by Elena Lawson
If she never found out.
She could go back to having our room to herself. Back to being blissfully unaware of the world outside her warded dwellings. It was only a matter of time until Sterling figured out I was the one who intercepted his message. If he hadn’t already.
I couldn’t stay at the academy anymore either.
My chest ached and an image of Cal and Adrian flashed behind my eyelids. What would I tell them?
Bianca bit her bottom lip and groaned, lowering her brows. Her balled hands trembled at her sides. “Alright, fine. Come with me.”
23
Harper
When I’d refused to portal out the way we’d come in and told her we couldn’t be seen, Bianca had grumbled, but relented. Then she’d led me into her closet and parted a rack of clothing near the back.
She told me her uncle would kill her if he found out she’d managed to tear a hole in the ward just to duck into and out of her closet.
I wanted to tell her she could be right, but I kept my mouth shut instead.
We stepped through and into the portal room of the academy. The same space they used for making calls during the school week. It was dark and quiet. And I realized it would be a few hours later in West Virginia. We’d left Oregon around eleven in the evening, so, here it had to be closer to two o’clock in the morning.
Everyone would be asleep. Good. There was only one person I’d have to wake up.
“Thank you,” I said to Bianca, as she closed the portal behind us. “You should go back before they notice you’re gone.”
She crossed her arms over her fluffy white housecoat and stared me down. “No, I’m staying,” she replied stubbornly. “If you would tell me what’s going on, I might be able to help you, you know.”
I gave her an impish smirk. “Not with this, you can’t. Just stay inside. And when I come back in, I’ll explain everything.”
“You’re going outside right now? Does this have something to do with your familiars? Is someone trying to hurt them?”
I had already started to back away, afraid Sterling would show up here any second—that he could already be here. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I muttered, ignoring her questions, and then turned and sprinted from the room.
Guilt pressed down on me, the pressure near bone-cracking. She deserved better than a friend who lied to her. Better than an uncle who was a murderer.
I took the stairs two at a time, realizing I was barefoot a second before my feet connected with the earth. A sharp rock dug into my heel, but I kept moving, grunting through the throbbing ache.
I looked back at the academy as I went, checking for light or movement. I saw nothing.
The words I’d seen on the parchment drove me to go faster. The black ink scrawl was branded into my subconscious. We can’t have any loose ends... dispose of him...
With any luck, Sterling didn’t yet know who the man in the tavern was. There were at least twelve other male professors at the academy. It could just as easily have been them, right? I had no reason to think he’d automatically suspect Elias.
But that wasn’t right. I could feel it all the way down to the marrow in my bones. He was in danger. My blood surged with anticipation. My magic was already flaring up in defense.
Trust your gut, Leo had always told me. It’s the only thing you can trust in this messed up world.
I never knew just how right he was.
It was instinct driving me, and I heeded its warning. Rose to its primal cries. Almost there now.
I spotted his cabin through the trees. There was a subdued glow against the window pane. And smoke still rose from the chimney, though it was thin and gray. I didn’t bother trying to be quiet as I sprinted up the front steps and banged on the door.
I tried the handle, but it was locked. “Elias!” I called through the wood. “Elias, are you in there?”
Listening closely, I heard a rustling sound, and then the relieving sound of footsteps coming toward the door. He released the lock and the door opened. I pushed my way inside and shut the door behind me, peering out into the dark to make sure I wasn’t followed.
I threw the bolt back into place and let loose a long breath that came out sounding more like a tempered sigh. I made it. I rested my head against the rough grain of the wood, taking a couple deep, calming breaths before I turned to face him.
When Elias still didn’t say anything, I turned around, perplexed by his silence. “We need to talk,” I said, and then I looked up and my heart stopped. Everything stopped.
And then my heart beat once, hard. And then again, harder. My magic raced to fill my blood, the buzzing warmth radiated through my entire body.
“Yes,” said Headmaster Sterling, holding Elias in place with one hand, while an orb of glowing amber light flickered and pulsed in his other. The sigil at the heart of the orb glowed bright and strong. It was a complex symbol, and something about it made my stomach drop. It was all hard angles. Sharp lines and curving edges. “We should talk.”
It was an attack spell, but I had no idea which one. We wouldn’t learn those until after we turned eighteen, but judging by the way he held it toward Elias, and the way Elias gritted his teeth and tried to move away, I knew it was one that would kill him.
“Please,” continued Sterling in his deep, monotone drawl. “Won’t you have a seat?”
Elias struggled in Sterling’s grasp, his stormy blue eyes gleaming with so much anguish it broke my heart. “Harper, get out! Run!”
Sterling’s expression soured and he pushed the orb of light closer to Elias, who shied away, breathing rapidly through clenched teeth.
I didn’t dare move.
I wouldn’t leave him. An image of the sigil I would need to block an attack came into my mind. But Sterling was an experienced witch, he wouldn’t need to draw sigils anymore. He would be able to conjure them simply by thought. I likely wouldn’t have enough time to block if he decided to attack me.
My magic started to nip at my flesh, but I held it back. Let it build. This time, I wanted it to get out of control. To cause an earthquake, or a storm, or a damned tornado. It might’ve been the only way we would get out of this alive.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, casting an apology at Elias. “What do you want?” I directed at Sterling.
