I glanced at the doors over his shoulder. “If it’s bad news, c-can it wait until later?”
“I wish it could.” He glanced at me, but then quickly looked away. “But this is important.”
I sighed. “All right, well, what is it?”
He assessed me for a few moments.
Was he reading my emotions?
“It’s hard to say for sure because Ivy’s been avoiding me since she got back, but I felt some pretty negative emotions coming from her,” he explained all in one breath.
“Well, I wouldn’t expect her to be full of positive emotions so soon after the nightmare she went through.”
“I know, but these negative emotions were dark; darker than just trauma,” he said. “And it was aimed toward you,” he admitted quietly.
Ivy was mad at me? Everything had been so normal these last few days. My heart gained ten pounds. I should’ve done more to protect her the night of the attack.
“I don’t think she’s just angry with you, Emmie.” Noah waved his hand in the air toward me. “I think she intends to hurt you or something.”
“Ivy would never do something like that. She’s my best friend, Noah. I’d trust her with my life.”
He threw back his shoulders. “You didn’t feel what I did. I don’t think you should be alone with her.”
“Noah, don’t be s-s-silly.” My temper came out, making my stress and stutter even worse. “If I talk to her, everything w-will be fine.”
He grabbed my arm. “At least promise me you won’t be alone with her.”
I threw my hands in the air. “She’s my roommate, Noah. How am I s-supposed to avoid being alone with her?”
“Then, promise me you’ll try not to be alone with her any more than you have to.”
His anxious expression softened my frustration.
I wasn’t angry at him, just the situation. “I don’t know—”
“Neil would never forgive me if I let something happen to you.”
His words coupled with his sad, serious expression stole the rest of my anger.
“All right, I promise,” I said. “But I’m still planning on talking to her, and then you’ll see you’ve blown this way out of proportion.” I walked past him into the library.
Gray looked up from his book, tilting his head to the side when I sat, but I shook my head. Noah was overreacting.
We were silent for a while, and the tick-tock of the clock grew louder each hour. I skimmed over another sentence and had already moved on before my brain caught up. I went back and reread it. Then I read it again.
“Gray, look at this!” I beckoned him over, almost knocking over the mountain of precariously stacked books on my right.
“The Arresting Crystal was an extremely rare artifact which only appeared during a small window of Andar’s history—during the Shadowed Days. All one has to do is throw the crystal at the target, and the person caught in the blast will be ensnared inside. They appeared during King Aidan and Queen Layla’s reign, but were immediately banned due to their dangerous nature. Through the efforts of the monarchy and the Koban, the Shadowed Days ended, and the Arresting Crystals haven’t been seen since. They’re made through Dark Magic, and it’s theorized that they can be destroyed with Dark Magic.” I stumbled to a halt. “They’re destroyed with Dark Magic?”
“That’s what it sounds like.”
“Dark Magic.” I slumped in my chair.
Gray pushed his hair off his forehead. “No wonder the other magics didn’t work.”
“Maybe the book is wrong and it’s not Dark Magic? It does say it’s a theory.” I didn’t even believe it myself, but accepting the truth would destroy my last shred of hope.
“Emmie.” He gave me a no-nonsense stare. “It says it right here, and I think it’s the truth. The crystal gives off a weird vibe. Plus, that man was clearly using Dark Magic on the rest of us before he threw that thing at Neil.”
I couldn’t disagree with him. “Then there’s nothing we can do.” Tears threatened at the corners of my eyes, and I blinked furiously to contain them. “Neil’s lost to us.”
“Emmie, we can’t give up now! This is our biggest lead yet.”
“But Gray, the only way to destroy it is through Dark Magic!” I sniffled and wiped my eyes. “We’ll never get him out now.”
Gray threw an arm around me and pulled me in while I cried on his chest. For a minute, neither of us spoke.
“Do you trust me?”
I pulled away a little. “Of course I do.”
“Then I know a way to save Neil.”
