by May Dawson
“I feel like a new man,” I told Echo as I glanced in the mirror. My blond hair had dried from the river, and my eyes were bright from the potion, but I still had a wild look, and I wish I hadn’t seen myself. I wasn’t a new man; I was the same one, with friends in two worlds in trouble and no clear game plan. I felt unprepared to be on my own in the universe right now.
Echo mewed again, as if she too wished I was a new man.
“We’re going to follow the mission Keen laid out for us,” I said. “First things first. She’d have our heads if we risked our mission for her life. We stop the Day. Then we’re going to save our friends.”
None of that was a plan—it was all quite murky—and Keen would have disapproved. As it was, her cat took the role of fixing me with a judgmental look.
I paged through the book. It was the latest prophecy, the one Keen had stolen. The establishment magicians’ protocol meant there would be just the one copy, and that would give me a step ahead. I hoped like hell Maddie Northsea would continue to defy prophecy.
She had some long days ahead, no matter how fast-and-loose she played with the cards the universe intended to deal. The future was a loaded deck.
The only coat in my closet was my black quilted school coat, with the rebel emblem on the shoulder, and I sighed as I put it on again. I tucked the book into the inner pocket.
“Well, Echo?” I asked, and then froze at the faintest footfall on the stairs.
There were no friends arriving here.
I jerked my head toward the door, and Echo came with me as I concealed myself behind the doorway.
The footfalls moved across the hall. Two men, in tandem.
Soldier magicians.
I could picture them, with their shields over one arm and their wands gripped in their other hands, at the ready, a spell already on their lips. My lips moved with my own enchantment. Two of them. I’d have to be fast. But I’d always been fast enough before.
I waited until the first one cut the corner into my room. He came in fast, with momentum, to clear the room. Same way I was trained.
I threw my hand out at his friend in the hall, slamming a wall of magic his way before he could respond.
Before the soldier could finish his spell, I caught his jaw with one hand, pressing my body behind him for leverage, my arm locked on his shoulder, and my magic washed over him, knocking him unconscious.
His legs went out from underneath him, and I bore his weight for a second before I let him drop. He sprawled unconscious to the ground.
If my magic had failed me, I would’ve snapped his neck. But I always regretted killing. I could have easily been on their side if fate had worked a little differently. War is the most foolish of man’s many foolish escapades.
The other soldier was pinned against the wall, screaming. Golden gauze like a spider’s webbing held him against the peeling wallpaper.
I touched my fingers to my forehead in a mocking salute as I headed down the hall. His friends would rescue him in short order. He’d be fine.
I had to get to the door back to Maddie’s world.
When I heard more soldiers, I concealed myself quickly in another room. This one had been recently occupied; I could smell the faint forbidden scent of smoked tobacco and cheap cologne. I knew who’s room it was, without looking around, but nostalgia wouldn’t serve me now.
I knelt, leaning down to press my hand on the hardwood. Echo hesitated, then leapt onto my shoulder. I winced at the feel of her claws sinking through my coat and into my skin.
Together, the cat and I led the soldiers who hunted us on a merry chase through the rebel academy.
I finally reached Home again, the room in the hallway. As soon as I burst in through the closed door, I turned to clear the room. If I were an establishment soldier, this was where I’d wait.
Sure enough, there was a magician waiting to hurl a Hindrance at me.
I raised my hands and with it, my shield, and the magic splattered harmlessly across the golden glow of my magic.
“Glue,” I murmured, and the magic rebounded from my shield onto the young magician who’d tried to strike me down.
He tried to hurl more magic at me, but it failed him as the Hindrance burned across his skin, blocking his own power.
I stared at the man who faced me with horror written across his face.
“Unpleasant trick,” I told him. “It’s the strangest thing. I met some witches recently who knew it too.”
He let his wand fall to the floor, then reached inside his cloak, drawing out a long, wicked blade.
“I’m honored, really,” I said, “that you are so afraid of what I can do that you’d work with Earthside witches to bring me down. What’s your name, coward?”
“You want to know my name before I bring you to justice?” he demanded.
“And you think I’m arrogant, Echo,” I muttered at the cat.
“My name is Warren Campbell,” he said. “You’ve already been sentenced for your crimes against the fabric of the universe. Come join your friends, Silas Zip.”
“I really feel like I should’ve been able to attend my own trial,” I said. “Feels like a sham.”
He moved toward me abruptly, and I ducked the knife’s slash. Echo’s claws dug painfully into my shoulders as I ducked and wove, coming ever closer to the door.
There were heavy, quick footsteps in the hall.
Campbell had backup on the way.
I’d really love to stay and kick his ass and find out where exactly every last one of my friends was being held.
But there was no time for that.
I kicked Campbell hard in the chest, and he stumbled back, his blade just glancing against my calf before he fell.
I wrenched open the door and tried not to think about any place in particular as I stumbled through. I couldn’t go back to the academy woods. Let the universe drop me off anywhere Earthside that it pleased.
I fell back through an icy blast of magic, leaving Warren Campbell’s furious face behind as he reached out, just before darkness closed over me.
The incredible Silas Zip, wanted in two worlds.
