by May Dawson
But once I had the bo and Duncan was in front of me, his hands empty but his eyes wily as he tried to decide his next move, I hesitated just for a second.
Hitting someone in the head with a bo staff was supposed to be illegal in the pits. Should I show him just how much that hurt? Was an instructor watching? Did it even matter to me—did I really want to risk hurting another cadet that badly, no matter what he’d done?
I aimed the staff for his legs, moving in fast. He jumped the first attack, but the second one knocked him forward.
He slammed into me. The two of us stumbled together. I held onto the bo, getting the end of it between the two of us, about to use the bo to take him down.
Then I felt something sharp against my side. It didn’t make sense for a second. Until suddenly, that sharpness intensified into agony. Something wet gushed down my side. My legs weren’t working quite right anymore, and I stopped.
I looked down, perplexed, not understanding what had just happened. I saw red through the hole in my t-shirt. It took a second before it made sense to me: I was bleeding from a massive tear across my abdomen.
Duncan ripped his gloves off—he was wearing gloves, why was he wearing gloves—and stepped into the bunker.
The bo fell from my hands.
Duncan gave me a look for just one second—full of triumph—and then he ran past me, screaming. “Hold! Hold! We’ve got an injury!”
It was what we were supposed to do to bring an entire drill to a halt.
“Freeman’s down,” he shouted.
Fuck. I knew who would come, who would try to save me.
This trap was for Maddie the whole time. Not to hurt her. To hurt me.
To force her to save me in front of Clearborn and Garmond.
My mouth was full of blood, and I frowned, trying to understand where it had come from.
I had to warn Maddie, but I was on my knees, and then I couldn’t even stay there.
I swayed forward. Darkness rushed up to meet me.
Chapter Sixty-One
Maddie
It started to rain, big fat drops that turned the ground to mud underneath our feet. Our flag hung limply from the stick at the back of our sandbag bunker, as if it didn’t want to be here either. As my shirt soaked through, cold settled into my skin.
Garmond and Clearborn had paused a few yards away from our position, deep in conversation, and I wished they’d move on. I couldn’t shake a squirmy feeling with Clearborn watching and listening, no matter how much I forced myself to stand up straight. The bruises across my back ached deeply every time I shifted my weight.
“Hold! Hold!” The words, coming from the woods ahead, made Jensen jolt up, straining toward the sound. The two of us exchanged a glance. That couldn’t be a trick. Clearborn would have the skin taken off anyone who called a hold for no reason.
“Freeman’s down!”
Garmond and Clearborn took off running, following the voice. I leapt on top of the sandbags that formed the sides of our bunker and then hit the soft earth below, racing toward the sound of the voice with Jensen and Silas beside me. The trees seemed to whip past me as I ran as fast as I could.
Chase was on the ground, face-down. His arms were by his side, his face down in the dirt. The way he was lying was enough to send panic jolting through my chest.
“Chase.” I dropped to my knees beside him. Jensen was right there too, helping me push our friend’s big shoulder over.
In the distance, Clearborn was on the radio, calling in the medic.
Chase’s shirt was soaked with blood, so much blood. My hands were trembling as I pressed my fingers to his throat. His face was too still, his eyes closed and his mouth slack. For a second, I couldn’t find his pulse, and then there was the faintest thready pulse under my fingertips, so light it could’ve been my imagination.
“What the fuck,” Jensen seemed to be in shock.
“He’s alive,” I cut him off. There was still hope. As long as he was alive, I could heal him.
The woods were alive around us as the other patrols arrived and other instructors.
The medic dropped his red bag next to us, and Jensen backed away, giving him room to work.
“Medic is here. Give him space.” Clearborn grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back away from Chase. His fingers dug into the bruises painfully, but I yanked away from him anyway.
I could heal Chase. No one was going to tear me away from him. I was slipping in mud wet with his blood. The scent of it was in the air, ozone from the rain and fresh earth overwhelmed by the iron tang of blood.
Chase was dying. Every second counted.
Silas dropped to his knees in the mud on the other side of Chase. He looked to Jensen, and instead of reflecting back the fear written across all of our faces, Silas looked composed. Certain. “Get her out of here.”
“No,” I said, reaching for Chase, determined to heal him from the inside out, the way I had healed Rafe, the way I’d healed Tyson.
It would cost me my place at the academy. It might cost my life. But I couldn’t live in a world that didn’t have Chase in it. Not when I could’ve healed him.
Jensen’s arm closed around my waist.
Silas’ face in that moment would haunt my future. There was no doubt in it.
He winked at me, a faint quick flicker of dark lashes over his beautiful eyes.
Jensen’s arm tightened around my waist and dragged me back away from Chase before I could reach for him. My boots slipped in the mud as I pushed back against Jensen, struggling. I hit him, lashing out, trying to get free to save Chase.
“Trust him,” Jensen muttered in my ear, and I planted a fist in his gut, and he grunted in pain. But his strong arms still held me tight.
Silas planted his hands on Chase’s chest. I knew Silas had his magic, but that didn’t mean he could heal anyone, and I struggled to get to Chase. At least between the two of us, Silas and I should be able to bring Chase back from the edge of death.
