by LJ Swallow
Cody’s eyes widen. “Yvette.”
“And you, Andrei,” she spits. “I don’t give a crap what anybody says, you’re a murderer. Kimberly is missing—what have you done to her?”
I lift my eyes to the cloudy sky in desperation and my chest tightens with a greater fear. Faint light fights through the darkness.
“I am not a murderer and I haven’t hurt Kimberly,” I retort. I almost add that I found her and Maeve is helping, but that would be a bloody stupid idea.
“If anything has happened to Kimberly, we’ll know it was you.” She scowls. “But I guess your family will miraculously find other suspect in order to keep you alive, like last time?”
I eye the flames. “Cody. Talk sense into her. Using fire spells around hemia can get you both into a shitload of trouble.”
The flames flare upwards and I shrink back. “Cody!”
“Don’t look at me, mate. A hemia killed one of my cousins. Yvette’s right—your race should die out.”
Fuck. I narrow my eyes at him. “I’ve been to Ravenhold, mate. Kill me and you’ll end up there too. And you too Yvette. Believe me, Ravenhold is not a pretty place to be.”
The fire picks out the sly smile across her features. “You could disappear—like April did. Where is she, Andrei?”
“I had nothing to do with her disappearance! For fuck’s sake. Stop this.”
“How does it feel to be scared for your life?” she whispers. “How many people have your kind terrorised and killed?”
This is insane. How did the academy come to this? Everybody’s going fucking crazy. I’d retort that I’m not scared, but Yvette's unpredictable—not thinking straight.
“Guards will walk by and see this,” I try.
“We’re too far from the fence line, Andrei.”
Cody isn’t as enthusiastic about Andrei-torture as Yvette, as he keeps glancing between her and me with an uncertain expression.
“Cody. Be sensible. Put the fire out and let me go. Yvette, one day I’ll wind up in Ravenhold again, and that’ll be a bigger torture than fire.” My mouth dries because the words are true. If I walk away from here, I’ll face more 'act now, ask questions later' from authorities.
Fucking Sergei.
“Bigger torture than the sun?” asks Yvette.
For the first time, genuine fear races into my body. “What?”
“What do you think, Cody? Would the sun be agonising enough that he’d run through the flames to escape?”
Okay. Yvette isn’t crazy; she’s a fucking psychopath. “Dude!” I urge Cody. “Talk sense into her. Please.”
Side-eyeing Yvette, Cody rubs his chin. “Maybe we’d better take him to Theodora. We’ve scared him enough.”
“What?” she shrieks. “And let Andrei get away with hurting another witch?”
“Kimberly isn’t dead,” he says cautiously.
“Not this time!” The fire flares with Yvette’s temper and the heat from the flames grows closer to my face.
“I agree we should scare the vamp, but I don’t want to kill anyone," says Cody. "That would make us as bad as him.”
Yvette turns to Cody and I’m unable to see her face or hear her next words. He steps back and she turns back to me, lips twitching into a smile.
I hear her next word as clear as day.
“Incendio.”
The circle of fire grows and shrinks the space between me and the flames. Instinctively I step back and my leg meets the fire behind. Lurching into panic, I beat at the flames singeing my jeans at the ankle, unable to catch up with the reality of what’s happening. “Yvette! Don’t lose your life for killing me,” I say desperately.
“I said, you’re going to disappear.”
In the split second that she lifts her hands, my mind lurches between “at least I’ll escape agony from the sun” and “fuck, I’m going to die”.
I close my eyes and in my terrified state I swear I hallucinate Maeve’s voice calling my name. The burning agony doesn’t hit, and I cautiously open an eye, just as Yvette screeches in anger.
Two figures have joined the witches and I peer through the tall flames. Tobias holds Cody against a tree by his shoulders and growls something at him.
The flames weaken but the fire remains high enough that I don’t want to risk injury if I attempt to leave.
“Are you trying to kill him?” shouts Maeve.
