by J. M. Briggs
“That trapped the pressure waves,” Bran explained. He touched her shoulder again softly. “That’s why it was hard to keep it up. The pressure waves were trapped and kept bouncing. Probably shredded everything inside the dome, but kept it from going out.”
“Maybe that would have been better,” Alex said softly.
“No,” Aiden said. His voice was firm. “The area of effect of an explosion is huge. A lot bigger than movies make it seem. It would have probably killed everyone inside the building and blown the rest of the building apart.”
Alex didn’t know if that was true. She didn’t know anything about bombs. But her fingers twinged as she remembered how hard the dome had fought back. Her whole body ached, and she vaguely remembered getting a couple of magical boosts.
“Thank you for helping me.”
“You’re welcome,” Nicki said. “But we were also saving our own lives with that too.”
Grabbing onto that thought, Alex nodded and closed her eyes. The sick feeling was still there, but the haze was shifting. Horror was still dominating, but at least she was grateful. If they hadn’t been there, it would have been worse. If Bran hadn’t had a vision of the explosion, then she wouldn’t have used her magic to find Arthur. Her legs tried to collapse.
“I got you!” Lance caught her and walked her over to the retaining wall.
The shouting and screams around the ruins of the building were louder. Alex hoped that any recording equipment was all destroyed. She didn’t look over at the building. Alex didn’t know if she could handle it. Folding her hands in her lap, Alex watched them shake.
“Alex!” Morgana’s voice cut through her thoughts and Alex looked up to find the older mage rushing towards them. Dropping to her knees in front of Alex, Morgana took her hands in her left hand and brought up her right hand to gently touch Alex’s face. “Are you alright? You’re filthy.”
“We were next to the blast,” Bran explained quietly. “Alex contained it with a dome, but a lot of dust got thrown out when it dropped.”
“The blast… so it was a bomb?”
“Yeah,” Alex managed. “Bran had a vision, so I used my magic to sense the area. I felt one of those medallions of Arthur’s. I think it was him. Jenny pulled the alarm, and we went upstairs after him, but then we realized what it was and tried to run. We didn’t manage to get out of the building. I just reacted.”
Nodding, Morgana leaned up and kissed her forehead. “That’s what matters most. Merlin and I need to contain this,” Morgana said. She released Alex’s hands and stood up. “All of you, go home and stay together.”
“I don’t think anyone saw me,” Alex said. “There was nothing to see.” There hadn’t been. The dome had been only a shimmer in the air. There hadn’t been any distinct lines or colors like in the movies. “Nothing to record.”
“Be that as it may,” Morgana said. “Police are going to be all over the school. Your dome also means that the bomb exploded oddly so they’ll be a lot of questions. We have to be sure that this doesn’t get any worse.” She rushed off towards the crowd and Alex could only wonder what her plan was.
Any worse. It could have been worse. Alex knew it. If she hadn’t sensed that something was wrong then the bomb then… Her stomach turned at the very idea. It had been lunch time, the building had been full of students before Jenny pulled the fire alarm. He’d already proven before that he was willing to kill. Happy to kill.
“I can’t believe he did this,” Jenny whispered. “I mean… maybe it’s stupid. I know he’s evil and maybe crazy, but… this seems pointless.”
“It’s proving a point,” Bran said. “Arthur wants us focused on him, wants us to see him as a threat.” Nodding towards the collapsing building, Bran swallowed thickly. “He can hit us where we live without needing magic.”
35
All Over the News
It was all over the news. A bombing at a college campus that most of the United States had never heard of. Suddenly the University of Ravenslake had notoriety. Alex wanted to turn off the television and go upstairs to her bed, but she had made the mistake of sitting down when they got home. Reporters had descended and were talking with frightened. and in one horrible case, excited students.
In the background of the interviews, people were crying and huddling together. The police were trying to keep everyone back. The President of the University and the suddenly far too small campus security team were urging students to go home and wait for news. Classes were canceled for at least the rest of the week.
But there was no news. The police hadn’t made statements beyond that experts were coming in. People kept bringing up the fire alarm going off and the media was speculating. One station said that the bomb was a prank gone sour or a plea for attention without the intention of harming anyone. Another suggested that there were multiple people and someone had gotten cold feet. Alex knew the truth. Gratitude that she’d thought to have Jenny pull the alarm overwhelmed her senses.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat there on the sofa watching the news feed. Time slipped past, and her only movement was to change the channel occasionally. Avani was in one of the armchairs, watching silently. Alex was sure that the woman was keeping an eye on her. Maybe that was wise. There was an itch to go and hurt someone, preferably Arthur.
Now one channel was talking about if the attack was done by religious fundamentalists. It made her flinch — one more thing for others to be blamed for. She knew who was behind it. The temptation to call the FBI almost choked her, but Alex knew that she needed to talk to Merlin and Morgana first. It was tempting to set law enforcement on Arthur, but that might make everything worse.
