by LJ Swallow
I force myself to hide the doubts flickering into my mind. "You're wrong."
"Am I? The guy's mother leads the Dominion, and he has her blood running through his veins. Tobias can try to control Andrei, but he’ll kill someone on campus soon. There’s too much temptation. Too many witches." She leans closer and places a soft, cold hand over mine. "Maybe Andrei will kill you."
I snatch my hand away. "Give up, Katherine. You're not distracting me. I'm focused on winning against you."
She touches her heart again, mock indignation on her face. "I don't need to cheat, Maeve."
"Uh huh. That’s not what I heard."
She narrows her eyes and wipes her hand on her leg as if touching me repulsed her. My skin crawls too—Katherine is the last person I want to touch me.
Theodora's heels click across the wooden floor as she enters the hall.
"Good morning, competitors. I'm happy I'm free to watch today's game."
Game? I wish I could see it as a game. We’re about to launch into a battle that could end with someone’s mind injured.
Katherine looks around the room and places a delicate hand over her mouth as she yawns. "Do hurry up, Theodora," she mutters.
She clears her throat to deliver instructions. "Sofia is placing papers in front of you. You’re not to turn over the page until instructed. The student sitting on the left of the desk will begin. You will read the words silently and your competitor will attempt to see the words in your thoughts. Then he or she will write the words on their paper. Then, he or she will wipe the same words from your mind. The papers will be removed, and you will then attempt to remember what you read."
Katherine laughs softly. "Child's play. Just because dumb shifters are involved and can't do more than this."
"At least the challenge will be over quickly," I retort.
Katherine leans across the desk. "I can’t wait to get inside your head."
"I'd say the same, but I doubt I'd find much in there."
"Oh, very funny, Maeve. I’ll find your secrets in here." She taps her head. "I bet that's why Tobias didn't want us together. He’s in your head too."
Is that what he argued with the other professors about? He watches us, the same displeasure on his face.
"I want to see what's between you and him." I snap my head back round at her words. "I also know he's not a hundred-and-fifty-year-old immortal. Does he tempt you?" Katherine grazes her teeth across her bottom lip. "Or has he tasted you?"
If we weren't in the middle of a hall with half the academy present, I’d push back my chair and leave. Before I have a chance to respond, Sofia places two sheets of paper face down in front of us before moving to the next pair.
Katherine smirks as a divider is placed between us. "You’re first."
"Time starts... now. And read," calls Theodora.
The buzz around the room instantly drops into silence.
The random selection of words are printed on paper: apple shelf doctor blue five.
I practiced this trick in mental magic the other day, with Amelia. As Katherine's probing thoughts reach me, I close my eyes and picture a black box. Climbing inside, I surround myself with darkness.
But she's scratching at the box, pulling it apart and exposing my mind. A sharp pain enters my head and I open my eyes. The room spins and my stomach flips over like the time I drank too much alcohol.
Katherine looks straight at me, but her face blurs in and out of view. "Are you okay, Maeve?" she asks in concern.
I look down at the words again and they jumble in front of me, as if they’re random strokes on the page and not letters. Where am I? I look around the room at people staring. At desks. Am I in an exam?
"Maeve?" croons Katherine. "Are you confused?"
Confused. "I didn't drink any potions," I say hoarsely.
"Potion? I didn’t use a potion, Maeve," Katherine is indignant but a smirk plays across her lips. She lifts her hand between us and points to the back. Then she nods at mine, where I grip the desk’s edge.
A fleck of white powder sits on my skin, like icing sugar from a cake I ate. But I didn't eat.
In alarm, I brush at the powder. Mistake, because the powder rubs into my skin and the room lurches to the left until I’m looking at the world sideways.
I swallow down the rising nausea. Katherine touched my hand. I rubbed her touch away.
This powder is magic.
"You cheating bitch," I stammer out.
Katherine’s smug face fades and I fall backwards as if someone kicked my chair over. The already sideways room begins to blacken.
Shit, shit, shit. Not now.
