by Demi Dumond
He laughed. It was a sound that sent aural fingernails down the chalkboard of my soul. I clenched my teeth together from the sound and hoped like hell I never, ever had to hear it again.
“That scotch costs a thousand dollars a bottle. But I accept your wager. It’s about time a student made this event a sporting one. I should have known that you’d be the one to do it.”
He might have been the one laughing, but the joke was on him. I barely had enough money in my checking account to buy a candy bar. Then, as quickly as I could, I assumed my stance and called my magic.
He saw my posture change and took that very minute to rush me again.
He thundered across the floor at me, nearly breaking my concentration.
I focused, calling my magic as fast as I could. It hit my hands and I released it, just as the claws got within range of my body.
The blast hit him dead center. He stopped and looked stunned, but only for a minute. Then he shook his head and focused his eyes back on me.
I panicked. That was the forbidden magic spell I had used in the forest. It had knocked dragon Tor on his ass the night the student body got locked out of the academy by Professor Smythe. It should have had more of an effect on whatever the Headmaster had become.
He laughed again, probably at my new wave of fear. It was like he could feel it.
“Any last words, Keira?” He asked.
I really was trapped this time. I took a step backward and then my back hit the wall. There was nowhere to go, and all he had to do was step forward to finish me off.
“I know something you don’t know,” I blurted out.
“Oh Keira, this game playing is beneath you. I expected better.”
“No, it’s not,” I answered him, angry now. “You never expected anything, helped with anything, or gave me a break. Kids trying to escape? My fault. Your idiot professor locks the entire student body outside with a dragon? My fault. Kids freaking out about a prophecy? My fault. All the while you just sat on your ass and did nothing to stop it. So don’t pretend you know me or what’s beneath me. Because I can go way lower than this.”
Lightning fast, he stepped forward and slashed my left arm, drawing more blood. The action stunned me. I reached for my arm without taking my eyes off of the headmaster. I felt pain and warm, sticky, blood.
He took a step back again and admired his work. “As happy as I am that you’re finally going to die, I think I’ll make it last awhile. I’d like to see you beg for your life.”
He was still close enough to spit on, so I did.
He wiped the spit off his face with a monstrous claw. “Since we’re drawing your death out to make it more painful, what was it that you said I didn’t know?”
It was my turn to smile. And it was time for me to play the only card I had left. Otherwise I was screwed. “Oh yeah, that. It’s just that Malachai is outside in the courtyard right now turning Tor back into a dragon.”
A look of confusion crawled across his scaly face. “You’re lying.”
“Go look for yourself.”
He thought about it, hesitant to turn his back on me.
“You said it yourself, there’s nowhere for me to go. Are you worried I’ll find a way out of here in the next couple of minutes if you go look out the window?”
With a grunt, he turned and lumbered toward the window.
The minute his back was turned, I ran to the door and tried to undo the locks. Of course, they wouldn’t budge, but it seemed like a productive use of my time.
“Professor Kiln,” he said, shaking his head and looking down at the events unfolding in the courtyard. “I should have known.”
“What? You’re pissed because she has a mind of her own, not like your moron lackey Professor Smythe?”
At least now everything was out in the open and we all knew whose team everybody was on.
He turned away from the window and took a menacing step toward me. “She chose poorly. And it’s going to cost her. I see the kid Tor, but I don’t see any dragon, Keira. Besides what do you think he’s going to do to save you? He can’t get in here, nobody can.”
I saw the uncertainty in his face. He wasn’t sure. That was the only good news I had right now.
Come on, Tor and Malachai. And Kiln. When I thought about Professor Kiln. Although she and I had been at odds for most of my time at the academy, she was down there risking the Headmaster’s wrath to help me.
He took another couple of steps forward, his face contorting back into a smile. “Time to die, Keira. I was going to make it last, but now you’re just making me angry.”
“We’re trapped in a time bubble, right? The whole academy? That’s why you’re ancient and still here.”
He seemed surprised that I knew that. “Professor Kiln figured it out,” he muttered. “And she has a big mouth. It’s unfortunate, but it won’t do any of you any good.”
He fixed me with a stare. “I can accelerate the time bubble, you know, Keira. I can make sure that the people who you think care about you forget that you ever existed at all.”
I couldn’t imagine Rafe and Ian and Malachai and Tor forgetting about me. I thought it would be awful to die, or to see my friends harmed or killed, but forgotten? Like I never mattered at all? That was more than I could handle. I fought back tears.
Crossing the distance between us frighteningly fast, the Headmaster chose that moment to charge me again. He closed his fist and swung his arm, knocking me to the ground.
Then he jumped on top of me. I did my best not to whimper as he loomed ominously above my face. Spittle from the not quite closed snout dripped onto my shirt and neck. I gagged.
The smell of death and rotting garbage filled my nostrils as his hot breath hovered inches from my face. This was it. I’d have the grossest death ever, ripped apart by this disgusting beast and then forgotten forever. The whole thing made me unbelievably sad.
