by Laney Powell
“Now that you’re worn down, I’d like to go one more round,” Madame Karathos said.
“All right,” I squared my shoulders. This was how we trained here.
She turned away from me, walking toward the window. I waited and felt nothing. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I inhaled deeply. I was ready to go to bed.
The spell hit me like someone had just kicked me in physical Combat class. I staggered backwards, grabbing onto one of the chairs. Glancing up as I clutched at my forehead with the other hand, I could see that Madame Karathos hadn’t moved. She stood in front of the window, seemingly unconcerned with what was happening with me behind her.
I focused on closing the door to the battering ram that was hitting my mind. It wasn’t easy—Madame Karathos was strong. The image of a door being pushed open, with something dark and hateful on the other side of it filled my head. Mentally I shoved at the door, first with both arms, and then I turned and put my back to the door, digging my feet into the ground.
But I wasn’t strong enough. I could feel the door opening, inch by inch. Then it stopped, and I thought I might be able to resist.
Which was when something like a bomb went off on the other side of the door in my head. I cried out and stumbled, falling back onto my butt.
Great.
When I opened my eyes, Madame Karathos stood over me. “I’m sorry if I hurt you,” she said, holding out a hand to me. “You’ve gotten good at low energy spells. I wanted to use a stronger one.”
“I think that went beyond strong and into superhero level,” I said as I rubbed at my forehead. “What spell was that?”
“It’s an old spell, called Conore quero. It means, loosely translated, seeking vision. It’s not an easy spell to use.”
“It kicked my butt,” I said.
“Well, that’s actually good, although it might not feel that way right now. I need to know how far I can push you, and what we need to work on. That level of spell is the sort you’ll see with full mages who have more than one elemental strength, and the interrogators of the Concilium,” she said.
I didn’t need to hear anything more to get the point.
“While your siren ancestry can be addressed, the demon side of you would be frowned upon,” Madame Karathos said. “My goal is to help you to conceal both of those truths. What you choose to share is up to you, but I caution you to choose your confidants carefully.”
“I already do,” I said.
“I rather thought so, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it,” she smiled. “Why don’t we end for the evening? Now that I’ve been able to see your initial reaction to the Conore spell, I can help you build the magical barriers you’ll need.”
“That would be good,” I said. “I want all the barriers I can create.”
“Good night then, Olivia,” Madame Karathos said.
I left her office feeling completely beat up. But it made me feel better to know that she hadn’t gotten in right away, that I’d been able to use my control over myself to keep her out for a little while. Didn’t make me any less tired.
What I needed was fresh air. I chose a route back to my dorm from the main building that would let me walk outside. The night air was just what I needed. I avoided the library. I didn’t have the strength to deal with the hellway tonight.
My path took me through one of the gardens. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt a furry form brush against me. “What the hell?” I yelped.
I looked down to see a large black wolf. It gazed up at me, and even in the moonlight, I could see the green eyes.
“Silas! Don’t scare me like that!”
He sat down on his haunches, his mouth open, and his tongue hanging out. He looked like he was grinning.
“Are you laughing at me?”
A short bark was my answer.
“Jerk,” I said, reaching to rub his head and neck. Yes, it was Silas. I knew this. But he was, in his wolf form, while gorgeous and huge, also close to a dog. And what did you do with dogs? You scratched their heads. I’d never say this to him out loud. He might die from offense, even as he was easy going about everything else.
It was the first time I’d seen him in wolf form. “You’re just as gorgeous now as when I saw you earlier,” I said, kneeling down.
He leaned into me, as he had in the dining hall. I was hit by his warmth again.
“This is one of your nights to run?” I asked.
He made a small sound that I took to be a ‘yes’. He’d told me a while ago that the school made allowances for him to be able to go out and run.
“Well, go run. I need to go to bed. Madame knocked me on my ass,” I said as I stood up.
He made a small yipping sound, and when I looked at him, he was definitely laughing at me.
“Good night,” I said, rolling my eyes.
I felt him watching me until I reached the dormitory building. I glanced over my shoulder and blew him a kiss. A bark sounded in the night. I hoped he’d seen me.
For the first time in a long time, I felt secure. I was cared for. I had good friends. I had the best guys in the world at my side.
Maybe things would be all right.
Chapter Six
Olivia
For the next week, things were calm. I listened for any unusual gossip. There was talk about Katherine, and people were worried. It had been over a week. But no one said anything about the Arabethym stones, or the sirens, or anything connected to me. Which was good, even as I felt guilty as hell about Katherine.
I hadn’t dreamed of Marbys all week, either. Nor had I woken up after dreams of fire. While I really wanted him to leave me alone, given the state of the school, I found it made me twitchy that I had no idea what he was up to. Maybe that was the point? To make me uneasy by not bothering me? I had to stop myself, because I would drive myself into a corner trying to figure him out.
The Concilium members were striding around school, pulling students out of class, and spending a lot of time in the library. I hadn’t been called in for questioning yet, for which I was thankful. It had been a week since my last lesson with Madame Karathos, and I hadn’t discovered a damn thing. I was beginning to think that this would end up a complete failure on my part.