I’m plunged into midnight black, but only for a moment. A kaleidoscope of images and sounds overwhelm me, as if somebody has thrown me into the middle of a bad dream. Snap shots. Confusion.
A vision filled with nightmares.
Amelia screams as a girl with blonde hair drags nails down her face, leaving bloodied scratches. I know who the assailant is before she turns and faces me. Katherine with her features in the evil mask of an infuriated vampire.
I scream out, but immediately jerk into a different scene. Vincent and Ash, arguing. Ash's eyes changing as they did outside the pub that night, as Vincent goads him to shift.
A girl screams in the distance.
Blue flames beneath the library. Tobias reaching out and speaking, and I scream back at him because I can't hear what he's saying.
I flail round, trying to fight my way from the vision. Never have I had so many at once, in succession like this.
Andrei. His hands on my skin as he holds me to him, his mouth searching mine. Naked. I gasp against the arousal flooding through my veins and mingling with shock and pull back from him. He has a tattoo. Large raven wings open across his chest.
Lungs constricting, I gasp for breath, and Andrei disappears from my arms.
A woman's face comes into view. I know her, but we've never met. She's laughing at me, calling Andrei's name, and she steps back to reveal Jamie at the edge of a hole leading into a black void.
And I scream, crying out again and again. The terror paralyses me, as I struggle to make my way from the confusing vision assaulting me and back to consciousness. But I can't free myself—the more I struggle, the tighter the grip. Something latches onto me and pulls me under, as if I'm falling into the hole Jamie teeters on the edge of.
"I didn't know," echoes a voice. "It was a joke."
"She's convulsing. Sofia. Help her."
My heart aches as if it’s bursting from my chest, and the pulsing blood in my ears pushes painfully against my eyes. I scream again as the void swallows me whole, the voices growing more distant. I can't breathe. I can't feel. I can only see the blue flames bursting upwards towards me with a roar.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
MAEVE
The strip lights in the academy infirmary are becoming too familiar for comfort. I sit abruptly and immediately drop back as if something pushed me down into the bed.
Jamie and Amelia sit either side, with Ash standing close by. Andrei loiters further away, arms crossed but face sharing the same concern.
"I'll tell the matron." Amelia leaps to her feet and scurries off.
"You scared us half to death," says Jamie and touches my head. "Normally you're out minutes, but this..."
"You were full on, Maeve," remarks Andrei. "Talk about making yourself centre of attention."
I prepare to retort, but if I open my mouth, I swear I’ll vomit. Turning onto my side, I groan. I’m still dressed in my uniform, and the shirt sticks to my clammy back.
"My head feels like it's about to explode," I manage to mumble.
"What sort of vision did you have?" Ash asks. He sits on the edge of the bed and reaches out. Instead of taking my hand, he places his palm on the blanket beside me.
"Bad."
Amelia returns. "The matron is on her way. Oh, Maeve..." I'm immediately smothered by a huge hug from my best friend. Tears force th
eir way from my eyes as the vision’s assault echoes in my mind.
I disentangle myself and try to sit.
"Katherine did this."
"Yes. We found traces of Confusion Powder on you. Katherine’s in a fuckload of trouble," says Ash.
I groan. "I'm going to mind control the girl into oblivion one day."
Andrei laughs. "I love that you're feisty even when you feel like crap."
Ash frowns. "You shouldn't do that, Maeve."
"I'm joking." Half-joking. "But she really fucked my head up."
"Theodora and Sofia will want to speak to you. Probably Tobias too," says Andrei. "What did you see?" I stare at his hands, then to his mouth. I remember. Everything. "Maeve."
"I saw a lot, but nothing." I rub my head. They all look at me as if I’m speaking a foreign language. "That makes no sense, does it? I mean saw snapshots of events."
"Were you there?" asks Jamie. "Inside the vision."
"This was like being in a horror sci-fi movie where I’m strapped to a chair and memories played on fast forward. Apart from this was the future, I think."
"Were we in the visions?" asks Jamie cautiously. I nod. "The same as usual for me?"
His death.
