by Leigh Kelsey
“Shut her up,” Alexandra barked. “Knock her out. I know just the place to move this interrogation to.”
THE VENOM CHAMBER
When Kati came around, courtesy of a sharp slap that splintered pain through her cheek, she knew exactly where she was, the smell of it specific. However they’d got in, Chen and her cronies had brought Kati to the potions and poisons classroom, and they’d shoved her into the Venom Chamber.
Kati launched herself at the door just as it slammed shut, the hideous sound of the lock engaging stabbing into her lungs, squeezing them tight until she struggled for breath. They’d locked her in.
“Let me out!” Kati screamed, realising her bonds had been undone as she hammered on the heavy wood door. A slip of light was visible beneath the door, so her sight had been restored too. The relief was thin; she could move and she hadn’t been permanently blinded, but she was locked into a two by two cupboard with some of the most fatally venomous serpents in known existence.
“What the hell is your problem?” Kati screamed, frantically patting her arm holster for her wand. Empty. “I haven’t done anything! Go talk to Catherine Hopwell, she’ll tell you, it wasn’t me who attacked her.”
“I don’t believe you,” Alexandra said cooly. “I know you’re only here because Theo sent you.”
“I’m here to learn like everyone else.” Kati was shaking hard, her voice wavering even as she screamed louder. “Souls, this is fucked up, Chen. Are you trying to kill me, is that it?” In the corner of her vision, Kati glimpsed the snakes moving in their tanks. Had Alexandra and her friends removed the lids from their cages? “You think you can kill me and you’ll feel better about your brother being gone? Then you’ll be just like Theo! You basically dragged me into the woods and now you’re leaving me to die, just like Colen Greensmith died!”
Silence from beyond the door, and Kati’s breath hitched, her cheeks wet as tears slid free. “I didn’t do anything,” she gasped, quieter, the fight draining out of her. “All I wanted to do was come to the academy, learn how to be a good little necromancer like everyone else, and forget that my brother was involved in a guy’s death.”
“I don’t buy it,” the deep-voiced woman barked.
“I don’t know.” This from the uncertain, higher voice that had to be Chen’s blonde mate. “Alexandra, I’m not sure about this… What if she didn’t do anything?”
“No,” Alexandra snapped back at her. “She has to have. Who else could it be?”
“The only person here who’s attacked someone is you, Chen,” Kati said, all her energy gone. “You’re the one who’s locked someone in a cupboard full of killer snakes. You’re the one who blinded me, who attacked me. If I’m a killer because my brother was, what about you, Alexandra? Your brother went into the woods that day too. Your brother’s as much to blame as mine.”
The more she spoke, the more her anger returned until she could grip the full force of it and pull strength back into herself, though her legs were still jelly. Not a single word she said was untrue. “Everyone thinks I’m corrupt, but why? Because Theo went on the run and everyone says that makes him guilty? Well what does committing suicide say? To me that says someone’s got a guilty soulsdamned conscience.”
“Fuck you,” Alexandra seethed, and Kati pictured her face flushed, her green eyes flashing with rage. “We’re leaving,” she said to her cronies. “Come on, girls. Leave her to rot.”
“Alexandra…”
“It’s only what she deserves,” the gruff woman argued.
“But this is murder,” the other girl protested weakly. “If she dies…”
“Good,” Alexandra replied coldly.
“What’s going on here?” a new voice asked. Usually gentle and warm but uncommonly hard, and sharp enough to slice the atmosphere.
Kati threw herself at the door again, beating on it with her fists and screaming. “Get me out! Get me out!”
“Freeze,” Mr Worth said in a hard command, more forceful than she’d ever heard him, and then, “Unlock.”
The second the door flew open, Kati fell out, gasping, tears flooding from her eyes and her whole body shaking as she dragged cool night air into her lungs. Mr Worth caught her by her shoulders, keeping her upright as she shook and shuddered, all the strength gone from her legs.