“What do you think?” calls Yvette.
“Put the fire out,” shouts Tobias, still firmly holding Cody to the tree.
“I’m not listening to you. You’re not a professor anymore.”
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” stammers Cody. “I thought we would scare him. That’s all.”
“Put the fucking fire out!” shouts Tobias.
With a sneer, Yvette lifts her arms and the fire crackles louder, moving in the direction she commands with her hands. The heat burns my face as the flames shrink the space around until I can’t see what’s happening.
“No!”
Maeve’s guttural yell bounces through the woods and a split-second later, Yvette screams and the flames drop in size again. Breathing hard, I look for help but instead I’m filled with horror.
Maeve’s body shakes and her arms are outstretched. She isn’t touching Yvette, but Yvette drops to her knees, gripping the side of her head. “That hur—"
Yvette doesn’t manage the rest of her words as she chokes and pulls at her jacket collar. I'd shout out, but I’m stunned into silence as Maeve’s trembling figure advances towards Yvette.
“You hurt Andrei, and I’ll hurt you. Badly.”
Holy fuck. The words are bad enough, but her voice is hoarse and laden with malice.
“Maeve!” shouts Tobias. “Stop.”
“What the fuck?” Cody struggles against Tobias’s grip. “Let me go!”
Tobias swears and he knows as well as I do that if he releases Cody, the guy will run screaming across campus.
“Maeve. I’m not hurt. Stop what you’re doing,” I shout at her.
She doesn’t respond and Yvette's body slackens further the longer Maeve looks at her. Withdrawing a hand from her throat, Yvette jerkily holds her hands towards the fire surrounding me and the flames dissipate.
"The fire is out," she rasps. "Stop."
Then Yvette screams in a way I’ve never heard before, bending over and gripping her head again. Breaking through my shock, I step through the charred circle and towards Maeve.
“No. Hold Cody. Wipe his mind. You can’t help,” says Tobias. I stumble as Tobias shoves me to one side, and the moment he releases Cody, the guy attempts to run.
“Cody!” I shout.
Maeve spins around and stares after him. “No, you don’t.”
Cody freezes then turns on his heel. "Let me go!" he yells as he walks stiffly and unsteadily back towards us.
Maeve. Again.
If she can possess a vampire, she can take on a witch.
“You. You’re the people murdering students,” he says and this time he’s the one with fear in his voice. “Please, don't kill me.”
I grab Cody by the jacket and shove him against the same tree as Tobias did. “Maeve. I have him. Stop this.”
But the trembling Maeve continues to look between Yvette and Cody with a black hatred in her expression I never, ever expected to see on her face.
Is somebody mind-controlling her?
“Omifuckinggod,” says Cody hoarsely. “What is she?”
Tobias obscures Maeve from our view as he steps closer and seizes her wrists. “Maeve. Look at me. Stop this or they win.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
MAEVE
Tobias grips my wrists as he repeatedly says my name, and the pitch-black filling my head is sucked from me. My struggle against him stops as the light seeps in to replace the dark, and the angry Blackwood magic dissipates. I want to run from the scene and hide, but the attack didn’t terrify me—my reaction did.
I’ve mo
re darkness inside than I realised.
“Maeve.”
Tobias says my name one more time and his hold loosens as my body slackens. His glittering eyes search mine and my fury lessens as his pneuma energy pushes into me and engulfs the dark. Swallowing hard, I break free of Tobias and step back.
“I don’t know why that happened,” I say.
“You hurt Yvette.” Tobias nods to where she kneels on the ground, leaning forward, still holding her head and mumbling to herself.
I cover my mouth in horror. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“Bullshit!” yells Cody.
Tobias looks over his shoulder. “Andrei. Wipe him.”
Cody’s jaw slackens. “All of you are in on this? Are you Dominion and working with Andrei?”
What have I done? My head pounds as the darkness that encroached and took hold fights against Tobias's hold on me.
Nobody replies.
