by Elena Lawson
What now?
I followed him out from the dining hall at a distance so no one would notice, and then when a good portion of the students gushed out onto the grounds, it made for an easy diversion for me to dart into the trees. They were looking around the building—trying to see if there was a bloodstain in the grass no doubt. But the authorities would have cleaned all that up by now.
Peering around the building, I tried to make sure Cal and Adrian weren’t around. Not wanting their first meeting with other students to happen without me there as a buffer.
I’ll see what Elias needs and then I’ll go straight to them. I’d felt them moving further away from me—the bond stretching thinner—as they probably went for a run. Judging by the still-weakened sensation in my bones, they hadn’t returned yet.
I didn’t bother knocking as I entered the cabin, letting the door fall closed behind me with a high-pitched squeal. He really needed to oil that.
“Elias?” I said, my eyes adjusting to the dimness of the cabin after the blaring light of the sun outside.
“Elias?” Granger mimicked, looking to my Arcane History prof for guidance.
The two sat across from one another in the small living area at the middle of the studio-apartment like space.
My throat closed. Crap.
Elias was tight-lipped. His eyes widened imperceptibly before he recovered and gave Granger a thin smile. “I thought Professor Fitzgerald was a little too formal off academy grounds.”
“I’m sorry,” I rushed to add, the stopper in my throat sinking to weigh on my stomach instead. “I didn’t mean to presume—”
Granger waved her hand in an impatient gesture. “Never mind that. It’s not important. What I need to know is when you left your familiars to come back into the academy last night.”
My mouth went dry.
“Why?”
Elias stood, looking as though he wanted to come to me, his hands in tight fists. “It’s alright, Harper,” he said, his voice strained. “Just tell her what she needs to know. You’ve dealt with the Arcane Authorities enough lately. Better her asking the questions than them.”
But I still didn’t understand why it was relevant what time I left them in the old tool shed. Unless…
“How did she die?” I asked, my shoulders tensing and mind whirring. “The girl, Lacey Dellamora… how did she die?”
My pulse sped. Neither opened their mouth to speak. They shared a look before Granger said, unapologetically, with not a drop of sugar-coating, “Miss Dellamora was assaulted. Bitten. And it seems a more than natural amount of blood was lost from her body before she died.”
My hand flew up to cover a shaky gasp.
“So, I will ask you one more time, Harper,” Granger said, rising to stand alongside Elias. “What time did you leave your familiars unattended last night?”
The sound of my blood and magic rushing in my veins was deafening. I tried to think over it. The severing ceremony had happened around midnight. We got back onto academy grounds perhaps just before one in the morning. And then I’d spent maybe twenty minutes with them in the shed. I had to have been back in the academy around 2am.
“Three in the morning,” I lied. “Maybe a bit later, even.”
I don’t know why I didn’t just tell the truth, but I had this feeling that the longer I said I was there, the less likely it was that they’d be under suspicion.
Elias stepped in closer. “Are you certain?”
I didn’t want to lie to him. I could handle lying to Granger, but not him. There were already too many lies between us, not including the one we both had to keep.
My mouth wouldn’t form the word, so I nodded instead.
Collectively, Granger and Elias sighed, their shoulders dropping, and expressions softening.
Granger moved toward the doorway where I still stood and placed a reassuring hand upon my shoulder. “The overseer put Miss Dellamora’s death at precisely two-thirty in the morning. If you were with your familiars, then it couldn’t have been them.”
“But will the authorities believe that?” I choked, ready, myself, to run from the cabin. To warn them not to come back. The Arcane Authorities didn’t believe what I had to say, and I was their kind. They would have even less reason to believe the testimony of shifters.
Her hand squeezed my shoulder. “They will when I corroborate what you’ve just told me. If anyone asks you, I was awake and waiting for you to come back inside the academy—to… make sure everything went smoothly with settling your familiars in.”
The immense relief made my eyes sting. I hugged her—wrapping my arms around her middle tightly. She gasped but didn’t pull away. Her honey and lavender smell calmed me even more.
Granger patted me on the back. “It’s alright, dear. We’ll make sure nothing happens to them, but until we get to the bottom of this, you should advise them to be wary.”
I stepped back, confused for a moment until what she was saying sunk in, leaving a foul taste in my mouth.
“I hope that whatever happened to poor Miss Dellamora was a chance occurrence. Perhaps an animal in the woods. But there’s a chance, no matter how small, that that isn’t the case.”
The way she said it told me everything she wasn’t saying. Headmistress Granger didn’t believe it was an animal at all. And she didn’t believe it would be the last time it happened.
“What do you really think—”
“I’ve got to go,” Granger interrupted. “The overseer will be looking for me. I’ll tell him that your familiars had nothing to do with it, but if I were you, I’d send a message through your bond to warn them they will likely be questioned.”
My jaw clenched. If they were questioned, they’d say I left at two in the morning, not three, and this whole lie would unravel.
Crap, crap, crap.
“We,” I hesitated, blushing. “I mean, I haven’t had time to develop that part of the bond. I never practiced how.”