“They locked me in,” she gasped in a small voice. “I thought—I thought I was going to—”
“You’re safe now,” he reassured, his gaze intense as it swept her from head to toe. Not mentioning the fact she was shaking like a storm-gripped tree, he squeezed Kati’s shoulders, the hard shape of his wand, still in his hand, pressing into her skin.
“How did you find me?” she rasped.
“Your familiar found me,” he murmured.
Oh.
Kati made a mental reminder to give Dolly extra treats and a cuddle, if she’d allow it. Kati owed her big time.
Seeming unwilling to release her, Mr Worth kept hold of Kati with one hand, lifting his wand into the air and flicking it in a complicated motion. Sparks shot from the end, buttery sunshine yellow, to spell out MRH in the air. Kati’s eyes drifted from the hanging initials to Alexandra Chen, her beefy brunette friend, and the pale-faced blonde who’d been the only one to show some sign of a conscience. All three women were frozen in place by ropes of amber magic, and not the common rope spell—this was a sophisticated enchantment, bordering on a curse, and Kati glanced at Mr Worth questioningly.
He avoided the look, resting an arm securely across her back and leading her around the benches usually full of Bunsen burners, cauldrons, and chemicals, to the door.
“Where are we going?” Kati asked, her voice a rasp from screaming for her life. Her whole body felt wrecked, and about as sturdy as silk. “Wait—my wand!”
Mr Worth froze in the middle of the corridor outside, not a breath moving his body for a long second. Kati watched him, swallowing hard at the wrath in his eyes. “They took your wand?”
Kati nodded, inhaling a shuddery breath.
The rage in his eyes could have melted glass.
Unfreezing, Mr Worth made to return to the classroom but Kati’s hand shot out, fingers hooking the soft wool of his jumper as her panic spiked. “Don’t,” she pleaded, choking on the word.
Don’t leave. Please don’t leave me here on my own.
He tucked her under his arm again, the warmth of his body an unexplainable comfort and his blue eyes steady on her. He skimmed her jaw with a knuckle and the touch steadied her, just barely, taking the sharp edge off her panic. “You’ll wait in the doorway while I search for your wand. You shouldn’t be anywhere near those three.”
“I’m not going to hurt them for revenge,” she said hollowly.
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” he bit out.
Kati looked at him strangely, that rage still burning in his eyes no matter how gently he regarded her, his body as tense as iron no matter how carefully he handled her. “You’re angry.”
He laughed, a short, hard burst of sound. “Oh, angry doesn’t begin to cover what I’m feeling.”
“Why?” Kati asked honestly.
He only shook his head and deposited her in the doorway, a muscle feathering in his clenched jaw. “Wait here, okay? Don’t move.” His voice was unfathomably soft as he caught her hand and squeezed before marching into the room. He looked fearsome despite the fact he was in a soft green jumper and trousers, his hair a mess and a roll of parchment sticking out of his pocket.
Watching him search the room, utterly methodical, Kati saw a different side to him. No wonder Madam Hawkness had given him a job despite his family name; he was a capable reaper or necromancer. Why hadn’t Kati asked what he was?
Reapers and necromancers were similar, both able to use death magic, but the gene that made reapers more able to withstand exposure to the underworld wasn’t as prevalent in necromancers. It didn’t matter so much when they only opened windows, rather than wide open doors. And reapers
tended to burn out from magic use faster than necromancers—nature’s way of balancing the scales. Children of both reapers and necromancers were uncommon but powerful in both aspects—magic and underworld endurance. Kati watched Mr Worth, trying to picture him reaping a soul or reanimating a recently killed corpse.
“Where is it?” he demanded, his voice chillingly flat as he faced the three bound girls. “One of you has Katriona’s wand and I want to know who.” He gestured with his wand, removing a silencing charm.
The blonde girl buckled first. “Alexandra’s got it in her pocket.
Alexandra shot her friend a furious look but didn’t say anything as Mr Worth retrieved Kati’s wand, the sight of the elegant ebony a soothing balm to her frayed nerves, as much a sight of salvation as Mr Worth had been when she’d spilled out of the Venom Chamber. Her hand shook as she accepted it, her fingers bone white on the sturdy base of her wand. She allowed herself to be steered away from the room, happily leaving her three attackers to rot, and only blinking in mild surprise at the sight of Madam Hawkness storming down the corridor, her robes billowing behind her like a deadly cloud and her face set in a hard, fearsome expression.
