by Zandra Pope
I took a deep breath and climbed the stairs to my sister’s betrayal.
I walked into the auditorium, my arm linked through Ava’s. I didn’t want anyone to grab her before I was ready. Was I handing Ava over for a lengthy time? Forever? For a week? Was he going to take her through the Slip, outside of Illysian? I couldn’t believe I never went over terms with that creepy guy in the fog.
“Greta?” Ava’s voice snapped me out of my worry.
“Sorry, what?”
“Can we sit in this row?” Ava gestured to a row about halfway back from the front.
“Let’s sit in the front,” I said. “In case I have to get on stage or something.”
We made our way to the very front row.
“You’ll help me if I need help, right?” I whispered, testing her one last time. I was willing to give her every chance I could before handing her over.
She shrugged. “What help will you need? If you win, accept the award and get off the stage.”
“What if they want me to do a demonstration?”
“I will applaud along with the crowd and wish you well.”
Her words chilled my heart. She was willing to let me die after publicly humiliating myself. She was a monster.
“Fine. I’ll figure it out on my own.” I held my head high. I didn’t need her. It would be fine. Knavish would come out, give the winner the award, I’d applaud, and at the end, as the crowd was pushing toward the exists, hand Ava over to the Pardoner. Done.
The lights in the auditorium dimmed and spotlights shone on the stage. As everyone’s eyes acclimated to the darkness, Valerian slipped into the open seat next to me. “Void,” he whispered.
I sunk into my seat.
“There’s a surprise for you behind the curtain,” he said.
I turned to look at him, eyes wide with alarm. He gazed steadily at me; his eyes trying to tell me something.
“What are you talking about?” I whispered.
He cast a frightened glance toward the stage, then melted into the darkness.
The heavy black velvet curtain parted and Valerian’s dad, Barron Von Koffle, emerged. He was dressed in black pants and a red shirt. His eyes were bright green, like Valerian’s. I felt a shiver of strange attraction to him even as my throat constricted in fear. Okay, before you get all creeped out, the attraction wasn’t like I wanted to make out with him. It was like a magnet was drawing my heart slowly out of my body toward him.
“Welcome,” he announced. His smile was dark and foreboding. I shivered. “Doctor Knavish asked me if I would present the Golden Wand Award this year. Illysian produced such a stellar group of candidates. I’m sure you’re all dying to know who won.” There was something in the way he said, ‘dying’ that made me feel sick to my stomach.
I looked down the row of seats, the three other candidates were staring at Von Koffle with stupid, unexamined hope. They were rabbits hopping too close to the wolf’s mouth. I looked behind me desperate to glimpse the Pardoner. The lighting in the room all pointed to the front to illuminate the stage. I couldn’t see him. I couldn’t see anything but shadows. It was like a nightmare.
“Will the candidates please come forward. Imelda Wasp, Howard Epstein, Leo Merryweather.” Von Koffle gazed into the auditorium. His white teeth flashing a warning signal that no one but me could read.
Run - it urged. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead. I had to get out. He hadn’t called my name yet. Maybe they had crossed me off the list.
But, no. With a wolfish grin, Barron Von Koffle looked at me.
“And who could forget the girl who runs?” The auditorium tittered.
My blood turned to ice. The girl who runs. He knew. He knew I had overheard Knavish and him.
“Please,” he held out his hand to me. “Join us. Greta Verity. Yes, just walk right up here.”
I rose out of my seat, not under my power, but his. This was not something magicals did to other magicals. It’s only something a magical would do to a — Void, someone he had no respect for.
He forced me to put one foot in front of the other, disguising his magical violation of me in his speech to the crowd. I wanted to scream, but with a hiss only I could hear he bound my mouth shut. His eyes flashed green with poisonous hatred.
“Greta Verity, thank you for gracing us with your presence. Thank you all for your service to this prestigious institution.” He nodded at the other students next to me. I wanted to warn them. I wanted to warn everyone, but I was bound and under his power. It was the perfect crime. The perfect time to strike. I was completely vulnerable.
