by Sadie Moss
Asher nods. “Me too.”
“What the hell.” Dmitri shrugs, but his dark eyes gleam. “I seem to be making a habit out of pissing off my father. Might as well make it a triple play.”
I grin at them, relief swelling in my chest. “Then find as many people as you can.”
We’re going to fight for our school, dammit.
I find Kendal, Tandy, Erin, and Tom, and they find more people, who find more people, and soon we’ve got a damn good amount of students who want to stick around and fight. If I had to guess, I’d say about a third of us have decided to stay.
Hardwick looks like there’s not going to be enough Prozac in the world for him to even remotely deal with this.
Roman, not surprisingly, is against it.
“You’re what?” he barks as we all gather outside Hardwick’s office to give the dean our names. He needs a list so that the staff knows who’s leaving and who’s staying, in case someone gets lost or hurt.
“We’re not leaving,” I repeat, crossing my arms over my chest. I care about Roman, and lord knows I love it when he bosses me around in bed, but if he thinks he can talk me out of this, he’s in for an unpleasant surprise.
Roman narrows his cobalt eyes at me, then looks at the other three. “And I suppose you’re in on this insanity too?”
They all nod, even Dmitri. “We have to do something,” he says.
“You’re risking your life.” Roman’s voice hardens as he switches his focus back to me. “Reckless—” His jaw clenches, and he pulls me aside, just far enough so that the others can’t hear. When he speaks again, his tone is different. There’s something almost… desperate about it. “I can’t lose you, Elliot. Don’t do this. I need to know that you’re safe.”
A lump rises in my throat, and I rest my hands on his arms, wishing I could crawl into his embrace and stay there forever—that it would block out everything bad in the world.
But it won’t. Sometimes, the only way to stop the bad things is to stand up to them.
“I get that, I do,” I whisper. I’d feel the same way if it was Maddy. Hell, I feel that way about the guys all staying. “But I can’t leave you to fight this alone, and I couldn’t live with myself if I walked away and didn’t do anything to help. This school has become my favorite place in the world; it’s given me a home I didn’t even know I needed, and I’m going to fight for it. That’s my choice, Roman, and you can’t take it away from me.”
The tall, ruggedly handsome man sighs. I can see a dozen emotions churning behind his eyes, and he cups my face in both hands, gazing down at me like he’s trying to memorize me, preserve me somehow. Then he dips his head and kisses me once.
“I can’t force you to do anything,” he tells me as he pulls away, and it’s not exactly an agreement, but I have a feeling it’s as close to one as I’m going to get.
He hates this.
But he respects me enough to let me make the choice for myself.
And I’m grateful to him for that.
The next morning, while the students who want to leave are evacuating and being taken care of, I take a minute to call Maddy.
I don’t want to tell her what’s going on. I want her to be safe and happy, and I don’t want her to worry. But then, I wouldn’t want the guys to keep something dangerous from me, and I wouldn’t want Maddy to keep anything like that from me either.
She’s still my kid sister and always will be, but she’s also an adult, and I need to be honest with her. She’s growing up, and even when I try to shelter her, the shitty parts of the world find a way to make themselves known anyway, like that guy while we were out shopping.
I find a quiet corner on the first floor of Wellwood Hall and lean against the wall as I call her.
She picks up almost immediately. “Ellie? How are you? Everything okay?”
“Hey, Mads.” I take a deep breath, trying to keep my voice even and calm. “So. The towers are complete, and they’ve started emitting this crazy… noise. A buzzing sound. It’s like they’re powering up or something. Like massive batteries.”
“What, like they’re huge vibrators?”
I burst out laughing, caught off guard by the joke. “Funny.”
“I’m hilarious.” I can practically hear her sticking her tongue out at me. Then she sobers. “So what’s going on? What are the admins doing about it?”
“They’re evacuating the school,” I explain. “For our safety.”
“So you’re going back to Roman’s house?”
“No… I’m—I’m staying. We’re all staying. I mean, not the whole school, but the guys and me. A lot of the other students are too. We want to stay and face whatever happens, try to keep the campus protected.”
“Oh.” Maddy’s voice is small and scared.
“I know you want me to be safe, Mads. But I have to stay and help take care of this. I couldn’t live with myself if I just… turned and ran. I don’t blame anyone if they do. I mean, this shit is scary and confusing and it’s the fourth semester in a row we’ve had to deal with it, you know what I mean? Everyone’s fucking exhausted. But I have to stay. I need to stay, for myself.”
There’s a long pause on the other end of the line, and I start to worry that Maddy’s angry. But then she says, her voice a bit choked up, “Okay. I understand.”
“Are you sure, Mads? Talk to me.”
I hear her draw in a shaky breath. “Well, it’s—I’m proud of you, Ellie. I’m just scared too. That’s all. But I’m really proud of you. I think it’s the right thing to do. I wouldn’t leave either if it was me. I just want you to try and…” She struggles to take another deep breath. “I just want you to try and be safe.”
“Oh, Mads, of course I will.” I’m starting to get choked up too now. “You know I’ll always do everything I can to take care of myself. I promised I wouldn’t leave you, and I meant it.”
