. Lex’s words prickled at my skin.
Just then, a strange, keening sound filled the air. Lex grimaced as we both turned toward the wall, where the noise came from. He took a step forward, putting himself between me and the wall.
It was a nice gesture, but I’d had people protect me like that all my life. I didn’t think it was cute anymore. It was certainly not necessary.
The wall began to pulse.
Lex whirled to face me. “Stop it!”
“I’m not doing it,” I said.
I sure as hell hoped this was triggering the alarm like it was supposed to. When that wall came down, we were in trouble.
My shoulder brushed Lex’s arm as I took my place beside him, instead of behind him.
The patrols should be coming out, but right now, we were the first line of defense.
The two of us.
How many witches are on the other side of that wall?
Chapter Seven
As the wall crumpled inward, Lex dared to look away to pick up a stick from the ground. Then he glanced at me. “Run.”
“Run?” I asked. “You run. You’re going to hit witches with a stick?”
“One mind, any weapon,” he said. “You don’t even have a stick.”
“Don’t need one.” I flashed a smile his way, holding my hands out toward the wall. “But this is our little secret, okay?”
As I called on my magic, my palms heated painfully hot, and then silver lightning crackled across my skin.
“Holy shit,” Lex said for the second time.
Wolves were supposed to avoid magic, except for defensive counter-spells. My pack had never taken those rules very seriously.
And that was a good thing, because it turned out that I had a lot of magic.
The wall exploded open. As bits of rock hurtled toward us, I raised an arm, ducking to protect my face, and Lex did the same. The two of us turned into each other, and he threw his arm around me as if he was going to shield me.
Was he just a really gallant kind of guy? Even as shards of rock pelted against my arms and neck, stinging painfully, I wondered why he’d had that impulse. But there was no time to brood over my crush.
I straightened, flinging my hands toward the wall as the witch burst through. Silver threads exploded out of my hands. He flung his hand toward me, and his dark red magic arced against mine as he raced to the side, trying to skirt around us. He seemed desperately intent on getting past us to campus.
He ran, and Lex juked to one si
de after him to cut him off.
Lex grabbed for the witch, and then froze. Time lurched, and the sky changed overhead.
The witch’s dark cloak and clothes were suddenly empty. They hung there in the air for a second, and Lex snatched his cloak out of the air before it wilted in his hand. The rest of his clothes dropped, a pool of black fabric.
Lex looked at the cloak in confusion for a second and then flung it away from him as if it might be cursed.
“What the hell?” he demanded.
“I don’t know.” A cold chill ran down my spine, like ice water dripping down the inside of my shirt. I’d never seen a witch so powerful he could disappear, or break a wall—and the wards.
I raised my hands toward the wall as I turned to face it. Our first priority had to be getting those wards back up before more witches came through. Cold rushed through my body, making me shiver.
The wall was intact. It was like nothing had ever happened. There wasn’t even a crack.
I blinked, then widened my eyes, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
“You saw that too, right?” Lex asked. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, and winced as he found a bloody gash on his cheek. He pulled his hand away and looked at the blood smeared across it, frowning.
“Yeah,” I said. For some reason, the bloody cut on the round swell of Lex’s high cheekbone made me want to touch him, to run my fingers over the hard curves of his face and kiss him better. I’d never had that kind of impulse before. “The wall came down. No matter how it looks now.”
“Do you think it triggered the alarm?”
“I hope so.” I frowned, staring at the wall. “Let’s get back to campus before we get into trouble.”
“Now you’re worried about getting into trouble?”
“I don’t want to lose the chance to find out what just happened,” I said.
“Probably a good idea,” he muttered. “I’ll be on restriction for my whole fourth year if anyone finds out what we were up to.”
“And then you wouldn’t be able to have any fun torturing first-years?” I asked.
He flashed me a devilish grin that did funny things to my insides, and clapped my shoulder. “Come on. Like you said, let’s get out of here and find out what’s going on.”
The two of us began to run, parallel to the wall at first because a patrol should be coming right here.
Lex reached out and grabbed my hand. He still clutched the stick in the other hand, and he held it like a weapon as the two of us ran through the forest again. His fingers were warm and solid, and I didn’t know why he’d taken my hand, but I didn’t ask. The two of us ran hard for campus.
As soon as we had stepped onto the grass, Lex looked around. It took me a second to realize he was studying the quiet campus around us. “No patrols.” His voice came out bleak.
Restless tension curled through my limbs, as the sense that something was terribly wrong made me want to run and fight when there was no one to attack.
“Maddie!”
That was my sister’s furious tone. Piper strode across the lawn toward me. Callum, Arthur and Kai flanked her.
“Hi,” I said.
Next to me, Lex snorted, then began to rub the bridge of his nose as if I exasperated him.
Right, that was the same unimpressive response I’d offered him earlier when he caught me.
“Hi?” Piper’s blue eyes widened dangerously. “Hi. Where have you been, Maddie?”
I gestured expansively. “Around campus.”
It wasn’t a lie. The woods were still campus, and I had definitely been around. I frowned, looking past her at Kai, Arthur and Callum. Arthur crossed his arms, staring at me in that authoritative way Arthur had. He could probably make anyone feel like a naughty little girl who just wouldn’t stop stealing cookies. Callum, meanwhile, came to Piper’s side protectively, putting his hand on her lower back as if to calm her down.
