Resummon: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 6)

by Shawn Knightley

  Something wasn’t right. My lycan senses could tell.

  “Quiet,” she said harshly as if she was speaking down to me.

  The light of the tunnel behind us slowly sealed shut. I didn’t hear footsteps come out of it. Which was probably for the best. Adeline and Rodrick were already concealed with her spell hiding them.

  In the end, it wasn’t them or Margaux pretending to still be possessed that ended up looking conspicuous. It was me. My magic erupted all over my right hand, forcing Margaux to let go of my wrists with a quiet yelp as the crimson light singed her skin. It traveled up my arm like a snake climbing over the tatters of my leather sleeve. I brought both my hands in front of me, silently scolding myself as it tried to warn me of danger.

  ‘Why didn’t I think of this? I should have known this would be a problem.’

  “Get control, Riley,” Rodrick fretted not far behind me.

  “No need for that,” Margaux said in a monotone voice as if nothing the least bit alarming was happening.

  Margaux punched me in the back so hard with her fist that I gasped. My back arched and I battled the urge to cry out from the searing agony crossing over my back and seeping into my chest. The sharp stabbing pain where my spine snapped returned like a tidal wave of rocks hurdling at me all at once.

  “No!” Rodrick cried.

  Adeline must not have cast the spell more than a couple of yards surrounding the two of them because before I knew it Rodrick had shifted into his lycan form. He was running in my direction and reared up on his hind legs with his enormous fangs snarling down at Margaux and his claws ready to slash down at her slender frame.

  I was wrong. Margaux didn’t punch me. As my limbs slowly went still and I couldn’t get them to move I knew exactly what had happened. She stabbed me in the back with a magical dagger. My body was completely paralyzed in a matter of seconds.

  She withdrew the dagger and let my body sink to the cold hard cobblestones with nothing to see but the clouds moving across the darkened sky and speckles of snow dusting my face.

  Rodrick must not have made it to Margaux because I heard him roar into the air. There was a flash of bright emerald light and a crash onto the ground. Adeline did something to him. Only I couldn’t see what.

  “I’m sorry, Rodrick,” she apologized. “It has to be this way. I knew you wouldn’t approve.”

  Rodrick roared into the air. I could hear his large lycan form snapping and breaking as his body shifted back into his normal state. Only it wasn’t of his own free will. Adeline was forcing it.

  “Go, Margaux,” Adeline said to her.

  Before I knew it my body was being levitated in the air by a sparkling haze of cobalt blue magic wrapping around my form and holding me up horizontally. My body weighed nothing. My limbs weren’t mine to control. Whatever Margaux was doing, Adeline seemed to be alright with it. So much so that she didn’t tell me this was apart of the plan.

  “Adeline, what have you done?”

  11

  The stunning beauty of the buildings painted in shades of yellow, orange, blue, dazzling with hundreds of windows and the intricately carved Rococo-style palace in the square did nothing to make me feel a sense of beauty or comfort. There was only that ominous sky staring down at me as the flesh in my back stitched itself back together.

  The magic from the dagger Margaux stuck right into my spine, however, didn’t heal. I was still paralyzed. The only thing I could move was my eyes. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to see her potentially hand me over to the grandmaster.

  ‘Was Lothar right? Was this whole thing only going to get me killed?’

  My hair fell behind my head as Margaux glided my body gently through the frigid air. I saw her change from the corner of my eye. She evaporated into a stunning swirl of light as if she was composed of nothing but dust. And I evaporated along with her.

  I remembered the way Daniella made a dramatic exit after she was done spying on Rodrick and me at Musée D’Orsay. It was easy to suppose who taught Daniella that trick.

  My skin tingled all over as prickles wafted through my muscles and tendons. Even as she took me into the sky and we both flew over the city in what must have looked like a tornado of sapphires dancing in the wind I never felt like my body was broken apart. At least not like it did when I was shifting. The spell was an illusion of some kind. A way of getting from place to place like the vixra tunnels. Only less powerful and not nearly as fast.

