Claimed

by Sammie Joyce

  “What’s his name?” Rose whispered as they continued on past the dragon.

  “Jagger. I don’t know why you care—they’re all monsters. What they choose to call themselves is irrelevant.”

  Rose bit her tongue, which was still tender from all the tongue biting she’d been doing at Kaylee’s lecture earlier. She shrugged, hoping Annabelle would leave it at that.

  She didn’t. “These are the vile pieces of scum that murdered your aunt. I don’t understand how you can stand to look at them.”

  Rose was sincerely glad that witches couldn’t read minds. If Annabelle had any idea what she was thinking, she would report her to Kaylee in an instant.

  She decided to change the subject. “What will happen to Wendy?”

  “Idiot,” Annabelle muttered, rolling her eyes. “She should know better. But nothing will happen to her as long as she gets her attitude in line. She’s still new, and some mistakes are tolerated, though mistakes around how to view dragons don’t generally garner much tolerance. Too many people have lost loved ones to them to think it a laughing matter.”

  “What if she… disagreed… with what Kaylee was saying about dragons?”

  “What’s there to disagree with? It’s all cold, hard fact. Don’t worry, I know Wendy, at least a little. She doesn’t really desire dragons. It was just an ill-chosen joke.”

  “But what if she did desire them?” Rose pressed.

  “Such treachery would get her kicked out of the coven, at the very least. More likely, she’d be sent to the healers for curing and reeducation.”

  Rose stumbled, her extremities tingling in sudden fear. “Reeducation?”

  “Insanity isn’t common in witches, but it happens. If it does, we do all we can to help those people. Most of the time, potions and talk therapy are enough.”

  “And in the cases that they aren’t?”

  “The Greva coven has an infirmary where they house the insane of all three covens. We all contribute to support their efforts. I don’t think we have anyone there now, though. As I said, it’s not a common condition.”

  Rose was too afraid to say anything else. She’d always known that witches hated dragons; her mom had told her that much. What she hadn’t realized was how little any whiff of disagreement would be tolerated. She’d have to watch her step if she didn’t want to end up declared insane and confined to the infirmary.

  When they got to the dining room, Wendy was there, eating at a table on her own. Her face was red and puffy, and she kept her eyes on her food. Annabelle made to join Jade, sitting on the other side of the room, but Rose deliberately changed direction, sitting down right next to Wendy. Annabelle reluctantly followed.

  “Hey, Wendy. How are you doing?” Rose felt awful for her. She knew that Wendy hadn’t meant anything by her comment.

  “Okay, I guess.” Wendy shrugged. She looked utterly miserable. “I really messed up.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Rose struggled to find words to comfort her, since her own thoughts on the matter were unlikely to be comforting at all. She echoed Annabelle’s words on the subject. “You’re new here. Of course you’ll make mistakes. You’ve been reprimanded, and I’m sure you’ve learned your lesson. It’s okay to move on. This won’t define your life forever.”

  Wendy gave her a weak smile. “Thanks, Rose. You’re right. I think I’ll go apologize to Kaylee. Maybe she’ll let me rejoin class tomorrow.”

  Rose stared after her. As Wendy exited the room, Jade came to join them at their table. “How’s she doing?”

  “She’d probably be doing better if you weren’t treating her like a leper,” Rose snapped. “I’m sorry,” she said at once. “That was rude. I just don’t like to see people upset.”

  Her whole life, she’d done a good job of avoiding conflict, and the skills she’d learned held her in good stead now.

  Jade shrugged. “I’ll talk to her this evening. I just thought it best to give her some space to sort out her thoughts.”

  Rose stopped herself from biting her tongue just in time. If she wanted to have any taste buds left, she’d need to find a better way to keep quiet. Maybe tomorrow, they’d cover more magic and less history. She reminded herself how much of a difference magic could make to modern medicine.

  Surely, she could endure a bit of propaganda for that. After all, how long could Kaylee’s dragon hatred lectures possibly last?