Granger looked to Elias. “See if you can help her get through to them before they return. I’ll try to keep the authorities busy in the meantime.”
He nodded, accepting the command from his superior.
“And you,” she said to me. “Be careful. I’ll be making the announcement soon, but until we know what’s happening, anyone who decides to remain in the academy this weekend will have a curfew. In before dark. No going outside alone.”
The door creaked shut after her, and I started when Elias appeared in front of me, turning the lock.
“Come here,” he said gently and opened his arms.
I latched onto him as though he was the only solid thing in an ocean of raucous waves. I knew being sentenced to nearly four years at the academy would bring it with it a whole new set of problems. But I never expected any of this.
Murderous headmasters. A romance with one of my teachers. Bonding with two Enduran shifters. Saving said Enduran shifters from a dark witch bent on killing them and all the others in that warehouse. Seeing ghosts. And now this.
Sometimes I wondered when I would crack. What it would take to finally shove me over the edge into the abyss of madness that’d swallowed up so much of my family before me.
“Everything will be alright. I won’t let anything happen to you, and neither will Cal or Adrian.”
Did he really think it was me I was worried about? “I can handle myself,” I said and pulled away to look him in the eyes—so he could see how much I meant it. I was powerful, and I was starting to realize just how powerful. Sure, I needed more training—to become more adept at sigils and incantations, but my natural power had no rival. At least, none that I’d ever seen.
“It’s not me I’m worried about. It’s you and Cal and Adrian who live on the grounds where a girl was killed last night.”
He frowned.
“And you didn’t hear anything at all? No screams, or commotion of any kind?”
I shook my head. “You?”
“Nothing,” he said, incredulou
s. “It doesn’t make any sense. She was attacked just outside the academy, near the south exit.”
I used that exit all the time. So did Elias.
It wasn’t all that far from where we were now.
“What do you think happened?”
His brows raised, and at the faraway look came to his eyes—the one that alerted me to the fact that he was trying to work out a problem in his mind. “Don’t know. The bite mark speaks for itself, though. And she had a fair amount of bruising on her arms. It had to have been an animal. Vamps wouldn’t dare trespass here.”
My breathing hitched. Vamp.
Elias was right, most vampires wouldn’t dare cross witch-kind. They’d have a war on their hands if they did—and one they couldn’t win. We outnumbered them two-to-one. But there was one vampire who would dare.
One who already had.
Draven.
5
“You seem distracted,” Elias said. “If you aren’t able to clear your mind, this is going to be much harder.”
We’d been at it for nearly an hour. I was tired, and my head ached from trying to make my magic do something it seemed it couldn’t do.
Through a witch-familiar bond, both the witch and the familiar should be able to communicate with one another. Share images. But my familiars and I hadn’t had the time to practice it. Hell, I didn’t even tell them about it.
Aside from the one time I accessed blood magic to strengthen the locator spell to find them, I couldn’t remember a time when I was able to see through their eyes. And they never said whether they could see through mine.
If we were Fae, this sort of thing would come easy. Two Fae bonded together could share messages this way, too. And it was how shifters communicated with one another in wolf-form from birth. But it was harder for witches. The sort of magic it required took patience and persistence to master.
And now I had to learn what most witches learned after a year or so with their familiars in one afternoon, all while worrying that Draven could have possibly had something to with Lacey’s death…
And he said he would be coming back—to see me. He was going to help me, he said. But every time I pictured his chiseled face, or that irritating blasé smirk of his, all I saw beyond it were the fangs he kept hidden behind closed lips.
When I’d cut myself on his blades, he’s had to work to keep control of himself. I’d seen the hunger in his eyes.
But he had managed to do it. He could keep control. Which meant if it was him who was to blame, he did it purposefully.
And I didn’t know him well enough to know if he was capable of something like that or not. Most vampires were. They were creatures of little control and preferred to live without restraint, governed only by their whims and desires. Most of them.
Not all of them.
“I can put on some more tea?” Elias offered, but we’d already gone through a pot of earl grey, and my stomach couldn’t handle me putting anything else in it right now. A tragedy since he had a box of donuts from that bakery near Sigilante that I loved.
My mouth watered, but my stomach protested. I’d come back for them.
“What are you thinking about?” he prodded.
“Donuts.”
He snort-chuckled, shaking his head. “Of course, you are.”
“Can I try something?”
He spread his hands wide. “Sure. What do you want to try?”
“Kiss me.”
“I don’t see how that’ll—”
I groaned. “Just do it.”
There was very little that helped put me at ease and erase all the awful thoughts racing around in my head like being held by him. Or like the touch of his lips against mine. If I needed a clear head, this was, in my opinion, the quickest way to do it.
Elias pulled me out of my chair with a sharp tug, and I landed in his lap on the chair opposite. The way his hands moved down, grasping my hips tightly as he pressed his body into me made my toes curl and a slow ache spread deep in my belly. My lips parted as I ran my fingers through his hair. It was thick and soft, and I could’ve played in it all day.