Wednesday morning, I was out of my room before Jade and Thalia. Jake met me in the hallway outside my pod.
“You going to breakfast?” he asked.
“Always,” I said. “I’m not one of those people who can go without.”
“Silas said he saw you out last night,” Jake said.
“I took the long way home after my lesson,” I replied. “You guys talked last night?”
“We talk all the time,” Jake said, taking my hand in his. “Part of the deal is we keep you safe.”
“It wasn’t open last night,” I lowered my voice. I wouldn’t say the word ‘hellway,’ out here in the open. “I couldn’t feel a thing. But I also didn’t go anywhere near the library.”
“Good,” his hand squeezed mine gently. “Because I—”
Whatever he was going to say was cut off by a noise that sounded like a cross between a train whistle and an angry teapot.
I looked around to find Wendi staring at the two of us.
“What the hell is this, Jake?” she whispered, her teeth clenched.
Jake showed no signs of being fazed by her anger. Good thing. She was over the top. Like, I couldn’t stand the girl, but she seriously looked like she was about to burst a blood vessel or something.
“What are you talking about, Wendi?” he asked calmly.
“Are you with her now?”
“I am. So back off.” He stared at her.
She didn’t reply, only stared back.
I wasn’t sure I really liked the idea of the two of them having all sorts of non-verbal communication, but this wasn’t my relationship to deal with. So I kept quiet.
“I can’t believe you would stoop to her level,” Wendi said finally. A small group of her friends had
gathered around her, all of them giving me the death glare.
Jake said, “Come on, Olivia. I’m hungry.” He smiled down at me, my hand still in his, and turned away from Wendi.
I could feel the death rays burning a hole in me. “She really knows how to hold a grudge,” I said.
He sighed. “I’m sorry. Will it make any difference if I say that I didn’t see how she really was until she stole your ring?”
I laughed then. “Isn’t that like one of the oldest excuses for dating someone who gets over the top?”
“Yes, but in my case, it’s true,” he smiled, and batted his eyelashes at me comically.
“You got my ring back for me, before there was ever even an us,” I said. “That made all the difference for me. That told me you didn’t approve of how she was acting.”
He didn’t look at ease. “I should have confronted her directly.”
“No way,” I said as we walked into the dining hall. “It was so much better that she accused me of something that she couldn’t back up. She looked like someone with a vendetta, nothing more. I don’t even know if she knows I got the ring back.”
“Well, I’m sorry. I wish she’d move on.”
“Some people can’t,” I said. “Enough of her. Do you have rugby this afternoon?”
“We have a game. I know it’s Wednesday, but do you think you can make it?”
“I can try,” I said, smiling up at him. “I like watching you two play.” He and Matty played on the same team. It had been a rugby game where I saw all three—four—of the guys playing, and to say that my dreams took an exciting turn would be putting it mildly.
“That would be great,” he smiled. We sat, and I found that it was nice to be one on one with him. Of the three of my guys, Jake had been the one I’d spent the least time with. While he was joking and easygoing with Matty, and even Silas, he was thoughtful and quiet with me.
Thalia came in, trailed by Jade. Matty and Silas walked in together. They sat down, Matty on the other side of me, and Silas across from me. I felt his foot nudge mine.
I needed to remember to tell him how much I enjoyed seeing him in wolf form last night. Having seen his wolf, I could see it in Silas. They both had green eyes, and Silas had black hair, just like his wolf. Both were fluid and graceful in their movements, which told me that Silas was extremely comfortable with his body, regardless of form. I’d seen that same grace on the rugby field. He and Caspian were easily the best players on their team.
Matty and Jake were similar, with that silent communication that came from having a sibling, I guessed. As an only child, I wouldn’t really know.
“Thanks for waiting for me,” Matty said to Jake.
“You snooze, you lose,” Jake replied cheerfully, shoveling hash browns into his mouth.
Silas snickered. “Brotherly love,” he said.
“Be glad you’re not playing us today, fuzzy,” Jake said. “We’re on a roll.”
Silas made a scathing noise. “Whatever. I’ve seen your roll.”
The three of them devolved into a discussion of the current rugby standings, which I didn’t feel I needed to contribute to. My attention was caught when I saw the dark robes of Councilor Dandros heading for the front of the dining hall.
“My apologies for coming to you at breakfast,” Dandros began, “But a situation has arisen which we need your help with. A week ago, a student named Katherine Munroe didn’t return to her room. We have been unable to find her, nor has anyone close to her received any communication from her. As bad as that is, last night, another student went missing. Frannie Brookstone wasn’t in her room last night, and she had not returned as of this morning. I am asking all of you to please take a moment to recall if you’ve seen anything of either Katherine or Frannie, we would appreciate it. In a school this size, we are certain that someone knows something of their disappearance.” He looked around, the threat implicit in his words.
Wow. So they lost another student? And he had the nerve to insinuate it was somehow our fault?
