Insidious Winds

by Rain Oxford

  “How can someone die of a poison if they’re already dead?”

  “They’re not dead. Only those who made a deal with a wizard of Dothra and those with Dothra blood who died somewhere else are dead here. Many of the vampires and humans who believe this is death were summoned here the same way Dothra wizards can be summoned. When Heather was killed, her body was destroyed, but as you can see, she isn’t a ghost. When she returns to Earth, she’ll still have a physical body. If she’s killed again or if she were killed here originally, there would be nothing left of her.”

  “How does that even remotely make sense?”

  “It’s Dothra; it doesn’t have to make sense. Earth magic is elemental. Dothra magic is… soul. When they say all magic comes at a price, I think they were talking about Dothra. Earth’s balance can be maintained using the elements and goodness, whereas sacrifices must be made to maintain Dothra’s balance.”

  “Why do you want to stay here?”

  “I don’t want to. I’m the only one who can… who can stop Krechea from returning here,” she said. I pulled away, but tried not to say anything until she explained. “This world was always dark and sinister, but I have done a lot of good in the last six months. If Krechea returns, he’ll destroy everything I’m working towards and use the power of this world to take over every world. This is the world he needs; not Earth, and he’ll try to return once he gains enough ground on Earth. That’s why, as soon as you’re gone, I’m going to destroy the tower.”

  “You need all four keys to destroy the tower.”

  “Only Earth’s tower requires the use of the keys to destroy it. Dothra’s tower can be demolished, but the backlash would kill any mortal. That’s why it has to be me. These are people. A lot of them have nothing good in them, yet a lot of them are innocent. I can help them, but only after I destroy the tower.”

  “Then… I would never see you again.”

  She nodded. “I know.”

  “I could stay---”

  “No, you can’t. Earth needs you to stop Krechea, and I know how you can do it. The key to Dothra will still exist. After I destroy the tower here, you can make Langril open the door again and force Krechea into it. He’ll be trapped for eternity. You wouldn’t even have to destroy the tower.”

  “But I would never see you again.”

  She nodded again. “I know.” She put her hand on my face as if she couldn’t go another second without touching me. “That’s why I tried to make it easier on you… because it can’t kill me. It’s going to hurt every day for the rest of eternity and there is nothing I can do about it.” She pressed her face in the crook of my neck and cried. “I didn’t want you to feel that, but I couldn’t keep it up.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “Heather has a release trigger in her cage so she can ‘escape’ whenever I need the guards out of the room. If they saw me crying, I would be powerless.”

  “Let me stay here and destroy the tower from this side. You would be better equipped at defeating Krechea.”

  “You wouldn’t survive destroying the tower.”

  I was pretty sure she was right, but that didn’t mean I was ready to give up.

  “You can trust Heather. She believes her father is a good man and she’ll lie to you if she thinks she has to, but she won’t try to hurt you. Just promise me one thing.” She sat back. “Don’t fall in love with Clara. She’s an absolute slut and she’ll bite you.”

  “What if she dyes her hair blue again?” I asked. She scowled at me. “You know I like blue.”

  “I will bite you.” Her eyes filled with worry. “They’re coming back. Heather will be waiting for you by the tower. You must hurry. When you get home, give me a few days to destroy the tower. I will send you a message right before. It’ll be our last message. Then, force Krechea into the tower through the door to Dothra. It must be Dothra’s door.”

  “I don’t want to go.”

  “I don’t want you to go either.”

  “You don’t have to,” Heather said, entering the room and closing the door behind her. She looked stronger than she had in the cage, like a princess who saw true horror and had to get tough to survive.

  “Stay out of this,” Astrid warned her.

  “I know I’m not supposed to make offers, but it doesn’t matter now. Devon, make a deal with me to make you immortal like Astrid. I can do pretty much anything under a contract. Once I do, give me the key. You will lose your magic, but you would still be immortal. Then I will return to Earth and with my father’s help and the key, I will have the power to defeat Krechea. You two can be together forever and Krechea will be taken care of.”

