by Demi Dumond
I was already feeling uneasy from the confrontation. And Charles’ words meant I had no choice. He was a sleazy, bottom-dwelling asshole, but he wasn’t a liar.
He obviously knew more about what was going on with Keira than I did, and I doubted it was an empty threat. I walked quickly to the headmaster’s office, but the whole time I had that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
This wasn’t part of the plan. Professor Kiln had talked me into being an informant that one time, so that I could control what was happening. Now the headmaster probably thought I really was a turncoat. He probably wanted me to betray Keira again.
Either way, I found myself at the headmaster’s office door and I found the timing of the whole thing suspect. I knocked.
“Enter.”
I went in and then sat and waited to see what would happen.
“I brought you here today to see what information you can give me about that troublesome student you helped me with before.”
“Kiera?” I asked.
At the mention of her name, he stopped writing on the notepad and looked up at me. “Quite,” he said. “Anyway, I have reason to believe that she used a substantial amount of forbidden magic last night.”
“I heard a lot of rumors myself this morning,” I said, “although none of them have anything to do with magic. I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Something has happened, boy. I can feel it. Something bad. I’m in charge here, and it can’t go on any longer. She must be dealt with. You helped before, by giving me the name of her accessory, that vampire Ian. I need to know if there are others ready to defend her.”
“Why?” I asked.
This time he put down the pen and removed his monocle to stare at me more closely. “Did you just ask me why? Listen to me, I will not tolerate insubordination at this school. She will be crushed, along with anyone in her corner. I already have a list of names, I just wanted to make sure I had all of them. So, are there others ready to defend her? It’s a simple question.”
It was a simple question. And I had no idea who he did and didn’t know. I swallowed. The whole thing felt sleazy. I did it the first time for Kiln and she was right, something was very wrong here at the academy.
I didn’t know if the headmaster knew what was going on, but I couldn’t take the chance. He was going to crush Keira. I had to warn her. I had to get out of here. But maybe I could figure out a little bit more first.
I cleared my throat. “I don’t know what your plan is, sir, but I wouldn’t tell Charles if I were you.”
“Charles?” the headmaster asked.
“I think he’s fallen for her. Under some weird spell, really. Got into a fight with Ian in the cafeteria this morning. So if he knows what’s going down, you might want to change your plan.”
The headmaster looked genuinely surprised at this turn of events. “I may have underestimated you, Malachai.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“Don’t worry,” he answered, “I’ve covered all of my bases.” He went back to writing something on a notepad. “You may go.”
I jumped up, not waiting for him to tell me a second time. I had to get to Keira, and fast.
31
Malachai
Once I turned down the hallway from the Headmaster’s office, I broke into a sprint toward Kiln’s classroom, hoping I could catch Keira.
Shit, when I looked at my watch, I realized that she was now on her off period. Actually, that would be better. Hopefully she’d be in her room. I was still aching to see her and to know that she was alright.
Racing to her dorm, I knocked on the door. “Keira!” I yelled. “I know you’re mad, but you have to open up.” I sucked in deep breaths, tired from running. I waited for her to open the door.
The door opened, but it was Ivy, not Keira. “She’s not here, demon,” Ivy said. She was clearly mad.
“What do you mean she’s not here? It’s her off period.”
“She was supposed to come after class and relieve me, from, uh, stuff.” Ivy had opened the door, but only a few inches, and she was keeping it nearly closed on purpose. I wondered what was going on.
“Where is she then,” I asked, getting more skeptical by the minute. I knew the two of them weren’t actually close. Her and her shifter friends could be holding Keira hostage in there for all I knew. Especially if the headmaster’s goons had gotten here before I did.
“I told you. She’s not here. Now go away.” Ivy tried to shut the door in my face, but I muscled my way in. I ran past the guy on the couch in the sitting area and into Keira’s room. “Keira!” I searched everywhere and didn’t find her.
“I told you, she’s not here,” Ivy said. “And I have to go to class.”
I went back to the sitting area where the guy I hadn’t met stood to challenge me, probably because I upset Ivy. Everyone was in my face today. “Who is this?” I asked. “Your new boyfriend? Where you been hiding him?”
“Here,” she said. “I’ve been hiding him right here.”
Ivy game him a shush signal, but he just grinned and headed for the door.
“Excuse me, there’s something I have to do,” he said. Then he tried to get to the door, but Ivy blocked him.
“Look, Ivy” he said, trying to gently go around her, “you’re a lovely person and I appreciate what you’ve done. Now get out of the way.”
“No,” Ivy said. “You’re supposed to stay here! Tor!”
The guy whose name was apparently Tor gently moved her aside and a door slam later he was gone, leaving Ivy and I standing there.
I had to admit that I was utterly confused about what the hell was going on. Those two were certainly not boyfriend-girlfriend or one-night stand. I had no idea what that was.
Was Ivy holding a one-night stand against his will? Because he couldn’t get out of here fast enough. “Wait,” I said, “who said he was supposed to stay here? You?”