“Harper,” he whispered as I bent my head to him.
“Elias,” I replied, the word swallowed up in a hungry kiss as his lips crashed into mine. The heat soared through me like a rocketing firework, shooting sparks through my whole body. How I’d missed this. His hands traveled up my back, his fingers pressing in harder to draw me closer. I moved one leg over his lap, straddling him in the chair. His length pressed against me through his trousers and the thin panties under my skirt.
I moaned into his mouth, and his tongue used the opportunity to plunge into my mouth, hot and insistent, which only made me fall apart even more.
Of their own accord, my fingers fumbled with the buttons on his vest, unable to move as quickly as I wanted them too. The last button came undone and I tore it from his body, working on the next set of buttons beneath.
Our fevered breath mingled, and between kisses he met my stare, and I saw in him all the emotions that roiled within me. My magic, tamed and kept at bay, reached out to him, and somehow, I knew within him his magic was doing the same. Trying to find its counterpart within me.
When our lips met for the second time, his strong hands fell back to my hips, pressing me into him. I moved, trying to feel all of him. Wanting him to feel all of me. The press of his hardened length made me wet like I’d never been before. It burned, but in the most incredible way.
Fuck, I’d missed this. His mouth moved to my neck, and I whimpered at the sensation the touch of his breath brought to my core. Making it tremble.
There hadn’t been all that much time for this since what happened at the warehouse.
There were too many Arcane Authorities milling around the academy. And I was being watched too closely. It was too dangerous.
The reminder of what was at risk for him by being with me hit me like a slap to the face. Like an icy pinch to wake me from this beautiful dream.
Sensing my tension, Elias stopped in his slow trail of kisses. Stopped unbuttoning my blouse.
I bit the inside of my cheek.
“Hey,” he said, pulling my face in so I would look at him. “We can wait.”
We. Oh, how I loved it when he said that simple two-letter word. But right now, the sound of it repelled me. Made me afraid. Anyone could come here right now. They could see us like this. And then it would be over. His career ruined. His reputation destroyed.
It didn’t matter if he was willing to risk it… was I?
I moved to stand, finding my footing—my head still woozy.
A lifting sensation, like a huge bowling ball being lifted from my chest alerted to me to the fact that they were getting closer. Cal and Adrian were on their way back.
“They’re coming back,” I said in a rush. “What do I do?”
Relief flitted across his features for a second at my words before he went back to being all business. “Come on, let’s try one more time. If it doesn’t work—if you can’t open the connection to communicate with them, we’ll try to head them off in the woods before they get here.”
I nodded. “Ok, let’s do it.”
He stood and took both my hands in his. I ignored the way his slacks still tented a bit at the front. “Focus. Close your eyes.”
I did as he said. But it seemed our little tryst hadn’t cleared my mind at all. It’d only made it even more difficult to sift through the thoughts rioting inside. Damn.
“Find the connection.”
This part was easy. The connection was where I imagined my heart to be. Square in the middle of my chest. It strengthening the closer they came.
“Got it.”
His hands squeezed mine, lending me strength. “Now draw on your power.”
Unlike other witches, I never really had to draw my power into me. I merely had to lower the dam I usually kept in place to staunch its flow.
I was careful, lowering the dam in small increments so I didn�
�t flood myself. I shivered at the rush of natural energy as it coursed through me, ready and eager to do my bidding.
“Feel your magic bind with that connection. Let it open the bond. Picture it however you want the connection to work. For me, I visualize it like a telephone. I call, and Fallon picks up on the other end.”
That seemed to make it easier. Though witches had little use for cellphones, I knew how they worked, and Leo and Lara each had one.
I fused my magic with the heart of the familiar bond. Poured it in gradually, in small drips. I pictured Cal and Adrian’s faces as pictures for their contact profiles in cell phone that looked like Lara’s silver iPhone.
I imagined pressing the button that would call them and let the dam keeping my magic at bay fall away. I needed this to work, and if it took all my power to do it, then so be it.
I shuddered at the rushing of it. The sheer force of the power contained within a thin barrier of flesh and bone. I channeled it where I needed it to go—into making that call. Into strengthening the signal of it and directing it through airwaves.
Before I couldn’t contain it anymore, I began to lift the dam again, sealing the pull of power off before it overwhelmed me.
There was a jolting second where I was taken swiftly from my own mind and planted firmly in the mind of Cal. I saw through his eyes a mind-bending torrent of moving green as he ran on all fours through the forest. It was incredible. Exhilarating.
Somewhere in my own mind, I was squealing in pure bliss at the sensation of flying.
The fuck?
The thought was not my own. It was Cal’s voice—in Cal’s head.
I was jolted out, jostled, and thrown into the mind of another beast. I looked through Adrian’s eyes as he sped over the earth just behind Cal, who had begun to slow.
“Adrian?” I tried, speaking both aloud and in my own mind—unsure of how the bond would work best.
His front paws dug into the earth and he skidded to a stop, sending waves of dirt flying toward where Cal was bounding back toward him. Harper?