Golden magic flared across Chase’s chest, whirling under Silas’ palms. Instead of the flare of magic that Tyson and I created, Silas seemed to form a sheet of magic effortlessly that cloaked Chase.
I could barely believe what I was seeing as Chase’s wound closed in seconds.
“He’ll sleep for a while,” Silas said, standing to his feet. The magic blinked out of existence even as he bobbed to his feet.
Now all that was left was Chase, his face mud-streaked, laying in the dirt at his feet. Chase’s chest rose and fell steadily, and my heart jumped at the sight.
Silas added, “It’s better after the shock, anyway.”
The clearing had gone very silent. Silas looked around, as if he were taking the measure of his audience, and a faint bashful smile crossed his face, as if he was embarrassed to have been caught doing magic.
For once, even Clearborn didn’t seem to know what to say.
“I think the big question that we should all focus on,” Silas said, glancing around, “is who tried to murder Chase?”
He flashed us a wider smile, full of hope, as if maybe reason would win out.
“Arrest him!” Garmond said. “He’s a witch!”
Silas’ grand hopes were not to be realized, apparently.
One of the instructors took a step forward, then hesitated.
“Yes,” Clearborn said. “Then we’ll sort out what just happened here. Take Freeman to the infirmary, have him checked out. Rafe, stay with him, just in case there’s a second attempt on his life.”
“And…arrest the witch?” One of the instructors asked uncertainly.
Even though they’d just seen Silas heal Chase, they must assume he was dangerous.
Maybe Silas was dangerous. But he wasn’t bad.
The weight of what he’d just done hit me then, the fact that he’d outed himself as a witch.
“Until we understand what just happened here,” Clearborn said.
For a second, everyone was frozen. The instructors didn’t
seem to be in any rush to go put their hands on Silas.
“Eh,” Silas said, as if he wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea.
Then he tossed a handful of smoky magic toward the instructors. Smoke curled around us all, and then Silas was running. I lost him in the smoke as my own eyes watered, but I plunged forward into the woods after him anyway.
Chaos erupted all over again.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Clearborn barked an order to take Silas alive as I left them behind in the distance. The forest filled with the sound of baying wolves as the academy turned out searching for him.
I ran through the woods frantically, trying to get to Silas. I couldn’t make sense of what I’d just seen.
I’d never seen magic that powerful before. When I healed Rafe and Tyson, the magical drain left me unconscious. Silas had healed them in seconds, then risen to his feet with a smile on his face.
He was more powerful than any witch I’d ever seen.
But if he’d been a spy for the covens, wouldn’t he have smiled and watched Chase die?
My feet slid in the mud, and I stumbled. I caught myself against a tree, my hand hitting hard against the rough trunk, and I cursed as I caught my balance. My heart pounded in my chest.
Behind me, I heard one of the guys shout, “Maddie!” I couldn’t tell who it was from the distance.
I took off running, trying to get away from the other wolves, trying to get to Silas. Somehow, we had to get him away from the academy.
Silas healed Chase, and that should count for something. But he was a witch—a powerful one—hidden here at the academy. I didn’t know what would happen to him when Garmond and Clearborn caught up to him.
I saw a glint of blue ahead through the pines. The river that bordered the academy. If I were trying to make sure the packs lost my scent, that’s where I’d run. Of course, I didn’t have the kind of magic like Silas did. He seemed to have lost us all.
The baying faded behind me as I emerged from the pines onto the rocky bank above the rushing water.
Silas was making his way away from me, toward the bridge.
“Silas!” I shouted above the rush of the water.
Maybe he couldn’t hear me. Maybe he just ignored me. Either way, he kept moving.
I ran after him. The rain began to beat down harder. It hit the water, raising little plops with every strike that rippled across the surface.
Silas was crossing the bridge when I reached the end of it. My clothes were soaked to my skin.
“Silas!” I called, feeling the wind rip my voice away.
He stopped there, almost to the end of the bridge, and turned.
Even though he was running away, his hair soaked to his narrow face, a grin brightened his face when he saw me. When I saw his face I knew he just hadn’t heard me. Silas wouldn’t ignore me. He never had.
I ran toward him, afraid he’d disappear, but he headed toward me without hesitating.
I knew then that it was going to be goodbye.
He couldn’t stay at the academy. Wherever he’d come from, he had to go back now. The thought tore my chest apart.
We met there in the middle of the bridge. I slowed a few steps before I reached him, searching his face, suddenly uncertain of what I should do.
But Silas didn’t hesitate. He wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close. His body was warm through our soaked shirts.
“I should’ve kissed you before,” he said, his lips close to my ear. “But I didn’t want to kiss you when you didn’t know who I really am.”
“And who are you really?” I asked, tilting my face up to study his.
Wrapped in his arms, warmth washed over me. I wasn’t sure if it was a spell, but all my aching muscles and the pain that spread through my back with every convulsion of my muscles relaxed in that heat.