  Chapter Five

  As it turned out, Kaylee’s dragon hatred lectures could last a while. Over the next week, Kaylee went on relentlessly about how evil dragons were and how important it was to hate them. After the first days, she seemed to run out of her supply of historical facts, after which the classes were all variations on the same things they had “learned” already.

  Rose learned to zone out and answer questions automatically. She knew that she’d just have to push through this part if she wanted to do well here and progress to learning about anything other than history. It wasn’t difficult to repeat what she’d been told when asked a question without really concentrating, which kept Kaylee and the others happy.

  It was easy to tell that Annabelle, Wendy, and Jade truly believed everything Kaylee was telling them. Rose sometimes wondered if she was fighting the inevitable, if she would eventually end up mindlessly hating dragons too, just like everyone else here.

  It would be a lot harder to hate them if they acted half as hateful as Kaylee said they were. The problem was, Rose saw them around the mansion all the time, and they didn’t act hateful at all. She never once saw them act anything but polite and deferential.

  Of course, that could easily be because they had no choice, but somehow, Rose didn’t think so. When she looked into their eyes, she just didn’t see evil. She saw people, just like her, like the other witches here. If a group of powerful people wanted to subjugate and kill her, she would fight them. That wasn’t really any different to the dragons’ resistance to their oppression from witches.

  The sound of jeering brought her out of her thoughts. Rose didn’t need to look up to know that they were passing one of the dragons. Annabelle, Wendy, and Jade all laughed and sneered at him as they passed. It was Asher, mopping the floors. He didn’t look up as they passed.

  Rose didn’t jeer at him, but she didn’t speak up in his defense either. She knew that such a defense would only succeed in getting her kicked out of the coven, but she still felt bad for not saying anything, no matter what her reasons were.

  As usual, she felt a jolt of desire as her eyes glided over his body. She’d had several more dreams about the dragons, dreams she’d gone to great lengths to keep from Annabelle, who always asked if she’d had a nightmare when Rose woke up covered in sweat and panting.

  Not willing to admit her continued weakness, Rose brushed her worries off, refusing the offer to have Maria work on a potion to help curb nightmares.

  The four of them went to the dining room for dinner together, as usual. Rose winced when she saw Jagger clearing away some plates not far off. A small group of witches shooed him away like a cur as he tried to take their plates.

  As he passed their table carrying three plates, Jade stuck out her leg, tripping him. Jagger had good reflexes and managed to regain his balance without falling, but one of the plates toppled to the ground. It didn’t break on the carpeted floor, but Jade didn’t seem to care.

  “Pick it up, you clumsy fool! Or shall I report you to Kaylee for slacking on the job?”

  Jagger was already struggling to balance the plates he had. Without thinking, Rose leaned down and picked up the plate on the floor, deftly putting it on top of his pile.

  “Thanks,” Jagger muttered without looking at her. He hurried off, his shoulders hunched.

  Jade turned her glare on Rose. “What did you do that for?”

  Rose knew exactly how to respond by now. “You want to eat with a dragon hovering around?” She gestured to her still mostly full plate of food. “It ruins my appetite, having to look at one of
them when I’m supposed to be eating. Best to get rid of him quickly.” It made her feel dirty, saying such things, but her response deflated Jade at once.

  “I guess you’re right,” she grumbled, picking up her knife and fork. “The less we see of them, the better.”

  “Why don’t you hire help, if you don’t like seeing them around?” It was something Rose had been wondering, and even though she knew her question would probably cause trouble, curiosity got the better of her.

  “I mean, look at this place. The coven can obviously afford it. We could simply keep the dragons in the dungeon, where none of us would have to see them, and let human help do the menial work.”

  “Believe me, it’s been discussed.” Annabelle shot a sour look at Jagger’s retreating back. “We’re still too junior to be a part of the debates, but there were a lot of arguments about the best way to handle it. Some people think the same as you—that it’s best for morale to keep them out of sight. We don’t need those monsters around every day, reminding everyone of what they’ve taken from us.”