My breath caught. “You do?” I was scared to believe him but even more scared of giving up.
“I do.” He stared at me, eyes glimmering silver with determination. “And it’s something we can try right now.”
Hope and confusion warred inside me as Gray walked toward the crystal. Foreboding flickered in my heart.
“Well, here goes nothing I guess.” He stopped in front of the crystal that’d been our constant companion the last few weeks.
“What are you doing?” My voice sounded shrill to my own ears. The flicker turned into a pounding of unease.
“I’m going to use Dark Magic to get Neil out.” He sounded too matter-of-fact for the terrible words coming out of his mouth.
I ran over to stand between him and the Crystal, arms outstretched. “You can’t! You have no idea what kind of effects the Dark Magic will have on you.”
Henry's story ran through my head. I hadn't told anyone about it because it seemed too private, but I regretted not having shared it with Gray earlier. “It's too dangerous. Henry told me that it changes a Magical forever.”
“If I don’t do it, who will?” He gripped one of my outstretched hands.
Neil wouldn’t want Gray risking himself, but how could we let Neil die?
“Besides, we know Neil will die if he’s trapped much longer, but we don’t know anything too terrible will happen to me. It’s our only chance.”
Henry knew. “There might be another way. Maybe we should take the night to think about it.” I bit my bottom lip as terror fluttered in my stomach. Gray couldn’t use his Dark Magic! “You should talk to Henry first.”
He grabbed my shoulders. “Emmie, tomorrow is day eighteen. We might not have a night to spare. We might not even have a few more minutes. We have no idea how much longer Neil can last.”
I bit my lip to keep from arguing. What was the point? He was right. Our options were limited and time was running menacingly low. “Okay,” I agreed in a small voice. Forgive me, Neil.
Gray closed his eyes to concentrate.
“But maybe we should get the teachers in case anything goes wrong.”
He sighed and opened his eyes. “Emmie, we can’t. They’d never allow me to use forbidden magic.”
“But it’s to save Neil.” Henry’s story still rang in my head.
“It’s illegal.” He held my gaze for a second and shook his head firmly before he closed his eyes again. “We have to do this alone.”
I gave him my sternest look in return. “Okay, but you have to promise me that this will be the only time you ever use your Dark Magic.”
“Emmie, please. Why would I ever use it again?” He held up his hands.
“Gray, promise me.”
He stared at me for a few seconds before he finally agreed. “All right. I promise.”
Please let them both be all right. “Wait,” I called. “Doesn’t Dark Magic take energy from the surroundings? Should I stand next to you?”
“It can take energy from the surroundings, but I should be able to use my own energy like I do with my Light Magic. I don’t know how to take it from the surroundings.” There was a hint of a question in his voice.
“Gray, how do you know how to use your Dark Magic at all? You've never been taught.”
He glanced at me quickly and then back to the crystal. “When I was looking for information about the Crystal, I came across some pass
ages about Dark Magic. I would’ve skipped over them, but I wanted to be prepared in case that man ever came back.”
That was the book he wouldn't show me? I widened my stance and exhaled to push all my concerns away. We were in it together.
He waited, but when I stayed silent, he closed his eyes again.
Even though I was desperate to save Neil, I wasn’t sure at what cost his salvation might come. I took a deep breath and tried to find an ounce of courage within me. Gray had been my strength the last few weeks, but it was time for me to learn how to be strong for myself.
I wanted to put my hand on his arm in a show of support, but I was too worried to touch him while he used Dark Magic.
He stepped forward and raised both hands. They glowed with a bright light that jumped between his fingers. When the cheerful brightness continued, Gray blew out a frustrated breath and lowered his hands. “No. That's not right.” It was the first time I’d ever seen him angry about his Light Magic.
He clenched his jaw and raised his hands again, taking deep breaths. Minutes ticked by, and his hands shook. The brightness slowly transformed into a deep purple darkness.
I held my breath as the light drained from the magic sparking off his fingers. Once all traces of it were gone, he sent his magic in a slow trickle into the crystal.