Cody’s face squashes as Andrei grips the guy’s face between his hands.
“Am I safe to let you go now, Maeve?” asks Tobias gruffly.
I nod, horrified at myself when I look down at Yvette.
But would she have killed Andrei? I sensed her revulsion and she looked at him like he was an animal. I caught a flash of her intentions and my fear she’d act, along with the early dawn light filtering through the night, fed my darkness.
“Promise me you’re okay now,” Tobias says. "Maeve?"
Tobias’s face spins in and out of view as my trembling body fills with a sickness in my heart and soul. What did I almost do? The compulsion to hurt pushed harder than the night Nikolai died.
What am I?
I’m barely aware of events around me or the cold ground I sit on with knees hugged to my chest, shock bouncing around inside. I don’t want to look at anybody or see what happens next.
I hear Andrei and Tobias talking. Yvette’s weak voice. Nothing from Cody. My heart thunders against my ribs. How can Tobias possibly hide this? Groaning, I cover my head with my arms, blocking out the world. The shock gives way to exhaustion, but the impulse to stand and run won’t leave.
Andrei. Is he hurt?
I look up but there’s nobody in the clearing, just the charred circle and smell from scorched twigs and grass. In panic, I haul myself up and clutch the tree nearby.
Tobias and Andrei left me?
I’m on the verge of shouting for them when Tobias’s figure emerges from the dark night. I can’t make out his expression, but his purposeful strides scare me. My shoulders sink in relief when I don’t detect anger as he reaches me.
“Where’s Andrei?” I ask shakily. “Is he alright?”
Tobias nods curtly. “I sent him back to Petrescu. He couldn't wait, as dawn is breaking.”
I tip my face to the sky where the early rays from earlier now streak the clouds with orange.
“Yvette,” I ask as guilt stabs me. "Is she okay?"
His lips press together. “The mental magic required to eradicate their memories of tonight’s events is not a simple task.”
“Omigod,” I breathe out. “She remembers?”
“I said, not simple, but also not impossible.” He blinks. “I’ve used magic like that on you before. They won't remember.”
The past pushes into the moment as he touches on the time his magic assaulted me the night with the hunters.
“Both of them?”
He nods again. “But I can’t reach Kimberly without somebody seeing me inside Walcott. I presume Kimberly’s attacker wiped her mind too, but if she's injured, we both know where the finger will point.”
“I thought Yvette was going to kill Andrei,” I say and squeeze back tears. “I—"
“Was angry? Desperate?” he asks stiffly. “This is exactly the situation to cause a violent reaction. I’m concerned. When your emotions triggered your mind control power in the past, that worried me. This time, you reacted with dark and dangerous magic.”
“I’m not dark,” I say. “Am I?”
He moistens his lips and looks away. No, you’re a Winterfall.
Pushing away the words, I wipe at my face with a sleeve. “Then why does this happen?”
“I don’t know much about witchcraft as powerful as yours, Maeve,” he says quietly.
Tobias’s eyes follow the tears tracking down my cheeks and his hurt radiates towards me. My aching heart wants Tobias to hold me and tell me everything will be okay, but I wouldn’t believe him.
I never thought I’d want him to touch me again.
We stand face to face, finally alone after my avoiding him for days. I knew this time would come, but had no idea how I’d react. Now I know—if I don’t walk away, I’ll be sucked into everything my heart wants. Tobias found something in me that helped him move forward. He believed there was good inside him, otherwise how would I want him? I love this guy. I can’t bear life without him, and I don’t think that’s only due to a curse.
“Let me walk you back to Walcott,” he says and steps back, dipping his head.
He’s verbally and mentally silent as we take the short walk from the clearing to the edge of the trees. I shut my mind from him as well; there’s too much to say and at the wrong time.
The imposing academy comes into view and we pause in the shadows close to Walcott's entrance.
“Thank you. I should go.” I say the words but my feet don’t move.
“Indeed.”
