The Nightmare Dilemma (Arkwell Academy)

by Mindee Arnett

  The last of my hope that someone would notice we were missing dissolved. There was no one else. Not even Lance, who was still in Vejovis.

  Gargrave broke the spell, and Paul fell to the ground with a sickening slap of flesh against stone.

  Titus made a clucking noise. “Looks like you need to revive him. Again.”

  I fought back the urge to be sick, and I realized the reason why he’d chosen to torture Paul over Eli was simply from the pleasure it gave him. Titus pointed his staff at Paul and spoke an incantation I didn’t recognize. A moment later Paul’s uninjured eye slid open. It swiveled around in his head as he surveyed what he could from that position. He looked terrified.

  “Paul,” I said, wanting him to know he wasn’t alone anymore. “I’m over here.”

  He turned his head in my direction, and when he saw me his whole body convulsed. “No,” he screamed. “Don’t you tell him, Dusty. Don’t you dare. No matter what.”

  I flinched at the sound of his fury. There was no lie in him now. He meant what he said. He didn’t want me to give his uncle the knowledge no matter what they did to him.

  But I didn’t know if I could do it.

  Mustering all my willpower, I forced my gaze away from Paul and onto Titus. If I could block Paul out, pretend he wasn’t there, wasn’t suffering, then maybe I could manage it.

  But my resolve faltered a moment later when Gargrave kicked Paul in the stomach. “Save the screaming for when it counts.”

  “Stop it!” I shouted. “Don’t hurt him.”

  Titus flashed a triumphant grin at me. “Oh, yes. I do believe this will work after all.” Then he pulled the watch off his wrist and disengaged the glamour to reveal his wand. It was short but as thick as a billy club. He raised it above his head, and for a second I thought he intended to use it as a club.

  But he pointed the tip at Paul and spoke a word I didn’t know but which made all the hairs on my body stand up on end from the sudden surge of magic. Green flames burst out from the tip of the wand and covered Paul from head to foot, enveloping him like a swarm of insects. Paul writhed on the floor, the veins popping out in his neck as he struggled against the pain, holding in a scream.

  “Don’t watch, Dusty,” Eli whispered from beside me.

  I knew he was right, but I couldn’t look away. The green flames danced over his body, leaving the skin beneath shiny and red as if burned or bitten. It didn’t matter which. What mattered was that it hurt.

  Titus broke the spell a moment later, and Paul slumped against the ground, a moan of relief escaping his lips. His skin was red but not blistered and burned as I’d expected it to be. For a second I thought it was over, but Titus conjured the spell again, the green flames brighter than before.

  Paul couldn’t keep in the scream this time. The spell seemed to rip it out of him. The sound of his pain cut into me like jagged glass. I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t watch him suffer when I had the means of putting an end to it.

  “Stop!” I screamed. “I’ll tell you, but you’ve got to stop.” I knew that once he had what he needed Titus would kill us, but I didn’t care. At least it would be over.

  Titus broke the spell and faced me, one hand on his hip, the other hanging at his side with his wand pointed at the floor. “Go ahead then.”

  “Don’t, Dusty,” Paul whispered through bruised and bloodied lips. “I’m not worth it.”

  I ignored him. I needed all my focus now. Gargrave was good at mind-magic, and he was paying attention. I needed him to know I was telling the truth. “To access it press the home button three times and then swipe to the left twice.”

  “Stop!” Paul lurched to his knees, but Gargrave kicked him back down.

  “Yes, now we’re making progress.” Titus flipped the phone around so that everyone could see my instructions had worked.

  I exhaled, my heart beating in my throat. “And the pass code is—”

  “Don’t, please don’t,” Paul said, his voice a moan now.

  “Five-two-one-one-three-eight.” The lie came easily. Thank goodness my locker combination was six digits.

  Titus beamed as he started to enter the numbers, and I spoke a silent prayer that they’d already tried to open it twice before and that this time the phone would self-destruct.

  “Wait,” Gargrave said.

  Titus’s fingertip froze on the screen. “What is it?”