Alex turned her head a little as Aiden collapsed on the sofa. His shoulders slumped, and for a split second Alex feared the worst. Aiden looked up and must have guessed her train of thought because he rushed to reassure her.
“My dad is fine,” Aiden said. “Freaking out, but he was on the other side of campus.”
“Good.” Alex sighed in relief. “That’s good.”
“Bran’s still talking with his mom. Judging from what I heard, she’s panicking a little. Not sure about Jenny’s dad or Nicki’s Gran.”
“I’m sure they’ll all be grateful that they’re safe,” Alex said.
“This is…” Aiden gestured at the television. “I can’t wrap my head around it. Part of me keeps thinking that Arthur is crazy to draw human warfare into this. It’s so dangerous, and if he draws attention to himself, he’ll lose. Magic or not, they outnumber him.”
Nodding in agreement, Alex just stared at the television. It had cut back to an image of the collapsing Student Union building. Only one section of the wall remained upright. Everything else had started falling inward. People were beginning to notice that something wasn’t right. Alex clenched her fingers into fists. The explosion was all wrong. What would they make of it then? Had that been Arthur’s goal? To expose them?
“I don’t know,” Alex said. “I don’t know what his game is. He proved he can hurt us, but we already knew that.”
“This was more than hurting us,” Aiden said. His voice was almost a whisper. “A lot more.”
“I was expecting to find the house on fire,” Alex admitted. “For him to try and take the sword.”
“He might know that you’re carrying it now.”
“I suppose.”
Footfalls on the stairs saved Alex from having to turn that thought over in her head. She turned as Jenny walked into the room. Her long hair was up in a messy bun, and her face was full of defeat.
“Daddy wants me to come home,” Jenny said. She leaned against the wall, staring down at her phone. “He’s really shaken. Wants me back in California.”
“That’s understandable.” Alex ignored the flare of worry in her chest. If Jenny separated from them, then she wouldn’t be able to keep her safe. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Jenny admitted. “This is bigger now. Maybe it’s stupid, bu
t when it was just swords and magic, there was this... detachment, maybe, to the danger. Then the guns started showing up, and that was scary, but this was a whole other level. Sorry, I’m not explaining myself well.”
“No,” Alex said. “It’s fine, I understand. What do you want to do?”
“We need to all talk first,” Jenny said. “But… but if you need me to go somewhere else, somewhere safer, then I won’t take it personally.”
The idea had merit, but Arthur knew Jenny. Without some serious magic, he’d find her. Alex kept that to herself, not liking the way her mind jumped to her brothers. She missed them, but suddenly that dull ache didn’t hurt as much. Matt…. Matt would have been terrified for her over this. As it was he could be another shocked college student seeing it on the news, and just be grateful that no one he knew was affected.
Bran came up the stairs from the basement, all but dragging himself up using the railing. He nodded to them and went straight into the kitchen. Aiden sighed loudly and grabbed the remote to change the channel again. Another student was being interviewed and talking about the fire alarm. Hopefully they wouldn’t be able to get fingerprints off of it. The last thing they needed was Jenny and Lance pulled in for questioning.
Standing up, Alex started to pace. She couldn’t help it. The news kept going. The faces just kept talking and showing pictures being taken off of the internet. Alex hated cell phones. This hadn’t been an issue in any other life. The voices in her head agreed. Aiden watched her with soft, worried eyes, and Alex sighed. It helped, but only for a moment.
“I have no idea what to do,” Alex admitted.
“No one is expecting you to,” Bran assured her. He glanced towards the television. “Any deaths?”
“Unknown,” Aiden answered. “They’re still searching the rubble, but so far it seems like people were mostly outside or close to the outer doors.”
“Thank God for that,” Jenny said. “But it might make Arthur even angrier.”
“That’s a lovely thought,” Alex muttered. “I wish I knew where he was.”
“No scrying,” Bran said firmly. “You’re still shaking, Alex.”
Looking down at her hand, Alex scowled when she found that Bran wasn’t wrong. Her hands were trembling. She shoved her hands into her pockets. Everyone was looking at her with worry, maybe pity. Alex wasn’t sure; it was hard to tell, and the voices were almost panicked. Sitting down, she exhaled slowly.
“I guess you’re right,” Alex said. “I just…”
“You did great, Alex,” Nicki said. “Just breathe and try to relax.”
Alex nearly glared at Nicki. Relaxing wasn’t going to help. She couldn’t just turn off the adrenaline still pounding in her veins or the desire to go and rip Arthur apart. Nicki gripped her shoulder and all but pushed Alex back down onto the sofa.
“Exhausting yourself isn’t going to help.”
“How are you not freaking out?” Alex demanded.