“You’ve found him?” she demanded, then glanced at Kati, shaking and pale beside him. “Miss Wilson? Whatever’s happened?”
“Alexandra Chen, Demetria Bould, and Hannah Willowswift had her locked into the Venom Chamber when I found them,” Mr Worth told the headteacher, his voice as hard as iron. “Nothing to do with the attacks as far as I can gather, but still unacceptable.”
Madam Hawkness nodded, her expression growing even sharper if possible. She very suddenly reminded Kati of a lioness about to deliver a killing blow. “I’ll deal with them. You get Kati to Nurse Gardner.”
“That’s where I was headed,” he confirmed.
“They were going to kill me,” Kati said in a small voice as Madam Hawkness made to move. Her attention snapped to Kati with surprise. “It wasn’t a prank or a joke. Chen’s blonde friend said they shouldn’t, that it was murder, but the others said I deserved it.”
“Did they now?” Madam Hawkness replied, her voice a growl. “Rest assured, Kati, they will be severely punished for their actions.”
“What will you do to them?” Kati asked, only aware that she was shivering when a heating charm wrapped around her, tinged faintly yellow.
“That is entirely up to them. Suspension or expulsion—it all depends on if they show any form of remorse for their actions. This is not the Second Breath Academy of old where tormenting students and even killing them was acceptable. It’s 2019, and I will not abide behaviour like this. You said Hannah Willowswift argued against killing you?”
So that was her name? Kati nodded.
Madam Hawkness’s mouth thinned. “She, at least, ought to have the good sense to apologise. Either way, they’ll keep their distance from you. I’m sorry this happened to you in my academy.”
Kati didn’t know what to say to that.
“We’d better get to the infirmary,” Mr Worth said softly, gently steering Kati away.
Madam Hawkness gave them a brisk nod, her expression hardening as she turned to deal with the three perpetrators, and Kati allowed herself to be led down the corridor, past night-dark windows and rooms full of laughter, past students hurrying from the library to the dining hall, their arms full of books or parchment. Kati felt separate from it all, reeling inside.
They’d tried to kill her.
As if he’d heard the thought, or maybe because her breath hitched, Mr Worth tucked her tighter into his side.
They’d tried to fucking kill her.
FORBIDDEN BUT SO GOOD
They crossed the lobby at a fast clip, Mr Worth guiding Kati up the grand stairs and past the first and second floors. Kati’s face stung from the hard slap one of the assholes had given her and various aches made themselves known. Her thumb hurt like a bitch where she’d gouged her wand’s thorn into it; it was a serious mess, still leaking blood.
Irrationally afraid that he was leading her to the study room where Theo’s name was carved into a desk, where a student had been killed, Kati baulked as they crested the stairs to the third floor. But his hand, firm against her lower back, mostly keeping her upright, began to rub circles against her spine, effectively distracting her from the panic. And of course he was taking her to the infirmary, the beds laid out in glittering moonlight on the mezzanine beneath the Diamond Rotunda.
Kati avoided looking across the open space to the study hall, instead focussing on the few occupants of the beds, all clearly the result of a spell gone wrong, and the stout, black-haired woman viciously turning herbs to a paste in a pestle and mortar on the worktop against the far wall, cubbyholes and shelves and cases full of ingredients and components in front of her, so many that Kati struggled to count them. Strands of wild plants and herbs dangled from the beams and rafters, giving the infirmary an atmosphere more akin to paradise than a hospital.
“You look as white as a sheet,” the woman, presumably Nurse Gardner, remarked, putting aside her mortar as she spied Kati. Her long dress belled as she wove around the carved wooden beds, coming nearer.
