Rendall gets up and reaches for me. I try to move, but my legs won’t listen to me. His hand touches my forehead and my entire body shines with his gold aura. It tightens around me, closing off my movement. I try to speak, but nothing comes out. She stole my voice.
“Keep struggling and I’ll make him stop air flow. You’ll pass out from lack of oxygen in about thirty minutes. If you can keep your calm. Less if you panic.” The malicious smile on her face chills me to the bone. “I see the curiosity burning in your eyes.” Her hand touches my throat through the aural shield, adjusting it and setting my throat on fire with agony.
I cry out in anguish and shudder after she stops, barely able to stand and thankful for Rendall’s zombie-like support.
“What did you do to Grayson?” The question is a croak of pain.
“Nothing. When he wakes up, it will all be over and you’ll be yet another person he couldn’t protect.”
“He’ll know you did this.”
“Will he? If he forcefully breaks the seal, he dies. If he waits until it expires, he’ll forget everything that happens today. This isn’t the first time he’s been trapped like this. Lacey did it once before, didn’t she, Grayson?”
I swallow down my fear and glance his way. He stares at me, eyes wide open.
“That’s right. You don’t remember, do you?”
“What are you—”
“Lacey knew she was going to die the night she trapped him in a prison like this. By the time he came out of it, she was dead, and he remembered nothing.”
The reason he couldn’t tell me if he knew Lacey would die. It all makes sense. I have my answer. He knew and she kept him from stopping her. But why?
Our gazes lock. The chaotic aura around him stabilizes and I catch a smirk before he beats against the seal wall again. If she can touch me through Rendall’s shield, can I touch him through that seal? It’s worth a try.
My mind is scattered and I try to piece it back together in some form of concentration. What I wouldn’t give for Lacey’s icy presence right now. I’m betting Courtney doesn’t know Grayson is a shapeshifter. Or at least one I can antagonize with my power. I will hang onto that hope and distract her.
“Where are we going?”
“What makes you think we’re leaving this spot? I could kill you right now.”
“But you won’t.” I smirk at her. “This is too much effort to just kill me. You want something from me. What is it?”
She digs her claws into the back of my neck and I force my body to endure it. Trails of warmth slide down. She broke the skin. “You are so annoying with all your stupid questions. Fine. You help me and I tell you who killed Lacey.”
“Did you kill her?”
Her laughter echoes in my foggy brain. “No. I didn’t.”
“Did she kill herself?”
“No. She would never do that.” Her nails dug deeper and I clench my jaw to keep from crying out.
“Then why was Lacey murdered?” I force the words out through clenched teeth.
“You idiot. Don’t you understand anything?” Her smile widens and she reengages the seal on my throat. Another one activates on the back of my neck. “You were always the target,” she whispers, and engages the seals. My entire body erupts in agony and Rendall carries me from the classroom. “She just got in the way.”
I see Grayson for a split second before the door closes. I use the last of my concentration to yank at his aura. Just like last time, it triggers his aggressive nature, eyes turning black as night. Fire embers ignite behind his pupils and my entire body shudders under the memory of his previous attack. My thumb comes up and I grin at him. See? I’m a lot smarter now than I was two weeks ago.
He punches the barrier wall and I pray busting the barrier won’t hurt him in his smoke form.
23
They dump me on the ground on a too familiar wooden floor with a domed ceiling. The cemetery gazebo.
Of course.
I try to get up, but a too-familiar painful pressure crushes my chest, locking me in place. The chains Grayson mentioned. Desperate to find a way out of this, I cry out. Lacey isn’t around, but maybe I could call her.
With everything in me, I mentally scream for her.
Nothing.
I collapse on the floor and let the weight of the imprisonment spell rest on me. My scrambled research efforts in the past two weeks told me that these things only constrict you when you struggle.
So, I force my body to relax.
“Are you there?” I test the waters by croaking out a question. The spell doesn’t tighten around me.
“Shut up. I’m setting up the spell.”
Adjusting slightly, the invisible chains around my chest stiffens in warning and I settle back against the floor.
“Why would I shut up when you’re just going to kill me anyway?”
“You are so annoying.”
I close my eyes and reach out, wondering if I can contact the ghosts around us. My thoughts are sluggish from whatever she dosed me with, but it doesn’t stop me from trying to use my miniscule power. “Less annoying than Lacey?”
“Shut up.” She stomps onto the gazebo and kicks me in the side.
Pain explodes from the impact and I try to breathe through the agony. Her kick wasn’t the worst I’ve had, but those shiny-toed Mary Janes she’s wearing seem to be reinforced with either a spell or two tons of steel. Either way, my ribs aren’t happy.
“You’re such a clueless idiot. Why did he pick you?” She grabs my forearm and slices into the skin. Then repeats it for the other arm.
“Why did who pick me?”
The blade is sharp enough that I can’t feel the cut. But blood flows out in a steady stream. How many times will these floorboards soak up my blood?
“Why are you smiling?” She puts the blade against my cheek, and I see the fury and disgust in her gaze when she looks at me.
