I might have been stuck in mid-air with my legs dangling below me but that didn’t stop me from seeing something change in Ellinor’s face. Her eyes sparked with intensity. Only this time it wasn’t from anger. She studied Margaux with a fierceness I never wanted to behold or have looking directly into my eyes. Then again, this was Margaux Carville. The most powerful luxra witchling in France. I didn’t know the woman well but my instincts told me if there was one lady who could hold her own against Ellinor in a staring contest, she was it.
Ellinor let her magic seep back into her skin and took a few steps backward, falling in line once more with the vixra guards encircling us. The quiet rage I saw building up inside of her slowly dissipated. Then all at once, it evaporated as though it never existed. She didn’t soften and she certainly didn’t lower her guard. I could sense her magic still lingering on the surface of her skin, ready to defend her if anything didn’t go in a way she liked. Even so, something told me we had won the battle. But certainly not the war.
“So you see?” Adeline took Ellinor’s hands into hers, holding them as she dared to hope. “Margaux is herself again. The luxra from the Dolch Erbe’s inner circle no longer resides in her. The Northern Vontex, Riley, and Dean Everleigh freed her.”
Without breaking eye contact with Adeline, Ellinor lowered us all back down to the ground and released Margaux’s lips from her magic keeping them shut. I could move my arms and legs again. My feet settled peacefully back onto the ground, leaving my heart a few yards above me and threatening to drop down to the wet grass and shatter into little pieces.
“Lower your weapons,” Ellinor ordered the vixra guard.
One by one they lowered their swords and waited for further orders. Clara reached her hand forth. Her sword went flying back into her way with a wave of crowning magic. She stood and dusted herself off as she watched Rodrick with acute fascination. Then her eyes fell onto me. She grinned as though she immediately understood. Somehow, she knew exactly what I was. And with Rodrick being a Blackatter she could easily put the two together. A smirk crossed her face as quickly as it disappeared.
“Clara, Victor, stay behind,” Ellinor ordered. “The rest of you continue searching for Dirk Blackburn and Alina Sokolova.”
The vixra guard turned their backs on us. The hems of their long cloaks trailed behind them just barely grazing above the grass and making them appear as though they weren’t walking. They were floating.
Each one took their forefinger and dragged it down through the air before them, opening up vixra tunnels to return to their duties.
Ellinor let go of Adeline’s hands and rested them at her sides, clearly a bit embarrassed by how quick she was to judge but refusing to give Adeline a single inch of gratitude for stopping her. “You disobeyed me,” Ellinor said, keeping her voice calm and completely monotone.
“Would you rather I did as you ordered and let an opportunity like this pass us by?” Adeline argued. “We have a chance to avenge grandfather. Seize it with me.”
Ellinor stiffened, not liking that she was having to lower herself to agreeing but obviously intrigued by the prospect.
Meanwhile, my mind was a flurry of thoughts. I was right. Ellinor had lost someone to the Dolch Erbe. Her husband. The father of her children and Adeline’s grandfather. I suddenly understood why she looked at the five of us paralyzed in mid-air with such wrathful eyes. Only now I hoped she might be willing to direct that anger somewhere other than at me.
5
“Scatter this instant!” Rodrick shouted at the top of his lungs. “Anyone caught outside their dorm room within the next three minutes will be subject to disciplinary action!” He gave a nod to Professor Huxley. I could only assume it meant that Rodrick expected him to enforce what he said immediately because Professor Huxley rushed away in an instant. The remaining students in the courtyard ran off at the sound of Rodrick’s harsh tone. A tone I sincerely hoped I would never hear him use with me. And one I suspected came from a tinge of embarrassment at the entire student body seeing him paralyzed in the air by a powerful vixra witchling. It wasn’t particularly becoming of an authority figure.
I made the mistake of thinking once Ellinor saw the truth of what we managed to do for Margaux and the majority of the vixra guard were gone that the tension in the courtyard might lessen a bit. Well, the danger wasn’t quite so imminent but the tension certainly didn’t taper off.
