by Oxford, Rain
“You could feel your wolf, right? That was what you were afraid of. Your father’s wolf is the strongest known wolf and you are afraid your wolf would challenge his and drive him away.”
“Don’t try to give me therapy. What I did wasn’t okay. If I learn to shift, I’ll be a wolf shifter. Male wolves often leave their parents’ pack to create their own, but that’s not the case with wolf shifters. I was afraid of my wolf being dominant, but I had no idea it was so bad.”
“Hunt specifically said it had to do with your wolf being ‘chained up.’ Maybe you need to practice.” He shook his head furiously. “Okay. We’ll take this one step at a time. When we save the students, we’ll figure out what to do about your wolf. Okay?”
He nodded.
“Now, about Henry. You slept through the entire lightshow last night.” I explained my dream to him and what happened afterwards.
“So now that we know for sure Gale framed him, I guess we don’t have to bother looking for his parents. Henry’s at his parents’ house, but Gale wants us to go to the place Amelia and Astrid found Regina in. It’s highly unlikely that Gale plans to return him, but Gale is also unlikely to kill him until we give up the amulet.”
“More importantly, we learned that he’s responsible for killing the students, because he used Kristen to pass on his message.”
“How is that more important than Henry?” he asked, then rolled his eyes when I didn’t answer. “We still don’t have a motive. I can see Gale doing this to blackmail us, but why those people? Why not me, Astrid, Regina, Addison, and Amelia? You suggested it wasn’t random, which I agree with, but why not people he knows?”
“Honestly, right now, I’m just glad we have the who. I’ll worry about the why later, because we now know what we have to do.”
“Kill him. But with what? We don’t have the amulet.”
“We’ll have to find it.” I stood. “I’m going to go check in on the infirmary. Do you want to go?”
He shook his head. “I need a minute.”
I wasn’t sure about leaving him alone, but he knew what he needed more than I did, so I went to the infirmary.
Although Caleb and Nathan were still alive, they showed no improvement. Fortunately, Mack and Dan were not getting any worse. The best news was that nobody else was sick or had died like Professor Watson did. I told the doctor that Darwin and I knew who was doing this and that we had a plan, but he didn’t want to hear it in case we were being overheard.
Right as I was about to leave, Dr. Martin said, “Oh, is Astrid still doing well on the synthetic?”
“Still? She threw it up, remember?”
He frowned. “Yes, and I got some blood packets in from Stephen. She never picked them up, so I assumed she was able to keep down the synthetic.”
I left and opened my mind for that link between us. Nothing. Either Astrid was very far away, or her mind was somehow blocked. I searched for Darwin’s mind and found it instantly. “Where are you?”
“Still in our room. I’m trying to figure out where Henry might have hidden the real amulet.”
“We have more problems.” I made it to the room in record time and told him about Astrid not having blood from the bags.
“So now we’re back to suspecting her?”
“I don’t want to believe she’s involved, but we need to ask her about it.” Again. I ran my hand through my hair. “This has to be the most frustrating case. It’s like we’re being bounced around. The only thing we know for sure is that Gale is to blame and we need to find the amulet to defeat him.”
Something small and bright red flashed across my desk, but when I looked, it was gone. Darwin hadn’t noticed it.
“I’m really good at formulas, codes, languages… I can tell you anything about a book I read or what happens if you mix two chemicals together, but I’m not so good at deducing what is or is not a clue, and figuring out a motive from it. Keep in mind that most people think I’m an idiot.”
That had all to do with the way he spoke around strangers. Over time, I noticed that he was much better when he was alone with Henry and me, because we didn’t judge him. When he was embarrassed or around strangers, his grammar deteriorated and his accent thickened.
I sensed Astrid’s presence a moment before the door opened. “There is something wrong with me,” she said.
“What happened?” I asked, standing.
“I have missing memories. I remember things that couldn’t possibly have happened. I have blood in my mouth and scratches on my arms that I don’t remember getting. Someone is messing with me.”
“Okay, we’ll deal with it. Do you remember picking up your blood from Dr. Martin?” I asked. She nodded. “Show me.”
She let me into her mind to see her memory of getting packets of blood. There was nothing wrong with the memory. It was fake, but it was perfectly done. “Stephen wouldn’t send more than five at a time no matter what. By my count, I should have run out three days ago, yet I woke up at sunset in my room with blood in my mouth.”
“Okay, so a student might be able to identify–”
“That’s not all,” she interrupted. “After that dream about the science museum and one about us in a dark basement, I started noticing my time was off and I would get really strong déjà vu.” She rolled up her sleeve to show off the “X” that I made, along with over thirty tally marks. “I used your idea and decided to make a mark every time I noticed a loss of time or unexplained memory that didn’t line up right. I only remember the last two I marked. They’re fading from my memory.”
“Do you think you’re attacking people?”
“I don’t know. If this is like before…” She meant when she attacked my parents.
“I know. We’ll deal with this.” I hugged her and over her shoulder, I saw Darwin frowning at me. I knew what I was doing, though. I convinced her to stay with us. Around midnight, Darwin and I pretended to get ready for bed like normal. I told her I wanted her to stay in the room with us to monitor her marks. She agreed and we waited, pretending to sleep.
