by Hannah Wick
“You’re wrong! She deserves to live.”
He dove for me, throwing the pair of us to the floor with a hard thud that drove the air from my lungs. The amulet flew from my grasp and he pounced on it, then wrapped one hand round my throat, pinning me to the cold floor. He straddled me, trying to keep me still as I thrashed ineffectively against him.
“This won’t hurt. But you wouldn’t be complaining even if it did.”
I struggled harder, gasping for breath. My chest burned, crying out for air. My vision watered and my eyes stung. Panic surged through me. If I didn’t move now, I was going to die.
I tried to roll him off, kicking and punching at him but I couldn’t land a single blow. He grunted in frustration then slammed a fist into my face, and my whole world went black.
Chapter Nineteen
Cassandra shook me awake. I opened my eyes, and watched as the room became distorted. My head hurt and my eyes burned. I blinked, trying to focus on what was going on around me. White hot pain seared at the back of my head and a sharp ache knifed through my lower back. All of it paled in comparison to the bruise on my ego. Devron had kicked my arse, again. It was becoming tiresome. Still, at least I wasn’t dead. That was better than I’d hoped for. I blinked again. Devron. Where the hell did he go? I rolled to my side, struggling to sit up.
“Where did he go?” I groaned and touched one hand to the pounding at the back of my head. My fingers came away wet and sticky. Blood. Today sucked.
“Where did who go?” Cassandra asked, and I tried to focus on her confused face through the pounding.
“Devron,” I said. “Where’s he gone?”
“He’s gone for help. Try to stay still. He found you on the floor, out cold.” She paused, frowning. “How did you know he was here?”
I tried to sit up again. Cassandra rolled her eyes and helped me, and I leaned back against the wall gratefully. I took a moment to get my breath back back before I spoke again.
“He’s got the amulet,” I said, leaning my head against the wall with a groan. “I tried to stop him. He was too strong.”
“Who?” Cassandra demanded, looking around the room.
“Devron. He didn’t find me on the floor, he’s the one that put me there.”
“Are you serious? You’re still accusing him of this?” She climbed to her feet, clenching her hands into fists. For a moment, I thought she was going to hit me. I hoped not. I didn’t have enough strength to fight her back, and getting my arse kicked twice in one day was bad even for me.
I wobbled as I tried to stand on my feet. My legs felt like jelly, shaking beneath my weight. “Yes, and he just tried to drain me. Ask Sally, she was here.”
“She’s right,” Sally told her. “He was draining another student. We walked in on him doing it, that’s when I went for help.”
I lifted my chin, revealing the red handprint wrapped around my neck.
“Oh my god, he did this to you?” Cassandra gasped, her face paling. I looked at her, reaching up to rub at the bruised flesh.
“Yeah. The third time’s the charm, right?” I said bitterly.
“How are we going to stop him?” she said eventually.
“I’m not sure. Maybe we can un-hex the amulets?” I said, my eyes flicking across her face, not quite daring to hope. She scuffed her feet and then met my eye.
“I don’t know, Kiera. I’m not sure that can be done. But I bet we can destroy them.”
“I hate to break up the happily ever after,” Sally said, “but we’re not strong enough to face him.”
“Alone? No. We need to put a temporary bind on his powers until the lecturers can deal with him.”
“Are you crazy?” Cassandra gaped at me. “Do you even know how to bind someone’s powers?”
“Only vaguely. I’m going to the library before we do anything. We already have a photograph. Now, we just need a ribbon or something and the spell.”
Cassandra sighed. “Of course you do. Where did you get it from?”
I cleared my throat. “I got it from his room.”
“You stole it?”
“He tried to kill me, and that’s what you’re getting hung up on?”
“I’m sorry, you’re right,” she said, raising an apologetic hand. “Still trying to get my head around it.”
