The Beast of Callaire

by Saruuh Kelsey

  Rapidly losing my grip on the present, I reach for Mavers’s mind and push everything that happened into his mind in a flood of images. I do the same to Minnie, Ran, Amity, Vic, the Hannam sisters, and even to Fearne and Rowan.

  With the last of my energy spent, darkness descends.

  THIRTY EIGHT

  THE BEYTRAL

  I wake in my brother’s arms as he puts me in the back seat of Fray’s car. “We’re going to the Academy,” he says, brushing hair out of my face.

  I struggle to sit up. “That’s where Miranda’s gone. She’s going to take their Majick.”

  “I know.” Guy gestures behind him to Niall. “That guy told me.”

  Niall is a little beaten up, and there’s the cut on his shoulder, but he looks otherwise fine. I nod at him, grateful he told Guy what happened while I was passed out. I’m not sure I’d be able to get the words out. As it is I have trouble saying, “You can’t come with us. Stay here.” Niall doesn’t complain.

  Guy shuts my door and climbs into the driver’s seat. “Seatbelt,” he prompts. As soon as I’m fastened in, we’re racing away from Fray’s house.

  I’m sure we break the speed limit but to his credit we don’t crash or kill anyone. By the time we park around the back of the Academy, I’m lucid and my head is no longer cold. I look suspiciously at my body, wondering how I could go from passed out and energy-less to perfectly fine in less than an hour. “Guy, did you heal me?”

  He swings out of the car and opens my door. “A little bit.”

  “You shouldn’t have. What if Miranda had come back? You’re weakened.”

  “I didn’t use all my Majick. And you’re my sister. Was I meant to leave you there when I could help?”

  I frown, grateful and humbled and wanting to be neither.

  “Besides you used your Earth Majick to heal me so you have no right to complain.”

  I swallow the lump in my throat and force the truth out. “Fray’s missing.”

  “We’ll find her.” He nods at the Academy. “But first we have to deal with this. I’m going in.”

  “Numina protect you.”

  *

  Everyone is in the courtyard, ready to fight. Ready to die. The red of the burning Ward must be visible all across Callaire. Miranda is on the other side of it, watching us. She doesn’t appear surprised at the presence of a Ward. She looks expectant. She’s waiting for the Ward to fall, I suppose.

  It doesn’t matter how much I don’t want this to happen. Miranda will cross the Ward and come for our Majick.

  The Red watches and waits.

  Amity runs out of the house a minute later, her palm outstretched and a look of deep concentration on her face. In all my fear, I hadn’t noticed she was missing.

  The air around us gets colder. The fire of the Ward goes out.

  Mavers staggers onto the front steps, breathing heavily. “Please, Amity. Please think about what you’re doing, what this means.”

  She doesn’t look at him. “I’ve thought it through, David. This is the choice I made.”

  “We’re your family.”

  She turns a sad look on Mavers. “I’m sorry.”

  I can’t piece together what’s going on. We all know Amity’s Majick is dangerous because one lapse of control can lower a person’s body temperature to a fatal degree, but surely it’s necessary for her to use it? It’s already strengthened the Ward, which is no longer burning but stable and invisible as always.

  Guy grabs my arm and holds so tight it hurts.

  I glance back at Miranda. She’s grinning. Everything clicks into place all at once. I fight free of Guy’s grip and throw myself at Amity. I tackle her to the steps, the stone ripping my jeans and skin.

  “What have you done?” The Ward isn’t invisible—it’s gone.

  Amity raised me, alongside Mavers. She helped me get my monster under control, she taught me how to harness my Majick. She looked after me. I lived with her every day for years. She’s my family.

  “Why?” I demand. “Why?”

  She pushes me off her, gentle as she always is. “For my family.”

  I wipe my eyes savagely with the sleeve of my coat. This betrayal slices right past my fear of Miranda, of a Numen abducting Fray, of my Majick being stolen. This is worse than anything. Amity takes a step toward me but Guy is right there, blocking me in half a second.

  “Leave,” he snarls at our friend, our carer, our sister. “I don’t care where you go or what you do. You want to side against us? Fine. But you leave right now.”