I thought about the blood trail leading out of the office, since that was how I was going to end up. And again, I had to fight the urge to hurl. I closed my eyes, hoping that shock would kick in when the claws ripped into my flesh.
That’s when an explosion hit the side of the building. The room shook and the Headmaster fell forward, on top of me. His teeth gashed my cheek on their way past. I felt the hot liquid dripping down my face. Luckily his jaws were closed when it happened. Otherwise I’d already be dead.
I couldn’t move, the beast Headmaster on top of me weighed a ton. My arms and legs were pinned underneath him. I squirmed and fought but couldn’t get free. I had to turn my head slightly to be able to breathe. Even so, all I was breathing in was the stench.
Another blow shook the building. This time I heard the glass from the window crack. The second blow to the building rattled all the furniture and knocked picture frames off the wall. In fact, the entire room seemed to tilt, causing an incline toward the window.
The second blow also knocked the Headmaster off of me. He rolled over toward the front door. I got up and grabbed onto the couch for support, crawling around it to keep something in between me and the Headmaster.
Then I steadied myself for the next blow, which I knew was coming. Those blasts couldn’t be coming from anything other than Tor. I risked a glance away from the Headmaster, who was struggling to get up on his feet because of the incline and the tremors.
I peeked out of the window and saw a familiar green dragon coming straight at me. “C’mon, Tor,” I muttered, “you can do it.”
I heard the Headmaster get to his feet, but I couldn’t turn away from the sight of the approaching dragon. Then I saw the blast of flame. Ducking behind the couch, I closed my eyes right before the blast.
I felt the heat enter the room at the same time as the burst of light. The Headmaster screamed when the room lit up. Then the glass window burst, sending debris flying everywhere. I covered my face with my hands as I heard the pieces land all around me.
A second later, dragon Tor crashed through.
&
nbsp; I heard him roar as his body crashed through the building, caving the wall in. I kept my head down because I could hear pieces of the building flying everywhere. The room lurched perilously, and the floor rumbled beneath my feet.
When I blinked and opened my eyes, Dragon Tor had landed awkwardly half inside the building and half outside the building. He was wedged between missing bits of wall. He roared in frustration trying to free himself.
I turned when I heard a footstep and saw that the Headmaster had recovered and gotten to his feet. He assumed his magic stance. I panicked. Whatever he was going to do to Tor, it wasn’t going to be good.
I crawled over from the couch to the minibar and grabbed the first bottle I could find. Then I threw it at him. It hit him in the crocodile snout and pulled him out of his stance. He turned and snapped his jaws open and shut at me. I knew it was a threat, and I didn’t care.
I threw another bottle and then rushed away from him and at Tor, I just hoped that the bottles had distracted the Headmaster enough for this to work.
Running as fast as I could, and screaming all the way, I ran into Tor’s wing. He was already making a valiant effort to wriggle himself free, and my body slam was enough for him to slide back out the window.
I saw him fall and heard him hit the ground with a thud. Hopefully he was okay. I didn’t have time to worry about that though, because after I hit Tor I fell backward onto the unstable floor. Now the building was tilting even further, and if I wasn’t careful, I was going to follow Tor and fall from the second story window.
I tried to crawl backward, but I was still losing ground to the gaping hole in the wall that was swallowing up furniture and debris at an alarming rate.
And then it hit me. It was a long fall, and I could get hurt. But it was a fall out of the kill room. Onto the grass. Where I had seen Malachai and Rafe and Tor.
This was my chance! Instead of fighting to move backward, I slid forward on my butt toward the hole in the side of the building.
I heard the beast Headmaster roar behind me. I felt the thunderous footsteps and I knew he was running to stop my escape. I didn’t turn around, and I didn’t look back. I just hoped that my momentum would carry me out the window before he could grab me and pull me back in.
“I’m still going to kill you, Keira,” the Headmaster screamed. “And I promise you will be utterly forgotten from this world!”
I screamed in pain as I felt sharp, icy claws scrape down my back. But then I was through the window and out of the building, falling to the green grass below.
16
Headmaster Crowe
I watched as Keira escaped out of the gaping hole in the building. I shook with rage.
My perfect world now had a stain. More than one, actually. Before this very second, she was nothing more than an annoyance, a possible distraction, a problem that I didn’t need.
Now she had destroyed my kill room. My favorite room that I discovered shortly after being named Headmaster here at Blood Moon Academy.
In those early days I eagerly walked these halls trying to figure out every nook and cranny and how they could be used to better the education of the students. What a fool I was.
After I discovered this room, it began to haunt my dreams. The magic in here was strong, powerful, and ancient.
The book of spells, the one that I used to this day to clean up the inevitable mess, was sitting on the minibar when I found it. Most of the room remained unchanged.
With the magic in the room and in that book, I created a world for myself. I’d never die, and I’d never be weak. There would never again be anyone around powerful enough to challenge me.
Tor was the last student allowed admittance with any noticeable dark magic. I had taken care of him, but Keira was another story. She had been nothing but trouble since the very beginning.
But now she had destroyed my kill room. I was going to make her pay. She was going to die, but not yet. Not before I showed her just how powerless and insignificant she was.