“I’ll try to buy enough time for the lecturers to turn up.” I told her. I walked down the hall, not saying another word. My throat ached. Swallowing hard, I went back to the library to find the book to bind his powers.
Healer Alice bumped into me halfway down the hall. “Kiera, what happened to you?”
I sighed. I didn’t have the time to clean off the blood. “Devron happened. He’s the one behind it. I need to find help and get the others out. I can try to fight him off and bind his powers. That’ll buy enough time for help to arrive.”
“Bind his powers? That’s dangerous magic.” She frowned at me. “That’s if you even have enough power to manage it. If you don’t, it could rebound, and destroy what magic you do have.”
“I know,” I sighed. “But what else am I gonna do? Ask him nicely to stop?”
“You need to let the authorities deal with it,” Alice said. “Just make sure that everyone else stays in their dorm rooms, okay?”
“I’ll try.” I closed my eyes. My head pounded. I hadn’t yet recovered from the last fight, and I was struggling to stay on my feet. “But I need to help.”
“Keeping everyone else out of the way is helping. Without putting yourself in danger. I’ll go and get the authorities myself.”
She was right, of course. If I tried the binding, and it backfired, I’d be defenceless. I nodded. “All right. I’ll get everyone out of the canteen and into their rooms.”
I walked out, shaking my head. Just get everyone out of the way. It sounded so easy.
I reached the main hall and threw open the door. It took me a moment to process what I was seeing, and when I did, icy tendrils wrapped round my spine. Devron was standing on top of the tables, holding a large jagged amulet that glowed in his hands. Students around him were groaning and laying down on the floor; exhausted.
“Devron!” I called out. “Stop!”
“No,” he said, his face contorting into a sneer. “You’re the one that needs to stop. Stop your interference, you bitch! Motio!”
He held out his hand and the force of his spell threw me clean through of a window.
I screamed, the glass shattering on impact against my back. I fell backwards and landed hard in a thorny bush. I groaned, crawling out of the shrubbery. Shit, that hurt. I tugged a shard of glass from my left shoulder blade, and blood flowed freely down my back. I sucked in a deep breath, then lurched to my feet. I hobbled through the grass, gritting my teeth. My feet ached, and the air around me burned like a furnace. The plants wilted as I passed them, losing their luscious colour before bowing, as though weakened. And above me, the wind howled and storm clouds swirled above my head, darkening the sky, snubbing out any hint of light. I embraced my rage, using it to spur me on. It was all I could do to stay on my feet. I stalked back into the main hall, magic crackling from my fingertips.
“I’m not done!” I growled. I gathered my rage, channelling it into the palm of my hand until it became a dense ball of air, and then threw it out towards him. It released from my hand like a gust of wind. The force threw him into a wall.
“You really want to fight me? You’re not strong enough!” Devron said. “You can’t win. Give it up.”
I shook my head, and steeled myself. If he wasn’t going to stop, I was going to find a way to stop him.
He threw up his hands, and sweat poured from his face. He circled one hand, and thrust the other forward.
“Motio!”
One of the toppled tables threw itself through the air and crashed into the door, blocking the only way out.
I blinked. Nope, nothing doing. There was still a table blocking the only way out. One that Devron had thrown there with
a single word. Where the hell had he learned a spell like that?
I wrenched my eyes away. There’d be time enough to worry about that later. Assuming there was a later. I was badly wounded; cut, bruised and broken. As I called him out, a small voice at the back of my mind cautioned me that I might be signing my own death warrant. But what choice did I have? “Let them go!”
He stared back at me, cocking his head in confusion. “Of course not. I need them. I’m going to need their energy and magic.”
“It’s wrong. You must see that? You shouldn’t be stealing their energy. There has to be another way to help your parents.”
“The healers have already given up. They let her die. If I’m going to save her, I’m going to need more than magic. I need lifeforce.”
Acid terror clawed at my stomach, and the words spilled from my lips.
“You can’t steal a life to save another.”