  We crossed over the river with Gothic sculptures guarding the bridges. The dampness in the air passed through my clothes and struck my skin, forcing the tiniest hairs on my body to stand up and reminding me that I was indeed alive. In some form.

  The essence of my body floated back down to the ground. Only after I saw spires appear in the distance beside me did I catch wind of where she was taking me. I had only ever seen pictures of it in books but it was difficult not to recognize it.

  Prague Castle.

  Margaux must have set up a different meeting place with Dirk that none of us knew about when she contacted him with the enchanted candles. Only Adeline was in on it. But why? What were they planning? Had I been betrayed? Did Adeline give me one final look over because she knew it would be the last time she ever saw me? Did Ellinor demand she do something else and not to tell me? Nothing was beyond my imagining after the level of betrayal I had experienced over the last few months.

  My body materialized with a sudden snap. My face was still frozen. I couldn’t move my head to look from right to left but I knew my body was visible again. The area surrounding us turned a dark shade of gray. Margaux was casting another shadow charm to keep us hidden.

  My body stopped just short of touching the ground. I was high enough for my hair not to graze the cobblestones but low enough for Margaux to look down at me. I heard the click of her black heels over the cobblestones as she materialized next to me. Her body came together in fragments. Almost as if I was watching dust particles collide until they formed Margaux’s womanly frame. She approached me with a wicked smile on her face. One that resembled the expression she held when possessed a little too closely.

  My heartbeat quickened, making the ache in my back that much worse.

  “Not to worry,” she said to me in French. “The grandmaster will be delighted to see you.” She clasped her hands behind her back and waited expectantly.

  Had I failed? Maybe the luxra never really left her body. Did it escape the crystal and possess her again? Maybe the luxra from the Dolch Erbe’s inner circle was just a good actress. What if it never really left her? If that was the case, my hope of rescuing my brother was a fool’s errand. It was a trap all along. There was nothing I could have done to stop it.

  I could see the edges of the courtyard along with the towering spires of St. Vitus’s Cathedral to my left. It was empty. Or if it wasn’t Margaux managed to make us hidden to all on-lookers. The area was veiled with a hue of gray, making any vibrant color from the surrounding architecture dull and ominous as they surrounded us with a towering height.

  Margaux tried to bring a single finger up to my face to pull away a loose strand of hair. She didn’t get very far. My magic was still covering both my hands and moving steadily up to my shoulder, doing its best to warn me of impending danger. I tried to get control of it only to make Margaux get the hell away from me. My magic must have been on the same page because the second she touched the lock of hair on my forehead it zapped her new hand, leaving a burn over her delicate fingers. She cried out and stared at me with hatred filling her cat-like eyes. Then for a second so brief that I couldn’t be sure if I missed it, her brows furrowed as if to remind me that I had a role to play.

  I blinked in confusion. Margaux revealed herself in a single second. I caught a glimpse of her true self. I had to look like a victim. A prisoner. Margaux must have known that carting me over in her arms and pretending as if I was her hostage wasn’t going to be enough. This was the only way to make our plan look believable. The added eff
ect of my heart racing and the connection I shared with my brother would make it look more realistic. I had to be caught unaware.

  If I was right, I couldn’t let myself panic. At least not yet. A twinge of prickles erupted in the little finger on my right hand. My body was slowly absorbing the paralysis magic from the dagger. I had to continue to be under her spell. And most of all, I had to find a way to use the magic inside my bracelets along with the vixra magic from Adeline’s blood just the way Rodrick taught me. By projecting it out of my body with no one seeing it.

  I was slowly lowered to the ground. My eyes darted from right to left. I had to get a sense of my surroundings without revealing that I could move.

  Margaux gave me a light kick in my side. There was no hiding it anymore. My body crunched over from the strike of her high heels. My knees could bend. Then my hips.

  The light pink and ivory buildings with white trim surrounding me formed one massive courtyard. There was a pillar behind me and the enormous stone cathedral with a turquoise spire towering high. It was the sort of royal Bohemian courtyard that I could imagine nobility walking through during a different time. Only now it served as a place where I may have come to die.