“I come from a world parallel to yours, where we’re fighting our own war, and your world is just another battleground.” He studied my face, frowning slightly. “I wish I had all the time to explain. My name really is Silas Zip. They named the babies in the orphanage alphabetically, and I did not win out.”
That was such a Silas thing to say. I tried to focus on what I needed to know. “Our world is a battleground?”
He nodded. “I know your academy will think I’m a villain. But I was sent here to protect you all from the covens. They’re trying to wipe out the shifters, and we will need your brand of magic at the end.”
“Okay,” I said, even though it was not okay, and I couldn’t process everything I was hearing. “You have to go. They might kill you, Silas. But can we talk with magic? Somehow? I’ll try to convince them…”
“I can’t reach your world with magic easily once I’m on the other side,” he said. “But I’ll try to come back.”
There was regret written across his face—no, it was almost like grief—and it made my own face crumple. He was really saying goodbye, no matter how he tried to soften it.
“I wish you would’ve just kissed me,” I said. “I know who you are, Silas. Even if I was missing some of the details.”
His hand cupped my cheek, and I thought he was going to kiss me then. “I’ll come back to you,” he promised. “We’ll make up for lost time.”
A wolf bayed—close. I startled, my heart racing.
“You’ve got to go.” I didn’t want to let him leave without me, but I pulled out of his arms.
He nodded and took a step back. His gaze was still fixed on my face. I wanted so badly to kiss him goodbye, but I bit my lower lip and nodded. I didn’t want him to leave, and at the same time, I needed for him to go.
I needed all my men to be safe, even if they weren’t safe with me.
Silas hesitated, the rain trickling down his face, and then suddenly he darted toward me, as if he couldn’t bear it.
I moved forward just as surely once I knew what he’d chosen. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and I slid my hand up the hard plane of his chest through his soaked shirt. His lips seared to mine, hotter than any cold that could seep into my body.
When Silas kissed me, it didn’t feel like goodbye. It felt like a beginning.
The baying came again, near, and then I heard the sound of people running across the ground, near us. I pulled away, my lips parting. “Go!”
I didn’t look away from Silas, but I could feel the vibration of boots on the wooden bridge behind us.
Silas jumped up on the edge of the railing along the side of the bridge. He turned to face me, his feet steady of the narrow wooden rail.
“No!” I shouted, jumping forward. We were high above the rushing river below. Could Silas really survive the fall? Was there some way to his world?
He winked at me, just as the shifters pushed past me, trying to get to Silas in time.
For a second, Silas’ body seemed suspended at the edge of the bridge.
Then he fell backward. His body seemed to hang in the air before he plunged into the water below, before being swept toward the rapids downriver.
I screamed. I couldn’t help it. I rushed to the edge of the railing, hoping I’d see his body shimmer with magic as he fell, as if he’d fallen into some magic portal. Maybe that was his end goal all along. Maybe he hadn’t just been trying to get across the bridge to get away.
But Silas’ body slammed into the water below. He went under, bobbed up in the whitewater, then went under again. The water pulled him away rapidly.
The shifters ran for the sides of the river. But I just clung to the railing, staring at the water.
His head didn’t break the surface again. I held my breath, waiting, until suddenly I sobbed and drew in a surprised breath the second after.
Rafe was there with me, though. I didn’t realize, still staring at the water where Silas’ body didn’t appear again, until he said, “Maddie.”
I shivered, and I couldn’t stop. All the heat I’d gotten from Silas’ body dissipated in a second, and I started shaking.
R
afe drew me into his arms as I started to cry. He tried to be careful with me, slipping his forearm carefully against my lower back, but I pressed myself against his chest, into his arms.
I didn’t care how much his touch hurt right now.
Nothing hurt like losing Silas.
The rain beat down on us both as I sobbed into Rafe’s shirt, and he held me tight.
In the distance, men shouted and wolves bayed, still hunting for Silas. It went on and on, until I was exhausted from crying, and I straightened, pulling away from Rafe.
His dark hair was matted to his head, his soaked shirt clinging to his body, and even he was beginning to shiver now. I hadn’t noticed while he held me.
Together, the two of us started the walk back through the woods, back toward campus.
He didn’t try to comfort me.
There was nothing to say.
Chapter Sixty-Three
Tyson
I sat next to Chase in the infirmary, watching over him although his chest rose and fell steadily. Chase groaned before he even opened his eyes, then ran his hand over his face. When he opened his eyes and saw me, he said, “You weren’t really the first person I wanted to see when I woke up.”
I didn’t have it in me to say something smart back. “Sorry.”
“Where’s Maddie?” he asked, struggling up to his elbows. “What happened to me—shit!” His eyes widened as if the memories had flooded back as soon as he asked the question.
“That summarizes it pretty well.”
“Duncan tried to kill me. He was setting—” He broke off suddenly, glancing around the long white room. The room was set with four beds for multiple patients—the academy expected heavy casualty counts one day—but it was just the two of us in here for now.
While our patrol searched for Silas, hoping we’d find him before anyone else, I was here, where my magic couldn’t flare out of control. Where I couldn’t hurt anyone.