“Motio,” he said, staring at me. A chair flew across the room. It zipped past my head, straight through the already broken window, missing me by inches. I raised my hands, and, summoning what little strength I had, I decided to fight fire with fire.
“Motio this,” I hissed. I lifted the small broken pieces of glass off the ground, hurtling them towards him. He brought up his hands, screaming.
“Scatter!”
The glass crumbled into dust and fell motionless to the ground, sparkling like glitter on the marbled floor.
Where the hell was he getting these spells from? I was starting to think Tabatha was holding out on me.
On the other side of the room, the door rattled. Finally, help had arrived. Now all they had to do was to get inside.
“Motio,” I commanded, and the table inched aside. I was weakening. But at least now the authorities had a way in. I hoped it wasn’t too late.
Devron raised his arms, bringing the dust of glass towards me. I flung my arm up to cover my head and shield my eyes. I was too slow. Pain screamed through me and I staggered back. The doors burst open, and I made out Maria, Tabatha, and Rick as they rushed inside. Devron glared at them, his face contorting with fury, then he flung himself through the shattered window and out into the night.
“No!” I staggered to the window. “Get back here, you coward!”
The only reply was the soft breeze blowing against my face. “He’s gone.” He had won. Again. I sagged against the wall and slid to the floor, exhausted.
“We’ll get him,” Maria said curtly. “In the meantime, we need to get you to the medical ward and heal your wounds.”
They took me to the medical ward, and helped me lay back on one of the beds. Healer Alice handed me a bottle and offered me a small sad smile. Inside the small bottle, was a greenish liquid with a hint of yellow. It looked revolting. I took a sip, making a face, but I didn’t have the energy to object any more than that. And frankly, anything that took away the pain biting at my face was welcome.
They started to chant, and the sound of their healing spell carried me into an unsettled sleep.
Chapter Twenty
“I can’t believe they’re still making us do exams,” I griped, traipsing down to the Spell Casting room.
“And I can’t believe,” Cassandra said, “that you thought a murderous rogue witch on the loose was going to be enough to get us out of this.”
I shrugged. “Wishful thinking. You do realise that in between getting my arse repeatedly kicked by Devron I haven’t had a single moment to study?”
“You seemed to have plenty of time to find that binding spell,” Rose pointed out, in what didn’t strike me as a particularly helpful manner. She wasn’t wrong, though. But then, I figured I might need it. It had been two days with no sign of Devron, but he was bound to surface sooner or later. And I didn’t think my ego could handle it if he took me out a third time.
“Wish me luck,” I said, as Maria summoned me into the room.
“I want you to show me a transformation spell,” Maria said, without preamble. Talk about not even giving me a moment to get my breath.
She gestured to an object in the centre of the room – an old wooden stool, with light blue peeling paint, and legs that were covered in chips. It had definitely seen better days.
Okay, transformation spell. I’d done one of these before. Like, once. Literally. Dammit. I knew I should have spent more time revising for exams, and less time trying to get myself killed. Somehow, I didn’t think the dean was going to take that as an excuse if I failed.
I nodded and closed my eyes, envisioning the old wooden stall changing into something new. I thought hard. I could see the wobbly, cracked legs and swapped them for four solid pine legs. The seat was peeling, split and worn. I smoothed the surface and sealed the splits, then envisioned the small wooden stall growing into a dining table. But now it was plain pine. Boring. And I had a horrible feeling Maria would penalise me for that. I frowned. I needed to give it some colour. It used to be yellow and blue. I smiled, and imagined a darker colour. Then, as clearly as I could, I said the spell.
“Mutasio.”
When I opened my eyes, the beaten wooden stall was gone. In its place was a large, ash-grey, dining table.