“No,” Ivy said. “Keira. She’s going to be really mad that you let him get away. And now I’m out of here too because I’m late for class.”
“I let him out?” I asked. “I don’t even know who is.” By the time I finished my sentence I was alone in the room, and I hadn’t even found Keira yet. All I knew was that I had to get to her before Headmaster Crowe did.
My only lead now would be Professor Kiln. Maybe she saw Keira in class and knew where she went. It was a long shot, but it was all I had.
I knocked on her door and then waited. When she opened it and saw me, she grabbed me and pulled me inside. She was looking at me like she saw a ghost.
“What happened to you?” she asked.
“Headmaster Crowe called me into his office. He’s going to move on Keira. I’m trying to find her. Do you know where she went?”
Professor Kiln’s brow furrowed. “She was worried about you, she said she went to check on you. What’s the wrinkled old goat up to now?”
“He’s going to do something awful to Keira. He didn’t say what, but it was something about what happened last night, he said he knew. He said he could feel it.”
“That’s not possible,” Kiln said. “The only way he could feel it would be if he had dark magic and the ability to use forbidden magic as well. It’s almost unprecedented for his species to possess that ability.”
“I don’t care. That’s what he said, and that’s why I have to find her,” I said, grabbing the door to leave.
“So she did it?” Kiln asked. “Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. I won’t know for sure until I find her though. Let me know if you see her first.”
“Will do,” Professor Kiln said.
A minute later I was running down the halls like a wild man back to my dorm. I only hoped this time I hadn’t missed her again.
Slowing down as I got closer, I approached my room with caution. The front door was ajar. I peeked in, but I didn’t see anybody. I
pushed the door open further with a creak that made me cringe, but still I heard nothing.
I continued into the room where I could see that my door was also open. My door was usually open, but there was still a creepiness about it in this moment. If she was here, why was she being so quiet?
“Keira?” I called. Then I heard a bump in my bathroom. A quick look verified it was her. Whew. “What the hell are you doing in my bathroom?”
“I was worried about you,” she said. “So was Professor Kiln.”
“So I heard,” I said. “Hey, did you break into my dorm room? Again? You’re a regular criminal. You were snooping in my bathroom.”
Her face turned an adorable shade of crimson. I was just so damn grateful to see her, but now that I was this close and she was in my room and it felt like the end of the world, I wanted to do more than see her. I wanted to hold her.
I closed the gap between us, there was a heat between us that I knew she could feel.
“Where were you?” she asked accusingly.
I took another step forward and touched her chin with my hand, moving her head up to face me, to look me in the eye. I had to see if she wanted me as much as I wanted her. Her cheeks reddened under my gaze, and she took a step back.
I took a step forward. “You mean where was I while you were breaking into my room? I was called into Headmaster Crowe’s office.”
“What, did you decide to sell me out again? Tell him about the dragon?” Her eyes were fierce. She was putting up a fight, but I could sense her arousal.
“That will never happen again,” I said. “He’s coming for you, Keira. I lied to him, I tried to buy you some time. I don’t think it worked. I need you to know that I only care about you. I only came back for you. I only want you.”
I was close enough to whisper now, to see her tremble slightly from my closeness. “I will only ever be on your side, no matter what. Forever.”
This time it was me who took a step back. My whole life I had done only what I needed to in order to survive. I had never uttered words like that, nor had I felt them like I did now.
She must have sensed the truth in my words. Stepping forward, she leaned up into a kiss and wrapped her arms around me.
In that moment I knew that our bond was real. It was like I was alive for the first time.
32
Malachai
I held Keira close, never wanting to let her go. “The headmaster’s coming for you. He says he can feel your forbidden magic. Kiln told me that, well, it takes one to know one.”
“What are you saying?” she asked.
“I think whatever’s going on here, he’s probably behind it. Don’t ask me for any evidence, I don’t have any. All I know is that he’s very suspicious of you.”
She leaned over and kissed me again. “That’s me,” she said, “Dangerous.” Then she realized I was serious. “Seriously? He’s afraid of me? He’s the one who turned one of his own students into a dragon.”
I turned to face her. “What are you talking about?”
“Last night I used a spell from one of the forbidden magic books to turn the dragon back into a human. He told me it was the headmaster who did it to him. He was pretty mad about the whole thing.”
“I thought that you were going to wail until Kiln found out more about what was going on?”
“It had to be last night, Malachai. Because of the magic and the moon. It was kind of like the night you left the academy. I had no choice.”
There was no way I could argue with that. “And it worked?”
“You met him.” She answered. “Tor. The guy who was in my room with Ivy.”
“Shit.”
She looked at me and frowned. “But you were right, the dark magic in me feels like it’s rising, growing, feeding off of something. It’s overtaking me, Malachai.”