“Oh, I’m close!” Nicki snapped. “It keeps going through my head that if Bran hadn’t had that vision and spurred you to check the area, then we and a lot of other students would probably be dead!” Nicki was shouting at the end. But then she inhaled slowly and rolled her shoulders. “But magic was looking out for us. We’re safe. But Arthur might have something else up his sleeve, so we need to focus on recovering and not doing anything stupid.”
Pressing her lips together, Alex huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. The sword sat awkwardly on her back against the cushions, but she didn’t dare take it off. She was pouting, but she didn’t care. Nicki watched her with warning eyes until she nodded. Then Nicki sat down and looked at the television.
“This isn’t going to go away easily,” she said.
“How is your Gran taking it?” Aiden asked.
“Not great, but she’s trying not to panic at least.”
“They closed the public schools,” Aiden added. “Mom picked Aisling up; she’s at home. I think I’ll stay there for a few days after we talk with Merlin and Morgana.”
“Do we know when they’ll be here?” Avani asked. “They are professors. I’m sure that things at the school are chaos.”
“Makes me glad we don’t live on campus anymore,” Bran said.
“Any news?” Lance asked, coming down the stairs. He went straight to Jenny and sat down next to her.
“No,” Alex said. She uncrossed her arms and picked at a stray thread on the sofa arm. “Nothing for sure. How did your parents take it?”
“Not bad actually,” Lance said. “Dad thanked me for calling right away. Told me if I want to come home for a bit that they’ll have my room ready. I think they’d like that.”
“My mom almost demanded it,” Bran admitted. Alex looked at him, and he grimaced slightly. “She’s… horrified by the idea of this. Doesn’t know it has anything to do with us but is scared that it happened.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I’m going to stay here while things calm down, just in case there are announcements I need to hear. She wasn’t impressed with that.”
Alex nodded, grateful that at least for the time being the others would be staying. She had no idea of what to expect from the school. Would a lot of students leave? The semester had barely started. What happened to your tuition if you left due to something like this? There were probably policies in place about all this, but she had no idea how it actually worked. She glanced towards the door. At least no cops had shown up at their place yet.
“I’m sure Merlin and Morgana will take care of things,” Bran assured her. “And we were still inside when you stopped the explosion. People outside wouldn’t have been able to see or record us. All they might have is us stumbling out of the building afterwards.”
“That could still be important,” Lance warned. “But you weren’t the only ones. A few people came out of some of the side doors. You could always say that you were in one of the small classrooms during the explosion.”
“Maybe,” Alex said. “We’ll just have to see.”
“We should figure out a story,” Bran said. “Just in case. Like we found an empty classroom to eat in and didn’t think it was a real alarm, so we were packing up our stuff until we heard the explosion.”
“That could work,” Jenny agreed. “Of course, you don’t have your things. Other than your wallets and phones, you left everything at the table.”
“Shit,” Alex groaned. “You’re right… I think that table was inside the bubble, so our books are destroyed.”
“So, they’re shredded,” Nicki said. “As expensive as books are, that isn’t the key issue. The classroom idea works, and we can plead stupid kids who didn’t believe the alarm. Jenny and Lance had already left, but hopefully Morgana and Merlin will clear any footage of her pulling the alarm.”
“My head hurts,” Jenny muttered. “We need to talk to Merlin and Morgana. We just don’t-”
There was a sharp knock on the door. Everyone tensed and straightened up. The knock came again, and Alex thought that she recognized it. Standing up, she gestured for the others to stay put. Opening the door, Alex wasn’t surprised to find Morgana on their doorstep. There were furrows between her eyes and an air of exhaustion hung over her.
“It’s Morgana,” Alex called to the others. “Come in.”
Stepping to the side, Alex gestured for Morgana to come in. The professor gave her a grateful nod and moved past Alex and straight into the living room. All but collapsing into an armchair, Morgana sighed and dropped her face into her right hand.
“What’s the news on campus?” Aiden asked.
“It is chaos,” Morgana admitted. “There were policies for an emergency like this, of course, but it was like everyone forgot them. Classes are canceled for at least the week, and students are being restricted to dorms and the cafeteria only. Everything between Hartung and Campus Avenue is being blocked off while they investigate.” Morgana chuckled darkly. “They’ve got barriers up between Greek Row
and the area just to make sure they don’t do anything stupid.”
“What about the explosion?” Alex asked. “Is anyone noticing that it was… weird?”
Green eyes met hers, and Morgana nodded. “Yes, it’s been noted that something is off. There’s damn near a crater in the center of the building while the outer area doesn’t show much damage. The FBI is coming in to investigate, in fact they may already be here. Rumors are all over of course. Thankfully so far no fundamentalist groups have tried to claim the bombing.”
“So, what have you been up to?” Bran asked. He suddenly appeared from out of the kitchen with a tray of tea. “You look exhausted.”
“Thank you,” Morgana said drily. But she took a cup and poured herself some tea. “Damage control. We heard about the alarm fast enough to remove fingerprints from the ones by the main doors.”