I beamed, looking proudly at what I had done. Then a wave of melancholy washed over me as I remembered who had taught me to master that spell. What had happened to my friend, to the kind guy who’d taken pity on the incompetent outsider, and taught her how to cast a spell that had bested her at every turn? How did he go from that to wanting to kill people? If there’d been signs, I hadn’t seen them. And maybe I should have. Maybe this was all my fault. And maybe, if I found him, I could make up for not being there when he needed me.
Maria’s pen scratched across her clipboard, snapping me back to the present. I strained my neck, trying to catch a glimpse of what she’d written, but I wasn’t close enough, and her face gave nothing away.
“Very well, thank you, Kiera. Please send Cassandra in.”
*
We barely had time for a break before we were called into Rick’s lecture room for our divination exam. We each took our place behind a table, and Rick announced we would be doing scrying spells. Great. Of all the things he could have asked us to do, scrying was about my least favourite. A lot could go wrong. And on top of that, there was more than one way to do a scrying spell. Danny picked a bowl of water. Rose chose to use a black mirror. Cassandra chose to use a pendant and a map. They were all great methods. I sighed, staring at a table with all the scrying equipment laid out on the table. What was I going to scry with? I glanced around. Everyone was already casting their spells. Except for Devron, of course, who was still hiding out wherever he was. Actually… I scanned the table, then grabbed an amulet and a map. This would have to do.
I laid the map out in front of me. It wasn’t a map of the city, the village or even the world. This map was the same map that was scattered throughout the academy, hanging on the corridor walls. I called Devron to the front of my mind, then dangled the amulet above the map, chanting.
“I cast this spell through time and space, give me the location of Devron in this time and place.”
The amulet began to move from side to side, swaying on the end of its string. Then, the swaying changed into circles, each wider than the last. Abruptly, it stopped, dropping down on the map like a leaded weight. I looked down, and my face creased into a frown. I had every floor and room memorised. I wanted to know if the amulet pointed so much as to a closet, and I would know if it was the sports cupboard or the janitors closet. Nothing was getting by me. Which only made the results more confusing. I blinked and looked again, examining the fine lines between rooms and stairwells. It made no difference. The result was the same. The amulet pointed firmly in the middle of one of the larger boxes of the map, on the top floor of the building. Room 223. I knew who’s room that was. And it made absolutely no sense.
It was pointing at Devron’s dorm room.
I scratched my head. Everyone was looking for him. Why would
he be back inside his room? But at least he wasn’t causing trouble. For now. I picked the amulet up again and turned my thoughts to the shadow, and chanted the spell again, keeping the shadow in my mind. The amulet dropped down. I looked down at the map and my frown deepened. It was pointing to Devron’s room again. Why would the shadow be in Devron’s room? That made no sense. Then realisation hit me and I groaned. The scrying must not work on spirits – it had simply dropped back down to the last thing it was asked to find. I decided to use another method. I reached for the black mirror, and let my eyes soften as I looked through the glass.
“Mirror Mirror in my hand, show me the person by my command.”
I watched as the mirror’s reflection began to change. And with it, it showed me Devron in his room. And he was talking to a mirror. I shook my head, and put the mirror down. Nothing was making sense. What was going on?
“Good work, everyone,” Rick said, shattering my thoughts. “Return your scrying equipment, and we’ll move on to the written portion of the exam.”
It was an hour later that he collected in our papers, and I could finally talk to my friends about what I’d seen. I dragged them off to a quiet corner.
“I saw something,” I said. “In the exam.”
“Well, that was kind of the point,” Rose said.
“No, I mean…” I broke off and looked around, making sure we were alone. “I saw Devron, and the shadow.”
“What? Well, where is he?”
“Devron was in his room.”
“And the shadow?”
“Well, that I’m not sure about. It said it was in his room, too. I’m sure it’s a mistake though.”
“What did you use?” Rose asked.
I shrugged. “The amulet and the map. And then the black mirror.”
“What was in the black mirror, what did you see?”
“Devron, talking to a mirror.”
“He… what?”
“Yeah, I don’t understand it either,” I said.