Danger, fury, rage combine in my heart and mind. I’ll treat her the way I have the malicious spirits in my past. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve talked myself out of trouble. Maybe I would buy enough time to clear my head. “I’m going to die here.”
Her shock makes her pull the blade away from my face.
“You just now figured that out?”
I huff out a breath and try to relax. “When will you start stabbing me?”
“Stabbing you?”
“Yeah. Lacey had half a dozen stab wounds on her body.”
She pales and stares at me. “Stab wounds? Why?”
“I don’t know. They were vicious, too. All the main arteries in her body were sliced open.” I’m exaggerating a bit, but her cuts were a lot deeper than the superficial wounds Cutter mentioned.
“That’s not the way this ritual works.” She stares at me, blood dripping from the edge of her knife blade.
“I know, right? Aren’t you supposed to use the chains on me and then force magic to flow through my body? You cut very cleanly. Just deep enough to get enough blood to activate the circle. Nice touch, fixing the amulet, by the way. Now it will take me even longer to die.”
She crouches beside me, blade against my throat. “Yes, thank you for that nice gift. I wouldn’t be able to bring you out here without it. It’s like you looked right into my heart and new exactly what I wanted for Christmas.”
“You are one twisted psycho.”
“Hmm. Thanks for the compliment.” She taps the flat of the blade against my cheek. “How well do you know this ritual?”
“I know everything about it. I even know the seal that was used to break the ritual the first time.” This was a gamble.
She grips my shirt and drags me up, chains releasing their restriction to allow me to move. So she’s the one who cast the spell then? Two weeks wasn’t enough time to understand all this magic crap.
“What do you know about the seal?”
“I have a copy of it.”
“Where?”
“In my dorm room.”
“You’re lying.” Her blade tip touches the pulse at my throat and I move slightly back.
“Okay. It’s in my backpack.”
She stares into my eyes, nerves taut with worry. No, fear. She’s afraid.
The realization that she’s as scared as I am unravels something inside me.
“Why was Lacey killed, Courtney?”
She stares at me and then shoves me down onto the ground. Her pacing is emphasized by the flat of her blade slapping against her thigh. She seems unaware of the blood sticking to her skirt or the fact that she keeps catching the material on the tip of the knife.
“You were originally supposed to be the sacrifice, but he changed the plan at the last minute. He showed up without you and then sent me off to find ingredients for the spell, saying we would do it on Christmas to make it extra special. The new moon would be more powerful for us and the barrier on the school at its weakest. I believed him.”
I reach out with my mind and feel a familiar spirit touch my aura. The first sacrifice. My blood must be triggering her awakening again. My jaw clenches and I try to keep my emotions in check.
“But he lied.”
“Yeah.” She glares at me. “Lacey and I knew you were the next target. She became obsessed with researching how to counter the spell. I told her not to go off on her own, but she wouldn’t listen. When I left, he brought Lacey here and used her instead. You were supposed to unlock the blood seal. Once the seal broke, we would travel together. Me, him, and Lacey.”
“Who killed her?”
She chuckles and the knife stops slapping against her thigh. “He’s going to be so surprised when it’s me coming outside to meet him tonight and not you.”
Shock shatters my concentration. “What?”
Her laughter grates on my already frayed nerves. “Daddy dearest, of course. He’s killed hundreds of our bloodline, searching for the one with the most magic reserves to endure the unbinding. It takes two hours of chanting. That’s why I bespelled Rendall. His obsession with beating Lacey pushed him to win spellcasting competitions. I marked him with a compulsion seal while his face recovered. It’s carved into his scar, deep into his flesh. With my manipulation, he became the second best in the school. No one could beat him in spell cast and aural precision. No one but Lacey.”
Dad wouldn’t hurt Lacey. He wouldn’t hurt me either. The thought trails off and I think back. How many times has he pushed me to my limits? Forced me to endure ghost attacks and battles of will against dangerous malignant spirits? The children’s cases despite me begging him not to. The days without proper sleep and exhaustion destroying my ability to concentrate. Even his lack of care about my homeschool situation.
A pulse of raw anger bursts through me.
“You’re saying Dad killed Lacey and that he needs me to undo a seal. Why?”
“You know the Arabelle line is an exclusive name in seals and restriction spells.”
“Yes.” Keep bragging. “I believe so.” I need the drug or spell or whatever it is she hit me with to wear off.
“Well, we used to be even stronger. Dad’s line used to be stronger. A rogue sorcerer sealed his bloodline, forcing him to hide from the NBI.”
“You keep calling him Dad. Why?”
“Because I’m his daughter. He has children all over the world. We’re half-sisters.” She waves her hand, knife blade stained with my blood. “Surprise.”
“Wait, you’re saying he cheated on Mom?” In my anger, my area of influence widens. I can feel a dozen spirits turning toward us. If I pull on them, will they come after me? I’m a sitting duck right now.
The knife slaps against her leg again. “Dad is over a hundred years old. She’s just one of thousands. He needed my bloodline to open the seal and yours to fuel it. Your mom is just a magic conduit. She’s not even a magic user, just a circuit he used to create you two.”
Familiar auras come to the fringes of my influence. Lacey. Grayson. Grayson is weaker than normal, so he probably wasn’t able to escape without injury. The ghost beneath me stirs awake. I steady my breathing and watch Courtney’s agitated movements.