  “Then why aren’t they locked in the dungeons twenty-four-seven?”

  “The senior coven members took a vote. In the end, they decided that it was too risky to do it that way for two reasons. One, though we have them under control, the dragons are still dangerous. We’re safer if we keep a constant eye on them, no matter how much we may not want to have to see them. Asking someone to watch them in their dungeons would be too much of a punishment, so we have everyone do it while they’re going about their tasks.”

  Rose supposed that made sense, with what she’d managed to pick out from their propaganda lessons. “What’s the other reason?”

  Annabelle got that look on her face that Rose didn’t like one bit—that vindictive, cruel look that only appeared when she was thinking about the dragons. Annabelle was usually a kind, lovely person, but once you got her started talking about dragons, Rose saw a whole other side to her friend.

  “We need to discourage any thoughts of rebellion. We need to keep them as downtrodden as possible. The Great Rebellion only happened because we weren’t hard enough on them. If we’d properly subjugated and tortured them before, they wouldn’t have even dared to think about rebelling. We all do our parts. At least, we’re all supposed to.”

  She frowned meaningfully at Rose. “Even new witches to the coven are expected to do their part in keeping the dragons down.”

  Though she didn’t say so, Rose knew that Annabelle was referring to the fact that she never joined in when she saw someone teasing or degrading the dragons in one way or another. While Rose was fairly confident in her ability to keep quiet about her disagreements with the witches’ views on dragons, she didn’t know if she would be able to actively participate in the abuse of their captives.

  Not wanting to discuss it, Rose did what she was becoming increasingly adept at doing—she changed the subject.

  “I saw Elaine practicing some kind of potion earlier today. Do you know what she’s working on?”

  Fortunately, Annabelle and the others let her avoid the issue of the dragons—for now.

  It seemed like her life at the moment consisted of avoiding things—her feelings and thoughts about the dragons, the questions and opinions of the other witches, even her family. Her dad had been too much of a coward to call her, but her mom had called several times. Rose ignored the calls. She was a long way from forgiving Alexa for forcing her into this madhouse.

  There had also been a couple of calls from college friends and professors. It was difficult to explain why she’d had to leave medical school when she couldn’t tell them what she was leaving to do. In the end, Rose cited financial problems in her family, which wasn’t entirely untrue—her parents had the money, but they had a problem letting Rose use it for medical school rather than becoming a witch.

  One of her professors had suggested a couple of possibilities for financial aid, but Rose had politely turned him down. As unsettling and frustrating as it was here, she’d never backed down from an academic challenge. Becoming a successful witch in this environment would certainly be harder than becoming a successful doctor. Rose was determined to get that much out of her coven experience—a mastery of at least some basic magic.

  The next day, she wearily headed toward their usual study room, ready for Kaylee’s usual lecture. Kaylee was waiting at the door. When Rose, Annabelle, Jade, and Wendy arrived, instead of gesturing them into the room, she pointed down the hall. “We’re going this way today, girls.”

  Wendy and Jade exchanged excited looks. Kaylee glanced over her shoulder as she led them down several flights of stairs. “I think you’re well versed enough on history for now, though we’ll certainly be reinforcing those lessons later. Today, we’re going to start looking at how to cast spells.”

  Rose’s heart leapt. This was what she was here for. “What will we be learning?”

  “The most important part of all magic—mastery and subjugation.”

  Her hopes dimmed. That wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear. “What… what does that entail?”

  Kaylee smiled at her. “You’ll see. You’ll like this, I can promise you that much.”

  Annabelle was grinning again in that way Rose didn’t like at all.

  The five of them came to what Rose recognized as one of the fortified rooms—fortified both with invisible spells and perfectly visible thick steel doors and barred windows.