  She swallows. “My mother wants me to help Discordia.”

  I can’t manage much more than a whisper. “Who?”

  She gestures to Miranda, her eyes never leaving Mavers. I can see her shame over betraying him—it’s deeper than her shame at betraying Guy and me. I don’t know how she could do this to Mavers. I could never—would never—turn on Fray like Amity has.

  But then a dark, hollow part of me understands Amity. She wants her mother’s love and approval. I think that’s what we all want, in the end.

  “Go.” Guy’s eyes beg Am as he helps me stand. “I don’t want to fight you.”

  “She asked me to help her. She’s my mother. My blood mother. I couldn’t—” She swallows a cry. “I couldn’t say no.”

  “They’re going to kill us,” Mavers says flatly.

  “No, I made a deal! She won’t kill or hurt any of you.”

  “Then what do you think this is?” His voice is loud and furious. I cower against Guy. “Discordia is hunting us for our Majick. Are you so blind you can’t see she’s going to kill us?”

  Amity stumbles back. “She won’t hurt you.”

  “She won’t hurt us. But the rest of them will.”

  Amity’s face twists into an expression I could never imagine being on her small face. Hate. Rage. “I’ll fix this.” She takes a hesitant step towards Mavers, her hand outstretched. “David, come with me. Only I can keep you safe.”

  “No.” Mavers’s expression is unrelenting. He’s staying with us. I’m shocked again—I thought he’d follow Amity anywhere.

  Am turns away. Her image blurs and shrinks—not Gateway Majick but some other kind. Numina Majick, I suppose, given to her because she’s helping them kill us.

  “We’re going to die,” I say. “Aren’t we?”

  Mavers’s hands ball into fists. “Not today.”

  “But—”

  “Discordia would have passed the Ward without Amity.” He descends the steps to the courtyard. The rest of the Red fans out to allow him to pass. I see confusion, hurt, and hopelessness in everyone’s faces.

  “Don’t give up.” Guy squeezes my arm as we follow Mavers. “We have to fight this or she’ll drain our Majick. We can’t end up like those people in America. We have to win this fight so we can find your Fray. You can’t back out on us now.”

  “I’m not backing out.” My hands tingle as I draw Majick from the trees around the Academy. “I’m ready.”

  THIRTY NINE

  THE DISCORD

  Mavers is trembling. His Majick isn’t as simple as the rest of ours. He has Creation Majick, the power to make and destroy—but he can only make and destroy life. The simple answer would be to destroy Miranda’s life force but that would be going against everything Mavers stands for.

  I don’t know what he’ll do.

  Guy hands me something—a long sword that resembles glass. In the centre of the blade is a storm of light and dark, fire and fog.

  “Is this—?”

  “Akasha. Fearne and I made them a few years ago just in case.” His brow furrows. “We thought we’d be fighting hunters, though. Humans. Not a Numen.”

  “Will they still work?” Minnie asks. She’s tied her black hair up, which makes her look severe and ferocious. A necklace sits in the hollow of her throat—a square of gold stone painted with red symbols in a language I can’t read. I haven’t seen it before.

  “It was my fathers
,” she sighs when she notices my interest. “Don’t ask.”

  The Red has split into two groups—Rowan, Fearne, Mavers, and the Hannam sisters; and me, Guy, Vic, Minnie, and Ran. I guess we’ll be fighting as teams, though we’ve never spoken about it. We’ve never had to plan for a Numen attack.

  “People, something’s happening.” Ran points at Miranda who has directed her shrewd attention to Priscilla Hannam. She’s scrutinising Priscilla’s mind with Psychic Majick like she did to me earlier.

  Priscilla, her eyes entirely blank, raises her blade and points it at her sister. I thought Priscilla looked weird and unnatural before, but now she’s been stripped of emotion and personality. She looks so young suddenly, despite the blankness of her expression. It doesn’t even look like her.

  “She’s controlling her,” I shout. “It’s Psychic Majick.”

  I didn’t speak soon enough.

