Good Witches Don't Cheat (Academy of Shadowed Magic Book 2)

by S. W. Clarke

  “Enter Hell?” Eva’s soft voice said.

  “You have fine ears with which to hear, fae, and I don’t mask my words. You heard the prophecy. If the Shade isn’t slain before she comes unbound, the world won’t survive a second battle.”

  My eyes narrowed on her. “Unbound? No—she’s banished there.”

  “Yes, for now.” Farina’s head tilted, her eyes lifting to a grandfather clock beside the fireplace, as though it ticked in years instead of seconds. “But with each night she grows in strength, and more of her army floods to the surface upon the witching hour to claim humanity’s mages. It began two decades ago.”

  “Why?” I said.

  Farina’s eyebrows went up. “A fine question. Do you know, a more powerful witch never existed before her? She could not be killed—only sent away. It follows, then, that she would someday return. It simply took her five hundred years to amass the power to do so.”

  My gut twisted. “So she’ll crawl her way out.”

  “Yes, she will,” Farina said. “And she won’t be crawling when she emerges.”

  I stared at the book, at the illegible writing. “And this weapon is what the prophecy says can kill her.”

  “No.” Farina pressed her finger to the book, eyes on me. “The one who wields fire alone can kill her. But the weapon will aid you.”

  “A deception will claim the rod,” I repeated.

  “Good memory,” Farina said. “Very good.”

  I ignored her. “Where is this rod?”

  A thud shook the house, vibrating up through my feet. Eva’s teacup rattled on its plate, and every piece of glass and metal in the room jangled. Loki’s body appeared near my feet, pressing against my ankles.

  “Ah,” Farina said. “It seems they’ve finally arrived.”

  Aidan and I met eyes first. Then he cursed. “You’ve called the formalists?” he asked Farina.

  Eva gasped as the front door opened. Footsteps sounded in the hallway. “Gods. If they take her, they’ll never let her go.”

  Aidan came forward, grabbed my hand. “I shouldn’t have brought you here. We need to get back to the academy.”

  Farina stepped between us, her hand gripping my arm with unexpected strength. “Let go of the fire witch, grandson.”

  I tried to jerk away, but the woman’s fingernails dug in. “How about both of you back the hell off?”

  Aidan stepped forward, standing over the woman. His birthmark had gone red as a hot iron; for the first time, it seemed to glow. “Don’t make me.”

  “Make you what?” she spat up at him. “You’re the first North in a century born with the gift, and you’re too much a coward to use it. What a waste.”

  The gift?

  “Clementine Cole,” a woman’s voice said from the wide doorway. “As a fugitive of the state, stand where you are. If you use your magic, you will be charged with assault and we will be forced to subdue you.”

  Loki hissed at my feet, his back arching as he stared at the woman.

  Farina’s hand still gripped me, and I could only half-turn. Behind me, a woman in black uniform and boots stood with what looked like a nightstick fully extended in her hand. She was fielded by four others in the same uniforms.

  “What is this?” I said. “The mage police?”

  “They’re from Edinburgh,” Aidan whispered. “And they’ll imprison you.”

  “Prison?” I shot back. “I haven’t done anything.”

  “You’re a witch,” Aidan said.

  Before I could ask him what that was supposed to mean, the woman with the nightstick started forward, the other four following behind. “Do not move,” she said. “You will be restrained.”

  With a yell, Eva’s hands shot out toward them. A burst of air ricocheted around the room, throwing the guards aside.

  Eva was already airborne. She spun, her wings in motion, and shot a second blast of air at the windows behind us. They shattered entirely.

  Aidan pulled my hand. “Come on.”

  Farina held on tight, strands of her tight braids coming loose. “The world needs this witch,” she hissed at him. “The likes of you will not take her.”

  Aidan spun on her, anger flashing in his eyes. For a moment, his whole body seemed to tremble with it, and steam appeared at his neck, floating through the air.

  But he couldn’t. He couldn’t hurt her; I could see it in the pain on his face.

  I could, though.

