by Larisa Long
The cousins? 8 am? Whatever they’ve replaced their real hearts with doesn’t start sputtering until noon. They created a special rule that only the three of them and one or two of their most crazed minions don’t have to report to classes until after 2 pm. That way, they can wake to the sounds of hell, devour innocent souls, and then saunter into whatever horror show they’ve concocted.
I brace myself for the curse, but cringe when nothing else happens to me. Surely that’s not reality? Innocent souls? So, who giggled? I don’t have time for this. I have to get to the shifters.
Chapter 8
I manage to make my way to Elevator and after a few dozen tries of pushing on nothing see the button enough to push it to get to the underground floors.
Far beneath the dorms, and then further still beneath the underground dorms, there are dungeons set aside to sequester shifters who have yet to control their inner shifts. The dungeons are divided, reinforced and protected by powerful spells.
I glance up at Elevator as it seems to be going abnormally slow. Elevator hovers between floors and hesitates to continue. “What’s going on?”
“Are you sure you wish to visit the underground dungeons, Zalia?” Elevator whines.
“Yes.”
Elevator sighs. “As you wish.”
I have to grab hold of the bar to brace myself as Elevator speeds faster than a demon mite. I’ve only been once during the tour of the Academy grounds, but that was when I was five. Blist and Xury and I weren’t paying much attention to the tour. Even though we’re different species … even though Blist and Xury are leaders of their groups … they always include me. Always.
Elevator comes to a screeching halt, opens the door and literally spills me out.
I tumble to a halt and glare back at it. “Thanks.”
Elevator speedily retreats.
Several guard desks are manned by powerful warlocks who look like they must snack on other warlocks for kicks. They look up in my general direction.
“Open,” I say to the various doors, hidden or plainly seen. “Open all.”
The warlocks sigh in unison and mumble something.
I walk through the doors into what looks like a steel hallway. “Show me Blist. Release all shifters.”
Several doors open, and shifters lumber out looking dazed and pale.
I snap my fingers and meat platters appear everywhere.
They look at me and smile. “Respect.”
Blist plunges out of one of the rooms, looks around and finally sees me. He rushes over to me, but I put my hand up to make sure he doesn’t get too close. His eyes are different. He has dark circles under them.
“Where did the faehead cousins send you?”
He shrugs. “About thirty feet away. They’re not exactly original.” He frowns when he looks me over. “What’s wrong?”
I shrug. “Don’t know. Seeing triple. Migraine madness. It’s nothing.”
“It’s nothing?” He studies my eyes. “Have you looked in the mirror?”
I grimace. I wasn’t thinking about how I looked. Passed out in the rain and then in my bed for two weeks. Must be a fright. Don’t have to worry about my hair though. Curse Number 36. My hair never changes. Still have to send a thank you note to the cousins for that. Saves so much time.
“Your eyes are red.”
I don’t think I want to see that so I don’t conjure a mirror.
“Please eat,” I say and point to the food.
I try not to take a whiff because I think I’ll be sick if I do. “How long has it been since you’ve eaten? How long have you been in here?”
Masimu, the dragon shifter, drapes himself over Blist. “Since you passed out and since you passed out.”
“Why?” I study Blist who won’t take his gaze from me.
“We tried to get to you.” Blist doesn’t look like he’s even rested in two weeks.
Masimu nods. “They said we were making a fuss is how they put it.”
“A fuss? Please, Blist, eat.”
He nods and moves around me. I won’t follow him. He’s still weird about eating in front of me.
“The faehead cousins,” Vax says, stretching this way and that. “Thanks for the snack. Respect.”
I nod. “Respect.”
“Where are the vampires?”
Vax shrugs. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”
Faeries arrive and hover around me.
“Can you make sure they’re alright?”
The faeries grimace and then consult each other.
“Let me know when you’ve found them.”
They nod and disappear. Instantly, one of the faeries appears again.
I snap my fingers and hope I’ve done the spell correctly which will feed the vampires.
Blist returns, and his coloring is back. His eyes are back to normal. He looks at me again. “Now, what’s with the eyes?”
Vax shrugs. “I didn’t want to say anything.”
I grimace as the pain in my head intensifies. I step back and hug the wall.
“What’s happening?” Blist asks.
The faeries all reappear and hover around me.
I have to brace myself because the pain intensifies. I feel like my head has been squashed into a blender.
The shifters surround me.
“Tell me what I can do?”
“What’s going on?”
“Tell us what to do.”
Someone giggles, and I look quickly at the faeries who shake their heads and point behind us.
Vax puts her hands on her hips. “Who the fae is giggling?”
The giggles stop quickly, and a tiny head appears down the hall before disappearing again.
Dark eyes and black hair. I didn’t recognize her at all. She’s not a witch.
One of the faerie’s clears her throat and points to her right ring finger.
Right ring finger? Left ring finger would indicate the soul mate chosen by fate. Right ring finger is our own chosen soul mate. Something connected to Blist. “Pem?”
Pem appears in front of us and giggles again.
Blist steps back as he looks her over.