  Cornelia skitters out of the way but not before her sister has opened up a shallow wound along her stomach. Rowan hauls her away from Priscilla with Legendary strength, even though she unnerves him as much as the rest of us. Old grievances don’t matter anymore. Not even my contempt of Rowan and Fearne matters. We’re all the same, we’re all the Red, and we have no option but to fight together.

  Miranda—Discordia—is visibly amused by the spectacle she’s causing. Her grin distorts the flesh of her cheeks.

  “Screw this,” Ran spits. He tosses his Akasha sword to the floor and raises his hands. In response to his Majick, cords of light emerge from the air and loop around Discordia’s body. The lines of blood welling up on her arms are a testament to the strength of Ran’s Majick, but it seems to have no effect on the Numen.

  Guy takes up Ran’s Akasha sword, wielding two. “Do that again.”

  Ran looks at him like he’s insane, and then shrugs. “To hell with it.” He throws his palms up.

  When the Lumination Majick cuts into Discordia again, Guy darts away from our group, a dark shape blurring across the courtyard. I press my lips together, fighting the urge to whimper as my brother stabs Discordia swiftly in the stomach.

  Miranda screams.

  Ran’s Majick shatters into shards of starlight and Discordia breaks free, wrenches the sword from her body, and closes her fingers around Guy’s shoulder in the same second. My heart leaps into my throat. Vic and I bombard the Numen at the same time. Ivy forms a rope at my command, ensnaring Discordia’s arms behind her back as a tidal wave engulfs her. Akasha comes out of nowhere in the form of a lightning bolt striking Miranda’s skull.

  I whip my head around. Fearne … helping Guy? She meets my eyes with a neutral expression, not her usual glare. Thank you, I think.

  Miranda struggles. I gnash my teeth, making my ivy tighter. It feels like all the muscles in my back are straining but I know that’s only in my head. It’s my Majick that’s stretching, wearing thin. I don’t know how long it will last.

  With Discordia preoccupied, Rowan gets my brother free of her grasp, materialising a safe distance away. He grabs Guy in a tight hug. I watch them, frowning. They’re friends. It makes me wonder why I dislike Rowan so much. He can’t be that bad if Guy likes him. They step away from each other, Rowan coughing to cover up how emotional he is. I can feel his fear but he keeps his face blank.

  Guy has lost one sword but grips the other in a fist. The blood on his shirt and the fierce expression he’s wearing make him look like a warrior, someone who’s slain a million enemies and won’t hesitate to kill more.

  I snap my full attention back to the Numen. She fighting against her bonds but with Earth, Aqua, Akasha and Lumination, I think to myself we might have a chance, maybe we can do this—and that’s when Rowan is shot.

  Gunfire explodes from the trees that frame the Academy. Rowan’s chest is torn open. Fearne screams. Minnie grabs the collar of my coat, scrambling away from the hunters spilling into the courtyard.

  My breath catches—they’re not ordinary hunters. Their eyes are entirely white, their movements stiff and synchronised.

  “The Numen,” Mavers yells, rounding everyone up and herding us away. “They must be controlling them.”

  “Can she do that?” Cornelia asks. She’s shaking, the sword in her hand unsteady, but she holds herself ramrod straight. Unearthly fierceness radiates from her. I glance around for her twin but can’t find her.

  “Who knows what she can do?”

  Discordia is still at the Ward’s edge. I was wrong when I assumed controlling Priscilla was her move. She was just stalling until the hunters could get here. She never intended to fight us.

  Mavers mutters something to Guy I don’t hear. His shoulders are quivering, his shirt soaked with sweat. He’s using Majick! But what is he doing with it? I don’t see anything being created, and nothing has been destroyed.

  “You can’t kill the humans,” Ran hisses. “They’re being controlled. It’s not their fault.”

  “I know,” Mavers grunts. I look between them, confused.

  Guy startles me with words in my head. Find a way to break the Numen’s concentration. If we stop her, the hunters will leave.

  I nod. I think I know what to do. I just hope it works.