Meanwhile, Kai’s lips flickered up into a hint of a smile as he gestured to my sister with his thumb…and then put his thumb on one corner of his throat and drew it to the other side. Kai was always on my side. But apparently, he didn’t think he could save me from my sister’s wrath this time.
Piper was already launching into a lecture when I interrupted her.
“How did you guys get here so quickly?” I asked, frowning at her and Callum.
“We didn’t. You’ve been missing for hours.” Callum’s gaze sharpened on mine. “You worried your sister sick.”
“Hours?” I repeated, glancing at Lex.
Lex looked toward the sky. I followed his gaze. The sun was low in the sky, much lower than it should have been in early afternoon.
“Holy shit,” I said, before he could.
“We lost three hours.” Lex’s eyes met mine, widening. For a second, I glimpsed fear in his face, and then it was gone, hardening into resolve.
If all the witches could alter time, or just freeze us in it, and we didn’t figure out a way to block their magic, we were going to lose the war.
“We’ve got a problem,” Lex said, without hesitation, no matter how much trouble we’d both be in. “A witch breached the wall. He disappeared—I don’t know if he’s some kind of shifter, or if he was able to turn himself invisible or teleport or…” The possibilities seemed to be bothering Lex, and he broke off. “There’s a witch on campus, though. And I don’t know where.”
“We lost him,” I confessed, embarrassed that for all my good intentions, I hadn’t been able to stop the witch.
Piper cursed with surprising breadth and vivid imagery, something you never would have expected from her sweet, ladylike lips.
“He must have frozen us in time somehow,” Lex said, frowning.
“Well, that’s terrifying,” Piper said.
The last thing we needed was witches with all new powers. Covens 2.0.
“And I guess the fight at the wall never did trigger the alarm,” he muttered. “Great.”
“We’ll split up and search for any trace of dark magic.” Piper hesitated, staring from me to Lex. “You two, we need. For now. Stick together. Lex can get into the dorms, so go check there.”
“Yes ma’am,” Lex said.
I gazed up at him, perplexed, about how my sister had morphed into a ma’am. Lex was so playful with me and so serious when he answered her.
“If you find anything,” she said, “find us next. Don’t do anything stupid.”
Lex repeated the yes-ma’am business. But Piper’s gaze fixed on mine, and she raised her eyebrows at me, like I was the one she worried about.
“I’ll be on my best behavior,” I promised.
“That’s what I worry about,” Callum said, like he did every time I made that particular promise. He ruffled my hair with his hand affectionately anyway. Sometimes it was sweet when he treated me like a kid, and sometimes it bugged me. Right now, I wasn’t going to help my case by complaining. I wished they’d shelve it while Lex was around, though.
“We’ll report back as soon as we’ve checked the dorms,” Lex said.
This time, as we walked together, he didn’t grab my hand.
“Watch each other’s backs,” Arthur warned as we headed across the grass.
I thought Lex would be amused by how they’d treated me like I was still just a child.
But after a minute, he said, “You have a nice family.”
I pulled a face in response.
“You’re lucky,” he told me. He said it with the same certainty Lex said everything, firm and sure. But he also sounded just the little bit wistful, and that made all my usual snarky quips die on my tongue.
“Yeah,” I said. “I am.”
I’d like to know more about his family, but he stopped, turning to me abruptly. He bent down, drawing up his trouser leg to reveal the knife tucked into the top of his boot. He flipped it over in his hand to hold it by the blade, extending it to me.
“You wore a pretty dress today,” he said. “You d
on’t look like you’re carrying a weapon.”
“I don’t need one,” I reminded him.
“If you light up with all that magic in front of anyone else, they’ll never let you come here,” he said. “And that might be better for me, but…”
“Why?” I demanded. I knew that when Piper had put together the original student handbook, she’d still hoped that the packs would send their girls here too. She’d made it clear that fourth-years, the cadre, were supposed to train first-years. Not date them. There was a strict fraternization ban.
It was way too easy for me to imagine kissing Lex, the way his chest would feel against my palms, the way he’d brush his lips against mine. Even though he shook his head, refusing to answer, I could feel a magnetic pull between us. He was looking at me so intently.
“You’re going to keep my secret?” I asked. Callum and Piper always wanted me to keep my magic under wraps. Lex had just confirmed they had good reason. Would he really keep my secret, even though we barely knew each other?
“We’ve both got secrets now,” he reminded me.
The low, confidential way he said that made me feel a rush of warmth through my chest.
When Lex clapped his hand on my shoulder, it would’ve looked to someone at a distance—such as, say, my overprotective pack—like he was just giving me some brotherly advice. Somehow it felt like a much more intimate touch. His fingertips brushed lightly against my shoulder blade, skating over the bare skin exposed by my dress, and my breath caught in my chest.
He flashed me an easy grin. “Now, let’s go find a witch to kill.”
Chapter Eight
Lex and I walked into the first of the dorms. “This is Hull house,” he told me. “One letter off, if you ask me. Named after the Washington pack that finally decided to join the party and paid for a house while they were at it.”
“What’s the name of your house?” The two of us wandered down the halls together, trying to look casual and making small talk while we kept an eye out for any dark magic. I knew I’d feel it when it was here. I knew the scent and sense of dark magic all too well after the way I’d grown up, before Piper and I escaped my father’s coven.