  I threw up my free hand, flames already appearing at my fingertips. “Lay off, bitch,” I snarled, grasping her enormous and magnificent weave of hair.

  It lit at once, and Farina began to scream as her irreplaceable braid turned black.

  And me? I whistled for Loki, and the two of us followed Aidan through the broken window and into the back yard.

  We came into the pouring sunlight followed by yelling and footsteps cracking over glass. We dodged marble statues as we ran through Farina North’s sprawling patio.

  “Don’t stop,” Eva yelled, flying just ahead of me in the yard and spinning around to face them. “Aidan, get her to the veil.”

  Aidan hadn’t let go of my hand. I caught up to him without looking over my shoulder, Loki running beside me.

  Behind us, the wind picked up as Eva stirred up a vortex. She was a goddess amongst fae.

  We veered around the side of the house toward the driveway, and as we did, I caught sight of what had made everything in that house shake.

  “What the hell is that?” I said.

  “It’s what they’ll use to transport you,” Aidan said. “If they catch you.”

  Dead-center in the driveway sat what looked like a steel-reinforced shipping container. It didn’t have windows. It didn’t have an obvious entrance.

  I stared as we passed it. “How’d they get it here?”

  “They’re mages too, Clem,” Loki said beside me. “They airlifted it.”

  I couldn’t spare a glance at my cat, but I also couldn’t stop the intrusive thought: Why does everyone know about these formalists but me?

  A crashing sounded around the side of the house, and I glanced over my shoulder in time to see one of the marble statues crash against the high stone wall encircling the yard just before Eva appeared, flying straight at us.

  A moment later, the leader came around the house. Her nightstick was illuminated with crackling energy.

  “The gate’s guarded,” Aidan said. “Gods, they really want you.”

  Ahead, two formalists in the same uniform stood ready for us at the gate.

  “We can climb the wall,” I said, tugging Aidan toward the stone wall left of us.

  “No,” he said. “It’s topped with barbed wire, hidden under the vines.”

  I ground my teeth. “Your grandmother is really a piece of work.”

  “Aidan!” Eva called from behind us. “You have to use it. Get Clem out.”

  Use what?

  I stared at Aidan, who’d stopped us in the middle of the yard. Behind us, I could hear Eva trying to slow down the formalists. Ahead, the two stood with nightsticks extended and crackling at the gate.

  Loki stopped next to me, back arched, tail bushy. Ready to cut a formalist, whoever they were.

  Aidan’s breath came fast, his birthmark still red as hot iron. Still faintly steaming. He looked at me, eyes large. “If I use it, I can’t…”

  “Can’t what?”

  “Can’t control it,” he said, breathless.

  “They’re hemmed,” Farina North’s shrill voice came from the front door of the house. “The fire witch is in the driveway. Beware my grandson’s everflame.”

  The formalists at the gate started toward me, and I nodded at Aidan. I didn’t know what he couldn’t control, but I knew this wasn’t just his responsibility.

  It was mine, too. I’d asked over and over again to come here.

  The Spitfire’s head lifted in my chest as I dropped his hand and turned toward the two formalists on approach. “If you two take
one step closer, you’ll spend the rest of your goddamn lives pissing yourselves at the thought of fire.”

  They didn’t pause. They didn’t slow.

  Well, it was worth a try.

  I threw both hands out with a yell, and two cones of fire erupted from my fingers. They were wild, uncontrolled—just like Callum Rathmore had said all week. He’d awakened my anger, and now I could tap into my magic. But god, it was as potent as a firestorm.

  The grass blackened, the air billowing with heat, the two formalists disappearing behind the flames.

  A hand grabbed me from behind—Eva, her wings blurring to invisibility as she tried to lift me. She was too light, and I was too heavy. It wouldn’t work—

  But it did.

  She threw out her free hand, sending a massive surge of air into the ground and throwing us both up. Loki leapt, his claws digging into my skirt as he clambered up my body.

  Someone screamed. Maybe her, maybe me—maybe both of us. My only thought was of the barbed wire we were both about to be diced to pieces by.