At least it has a ring to it.
Chapter One
Three Months Later
Tyson
I’d thought wolves would never tire of being outside. But a solid week in the field, and a dozen transformations back and forth without a shower, had changed my mind.
Capture-the-Flag had ceased to be fun days ago. Clearborn could ruin anything.
Tonight was as conveniently filled with Virginia’s signature late winter rainstorms as the rest of the week had been. A hard rain lashed the muddy clearing. Everywhere we’d walked, our boots left prints in the mud that filled with rain water, leaving puddles everywhere.
The rest of the team was catching a few hours of sleep, as best they could. We hadn’t been dry or warm in three days, and the night was deeply dark, the moon blocked by the clouds.
I turned my collar up against the chill, not that it helped, as I leaned against the tree. I had to keep the watch. No one knew what Clearborn would throw at us next.
My stomach rumbled as I stared out into the night. We’d hiked out into the field with enough food in our gear to last the two nights we’d planned. Then Clearborn had been chronically unimpressed by the academy’s performance, and two nights had turned into more. The last meal I’d had was a rabbit I’d caught while I was a wolf. But now, all the animals were hiding away in their burrows and dens. They were smarter than we were.
I caught a faint flicker from the corner of my eye, as if something moved in the night, but then I lost it. It might have been my imagination. Might have.
I didn’t hesitate. I dropped to the ground, ignoring the cold water that seeped through my trousers, and reached to shake Lex’s shoulder. His eyes flew open.
“We’ve got something moving in the woods out there,” I murmured.
Lex woke the line, and everyone crept to their defensive posit
ions silently.
When Lex rested his hand on my shoulder, I leaned in toward him. “Take Maddie and go scout,” Lex murmured in my ear.
My heart sank, but I nodded. I didn’t like to be anywhere near Maddie. Not until we knew the truth about our fathers. Or father.
I crouched beside her and reached to touch her shoulder to get her attention. Then she turned her head to look up at me, and I yanked my hand away. Her blue eyes were bright in the darkness, and my pulse beat quicker, the way it always did when her gaze met mine.
I jerked my head toward the lines. She rose quietly from the mud, gathering her bo in one hand.
The two of us crept slowly through the wet, squelching mud that threatened to slip away underfoot and reveal our location. Jensen raised a two-fingered salute before we crept over the sandbags to slip out into the dark woods surrounding our position.
Clearborn promised that when we all did things right, we’d get to go back to the dorms. I’d never thought I could care just as much about school assignments as I did a real mission, but I cared now. It was strange to think that just through the trees, our dorms were bright with lights and warm and completely empty.
Maddie followed me as we tried to circle around whoever was out there. Then we began to move forward, picking our way through the darkness, moving from tree to tree.
Maddie caught my wrist as the two of us paused behind a tree. Her fingers burned on my skin, and I fought the urge to pull away.
She was beautiful, with her high brow and straight nose and lush lips pressed together as she focused on something in the distance. I followed her gaze.
Out in the woods, two patrols moved towards ours, creeping through the darkness on their bellies.
The two of us exchanged a look.
Her lips moved soundlessly as she mouthed to me, I saw their flag.
Are you sure? I mouthed back.
She nodded.
I’d planned to report back, but everyone was ready for the attack, and maybe Maddie and I could be more useful than that.
I know you’ve got a plan. What is it?
Her answering smile lit up her face, and my heart stumbled. This felt like the closest we’d been together in the last three months.
The two of us snuck around the back of the patrols, looping around them. Their team leader was in the center at the rear, and with him was the guy with the flag. Ahead of them, the rest of their team crept silently on their stomachs toward our patrol.
When we were right behind them, the team leader whirled, as if he had scented us.
In one synchronized move, Maddie and I rushed the last few yards. We struck out with our bo staffs and knocked them down.
Maddie scrambled to snatch the flag from the man carrying it. He lashed out as hard as he could with the bo, catching her in the side. She grunted in pain as she stumbled back, but her teeth shone in the darkness with a sudden smile. She gripped the flag she’d torn away from him.
“Go, go, go,” I whispered, but she was already running.
The two of us sprinted through their lines as fast as we could, racing frantically for the security of our own defensive position. The team leader behind us was shouting, trying to get his cadets to switch from stealth mode to attacking. Someone clipped my ankle with their bo from behind, and I stumbled in the mud but kept running forward.
“It’s us!” I shouted at our team as we ran. “Coming in!”
No longer trying to be unseen, the patrol rose up around us from the mud and rushed toward our lines. We were barely ahead of them.
Someone lunged for Maddie, and I threw my weight into them, knocking them to one side. She reached the line just in front of me as her watch cap tumbled off, her blond hair shining under the faint moonlight.
Maddie and I stumbled up the incline and over the sandbags. Jensen grabbed my shoulder and someone grabbed Maddie, helping us up and over, and we tumbled into our defensive position.
“Fine scouting work,” Rafe said tightly, frowning down at the two of us. “You know what scouting means, right?”
Maddie grinned up at him, panting, but stretched their flag between her hands, draping it across her chest.
