The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1

by Adam Faulkner

  “Why are you-” I was cut off by a bolt of energy that narrowly missed my head.

  “Shit!” I shouted as I dodged another bolt of energy. I took cover behind a bookshelf and held out my arm. To my surprise, the strange, blue ice that I had gotten so used to appeared over my arm, without me saying a word.

  “How the…”

  I pushed my attention back to the fight as I jumped out from behind the bookshelf, sending a shower of ice shards flying towards the attacker. I formed the ice on my left arm into a shield, blocking another set of energy bolts. Significantly faster than I was expecting, I reached the man and brought my ice-covered fist into his stomach, winding him. I brought a blade out of my ice and put it through his leg. I wasn’t planning on killing anyone, but the way I saw it, they probably deserved leaving in less than one piece. I kicked the man in the stomach, for good measure, and exhaled.

  “I’m getting good at this.” I turned around to check on the others. “Everyone okay?”

  “We’re fine,” Matt replied as he stood up. “Nice going there.”

  “Thanks.”

  I looked over the railing of the balcony on the library’s third floor that I’d ended up more than a few times. Just as we predicted, the place was filled to the brim with Syndicate operatives.

  “Well, it’s good to know we were right,” I sighed.

  “So, do you have a plan? Or are you just making this up as you go along?” August questioned.

  “I’m working on it,” I mumbled. In reality, I was in the process of working out what the hell we were supposed to do. “Hey, Raven, where do you think Elijah would centre the forces?” Awkward silence followed. “What?”

  “Raven ran off as soon as she got here,” Leigh explained. I sped away from the balcony.

  “Shit…” I used all of my effort not to scream it into the library. “She’s going to get herself killed,” I muttered under my breath. “We need to find her.”

  “What about the Syndicate?” August asked.

  “Raven’s going to be looking for Elijah. If we find her, we find him,” I decided. “Leigh, is there any reading magic that could help?”

  Leigh shook her head.

  “My Psychometry isn’t going to work without something to track from. Sorry…”

  “It’s fine. We’re just going to have to do this the hard way.” I cracked my knuckles.

  “So, what, ‘split up and look for clues’?” Matt sarcastically questioned.

  “Because that always work out so well…” August sighed.

  “We stick together.” I decided. “We need to go over the whole place and try and deal with Syndicate people as they come. That’s how we’ve got here so far, and there’s not much else we can do.”

  “And if we find him?” August questioned.

  “Then we do our job.”

  “Do you really think we can stop him?” August replied. I stayed silent. “That’s what I thought.”

  I sighed. “Come on. We need to go.”

  We managed to clear out the top floor of the library relatively easily. Given it wasn’t really possible to get to the third floor without going through the rest of the floors (I guess they weren’t anticipating us, but that’s probably fair enough) there wasn’t a huge Syndicate presence in the top floor, meaning we hadn’t found a huge amount of resistance. The library was large enough that as long as we were quiet, we could take out Syndicate members one by one, so we didn’t have a hoard of psychopaths on our backs. In all honesty, things seemed to be going a lot better than I’d expected.

  The second floor was a little busier. As we got closer to the bottom floor, it was clear that Elijah Blake wanted to make sure that the library was well-guarded. We ended up in some fairly tough encounters with Syndicate operatives, and though we were all pretty much fine by the time we got to the top of the stairs down to the bottom floor, we definitely weren’t at our best. We still hadn’t found Raven yet, which worried me more. The first question I had to ask myself was how did Raven get out of the area without getting into any fights? All of the Syndicate members we encountered during our assault weren’t overpoweringly strong, but it wasn’t like Raven to use stealth over strength.

  We hid around the corner of the stairs that led down to the ground floor of the library and tried to plan our next move.

  “There’s going to be way more people down there, and we’re not in any shape to fight an army,” Matt pointed out.

  “If we had Raven, she could take a few of them out with her fire, but…” I tried to think of a new strategy.

