Thief

by Sadie Moss

  I explain about the bird. How I noticed it when we first got back to campus and saw it again today. How it’s in the same spot on the roof, but it’s not like any bird I’ve ever seen before. Bigger. Weirder.

  “I knew it was probably nothing,” I finish up with a grimace, “but we thought, hey, why not check out the roof? So we decided to use the tower to get up to it.”

  “And that’s when Cam was attacked,” he fills in, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.

  “Yeah.” My chest aches all over again as I remember it. “And you’re right. There could be no connection at all. Maybe the same thing would’ve happened to him no matter where we were. But like Hardwick said, at this point, we need to take even the smallest leads seriously. We can’t afford not to.”

  “But what would be up in that tower or on the roof?” Dmitri asks. “What would a bird have to do with it?”

  Roman puts his hands on his hips, frowning in concentrated thought. “I’m not sure. Having not seen it, even from a distance, I can’t make any guesses.”

  “Then it sounds like we need to go up there and figure this damn thing out once and for all,” I say decisively.

  Oh man, I really don’t want to. I can’t deny I’m scared as hell. I don’t want to lose my magic. But I’m also determined to help Cam.

  The two men share a doubtful look, and I fold my arms. “Look, I’m going up there whether you want me to or not. Good luck stopping me. So you can either come with me, or you can let me do it alone.”

  Dmitri rolls his eyes, but unlike earlier when he told me to butt my nose out, I can see fondness and fierce pride in his expression.

  Roman sighs. “You’re impossible, Reckless, do you know that? Did you sign a contract at some point vowing to be as rebellious as possible all the time?”

  “Yup. Lifelong contract, no loopholes.”

  He holds out his hand. “Give me your arm.”

  It takes me a second, but then I realize what he’s doing—he’s going to take off my cuff.

  I hold out my wrist and let Roman do the spell that all the professors—and only the professors—know, which disables our magic dampening braces. He then does the same with Dmitri.

  “I’ll tell Asher where we’re going,” I say quietly.

  The other two nod, and I slip into the infirmary.

  Asher’s sitting next to Cam. It’s easy to find them, since he’s the only one in the ward sitting upright. The healers are all in their offices while Cam and the five other affected students sleep.

  “Hey,” I say quietly as I approach. “Everything okay?”

  “As okay as it can be.” He looks up at me, and I don’t have mind reading powers at all, but I know when he’s hurting. I sit down in his lap and wrap my arms around him, holding him for a moment. Asher’s arms come around me, and he squeezes me tightly, his face buried in my shoulder. I feel his body shake and then relax a little against mine, and I wish we could stay like this for so much longer.

  “I’m going to go up to the tower again,” I whisper. “With Roman and Dmitri.”

  He nods. “Roman’s a badass. And Dmitri will be able to keep you safe.”

  It’s true—even without his magic, Dmitri’s a powerful fighter. But then, so am I. Not that that’ll help me if I’m writhing in pain from having my magic stolen.

  “We’ll be back,” I promise. “It’ll be okay. If he wakes up before we return…”

  Shit. I don’t know how to finish that sentence.

  So I wrap my arms tighter around Asher instead, letting him hug me back, and then I kiss him softly and slip back out to rejoin Roman and Dmitri.

  They’ve got their heads together, probably trying to strategize some kind of plan that covers a million unknowns, but they look up when I enter.

  I square my shoulders. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

  For all my big words, I’m nervous as fuck. The thought of losing my magic makes me want to barf. Ironic, I know, given how ready I was to let Aurora take it from me after it first sparked. But things have changed. I’ve changed.

  We head over to Wellwood Hall and walk down the corridor that leads toward the tower. Roman grabs my wrist lightly as we walk, tugging it to draw my attention.

  “I want you to be careful,” he tells me, his voice low. Not like he doesn’t want Dmitri to hear, but like he thinks someone other than the three of us might be eavesdropping.