“Let me guess. Mrs Hale brought in the first volunteer for Eternal practise and it was your first murder. No.” She tapped her bottom lip, coated in a deep brown lipstick to match her smoky eyeshadow. “That’s next week for first years. Hmm. How about … an eye-popping spell gone wrong? No.” She peered into Kati’s eyes, coming closer. “You’re not bloodshot. A severing spell backfired—but there’s no blood. Oh souls, it’s not internal, is it?” She frowned. “I’m normally right good at knowing what’s up with someone, but I’m out of guesses, love.”
“A trio of bitches shoved me into the Venom Chamber and I thought I was going to die,” Kati snapped, feeling like a bug trapped in amber for inspection. “No injuries, no spell gone wrong. Just plain old-fashioned bullying.”
Nurse Gardner—as confirmed by her carved wooden name tag—blinked, leaning back. “Did you get bitten?”
“No.” Kati had been lucky.
“Right. Well a calming tonic, a shock draught, and a cup of peppermint tea ought to sort you out.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Mr Worth said with a smile. “You looked busy when we came in.”
“Tell me about it,” Nurse Gardner huffed. “Three broken bones tonight, and all of them from idiots who think they’re ready to take on a Malcontent Metatarsal charm. Maybe if they could pinpoint the location of the metatarsal to draw an ache from, but of course not. Required reading translates as if-you-can-be-bothered reading these days.”
Nurse Gardner bustled across the room, still muttering about morons stupid enough to cast a spell without doing the right prep. Kati tuned her out, the ache in her own chest from her too-tight lungs more important than anyone else’s. And this wasn’t the result of her own stupidity; this had been done to her, inflicted on her. They’d locked her in a closet full of vipers and expected her to die. And for what? Because Chen had lost her brother and blamed Theo?
“Come on,” Mr Worth said softly, guiding Kati around the mezzanine railing to an arrangement of sofas, the little space shielded from the rest of the infirmary by big, carved beech screens. During the day it would be boiling hot, with the sun coming through the Rotunda, but right now it was cool and comforting, yet more herbs dangling from the beams and little plants tucked into notches in the stonework.
Kati sank onto a sofa gratefully, ignoring the fact she was still shaking from head to toe. “Sorry if you had other shit to be doing,” she said weakly as Mr Worth squeezed her shoulder and crossed to the other side of the area, where a table had been set up under a vast stained glass window depicting a figure mid-reaping, her scythe slicing through the air and dark robes billowing around her, the man at her feet cowering, his head bowed as he waited for his soul to be taken and his body delivered to the underworld.
Red, green, and blue light, silvered by the moon, fell on Mr W
orth as he perused the trays of glass vials and steel tubs and stumpy potion bottles laid out next to a coffee machine brewing something decidedly purple and a kettle filled with a clear liquid that was (hopefully) water. A strand of hair fell into his eyes as he read the labels on the many bottles, selecting three before flicking on the kettle and preparing two cups of tea.
Kati calmed as she watched him, and knew her feelings had developed beyond the boundaries of a mere crush. In her defense, he’d swept in to save her life like a knight of old on a shining white charger; that sort of attention was impossible to resist, and Kati was past even trying to deny that she liked him. She didn’t care that he was her teacher right then, or that having feelings for him would cause untold drama and problems for her. She needed this, this moment of calm and safety.
With a warming charm still draped around her shoulders, and closed into this cosy area under the moonlight, with clear, fresh air around her, Kati began to feel safe. And that was before Mr Worth set his collection of vials and bottles on the coffee table in front of them and curled Kati’s numb hands around a teacup full of peppermint tea.
“I think,” Kati said quietly, only half seeing the room around her but slowly coming out of her cruel introspection, the vision of that venomous room hard to escape, “I should probably know your name. If you’re going to keep rescuing me, that is.”
Mr Worth lowered onto the other side of the sofa, a safe distance away Kati noted, and pondered her comment. He flicked the stopper out of a bottle of opalescent potion and drank it. Buying himself time to answer, she realised. Kati braced for rejection, blinking in surprise as he said, “It’s Iain.”
“Iain,” Kati repeated quietly, fearing saying it louder, as if someone would overhear and steal the name from her tongue. “Iain Worth?”
He nodded, a gentle smile creasing his blue eyes. “Katriona Wilson.”