by Lan Chan
Colour blossomed on her high cheekbones. It wasn’t a flush of embarrassment but something more sinister. I had a feeling if there weren’t so many witnesses, she’d have turned me into a toad or something.
“Miss Harcourt,” Professor Mortimer said, “could you please find your seat? I’d like to get started this century.”
“Of course, Professor.”
The glare she shot me told me this wasn’t over. I was already tired of this class. All of that disappeared as Professor Mortimer began his lecture on the use of Arcane circles in advanced spellwork. I wasn’t sure why I was in the class because he’d said two words and I was already scrambling to keep up. “By now you’ve all managed to assemble some sort of power base for your circles. This semester, I want to focus on aligning the circles with the Ley lines running beneath the school to try and amplify the scope of the spell.”
An excited rumble ran through the classroom. I was well and truly lost. As a result, my attention wandered. I noticed that aside from Kai and Adam, there weren’t any other Nephilim in the class. Similarly, Brigid and the Fae girl she had gone to sit next to were the only Fae in the room. There were no other species in the room and certainly none of the para-human supernaturals like vampires, shifters and trolls. The rest of the class appeared to be made up of mages. According to my Magical History textbook, mages came from the Fae dimension, but they were pure-magic users.
I startled when the others began to get out of their seats and move towards the open space at the back of the room. Sensing that I had missed some instruction, I hung back to scope out what the deal was. They all moved as though they had done this before. Everyone managed to find a spot equidistant from each other. It wasn’t until I squinted that I saw the faint blue lines running along the floor. They marked out placements.
I figured I just needed to find a spot inside a square that was unoccupied. An elbow clipped my shoulder.
“Sorry,” Brigid said as she walked past.
“Really? This is how you wanna play this?” I rolled the side she’d hit.
“Alessia?”
I turned to find Professor Mortimer. “I apologise if this is a bit too much right now. It’s just that we didn’t think it would be safe for the others in the lower class for you to be there.” He held out a thin textbook to me. I’d seen a copy of that book on Sophie’s shelf. “This should have everything you need to know to understand the basics of circle work. Unlike other forms of magic, this branch is tied mostly to your connection with the Earth.”
“Is that why there are so few full-blooded supernaturals in the class?”
He nodded. “In this one area, the low-magic users, the ones connected to this dimension, are better suited than their counterparts.”
“So the Nephilim in here?”
“Are exceptional for their race.”
Of course he was. I had yet to find something Prince Malachi wasn’t good at.
“Let’s get you set up over here.”
It didn’t escape my notice that he was steering me away into the back corner separated from the rest of the class. We passed Kai and Brigid who of course was in the square next to him. She sneered at me. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
“Here we go,” the professor said. I was literally as far away from the others as I possibly could be. The closest person to me was the length of two squares up. The guy turned around to look at me and it was then that I recognised him. It was the other boy who had appeared with Kai in the psychiatric hospital. I wracked my brain for a name. Ivan? Evan! That was it.
“I don’t suppose you understood any of what I was saying just now?” the professor asked.
“I understood the words circle and power but that was about it.”
He rubbed at his short beard. “Perhaps you’ll humour me.” He passed me a piece of yellow chalk. “Today’s lesson was about the possibility of tapping into the Ley line below the school to boost the power of the circle. You don’t have an issue with power. But I’d like to see you try and find the lines.”
I stared at the piece of chalk. “Okay. How do I do that?”
“How do you think?” I hadn’t the faintest clue.
I scratched beneath my eyes. “Any chance we can do this away from all the people watching?”
The professor crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you think a demon will wait for you to find a more convenient time?”
“I think a demon would be eating my dust rather than me standing still and drawing a circle.”
He chuckled. “Why don’t we concentrate on one thing at a time?”
I huffed and took a step so I was standing in the centre of the square. The professor backtracked so that he gave me some space. I drew the first circle so that it was small enough that only my feet could fit into it. I bisected the circle with another three small circles and then enclosed them all in a bigger circle.
“Why the three smaller circles?” the professor asked.
“I learned this morning in my rune class that the number three has powerful connotations.”
“You could have drawn three consecutive circles inside each other,” he pressed.
“I could have.” I crouched and tapped my cheek with the chalk. “But this seems more natural to me. Like the petals of a flower around the pistil. In my head it’s a stronger structure.”
“Of course. I’ll stop interrupting you.”
Since I was trying to use the circle for a search, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to draw an eye between the second and the outer circle. As I drew, I noticed that some of the other students, including Kai and Brigid, had stopped what they were doing and were watching me.
“You’ve got very steady hands,” the professor said.
I didn’t mean to ignore him but I was concentrating so hard on completing the circle that his words seemed to bounce off me. My eyes tracked the growing line of yellow as I drew the piece of chalk closer and closer to the tip of the open circle. The moment the circle was done, a howl erupted from all around me. The room dissolved in a cloud of dense shadow. I was kneeling inside the smallest circle, my head turning every which way, trying to comprehend what it was that happened.
