by Linsey Hall
“That’s it,” Hedy murmured. “Keep going. It’s going to need more than that.”
I reached for the magic deep inside me, feeding it into the lacy cloth that was soaked in potion. This was where it got tricky. I had magic on the surface that was easy to control. But the bulk of my power resided deep inside me. It was a mix of my own power, the power from the Greek gods, and a bit of the darkness from the Rebel Gods who’d held me prisoner for years.
I couldn’t put the dark stuff into this spell, so I focused on drawing out only the light. When I tried to take the magic that Zeus had given me—the crackling lightning—it snapped and burned inside me. I stayed far away from Hades’s magic.
Shaking, I fed the power into the veil. Sweat dripped down my spine, and my muscles ached. I squeezed my eyes shut and focused, trying to keep my grip on the magic, feeding it in a steady stream. It thrashed inside me, wanting to burst out in a powerful blast.
Lightning was not an easily controlled substance, that was for sure.
“Careful,” Hedy murmured, clearly able to sense that I was losing control.
My arms shook as I tried to keep it together, using every bit of strength and will not to blow it entirely.
“That’s it,” Hedy said. “You’re getting it.”
I opened my eyes to see a haze of smoke forming above the stone. It coalesced to form an image, just like it had when the Stryx had first used it. I’d caught the barest glance of it then, but had only been able to decipher a vision of mountains and lightning.
Now, I could see a blazing red sunset and hear explosions. The mountain was black, formed of volcanic rubble. At least, that’s what I thought I was seeing. I squinted, trying to make out the details.
Every inch of me ached as I fed more magic into the spell, powering the potion and the veil so that they could do their work. Weakness sucked at my limbs, exhaustion pulling at my mind. The lightning within me cracked and burst, trying to break free of the carefully controlled stream that I was feeding into the veil.
My muscles trembled uncontrollably.
“Rowan, you’re weakening.” Concern echoed in Hedy’s voice. “Perhaps you should slow down.”
Slow down? We were so close! The image projected by the Truth Teller and the veil was growing more detailed. We had to see more!
I ignored her words, pushing more of my magic into the spell. Sweat dripped down my temple.
“Rowan, stop.”
But I couldn’t. I needed to see. I needed to stop the Stryx. I knew deep in my heart that they were up to something that would hurt thousands. Millions.
But my magic was so hard to control. It took everything I had.
But it wasn’t enough.
The power burst out of me, a lightning bolt that shot to the ceiling. It ricocheted off, just as I’d imagined, and slammed toward the ground, hitting the tables where the other students sat. They flew backward, screams breaking through the quiet room.
I stumbled away from the Truth Teller, a gasp tearing from my throat. The magic inside me died down, the pressure released.
Wild-eyed, I looked toward the Truth Teller. The vision had faded.
Damn it.
I looked up, catching sight of Jude’s gaze.
Oh, shit.
She looked pissed.
In the middle of the room, the other students were rising to their feet, glaring at me.
“You’ve done it now,” Hedy murmured, sympathy in her gaze.
“Yep.”
She squeezed my arm. “You did well until the end.”
“Thanks.” Dread coiled inside me as Jude helped the class fix the overturned tables and chairs, then dismissed them.
I tried to ignore what was going on, instead focusing my attention on cleaning up the supplies I’d used. I created neat little rows of potion bottles and packed the Veil of Power away in its box. The scrap of lace looked tattered and ratty now, as if the surge of my power had damaged it.
Jude approached the table, her starry blue eyes serious. “You didn’t listen to Hedy when she told you to stop.”
I just nodded. There was nothing I could say. I had ignored Hedy. The results were obvious. There was a giant freaking divot in the ceiling that was burned black from my lightning.
“You need to get control of your magic, Rowan. These new gifts from the gods aren’t resting easily inside of you.”
She was right on that, and I suspected it might be because of the dark magic in my soul. I might have repressed it, but it was still hanging out alongside the good magic. The result was less than desirable.
