by Demi Dumond
33
Keira
I dug the last rock out of my pocket and stared at it. As soon as I did, it sent a shockwave through my hand and up my wrist into my arm. Startled, I let it go and it fell to the ground.
“What is it, love?” Ian asked.
“I don’t know. The rock physically reacted to me for some reason.”
Malachai stepped forward and reached for the rock. He picked it up and dropped it as quickly as I had.
His eyes flicked up to mine. “It felt prickly, like my arm had fallen asleep.”
“That’s exactly what I felt,” I said. “We have to hurry, though. In less than an hour it’ll be lunchtime.”
Ian dug a piece of cloth out of his pocket and gave it to me. It was a blue tie-dyed bandana. I lifted an eyebrow at him.
“I forgot it was there, don’t ask,” he said.
With a shrug, I placed the rock in the bandana. The magic was strong enough for me to feel which way to go even though I wasn’t touching the rock. And best of all, I still had feeling in my arm. “Okay, guys. It’s working.”
We walked as quietly as we could, since the academy classes were in session. Then we continued to sneak past a few other hallways that were all as quiet as tombs.
Luckily there were no guards around. I say lucky, but the truth was I was starting to get all kinds of heebie jeebie feelings from the silence everywhere and the lack of guards. Had Malachai pissed them all off or not?
Then we turned down another hallway and I instantly knew where we were going. “Oh no,” I whispered, “we’re headed straight to the Headmaster’s office.”
I stopped walking. “I can’t be here. You guys can’t be here. What’s wrong with this stupid rock, anyway?”
We were still far enough away that we could duck out of sight and have a quick conversation.
“Are you sure that’s where the rock wants us to go?” Rafe asked.
“Pretty sure,” I said. “What else is down this hallway?”
“Um, there’s a lobby,” Malachai said.
That would make things so much easier. And none of this had been easy. What were the odds the item was hiding quietly in the lobby all this time?
Ivy spoke up. “I’ll take the rock and saunter right past his door. Then we’ll know if the rock wants us to go to the lobby or his office. We’ll also know if his door is open or not, but we won’t know if he’s in there because I’m not poking my head in to check.”
Rafe nodded. “Smart, let’s do that.”
I nodded too. We all did.
A moment later, Ivy went walking down the hallway as casually as she could manage holding a magic rock in a tie-dyed bandana.
The rest of us poked our heads around the corner watching. If the Headmaster freaked out and went after Ivy, he’d probably see us too, but we couldn’t look away.
Ivy made it past the door of the Headmaster’s office. Then she turned and gestured for us to follow. I guessed that meant that his door was closed.
We all tiptoed to join her. I held my breath as we passed the office with the closed door. I wondered if he was in there. I knew I could have reached out with my magic. His dark magic would have pinged right away if he was there, but then he’d know that I knew and that I was close.
I held my breath and crossed my fingers. Then I was past. I let out a sigh of relief when I got to Ivy. She handed me the bandana.
“That thing is squirrely,” she said. “I can tell it’s close, it’s definitely out here and not in his office. But I can’t pin down an exact location.”
I looked around and couldn’t help but remember the night I was brought in here. All of the confusion of that night came back to me as I stared at the empty lobby and front desk. It looked different in the daylight.
That night felt like the end of the world. And now I was trying to save it. Well, not save the academy itself, but the people in it and the men that I had a bond with.
I let that realization wash over me too. I had never been this close to anybody in my life. And now I had Ian and Rafe and Malachai. And Ivy. And Tor. I still had to change Tor back. My to-do list was getting pretty long.
“Keira, are you okay?” Ivy asked, her eyebrows knitted in concern.
“Yes,” I answered, turning my attention back to the magic rock. Anybody watching us would think we were crazy. Ivy was right though; the magic rock really was acting squirrely. Not that I had a lot of experience with magic rocks.
The location that the rock was pointing us to was close. I could feel it as I walked the perimeter of the lobby trying to get a handle on the delicate magic. Then I felt it tingle. It was the same jarring feeling as when I was touching the rock, only this time it was coming through the bandana to freak me out. Holy hell, that was one powerful little rock.
I looked at Ian and then indicated a patchwork green, comfy looking lazy boy chair in the corner that looked absolutely out of place among all of the other, more sensible chairs and couches scattered around the lobby. It was put there on purpose.
Ian scooted the chair out of the way. The heavy chair creaked and whined as it dragged its way across the tile floor.
It was more noise than I was comfortable with. Once it was out of the way, I checked the hallway leading to the Headmaster’s office, but again all was quiet. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Then I pointed. The tile underneath the lazy boy was a different color than the rest. Did X mark the spot, like in a pirate movie? I dropped to my knees to inspect it. The others followed suit.
My fingers traced the edges of the cold tile square, and as they did, I felt it wobble. I tried to pry it out, but I couldn’t get a handle on it. “Anybody got a pen or knife or something? This tile feels loose. And the magic rock is going crazy. This has to be it.”
It was true. The bandana next to me was vibrating enough to make my teeth chatter.