The Headmaster’s dark eyes fell. “It isn’t what I want,” he replied in a deadpan voice. When he raised his eyes to meet mine again, they were churning with something like torment. Narrowed with fury. “It’s what must be done.”
I shook my head, taking a step closer. “No, please. You don’t have to—”
“Does my niece know anything about this? Does anyone else?” he interrupted, his grip on Elias tightening. Elias cringed and I caught sight of the spark of magic at the fingertips of his left hand. He was mounting for an attack of his own.
No! I wanted to shout at him. Don’t try to be a hero, you’ll get yourself killed! My chest and throat tightened.
Distract him. I had to distract him if Elias had any chance of succeeding.
I stepped closer again, and Sterling stiffened, his jaw flexing under his salt and pepper beard. “No,” I said. “They know nothing.” And suddenly I was so relieved I hadn’t told Bianca. Cringing to think of what he might’ve done to his own niece if I had.
“Good,” he replied, and I could see his mind became made up. He fell silent.
“You won’t get away with it,” I blurted, my gaze darting to Elias.
He gave me the slightest nod. Keep going, he seemed to be saying. A sigil grew from his palm, glowing bright violet.
“You’ll—you’ll pay for what you did to my father. You’ll rot in Kalzir!”
Sterling sighed, hanging his head. “No,” he said, and sounded almost disappointed. “I don’t think I will.”
Elias attacked. With bared teeth and every muscle in his body taught, he fired the spell at Sterling. The Headmaster released him and raised his arm. A hastily conjured s
hield blocked Elias’ blow, but sent him sailing backward. He crashed into the wrought iron table, struggling to right himself.
The sigil he’d had in his hand pulsed with blazing light.
Elias came barreling toward me, and I barely had time to process what was happening before my body was airborne and we landed hard in the tall grass outside the cabin.
The door was blown off its hinges a split second after we’d passed through it. Bits of singed and broken wood rained down around us.
Elias shielded me from the worst of it, shuffling to his feet. He hauled me up with him, and I cried out. My hip twinged when I tried to put weight on my left leg and my elbow stung when the cold night air met raw skin.
“Go!” Elias bellowed, releasing me and turning back to the cabin, sigils forming around his hands. The feel of his power awakened my own magic back to a violent roar. The savage force of it rushed in my ears, near deafening.
“Not without you!”
He muttered something under his breath, but I didn’t catch what it was. Sterling appeared in the doorway, magic at the ready, dancing along his fingers. Elias didn’t hesitate. He catapulted an attack spell at Sterling. It rocketed through the air toward him in a twisting spiral of multicolored light.
Sterling met Elias’ attack with one of his own. The two sigils collided in mid-air. They exploded in vivid color, throwing sparks into the night like fireworks.
Elias attacked again. And Sterling countered. I watched as the force of the headmaster’s advances pushed Elias. His feet dug into the ground with the effort of trying not to be blown back.
I drew the sigil for shield and rammed my forearm into it, effectively binding it to me just in time to shield myself from a barrage of magical debris crashing over me like a wave. We wouldn’t last long like this. Not without me knowing how to defend myself.
Come on! I urged my powers, trying to visualize lightning raining down from the sky and onto the silver-haired head of Atticus Sterling. But I’d never been able to control when my magic went haywire, or what it did. Hell, I didn’t even believe I could conjure a storm, no matter what Ms. Granger and Bianca said.
A flash of silver and I saw Fallon slinking around the edge of the cabin, looking for a chance to attack Sterling. “No!” I hissed at the fox, and it lifted its narrow face to hiss back at me. The fox would only get hurt. It would die if it tried to intervene, and Elias could be distracted. “Get out of here,” I shouted at it over the crackle and boom of traded magical attacks. “Go find help!”
I didn’t think the fox would listen, or understand what I meant, but it looked from its bonded witch and back to me and then took off toward the academy. Smart animal.
“Help!” I shouted back through the trees at our backs, toward where the academy peeked through the branches, looking down at us.
Someone should’ve heard us by now. But not a single window shone with light. And no one came.
A bolt of magic snaked out from Elias and Sterling’s traded volleys of attack and I saw it. A warding spell surrounded the cabin, stretching at least twenty feet in each direction in a dome-like circle. I was in such a rush I hadn’t noticed when I’d passed through. I’d been too panicked. Frantic to get to Elias.
It didn’t matter how loud I yelled. If I screamed. No one would hear me. No one would come to help us.
Elias cried out and I turned in time to see him fall. He was blown back by the strength of Sterling’s spell. Stunned. His head connected with the earth and snapped back. His eyes closed.
Sterling lifted his hands to deliver the killing blow, charging up the amber sigil he was about to let fly.
Time slowed.
I bolted toward Elias and it was as though I was running through deep water. Unable to make my legs move any faster. Sterling hurtled the sigil at Elias and I dove.
The spell struck my shield and I had to clutch onto Elias to hold myself and my shield in place, a broken scream tore from my lungs at the burning sensation biting at my raised arm. I fed more power into the shield. I needed it to be stronger.