  “Wake up, petite chienne,” Margaux said to me as she gave me the full force of her heel into my ribs.

  I groaned and rolled to my other side, finally able to move my hands. I guarded my ribs so I could block her if she tried kicking me again. She tested my stamina by kicking me in the back right where my spine had broken. The question of whether my body had fully recovered yet was answered when the same explosive throbbing erupted throughout my back and into my legs. Only this time, I could still feel them. I could feel everything.

  The courtyard lit up in a haze of cobalt blue. My eyes widened once I realized what she was doing. Just like we practiced, she started torturing me with her magic. Only this time, she didn’t hold back. Adeline wasn’t there watching. Or if she was somehow, she kept her traitorous mouth shut. My mouth opened to scream but not a single sound escaped. It was the sort of pain that leaves one breathless. I thought my body might go into shock. I was convulsing. Thousands of volts of electricity jolted over my skin and into my bones, making my jaw tremble and my teeth rattle before I clenched my jaw to make it stop. When she finally let up, I let out a pitiful cry. There was no need to act. I felt broken.

  ‘She’s trying to activate the link between Dirk and me. Does he even know I’m here? Was she lying this whole time about him meeting us?’

  My question was answered when I heard footsteps approach us. The heavy stomp of leather boots walking slowly over the ground was the least of my concerns once the air surrounding me lit up in blue once more. I waited for the inevitable pain that followed.

  I grit my teeth, doing my best to bear it as the heat of her magic traveled right into my heart and lurched out through the rest of my body. Swirls of blue light danced around me as if she was teasing with a light display, making me a source of entertainment for the grandmaster.

  Then he was there. The grandmaster, my brother, stood in the shadows. I saw the face appear through the dim moonlight that I hadn’t seen since he left a scar cascading down my cheek.

  “Come collect your prize,” Margaux said to him as the grandmaster appeared from the shadows of the cathedral.

  He walked up to the two of us like a spirit drifting through a mist. I could tell from the way he walked that my true brother was nowhere to be found inside the body that was only his in appearance. If he was there at all, he was buried deep inside his body. His prison. My true brother would never look down at his sister with an expression of satisfaction as I lay in a pile of shattered dignity.

  My head rolled to the side as I tried to gain a closer look at him. Which turned out to be a bad idea because Margaux had done sufficient damage. My body was healing from the paralysis but still trying to catch up from her kicking me.

  The grandmaster looked the same as the brother I knew growing up. And at the same time, he looked like an entirely different person. I could see the brands the grandmaster possessed proudly displayed on his hands through a tailor-made black coat and white shirt. A high stature look that never would have appealed to my brother. Whoever the grandmaster was, he obviously thought of himself as half barbarian and half posh. He achieved neither. He looked like a relic. A man not of this time or of this world. He simply didn’t fit.

  The grandmaster kneeled beside me. My magic was far too busy trying to heal me to be of any use. It couldn’t even warn me anymore. Not even when he took one hand and let it slide down my cheek as if he was admiring a priceless jewel. One he had searched everywhere for centuries but never found. Until now.

  ‘Remember what Rodrick said! Gather your magic. Project it where they can’t see it!’

  I focused as hard as I could. The harder I tried, the more it sparked from my hands, neither going invisible or projecting away from me.

  The grandmaster snickered at the sight before him. A Blackatter desperately trying to defend herself even when the game was clearly lost.

  A single face came to my mind as the grandmaster sized me up, examining my body for its faults and virtues. Finally, he gave Margaux a single nod and rose back up to his feet. I got the feeling that he didn’t find me wanting in any way. I was the perfect body for his sister to occupy until their work was done.

  “She will do perfectly,” he said in a deep voice that didn’t suit him. So often I tried to help my brother form words so people would understand him better. Now he spoke with perfect fluency. Somehow, the grandmaster found a way to use Dirk’s magic to restore his hearing. “Well done.” His voice was calm, steady, and most of all austere. “We need to get her to the ritual site right away. There’s no time to waste. I want my sister back before dawn.”