  At first, I think he’s talking about keeping myself out of danger, and I’m about to tell him where he can stick that idea, but then he adds, “When you first manifest a new power—it can come on suddenly and be hard to control. The results can be… catastrophic.”

  Roman’s expression remains impassive, but his face seems to harden and become etched with pain. There’s a timbre to his voice I’ve never heard before, and I’m not sure what it’s about, exactly—just that it sounds like sorrow mixed with anger.

  I remember what Tamlin told me about his past. That she doesn’t know everything about it, but that there’s something in his history he still struggles with, something that hurt him. I can’t help but wonder if that’s what he’s thinking of right now, and if so, what happened.

  Not that this is the time to get into it. I don’t know if there’s an ideal time for grilling your unofficial boyfriend—one of four—about his past, but when you’re hunting down an unknown threat and possibly about to lose your magic is definitely not it.

  At the base of the tower, the door is still ajar from when Asher and I carried Cam out. My shoulders and jaw are tense, and I have to force myself to relax. I’m a badass. I can do this.

  But unlike in the Trials, or even with Raul, there’s not an active enemy to fight against here. I don’t know who’s stealing the magic, so I can’t fight back properly. It’s a spell from an unknown source, not a physical opponent I can see. So I feel… defenseless. I can’t protect myself, or see the attack coming, or strike back.

  There’s nothing else for it, though. Someone has to do something, and if we wait until after break when we can get a proper team in here, either school admins or Circuit investigators, it could be too late. And the students will all be back on campus by then—more people could be attacked.

  We can’t risk that.

  I shove the door farther open and step inside, moving up the steps, refusing to let myself pause or hesitate. One step, two steps, three steps, four… I count them in my head as we climb higher and higher, past where I stopped last time, up to where Cam was standing when he got attacked.

  My heart thumps painfully in my chest, hard and fast, like a horse trying to break out of a stable. I’m trying not to let my breathing get heavy and panicky. I don’t want Roman or Dmitri to see that I’m nervous—and I especially don’t want any enemy who might be watching to see.

  Any second now, my magic could be ripped from me. I’m almost expecting it to happen, bracing for it, my heart climbing into my throat, my ears ringing—

  Waiting as I climb up, and up, and up…

  And up.

  Chapter 24

  Despite my entire body bracing for it, nothing happens to me as I climb the twisting, circular tower stairs.

  Instead, I get to the top and jimmy open a window. Roman helps me while Dmitri looks around the tower, standing guard, waiting for something to jump out at us from the shadows.

  I gotta admit, I sort of expected some monster to leap on me as soon as I reached the top step, as if I were some chick in a horror film who should’ve turned back when she had the chance. But there’s nothing up here—or at least, not so far.

  I can’t tell if that makes it all better or worse.

  We get the window open, and I climb through onto the roof, gripping Roman’s hand tight for extra balance. He climbs through next, followed by Dmitri.

  I’m actually feeling pretty confident up here on the roof. I’ve been practicing my spider climb a lot, I feel like I could control it if I started to fall—and my sonic boom can be used as an odd way to slow
my descent to earth, if I don’t mind blasting a crater in the ground beneath me.

  Up here, now that I’m actually on it, I can see more clearly that the roof isn’t just one level. It’s several different levels, some lower than we are, some a bit higher or slanted. I can also see the whole damn campus from here, and man, it’s gorgeous. Dusk fell while we were in the infirmary, and the sky is a dark gray-blue color. Moonlight spills across the quad, the forest, and the old, distinguished buildings around us, making everything look otherworldly.

  It occurs to me that I really love this place. Maybe not the people, exactly; I could stand to get better about that. But this actual campus, and its purpose, I love that.

  I want to defend it.

  Dmitri leans against the outer wall of the tower, as if this is just a fun trip to the beach and we’re all hanging out. “All right. What do we do now?”

  I shrug. “We investigate.”

  Hey, it’s not like I’ve got some master plan or anything. But I want to see if I can find that bird. I didn’t realize how large it was when I saw it that first day, but the student lot is on the very far west side of campus, so I was a long way away. When I saw it earlier today from just below Wellwood Hall, it looked a lot bigger—which makes me wonder how big it actually is.