Rafe produced a pocketknife and handed it to me, knocking me out of my inner monologue.
I used it to trace the edge of the tile until it found a crease and popped up with a loud crack. The noise made me cringe, but we were too close to slow down now.
Once the tile was up and out of the way, I could see that there was a small brown box at the bottom of the hole, along with ages of dust and debris.
“I wonder what’s in it?” I asked. I knew that Professor Kiln had said that the Headmaster cut off and hid parts of his own body all over the academy. But all I had done so far was deliver the boxes, not look inside them. And despite my curiosity, I wasn’t going to start now.
“It’s a tooth,” a voice behind us said.
A chill of terror washed over me as I recognized the voice. The Headmaster.
All of our heads turned as one to see him standing between the lobby entrance and his office, staring at all of us.
Awkward. We’re only here digging up body parts that you stashed all over so that you could trap us in a time bubble and kill us all, Headmaster. No biggie.
I stared at him, and I knew that he knew what we were doing, but I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Luckily, the Headmaster wasn’t in a talkative mood either. He flicked his wrist in our direction. Oh shit, I forgot he could do that. Only Ivy, Tor and I had seen him use that power. They huddled near the ground out of instinct. Rafe and Ian went flying against the wall with surprised yelps.
I motioned with my head for Malachai to get behind me, then in one fluid motion, I threw the small box at Malachai and assumed my magic stance.
Get ready for my purple dark magic rage, asshole.
I saw the Headmaster’s head swivel around to assess the situation, then I saw his wrist twirl in anticipation. Before he could, I released all of my magic at his wrist.
The blast of magic came so quickly to me that he was obviously caught off guard by the speed of the spell that I used.
He howled in pain and rage.
My magic seemed to burn the hand that he was using to throw us around. A smell perm
eated the air, a mixture of the burning smell of my usual magic and the singed flesh of whatever the hell the Headmaster was.
Then he set his feet, getting into his own magic stance.
“Get down!” I yelled at everybody seconds before a powerful blast rocked the room. The spell left the Headmaster’s good hand, missed all of us by a mile, and blasted a very large hole in the front lobby entrance.
As I stared at the gaping hole, complete with bits of foundation still crumbling onto the floor and the sound of shattered glass, a plan of action came to me. “Let’s get out of here.”
One quick glance confirmed that Malachai still had the box. We all scrambled out the door to safety. I looked back over my shoulder just before ducking outside and the Headmaster was looking down at both of his hands, a confused look on his face.
I couldn’t help but wonder if what I did to him with my spell affected his aim, or his magic somehow. Or was it the fact that we were, as a group, successfully collecting the hidden gross pieces of himself that were all over the place. Maybe that was affecting his power.
And then we were out in front of the academy and running to the right, around the perimeter so that we could get to the double doors and get back in, carefully avoiding the fountain water.
Rafe got there first and banged on the doors. That’s when we all remembered that Professor Kiln had sealed them shut.
I wanted to blast the doors with a magic spell of my own to try to open them, but there was no room to back up because of the fountain water. Then I got an idea. I took squirrely magic rock out of the bandana and threw it at the double doors. The resulting blammo noise was very encouraging.
When I looked up, one of the doors was cracked open. I ran forward and threw open the door and we all ran inside. For a very brief moment, I felt like we had a handle on things with only one rock left to go and ten minutes before the lunch bell.
Then I saw the dozen or so guards standing between us and the rest of the academy. Are you kidding me? My shoulders sagged. I had just used a ton of dark magic on the professor and I was already feeling it. I wasn’t sure how much I could spare without being completely wiped out.
The guards charged.
I assumed my magic stance.
They halted their advance. An act that surprised me. They all just stopped and stood there. Including the robber from the night I was brought here at the academy.
His face was twisted in a cruel smile. That’s when I knew that whatever this was on the part of the guards, it wasn’t surrender. I also knew I didn’t give a damn anymore.
I threw a blast of magic at least as angry as the one I had unleashed at the Headmaster. There was no way it was going to take out all of the guards, but unless the asshole who brought me here was ten times more powerful than the Headmaster, he was going to be toast.
The screaming began before the magic blast was even over. This time my dark purple magic was accompanied by thick, black smoke. The smell of sulfur filled my nostrils. And when the smoke cleared, most of the guards were gone, having run away. One of them remained, or at least the charred remains.
I had done it. I had wiped the smirk off of the guard who had kidnapped me forever.
“Damn, Keira,” Ivy said.
I took several steps toward the body because that was the way to Professor Smythe’s room and because I wanted to kick the smoking corpse. But then everything faded to black.
34
Keira
I woke up in my dorm room on the couch. Ian and Malachai were hovering nearby.
“She’s awake,” Ian said, kneeling to check on me.
Malachai offered me an energy drink. “Welcome back.”
I sat up, then the room spun around, so I laid back down again and closed my eyes. “How long was I out?”
“Only ten minutes,” Malachai said.
I opened my eyes. This time I was able to sit up, and I accepted the energy drink.
