The Hidden Court

by Vivienne Savage

  But the Twilight realm wasn’t the real world. This was a realm where ghosts tore doors from hinges and lifted king-sized beds across rooms like feathers. Even with my shoulder pushed into the bronze tripod, it wouldn’t budge because I’d never trained to affect the real world from within the Twilight.

  Exhausted from the effort, I staggered backward into the real world and right into Carmilla’s grasp. Her tight grip on my arm snapped the bone. My world erupted into pain, and hot blood spilled out over my arm where the fracture had broken through the skin.

  “Now, Tricia!”

  Tricia? Was she the mage chanting from the Twilight. I hadn’t seen her during that brief foray into the other realm, but she could have been cowering anywhere.

  It was too late to stop her. I’d failed.

  The ashes within the vessel rose higher, and Holly’s lips parted.

  In those final moments, time appeared to stand still. For Holly, I had to find the strength to cast one more glamour, because if I didn’t, we’d both be dead. Maybe trying to fight as a sentinel was where I’d gone wrong, because I hadn’t cast a single glamour. I’d done everything but be who I truly was—a faerie.

  If I wanted to save Holly and survive the fight, I’d have to turn the night into day.

  For my mother, for my father, for Gabriel, and for anyone else who had ever believed in me, I reached deep in my soul and found the light I’d wanted to unleash in the alley behind the pizzeria.

  It surged from within me and warmed my body from the inside out, welling from my chest and sizzling down my unbroken arm to each fingertip like starlight, or maybe even the sun itself. For those moments, my pain ebbed and became a faint throb at the back of my mind, insignificant compared to the molten heat coursing through me.

  Carmilla’s eyes widened, the first true sign of fear she’d displayed. In the same moment she released her grip on me, I struck with both my fist and my magic, channeling pure sunlight into my hand. It was a punch that would have made Gabriel proud.

  The light eroded her face, peeling away flakes of skin like a sandblaster before flooding over the rest of the room.

  Carmilla’s terrifyingly beautiful face became sinew and muscle, ash and bone. Shrieking, she rocketed away to escape me in a blind panic, bouncing off the wall then stumbling over Matt’s corpse.

  For that moment, I was invincible, and nothing could dull my shine.

  The chanting stopped and Holly’s body fell to the floor. Even the oppressive darkness lifted.

  “Over here! I can hear them over this way!” a masculine voice shouted from the corridor.

  Half blinded by the intensity of my own glamour, I huddled above Holly to protect her from whatever happened after the magic faded, though each second I listened to Carmilla stumbling in panic seemed an hour. She was screaming the most earsplitting, awful cries, worse than nails on a chalkboard or a strangling cat.

  Finally, it dimmed to reveal a gang of sentinels rushing into the chamber, armed to the teeth—literally. Sebastian bounded into the room with Rodrigo and Gabriel on his heels.

  Another bear squeezed inside. Then two more wolves joined them. By the time Simon strode in with his glowing staff, the shifters had it under control.

  In a blink, Sebastian became a man. He drove a stake into Carmilla’s heart while she writhed beneath Rodrigo’s heavy paws. It paralyzed her.

  The werewolf’s chest heaved as he glanced up at Simon for instructions. “What’s the word? We doing this thing?”

  Simon nodded.

  Gabriel shoved a stack of holy wafers into Carmilla’s mouth. When the paralysis took hold, it had frozen in an open yawn of terror. Flames erupted around her face and upper body until the moment Sebastian brought the spade down into her neck. Her head rolled away, disintegrating with every inch it traveled until only a pile of ashes remained.

  The sight should have horrified me, but after everything I had been through, all I felt was relief. Carmilla was no more.

  Holly moaned and peered up at me with dazed blue eyes. “Where… where am I?”

  “We’re in Chicago.”

  “Huh? Where’s Matt. He was just… I don’t remember.”

  “Shhh. We can talk about it later. Are you hurt?”

  “No. Just… everything’s spinning. Lightheaded.”