  “No!” Astrid said. “Dothra is dangerous even for the most powerful wizards! You can’t---”

  I opened my mouth to interrupt her. What I was going to say exactly, I have no idea, because a hand clamped over my mouth before I could. Blackness swirled around me and the last thing I saw was pain in Astrid’s eyes.

  Then the blackness cleared and I was in the tunnel with Vincent, Heather, and the five young vampires. “Take me back to her!” I yelled. Vincent’s expression was of sympathy as he shook his head. I punched him. “She needs me, bastard!”

  Before I could fight him off, he pushed me into the black abyss of the tower.

  Chapter 14

  I landed hard on the ground. It was easier to feel anger than the heavy depression trying to overthrow me. The five vampires, Heather, and Vincent followed. The door closed behind him. “How could you leave her?” I asked.

  “I am not a hero,” he answered. “Nor am I selfless. Astrid means nothing to me, whereas you’re important, so I am not going to let you sacrifice your soul.”

  “You don’t get to decide my fate.”

  “I do, because I’m more powerful than you.” He looked at Heather and she froze. “I am going to make a deal with you. You’re going to bring Astrid here and send me to Dothra to destroy the tower. Then Devon’s soul will be free. Until the moment I die, you will do everything Devon says so long as it doesn’t endanger him or his soul.”

  She looked stunned. “I’ve never heard of making a deal for someone else before, but I can do it.”

  “His soul will never go to Dothra.”

  “I can make it so that he is unable to ever step through that door again.”

  I reached for Vincent’s arm, not sure if I was going to try to stop him or thank him for agreeing to save Astrid, but the tingle in my palm stopped me. I turned my hand over to see that the symbol was glowing white. “What the hell is wrong now?”

  Vincent held up his hand to show that his, too, was glowing. “I have no idea. This has never happened before.”

  “It’s because three of the four keys are together,” Langril said, appearing out of the darkness.

  “I heard you were killed,” I said.

  “Oh, from Bedrel? She hatessss my gutssss,” he said, drawing out the “s” like the snake monster had. “She always tells everyone I’m dead.” He hugged Heather and kissed her forehead. “You need a bath,” he told her, then turned back to us. “If Logan was here, we would have a big problem.” He pointed to the tower. Three of the four doors were opening slowly.

  “Why would that be a problem?”

  “Because Krechea is here. He disguised himself as Vincent and tried to convince Logan to be here at this moment. Fortunately, you and Remy had your little conversation and she told her father that Vincent was with you. Otherwise, he would be here and we would all be doomed.”

  “Then it would make sense for us to not be together here anymore,” I said, putting my hand on the smallest vampire girl’s back to guide her over to her companions. I figured Vincent and Langril could get the nine of us out in one go.

  “You’re right,” Langril said. “We can’t risk Krechea getting all four keys.”

  I didn’t like the tone of his voice. “Did you find something out?”

  “Yes, I did. We must never let Krechea get his hands on all
four keys, no matter what.” He made a wide sweep motion with his hand and I suddenly couldn’t move a muscle. Well, I could move my eyes, but my arms and legs were locked in place. I couldn’t speak. Langril calmly kissed his daughter’s forehead again and approached Vincent. “I always knew you were a better man than Logan,” he told my uncle as he took Vincent’s arm.

  Vincent was apparently unable to move of his own accord, but his legs walked him after Langril… right into one of the doors of the tower. As soon as they both vanished, the three doors slammed closed and I could move again. I pretty much stared motionless with my mouth open.

  “What just happened?” Heather asked, sounding panicked.

  “Do you know what world that was?”

  “No idea. Check the seal on your hand.”

  I did, and it was the exact same as the one engraved onto the door they disappeared through. I held out my hand to the door and the edges lit up. I could feel that it was opening. I was going to go in after Vincent. This was my fault; it wouldn’t have been open if it weren’t for me. It was also Langril’s fault; I was going to kill the bastard once and for all.