  My heart sank to the deepest confines of my stomach.

  ‘Adeline, Rodrick, where are you? This isn’t happening!’

  Did they abandon me? Was the grandmaster really going to get away with taking me to the ritual site and possessing my body with his sister’s spirit?

  I would be a prisoner inside my own mind. And unlike Margaux, there would be no way out. Especially if he had the Sorlin-Vontaine protecting him.

  My eyes locked on Margaux. I searched her face for another sign. For anything! The smallest indication that this was all a part of her secret plan that she apparently let Adeline in on and no one else. I thought I saw one seconds ago. I was sure of it. Only now I wondered if I imagined it. There wasn’t the slightest hint that the Margaux I saw slowly regaining her pride in Rodrick’s study was still there. Or the Margaux whose eyes lit up at hearing Alexei had come all the way in the lycan realm to reunite with her. Or even the Margaux that threw a table across the room with her magic. There was only a steady indifference in her eyes when she looked down at me.

  She took out a small object from a pocket in the folds of her long skirt. I recognized it instantly. It was the same device Lothar used on me the night we met. In the blink of an eye, it shot locksin through the air. It wrapped tight around both my wrists and ankles, sparking at my skin and causing me to yelp at the sharp snaps of electrical fire. I was trapped. And unless I got control of my magic in the next few seconds, the grandmaster would have his way. I was weak, I was bruised, and my magic was too preoccupied with healing me from the damage Margaux caused to give me enough strength to stop him.

  “Let us go then,” Margaux gloated as she forced my body to lay flat and face the sky once more with the point of her high heel in my ribs. “I don’t want any chance for a disaster this time.”

  12

  Blinding light invaded my sight. I shut my eyes and still saw the light exploding from far behind me, illuminating the entire courtyard. A violent wind rushed over my body. I managed to open my eyes to see the locksin sending sparks all over the ground. My trench coat ruffled along my back. I was being dragged away.

  It was a vixra tunnel. Margaux was taking me away to the ritual site.<
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  A muscle in the grandmaster’s jaw twitched. Tension seized his face. He opened his palms and let the scarlet red light of my brother’s magic come barreling out of his hands as he walked toward the brightness burning my eyes the more I tried to keep them open.

  “Maintenant! Allez! Vite!” Margaux hollered.

  My wrists came crashing down to my sides, brushing my skin against the courtyard tiles beneath me. Margaux shattered the locksin around my wrists and ankles. It dissolved in a flickering mess sending sparks across the ground. I rolled over to my stomach to see what was happening. That only resulted in getting dragged a few yards as I smacked my palms all over the ground to get a hold of anything I possibly could.

  The vixra tunnel was sucking me away. The only strange part about that was the grandmaster chose to stand between me and the tunnel. His magic bolted out of his hand and attacked Margaux. She was already ahead of him. A bolt of cobalt blue magic struck him like a bolt of lightning. Their magic smashed together with a thunderous crack that echoed throughout the courtyard. He was fighting against her!

  Margaux thrust her hands forward, forcing her magic to overpower his and sending the grandmaster stumbling backward. It was enough to make him unsteady. He fell to his back and rolled toward the vixra tunnel. Only I was close behind him as it continued sucking us away.

  ‘What the hell is going on? Is the tunnel going to the ritual site or back to the academy?’

  My magic wasn’t ready. I wasn’t even sure I could get it to swirl about my hand much less project it.

  ‘The bracelets! I have to use the bracelets!’

  “Riley!” Margaux called my name. “Aidez-moi! Help me!”

  That was all the confirmation that I needed. Margaux was herself. This was a part of her true plan. And now it was time for me to play my part.

  I brought both my arms before me and let my body slide forward. If I was going to get sucked into the tunnel I was taking him with me. And if I was lucky, Lothar and Jake would be waiting on the other side. I lurched my arms back and braided a long rope of vixra magic between the bracelets on my wrist. Then as soon as I felt it vibrating with power, I fired it directly at Dirk.