“Puis-je parler?” Margaux spoke to my right. “Allow me to explain.” Margaux’s voice was a far cry from what it was in Rodrick’s study. She was submissive. If not downright subservient. Her life had been spared. She knew the vixra council probably wouldn’t have bat an eyelash if Ellinor killed her right then and there. And yet, here she was. Still standing and still alive. Minus one limb but she didn’t appear too concerned given her life had been handed back to her yet again.
“Which part?” The tone in Ellinor’s voice told Margaux to tread carefully. “The part where you refused to heed my granddaughter’s warning? She told you to flee France.”
Margaux took a small step forward with her head down, refusing to make direct eye contact with Ellinor. “I know I’m in no position to make requests or demands,” Margaux said softly. “I’m not even in a position to negotiate. But I’ve been given another chance and I wish to right the wrongs I caused. I can help to find Dirk and capture him. I know how it can be done. And I know what you’re planning. Let me help finish this.”
“And if I say no?” Ellinor said. “If I believe you’ve already placed too many people in grave danger?”
Margaux hesitated to speak. Then she took a deep breath and controlled whatever fear was lurking inside of her. She raised her chin and met Ellinor’s eyes. “Then you will have made your husband’s sacrifice worth nothing. His murderer will never be brought to justice.
Whatever was left of my heart after I plummeted down from being levitated in the air slowly pieced back together. And as it did, I felt a pain return to me that I hadn’t allowed myself to feel in weeks. Grief. I felt for Adeline for having lost her grandfather in such a way. I was far from the only one standing there who grieved for someone lost to the Dolch Erbe.
Ellinor stood there in silence.
Adeline was the first to break it. “What do you know?” she asked.
“I saw into many of the luxra’s memories,” Margaux confessed. “One in particular caught my attention and didn’t let go. The image of a powerful vixra witchling lying dead. Struck down with the svethulka by a French woman. She let me see the memory as if she was gloating. I could sense who he was. She wanted me to know. She let me see what she did. She was proud of it.”
Suddenly Ellinor’s blind rage made perfect sense. When she looked at Margaux and threatened to kill us all it wasn’t because we had offended the vixra council’s orders. It was because we helped the luxra of the Dolch Erbe’s inner circle escape captivity. And in doing so, we aided her husband’s murderer.
“Give my grandmother your terms,” Adeline said.
“She isn’t permitted terms,” Ellinor snapped.
“Yes, gran. She certainly is. Margaux isn’t a criminal. She’s a victim. No one has suffered from this experience more than her. She’s the one who was possessed this entire time. So please, Margaux, tell my grandmother your terms and what we need to do.”
Margaux stood up a little straighter and began speaking. “I know it requires a great deal of magic but I would appreciate the restoration of my arm. I will need both if I am to help find Dirk Blackburn.”
“Why is that?” Ellinor asked, clearly unconvinced.
“Because the luxra possessing me never took full control of my mind. She could keep me contained. She could keep me imprisoned where I couldn’t speak and couldn’t set myself free. But she couldn’t control what I did within the cage of my consciousness. I saw into her past. Her mannerisms, her history, and her desires. Including ones about the night the curse was cast over the Blackatters. I know exactly what the inn
er circle did to cast the curse. I know where and how they died. I know what the grandmaster is planning. And most of all, I know how to lure him in so he can be captured and defeated. We can make sure he never rises again and the entire Dolch Erbe is left in ruins with nothing left to cling to. But as I said, I need the full use of both my arms to properly use my magic. And even though I know it’s difficult for you, I need you to trust me.”
Ellinor stepped around Adeline and stood close enough to Margaux to feel the chill of her breath striking her cheek. I wondered if Margaux could feel the vixra magic pulsating through Ellinor like I had. If she did, she refused to show it. She stood her ground and stared right back into Ellinor’s eyes.
“If you’re lying, I will execute you before the vixra council.” Ellinor tilted her chin up, making sure Margaux knew her place even if she was bold enough to look her right in the eyes.
“I know,” Margaux said softly. “I wouldn’t expect any less.”