Ian, kneeling next to me, was irresistible as usual. I stared into his crystal blue eyes. Under any other circumstances, I’d have my mind on a lot more than just breaking the time bubble.
In fact, ever since the incident on the lower level involving the first box and the monsters, when Ivy walked in on the three of us, I’d sort of wanted a do-over. I smiled and tried to banish the thought from my mind, because I knew that Ian was capable of reading it. And unfortunately, now was not the time.
I took a sip and then thought about it. “Oh shit. We have to get the last box from Professor Smythe. Did I miss lunch?”
“Calm down, Rafe and Ivy are on it,” Ian said.
I processed his answer. And then I tried to remember how I got here in the first place. “Okay, tell me if any of this is reality. We found the fourth box and it was the Headmaster’s tooth or something.”
Malachai and Ian nodded.
“And then we got inside and there were guards.”
I saw wicked grins spread across their faces.
“Yup,” Malachai said, “you toasted him. No more nemesis guard for you.”
“Then you took a nap and Malachai and I carried you back here. We figure Ivy and Rafe can grab the last box, you can drink a delicious energy beverage until you have enough magic back to perform the spell that Professor Kiln showed us, and voila, we’ll be free of the time bubble. Of course, Malachai and I have had to take turns reminding each other who you are. But so far, everything’s working according to plan.”
I glanced at Malachai and then gave Ian a severe look. “Why is he so happy?” I asked Malachai. Unless I was crazy, none of the current or previous day had led me to that kind of optimism.
Ian continued to smile. “You kicked ass, Keira. You’re like our own secret weapon.” He looked at Malachai and then me. “Seriously, why aren’t you two more happy about this? You are unreal at picking exactly the right spell and then nailing it. You’re like a super sexy wizard girl. When did you have time to memorize all of those spells?”
I smiled a weak smile at Ian. “I didn’t.”
His face fell. “What?”
“I stole those forbidden texts from Malachai’s room.”
Ian raised an eyebrow at me.
“After Malachai stole them from the administrative records room for Professor Kiln. They wanted to use them to break the time bubble.”
“And it’s probably going to work. I mean, that’s the plan, right? So what’s the problem?”
“I didn’t memorize those other spells. You could say that they’ve kind of taken up residency inside of me. They take over when I need them. They’re in control, not me. And Professor Kiln said it’s going to affect me.” I shuddered, thinking about how the forbidden magic had affected the Headmaster.
Ian’s eyes were pleading. “But you’re using the magic for good, that’s what matters, right?”
“I don’t know,” I answered him.
“Then don’t use it,” Ian said. “Stick to the magic you know, the legit stuff.”
Malachai broke into the conversation. “We’re fighting for our lives here, Ian.”
Ian crossed the room and shoved Malachai. “Because our lives are in danger, we just throw Keira overboard?”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Malachai countered, not reacting to the shove.
“Stop,” I said. It came out much angrier than I meant it to, but that snapped them out of it. “Malachai understands what’s happening to me. He has dark magic too. And he performed a powerful forbidden magic spell on Tor. He’s as vulnerable as I am when it comes to this stuff.”
I loved Ian, but I loved my brooding fallen angel too.
“Do we even know if Professor Smythe left his classroom at lunch like we hoped he would?”
Their blank stares answered my question. I took another long sip of the energy drink.
“How long have they been gone?”
More blank looks. I wondered if the time bubble was accelerating even more like Professor Kiln said was a possibility. And they were pr
obably using what magic they had left to fight it reminding each other who I was.
I held my arms up and the boys helped me get up. “Come on, then. Let’s go check on them.”
“You really should rest,” Ian said.
“But the Headmaster is on to us now. That last box could be a trap.” I ambled into my bedroom where we had been storing the boxes with the body parts inside. We now had three out of four. We had to take them with us, but I didn’t want to put those awful things in my pockets, so I asked Ian.
A minute later, we were out the door. I had a bad feeling about Ivy and Rafe.
35
Headmaster Crowe
Damn. Damn. Damn. Those stupid kids are getting help from Professor Kiln. It bothered me that she would turn on me after our history together.
I looked down at my injured hand, turning it over and flexing it. The pain was intense, and the injury threw off my magic, but it was fixable.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on a healing spell. Normally, this kind of wound would heal in no time, but Keira’s magic was getting stronger. And darker.
Under different circumstances, I might have taken her under my wing. But that was never going to happen now. I only wanted her dead. Her and everybody who had helped her. Whatever this insurrection was, it had gone on long enough.
I concentrated more, getting my hand all the way back to normal. It took more magic than I expected. Then I went back to my office to figure out a way to end this.
Opening the door, I let the rage of this most recent event wash over me. They were gathering my body parts. They were going to try to break my beautiful spell. Well, they had no idea who or what they were dealing with.
I threw myself heavily in my chair and dug through my desk drawer until I found it. Ah. I smiled. This was just the stuff. Illegal in every civilized country, and potent enough to bring my dark magic up to full strength with just a few puffs.
I lit up. After a few breaths, I put my feet up on the desk. I hadn’t needed to smoke the special stash in years.