I was almost certain she would never fall for it, but at about three in the morning, Astrid got up from the desk and left the room. I tried to reach out with my mind and found hers blocked. We followed her out to the woods before she disappeared into the trees.
“Should we follow her?” he asked.
I shook my head. “She’d spot us in a hot minute. I would have wired her if I’d thought to bring any electronics.”
“Then what are we going to do?”
“We’ll wait, because I’m afraid I know exactly where she’s going.”
* * *
“Devon. Can you hear me?”
I was startled from my normal dream, except when I opened my eyes I realized that I wasn’t really awake. I was seeing through Henry’s eyes again. He was still in his room, but the connection was fuzzy, as if Henry couldn’t see well.
“Did he hurt you?”
“Only physically. Pay attention. Gale does not seem to fully grasp the keenness of my hearing.” He tried to focus his eyes, but I could feel the pain in his head. I was just about to tell him to let it go and worry about healing when I heard her voice.
“Two more.”
“That’s it?” Gale asked.
“It’s getting harder to focus.”
“Why? You know what you have to do.”
“Langril is making it harder… to hear your orders.” Astrid’s voice was soft and vacant. At this point, Henry passed out.
* * *
Astrid arrived a few minutes before sunrise, and she knew something was wrong. I asked her where she had been and she told me she never left. Explaining to her what happened wasn’t easy, but she believed me.
For her own safety as well as ours, we locked Astrid in the dungeon, which was actually five cells in a room a few doors down from the infirmary. Hunt assured me the cells were capable of holding a vampire as he sealed it. When the lock snapped into place, it created a spark.
In a matter of seconds, the metal melded together until there was no door.
“Each of these cells has a different level of security,” Hunt explained. “This one was designed to hold Keigan, if I ever needed it to.”
Astrid reached for the bars, heard an electrical charge, and jumped back in time to avoid any repercussions.
“If you find any flaws in it, please let me know.” He left us alone.
“Do you think I betrayed you?” Astrid asked.
“No. I know you wouldn’t willingly work with Gale. It is odd, though. Those two dreams were memories that we both forgot about. Whatever is going on, it goes way deeper than Gale.” Fire in the doorway caught my eye… but the doorway was empty when I looked. This shit is getting really weird.
I left her, intending to go back to my room. When I got to the main hallway, Vincent, Hunt, Kale, and Grayson were all in a fierce argument. “What’s going on?” I asked.
Hunt sighed as they all turned their attention to me. “Henry escaped and the council put out a warrant for his arrest. They came to question the students, found April, and arrested her. They also want to arrest me for harboring her.”
“As soon as Lycosa has been recaptured and both he and the dragon are executed, we will remove the quarantine,” Grayson said.
“You’re going to kill them?! Neither of them harmed anyone!”
Kale moved to strike me with some kind of magic, but I was faster. Instinctively, I wrapped my power around his mind. Instead of giving him an order, I wanted him to stop. Kale dropped to the floor and started convulsing. Horrified, Grayson formed a sphere of energy that actually looked like a small, dim sun, which he prepared to strike me with. Before he could, both Hunt and Vincent created a shield between him and us.
“We’ll be back,” Grayson said as his energy dispersed. I let my power over Kale fade and he helped Kale up. They both ran like their coattails were on fire.
I turned to Vincent. “Can you stop them?”
“I’m afraid not. I resigned from the council this morning. As far as I am concerned, it’s now Quintessence against the council. While the council was trying to gather evidence against Logan, we were gathering evidence against them.”
“We? You and Hunt?”
He grinned. “No.”
“Are you referring to Rosin?” Hunt asked.
“Did you really think he would abandon you?”
* * *
Hunt sat in his chair behind his desk, Vincent sat by the fireplace, and I sat on the couch. “Explain,” Hunt said to his friend.
“I had a vision. I knew Rosin was feeling unappreciated and that the council was becoming a greater problem by the day. Therefore, I asked Rosin to leave so he could help me deal with the council, knowing Asrik would take his place. He knew that he could return if you really needed his help.”
“Now Professor Watson is dead,” I said. Neither of them had anything to say. “Did the council only become a problem after John died?” I asked.
They both shook their heads. “The council was created to control wizards,” Hunt said. “They created laws to protect the paranormals and humans alike. At the time, wizards could run rampant. It was only a few wizards who were a problem, but then others would come along, destroy them, and take their power.”
“And the power would go to their heads,” Vincent continued. “The council had to struggle to find its authority in the community. Their intention was to teach wizards to stand together against a common enemy, which did catch on.”
“At that time, someone like John would face an army even he could not defeat. The council had scientists, like Andrew, working on solutions to problems. They had wise men talking to the community and creating laws based on votes and common sense. However, time decays all in the end.”