If I were Fred, I might have wet myself. Darkness engulfed the surrounding area. It became so pitch black I couldn’t see an inch in front of my face. And yet I didn’t feel the tug of panic. I blinked and a tendril of light emerged from the darkness like a vein of precious metal. The tendril grew and expanded, blossoming into a web of colour. The Ley lines. In my thoughts, they were like the roots of a tree, burrowing into the dirt that sustained all life.
I’d thought they would be parallel lines but why would they be? They were the lines of power that connected the Earth, and like the circles in my drawing, they were stronger if they intersected.
The darkness around me became a canvas backdrop to the light. It was as though I’d pulled the stars down on me.
Somewhere, out there, someone called my name. But it was so remote that I paid no heed. Instead, I got to my feet and turned. The web continued to run all along the perimeter of the circle. At certain points, it flared. Those points became pulses of bright coloured lights before the webbing continued. Somehow, I knew each pulse was someone to whom I had a connection. Sophie would get such a kick when I told her that my light was blue. There was no way I would tell her about the jewel of green right beside it. It figured that Kai would show up, but it definitely didn’t mean anything.
I saw the deep pink light that was Sophie in a cluster by the far right. There in the centre was Basil, a luminous orange, in the solitude of our room. And way on the edge was a speck so small it was hardly visible against the intersecting line of the web. But I figured that one was Cassie. The seed of a strange and budding friendship. My head turned to the left, searching for what, I didn’t know.
I was so busy admiring the intricacy of the web around me that I didn’t notice the throbbing of a pool of darkness close to my light. It started as a speck and t
hen bled out until it consumed the light around it. Without thinking, I brought my hand down in a chopping motion. The idea was to place a barrier to the encroaching darkness. The moment the shadow touched my palm, all light around me extinguished. Wind whipped hair into my eyes as I tipped forward. My arms flailed, trying to latch on to anything for purchase. Of course, there was nothing. The darkness engulfed me, a falling sensation making my head spin.
I’d been standing while I traced the web, but now I was on my knees in the darkness. As I watched, a landscape of icicles appeared above me. My breath condensed in opaque clouds. As the ice gained ground, it extended to form the outline of a cavern. Great cones of ice dripped down from the ceiling. Mist hung in the air and swirled over the stark ground. I squinted at what appeared to be a series of catacombs in the wall. What fresh hell was this?
“Hello?” I tried to push myself up, but my limbs felt weighted down. As though my body wasn’t really here and I didn’t have agency over it. “Professor?”
Nobody responded. The cold began to seep into my thighs. It crawled like the touch of a million spiders until it touched the tip of my nose. But while it might be freezing, I didn’t feel the bite of it against my skin. No, it was inside my heart where the oppression made its home. The feeling was the complete opposite of taking a bite from the Arcana fruit.
If I strained, someone was definitely calling my name. But it was so distant I could almost mistake it for the whisper of the wind. There was another sound that took precedence. A light thud followed immediately by another. The beat was agonisingly slow but steady. With every passing second the sound grew closer. My breath hitched as a glow sliced through the dim world to illuminate a figure.
I stared, open-mouthed, as the creature ambled closer. Another few steps and I saw it was a beast on four legs. Nothing like anything I’d ever seen in any book or documentary. These supernatural creatures had a way of blending together. I could see traits of a buffalo with bulled horns, and a stout nose. The face was definitely bovine, but there were fangs that dripped saliva over its lip. The eyes were set wide apart as though it was built to see all around it. There was something off about the tail as well as the build of the hind legs. When it was mere metres away, I noticed what it was that caused its gait to be so torturously slow. Around its neck, it had a heavy yoke that seemed to weigh it down. But even with the obstacle around its neck, the thing continued to force its way forward. I stared around frantically, trying to search for what it could be targeting. The empty space was not a great sign. And then those red eyes inside that inhuman face latched on to me.
The creature opened its mouth. A torturous scream pushed past its mangled throat. It sounded very much like the manticore, but there was something agonising in this scream. It took me too long to figure out why. The manticore had been angry. It wanted to keep us away from its prey. This creature was in pain. Its head shook as it lumbered forward. And it looked like it would take that pain out on me if it could. I tried to cover my ears from the wrenching sound but my arms refused to move.
And then I heard it. A sonorous voice inside my head that tugged at a primal part of me. I’d heard this voice before. It was the one that had woken me from sleep. You think they will accept you when they find out what you are?
The beast stepped forward once more. Again the weight around its neck pulled it to the ground. Its back legs scraped at the icy floor. It was that strained motion that made me think without the thing around its neck, the beast would be able to stand on two legs. It was para-human and also definitely a demon.
Kill them, it commanded. Kill them all. Bring them to me so that I might reap their souls for my father.
It was but a few metres away now. I tried to will my stupid legs to move, but it was like a dream I couldn’t wake up from. I’d always had this recurring nightmare of being chased. But whenever I tried to run, my legs wouldn’t move. It was some kind of sleep paralysis and I had it big time right at this moment.
They will cast you aside when they find out what you are.
Somehow, I managed to find my voice. “What am I?” Not that I expected to get answers from a demon. But it was so convincing that I had to at least ask.