  “I could probably short out the power in the library, if we could get to the generator,” August suggested.

  “The fuse box is back on the third floor,” Matt noted. “If went back there, we’d just waste more time.”

  “Unless we split into groups.” Leigh suggested. “It’s more dangerous, but it could work well.”

  “I don’t like it, but you’ve got a point…” I admitted. “Okay, got it. August, Leigh, you two get up to the fuse box and give us the advantage there. Matt, you’re with me. We’re going to keep this place secure,” I decided. “We’ve got this, guys. Everything’s going to be fine.” I promised for the billionth time. looking, it was empty, but, at the time, I think I genuinely believed that we were all going to get out of this in one piece.

  I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  27

  The tension as we waited for August and Leigh to get back from taking out the power in the library was almost physically painful. Me and Matt loitered around the top of the stairs, keeping watch, in an incredibly awkward silence, and I couldn’t work out why he wouldn’t speak to me.

  “Is everything alright?” I eventually asked. “You’re too quiet.”

  “I’m fine,” Matt replied. “I’m just trying to focus.”

  “Sure…” I wasn’t convinced in the slightest. His voice was sharp. There was clearly something wrong. I decided not to push it. I figured getting into an argument was only going to draw attention, and that was the last thing we wanted.

  I thought about Raven. I couldn’t work out where she could be. Surely if she’d made it through the levels of the library, we would have seen a lot more destruction as we made our own way down, and none of the Syndicate members we had fought seemed to have been hurt in any way. My mind kept drifting back to one of two possibilities. Neither were particularly appealing.

  Matt stood up.

  “I’m going to check that everything’s good around the floor.”

  “Don’t go too far. You might not be able to handle these guys on your own.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Matt replied as he disappeared around the corner. I leaned against the wall and sighed.

  “What is his problem?” I asked the empty area.

  “He probably realizes that this is all pointless,” a worryingly familiar voice suggested from behind me. I span around and brought my ice up. “Nice to see you again, Miss George.” Elijah Blake smiled menacingly. The red jewel handing from his neck was glowing. I glanced down at my ice-encased hand. I could make out a faint glow coming from inside.

  “Can’t say the same for you…”

  “That’s a little harsh. And there’s me thinking I was getting somewhere with you. I’m hurt.” Elijah dramatically clutched at his chest. I formed my ice into a blade.

  “Where’s Raven?” I threateningly asked. At least, it was supposed to be threatening. Desperate was probably how it came off. Elijah’s face straightened.

  “She’s safe. I can promise you that.”

  “That’s not what I asked.” I started moving forward to attack.

  “Let’s not do that.” Elijah flicked his wrist. The shadows themselves seemed to move. A stream of darkness flew towards me, smashing through the blade, and knocking my off balance.

  “Nice trick…” I grunted as I regained my footing.

  “Skiomancy.” Elijah explained. “The magic of controlling shadows. Impressive, isn�
�t it?”

  “Something like that…” I remarked. “So, you gonna kill me or what?”

  “Oh, don’t be like that.” Elijah sighed. “I’m not going to kill you. I couldn’t bring myself to do anything like that. You’re basically my sister. I couldn’t hurt family.”

  “Family?” I laughed. “You’re delusional. I’m not your family. Neither is Raven.”

  “Raven is my sister.”

  “You lost the right to call her that when you attacked her!”

  “And does she think that way?”

  “Wha- Of course! You almost killed her! She despises you.”

  “That’s not the impression I was getting from her when I found her.”

  “So you did take her!” I was getting ready to go full-force on the bastard at this point.

  “Semantics, I assure you.”

  “Did she choose to go with you?”

  “As I said, that’s all just a technicality, really.”

  I clenched my fist. I had no idea how I was supposed to beat him. Truthfully, I couldn’t. I might have stood a fighting chance if everyone else was there, but on my own I wouldn’t last a minute. I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Reality Magic wasn’t a whole lot of use for offensive attacks, and I knew my ice could only take me so far. All I could think of to do was to stall him until Matt or August got back.