Although I had to cringe a little, because Katherine was kind of my fault, in that I knew where she was. Sort of. But to have her brought back out—it would expose me, and Madame Karathos, and my family—and what would happen to my friends, who also knew?
Plus, I had to wonder what would happen to Katherine. I thought she was enchanted or under the control of demons, mainly the Giant Asshole. But I had no proof. If there was proof to be found, I felt confident the Concilium would find it. Would she be stigmatized for that? I couldn’t bear the thought.
If this was all Marbys, I didn’t want anyone else to suffer because of me. That didn’t mean I wanted to do all the suffering possible. I’d love it if he’d just leave me alone.
But that didn’t look like a possibility.
I knew Madame Karathos was keeping her safe. I knew she wouldn’t harm Katherine.
All of this made me feel stressed. Madame Karathos had tasked me with finding out why Katherine had been enchanted or whatever, and I had nothing to offer her in the way of anything new.
I wondered who it was I’d seen wandering by the hellway a month ago, or who it was that had grabbed me from behind when Caspian got me away from him.
Thinking of the blond fae, I cast an eye around looking to see if he was in the dining hall. The fae students liked to sit by one of the large windows. They loved the outdoors which made sense as nearly every time I’d seen Caspian he was out in the garden, or one of the botany classrooms. There were in fact some fae students sitting by the far window, but he wasn’t among them. I felt a pang of disappointment.
Dandros left through a side door of the dining hall, leaving a lot of chatter and noise in his wake.
“Do you know her? Anyone?” I asked.
Everyone shook their heads. “She’s a second year, I think,” Silas said.
I felt uncomfortable not being able to share what I knew. But Madame Karathos had said this needed to remain between us, and I would honor that.
“I wonder where she could be,” Matty said.
“Or who took her,” Jake added.
“I think we’re all thinking the same thing,” Silas said, jerking his chin toward me. “What do you think, Olivia?”
“I think you’re right,” I said. I’d told them about being grabbed in the garden near the library last month. They knew that someone had tried to drag me to the hellway. “Or am I being super egotistical to think this is all about me?”
Silas leaned forward, his chin on his hands. “Well, that would be a legit critique if he hadn’t tried to grab your mom, and your sister, and your aunts.”
“I don’t know that they’re my aunts,” I said, caught by the idea that I had not only siblings, but a larger extended family than I’d ever imagined.
“I think you need to talk to them,” Matty said. “The aunts all know him, right?” He ignored my comment about them not really being related to me.
“Better than they wanted to,” I said.
“You have a lot of people who can offer help in this, you know,” said Jake. “Don’t forget that.”
“Yeah, you’re used to going it alone. A party of one,” Jade added.
She and Thalia had been quiet during this discussion up until now.
I threw up my hands. “But no one knows where he is, or how to find him. He’s not some big loser. He’s really powerful. And I don’t know that the… the…”
“Aunts?” Silas offered helpfully.
“All right, fine. The aunts. I don’t know that they want to find him. He had one of them trapped for years, apparently.” I could still see Kassandra in Hell, unconscious and still, lying on the floor after the stones exploded.
“There are too many people holding onto secrets,” Thalia said.
I laughed a little. “That is the understatement of the century,” I said.
“Talk to Madame Karathos about it tonight,” Jake suggested. “She’s a good sounding board.”
“And
we’re not?” Silas asked, offended.
“No, you’re not,” Matty laughed. “You can’t even hold a ball for more than two seconds.
And with that, the rugby debate was back on again.
I moved over to talk to Thalia, to find out more about Marcus while the guys were involved. “So. What’s the deal with Marcus?”
She blushed. “He’s in my Elementals class. We sit near one another, and we’ve just started talking…” she broke off with a shrug.
“He seems really nice,” I said.
“And he likes you, so he has good taste,” Jade nodded.
“Do you think so?” Thalia went pinker. “I hope so.”
Jade and I both nodded.
She smiled, and it was obvious our comments made her happy. That made me happy, even in the middle of what was becoming a huge mess.
After breakfast, Matty and I walked to our first class, Spells with Professor Talbot.
“What does Madame Karathos say about the missing students?” he asked quietly.
“She’s worried,” I said. That was the truth, as much of it as I could give. I wondered if I could talk Madame Karathos into letting me bring the guys in on our work. It would make my life a lot easier.
He nodded. “It makes me worry for you.”
“Why?” I asked before we walked into the Spells classroom.
“Because we all know who is doing this,” Matty said, his face serious. “You’re the target, whether you want to admit it or not.”
Chapter Seven
Olivia
I thought about what Matty said all throughout the day. I was the target. But why me? Why not my mom? Not that I wanted her to be a target. It was more I wondered why I was the one chosen as the target.
As I thought about it during classes, and then during dinner, an idea came to me, one that I didn’t like, but it wouldn’t go away. Trying to ignore it, I talked and chatted with the guys.
“You all right?” Jake leaned into me to ask quietly.
I noticed that both Matty and Silas stopped to wait for my answer. “Just kind of mulling things over,” I said. “Can I get back to you later?”