Clash (Academy of Unpredictable Magic Book 6)

by Sadie Moss

  But it doesn’t matter.

  She never gets the chance.

  The demon snatches her, wrapping its talons around her shoulders and lifting her into the air.

  A scream is torn out of my throat as I reach for her, running, with Asher right at my back. I jump, but I can’t grab her in time. Maddy’s screaming right back for me, sounding scared, like a child all over again, and I’m running and running but I can’t fucking reach her.

  I can’t.

  She’s gone.

  Chapter 20

  No.

  No, no, no no no no no…

  I scream, except I can’t hear myself screaming. I can feel it, in my throat, rubbing raw, but it’s like all the sound has gone out of the world.

  Not Maddy, not my baby sister. She’s my only family, and I promised I’d always keep her safe, I promised.

  Asher’s arms wrap around me from behind, his touch the only thing that keeps me from flying apart. “We have to get the others, Elle,” he whispers. “It’s gone. The demon’s gone. We can’t catch it.”

  He’s right. I know he’s right. So even though a part of me wants to tear through the wilderness, gaze fixed on the sky as I just keep running, I don’t. I let Asher guide me back toward the small house in the clearing, supporting most of my weight as my knees keep buckling.

  As we near it, the front door opens and Cam rushes out. “Asher? Elliot?”

  I must really look like shit if he’s calling me by my real name. He runs up to me, grabbing me by the shoulders and tugging me from Asher’s embrace. “Hey, hey, Elliot, what’s wrong?”

  Words are nearly impossible. I try to breathe, and the air seems to get stuck in my throat. I try a few more times and finally get something out. “Maddy,” I manage. “Maddy—”

  Cam looks behind me and seems to realize that Maddy isn’t with us anymore. He pales. “Oh, shit. Is she caught in a trap? Did a…” He lowers his voice so Liam can’t hear him use the annoying word. “…zombie get her?”

  I shake my head. God, I want to cry—no, I’m already crying. I’m a goddamn mess, but I can’t be a mess, I have to be strong. I have to get Maddy back. He took her. He fucking took her. And I’m going to kill him for it.

  “It was Agustin,” Asher says grimly, stepping up beside us. “He sent a demon, and it got Maddy. It carried her off.”

  Cam’s eyes bug out of his head, and although he’s usually the most cheerful and upbeat of all my men, for a moment, a look of pure anger crosses his features. I recognize the emotion because it’s what’s boiling me alive from the inside out.

  “Guys!” he yells as he starts to help me back into the house.

  Everyone is already on their feet when we enter. When Maddy, Asher, and I left, Dmitri was sprawled out on the couch, napping, Justin was doing something with Liam, and Roman was reading a book upstairs in the loft, but I guess the sounds of my yells or the tone of Cam’s voice has made them realize something’s wrong.

  “What happened?” Dmitri snarls, immediately heading for the front door, ready to take on all attackers.

  “Maddy,” Asher says, his voice quiet. “Something got Maddy. Agustin, he took her.”

  “What?!” Justin strides for the door too, hot on Dmitri’s heels, and Roman has to snatch him by the back of the shirt collar like he’s a disobedient puppy.

  “Dmitri, get back here.” Roman’s voice is strained. “There’s no use, he’ll be long gone. We can’t lose you too.”

  Dmitri stops in his tracks. He glares out at the woods, then slams the door shut.

  Liam tugs on his beard, looking frustrated and tired. “What happened?”

  I meet the grizzled man’s gaze. Cam still has his arm around me, and it’s the only thing keeping me grounded to the world.

  “He sent a demon,” I say, trying to keep myself under control as I force the words out. “We thought it was just one, and we took it down, but there was another one we didn’t see. It dove out of the sky. It was aiming for me, but she pushed me down, and it got her—it got Maddy, he has her—he has Maddy—”

  I start to lose it again, and Cam gets me over to the couch and sets me down. Asher sits next to me and takes one of my hands. “Hey, it’s okay, this isn’t your fault.”