  “Now, I’ll be teaching you a very basic spell to bring pain. As basic as it is, as your power grows, the amount of pain you can cause with this spell will grow too.”

  Rose was definitely not liking the sound of this. She liked it even less when they went into the fortified room to find Asher chained up in a corner—chained so thoroughly that he could barely move.

  Annabelle, Jade, and Wendy crowded eagerly around Kaylee, who had to use an arm to hold them back. “Careful, don’t get too close. Rose, step in a bit, dear, so that you can see better. That’s right.

  “Now, this is a relatively easy spell to work. You need to focus all of your energy on the subject before you. That will propel your magic at them. The incantation you use will direct what type of magic gets blasted at them—in this case, pain. The incantation for this spell is araivis.”

  Rose desperately wanted to stall. She didn’t want the first magic she learned here to be torture. “I don’t understand how it works, really. I mean, just focusing energy? Is there more theory to that?”

  Kaylee smiled indulgently. “There’s a lot of theory, most of which you will learn over the next couple of years. Basically, witches differ from humans in that we can focus our energy outside our bodies. Humans can only focus their energies inside their bodies—for example, lifting up a book by telling their brain to make their hand lift it. Witches can use our energy outside of the body, telling our brains to lift the book without needing to use our hands.

  “At first, it’ll be difficult, much as a baby struggles to lift up even small things. But once their hands become adept, they can grab random objects easily. The same with magic. It’ll feel clumsy and difficult at first, but if you focus on your objective, your magical energy will follow.”

  Rose nodded, caught up in the explanation. It made sense. Before she could think to ask another question to stall, Kaylee was already moving on.

  “Alright, Annabelle, let’s see what you can do.”

  Annabelle stepped as close to Asher as Kaylee would allow and lifted her hand out, her palm facing him. “Araivis.”

  Asher jerked as though he’d received an electric shock. He glared at Anabelle, but didn’t say anything. Rose moved a couple of steps back.

  “Very good, dear. Now, Wendy.”

  Wendy stepped forward eagerly. “Araivis.”

  Nothing happened. Wendy frowned and tried again. “Araivis.”

  This time, Asher winced slightly at the clearly painful, though weaker, spell.

  “That’s right,” Kaylee encouraged. “Try
to maintain your focus. You’re concentrating your energy very well, but you’re getting distracted by the incantation. It should come naturally and not let your focus wane.”

  Wendy nodded, trying again. This time, Asher cried out, stumbling slightly, though the chains kept him from moving.

  “Excellent! Jade, you next.”

  Rose felt sick. She knew that after Jade, she would be called upon to torture Asher. It took Jade a couple of tries, but she eventually managed to get Asher to cry out in pain.

  “Alright, Rose, you ready?”

  No, she wasn’t ready. “I… I’m not sure. I still don’t really understand how the spell works.”

  Her pathetic attempt at stalling backfired completely. “Of course, I realize this is all still new to you. Allow me to demonstrate what this spell looks like when done properly by a powerful witch. Araivis.”

  Asher screamed, his limbs jerking horribly as he tried to endure what was obviously excruciating pain. Kaylee’s glare pinned him down even as her magic had him shuddering violently. Blood started coming out of his ears. Asher’s screams pierced through Rose, and she found herself pressing her hands to her own ears.

  What seemed like an eternity later, it ended. Asher slumped to the floor, panting. Kaylee smiled brightly at Rose, as though she hadn’t just tortured a sentient being. “Once you fully master this spell, you’ll be able to put a dragon down all by yourself. Of course, it’ll take years of practice to get to this level, but you’ll get there. Now step forward, Rose. Don’t be nervous, dear, I don’t expect you to get it right on your first try.”

  Rose stepped forward on trembling legs. She held her palm out toward Asher, focusing her energy on him. She knew the incantation. It probably wouldn’t even work. She was still just learning. Kaylee would probably be satisfied with a failed attempt. In all likelihood, she wouldn’t hurt Asher.