“Wizards aren’t immortal. When the council members died, their seats were taken by a new generation of immature wizards who wanted to bang a gavel and talk with accents. The generation after that was even worse. I did what I could to turn the council around, but I was one against twelve. Then John became a member and the council bent to his will. Unfortunately, as many people as he killed and tortured, the council is worse without him.”
“So we need to stop them.”
“Not yet,” Hunt said. “If we attack them now, the rest of the paranormal community will assume we are seeking revenge for April’s arrest. Even if we succeed, worse wizards will take their place. In January, when they try to enact their new rules, the entire paranormal world will rebel. At that point, if the council does not back down, we will disband them.”
“What about Professor Nightshade?”
“She’s already being taken care of,” Vincent said. He grinned at Hunt. “Do you think they remember the hellhound?”
Whatever they were talking about, Hunt’s grin was devious. “You’re going to explain that, right?” I asked.
They didn’t.
* * *
Despite everything that happened since sunrise, I wasn’t late for my first class. We made “cheer” potions in Langril’s class, but we felt like it was a wasted opportunity because Mack wasn’t there to accidentally consume it. Remy taught us to create animal-shaped illusions out of illusionary fire. Professor Nakari finally decided we had enough of tarot cards and said we were going to learn to protect our mind from being read against our will.
“We will start simple. First, you will learn to protect your current thoughts, or your inner monologue, from being overheard. You will later create an amulet, ring, or other device that you can wear to protect your mind from being invaded.”
“Why do we have to wear something?” Ana asked.
“Because you can enchant an item easier than you can remain focused at all times. Over your last three circles, you will be making quite a few items in your classes.”
“How strongly can you protect your mind?” I asked. I tried to use my power as rarely as possible, but I still encountered minds like Hunt’s and Vincent’s, which were completely blocked.
“It depends on how strong you are and how strong you make your defense. I can only teach you how to do it. With time and practice, most of you have the potential to be extremely powerful.”
“Most of us?” another students asked.
“Not all of you have the mental discipline.”
She was correct in saying that the spell was very simple. It basically involved imagining a one-way filter around my mind, so that my magic could go out, and other’s couldn’t come in. Maybe it was too simple, because none of us managed it.
For this reason, I was pessimistic when I went to Intuition and Prophesy. As usual, we had pillows to sit on with short wooden desks, but each desk had a crystal ball in a black metal frame. Professor Ashwood told us to focus on the living person we loved the most. Although I really wanted to say it was my mother, or even that it was Regina, I knew better than to lie to myself. I was protective of my mother, and Regina was the woman I married, but I would never get over Astrid.
The point of this exercise was merely to get accustomed to crystal balls. Maybe it was because of our dark past, or maybe it was because I was in a gloomy mood, but I had a very bad feeling about this. The professor turned off the gas lamps and each of us got a candle. I stared at the crystal ball for at least an hour. When other students finished the exercise and left, I didn’t let that distract me. As discouraging as that was, I focused harder.
I remembered her face, her voice, her kiss, her smell… I probably said her name in my head a thousand times as I sat in front of that crystal ball.
* * *
Astrid and I were walking through town to go to the movies. I was nearly shaking with excitement, but Astrid just took my hand and smirked, as if I amused her. When the air suddenly became colder, I froze. I could feel the danger. “Something’s wrong.”
Astrid stopped and glanced around before pushing me closer to the brick wall. “It’s okay.”
“What is it?”
“I�
��m not sure. Just be quiet for a moment.”
We were across the street from the park, which was really creepy at night. As if the lack of moonlight wasn’t enough, an ominous wind whipped around, shaking trees and making everything move. When the streetlight began to flicker, I wrapped my arm around Astrid. “Let’s go. We need to go.”
A hand closed over my mouth and yanked me back until I lost my grip on Astrid. She turned to see what happened and her eyes flashed silver like mirrors in the dark. She looked right at the person who held me, nodded, and faced the park. Darkness closed around me like a thick cloud of ink, so I thrashed as any sane child would.
“Hush.” I recognized the voice. “She can handle the dog as long as she doesn’t have to protect you as well. There will come a day when you can protect her, but this is not that day. I can’t take you to the shadow pass, but I can hide you for the moment if you’re quiet.”
Right before darkness closed off my vision completely, I saw a man appear in front of Astrid with the cruelest sneer I had ever seen. And I recognized this man.
* * *
The candle flame flickered violently as I returned to reality, crudely awoken from the memory. I was sure it was a memory, not a vision. The fire of the candle was blood red, and as the melted wax dripped down the solid white body, it was black. Inside the crystal was a sight even more horrifying; white smoke with two villainous eyes peering through. Krechea was watching.
A black satin cloth dropped over the crystal and I felt like a weight lifted off of my chest. Professor Ashwood stood over me with a very worried frown. “The best way to defeat the dark is to become the light,” she said.
Without a word, I got up and walked out. I found myself sitting in front of Astrid’s cell for an hour, just letting everything sink in. I knew the man who attacked Astrid was the substitute teacher who separated me from everyone else in the science museum and the police officer who took me from the dressing room. More importantly, I knew it wasn’t the last time I had seen the man. I saw him dead, torn to bits on my kitchen floor.