  “This is going to happen very quickly,” Mavers mutters. “Somebody needs to get Fearne and Rowan from the middle of it all.” Fearne’s collapsed to the ground on top of Rowan, the brick beneath them tarnished with blood. Rowan might be dead but Fearne definitely isn’t. Ran gives Mavers a look, silently communicating that he’ll move them.

  You and I distract Discordia, I say into Vic’s mind.

  Agreed.

  I sense his readiness. We’re about to strike out with Majick when six animals burst through the Academy gates. They’re some weird crossbreed—the deadly litheness and speed of a big cat but with wicked sharp antlers and the elongated snout of a stag. I mistake them for Creatures, for Numina, at first but they’re not—there’s no Majick flowing from them.

  “Now!” Mavers shouts.

  I beg the Earth for more Majick and it answers without hesitation. The dirt beneath Discordia collapses. Stone, earth, and Numen tumble into the fissure.

  An aqua dome surrounds the caving hole, trapping Discordia and blinding her to everything outside it. If she can’t see the hunters, can she still control them?

  I don’t find out.

  The antlered creatures pin the Pures to the ground. I know Mavers must have Created them, but does he have full control over them?

  Coldness creeps in along that thought, numbing my mind at the edges. Everything seems to slow down. My legs give out but Guy catches me. My Earth Majick fails me.

  Distantly I know something is wrong, but I can’t hold onto that thought. I’m so tired. I close my eyes for half a second. When I reopen them, the Red has fanned out in a circle. Rowan has been moved. Fearne’s disappeared—probably to wherever Rowan is. That I don’t remember any of it happening is worrying.

  The next thing I know, the beasts of Mavers’s Creation have leapt to their feet and are fighting the animated hunters. And the next: the hunters are dead. Why am I blacking out, losing my recent memories?

  It’s slow to form but eventually it comes together: Discordia has invaded my mind.

  Get out! I meant to shout but even my mental voice is feeble.

  Discordia’s voice is a withered whisper. I would request you make me leave, but you’re nothing but a weakling.

  She must give me back the ability to think because my mind is suddenly clearer. At least, I say, I’m not a Numen too pathetic to attack us with her own hands. A real God wouldn’t need hunters to kill us.

  But I’m not a God.

  My confusion has an audible sound.

  I am Discordia. Discord personified. Chaos in its purest form.

  The cold in my head becomes a heavier pressure, building and building until I can concentrate on nothing else.

  Thank you, Yasmin, Discordia rasps.

  An image flashes into my mind—da
rkness and light and unfamiliar faces—but Discordia moulds my thoughts until I’m too disorientated to understand it.

  The cold retreats. I’m left with an emptiness that has me shaking.

  I peel my eyelids apart to find the hunters dismembered, the beasts prowling with pride in front of their master. At the carnage, my body drops. My head collides with the ground. I cry out at a bolt of pain but my voice sounds alien.

  I’m as disconnected to my body as I am during the Change.

  “Don’t you dare go to sleep!” Guy’s voice is distant and angry. I attempt to open my eyes but it takes so much effort that I give up instantly. Stay awake, he yells inside my head.

  I have no desire to respond. I curl up on the floor and let go of it all. I don’t think about a thing, don’t worry, don’t care.

  The ground begins to quake and I reach out to Mavers but can’t put together a thought. All I can do is listen to his thoughts as he surveys the Academy.

  Discordia has vanished with Gateway Majick. Priscilla is missing. The hunters are nothing but bloody pulp. Rowan is inside with Fearne. Everyone else is safe. At the front of Mavers’s thoughts is a building crescendo of worry—for me, lying unresponsive on the cold, hard ground.

  I feel the tight grip of sleep pulling me under just as someone’s hand touches my face.

  “Yasmin, it’s over. It’s okay now.”

  But it’s not, I think with bleary confusion. I saw it in a flash of Discordia’s thoughts.

  The blackness seizes me and I’m left with one thought.

  Others are coming.

  END

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  Thank you for reading!

  I hope you enjoyed The Beast of Callaire. The next two Legend Mirror books are out now! Get alerted when new books release and receive a free Legend Mirror tie-in novella by joining my mailing list at https://bit.ly/1sDAugj

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Very book. Much accomplishment. Wow.