  “She’s lying.”

  My heart rate sped up, but I managed not to blink or fidget. “No, I’m not.”

  Titus frowned, his gaze shifting from Gargrave to me then back again. “I thought she had you blocked out?”

  “She did, but he didn’t.” Gargrave pointed at Paul. “Not this time. I caught it. Just for a second when she said those numbers. His surprise gave him away. They’re wrong, and he knows it.”

  Titus lowered his hand from the phone’s screen. He came forward and looked down at his nephew. Then he looked up at me, his expression appraising. “It seems I might’ve been wrong about the pressure point here. If she won’t cave for him, maybe he will cave for her. Kaio-dontia.”

  I didn’t have time to react, not even to flinch. The green flames enveloped me, obscuring my sight and muffling my hearing. But these things only mattered for a second, because in the next there was nothing but pain. I was being burned alive, the flames like a thousand flies eating away at my flesh with teeth made of red-hot needles. I screamed without even being aware of it, the sound an involuntary expulsion of the agony charging through my body.

  A blur of movement flashed before my eyes as Eli lunged in front of the spell, trying to block it, trying to absorb it into himself. For a moment, the pain eased, but then Gargrave struck Eli in the temple with the head of his staff. Eli fell and didn’t move again.

  “Don’t hurt her. I’ll tell you. Don’t hurt her!” Paul’s voice barely registered in my ears. It seemed far away, nonexistent.

  Titus made a flicking gesture with his wand and the pain increased. I screamed with my whole body, tears pouring from my eyes. Stop stop stop oh God make it stop. Stop please stop.

  “Three-eight-seven-eight-nine-seven!” Paul shouted.

  The spell broke, and I fell back against the chair, trembling. Cold sweat coated my body, but the agony was over. At least physically. I’d never been more relieved in my life, no matter that it lasted only a moment.

  Forcing my eyes open, I watched as Titus entered the pass code. The smile that broke across his face a second later told me all I needed to know. He had gotten what he wanted. He held in his hands the power of the Red Warlock—the name of every magickind willing to start a revolution.

  Titus put the phone to sleep a second later and slid it into his front pocket. Then he leaned over and patted his nephew on the head. “Thank you, Paul. I’m glad you served a purpose at last. And how ironic it is that love was your downfall. It was your mother’s, too.”

  Paul didn’t struggle, but sagged against the floor, defeat like a paralytic drug spreading through his body.

  I wanted to scream and jump up and strangle this horrible man with my bare hands, but I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe as the aftereffects of the spell lingered on.

  “Shall we kill them now?” Gargrave asked as Titus straightened up.

  “No, leave them. We shouldn’t risk their death being traced back to us. If their bodies are found in the wreckage, there will be questions.” Titus engaged the glamour on his wand, turning it back into a watch. He checked the time as he slid it on. “We’ll let the sea take care of them.” He glanced up at the ceiling. “That is, if the building doesn’t do it first.”

  Gargrave looked like he might argue, but then he nodded.

  “Let’s go.” Titus turned around and headed for the door. He paused just before it and swung back around. “Oh, one last thing.” He walked over to Eli, still lying unconscious on the floor. He stooped and pulled Eli’s wand ring off his thumb. “I wouldn’t want any of you to believe this was going to b
e your saving grace.”

  By Selene’s quick intake of breath, I guessed she’d been thinking it, at least.

  Titus smiled. “If he wakes before the end, be sure to tell him that it wouldn’t have worked anyway. This isn’t a true wand. I had the power source inside it bound with a spell designed to suppress his dreams. It was the perfect solution to keeping you two off my trail after that useless girl failed to deliver my curse. Well, almost perfect.

  At once, I realized the spell on Eli’s wand must’ve been the source of the fog in Eli’s dreams. All except for that last one. In his frustration, he’d removed the wand before going to sleep. A lucky break. Not that it mattered now.

  “Nevertheless,” Titus continued, “it kept him from doing magic, and that is good enough for me. No ordinary should ever be allowed to pretend to be what we are.”