  “What are you doing here?” I eventually asked. “Why go through all of this?”

  Elijah laughed.

  “You really don’t understand, do you?” Elijah questioned. “As you should know by now, Foxway Academy is the closest thing that the Magical community has to a ruling body,” he explained. “If we’re in control of this school, then we control one of the most fortified Magical establishments on the planet. It’s the perfect base of operations for our cause.”

  “Base? It’s a school! With students! You can’t just break in and take over!”

  “I do believe I’ve proved that to not be the case…” Elijah remarked. “Although, you’re not the only person sceptical of my plan. Marlene is going to look very sheepish when I show her what I’ve done.”

  I clenched my fist and charged towards him, Ice-blades as thick as I could make. I threw my arm towards him, but he sent another shadow flying towards me. It crashed into my side, knocking me away. I screamed in pain as I hit the wall. I pushed myself back up. I winced in pain as I noticed a probably fractured collarbone.

  “Not bad…” I grunted. “But it’s gonna… take more than that to… Keep me down…” I grit my teeth and tried to put my mind off the voices in my head screaming at me to turn and sprint out of the school.

  He’s too strong… You can’t beat him… You’re going to die… The hallucinations whispered into my ear.

  I was just about to let my mind take over and run when all of the lights went off.

  You’re not going to get to me that easily, I said to the voices in my head. A smile crept across my face.

  “I’m probably not going to be able to beat you, you know,” I admitted.

  “I’m glad you’ve finally come to your senses.” Elijah smiled. “I should be happy, but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. A Guardian, giving in so quickly.” He sighed. “I suppose that’s just how it is…”

  “Oh, I didn’t say I was giving in. I probably can’t beat you.” I smiled. “Not on my own.” I sent a barrage of ice shards flying at Elijah. They didn’t do anything to stop him, but they gave me just enough of a distraction that he didn’t notice August sneaking up behind him and sending a handful of highly electrically charged cards into his back. Elijah shuddered as he was charged with probably more electricity than a person should be charged with, and he dropped to the ground. I breathed out and dropped to the floor.

  “Emilie!” Leigh shouted as she ran to my side.

  “I’m fine…” I grunted. “Just a little worn out…” I leaned myself against the wall. “Nice job with the power.”

  “Where’s Matt?”

  “I was making sure everything was secure. What happened?” Matt asked as he walked back around the corner. He stopped when he saw Elijah lying on the floor. “Shit. You guys beat him? How?”

  “Luck, mostly,” I admitted. “Anyway, that’s not important right now. We need to make sure that he’s not going to go anywhere. Anyone got any rope or something?”

  “I’ve got it.” Matt stepped forward and started constructing a spell. He placed his hands on the ground and wooden planks from the floor moved around Elijah, fixing him to the ground. “That should hold him. For now, at least.”

  “The Syndicate can pick him up on the way out.” I shrugged. “We need to find Raven. She should be downstairs.” I ran downstairs, taking care to kick Elijah’s head on the way past.

  Making our way through the bottom floor of the library was easier said than done. Just as we had expected, the ground floor was packed with Syndicate operatives, and we weren’t in the best condition by the time we made it to the central area. The most fortified part of the ground floor was the archives, so that was our best guess at where they would be keeping Raven. That was right at the back of the building. We focused on keeping to the left side of the library, where there were no exits, and consequently less people to fight. Not that it did much good. We probably fought our way through 50 people in total and ended up with another two dozen bruises for our troubles. I had managed to push away the searing pain in my shoulder, probably from a smashed collarbone, but I was definitely less than fit for fighting. Everyone else was mixed. Pretty banged up, but nothing worse than a cracked rib or two.

  When we reached the archives and broke down the door, Raven was slumped over in a chair.