  I gazed at the puncture marks in her throat and frowned. A healer would seal them shut, if Simon didn’t do it himself. One glimpse of my own injuries reminded my brain of the fading adrenaline and blood trickling down my forearm.

  Funny how I didn’t feel a thing until I looked at it.

  “Oh shit,” Rodrigo said. “Dude, look at your friend.”

  I swallowed, mouth dry and throat too thick to speak at first. I’d never wanted a glass of water more in all my life. “It’s okay. It’s not as bad as it looks.”

  The corner of Sebastian’s mouth raised. “The arm isn’t what they’re looking at, sweetheart.”

  “It’s not?”

  “Skylar, you have wings,” Gabriel breathed.

  I glanced over my shoulder. Enormous spectral wings glowed behind me, emitting most of the light. I hadn’t even noticed them, so distracted with rousing Holly from the vampiric trance. They shimmered in shifting shades of gold, fuchsia, and sapphire blue.

  Freshman never Ascended. Dad had set the record by Ascending the first semester of his sophomore year. Unlike me though, he hadn’t gained wings. Muses like my parents unlocked their full potential and developed the power to create phantasmal instruments, but they didn’t have wings.

  “Looks like we got a new sylph on our hands,” Sebastian said, grinning.

  As my strength dwindled, the wings faded and vanished into glittering motes. But I felt them. They were as much a part of me now as the air in my lungs and the heartbeat in my chest.

  Simon took Holly, and then Gabriel helped me to my feet. The jarring movement renewed awareness to my pain, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Fuck, your arm.”

  “It’s not that—”

  “Don’t even try to lie about this one.”

  “Fine, it really hurts, okay? Happy now?”

  “No.”

  Before I could protest, Gabriel lifted me into his arms. I tried to stay with them, but the energy expenditure, dwindling adrenaline, and blood loss took its toll before we reached the front steps of the castle. The world dimmed to a blur as sirens wailed in the near distance.

  The last thing I remembered was Simon smoothing my hair down and chanting. Before the darkness overtook me, I thought Gabriel’s lips kissed my forehead.

  My eyes opened to the view of a white ceiling. To my left, the subtle beep of a blurry monitor displayed my vitals. Unable to focus, I groaned and tilted my head against the soft pillow. The clock on the wall said it was morning, and faint beams of sunlight slanted through the recovery room’s blinds.

  Opening my eyes became an exercise in futility, and once I finally fought off the dizzying effects of the painkillers flooding my intravenous line, another hour had passed.

  “Glad to see you awake.” Simon looked like a giant sitting in a toy chair. Sebastian stood beside him, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

  “That wasn’t all another test, was it?”

  His chuckle filled the room with warmth. “No, not in the way you’re thinking. I did, however, take the liberty of informing the pertinent instructors of your performance.”

  “Um… thanks, I think.”

  A soft cast covered my right arm from the elbow to the wrist. I eyed it then glanced up at Simon. There’d been bone poking through the tissue before and blood everywhere.

  “The healers set it and did their magic. You’ll be using it again before the week is over.”

  “Holly?”

  “She’s still under observation, but she’ll be good as new after some rest.” Simon studied me over his steepled hands. “You saved her life.”

  “Yeah… I guess I did. Am I in trouble f
or leaving the campus? Are the guys?”

  Sebastian shook his head. “Nah. I had a talk with Gabriel and Rodrigo about their decision to bring you into the city. They did the right thing. I would have appreciated if they told me the truth right off, but what’s done is done.” He gave me a wolfish grin, resembling his animal half more than ever. “How did it feel to get your hands dirty?”

  “Painful.”

  Simon rose from the chair. “Comes with the job. Anyway. We’ll allow you to rest now. Your parents want you to phone them right away once you’re able and willing. They were here until about half an hour ago. The provost took them out to lunch.”

  “Wait, you sat here all this time to tell me to call my folks?”