The beast struggled to lift its head. The yoke throbbed with a red glow the same way its eyes did. You are His.
A shudder ran through its body. Its hide was so thick I didn’t think it was from the biting cold whipping at us. No, it was afraid. What in the world could a demon be afraid of?
While its head was captured, its arms weren’t. I saw it the moment the thing tried to reach for me. I flinched, biting my lip and trying to inch back. But it was useless. The instant the tip of its finger grazed my cheek, something exploded in my chest.
A burst of emerald light that threatened to tear me from the inside out. The creature bellowed once more. It swiped with heavy hands, but its previously solid touch whispered through me. The icy cavern wavered. Superimposed over the face of the demon was another face I’d become too familiar with. Green eyes replaced red ones.
The ground under my butt was no longer cold. In fact, the yellow circle throbbed with heat that leached the last of the nightmare image from my thoughts. Everything faded and the classroom came back into sharp focus.
“Alessia!” Professor Mortimer cried. But I didn’t pay him any attention. My focus was riveted to the Nephilim in front of me. My eyes locked on to Kai’s glowing green ones. His jaw was set rock hard. The look he gave me was identical to the one I’d seen when we’d locked wills inside Nanna’s cell. There wasn’t anything soft or remotely forgiving in his expression. Only a frightening determination that I would have admired if I hadn’t looked down to find his broadsword impaled in my chest. The stupid jackass had stabbed my through the heart. Just like I’d always thought he would.
22
“Why doesn’t it hurt?” I rasped. I could feel the edges of the sword and the way the green flames licked at my insides. But it wasn’t anything as cutting as I thought it would be. In fact, aside from a buzzing inside my chest, it didn’t feel like much at all. “Am I in shock?”
My bottom lip trembled. He made a move as though he was going to retract the blade. My arm whipped out and latched onto his wrist. “Don’t!” I cried. “You’re not supposed to remove the weapon.”
The professor appeared in my line of sight. He mopped at his forehead with his sleeve. “Thank goodness,” he said. “For a second I thought....never mind. Alessia.” He placed a calming hand on my arm. I was still gripping onto Kai for dear life. He didn’t even have the decency to appear remorseful. His eyes might be a cool colour, but that didn’t stop them from singeing me with absolute focus.
“It’s alright, my dear. You’re not hurt.”
I stared at the blade. It occurred to me that Kai could have overpowered me at any stage. When his arm moved again, it did so despite my shackling him. The sensation of the blade retracting was more of a tingle than a gut-slicing pain. All I could do was stare as the blade and then the burning tip popped out of my chest. There wasn’t a speck of blood on the glowing silver metal.
I lost the ability to speak. My eyes must have been like saucers. I could feel the strain of my lids as I took in the crowd around me. Adam and Evan stood behind Kai’s shoulder, their expressions mirroring my own. And in the far edge of my vision, Brigid hovered with her arms crossed over her chest. Her indigo wings beat in a mesmerizing flutter. They were moving so fast all I saw was indigo light. But I could read the death stare in her glance any day of the week.
The professor tried to bundle me up off the floor but I ripped my arm away from his touch. My hand came up to rest upon the phantom wound in my chest. “What?” I sputtered. It took me a couple more seconds to force my breath to even out. I glanced up into Kai’s stony face. “What just happened?”
The professor placed his palms on the floor. It was then I noticed he and Kai were standing inside the yellow of my circle. The outline of it was smudged. He’d done it. Malach
i Pendragon had broken through my barrier. I started to shake at the thought of being so exposed. But I flinched again when the professor tried to help me up.
“You blacked out,” the professor said. He held up his hands in a surrender gesture. I pressed my palms to the floor and swiped at the yellow chalk, breaking the circle irrevocably. “The second the circle was complete it was like your consciousness left your body. We tried to call to you but you wouldn’t respond. And then...” he gulped. “You spoke in a tongue that we couldn’t decipher. It almost sounded...”
He trailed off, but I could already guess where he was leading with this. Brigid had no qualms about saying what the professor so clearly didn’t want to. “It figures that she’s a demon,” the Fae sniped. “Look at her. She’s clearly evil.”
“She’s not a demon,” Kai bit out. “Otherwise she would have reacted to the contact with my blade.” The scepticism on his face contradicted the words he spoke.
I thought that speaking to me had an adverse effect on her but being rebuffed by her boyfriend made a shadow fall across her cherubic face. I was suddenly hit with a picture of something not so beautiful behind her perfect mask.
“Demons can easily hide,” she snapped back. “You of all people should be wary of that.”
Behind Kai’s shoulder, Adam’s eyes first grew wide and then narrowed. Evan glared up at her. But their reactions were nothing to the white-hot aura of rage that flared around Kai. Beneath my fingertips, his pulse was a drumbeat. When he made to move in her direction, I clamped down hard, my fingernails digging into him.
I didn’t like her but that look said he was balancing on the edge of something scary. For his sake, if not hers, I didn’t think he should jump overboard. We both noticed at the same time that I was still holding on to him. I dropped my hand and wondered why I suddenly felt a little rudderless.
His attention refocused on me. “You’re not a demon are you, Blue?”