That’s the promise I made after Mom died—that I would never, ever leave her. Not like Dad did, and not like Mom did.
“We’ll see each other as soon as I finish kicking ass, how’s that sound?” I say, trying to force a bit of lightness into my voice as my vision blurs with tears.
“Okay.” Maddy sounds young and small again. “You promise?”
“I promise. It’ll all be over before you know it, and we can chalk this up to another weird day on this weird ass campus.” I wipe at my eyes. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Once Maddy’s hung up, I take another moment to myself.
I’m not scared of dying. I mean, sure, I’d like to stay alive, that would definitely be preferable, but I’m not terrified of whatever will wait for me on the other side. I’m just scared of leaving my sister alone.
Well, I’ve got no intention of going anywhere.
Time to find out what’s going on with our school and stop whoever’s responsible.
Chapter 22
Once the rest of the students and the unnecessary staff evacuate, the rest of us set up camp in the school’s dining hall. Nobody really wants to be alone right now, and I can’t blame them.
It’s just a skeleton crew, really. The staff and professors who volunteered to defend the school—several of whom are skilled in battle magic, thankfully—a few others who are needed to keep the defensive wards up, and the students who decided to stay.
We’re all trying to make plans, but it’s hard to plan for something when you don’t know what that something actually is. Who knows what those towers are going to do? Maybe they’ll just release a huge burst of electricity and fry us all where we stand. Anyone’s guess is as good as anyone else’s at this point.
We’re expecting it to just be us, and we’re not feeling all that confident, I admit—but then in the late afternoon, some of the staff are alerted to a group of people gathered outside the campus entrance, setting off the protective wards.
We students are asked to stay here while Hardwick and a few others check it out. Nobody thinks this is
an attack—probably the Circuit or something.
But it’s not.
It’s just ordinary people. Magic users, I mean, but from all the surrounding areas. Students and staff from the other schools that competed against us in the Trials last year. Family and friends of students who go here, ready to help out their kid or sibling or best friend.
Asher’s family bursts into the dining hall first—not all of them, I’m assuming because they live too far away, but five of his brothers as well as two of their wives, the ones who don’t have kids—and his parents.
“Mom? Dad?” Asher stands up with a smile and hurries over to them, Cam following as the whole family greets him like their fourteenth brother.
“Is Maddy coming?” Dmitri asks quietly.
I shake my head. “I didn’t realize that was even an option.” I’m glad I didn’t know it was, though. Maddy would’ve wanted to be here, and I couldn’t have stopped her—but I’m just so glad she’s safe, selfish as it might be.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Asher’s telling his parents. “We honestly have no idea what’s going on here. We have no idea what kind of danger we’re in, you really don’t have to risk yourselves—it could be nothing—”
“Something that comes out of nowhere and can’t be destroyed by any kind of known magic isn’t just nothing,” Asher’s mom says firmly.
She’s got a point.
I can’t imagine how the gentle, green-eyed man feels right now though, with so many of his family members here and in danger. I’m stressed enough as it is with my four men here. If anything were to happen to them…
God, I can’t imagine. It makes my heart hurt so much I almost can’t breathe. Not exactly the way it does to imagine losing Maddy, but it’s close.
Asher keeps talking with his family while we all sit around and wait for something to happen. We set up a guard rotation to watch the towers, but so far, there’s nothing.
No change.
No sign.
It sets everyone on edge. Normally, I’d be asking myself if I was wrong, second-guessing, wondering if anything is actually going to happen… but this time, I know something will. And so does everyone else.
It’s just a matter of time.
Several hours pass, and nobody seems inclined to leave the dining hall. It feels safe in here, comforting to be surrounded by familiar faces and warm bodies when the rest of the campus outside is eerily desolate and quiet.
In the late afternoon, we put together a massive communal meal. I’ve never been into the school’s kitchens before, but we all pitch in to help get food ready for everybody, just using whatever’s on hand. It’s kind of fun, almost like a massive sleepover.
Asher’s family welcomes me at their table, insisting I sit with them. Cam joins automatically, clearly comfortable with them. Roman’s on guard duty, watching the towers, and Dmitri hesitates.
“Sit down! Oh, please, sit!” Asher’s mom says, gesturing at the open spot next to me. Cam is on Asher’s right side, and I’m on Asher’s left. “Our son has told us so much about you.” She beams. “We’re so glad to finally meet you.”
Dmitri sits down, looking wary but also hopeful. I can’t help but suspect he’s thinking about Cam, and how the blond man was basically adopted by this family—maybe Dmitri’s hoping against hope they might do the same to him, give him a replacement family for the shitty one he’s got. After all, I know Dmitri cares about us, but we aren’t like parents to him. He’s never had that in any kind of positive way.
“You know,” one of Asher’s brothers says, grinning. This one’s name is Peter… I think. “We didn’t get to tell Elliot last time all about the shit Asher got up to as a kid.”
I turn and gape at the man in question. “What? Were you the bad boy of the family?”
“More like the dumbass of the family,” another brother says fondly. “This guy was the idiot who decided he was going to ride down the roof of our house in a shopping cart, fly off, and land in the pool.”