  Sebastian smiled. “You’re a hero, sweetheart. And you know what? A couple hours in a hospital room isn’t a bad way to spend a morning, even for something as trivial as delivering a message from parents.”

  “Thanks.”

  “There’s another life you saved I thought you might like to know about.” Simon said, continuing when I gave him a puzzled look. “Professor Gaspar has been cleared of all charges.”

  “I knew she couldn’t have done it, but I trust Pilar too.”

  “Right before Simon put you to sleep, you started babbling about Tricia and the Twilight. It turns out she was quite adept at the Masquerade spell. Once we knew exactly what to look for at the crime scene, we found evidence that placed her there. Not Gaspar. She made Pilar see what they wanted her to see.”

  “Where has she been all this time?”

  “The Sanguine Court gave her asylum,” Simon said. “She has resumed her post here at the school.”

  “Good. And Tricia?”

  Sebastian scowled. “We lost her scent. There were bigger things going on, like getting you and Holly medical care. And… we just didn’t have enough mages on hand to take our team on a prolonged hunt into the Twilight.”

  “So the Hidden Court is still out there? Still a threat?”

  “Very much so. Someone had the knowledge of Carmilla’s whereabouts and chose to awaken her.”

  “Can I ask one thing before you leave?”

  Simon raised a brow. “Technically you’ve asked several already, but yes.”

  “Is it true what Carmilla said? Was Laura killed by a sentinel?”

  “Yes, and it never should have happened. There aren’t many people from our side who are around anymore from back then, but from what I understand, Carmilla wasn’t initially in the wrong. Turning someone wasn’t a crime, and the Sanguine Court gave their blessing for her to change a mortal of her choosing.”

  “And she chose my grandmother’s charge.”

  Simon nodded.

  “Which means my grandmother started this.”

  “You’d have to ask her why she did it. I can only speculate. But after Laura was killed, Carmilla demanded justice. When it wasn’t given, she started her vendetta. It wasn’t until after she killed a Blackwood and a fae that she was caught. According to the tales, Queen Titania demanded staking, but the vampire rulers refused. So Carmilla was entombed instead, saved on account of being King Konstantin’s favorite niece.”

  “Why wasn’t I able to find any of this when I looked it up?”

  “The records were sealed,” Simon said.

  “An embarrassing secret swept under the rug,” Sebastian added, though Simon shot him a dirty look and the werewolf only shrugged. “It’s true.”

  “Does that answer your question?”

  “Yeah, except for one last thing. The prophecy. Was there even one?” Had they allowed Gabriel and I to break into the office to dig up information? And if so, why? What had been the purpose?

  Simon’s lips flattened into a thin line. “Bear in mind that it’s often better to know less. When you need to know more, you will.”

  Both men stepped outside my room and shut the door behind them.

  23

  Wow is an Understatement

  A sweet, floral-scented breeze wafted through the open window while I collected my stuff for home. Mom and Dad waited for me downstairs. They’d stayed the entire week in a nearby hotel—close enough to fuss when needed without hovering constantly.

  Despite their offer to help, I packed on my own to practice the new stuff I’d learned during the year. Pilar had flown home the previous night, but not before teaching me a few glamours to pack an enormous amount of stuff into two tiny suitcases. They still weighed a ton though.

  I’d let Mom and Dad help there. The healers promised me the discomfort in my arm would pass within the next few days, since they’d expedited the healing process of a compound fracture by several weeks.

  We’d all gotten off lucky that night.

  Simon and Sebastian had taken down a wendigo single-handedly on their way to the castle, and a group of seniors slew a grendel near Navy Pier. Rodrigo had broken his hand while punching a nosferatu into ashy paste on the concrete, but aside from that, the school had emerged from it without any good guy fatalities.

  The civilian population hadn’t been so fortunate. The media called it a magical domestic terrorist attack, and every time the news came on, there was some group calling for steeper regulations of supernaturals. Eventually, the girls and I stopped turning on the television.