“I’ll get it under control,” I said.
“Maximus has been busy with the Order, as I’m sure you may know, but he’ll return to help train you next week.”
I nodded, trying to keep my cheeks from flaring red. Maximus, the powerful gladiator mage whom I definitely had some feelings for, had been away from the Protectorate the last few days. He was a freelancer with the Order of the Magica and the Undercover Protectorate both, a difficult position given that I had magic that the Order would love to see me thrown in prison for possessing.
Maximus kept my secret, thank fates. It was easy for him, since he was so wealthy it didn’t matter if the Order fired him.
As much as I could probably use his help getting my power under control, I also wanted to see him. I liked him, damn it. More than I should.
“Until you’ve got your magic together, I’m not sure that you should practice around the other students,” Jude said.
My heart plummeted. The only way to join the PITs—the Paranormal Investigative Team where my sisters worked—was to pass the Academy. If I couldn’t go to class, I couldn’t pass.
Shit.
“It’s a matter of safety,” Jude said. “You’re the most accomplished student here, when things go well. When they don’t…”
“I’m a danger.” I finished the sentence for her, unable to help myself. For all the good things I’d accomplished, there were still some messy areas of my life.
Like the fact that lightning now exploded out of me occasionally.
Not great.
“It’s more than that,” Hedy said. “Your magic isn’t united within you. Your lack of control isn’t just a danger to others. It’s a danger to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve seen this before,” Hedy said. “With your sister Bree. If you can’t get your magic under control—and soon—it will devour you from the inside. You’ll become the walking dead. A shell of yourself. Just a husk with no soul and no magic.”
I swallowed hard, ice streaking through my veins. I’d known this was a vague possibility, but hadn’t really thought it would happen to me.
I’d ignored it.
But it was happening, apparently. Right now.
“How long do I have?” I asked.
Hedy’s gaze turned serious. “I don’t know. A couple weeks? Maybe a bit longer? It all depends on your power, Rowan. And you.”
3
A few hours later, after a shower to get the smell of burnt ozone off of me, I found my sisters at the Whiskey and Warlock. The little pub was almost empty since it wasn’t yet five in the evening. The scarred old tables and chairs gleamed a warm golden wood, and copper mugs hung from the ceiling.
Bree and Ana were the only ones in the little room where the Protectorate usually gathered. They sat at a small table near the roaring fire, each with a drink in front of them. Bree’s pink cocktail shined in the light, while Ana’s pink champagne bubbled away.
The sight of them, a bit worn and mussed-looking from their recent job, warmed my insides. I turned from them and faced the bar, leaning on the gleaming wood. Sophie, the bartender, turned to smile at me. Today, her shirt said Mess with Nessie and You Mess with Me.
“What’ll it be?” she asked.
“Tea, please. Just a bit of milk.”
“No beer?”
I shook my head. “Can’t say that I deserve it today.
”
I needed to get to practicing my magic, but I’d wanted to see Bree and Ana first.
“I doubt that’s true,” Sophie said.
“Kinda is.”
I guess my face said it all, because she just nodded sympathetically and went to the back to brew some tea. “Take a seat and I’ll bring it out.” Her voice echoed from the kitchen.
“Thanks,” I shouted, then went to join my sisters. I smiled at them, nodding to their drinks. “You’re starting early.”
“Celebrating.” Bree grinned widely, shoving her dark hair back from her cheek. “We caught the Melphius demon who’s been terrorizing Pitlochry.”
“Really?” I’d been hearing about how the hellbeast was burning houses and catching people as they fled the flames. “Then you deserve a celebratory drink.”
At that moment, I wanted to be them. To have finished with my classes and proven myself worthy. To have joined the team and my sisters at the Protectorate, fighting to keep people safe.
Ana nodded, her blonde hair glinting in the light of the flames. “It wasn’t easy, but we took him down.”
At her arm, a wound bled sluggishly. I scowled at her. “Let me take care of that.”