“The first sacrifice. What was she for?”
Courtney glares down at me. “What are you talking about?”
“Seventy years ago, a girl was on this spot going through this ritual. She scrawled that blood seal you mentioned with her own blood before dying.”
“What do you mean?” Her expression switches to rage. She presses the knife to my throat and her teeth are clenched. There’s nothing pretty about her anymore. Just the monster within. “You’re lying.”
“I can talk to ghosts.” I lick my dry lips. “Lacey and Dad told you that. The first sacrifice is the one that gave me the seal, Courtney. How else would I get my hands on it?” Power wells up inside me. Familiar and terrifying. This is the part where I would burn from the inside out.
“You stole the seal formation.”
“How?” I stare at her incredulously. “I just learned about magic less than a month ago. You’ve seen how much I don’t know. I’m obviously nowhere near the actress you are.” At least in front of other people. In front of me, she hasn’t held back once.
“You hid it.”
“I found it. The night Lacey was killed, the first sacrifice gave me a vision of her death. Exactly like this, but on a stone circle.” Grayson’s aura is slowing down, so now is the time to act. Before he gets swept up in bloodlust and unable to properly defend himself.
“Why would Dad try to—”
“What do you think this ritual is actually used for, Courtney? You can’t unbind a seal without understanding it first. You taught me that with your hours and hours of forced self-study.”
My mind connects with the spirits around me. I tug at their auras and am swept into their rage and fury. And their thirst to shred me apart.
“You know barriers and seals better than anyone. Why would he kill his own daughters over and over, letting them bleed out right here?”
“We never talked about it. The only time he talked to me was when he visited Lacey. Even the letters Lacey wrote to you were sealed by me. I was just a tool to all of them.”
The spirits hit the seal and cross through, racing toward me.
The barrier around us shimmers as they try to break through.
“What’s happening?” Courtney holds up her hands and pushes back against the spirits. “You’re doing this, aren’t you?” She kicks out.
I close my eyes and bring up my aura shield, wrapping myself in a shell of protection. Her shoe hits the shield and my body rocks from the impact. From beneath me, the first sacrifice rises, wrapping her arms around me. She whispers commands and I draw a circle on the floor, my blood and finger the tools of inscription. Her hand guides me, speeding me through the process.
“Stop,” she bellows at me, slamming her shoe against my aural shield.
She whispers an incantation in my ear and I repeat it, barely loud enough to be heard. By the time we reach the end of the sealing spell, we’re almost moving as one voice and mind. The bracelets and choker are both searing my skin, but I endure it, forcing my voice out as a counter to Rendall’s chanting.
The seal is finished and liquid ice crashes through my body. Screaming in agony, a heavy weight shatters within me, countering the ice with heat. The chains holding me down blow apart and I rush toward Courtney. She waves the knife and I ignore it, knocking it aside with a second shield, bashing her wrist in the process.
The backlash will kill her. Use your aura to protect her. Her voice beckons me and I follow, wrapping my shield around us both as I tackle her to the ground.
The spell shatters the foundation as the roof collapses on us. I squeeze my eyes shut and focus on surviving.
Epilogue
Daylight shining on Nightborne Academy has a different ambiance than perpetual night. Especially with several creepy guys with hundred-mile stares and expensive suits combing the cemetery.
Sitting on a stone bench, I watch them move around.
“Here.” A coffee mug held by a bandaged hand comes into my view and I reach up to take it.
Sniffing the familiar scent, I smile. Hot chocolate. A small sip warms me from the inside.
“How are your injuries?”
Grayson sits beside me and stretches his legs. He looks a little worse for wear, with cuts above his eye and across his arms. I guess he couldn’t shift fast enough. Guilt eats at me for causing him to frenzy.
“Thanks to you, I’ll survive.”
“I don’t think she would have killed you.”
“It wasn’t Courtney I was worried about.”
Snow crunches as someone else comes close. I look up to see a vaguely familiar face. “Do you remember me?”
“Should I?” I ask, and Grayson chuckles next to me.
“This is Detective Cutter.”
“Ah.” I take a slow sip of my hot chocolate and turn my gaze away from him. That guy.
He clears his throat. “Yes. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“I already answered them.”
“Not these.”
I glare at him. Anger boils inside me. Protection? Safety? He left me here to rot. “My throat is sore from all the screaming for my life I did.”
“Not to mention the alchemic poison she gave you.”
“True. Thank you, Grayson.” I smirk.
“You are so very welcome.”
“Okay, fair enough.” He squats down next to me and meets my gaze. Those unusual lycanthrope eyes are unnerving, but I endure it. “We have questions.”
“Give them to me in an envelope. I’ll make sure to not read it.” Okay, I was being petty, but this guy has a lot of nerve showing up like he’s ready to do his job after I nearly died.
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I.”
He scratches the back of his head. “Okay, fair enough. I should have come to see you after you collapsed, but there are other things going on that—”
I hold up my hand. “Don’t care. If you want me to answer your questions, answer some of mine as well.”
Nightborne Academy Page 17