  “It should have been me,” I manage to get out. Ugh, I’m such a mess of snot and tears. “He was after me, not her!”

  “You are the weapon he needs,” Liam argues. “Maddy did the right thing making sure you were out of his grasp.”

  “Dammit, I’m not a fucking weapon!” I scream. I’m on my feet before I even realize I’m moving. “I’m a person! Maddy’s a person! I don’t care about whether it was a good fucking war strategy! We’re not just numbers on a map! This isn’t Risk!”

  “We gotta do something, right?” Justin asks, his voice cracking a little. His gaze darts from Liam to Roman and back again, evidently deciding that they’re the people who have their shit most together in this situation. “We gotta get her back. We can’t let her stay with him; we can’t let him have her.”

  Liam and Roman look at each other, and I can see that they seem to be having one of those longstanding silent arguments—the kind that you can only have with someone you’ve known intimately for a long, long time. Mom and I used to have those kinds of arguments in front of Maddy, especially right when Mom first got sick and I wasn’t handling it very well.

  “Of course we’ll get her back,” I say, my voice firm. I glare at all of them in turn, as if any of them would possibly contradict me on this. The guys love Maddy like a sister. “We’re definitely getting her back.”

  Justin looks slightly comforted to hear me say that. I’m glad he cares so much, because Maddy deserves someone who will fight to make sure she’s safe, but I’m not really… capable of telling him that at this exact moment. The world is still topsy-turvy, and I still feel like I might do something stupid like faint from a lack of oxygen. Or storm the High Circuit and challenge Agustin to a death match.

  “Get her back? And how exactly do you plan to do that, hmm?” Liam asks, his eyebrows rising as if he knows exactly what I’m thinking. “Your training isn’t complete yet, and he holds the cards. You’re the one with something to lose, not him.”

  No. That’s not true. Of course Agustin has something to lose. His power. The power he’s clung to so desperately since he was a child. The power he stole from dozens, maybe even hundreds of other Unpredictables.

  I freeze, a half-formed thought growing in my mind. His power…

  That has to be the key to all of this.

  The panic finally starts to fade, and I sink back down onto the couch. Asher gets up and comes back a moment later with a glass of water and some tissues for me. Ideas are starting to form in my mind, determination at last cutting through the chaos of my panic attack.

  Okay. Okay. You can do this. Breathe, Elliot, fucking breathe. You’re getting Maddy back no matter what.

  “Let’s check in with Josephine and Brodie. They need to know what’s going on,” Roman says, with a final stern look at Liam, who shoots an equally stern look right back at him.

  Roman’s the only one in our group who calls Tamlin by her first name. I mean, at this point I probably could too, but I’ve just gotten so used to calling her by her last name as my professor that now I can’t think of her any other way.

  Liam nods curtly. He breaks his silent stare-off with Roman and brushes past Dmitri to head out the front door, I assume to the training barn.

  Cam and Asher give Roman a questioning look. Dmitri finally shuts the front door and walks back over to sit on the coffee table in front of me.

  Roman sighs. In answer to Cam and Asher’s unspoken questions, he says, “Liam and I parted ways when I was an adult, not just because I had to go to Griffin, but because he and I disagree about some things. He’s pragmatic, and sometimes that’s a good thing, but he can be that way to a fault. I didn’t agree with his emotional detachment, and I didn’t agree with the risk to
people’s lives that he would sometimes take. He thought I was too emotional, too soft, and that my sentimentality would allow for whoever we were up against to win. I felt that my morality, and compassion, shouldn’t be sacrificed in the name of the ‘greater good’.”

  I’m with Roman. Sure, Liam’s point has merit, I guess, but with my sister’s life in the balance, I don’t give a shit about pragmatism.

  Maybe it would be a smarter move tactically to not go after her, but fuck that. If we don’t fight for the people we love, then how are we better than the person we’re supposed to be fighting? Agustin doesn’t care about anyone. We have to care.