Ellinor reached down to Margaux’s side. For a brief second, I thought she might touch her waist. Far from it. She was letting her vixra magic do something I never saw before and certainly never thought I would witness. A ball of emerald green light erupted from her hand. Only it didn’t form the same usual spherical globe of light. It formed the shape of a hand with long slender fingers. The fingers molded into Ellinor’s hand as though it was holding hers right back in a friendly handshake. Then a wrist formed just above the hand, followed by the forearm, the elbow, and finally, the length of Margaux’s arm reached up and touched her shoulder, sewing into her skin and blowing back her hair from the breeze of Ellinor’s magic-wielding its power.
The entire courtyard lit up in a haze of green light, casting our shadows over the stone walls and leaving Margaux breathless.
The green tint to her newly formed arm dissipated and she was left with a limb more perfect than the one unceremoniously chopped off with a sword.
When Ellinor was finished, Margaux’s hand was locked inside of hers, shaking it as though they had reached an agreement.
Ellinor leaned in close enough for Margaux to hear. I barely caught wind of what she said with the help of my lycan hearing.
“Cross any of us before this is over and I will make sure you live long enough to regret it.” Ellinor’s grip clenched onto Margaux’s newly formed hand with enough power to make Margaux wince. “Now follow me. All of you.” Ellinor walked right by me and through the other side of the courtyard leading to the ceremonial room in the White Tower where my initiation ceremony was conducted. I could only imagine she wanted something a little more private.
Clara and Victor walked behind her with their long navy cloaks trailing at their heels, giving their steps an almost eerie motion as the hem drifted in the winter breeze.
Lothar, Jake, and Adeline were quick to follow. Rodrick, however, drew closer to me and made a face that said more than his words could. He wanted to know if I was alright. I gave him a small nod and he motioned for me to keep walking. He followed behind me until we were inside.
Once Rodrick was in behind me the large doors to the enormous ceremonial room slammed shut. Ellinor’s magic slithered over the door frame and sealed the cracks over the hinges, making sure no prying ears of lycan students could listen in.
“Bring forth the kruxa witchling, Dean Everleigh,” Ellinor said to Rodrick as her guards stood to her side.
Clara’s sized me up from where she stood as if she would survey me with her magic if she was given the chance. I looked away from her, doing my best to let her know that I couldn’t care less about her being there. I had bigger concerns. Or so I told myself.
“Lothar, would you be so kind as to get Nurse Roslyn from the infirmary,” Rodrick asked.
“No,” Ellinor said stiffly. Her expression hardened as though she had caught someone trying to keep a secret from her. “The other one.”
“There are no other kruxa witchlings currently residing at this academy, Mrs. Prescott,” Rodrick insisted.
Ellinor tilted her head and slowly walked toward Rodrick until they were only an arm’s length away from one another. “Do you truly pretend to be ignorant of her presence here? I could sense her reckless magic threatening to come barreling out the second we arrived.”
Rodrick shook his head. “I don’t know who you speak of, Mrs. Prescott.”
“You can’t expect me to know the names of all the students attending your academy, Mr. Everleigh. She was standing directly behind my guards several yards back. Her magic reacted once she felt my strength. Her fear was nearly as potent as the gold light igniting from her fingertips.”
My face contorted as the realization dawned on me. For the briefest moment, I thought I saw sparks of a glowing fire in someone’s hand in the courtyard.
‘She can’t mean… No. There’s no way!’
“McKenzie?” I muttered.
Ellinor turned around to face me. A consequence of speaking that instantly made me shut my mouth and wish I hadn’t let her name slip out.
“You know of her, Miss Blackburn?” Ellinor asked me.
I opened my mouth to speak. Nothing came out.
“You’ve seen her use her magic on academy grounds?” She pressed further.
“Umm… I’m not sure. I think I might have.”
“There’s only one way to find out. Bring her here.”
Rodrick motioned for Lothar to get moving.