It had to protect us both. Elias laid still beneath me. His eyes were sealed and his face streaked with soot and dirt. Flashes of light illuminated him with each attack launched at us.
Tears blurred the image of him. I felt hopeless. And furious. Completely unhinged.
The sky groaned overhead and the earth buckled beneath my skinned knees. A tremor rolled over the earth. It was like an opening. As though someone cleaved my chest in two and all the magic inside came pouring out.
Somewhere deep in the woods, trees fell, dropping to the earth with resounding booms and crashes. Lightning snaked across the sky above, forking out in all directions, illuminating the pale face of Headmaster Sterling as he stared in awe of the coming storm, widening his stance to keep his balance on the shaking ground.
A lancing pain shot through my skull, and my shield weakened. But Sterling had already stopped the assault, and now stood staring at me in absolute horror.
Another stab of pain had me curling my hands into tight fists. My fingernails carved little half-moons into my palms. A hot liquid dripped over my lips, and when I swallowed, I tasted the coppery tang of blood.
Elias’ eyes fluttered open, but they remained unfocused. He was coming to. He was alright! I could’ve shouted with joy. Wanted to burst into tears. But I couldn’t do either of those things because Sterling was advancing, moving his hands around a three-dimensional sigil as it built in size and strength.
It looked like a sigil within a sigil within another sigil. I’d never seen anything like it. But I didn’t have to know what it was to understand that my shield wouldn’t withstand it.
I grabbed Elias’ limp hand in mine and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
“You really are your father’s daughter,” Sterling spat, stopping only a few feet from where I knelt over Elias in the grass. He looked disgusted, but not at me, or at Elias. His face was reddened and twitching. His eyes shone with tears.
He didn’t want to do this.
But there was firm intent there, too. He’d already made up his mind. No loose ends. The Magistrate had ordered him. And he would comply.
Another wave of magic left me and I recoiled at the release. The earth split around me, fracturing out in every direction except the one I wanted it to go. I couldn’t control it. I couldn’t save us.
This whole mess happened because I wanted to know what happened to my father. And now I was going to die without even knowing?
Fuck that.
“Why?” I hissed at him. “Why did you kill him?”
Sterling was breathing hard, and the pulsating orb between his weathered hands was nearly ready to be wielded. He wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer. Power like that couldn’t be contained. I should know.
Lightning struck the ground near the academy, and the atmosphere came alive with light and electricity. The sky opened up and rain fell, thick and heavy, pounding the dirt around us. Soaking through my clothes in seconds and chilling me all the way to the bone.
“He always was too curious for his own good,” Sterling shouted over the steady rushing of the rain. “A family trait I think,” he added, staring pointedly at me, lowering his brows. “Even his cousin couldn’t mind his own damned business. Cost me a history professor in the middle of the year!”
But the history professor who taught here before Elias had died of a heart attack, hadn’t he? I was so certain I remembered Elias telling me that. And Bianca telling me how every student in the academy turned out for his funeral. She said he was everyone’s favorite. And he was my relative?
A loud gasp ending in a strained sob cut through the sound of the rain, and I whipped my head around to find her standing near the trees, at the edge of Sterling’s ward.
Bianca had both of her hands clamped over her mouth as though holding back a scream. Her shoulders shook and tears poured freely from her darkened brown eyes. Her fluffy white housecoat was three inches deep
in mud, and the mascara had run all the way to her chin in the rain. Her usually voluminous blond waves were weighted down with water and looked raggedy and thin. “You killed Mr. Simmonds?” she breathed, removing her hands to let them hang, shaking at her sides.
How long had she been listening? Had she seen her uncle attacking me and Elias?
“You killed Harper’s dad?” she asked, her voice edging in a shout. Her hot breath clouded around her face in the frigid air. She seemed unbothered by the fact that he held a death-sentence worth of magic in his hands.
Sterling went green. His magic waned, and his chin quivered at the sight of her. He looked like he might be ill.
“Answer me!” Bianca cried. Her voice was a high-pitched, blaring scream.
I shook Elias. “Wake up,” I whispered. “You need to wake up!” He choked a little, whimpered, but was still unable to move.
Sterling bent his head. His hands trembled around the glowing amber orb. Then they turned to claws and he growled, baring his yellowed teeth as he shouted. “This is all your fault!” His crazed voice echoed through the air, and he set his sights on me.
His eyes glinted in the moonlight, exposing the madness dwelling deep within. He raised his hands and I fell to cover Elias’ body with my own. Bracing for impact.
But a feral growl pierced the wind, reverberating deep in my core.
I saw him a fraction of a second after I heard him. Adrian’s wolf came barreling through the ward and launched himself at Sterling. His strong hind legs propelled him through the air like a loosed arrow. He was a blur of coiled muscle and grayish silver fur.
One second Sterling had a throat. The next, he didn’t.
His lifeless body slumped to the ground.
Cal loped into view behind Adrian, snarling, his hackles raised high along his spine. Bianca dropped to her knees like a stone and vomited into the grass. Cal growled at her, but I shouted at him. “Cal!” He turned, his ears pricking. “Leave her.”