No one’s seen Blist’s sister, Pem, for ages. We all knew she still went to the Academy because it’s a huge deal when someone leaves, is asked to leave or just outright disappears. But she used to look like Blist only with blonder hair and greener eyes.
“What the fae did you do to herself?” Masimu asks.
Behind her, the faehead cousins appear.
I roll my eyes. “Explains that.”
B4 giggles. “Do you recognize her?”
“Yeah, looks hideous now,” Vax spits.
B2 gasps. “She looks like us now.”
“Why would anyone want to look like you?” The pain this time starts in my shins and works down to my toes as if my skin is being chopped off a quarter inch at a time.
B1 claps. “Serves you right for saying something so cruel.”
“Worth it,” I say breathlessly as the pain takes away my oxygen.
The shifters growl in unison.
Vax steps around Blist. “What are you doing with these faeheads, Pem? And where have you been?”
The cousins glare at Vax, and I want to get their attention away from the shifters. “How do you manage to fae anything you get your newly manicured nails near?”
B4 giggles again, but is shocked when nothing else happens to me.
“Loophole. The curse doesn’t invoke if it’s true.”
“Ha,” Vax practically spits in her face.
B1 glares at her, and I put my hand up to stop her. “You do that spell, and I’ll—”
“You’ll what? What will you do?” B1’s glare takes over her entire expression. Even the faeries hover in front of me to protect me.
“Thought so.” B1 smirks. “Have you met our new prodigy?”
I look around because surely they’re not talking about Pem. She’s pure jaguar shifter. Not a witch. That’s not how it work
s.
“That is how it works,” Pem says.
Blist studies me. “Did she just read your mind?”
I nod.
“Some shifters can do that. Remember?”
My heart starts racing just a bit faster. Pem’s a shifter who might know I’m a hybrid, and she’s allied with the worst of the warlocks.
B4 steps around Pem. “We needed a third one.”
I wait. B4’s as bad at math as she is at well everything, but surely …
B1 sighs. “She meant to say we needed a forth.”
B4 frowns. “Did I?”
“We have three already,” B1 reminds as she rolls her eyes.
B4 looks at her sisters. “I count only two.”
“Oh, for fae’s sake,” I hiss. “You count yourself.”
B4 frowns as she thinks about it. Then she grins. “Oh, yeah.”
B1 shakes her head, sighs, tightens her hands into tiny fists and then relaxes as she mumbles a release spell.
All of a sudden, the loudspeaker comes on in a high pitched squeal.
“Attention students. This is headmaster and headwitch Ms. Guthy.”
Joy. I roll my eyes and sigh. Again, she’s been headmaster and headwitch since the opening of the academy two thousand years ago. The microphone and loud speaker system have been genetically matched only to respond to her. She’s the only one who has ever used it. Why the fae does she have to announce it like that?
I glance at B1 who is smiling at me. This can’t be good. If the faehead cousins get giddy, something cruel and dangerous follows.
“For the safety of our students, faculty and staff, this is a mandatory announcement …”
I motion for her to speed it along.
“As you all know, the shifters …” she coughs and sputters and spits. “Ugh.”
“Back at you witch. To all witches.” Masimu shrugs when he glances at me. “Except for Zalia.”
“The shifters have been concealed for our protection. They were getting out of hand.”
Vax sighs. “She’s a bit out of touch with current events.”
The shifters grunt. “She doesn’t know we have a powerful witch to watch over us.”
They all look to me. “Respect.”
“Respect,” I say back.
B1 just continues her crazed grin at me.
“Yikes. I didn’t realize your teeth were so large.”
B2 snorts as B1 gratefully closes her mouth. She’s now replaced her grin with a glare.
“You should be nicer to them,” Pem says, taunting me by raising her hands as if she was about to do a spell.
Blist stands in front of Pem to block me. “Don’t you dare.” He shakes his head. “You do realize the magic you’re doing will have consequences.”
Vax grunts. “Besides her tragic appearance?”
Pem opens her mouth quickly, and I wait for her to say something. Start a spell which I could try to deflect, but she doesn’t say anything.
Blist gets her attention again. “Have you thought about the consequences?”
Pem shakes her head. “I hate shifters. Hate them to my core.”
The shifters growl and hiss as the temperature in the area drops.
“You’re a shifter.” Blist flinches as if what Pem said physically hurt him.
“They’re warlocks,” I say. “Consequences don’t mean anything to them.”
“They’ve already declared?” Masimu looks them up and down. “No wonder they’re raving psychotics.”
Pem glances at the cousins, and I think I see some of her personality start to recover a bit.
Blist tries to grab his sister’s hands, but she shirks back quickly. “You mean nothing to them. Nothing. They’re just using you.”
Pem shakes her head, but tears do start to form. “I’m one of them. I’ve renounced the shifter in me.”
The shifters gasp.
She puts her shoulders back. “I did. I felt it die.”
The shifters, every last one of them, lowers their head and whispers something.
Renouncing a shift will lead to the death of the animal. It dies a painful and lonely death from heartache and leaves a hole in the former shifter’s soul that can never be filled again.