  “Raven!” I ran over to her side. She was unconscious. “What the…” I tried to shake her awake. “Raven! Are you okay?”

  Raven groaned as she started to come to her senses.

  “Emilie… What’s going on?” she asked drowsily. “I ran off… Then Elijah… he…”

  “You’re in the archives room. We’ve managed to keep Elijah down, but we need to get out of here.”

  “What about the Syndicate?” Leigh questioned.

  “Elijah… He’s strong… But he won’t keep pushing…” Raven explained. “If you really beat him down, he’ll retreat… for the time being, at least…”

  “Definitely?” I asked.

  “The Syndicate… For all of the horrible things that they do, they take care of their own. Sometimes a little too much…” Raven trailed off. “Elijah won’t want to risk anyone’s life over a single target…”

  “You know Elijah better than anyone here, but we can’t rely on that, not completely. We can’t just sit around hoping that they’ll just go. We need to make sure…”

  “How do we do that though?” Leigh questioned.

  “I don’t believe you’re going to need to,” A voice replied from behind us. I froze. “I admit, I do have to admit defeat here. I underestimated you. To your credit, you managed to beat me down with just two of you.” Elijah admitted.

  “What are you saying?” I questioned.

  “That this plan hasn’t worked.” He looked over at Raven. “It’s good to see you still know me, sister.” He mockingly bowed and turned to walk away. “Retreat!” he screamed at the top of his voice as he disappeared around the corner.

  “Should we go after him?” August asked.

  “No… He was telling the truth,” Rave replied. “He’s gone…”

  “He’ll be back,” Matt argued.

  “We’ll be better prepared next time.” I pushed. “We’re in no condition to fight right now. If we go after him, it won’t do any good.”

  “So, it’s over?” August asked.

  “I told you we’d all make it…” I sighed as I dropped to the floor from exhaustion.

  “It’s… It’s really ov-?” Leigh was cut off. Everything went into slow motion as we saw a black blast burst through Leigh’s chest. Elijah wasn’t done yet, app
arently. Leigh dropped to the floor. I screamed. Raven and August instinctively fired attacks at Elijah, forcing him away. Me and Matt ran to Leigh’s side as she lay bleeding out on the floor.

  “Oh… Oh god no…” I sobbed. “Leigh… I’m so sorry… I promised we’d all be alright… I couldn’t even protect one person… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” I collapsed backwards onto the floor.

  Matt held his sister’s hand.

  “Hey, everything’s going to be fine…” he lied through clouded eyes. “You know, we almost got out of this in one piece,” Matt joked. “Trust you to fuck that up…”

  Leigh coughed as she tried to laugh. She winced in pain.

  “Hey, Matt… You’re hurting my hand…” She strained to look down at the hand which Matt was firmly gripping.

  “Sorry…” Matt released his hand. “Leigh… Please… You’re going to be fine…”

  “Don’t…” she whispered. “I’m sorry… I really wasn’t any use, was I? I guess the nerd was useless after all.”

  “Don’t say that!” I screamed. “You… You were just as important as the rest of us. You trained… You fought… You did everything you could…”

  “Thanks… Emilie…” Leigh coughed blood onto the floor. I looked around.

  “There must be something someone can do…” I sobbed. “Please, someone!” I screeched into the air. But no one was there.

  “It’s not your fault…” Leigh sighed. “I knew… That this was going to happen…”

  My eyes widened

  “No… What… How…”

  “Elijah… I knew he was going to be too strong… I mean, we all did, right? I knew things were going to go bad…” she admitted. “I could have turned at ran then… Maybe I should have… But… You did everything… right… I promise…”

  “But… I’m the Guardian… I should be able to protect people…”

  “You can’t protect everyone, Emilie.” Greyford pulled me away from Leigh. I hadn’t seen him walk in. I guess he must have walked in when he saw the Syndicate retreating. I scrambled to get away from him.