I could still set it all right. I could use the book to start over.
Allowing myself to look around what used to be my favorite room one more time, I steeled my resolve. Then I left, walking quickly down the hallway. I had to find Professor Smythe.
17
Malachai
The last few minutes had been the longest of my life. I sucked in a breath. My breathing came in short, anxiety filled gulps as the early morning wind whipped my hair into my face.
Wiping the wispy hair out of my field of vision, I squinted down at the spell book. The bubbling of the forbidden magic that I could feel just beneath the surface mixed with my worry for Keira and I knew this was it, I had no choice but to release the magic at Tor.
I glanced up at him and saw the fear in his eyes, but it was too late to turn back now. Finishing the words, I pointed my finger at Tor and released the magic of the spell. Rafe took several steps back as dark colored light from my hand hit and enveloped Tor, who screamed.
Then the screaming stopped. I tried to see into the ball of light that was shielding Tor from my sight. Had it worked? Nothing had changed that I could see, but the spell was done. I couldn’t do anything now except wait and watch. Then the light dissipated, and I saw scales.
In that moment I breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that the dragon would remember who friend and foe was. And also, which part of the building to knock down. I felt a pang of remorse for what I did to Tor. I knew that he didn’t want to be a beast. He was only doing this for Keira.
I heard the dragon that was Tor roar in anger just before he leaped forward and took flight. Then I felt dizzy and the whole world went dark.
When I woke up, Professor Kiln was holding my head. I was sitting on the cool grass under the first rays of the morning sun and she was offering me a dark cherry energy drink.
I shook my head to get rid of the cobwebs and then accepted the drink. I heard a roar in the distance and then a powerful, earth shattering explosion. I looked up to see the green, scaly dragon that I had just transformed slam into the building. Just like he was supposed to.
“Nice work,” Professor Kiln told me. “Drink up, boy. You think this is over?”
I took a sip of the drink without answering her. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the dragon and the building.
Watching Tor transform into a dragon had been insane. But I was still worried about Keira. It took Tor several times to cause enough damage to the building to make a difference. I saw pieces of rubble fall in chunks to the earth below and wondered what was happening in that room.
The dragon hit the building with a blast of fire. I lifted my hands to my face to shield from the heat and the glare. Rafe and Professor Kiln took a step back when they felt the heat of the fire, but I stayed put where I was, sitting on the ground.
As soon as the heat subsided, I craned my neck up to look into the hole in the building. I was looking for any clue that she was alive. Then I saw something through the smoke and the debris. It was Keira. And it looked like she was about to throw herself out of the building.
I saw her sliding forward toward the gaping new hole in the side of the building. I jumped up and attempted to run forward, but I was still shaky and there was no way I would make it in time.
She was falling now, down out of the building and into the open air.
Then I saw the blur that was Rafe. He was running like a maniac. At the last moment, he launched himself and caught Keira in midair. Then he fell forward into the grass, both of them rolling over and over from the momentum of her falling and his running. I watched them tumble for a moment and then shook my head in disbelief at what I just saw. It was impressive.
I stumbled forward to where they had tumbled to see if they were okay. Relief washed over me. Keira was free of the kill room. The plan had worked. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I never thought I’d see her again.
I felt the earth rumble beneath my feet again and turned to see Tor stomping back int
o the forest.
When I turned back, Keira and Rafe were locked in an embrace. Some of Keira’s clothes were torn from her body and she was bleeding.
“Are you okay?” I asked. Keira was bleeding from her arm and face. When she sat up, I could see that the back of her shirt was ripped and bleeding as well. “What the hell did he do to you?”
Keira let go of Rafe and felt the grass with her hands. “I’m out! I’m out of that room!” She jumped up and hugged me. She even hugged a very surprised looking Professor Kiln. “Thank you so much!”
“Seriously, though.” Rafe said now that he had a chance to see her. “What happened? Your clothes are torn to shreds and you’re bleeding.”
“Oh yeah,” she said. “Whatever the Headmaster was before, his true form now is a terrifying giant crocodile with velociraptor hands.”
“Shit,” Rafe said.
Professor Kiln smoothed her clothes out after the Keira hug. “Okay, we got Keira out of there, now we have to figure out how to pop this time bubble before he kills us all. That was the deal.”
Keira turned to Professor Kiln. “I want to know about this time bubble plan, but first there’s something I have to tell you. The Headmaster knows you helped me. And Professor Smythe is working with him on all of this.”
“Smythe,” she said. Her lips pursed and her face rumpled into an unsightly frown. “Figures.” She was quiet for a moment. “I don’t suppose the dragon killed old Julius? This whole thing would be a lot easier if he weren’t still lurking around.”
“No such luck,” Keira said. “I’m afraid he was as fit as a monster crocodile could be when I got out of there. And I barely got out of there.”
Keira looked around. “Poor Tor. He never wanted to be a dragon again. Why did he do that?”
“To save you,” I said softly, although I was pretty sure she already knew.
She took a few steps toward the forest. “I have to help him. I have to change him back.”