  “Stick together,” Roman cautions.

  I want to reply that I’m not sure what sticking together will do for keeping our magic inside our souls. But Roman’s a teacher, and aside from any personal feelings he has for me specifically, or for Dmitri as a friend, he must also feel a responsibility for us as his students.

  So instead of being snarky, I just do as he says and stick close to both men as we start to carefully move across the roof, checking for anything suspicious. A trap door to a hidden magical lab or something, maybe? Wacky and out there, yeah, but at this point I feel like anything is possible.

  We climb around for a few minutes, and I’m starting to think this whole thing was another wild goose chase—that I really am an idiot. Who puts something dangerous and secret up on the roof of a school anyway?

  But then I get a little ahead of the guys, climbing over a pointed ridge in the roof—

  And I see it.

  There’s a large, uneven shape looming in the darkness ahead of me. It looks almost like a pile of debris, but it’s got some kind of proper shape to it.

  I get down on all fours and crawl closer. I don’t want to alert anything or anyone that might be nearby. Behind me, I hear Dmitri hiss my name, and then the muffled sound of two pairs of feet as the guys follow after me. I move even closer, squinting to make out a bunch of twigs, sticks, mud, and…

  Is this a nest?

  Holy shit.

  I rise to my feet again, blinking in shock, as I realize this nest thing is taller than I am. The rim of the nest is probably about eight feet in the air, and the whole thing is at least twelve feet across. It’s huge.

  What the hell is going on?

  “Give me a boost,” I whisper.

  Roman drops to one knee and helps me up.

  “What the hell?” Dmitri hisses. “Princess, what are you doing?!”

  “What’s it look like I’m doing?” I call softly back, getting a good handhold on the branches. It’s like one of those wattle-and-daub nests, where the birds use the mud to press the sticks into it. I learned about it on a Netflix nature documentary I watched when I was wallowing in misery after fucking up in the Trials.

  It takes a bit of awkward kicking and wiggling to get a good foothold, but then I’m able to haul myself up so I can look down into the nest.

  I nearly fall backward.

  Inside the massive bowl-like structure are a bunch of eggs—and they’re big.

  No, I mean big.

  Like, people sized.

  Holy fucking shit.

  I haul myself up the rest of the way and climb over so I can inspect one of the eggs. They’re tall, smaller at the top than at the bottom, smooth to the touch, and warm. I press my ear to the shell and knock gently.

  I can’t hear a heartbeat inside, and when I knock, I just hear a vague liquid sloshing sound.

  This would probably be the part of the horror film where a creepy hand slams itself against the inside wall of the shell to try and get me, but nothing like that happens. Huh.

  I hope this isn’t a rabbit baby situation—apparently if you touch baby rabbits, the mom will smell the human on them and kill them.

  Yeah. That nature documentary wasn’t all sunshine and roses.

  “What do you see?” Dmitri calls quietly.

  I haul myself back up onto the top ridge of the nest and peer down at them. “Eggs,” I whisper back. “There are six of them.”

  That’s when it hits me—there were six students attacked, including Cam.

  Okay, but that’s just a coincidence, right? I mean, what the hell do eggs have to do with stealing magic? Do the eggs need to eat the magic or something? Does the bird need to have the magic to lay an egg? All of those possibilities sound insane.

  Roman frowns. “What do they look like?”

  “I’m gonna be honest, they look like massive chicken eggs. Not exactly what you’d expect.” No crazy pulsing colors or veins or anything. “Do you have any idea what this is?”

  Dmitri shakes his head. “Beats me.”

  “It’s not a griffin or anything?” I suggest.

  God, that would be fucking ironic, if our school mascot was the thing attacking us.

  “No, griffins are only part bird. You would’ve seen the lion half of it while it was in flight,” Roman explains, brows furrowing. “Same with a hippogriff. It’s not a phoenix. The nest is too large. And it’s not a roc; those are desert dwelling birds.”