  “He’ll be fine. He may disagree with us, but he won’t try to stop us.” Roman’s voice holds a hint of sadness. He glances at the front door once more, then shakes his head, turning his attention back to us. “I’ll get the tech, we’ll check in with the others.”

  He heads up to the loft to grab his cell phone and the enchantments that give it enough juice to make calls out here in the wilderness. Tamlin answers quickly, and she and Brodie have somewhat good news for us, at least.

  “The sentiment toward Unpredictables is changing fast,” Brodie says, the words all coming out in a rush.

  “Public opinion is heavily in our favor,” Tamlin adds. “Agustin’s attempt to portray his takeover as a peaceful one is crumbling, and people see us as their last hope.”

  “Not sure I’d call us the saviors they’re saying we are.” Brodie huffs out a breath. “We’re just human, same as them. But I suppose it’s better than having them see us as something to be gotten rid of.”

  I’m not comfortable with this hero idea either, and I hope Unpredictables don’t let it go to their heads. Agustin’s hero complex is what got us into this whole damn shit-show in the first place. We’re normal people, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted us to be seen as—members of the community just like any other magic users, not special in a bad way or a good way, not people to be demonized or worshipped.

  Just. People.

  “Yes,” Tamlin agrees. “Hardwick’s campaigning has...”

  She keeps talking, but the words suddenly start to sound like they’re coming from miles away, down a long tunnel that makes them muffled and distorted. The whole room has suddenly gone a bit fuzzy.

  And then I feel something, like a snake, brushing up against the edges of my mind.

  Agustin.

  Oh, fuck.

  I grab onto Asher’s wrist, channeling his power as I throw my shields up. Walls and walls and walls, a maze of my own design, locked doors and barriers, all forcing Agustin out.

  “I’ll go talk to Liam,” Roman says as the call ends. I don’t think he’s realized what’s happening.

  Asher has. He’s staring at me intently, and I wonder if he’s getting ready to shield me himself if my own shields don’t hold.

  As Roman leaves, the others look at me, and I see their expressions shift as they realize something is wrong.

  “He’s… trying… to get in,” I manage. It’s hard to talk, hard to think about anything other than keeping my shields up.

  I can feel Agustin pacing outside on the edges of my mind, like a ghost, just waiting for something in my defenses to slip and fall.

  “He’s not… going away,” I grit out through my teeth, clenching Asher’s hand so hard it hurts.

  “Agustin?” Cam’s face goes still, his cheeks reddening.

  Dmitri looks like he wants to smash something.

  I nod, the movement jerky.

  I know I shouldn’t let him in. I shouldn’t. He could take me over.

  But he’s coming to me right after he took Maddy. That means he knows he got the wrong girl, but he also probably knows he managed to snatch up the person who’s most important to me in this world. Doesn’t take rocket science to figure out my only sibling is someone I’d die to protect. So he’s probably here to gloat about her capture or make demands in exchange for her return.

  Or to tell me she’s dead.

  No. No. I can’t even think that.

  But I have to know.

  “Asher?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m going to lower my shields. Just a bit. I need to ask him about Maddy.”

  Cam and Dmitri share an alarmed look. Asher chews on the inside of his cheek and taps his fingers on his thigh, thinking, weighing the pros and cons. He’s the mind expert. If he says it’s too risky, I’ll probably have to listen to him. Probably. But if he thinks it’s all right…

  Finally, he relaxes a little and nods once. “I think it’s worth the risk. We need to know what he wants. And I’ll be right here,” he promises me.

  I nod back. Dmitri glowers at both of us, his jaw clenching. “I say it’s too big a risk.”

  “You’re not the one taking the risk,” I point out, letting go of Asher’s hand to reach for Dmitri as I look up at him pleadingly. I’m not going to let him stop me from doing this, but I want him to understand. “I am.”

  I know that if Agustin does take my mind over, I’m risking more than just myself, but we’re prepared this time. Asher’s ready to shield my mind and take me over like he did before if Agustin gets a hold of me.

  Dmitri’s whole body is tense, his muscles as hard as a block of granite. “Fine. But be fucking careful, Princess. Please.”