I flash him a look and his eyes glint. “Very funny.”
He smiles the warm smile that I’ve seen so rarely, that fills me with the desire to connect emotionally and physically as strongly as when he’s touching me.
“I want to talk to you, but I can’t right now,” I tell him.
“I understand.”
“Because the moment I saw you tonight, I realised nothing has changed,” I blurt out.
“I already know, Maeve.”
Under normal circumstances, a girl would tell a guy he’s arrogant to presume how she feels.
But we’re different.
Everything about us is unique.
“Go to Andrei. He’s in shock and needs you right now.” Tobias steps back. “I’m not supposed to be around campus. I should go back to my rooms.”
In that moment, I’m torn. Tobias stepped in and helped me—us—proving the guy would never walk away from the five of us. How powerful was the magic he used? This evening when I arrived at his rooms, as he looked at me in surprise, I sensed Tobias's loneliness and isolation. He didn’t hesitate when I asked him to help, despite how we’ve treated him.
“I’m stronger than Andrei,” he says softly as he picks up on my thoughts. “To know you don't hate me is enough for now.”
I give a wry smile. “Andrei wouldn’t be happy if he heard you say that.”
“Andrei learned something about himself tonight.”
“I did too,” I mumble.
His warm palm touches my face and Tobias snatches my breath with the sudden jolt of energy from him. “Will you talk to me, Maeve? Not now. Soon.”
The physical distance he insists on since the night at the Blackwoods is now as large as the crack in the earth Izzy created, made deeper and wider by the secrets revealed. I’d do anything to step across to him and hug away the pain we share.
“Yes. Are you free tomorrow?”
He smiles at my stiff response. “If you need me, I’m there, Maeve. You know that.”
I glance at Petrescu and know my heart is with Andrei tonight. Tobias is right—Andrei needs me.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
MAEVE
As I make my way to Petrescu, I’m still lost in a strange world where students threaten to kill each other, and where I react with the magic I’m trying to escape. Where is the Winterfall magic I’m supposed to contain?
The large oak doors creak in the way that amused me the first time I walked into the dark building with the gothic interior; the one that matches the residents and the rest of the academy. If ever th
ere were a vampire theme, this is it.
Nothing amuses me about the place anymore; not since the gothic vibe turned into an Edgar Allan Poe story. I try to push away the faint heartbeat, but the sound grows in volume, the way my breathing does if I think about it.
Andrei knows I don’t like coming here because of the heartbeat, but I sense he doesn’t a hundred percent believe this is the only reason. His self-doubt grew after the fantasy about me that he denies, and I’m concerned we’ll move back to square one again.
I walk through the empty entrance hall and climb the stairs. Not one student walks the hallway; the hemia retreat to their rooms as dawn encroaches their lives, and the ones who’re unaffected by the sun must be sleeping. I spot a group of guys in the common room, playing cards, but they don’t notice me.
Andrei left before I could speak to him or check he’s okay. Tobias reassures me he is, but nobody else understands how psychologically affected Andrei is by threats and attempts to label him. The night he stood by the bonfire, when I knew he’d come into my life, he spoke about dying in fire.
I never thought I’d see this possibility on campus.
The fallout waiting to happen from tonight’s events will destabilise the academy further—perhaps destroy the loosening unity forever. Who’ll deal with the attack against Kimberly? How will they?
This isn’t my concern right now.
I creep along the hallway, footsteps muffled by the dark carpet, until I reach Andrei’s room.
“Andrei?” I call as quietly as I can when I knock.
He doesn’t answer straightaway, reminding me of the first night I came here. I lift my hand to knock again and the door opens.
Andrei looks at me. “Fuck.”
“Wow. That’s a charming way to greet your girlfriend.”
“Why are you here?”
“To check up on you.”
He’s brighter-eyed than I expected, but his pupils are dilated. My suspicion is confirmed when I walk inside and spot something on his desk.
A small plastic bag with tiny squares of paper inside.