  A hand wrapped around my arm and pulled it down. I turned to punch whoever was stopping me from saving my uncle… and stopped myself from hitting Vincent. I gaped. “How?”

  He looked down at himself. “I don’t know. I was there and then I was back. I’m okay.” He hugged me, like a father would. It didn’t matter that I was thirty-one or that I was bigger than him. What mattered was that I had a very bad day and this was the most human Vincent had ever acted.

  That was what I needed to be; not a hero like Cody or a selfish coward like John. I could just be human.

  “We’ll figure out a way to save Astrid that doesn’t include anyone getting trapped in Dothra,” Vincent said, pulling away.

  I nodded. “Okay. We have a couple of days.”

  * * *

  Vincent dropped me off in Hunt’s office, where Hunt and Flagstone were waiting, and took the others to the infirmary. Heather was in a state of panic over her father. Less than a minute after I appeared in the office, Darwin and Henry barged in without knocking. Apparently, they had sensed my presence.

  I had only been gone half a day.

  When Vincent returned, I explained to all of them what had happened on Dothra. “How is this possible? How could I be gone six months there… or Astrid was… and then be back here on the same day. Please tell me this isn’t time travel.”

  “Not time travel, no,” Hunt said. “Such is a myth. However, there is no time between the barriers of the worlds. I suspect that you lost six months when you entered Dothra and gained it back when you returned.”

  “So… Astrid is safe for the moment? We have six months to stop this from happening?”

  “We have six months from our perspective before Astrid experiences what you did and you get your message that she is ready to close the door. From her perspective, she has not yet met up with you again and has no idea what is to come.”

  “Then I can save her.”

  “I am afraid not. Until the point in which your paths crossed in both worlds, you will not be able to contact her. Instead, you will have six months to come up with a plan to save her; a plan which must take a matter of hours to carry out.”

  “But she was alone for six months!”

  “I understand. However, if you attempt to contact her, you risk a paradox that will destroy both worlds. You must let her live out the timeline you saw.”

  All I could see at the moment was the heartbreak in her eyes.

  * * *

  Darwin threw a roll that hit Scott in the head. When Scott looked up and glared at Darwin, Darwin pointed to me. Scott rolled his eyes and went back to eating. Then, a few seconds later, Henry tossed a roll that hit Darwin in the head. When Darwin looked up in shock, Henry pointed at Addison.

  One thing very certain about Quintessence was that life moved on. No student had died this year and that made the students rather festive. It was April, a month after my trip to Dothra, so there was only a month left of school and everyone figured that anyone who was going to die would have already.

  I wasn’t so sure.

  One potion was all it took to heal my shoulder and then I returned to my classes and my training with Vincent and Hunt. The first month sped by. I was constantly aware of every shadow, certain that it was Krechea or one of his men poised to attack. It wasn’t with fear that I faced these shadows. I wanted to kill Krechea, knowing that would solve Astrid’s problems. It had to.

  My training was no longer about the air element, which Vincent told me I passed. Instead, Hunt and Vincent focused on teaching me to use my magic against Krechea. Apparently, getting the key tested my elemental powers, such as wisdom (air), bravery (fire), endurance (earth), and healing (water). The choice I had at the end was the final element— spirit.

  My gargoyle didn’t return except for the one time I asked him to attend my familiar class to prove to the professor that I had successfully called him. Other than that, he was too busy doing whatever gargoyles did and I never summoned him. Occasionally, I would have a vision that was important enough for him to go somewhere himself and have a look. I figured he would be very handy in my investigations, particularly in stakeouts, because it didn’t bother him at all to sit in one spot motionless for days at a time.

  The glass sphere Hunt gave me didn’t return. I fully expected it to materialize exactly when I needed it most and no sooner. One other thing I never figured out was what Ghost’s problem was, since Vincent didn’t know and the cat hadn’t shown up again.