  But that didn’t happen. By some miracle, we cleared the wall and crashed into the leafy branches of the nearest tree. She tried to hold onto me as we tumbled, but she only managed to break my fall enough that all my bones were intact by the time I hit the grass.

  Eva landed atop me, but that hurt less than falling through a tree and hitting the ground.

  I stared up at the branches, evaluating all the different pains I felt even as I tried to spot Loki. I sat up and found he’d leapt off me, standing with back still arched and tail as bushy as ever.

  “Aidan,” I said. “Aidan’s still in there.”

  Eva scrambled up and grabbed my arm at once. “He’ll be fine. Come on.”

  “Fine?” I said. “He’s stuck in there with all those freaks and his grandmother.”

  She pulled me to my feet. “Trust me,” she said. “He’s okay.”

  I stared at her. Whatever Aidan’s secret was, she knew it. I could tell she knew it.

  On the other side of the wall, a strange noise—like the cracking of bones, followed by Aidan’s strangled yell.

  Then that was cut off, and a roar followed. A plume of fire appeared above the wall, and the ground shook with thuds. Other voices yelled, screamed.

  Loki began backing up. “Clem…”

  Eva pulled me away. “Hurry.”

  I allowed her to pull me along, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the fire. There was so much of it. “They’ve done something to him,” I said, even as I turned around and began jogging with her. “We have to go back for him.”

  “No,” Eva said. “He’s done something to them.”

  We ran along the wall toward the lane where we’d come by. When we hit the edge of the trees, we stopped hard.

  The lane was occupied by an 18-wheeler with an empty bed. Someone still sat in the cab. Now I knew how they’d transported the container.

  Eva hissed, and we ducked behind a tree.

  “The truck’s on top of the spot, isn’t it?” I whispered.

  She nodded.

  “So we wait until it moves.”

  “No.” Eva straightened. “No way. We can’t stick around here.”

  I threw a hand out toward the endless woods. “Do you know of any other points of power around here?”

  Eva shook her head.

  Loki sniffed the air. “I smell it.”

  We both looked down at him. “What do you smell?” I asked.

  “Salmon. And hops.” He turned east. “There’s a pub through the woods, that way.”

  Eva and I met eyes. “Loki says there’s a pub,” I whispered to her.

  “We can’t very well go out into the lane,” she whispered. “And I don’t know any other direction to go. They’ll be searching the woods in a minute.”

  I glanced back at the wall. Smoke issued up into the sky, and another roar sounded on the other side, followed by the sound of metal clanging. It sounded like the shipping container had been tipped over.

  Eva had told me to trust her. She’d said Aidan would be fine.

  Trust wasn’t in my nature…but I didn’t exactly have a choice. Right now, things were happening around me that I didn’t fully understand. I needed to rely on Eva and Loki’s judgment.

  So together, we snuck through the woods away from the North estate.

  Chapter Eighteen

  We arrived in the village after ten minutes of picking our way through the foliage. No one spoke on the way—not until Loki brought us to an unmarked street, where a sign read Abridge.

  “There,” Loki said, facing a two-story building with a pub sign jutting over the entrance. “Knew I smelled salmon.”

  Eva stopped me before we stepped out of cover. “Hold on. We need to disguise you.” She reached into her backpack and began rummaging around. She pulled out her school cloak and handed it to me. “Wear this.”

  I slung it over my shoulders, and she pulled the hood up for me, tucking my hair back into its depths. “What about you?” I said.

  She removed a hairband from her backpack and pulled her hair back into a tight bun. A moment later, her wings magically disappeared from view. “This should do it for me. I’m not the one they want, anyway.”

  “Why do they…” I began.

  She shook her head, one finger touching her lips. “Let’s get indoors. We can talk then.”

  When we got onto the sidewalk, Loki began trotting toward the pub. He paused in the middle of the street and turned back when Eva didn’t move. And since I’d resolved to follow Eva’s lead for now, I hadn’t moved either. “Coming?” he asked.