“What?” She glanced down. “Oh, that. I hardly noticed. There were worse ones.”
“So you’ve already done some healing?” I frowned, not liking the idea that she’d been worse off than this.
“A lot of it.” She sipped her pink bubbles and sighed happily. “I’m pretty much tapped out now, but that one’s little. It’s fine.”
“Well, let me see to this anyway.” I pulled a little vial of healing potion from my belt and dabbed it on the wound. While I worked, Sophie delivered my tea.
“Just tea for you?” Ana asked as I put the vial of potion back in my belt.
“Got a problem.”
They both leaned forward, their eyes concerned. As if they were the same person, they spoke in unison. “It’s your magic, isn’t it?”
I swallowed hard and nodded, explaining how my new lightning magic was exploding out of me. I’d had pretty good control of the water power I’d first gotten from the gods, but now that I had another power, it was all going haywire inside me. Not to mention Hades’s magic…
“Oh no.” Bree’s face paled. “I was worried about this. You need to get it under control.”
“Fast,” Ana said.
“I know.”
“We always knew this was a risk. But I didn’t really believe it would happen to you.” Bree shook her head. “Probably because I didn’t want to face it.”
“We can help you get it under control,” Ana said. “So can Maximus. He’s very skilled.”
Just the thought of Maximus made me warm inside. I shoved it away and reached for her hand. “Thanks, guys.”
“Of course. We’re always here for you,” Bree said. “I can help you with your lightning power.”
“I’m not bad with the elements,” Ana said. “Water is a specialty of mine.”
“But what about that power from Hades?” Bree asked. “The one that lets you suck the life from plants.”
I blanched. “Um, that one is tough.”
“Have you practiced with it?” Bree asked.
“No.”
“You have to,” Ana said.
“I don’t want it,” I said. In fact, I was pretty damned scared of it. I loathed admitting that, though, even to myself.
“It doesn’t matter if you want it,” Bree said. “You need to make it work for you. That’s probably part of your problem. You can’t ignore it.”
“I know. You’re right.” I leaned forward. “I also got a hint of what the Stryx saw in the Truth Teller, before my magic blew up and caused problems.”
Bree leaned in. “Really? What?”
I described the blazing sky and black mountains, the explosions. Before I finished, a noise blared from the comms charm around Ana’s neck, sharp and loud. The three of us jumped.
My heart thundered. “What the hell is that?”
“Red alert.” Ana pressed her fingertips to her comms charm, igniting the magic within it. “Jude? What is it?”
“Emergency in northern Greece.” She rattled off a list of geographical coordinates. “Get here soon. Be prepared to climb, and watch out for the Obsidia. Mean little bastards.”
“What?” Confusion echoed in Ana’s voice, but there was the sound of an explosion, then the connection cut out. “Jude? Jude!”
There was no response.
They surged to their feet and I followed.
“We’ve got to go,” Bree said.
“I’m coming.” I stepped forward.
“You don’t have to,” Ana says. “It could be dangerous.”
“From the sound of that explosion, it is dangerous,” I said. “I’m coming anyway. It’s in Greece. I’m the Greek DragonGod. No way I’m not coming.”
Bree shot Ana a look. “She has a point.”
I grinned. “Exactly.”
Ana nodded. “Let’s get a move on, then.”
We hurried out onto the street, which had already grown dark.
Bree reached into her pocket and withdrew a transport charm. “I’ll get us as close as I can to those coordinates.”
Ana and I nodded, and she hurled the transport charm to the ground. It exploded upward in a cloud of glittery black dust, and the three of us stepped into it.
The ether sucked me in and spun me around, spitting me out into the middle of what felt like a war zone. I coughed and stumbled on gravel. Smoke burned my eyes as I looked around.
We stood in a valley between two huge black hills, the earth itself made of crumbly black rocks. The sun was beginning to set, shedding an eerie, pale light over the smoke that drifted down from the top of one of the hills. The sound of explosions echoed in the distance, but I couldn’t see them yet.