Rafe’s brows rose. “Good work. Now if you could stop rolling in the mud and get up for the fight, that’d be super.”
“That’s all we get,” she said, bouncing to her feet. She held out the flag to Rafe, then offered her hand to me. “No appreciation.”
“That’s all you get,” he said, stuffing the flag into his back pocket.
I waved her hand away. “I’m not an old man.”
Just for a second, hurt flashed across her face, and there was an answering spike of pain in my chest.
As I rose to my feet, I pretended I didn’t see her face. A few months ago, I would’ve grabbed her hand and let her pull me up, ridiculous as it was when she was so much shorter. We both knew that things had changed. But it still made my heart ache when I hurt her.
I sensed the first cadet coming over the sandbags at me. It was a pleasure to whirl around and kick him in the chest.
The other patrols came running over our lines, but the sandbags slowed them down. We were outnumbered, but that never bothered us.
I found myself grinning at the chance to hurt someone recreationally. It didn’t bother me when someone caught me with a bo across the shoulder, or when I got clocked in the face before I took my opponent down. For a few minutes, the haze of pain and the adrenaline of the fight took away the constant ache of losing Maddie.
Then she gasped, and I heard the thud as she slammed into the ground. The guy with the bo who had knocked her down whirled it in his hand to bring it back for a jab.
I grunted as his bo slammed into my palm full-force as I caught it, then I yanked it away from him. He stumbled.
Maddie flipped herself up onto her feet. I thought she was going to say thank you, but instead she glared at me. No matter how dim the light, her irritated expression was clear.
“I don’t need you to rescue me, Ty,” she said, planting her foot behind his calf before throwing him to the ground.
He tried to roll out of her way, but she was on top of him. She pressed his throat against her lithe, muscular bicep as she caught her opposing hand, forcing him into a blood choke. He thrashed, but couldn’t shake her.
“Tap out,” I warned him. I glanced back at our sand bags, but it looked like we’d taken out the opposing patrol. There was no one left to fight, and irritation spiked in my chest. I turned back to Maddie. “And I’m not rescuing you. We’re a team.”
“We might be a team. But you’re a fucking asshole, that’s what you are,” she said.
The other guy finally reached to tap out, but it was too late. He was taking a sudden nap. She let him tumble out of her arms, carefully, then knelt next to him to check his vitals.
“I thought we’d curbed that temper of yours, Ms. Northsea,” Clearborn said, and the two of us both jumped.
The dean of the school melted out of the night. Rafe stood beside him, arms crossed, his dark brows arching in exasperation.
“Just kidding around,” I said. The last thing I wanted was for Maddie to get into trouble again.
Clearborn snorted. To Rafe, he said, “Good work. Take your team in, get them cleaned up. The other teams will trickle in.”
Apparently, if the other teams didn’t prove themselves competent, he was still going to take pity on them. Finally.
“Yes, sir.”
But as confident as Rafe sounded, when he glanced at Maddie and me, there was something troubled in his eyes.
Chapter Two
Maddie
“Coming to the mess?” Jensen leaned in my doorway, one hand in his pocket. “I think we all earned a drink.”
“Or nine,” Penn said, from the bathroom door.
“I wish I was sure he was kidding,” Chase muttered from behind him, where he was running the electric shaver over his face. Again. Chase had grown a full beard in the week we’d be
en out in the field.
“I will.” I gathered my hair back into a ponytail, then released it. The day’s fight with Tyson still bothered me. I wanted to see him, to put it behind us. “I just need a few minutes.”
It wasn’t just today’s fight that bothered me. I wanted to fix the tension between us for the last three months. I wasn’t sure what I did to make him turn so distant, but it hurt.
I didn’t regret calling him an asshole, exactly, but that hadn’t been the way to tackle the real issues between us, whatever they were. When I’d asked Ty before what I’d done, he’d looked at me blankly, as if he had no idea what I was talking about.
But he never looked at me the way he used to. His eyes used to brighten and he used to smile that easy grin, and now when he looked at me, there was…nothing. At best. Sometimes, there was a flash of disgust that made me sick to my stomach.
Jensen’s gaze was sharp on mine, and I bit my lip, turning away as I finger-combed my hair back over my shoulders. He always saw too much. From the corner of my eye, I caught Jensen and Penn sharing a meaningful look.
“You guys go ahead,” Penn said. “I’ll be right there.”
“Better be.” Chase rinsed his shaver off, then dropped it on the countertop. “You can’t leave me on my own while Jensen extroverts all over the entire underclass mess.”
Jensen said, “I’ll do my best to be socially awkward like you, Chase. You’d think all your experience being a normal human being would serve you well here.”
“I am still a normal human being. The problem is that none of the rest of you are.” Chase threw his shirt on and buttoned it as he headed through my room to the door, and then the two of them went out. The sounds of their low, rough voices bantering faded down the hall.
“What’s wrong, Mads?” Penn boosted himself onto my desk, then sat there kicking his feet as he studied me with bright eyes.
“Tired,” I said. “Long week.”
“Yeah. And?” He crooked a finger at me.
Despite myself, I was drawn toward him. “I don’t want to talk about my feelings, Penn.”