Tears flow from the shifters as all of our hearts ache for the lost shift. How can anyone do that? I put my hand over my heart as I picture a jaguar that looks just like Blist’s shift. She must have been so scared and in so much pain. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why?” B4 giggles. “She wanted this. Don’t feel sorry for her. She’s super powerful now.”
“She’s sorry for your shift, faehead.” Vax wipes her tears away and glares at Pem. “If you’ve truly done this …” she shakes her head and can’t continue.
Masimu grabs Vax and holds her tight. “You’re dead to us.”
The rest of the shifts nod their heads.
Blist studies his sister. They’ve never been close, but her revelation has shaken him. “How?”
“I buried her in secret.”
There’s an entire ritual the shifter community uses when a shift has escaped or been denounced or dies. It’s to honor what was and what will never be.
Blist looks back at me. “We’ll have the ceremony.”
I nod but can’t stop the tears flowing. All I can do is think of the shift. “She must have been so afraid.”
Vax clears her throat to stop her own tears. “We’ll make it right. Honor her. She’ll run free and loved amongst the ancestors.”
The shifters all bow their heads for several moments of silence. The ceremony will be some consolation, but still … Never should have happened. Being a shift allied to a shifter is quite an honor, and to be cast aside so carelessly …
The loud speaker crackles again bringing us back to reality. “Students, faculty, staff … this is headmaster and headwitch Ms. Guthy again.”
I try not to sigh. One of the things on my list has to be to limit the sighs per day. It’s harder when dealing with the cousins and Ms. Guthy, but still …
“Also for the safety of the witches, warlocks and witchlocks …” she hesitates, and is silent for the longest time.
My stomach growls, and I wonder if I can grab a snack before she continues.
“For safety, we have also caged …” there’s shifting papers and slamming drawers. “… denounced …” more whispers and coughs. “I mean to say, the vampires have also been confiscated.”
I flinch. “Confiscated?” I look at B1 who also flinches. I’d like to think that maybe there’s hope for her.
We see a mouse running with a huge chunk of pepper jack cheese. Yikes, is that still from my spell with the vampires?
B1 immediately waves her hands which hobbles the mouse breaking his legs.
The mouse screams in agony.
The shifters gasp. “Why?”
Shifters might eat meat because of their inner shift, but their hearts belong to nature and hate anyone to be cruel to any animal.
I wave my hand and heal the mouse. “I guess you are doomed to live without a conscience.”
B1 shrugs.
The mouse smiles at me, glares at B1, grabs the chunk of snack and disappears into a crack in a door.
“Respect,” the shifters say to me.
I nod. “Respect.”
The loudspeaker crackles again, but I wave my hand to quiet it. “What did you do?” I move closer to the cousins. They back up quickly, but Pem doesn’t.
Did they not tell her? I step even closer to her, but she doesn’t flinch. Vax is total bad ass, but she wouldn’t just wait for me to set her on fire. I put my hand out to Pem and pretend that I’m going to grab her hand. I glance at the cousins who grin as if they’re in for a treat. “Didn’t they tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“About the 36 curses?” Blist asks, his voice tinging with anger.
Pem shrugs like it’s no big deal. “They told me.”
I wait for her to realize, but s
he just looks at me. “About Curse Number 12?”
B1 clears her throat. “It’s nothing.” She shakes her head at Pem. “Nothing for you to worry about.”
“That anyone who touches me will set on fire?”
Pem’s eyes widen, and she steps back immediately. Then she realizes and looks at the cousins. “You were going to let her touch me?”
B1 shrugs.
B4 starts to hum. “We were getting bored.”
“Reverse the spell on Pem,” I say.
B1 shakes her head. “Can’t. Won’t and can’t.”
“What is it bound to?”
Blist looks at me. There are some things the other species don’t know about witches. While witches are encouraged to know everything about the others, they also discourage us from disclosing too much about us. I would have told them years ago, but the painful consequences are … well … painful.
B1 grins. “It’s ingenious.”
“What is the spell bound to?” I ask again more forcefully.
B4 leans in as close as she can to whisper. “Her soul.”
Blist steps back. “You bound her soul?” He looks at me. “Can they do that?”
B1 grins and nods her head. “So, it can’t be reversed.”
“You have to be working with someone more powerful than just you three.” I glare at them. “Even you realize you’re not all that.”
The cousins scoff, but then B1 smiles. “Why won’t you just join us? You’re smarter than my sisters combined.”
I flinch at that disparaging remark. “I hope I’m smarter than that.”
B4’s mouth gapes open. “So unfair.”
“Let her go,” Blist says, and he’s backed up by snarling shifters.
B1 glares at me. “Control your beasts, Zalia.”
I shrug. “Can’t. Won’t and can’t.” I throw her words back at her which she doesn’t like at all. I step closer to her, and various shifters step behind her boxing her in. “Reverse the spell on Pem.”
She shakes her head. “You know how that works. We can’t.”
“Who else is bound to it?”
She tries to open her mouth but can’t.
“Answer her,” Vax says.
“She can’t.” I say. “They swore you to secrecy, didn’t they? Didn’t trust you one bit. Using you as well, aren’t they?”