The only thing I managed under my own power were reflexive acts like breathing and blood flow. I could barely blink my own eyes. It was torture to be brought under the command of such powerful magic.
“Without further ado, allow me to announce the runners up. Imelda and Howard. A round of applause, please.”
I groaned inwardly wishing that he would have called my name as a runner up. I thought maybe if he called my name then he would let me go. But no, he wasn’t going to let me go. He knew my secret.
“Now the big announcement. The winner of the Golden Wand gets a generous prize purse of one hundred gold doubloons. Real Spanish doubloons and a feast held in her — or his — honor.”
Up close, I saw his eyes swirling with misty tendrils of unearthly power. I pushed against his magic, magic that invaded every inch of my body. My pores reeked of his scent. It was worse than anything I had ever experienced and here I was in front of the entire student body being violated by the President of the Magic Tribunal, a United States Senator, an evil shifter’s father.
Anger flashed through me. My soul fought against his power.
“The winner of this year’s Golden Wand is none other than— ” he paused and drew a deep breath.
I struck out against his magic with every ounce of strength I had inside of me. He whipped his head toward me, eyebrows raised in surprise. “Easy there,” he said to me. “Be patient.”
I was momentarily stunned. He felt me push back. There was magic inside me. I wasn’t a Void. The Pardoner was right. I was magical — just not quite.
“Greta Verity,” announced Von Koffle.
The auditorium erupted in applause. Everyone stood and cheered me, a puppet on a string.
“It’s a trick,” I wanted to yell, but I was bound.
“Tell you what,” said Von Koffle as the noise died down. “We know Greta not only for her big heart, but for her amazing magical skills. How about she gives us a demonstration right now!”
The crowd applauded again.
I glimpsed Ava’s face. Her eyes were wide with fear. Her face was white, arms were crossed protectively over her chest.
Help me, I wanted to call out to her. I wished for one spark of magic to push a single thought to her. I tried. I tried like crazy, but whatever push I had accomplished with Von Koffle was the end of my ability.
I was as good as dead.
Barron Von Koffle set a candle in front of me. If I had been under my own power, I would have fainted or died of shock. It was the candle from the barn, the squat, yellowed beeswax candle that had mocked me for years. “Light this flame for us, Greta. In your own, unique style, of course. Maybe a purple flame?”
How could he know? How? Those lessons had been private and protected. My heart died. He was asking me to light a purple flame, just like Valerian had in the stairwell earlier today. Like father, like son.
I closed my eyes. I wouldn’t give up without a fight. I searched for the missing spark within.
Come on, magic, I urged. Come on!
Von Koffle stepped closer to me, his warm breath in my face. He was invading me from the inside and the outside. I wanted to kill him, scratch his eyes out, twist his head from his body. If I ever got my magic, I would do just that.
I drew on my feelings of rage and anger.
A flicker inside of me held an uncertain promise. I opened my eyes, daring to hope. The dark ca
ndle mocked me.
“Come now, Greta. Surly the winner of The Golden Wand will light a candle for us. Even if it’s a plain old flame, no fancy colors.” He walked around the stage like the greatest showman. Working the crowd. “Let’s cheer her on.”
The audience applauded half-heartedly, but then I heard a voice over the applause. “Light the candle, Void.”
“Void?” Von Koffle said in mock surprise. “Surely not Greta Verity.” His performance was Oscar quality. “Light the candle, Greta. Prove yourself to us all. Reveal who you are.”
There was a flash of blinding light. For a moment I was filled with hope that Ava had stepped up to save me. But no, Von Koffle had levitated my body high into the air and fixed a luminous pulsing spotlight on me.
“Show us, Greta,” he yelled.
Helpless, I dangled above the crowd of the entire school. Barron Von Koffle spoke another magic word. I moved my arms slowly, flapping them in the air like a big, stupid bird.