“Where are we?” I scraped my hair off my face and turned in a circle, looking for clues.
“Besides Greece? No idea.” Bree’s silver wings flared from her back, and she launched herself into the air. “Going for recon. Be back soon.”
She flew high into the smoky sky. Ana and I looked up, following her progress. The air here stank of sulfur and burning stuff. In all the pictures I’d seen of Greece, I’d never seen anything like these massive black hills.
Dark magic prickled in the air, a powerful force that made my skin crawl and my senses go on high alert.
“Something is really wrong here,” I said.
“No kidding.” Ana pointed toward the sky. “Here she comes.”
Bree appeared through the smoke, her silver wings bright against the dark clouds. She landed next to us, her face streaked with soot. “I couldn’t see much, but I think we have to head up that hill.”
She pointed to the one that was belching smoke. I nodded and trudged toward it, the glassy gravel easily swallowing my boots up to my ankles.
“Do we know who else is up there?” I shouted through the sound of explosions.
“I couldn’t see anyone,” Bree said.
I tried to breathe shallowly to keep the smoke out of my lungs, but it wasn’t working. It burned as I climbed, my muscles aching in tandem. All around, the gravel shifted, flowing downward as something at the top of the mountain disturbed it.
“Do you hear that?” Bree asked, tipping her head to the left.
“No.” I tried, but I couldn’t. Bree had godly hearing, though. A gift from Heimdall, a Norse god.
“Something is stalking us.”
The words made a chill race down my spine.
Something is stalking us. That was the last thing you ever wanted to hear.
I didn’t have my potion bombs since I hadn’t brought my bag, but I did have my dagger and some other weapons stored in the ether. Also my magic, but that was totally wonky and I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk it.
“To the left,” Ana said.
I glanced over, spotting a flash of movement against the
black ground. The figure was only a few feet tall and blade-like, each limb as skinny as a sword. And if I wasn’t mistaken, the creature was made of black glass. Red eyes gleamed at us.
“That must be the Obsidia,” I said.
“Ten bucks it’s made of obsidian,” Bree said.
“Not taking that bet.” I was certain it was made of the black volcanic glass. Unfortunately for us, obsidian was the sharpest surface on earth. Brittle, though, thank fates.
We continued to hurry up the mountain, keeping our pace quick and our gazes on the Obsidia. By the time we’d climbed another hundred yards, there were three Obsidias. Then four. They didn’t have faces—just red eyes on a jagged slab of black volcanic glass that protruded upward from the shoulders.
The sounds of explosions intensified, covering up the skittering noise that the Obsidias made when they moved.
“They’re getting closer,” Ana said.
She was right. The little jerks were creeping ever closer, their blade-like arms outstretched toward us. They had no fingers or hands, just glassy swords for limbs, which were longer than their legs. Easily a three-foot reach. That was a heck of a lot longer than my sword, and definitely long enough to do some serious damage.
Heart pounding, I moved my hand toward my side, out of view of the Obsidias. Then I called my sword from the ether, preparing for an attack.
As a group, the beasts charged, all four of them racing across the gravelly slope toward us. Their red eyes flamed and their glassy bodies gleamed.
Bree launched herself into the air, drawing a long sword from the ether. She shot toward the little monsters, her blade raised. As soon as she hovered above it, the creature jumped, launching itself fifteen feet into the air and slicing out with its arm.
Bree shrieked and dodged, diving aside just in time to avoid a nasty cut. The Obsidia landed on the ground, then leapt up again, flying twenty feet high this time. Bree was ready for him, though, and she struck out with her blade, shattering the creature’s arm.
The little monster didn’t so much as flinch, though I wasn’t surprised. Dark magic reeked from them, stinking of sulfur and death. They were dark magic creatures, built of magic and stone instead of flesh and bone. Pain wouldn’t be something they were familiar with.