  The fact that even he doesn’t know what this is concerns me. He’s a teacher and an expert in weird shit. When we fought Raul, Roman decided to just go full badass and say to hell with caution and summoned a goddamn demon to fight. It was insane.

  It’s also a testament to how powerful Raul was that the kid actually went toe-to-toe with the thing.

  “You should get down, Princess,” Dmitri whispers, reaching up for me. The muscles of his arms are bunched with tension. “Before the bird comes—”

  He freezes, his eyes going wide.

  Oh shit.

  Before I even turn around, I know what’s in store. Behind me and above my head, the air stirs, wind blowing at the back of my hair as the bird comes in for a landing. I don’t hear anything though, no flapping of giant wings—it’s completely silent.

  Which is fucking terrifying.

  If Dmitri hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have known it was there.

  Not even really thinking about it, I dive, and Dmitri catches me, staggering but managing to keep his balance—it helps that he’s a good several inches taller than I am. He sets me on my feet just as the roof trembles with the force of the bird landing.

  I turn and get my first good, direct look at this thing.

  Ohhhh my God.

  Okay, so it is a bird. I think. But holy shit, it is not by any means a normal bird. And it’s not like any magical bird I’ve ever heard of either. I was right about it being huge. It’s nearly human-sized—about the size of the eggs, actually, which means they must’ve grown a bit since it laid them.

  Up close, what I thought were kind of brown feathers actually have this weird orange outline to them. It’s almost like an orange that’s black. I can’t even describe it properly. Something about the color is familiar, but I can’t quite place it.

  And then there are its eyes.

  Look, animals can be plenty intelligent, I won’t say they can’t be. But this is not animal intelligence. This is pure malevolence. It has slitted pupils like a snake, and the irises are molten orange like lava, and I swear to God, it’s staring directly into my soul and thinking about ripping my heart out.

  Sweat pops out on my brow, my stomach churns, and I start to feel panicky. Like I should run away. Like running a
way is the best idea I’ve ever had in my life.

  Dmitri grabs my hand and squeezes it tight. The bird tilts its head, and its razor sharp beak catches the moonlight. It flexes its huge claws, and then it spreads its wings and lets out an awful shriek.

  Not a cry, or a caw, or any sound a regular bird might make. I mean a goddamn shriek, as if the souls of the damned are taking their best shot at breaking the sound barrier. I clap my hands over my ears and squeeze my eyes shut, feeling hot and cold at the same time as terror grabs hold of my heart and squeezes.

  “Fuck,” Roman swears as the shriek dies down. I open my eyes. “This isn’t a bird,” he spits. “I’m not sure what kind it is, but this—this is a demon.”

  It doesn’t surprise me he recognizes a demon when he sees one, and I realize that was what struck me as familiar about the strange orange color of its feathers. It’s the same hue as the demon he summoned last year.

  Unnatural. Alien. A color my eyes couldn’t quite process—because it’s not really of this world.

  Jesus effing Christ.

  “I think we know what’s been attacking the students,” Dmitri says dryly.

  “You think?” I shoot back.

  That’s when I hear it—a cracking noise.

  And I realize the bird wasn’t just shrieking to intimidate us.

  Oh crap, oh crap, the eggs are opening. Oh crap!

  We can’t take on six more of these bird-demons, even baby ones. Can we? I know I can’t, even with my new mirroring power. And would that even work on a demon? What powers does this thing possess, anyway?

  The rustling, cracking sounds continue, but we stand our ground. It’s not like we can just run and abandon the school to these demons up here. And if we did try to run, that would just mean turning our backs on this thing—no fucking thank you, not today, sir.

  The bird rustles its feathers. I swear it has a gleam of triumph in its eyes. If birds could smile, this one would be smirking evilly like it’s the villain in a James Bond film. As its feathers ruffle, I hear not the movement of natural, soft feathers but the scrape of metal, and I realize—those feathers are deadly sharp, like blades.