“Greta, tell us the truth,” he commanded. “Reveal your true self.”
A wave of his icy power crashed into me as though he had slapped my face with ice water. Then he was inside my head. I pushed back, trying to get him out. He was too strong, pushing my will to the ground he stood over it with a sneer.
“Ahhhh. Here it is,” he said inside my head. “All of your fears. Your worries. Your truth.”
He held something in his hand that looked so fragile and precious.
“No,” I screamed inside my head. “I’m only seventeen.”
“Old enough,” he said. Then he crushed the truth with his hands and blew its dust into the air. The wind inside of me was like a tornado. It whirled around, gathering power, drawing strength from my fear and weakness.
This was torture. I thought back to what Chase had said about dark magic and torturing souls. Von Koffle was doing that now to me. The president of the Tribunal was a masterful magician of manipulation. I was at his mercy, mercy he totally lacked.
The dust pushed out of my mouth. “I am a Void,” I heard myself shout. “I have no magic.”
He gasped. “What? Greta, this can’t be true.”
“You know it is the truth,” my voice said.
He shook his head. “It pains me to do this, but Greta Verity, you have, of your own— ” he hesitated.
He had almost slipped up and made a fatal mistake. Almost. He had been about to ask me if I had consented of my own free will. Clearly, I had given no consent. If he had forced me to lie while I was under a truth spell, his power over me would have broken.
He caught himself and changed his words. “Have you committed magical forgery, Greta?” he sounded as if he was pleading with me to say no, but his own magic was forcing me to say otherwise.
“Yes,” I said.
The crowd gasped.
“This breaks my heart. Greta Verity, in the name of the Magic Tribunal, I place you under arrest.”
26
Heavy metal shackles bound my hands and feet and Von Koffle dropped me. I free fell and smashed my head against the stage floor. The room went dark for a moment and my ears rang.
When I opened my eyes again, the auditorium had erupted in pandemonium. I scanned the crowd for help. Chase ran out a side door. Valerian, my betrayer, gave me a pitying look before he disappeared behind Chase. Hannah met my gaze for a split second, but immediately looked away.
I was so ashamed.
Jeremy stood with his arms crossed, watching everything unfold, smirking with satisfaction.
Ava slowly rose to her feet.
“Ava,” I called to her weakly.
She stopped walking, but didn’t turn around to face me.
“Please.”
Then she shattered my heart.
Without turning around, without saying a word, she walked away, leaving me shackled hand and foot, a prisoner of the most evil man in the universe.
Alone in the darkness of the cell I waited. I didn’t know what I was waiting for in the immediate here and now, but I knew, eventually, it would end in my death. I had lost my chance at magic. I had lost my sister. I had lost my friends. Now I would lose my life.
Dying frightened me. Knowing that I’d be in pain was the worst part of it. Even if the disintegration lasted for mere seconds, I would feel my bones, my nerves, my atoms breaking apart.
I had smiled ruefully when one of Von Koffle’s lackeys threw me into the cell. “So Illysian does have a dungeon.”
He said nothing in response. The only sound he left me with was the hollow ringing of the barred door slamming shut, echoing down the empty corridor.
As the sun rose, the room became dimly lit. My cell didn’t have a window, but there must have been one somewhere in the dungeon, though judging by the faint light, it was a tiny window.
Damp gray cinderblock walls met the low ceiling composed of thick wooden beams. Rusted chains were bolted to the walls. Moldering straw lay piled in the corners of the cell. No furniture. No comforts of any kind. Forced to sit on the floor, amid rat droppings and other filth, I felt lower than I ever had.
The entire school knew I had lied. I had committed a capital crime. My sister had turned her back on me. The one person I had trusted above all other, who had promised she would protect me, refused to do it when it mattered.
The slow drip, drip, drip of water down the walls was the only sound down here. I wondered if I was alone or if magic was dampening sounds from other prisoners. Was this where they had taken Greg? Ava?