It was the shadow version of what it had looked like when Headmistress Elsie had tried. But instead of reflecting the light and turning the room into a prism of colors, the crystal accepted the dark energy greedily.
Gray slowly upped the magic streaming from his fingers to a steady flow. It reminded me too much of the attack for comfort, and I took a deep breath. Gray would never become like Damon. I bit my lip.
The Dark Magic called to me like a haunting, intimate melody I knew without having heard before; a face of someone I’d never seen but I recognized—familiar but forbidden.
I shook my head and glared at the crystal. Was it simply absorbing the magic like it had with all the other elements? I hoped its lack of reaction was a good thing.
Minutes passed in tense silence. Gray’s breathing became heavy. Was he pouring too much magic into the crystal? Just when I was about to tell him to stop, a sharp crack rang out in the air.
I sucked in a breath.
Another minute passed in tense silence. One minute turned to two. Two to ten.
Gray’s face was slick with sweat and his breathing labored.
“Maybe we should—”
The tip of Neil’s hair became visible.
“It’s working!” I took a step forward.
Gray staggered, but his gaze was fixed on Neil.
I made a split-second decision and put my hand on Gray’s arm. Everyone thought I gave Gray my energy last time he was in a coma, but no one explained how. Hopefully they were right.
I closed my eyes and willed my energy to transfer over to him. Come on. Go!
Slowly, so slowly I almost failed to notice, a faint trickle of light left my fingertips. I hoped it flowed into Gray and didn’t somehow get sucked up by the crystal.
After a few minutes, he still looked exhausted, but he straightened his shoulders and stopped swaying.
I panted, like I had gone through a sparring session with Henry. Did it normally require this much energy? Or were we having to overcome all the energy the crystal sucked from Neil while he was trapped inside? Was there even more energy in there from the Academy Heads?
Little by little, the crystal cracked and fell away until Neil’s face was visible. A tear leaked from my eye, and I wiped it on my shoulder. I couldn’t risk breaking my concentration.
Neil’s face was haggard and pale. The crystal must’ve absorbed tons of magic from him.
I willed more of my energy to flow into Gray, desperate to end it so Neil would finally be free and safe again.
After a few more minutes, the final vestiges of the Crystal disappeared. With nothing holding up Neil, he slumped over on the floor; unconscious, pale, but alive.
I threw my arms around Gray. “We did it!” I sobbed into his neck. “I can’t believe it.”
We both laughed in relief, and he spun me in a circle, wobbled, and set me down.
I stepped back to examine him. “Are you okay?”
“I will be.” He moved past me and knelt by Neil, studying his chest for signs of movement. “He’s alive! He’s really going to be fine!”
I couldn’t stop the tears from leaking out. “We’ll all be fine,” I countered. “Ivy’s back, and you can finally heal Neil now that he’s out of the crystal.” I grinned, giddy with happiness for the first time in weeks. Let the happiness last a little longer. I wiped my eyes and held one of Neil’s hands and one of Gray’s. I had all of my friends back.
A slow clapping interrupted our celebration.“So you figured out how to break the Arresting Crystal, did you?”
The voice came from the shadows in the back of the room. It was a voice I’d been hearing in my nightmares for three weeks, one I had hoped never to hear again. He stepped into the light and glanced at Neil’s unconscious form on the ground.
Gray and I stood in front of Neil, my legs protesting with fatigue.
“Impressive.” But he sounded less than impressed. “But as for being alive and well, I’d say that’s really a matter of opinion, wouldn’t you?”
My heartbeat threatened to drown out his words.
Nonchalantly, he strolled farther into the room.
Neil was still slumped on the floor. Gray took another step forward, blocking Neil from view.
“H-h-how did you get in here?” My hands shook.
“Through the front door,” he gloated.
Gray took another step forward, shielding me with his body. It had to be pure adrenaline keeping him up now.