  “That one’s for humans.” Eva turned a slow half-circle, surveying the other buildings lining the road. It was a quaint High Street with maybe a dozen businesses and little foot traffic at this time of day. A single compact car rumbled by, and we stepped onto the sidewalk.

  “Don’t we want a place for humans?” I asked.

  “No.” Eva took my hand and led us to a one-story building on the opposite side of the street. It appeared closed and shuttered, and a sign read For Lease in the window. “We want a place for mages.”

  “Ah, good catch,” Loki said as he came to the door beside us. “This one was well-hidden.”

  “Remember what I told you about the fae market?” Eva asked me as we stood in front of the building. “About belief?”

  I remembered. We’d come to an empty park that night, and she’d covered my eyes with her hands. She described the fae market for me in such perfect detail, I had no trouble imagining it. And when she’d uncovered my eyes, there it was.

  She stepped up to the door. “On the other side, there’s an inn. Right now, someone’s cooking an English breakfast. Can you smell the rashers, Loki?”

  His tail flicked. “I can hear the plates being washed in the sink, too.”

  “He says he hears plates being washed,” I said.

  “Good ear.” Eva knelt, opening her backpack. “It’s best if you get in for a bit.”

  Loki sighed, looked up at me. “Must I?”

  Eva tilted her head, understanding his body language. “I’m sorry. You’ll give her away otherwise.”

  Loki climbed into her backpack, and she slipped the flap back over and stood. “There’s an inn for mages past this door. But you won’t see it unless you believe.”

  I stared at her. “But how did you know anything was here in the first place?”

  Eva began pushing the door open. “Eventually belief becomes a part of you. You can pick out magic everywhere.” She took my hand again. “Pay attention, now. An English breakfast has rashers of bacon, baked beans, split tomato, mushrooms, toast. They’re all inside.”

  Bacon. Beans. Tomato. Mushrooms. Toast. I tried to imagine all of them in succession.

  I smelled the toast first. I loved toast as a girl—the more burnt, the better.

  And once I’d smelled the toast, the rest of it came barreling into my nostrils in succession. Plus th
e clinking of the dishware. And, as we came through the door, a man’s voice.

  “Hello there. Two of you, I see.” He stood behind a bar, coming around with a dishrag tucked into his waistband. He wasn’t much taller than me, brown hair wispy across his head. His cheeks were ruddy and warm. “What’ll do you?”

  “Do you have a room?” Eva asked.

  Around us, the inn had a dozen empty tables, a filtered light cast across them from the shuttered windows. In one corner, a staircase led upstairs…but this building didn’t have a second story.

  “For the night?” the innkeeper asked.

  “We’ll take it for the night, sure.”

  “Right, then. Inn’s empty, so you’ve got your pick. I’m cooking up a late breakfast-lunch for myself, so the kitchen’s open.”

  “We’d love two servings of whatever you’re having. Can we take it in the room?”

  “Of course.” He led us up the stairs to a hallway with four doors leading off it, explaining the details of where the bathroom was and when we’d need to check out. Then he brought us into a room with two single beds and an armchair by a window. “Will this do you?”

  “It’s perfect. Thank you,” Eva said.

  “Right, then. I’ll see to the meal and be back in a jiff.”

  When he’d left, Eva set her backpack down and let Loki out. He emerged from the tiny backpack with unexpected elegance, hopping onto the bed. When he had, he proceeded with a vigorous bath. “Ugh, I’ll never get off the smell of vanilla,” he muttered between licks.

  Eva dropped into the armchair with an enormous exhale. “Gods.”

  I went to the window, opening the curtains enough to see out over the street. “I’ve got about a hundred questions. But first”—I pointed through the window—“how the hell are we on the second story of a building with one floor?”

  As with all things, Eva’s explanation for our physics- and space-defying situation boiled down to magic. Apparently the second story of the building was invisible to regular humans.

  When the innkeep brought our meals on a tray with tea, Loki hid under the bed nearest me. Meanwhile, he asked questions as he laid out the spread on the small table beside the armchair.