  With that, Titus shoved the ring into his pocket and turned for the door, Gargrave following after him. I watched them go, dread pounding in my ears. When the door slammed shut, I knew they had won.

  And now all that remained was the long wait before dying.

  32

  The Sinking

  No one spoke for several minutes after Titus and Gargrave left, all of us in varying states of shock. I kept my gaze fixed on the door, willing it to open. Willing for somebody to come and find us. I even tried closing my eyes and calling for my mom with my mind-magic, but it was pointless. The silver rope of the binding curse created a containment shield around the bound person, blocking in all magic, even mind-magic. The only reason why I’d been able to force Gargrave out of my mind was because he’d had to come inside the shield first.

  “I don’t suppose anyone has a magical knife stowed in their pockets,” Selene said, her voice wry but with a desperate undertone that made tears threaten my eyes.

  I shook off the hopelessness and stood, my legs trembling from the effort. Taking a deep breath, I summoned all my strength, and then I walked over to Eli. I bent close and examined the wound on his temple. It looked painful but not deep. His breathing seemed to be growing shallow, and I guessed he would wake up on his own soon. I wanted to touch him, to reassure myself that he was all right, but it was impossible with my hands bound behind me. Instead I leaned even closer to him, brushing my lips against his head in a gentle kiss.

  Then I moved past him toward the door. I turned around when I reached it and tried to grab the handle. But after several attempts, I knew it wasn’t going to work. I was too short and the handle too large. My fingers kept sliding off it.

  “I can’t … get … ahold of it.” I let go and straightened up, cursing.

  Across from me, Paul struggled to his feet. He looked as weak and uncoordinated as a newborn foal. He staggered over to me. “Let me try.”

  I stepped aside and held my breath as I watched him turn around and try to grab the handle. He was taller than me. It might work. His fingers grasped the door handle, and he twisted his body to the right, turning it. The distinctive sound of a lock rattling greeted us a moment later.

  Paul slumped back against the door and slid to the ground in defeat.

  I turned away from him, knowing despair was contagious. I wasn’t ready to give up. Not yet.

  I walked back to Selene. “Can you stand?”

  In answer, she pushed herself up, the gesture awkward with her hands bound. “What now?”

  “Turn around,” I said. “I’m going to try pulling the ropes off.”

  Selene frowned. “It won’t work, Dusty. You know that.”

  “She’s right,” Paul said, his voice faint and hard to hear from across the room.

  “I have to try. We have to do something to get out of here.”

  Selene exhaled then turned around, showing me her back. I did the same, and then scooted until I felt her fingers brush mine. She and I were close enough in height that I was able to reach the ropes around her wrists easily. But the moment I touched them, the skin on my fingers began to burn. I flinched away but only for a second. After the spell Titus had used on me, burnt fingers seemed minor.

  I grabbed the rope again and pulled, wincing against the pain as the burning increased. Selene made a choking sound as the rope moved down her wrists just a little, and I knew she was feeling the same burn I was. But she didn’t cry out, and I kept at it, pulling with everything I possessed.

  It didn’t matter. The spell was too strong.

  I let go and stumbled forward, panting. My hands felt like I’d held them pressed against a lit stove top. I could feel the blisters forming. I turned and sank to the floor beside Eli, the disease of despair taking over me at last. I hung my head, trying not to cry.

  No one spoke for several long minutes. And I knew we were all waiting and wondering when the destruction would begin. It was impossible to tell how late in the day it was. And I had no idea if there would be warning tremors beforehand or if the ground beneath us would just give way all at once.

  “He’s waking,” Selene said sometime later.

  I raised my head and watched as Eli stirred on the floor. He groaned and rolled over. “What happened?”

  “They’re gone, and we’re trapped,” Selene deadpanned.

  Eli scooted and twisted his body until he was able to get into a sitting position, leaning against me for support. “No, we’re not. I’ve got a way out.”