  With Dr. Martin’s help, Heather was able to create a potion that could expel any shadow walker who tried to possess someone, but it wasn’t powerful enough to work against Krechea and it was a one-time fix. She insisted that only her father would be able to create a permanent means of keeping another soul out of someone’s body. Hunt had a reasonably reliable method, which involved a tattoo made with some very rare oils. However, since these oils were deadly to nine out of ten people, it wasn’t anyone’s first choice. I would stick with Heather’s potion for the time being.

  As our classes got more in-depth throughout the semester, the students stopped worrying about the magic I displayed at the battle of the wizard council. It was still a big deal, but Darwin eased the rumors by telling people I had used Hunt’s help to do what I did. Even so, there was one huge, unexpected outcome; Professor Roswell acted like I single-handedly saved the school, so there was no way he would flunk me for missing too many days.

  Darnell never bothered me again after the battle, although I didn’t think any of the students actually knew why, since none of them had been paying attention when he attacked me.

  Hunt and Vincent spent a lot of time away from the school to get the wizard council back in working order. The two wizards who had refused to attack the school were the only two who stayed on the council. The eleven remaining positions in the inner circle were still open, but Hunt and Vincent were working with other powerful leaders of the paranormal community to make the council into what it had been originally designed to be. The new council would have the power to protect wizard rights without limiting the rights of any other paranormal or human. However, they wouldn’t have the power to inflict terror and cause the paranormals to choose sides.

  They were also in the process of undoing the damage the council had already done. When Hunt personally brought Jackson’s son into the dining room, Jackson cried. It was the first time he got to see the baby. Unfortunately for him, he had to send the baby back home after only a few hours. We were all surprised that the council had been able to take good care of the newborn.

  When Theo was overly enthusiastic about having me back in class, I finally asked him why. Apparently, he nearly failed the previous semester and decided to use my determination to force him to stay on track by working next to me and partnering me as often as possible. Since he always did his part, hadn’t said a disresp
ectful thing to me all semester, and never tried to cheat, I didn’t have a problem with it. He was actually a good person to discuss books and potions with.

  I got another little shock when it came to building wizard staffs in Tools of Magic. I tried to make a staff like the one I had used during the test, but the woodwork was ridiculously difficult. Oddly enough, I could remember every detail. I tied a crystal to the top of it, but the crystal was just clear all the way through and I couldn’t figure out how to burn it into the wood like the other one was.

  I was carving it at the dining room table after my last class of the day when my instincts fired up. It was more than just intuition; I knew what was going to happen. This was my vision powers, just without the vision.

  I went outside with my unfinished staff, into the courtyard, and looked up at the castle roof. Jackson was pounding away with a hammer to fix several tiles. I figured he was in detention for something. He set the hammer down to move a tile. When the hammer started to slide, he scrambled to fix it… and started sliding down as well. With each second, he gained momentum and lost traction. His hands grasped desperately for any purchase until he ran out of roof to grasp at and was free-falling.

  There was no epiphany or urgency as I raised my staff up slightly. “Stop,” I said, as if I were controlling his mind.

  And he did stop. He stopped five feet above the air. Surprised, I studied my staff. Just like the one I used in the test, it had changed. In fact, all of the symbols that had been carved on the original were now on this one. The crystal at the top was seared to the wood and inside was a blood-red spot. It was lighter red than before, but it was still almost identical.

  It had been my staff all along.

  * * *

  Everyone loved Scott to pieces. There were already students, both women and men, who begged Henry to bring the kid back the next semester. Everyone tried to teach him things like reading and math. Sometimes he would shift, escape Addison’s watch, and explore the school. Everyone admired and pet him as he would wander in and out of classes, in the dorms, outside, or in the castle, and swim in the lake. The little cub loved water. He quickly attained the nickname “Kitten” and was adored by students and teachers alike. When Henry or Addison studied in the dining room, he would often wander around the room and visit with everyone. Especially people who let him eat off their plates.