  Due to missing finals in Advanced Glamours and Arcane Lore while in the hospital, Professors Tristal and Gaspar scheduled a special makeup exam. I attended the remaining tests in Divine Intervention and my basic college courses two days later while my fellow students gossiped and whispered.

  Saving Holly from a vampire countess and earning my wings had kind of made me a big deal.

  Suddenly aware of how much crap I’d accumulated over the past few months, I dragged another bag out into the living room and came up short when I saw Provost Riordan waiting for me. She stood tall and straight in one of her classic pinstripe suits. “Ah good, I was hoping to catch you alone, Ms. Corazzi.”

  “Am I in trouble or something?”

  “No, of course not, my dear. I came to inform you of multiple changes to your sophomore schedule.”

  “I don’t understand. I haven’t even chosen classes for the fall yet.” On top of that, we wouldn’t receive final grades for another week at the earliest, so I couldn’t select classes for next semester.

  She passed me an official envelope sealed with gold wax. My name had been scrawled across the front in gorgeous calligraphy, and the ink glittered with subtle iridescence. “Yes, but as there isn’t any doubt regarding your final grades, I decided to provide counseling in lieu of Mrs. Hansford. Your fall selections will be made from the sentinel program.”

  I broke the seal and pulled out a soft cream sheet of parchment bearing my name.

  Certificate of Acceptance

  * * *

  Padraig N. Riordan University of Magic

  is pleased to admit

  * * *

  Skylar Corazzi

  * * *

  into the PNRU Student Sentinel Program. Acceptance has been awarded based on a demonstration of strength, integrity, and courage in the face of danger.

  Doctor Niamh Riordan

  Provost

  I wasn’t sure if my lungs worked anymore, the breath I’d just taken trapped in my throat. I forced my mouth to cooperate and end the stunned silence. “The sentinel program?”

  “Yes. You’ve demonstrated a remarkable ability to place the safety of others before your own well-being, uncovered a dangerous plot to overthrow order in Chicago, and most importantly, you saved multiple lives while aiding the sentinel forces in the elimination of a dangerous criminal.”

  “B-b-but I broke rules. I snuck out of the school and—”

  “Raided my secretary’s office.” Her smile spread wider, warming. “Every good sentinel knows there’s always an appropriate time to bend the rules, and in some cases, break them.”

  “You all told me fae couldn’t become sentinels.”

  Riordan smiled. “I
t would seem it is time to make a special case. A shining star such as you is rare, Ms. Corazzi. As is the treasure you wear. I’m pleased to see it in good hands.”

  My hand raised to the necklace. “Did you put this in my room?”

  “Of course not.”

  “It isn’t a replica, is it?”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath. “But—”

  She lifted a hand, effectively silencing me. “I’m afraid I can’t provide the answers you seek. Enjoy your summer vacation and return prepared to work harder than before.”

  “Thank you.”

  Riordan smiled. “You’ve earned this. Don’t let us down.” She walked away.

  Seconds later, before I had the chance to rush into Liadan’s room to tell her what happened, Gabriel poked his head in through the door. “Skylar? I saw the provost leaving. Is everything all right?”

  “They didn’t kick me out, if that’s what you’re looking so worried about.” I’d been worried about it myself, despite Simon’s assurances. With my hands in my pockets, I rocked on my heels and gazed at the carpet beneath my feet.

  He laughed at me. “I didn’t think she would. Just surprised to see her here when we spoke only a while ago. She had the weirdest questions.”

  “About what?”

  “Like asking me how I felt about working with you. Shit like that.”

  “And…?”

  His eyebrow raised. “Fishing for compliments?”

  “Maybe.”

  “I told her the truth, Sky. That you’re great to work with. You’re smart and you’re gutsy, but you also listen. You adapt under stressful circumstances. Half the fae in your class would have curled into the fetal position if they faced what you went up against.”

  Blinking didn’t alleviate the stinging beneath my eyelashes. “Gabriel…”

  “Look, I can sing your praises until your folks come up to drag you home, but this is all stuff you already know. I’m proud of you.”