“That’s impossible,” I said. “After the last attack, the s-s-school was enchanted against Dark Magic and there are members of the Koban stationed around the school.”
“Impossible is such an insubstantial word, wouldn’t you say? I mean, before this, people would’ve said using your magic to control another’s mind is impossible, but look at me now.” He paused a minute, and the horrible implication of his words sank in.
Gray glanced over his shoulder, and the horror on his face matched my own.
The man’s smile grew wider. “I don’t believe in being limited.”
“The entire school is under the protection enchantment,” Gray cut in.
“The enchantments were child’s play for me,” he bragged.
“No.” Gray shook his head in denial. “There’s no way you were able to blast your way in here that easily. The teachers warded the school too heavily after last time.”
“My dear boy, whoever said I needed to force my way in?” He watched our faces.
Someone in school had let the lunatic in!
“Glad to see you’ve finally caught up for once in your life.” He stared at me, not even giving Gray a passing glance.
I ignored his jibe. “No one w-would do that. You’re not wanted h-here.”
“Now that’s not very nice.” He pushed out his lip in a fake pout that made chills race across my neck. “Especially since it’s also not true. Just a few minutes ago, our dear friend, Miss Hart, let me in.”
Chapter 17
I rejected his words immediately. “Ivy w-would never do that.”
He made a tsk-tsk sound and shook his finger at me like I was a naughty child. “I really wish you would stop thinking the best of people, Emmaline, dear. It really does make you look so foolish.”
Ivy stepped out of the shadows and stood beside him.
I flinched, and my gaze flicked to Ivy and back to him. What did she tell him about me? Only Howie called me Emmaline.
“Looks like you don’t know me like you thought you did,” Ivy taunted—the twenty feet between us an insurmountable distance.
“No.” I don’t know if the word actually made it past my numb lips. Ivy looked the same as she did at d
inner. She still wore her school uniform. She still had her hair in a messy bun. She still looked like my best friend.
“Everyone has their dark side, Emmie. And your dear friend, Ivy, was quick to respond to my magic.” He stroked her hair and snickered. “She turned out much better than the others.”
Did he come to finish off Neil? Or turn him into a zombie, like Celia? Or try to corrupt him, like Ivy?
Noah’s warning rang in my mind. “I think she intends to hurt you.”
“But you’re my best friend.”
“C-Correction: I w-was your best friend.”
The seven years we’d been friends, Ivy had never once made fun of my stuttering, even back when we were Grade Ones. My brain still refused to catch up as she gathered water in her hand, changed it to an icicle, and threw it at me.
“Emmie, look out!” Gray tackled me to the floor. The icicle soared over our heads and crashed into the wall behind us, shattering into hundreds of tiny shards. The ice appeared darker than normal. We scrambled to our feet.
“Gray to the rescue again. How typical. Because poor pathetic Emmie can’t do anything on her own,” Ivy sneered.
“Ivy,” the man reprimanded. “You are not to kill her. Do you understand? I need her alive and unharmed.”
He needed me? For what? I just barely discovered I have magic and I don’t know how to use it.
“Yeah, yeah.” She waved her arm, never taking her gaze from me.
“Don’t you wonder what you have inside of you?” He advanced further into the room. “Who knows what wonders you could create with a little Dark Magic.”
I wasn’t sure what freaked me out more: Ivy’s hateful expression, or his manic excitement. “I w-would never...I would never use Dark Magic for you!” Fear and anger almost choked me.
Ivy scoffed, “That’s not saying much, since you’ve never been able to use any magic.”
What could I do? The feeling of uselessness grounded me in place.
Ivy shot another spear of ice at me.
That time, Gray and I dove in opposite directions. The cold blast of air grazed my cheek.
Gray dove closer to Neil.
“Ivy, what are you doing?” Gray crouched in a defensive stance. His gaze stayed focused on the threat, but his voice rang with shock and confusion.
Unleashed Magic (The Chronicles of Andar Book 1) Page 22