  Bracing myself, I open up my mind—just a little bit, like opening a single window in a boarded-up house, but it’s enough to let Agustin get a peek in.

  Where’s Maddy? I ask loudly inside my head.

  For a moment, there’s just silence, and then I can feel him chuckling. I don’t hear it; it’s not a sound. It’s more like I’m chuckling, but my body isn’t actually moving.

  Safe and sound for now, I assure you.

  I take a few deep breaths. Dmitri has one of my hands gripped in his, and Cam takes my other, while Asher rests a reassuring palm on the back of my neck. A reminder that he can stop this anytime, that he won’t let Agustin take me over again.

  Tell me where she is, or I’m going to rip you limb from limb, I tell Agustin. God, I hope he can feel how much I mean it.

  Ah, Miss Sinclair, that’s not the kindest way to talk to someone who has your sweet sister in his clutches, is it?

  My stomach flips over on itself, making me feel like I’m going to throw up, but I try to stifle my fear. I don’t want him to know how truly terrified I am.

  You realize you sound like some over-the-top Bond villain, right?

  How about this, Agustin thinks at me. I’ll give you back your sister. Safe and sound. Not a scratch on her. If you give me, well, you.

  Is this the part where I’m supposed to be glad you want to keep me alive instead of just stealing my power?

  If Agustin wanted to take my power, he’d kill me. No doubt about it. I guess he’s figuring that using a second body as a puppet has more value to him—at least for now—than killing me outright and having to deal with wielding all his powers plus mirroring other people’s at the same time.

  Seeing as I’ve been struggling just to mirror two powers at once, I can somewhat agree with his logic. Except for the part where, you know, I’d be under his control for the rest of my life.

  That part, I have a slight problem with.

  You’re the last real power I need, Agustin tells me. Forget the others. With you by my side, I could have my powers doubled. Who knows. I might even let you see your sister from time to time.

  But you’d let her go? You promise? She would be freed, safe and unharmed?

  Agustin projects a magnanimous air that makes me want to wring his neck. You have my word, Miss Sinclair.

  My gaze flicks to Asher. I can feel him inside my head too, poised and ready to put up the shields if he needs to, but I can’t tell if he can hear this conversation. I’m not sure what the rules are for mentally eavesdropping when one person is inside the head of another person.

  I hope he can though. I need him to protect everything in my head exc
ept the thoughts I’m deliberately feeding Agustin. Because an idea is forming in the back of my mind, and I can’t let that asshole know what it is.

  Fine, but we’re doing the trade-off where I want to.

  I can feel Agustin mulling that proposition over, turning it around in his head like a smooth pebble.

  Very well. There’s an indulgence to him, a smugness, like he knows he’s won, so it’s no matter for him to let me have this one little thing. Where would you like to make the exchange?

  Griffin Academy. I answer immediately. I don’t even have to think about it.

  His chuckle resonates in my head again, his sense of indulgence increasing. He thinks I’m being nostalgic, that I’m doing this out of a fondness for the place.

  If he honestly thinks I’d just pick something out of pure emotion and not for any other reason, then he clearly doesn’t know me all that well. You’d think he would by now, since I’ve gone up against him several times over the past couple of years. But then again, he’s so hugely egotistical he probably can’t stand to think about anyone besides himself for that long.

  On the other hand, I am choosing to put myself and the rest of the magical world—and hell, even the non-magical world—at risk just to make sure my sister is safe, so maybe he’s got a point in thinking I act on emotion more than logic.

  But it’s too late to change course now.

  Very well. Victory swells inside Agustin’s consciousness, like he’s already won. You have twenty-four hours.

  And just like that, he’s gone.

  Chapter 21

  My head feels blessedly empty without Agustin in it.

  The four men gathered around me are silent, watching me intently. I think Asher can tell that Agustin’s gone, but the other three can’t. Justin looks nervous, like maybe someone’s going to need to snap me out of it, like I’m in a trance. Cam and Dmitri are boring holes in the side and front of my head, respectively, watching me.