“It did not go according to plan,” a third brother informs us with fake solemnity. He has a neatly trimmed beard, and I’m guessing he’s one of the oldest of the bunch.
“Thanks to magical healing, he doesn’t have any scars from the stitches,” Peter says. “Which I’m sure you’ve noticed.” He winks at me.
Asher groans and puts his face into his hands. “Any time you guys wanna stop…”
“She needs to know what she’s getting herself into!”
“Okay, but first of all, half the shit I got into was Cam’s idea,” Asher points out, lifting his head to glare around the table.
“You met Cam when you were eighteen. You did the shopping cart thing when you were like twelve.”
“Still! Okay.” Asher turns to me, a mischievous glint in his eye. “So Cam comes over to my house to meet my family for the first time, right?”
Now Cam groans. “Sure, just throw me under the bus to save yourself. I see how it is, traitor.”
“This isn’t throwing you under the bus,” Asher retorts mildly. “This is throwing you under a speeding train that’s going a hundred miles an hour.”
“Ah, fuck you too, buddy.”
“So, anyway…” Asher continues, turning to me and resting his hand on my knee under the table as he launches into his story.
I’m grinning like an idiot by now. I fucking love this. I love how Asher’s family clearly loves him and has taken in Cam as their own. I love all the in jokes and crazy stories and Asher and Cam teasing each other and being, well, best friends.
No wonder Asher’s so well adjusted, so peaceful, so good with his emotions. He grew up in this happy, functional family. He’s wonderful because they’re wonderful.
It makes me fall even more in love with him.
“So Cam’s hand is still stuck in the toilet,” Asher says, raising his voice to speak over the laughter at the table, “the phone’s ringing, the dogs are going nuts, there’s cake all over the floor, and—”
An alarm blares.
Chapter 23
We all leap to our feet, everything forgotten except for the alarm. My heart leaps up into my throat and hammers there, making it hard to breathe.
Shit. Roman’s on guard duty. Is he okay? What’s happening? What’s going on with the towers?
We all run outside to find the towers are glowing even brighter. The light is so bright I can’t look at them directly; I have to shield my eyes.
Roman runs up, and thank God, he just looks grim, not a scratch on him.
“Something’s happening!” he bellows, trying to make himself heard over the loud hum of the towers.
A crack sounds in the air. It sounds like thunder when the thunderstorm is directly over your head, loud and terrifying, something huge and malevolent that doesn’t care about you or your puny life at all. It reminds me of my sonic boom a bit, but of course, this isn’t coming from me.
The tower nearest to us, the one near the faculty housing, vibrates for a moment, and a door that wasn’t there before opens at the base, and things begin to pour out.
There are people coming out of the tower—magic users, clearly, but human like the rest of us. But there are other figures emerging as well, and those things are definitely not human. They’re creatures of some kind, demons or magical creatures maybe. But whatever they are, they sure as hell don’t look friendly.
And judging from the grunts, howls, and yells I can hear in the distance, they’re coming out of all three towers.
“We have to divide!” Roman yells, starting to separate people into three groups. “Go, go, go!”
Everyone springs into action. Hardwick yells the spell that unlocks our magical cuffs—they all fall off, and I don’t waste a second.
“Everyone duck!” I scream, and I unleash my sonic boom.
The fear or adrenaline or both makes it the strongest one I’ve done since I first accidentally unleashed it outside of the club, and demons and humans go flying backward, many of
them landing on the ground or against the outside wall of the tower with a sickening crunch.
I don’t let myself think about it. I can’t get caught up being upset over hurting people. These people, these creatures, are out to hurt us. I can’t let them win just because I got squeamish.
Everyone’s flinging spells, which isn’t my forte, but I’m damn good at my sonic boom and I’m getting better at my mirroring, so I think I’ll be okay.
And then I notice—the towers.
They’re still glowing, but they’re not just glowing around the stones themselves. That bright blue color is stretching out, leeching away from the towers and spreading in two lines on either side of the towers.
It’s like an electric beam of some kind, this pulsing, electric energy that’s slowly spreading out—and I realize—
The towers are triangulated around Wellwood Hall.
Their odd placement on campus was something that made people think the towers were set on top of ley lines or something, and it was one of the things the oversight committee investigated, but nothing came of it. The triangulation wasn’t being used by the towers to summon anything or draw their strength, I realize. It was for now, for this moment, with this spell that’s connecting them or about to connect them.
I might not know what’s going to happen when those beams converge, but I know in my bones that it’ll be very, very bad.
I scan the towers, trying to see through the chaos and haze of battle, and I realize that, on each of the two towers that I can see, there is a figure at the top, gesturing in broad sweeps with their hands. The figures must be conducting the beams, controlling them.
“Cam!” I look around desperately, yelling, trying to find him.
He teleports next to me from wherever he was. “Hey, I’m here.” His blond hair is wild, he’s got a scratch on his cheek that’s oozing blood, and he looks half-exhausted already.
I grab him by the shoulders. “Get to the other two groups. Tell them they have to get to the top of the towers. The people at the top are the ones controlling this whole thing. We have to storm the towers and get to the top, whatever it takes!”