Lothar muttered something unintelligible under his breath before walking away. And I knew why. McKenzie was blatantly obvious about her crush on Lothar from the second I arrived in her dorm room. She would trust him long enough to come to the ceremonial room over Jake. He would need to sound innocent about the whole thing up until the moment he handed her over to Ellinor.
Lothar moved toward the door and Ellinor opened it with her magic only to slam it shut behind him once he was gone.
Out of all the shocks I had that night, the single one I hadn’t prepared for wrestled back and forth through my mind. The whole time I had been living at the academy I thought I had been the one with the toughest secrets to carry. My brother had been possessed by an ancient evil and was trying to destroy my species, my father lied to me for years, and Alina was the prime suspect in my mother’s murder. And yet, I was far from the only one walking about each day with something intense pressing on me at night.
‘Is McKenzie really a kruxa witchling?’
I leaned up against a row of chairs with my arms folded over my chest as we waited. Ellinor stood by impatiently while Clara did her best to make eye contact with me. I refused to give her the satisfaction. Instead, I focused on Margaux and the relief painted over her face from having her arm fully restored. She quietly admired it, placing one hand over the other before her and tenderly feeling the skin on the back of her new pristine hand. She wasn’t the only one that was relieved. I knew if we managed to get her consciousness back that I had maimed her for life. Only I didn’t know the true power of vixra magic until that night. Ellinor restored her arm in its entirety. For a price, of course.
A knock came at the door and broke both Margaux and me out of our trances. Ellinor let the door creak open and a very frightened young woman walked through with her long blond curls bouncing over her shoulders.
Lothar wrapped a hand around McKenzie’s arm, forcing her forward despite her silent protest.
I had seen terror cross McKenzie’s face when I accidentally set our dorm room on fire. Or so I thought. She was doing her best to contain her nerves as Lothar brought her forward and the door sealed shut behind her, making her jump a little when the sound of Ellinor’s magic sealed the cracks so no one outside could hear us.
Lothar stopped her just short of where Ellinor stood.
McKenzie let her head drop into a small bow. She didn’t let her gaze come back up until Ellinor spoke to her.
“What’s your full name, young lady?” Ellinor asked.
“McKenzie Rose Winters.”
“Wint
ers,” Ellinor repeated. “You’re Kevin Winters daughter, are you not?”
McKenzie’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Yes,” she spoke softly. I could hear her heart hammering in her chest.
‘Why is she so afraid? I mean, Ellinor is intimidating but McKenzie isn’t being brought to the scaffold.’
“Why did you not inform Dean Everleigh of what you were the moment you arrived?” Ellinor asked. The sternness in her voice echoed from wall to wall of the large ceremonial room.
‘Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there is a scaffold waiting for her.’
“I wasn’t told it was a requirement.”
“Did you fear being cast out or that you would be judged for your father’s mistakes?”
McKenzie’s eyes wandered about the room. The girl I knew and thoroughly disliked wasn’t averse to attention. She wanted to be the smartest girl in the room. Not anymore. She was sweating. I could see the edge of her hairline getting damp from the stress.
“My… my father didn’t mean any harm,” she mumbled.
“Yes, I know. That didn’t stop him from living out the rest of his days in hiding, did it?”
‘The rest of his days? Does she have a mother? Is McKenzie an orphan?’
I made an even bigger mistake than choosing to believe I was one of the only students living at the academy with a large burden on her back. McKenzie had experienced the loss of a parent too. Maybe even both.
“Show me what you can do, young lady,” Ellinor ordered her before taking a generous step back.
I must have missed something because I was the only one standing there who didn’t immediately back up a considerable distance.
Adeline’s eyes locked on me, insisting that I move away. I did so and gave McKenzie plenty of room.
McKenzie brought her palm up and shut her eyes. When she opened them again a flare of bright gold light erupted from her palm and danced about her fingertips.
I had only ever seen Nurse Roslyn work her kruxa magic. She always seemed so composed. So in control. I realized quickly that Nurse Roslyn must have spent a great deal of time honing her magical skills. McKenzie wasn’t quite as well-trained, despite her education as a lycan.
Resummon: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 6) Page 5