Glancing around the cell, I crossed my arms and shivered. There was no way they took the lovely Ava down here. Especially not if she was able to make out with Jeremy. This place was for criminals, for dangerous people who needed to be kept out of the light, kept away from prying eyes.
There was no one left in my life who cared. Maybe my mom and dad would be sad about my situation, but as soon as they found out I had lied to them, that they had signed a blood oath attesting to the truth of — my lie, they would turn their backs on me, too.
I curled up into a ball and placed my head on the cleanest part of the straw I could find. It was damp and smelled of crushed dreams and hurtful accusations. My magic had been within my grasp and just when I was about to get it, everything was ripped away from me.
I wondered if there would even be a trial or if they would just execute me. I’d almost prefer a straight up execution. A trial would result in more public shaming. I couldn’t take much more of that.
The memory of Barron Von Koffle violating me made my skin crawl. My stomach tightened and then lurched. Scrambling on my hands and knees, I barely had time to make it to the other corner of the cell before I retched.
“Finally acting like the rat you are, Verity.”
My head snapped up, and I looked straight into Jeremy’s pitiless eyes. I wiped my lips on the hem of my shirt, but said nothing.
Jeremy’s lips twitched into a sick smile. “I warned you. I told you to choose carefully, but you didn’t listen.”
“Why are you here? Just to gloat?”
He crossed his arms and shook his head. “I’m here to make a deal with you.”
I stood, straw clinging to my jeans and hair, dirt and filth smeared on my hands. “I’m useless, or didn’t you see that part of the Golden Wands? I have nothing to give. My sister left me. My friends hate me. I’ve betrayed everyone I know. I have no power.” Most of my emotions had grayed and crumbled under the weight of my depression, but my eyes flashed with the little bit of anger left within me.
“What you have, are the lives of your sister and your parents.”
I sucked in a breath of fetid air in shock. “You’re asking me to make a deal with you to save my family?”
“Your life is forfeit, Greta. You’re done. But they can still live. If you agree to help me, I will spare them.”
I snorted. “You’re delusional. I’m the one getting hit on the head all the time, but you’re the one who thinks you have power over who lives or dies
?”
“He does,” said an oily smooth male voice. Barron Von Koffle emerged from the darkness next to Jeremy and smiled, revealing a pair of sharp, pointed teeth.
“A vampire. I should have guessed.”
“Yes, you should have. Unfortunately for you, you didn’t,” said Von Koffle. “Now, Jeremy is offering you a deal of a lifetime. You agree to work with us. We let your family live.”
“By work with you?”
“Become one of us,” said Jeremy, flashing a set of pointed incisors. He was a vampire, too. Of course he was. I should have known all along. From the dark sunglasses he wore outside, to the greenish tinge his magic gave off, but most especially from the cold of his touch. I shuddered at the thought of his evil magic being used to heal my leg, of his face nuzzling my neck at the Homecoming dance.
Suddenly, I remembered him making out with Ava. Had he bitten her? Was that the reason for her betrayal?
“Did you turn Ava?” I screamed, grabbing the bars and shoving my face at his.
Jeremy hissed at me, his eyes turning red and his face becoming mottled and melted. “Stupid girl. She never gave us permission.”
“I’m not going to either.”
“Sad,” said Von Koffle. “We won’t be able to change them, your parents and your sister, but we can kill them. Such a waste.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“Because we have the power and you don’t,” said Von Koffle snapping his fingers.
A guard dragged Ava into view. He had pinned her arms behind her back and covered her mouth with duct tape. Still she strained against him, fighting to get free.
Barron Von Koffle’s eyebrows pulled close together and down as the rest of his face pinched. “Your family tries my patience, Greta.”
At the sight of my sister, I crossed my arms and stepped away from her. “If you’re trying to bully me into doing what you want, you picked the wrong person.”
Ava kicked and squirmed.