  I exhaled and shook my head. “Titus took your wand.” I paused, then I decided he would be happy to know that his inability to work magic was because he’d been given a defective wand and not because of something lacking in himself. Any happiness, no matter how small, would be welcome right now.

  When I finished explaining Eli surprised me with a matter-of-fact nod. “I’d suspected something wasn’t right about it for a while now. When I cast that first spell in Miss Norton’s class it was so easy. But everything with my wand was like trying to swim through mud. That’s why I took Miss Norton’s talking stick.”

  My mouth fell open. “You did?”

  “Yes.”

  Well, I decided, there wasn’t much point in being angry now.

  “I saw it and had to,” Eli went on, getting to his feet. “If we ended up here at the festival, I didn’t want to be powerless. And boy, was that the right decision. Now someone come here and take off this bracelet.”

  Selene stepped forward, and I watched, a welcome surge of adrenaline starting to pump through my system.

  “Is that what I think it is?” I said as Selene slid the bracelet off Eli’s wrist.

  Eli stretched out his fingers, taking the bracelet from Selene. “Yes, it is.” Then with an awkward gesture, he managed to disengage the glamour concealing Miss Norton’s talking stick. I’d never been so happy to see it.

  Eli pointed it as best he could at Selene and said, “Ou-agra.”

  At once the silver rope binding her vanished. Joy boosted me to my feet as Selene returned the favor for Eli. Then she cast the spell at Paul while Eli freed me. He picked me up in a fierce hug. It hurt a lot, and Eli was unsteady on his feet from the blow to his head, but I welcomed the pain and shakiness, any reminder that we were still alive.

  But as he set me on my feet, a loud grumble went through the building, and the floor and walls began to shake.

  “It’s started.” Eli let go of me. “Come on. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  Selene was one step ahead of us. She charged to the door and blasted it open with a spell. Then she turned to help Paul, who was struggling to remain upright.

  I rushed over to help, too, but then Eli said, “I’ll do it. I’m stronger, and you two are better at magic.”

  I frowned. “What about your head?”

  “I’m fine. The dizziness is already passing. Now go.”

  I hesitated, but only for a moment. I squeezed Paul’s hand, then stepped away, making room for Eli, who swung Paul’s arm over his shoulder, supporting him.

  I led the way out with Selene right behind me. The narrow passageway beyond the door was e
ven darker than the chamber we’d left, and Selene and I both conjured fire in our hands. There was only one way to go, and I headed down it, keeping the flames low. I was afraid I would catch myself on fire as the tremors continued, making it difficult to walk without stumbling. Every few seconds, bits of stone rained down around us from the ceiling.

  After walking a little while, the passageway dead-ended.

  “That can’t be,” I said, staring at the stone wall in front of me. My instincts insisted there should be a door or staircase here instead of a wall. I reached out with my free hand and touched the wall, confirming its solidity.

  Selene stepped up beside me. “Maybe the way through is hidden.” She began to hum a familiar tune, the magical notes of her siren detection spell. Within seconds, the golden outline of a door appeared.

  Selene looked at me, and I nodded, the message clear—aim for the center and blast it open.

  “One, two, three!” We both hit it with spells at the same time, and the stones exploded outward revealing another passageway beyond as well as a steep staircase leading up. I stepped through and charged up the stairs, but Selene soon called for me to slow down. Eli and Paul were having a rough time. Paul was so exhausted and the stairwell so narrow, Eli could barely help him at all.

  Still, we managed it, climbing several stories upward until we reached a passageway on the ground floor leading off to the right. Faint but natural light leaked in through the high windows overhead. The sun must be close to setting.

  I extinguished the fire in my hands and headed down the passageway. The first door I came to, I stopped and forced it open, but it only led into an empty room. I moved on, stopping at the next couple of doors only to find more rooms, some empty, some furnished, but none of them providing the escape we needed.

  Finally, the last door opened into another narrow passage. I followed it, eventually arriving in a place I recognized—the grand entryway of Senate Hall. Another tremor hit the building, this one stronger than the ones before. One of the pillars on the side of the entryway split at the top and came crashing down, flooding the room with dust.