“It’s not overtaking you,” he said. “It’s who you are, you have to embrace it. My magic isn’t as strong as yours, but I feel it too. A threat. Dark magic isn’t as straightforward as regular magic. It feels, it’s intuitive, it can be threatened, even if we don’t know what’s going on. Our magic will respond to these threats. It will protect us. And who’s says you’re not dangerous?” I grinned. “You’re a hell of a thief.”
33
Keira
At this moment I couldn’t be more grateful for Malachai. He was the only one on campus who knew what the dark magic felt like. He wasn’t overtaken with it like I was, but he could feel it all the same.
Without him as a sounding board, telling me that it was okay, that I wasn’t crazy, I don’t know what I would have done.
I could feel his magic, dark and dripping, flowing through his veins. It was like our magic flowed into each other. Even now, I could feel the presence of his magic. It had a calming effect on me. We were meant to be together, that much was clear.
That didn’t solve the problem we were facing, though. “You said he’s coming for me. When? Am I in danger here?”
Malachai shook his head. “I don’t think so. He’s after you, not me. Why would he come looking for you here?”
“Just wondering where I should go,” I said, and then it hit me. Tor. “Hang on, Malachai. You said you stopped by my room first looking for me, right?”
“Yes.”
“Please tell me Ivy was there with Tor.”
“She was, but then she left,” Malachai said.
“But Tor stayed, right?” I asked, getting more insistent. His nonchalant answers were making me more and more nervous. The headmaster wasn’t going to be looking for me here in Malachai’s room, but he sure as hell was going to look for me in mine.
Now I was afraid no matter what. If he was there on the couch in my sitting area when the headmaster’s goons came for me, he’d be a sitting duck. But if he left, then everything was out the window anyway.
“He didn’t stay, he said he had something to take care of, and Ivy said she had to go to class.” He looked at my face and only then did it dawn on him that I was in trouble. “Ivy said you’d be mad about that, but why?”
“Tor wants to go after Headmaster Crowe, Malachai,” I said. “He wants revenge for being turned into a dragon. If we don’t get to him first and stop him, all hell could break loose.”
“I don’t blame him there,” Malachai said. “I’d be mad too.”
The last thing I wanted to do was leave Malachai, but the best-case scenario was that Tor had gotten distracted somehow. The worst-case scenario was, well, I didn’t even want to think about it.
When I threw open Malachai’s door and started running toward the classroom wing, my worst fears were realized. Alarms were blazing. Not fire alarms either, these were different. And they were accompanied by seizure inducing blinking red lights built into the ceiling and the floors.
“What the hell?” I asked, leaning on the wall for support so I didn’t fall over. The lights were so disorienting that I could barely walk. “Have those lights been there all along and I just missed them?”
“No.” Malachai. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m pretty sure you hit the nail on the head with the hell breaking loose part.”
34
Keira
My mind raced, trying to figure out what to do in the midst of the blaring sounds and red blinking lights that threatened to send me into a seizure. Wait a minute.
“Hey,” I asked Malachai, “remember that night when we snuck into Administrative Records?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Why? Do you really want to pop in there right now in the middle of alarmageddon for some new reading material?”
I punched him in the arm. “The bats, remember? The magical creatures that were patrolling the hallways. The ones we barely avoided. You said if they found something suspicious, they’d trip a special alarm.”
“Yes,” he answered, “in theory. All of that was in theory, based on things I heard. Until now, none of it seemed real. Besides, that was in the middle of the night during a curfew.
This is in the middle of the day during classes.”
“Any chance this is just a run of the mill fire alarm?” I asked.
“Either way, getting outside is probably a good idea.” Malachai ran down the hallway now that we had a direction to go in. As we got to the intersection, we slowed.
Listening for signs of trouble was obviously out of the question, so we both leaned our faces forward to peer down the next hallway to see what might be lurking.
Nothing. Whew. The hallway to the exit door was clear.
“You ready?” Malachai asked.
I answered him by darting past him on the way to the exit door. I didn’t make it three steps before regretting my decision to dart ahead. Something dropped off of the ceiling in front of me.
Oh shit, when I looked down the hallway, I didn’t think to look up. I screamed, and whatever it was fell onto my left arm. I whirled. It was a black spider with beady red eyes. My pulse went through the roof as my body hit fight or flight mode and I tried not to hyperventilate and pass out.
My other arm went to knock it off of me, but the spider twitched out of the way. Then it moved up closer to my face. I froze in horror. Its beady eyes looked sentient, aware of what was going on. It was the size of a large cat, and the thing had fucking teeth. It was the stuff of nightmares.
The next thing I knew, Malachai had caught up with me.
I saw the flash of his blade and most of the demon spider fell off of me. I say most because some of the legs were still clinging to my top. I forced myself to stop screaming and looked around to see if we were clear to the exit door.
We weren’t. Guards were massing between us and the exit doors now. We turned to go back toward Malachai’s room, but there were guards there too. Stupid spider sentinels.
“Look,” I said with my hands up. “If there’s a new curfew in place, we missed the memo.”