I lay my head back on the pillow. "If I talk about everything now, I'm scared the vision might start again. Can we leave this until later?"
Jamie's face shadows as I avoid the question, and Amelia rubs his arm.
"Were we all in your vision, Maeve?" Andrei's question is innocent but my vision of him isn’t. I close my eyes and rub them, but the feeling of his skin on mine sends a shiver of arousal through me.
I don't think last night’s kiss is the end of us.
"Maeve needs to rest," says the matron as she walks around the curtain. She’s grave-faced and holds a small cup of a liquid. The disgusting liquid that soothes my nerves and calms my mind.
The god-awful-tasting concoction that turns my stomach.
"I don’t want to rest here," I say in alarm. "I hate the smell."
She laughs lightly. "Drink this. Once you improve, you can return to your dorm room. Amelia will look after you, I'm sure."
Amelia nods solemnly, always one to take her duties seriously.
"Stay here another hour or two. Your friends can leave now they know you're safe." The matron tips her head to give a pointed look at the assembled bedside visitors.
I take the cup and stare at the contents, holding my breath.
One thing good comes from every bad thing thrown at us. As a group, we become closer, and unite despite our differences. Gulping down the liquid, I grimace.
Ash is here. He’s concerned. Part of us. Bad luck, Vincent.
Did the matron add something else to the healing liquid? A wooziness takes over, but this time the darkness is calm and the oblivion welcoming as my mind becomes free of visions and shadows.
Chapter Thirty
ANDREI
I keep seeing Maeve in my mind—screaming and thrashing around before she started convulsing. Then lying still while everybody around freaked out, including the ever-calm Theodora. My heart stopped when the possibility she’d died was whispered around the hall.
I will relive the moment I crouched down and touched Maeve’s cool skin for the rest of my life. The academy could’ve crumbled around us and I wouldn’t have noticed.
As instructed, we left Maeve in the infirmary, but I’m desperate to see her again. But I can't wait much longer as the long night heads towards dawn. Ash and the others have agreed to meet up in Walcott common room tomorrow before class. I’ve no choice but to wait until then. At least Maeve has others to comfort her.
Maeve. That kiss. I let go of my control around her, but I’m terrified where this could lead if we follow this new path. I’m lying to myself if I say I don't want to taste her blood, but I didn't lie to her when I told Maeve I see her as more. Our kiss was a unity. The raw connection I saw and denied the first time I laid eyes on her led to a frightening place.
A place Maeve is dragging me towards and I’m not sure if I want to go there.
The effect on my senses took hours to leave, as if I could still taste and smell her as I tried to sleep. At the time we kissed, I fought to switch off the blood-craving and focus on her taste and touch, and almost succeeded. But the urge crept into my mind the harder her heart beat, and the closer her blood moved to the surface.
If I hurt Maeve, that would be the end of me.
Katherine sits in the cafeteria, surrounded by her worshippers, acting like someone who’s wrongly convicted and on the verge of execution. Which is total bullshit because she should be in a lot more fucking trouble than she is.
How the fuck can she sit there as the wronged party after what she did to Maeve?
Katherine spent the evening trapped in Theodora’s room with Tobias, undergoing the bollocking of her lifetime. Ordinarily, Katherine would paint on a new face after an experience like hers, but today she’s deliberately left herself puffy-eyed from her crocodile tears.
"Look at Katherine," says Amelia through gritted teeth.
I bought Amelia a slice of cake. I heard people sometimes eat cake when they’re pissed off, but I’m confused because hers remains uneaten.
"No, thanks," mutters Ash. "I don’t want to look at her."
Jamie glowers.
"Raging bitch," I snarl. "She’s gone too far this time."
"Andrei," warns Amelia. "Don’t get involved."
I jerk my head around. "You’re going to let Katherine get away with this? Did you see what happened?"
"Yes," she hisses back, "it was awful, but I don’t think Katherine intended to hurt Maeve."
Ash splutters. "Why do you always stand up for her?"
"I’m not! But we’re not the ones responsible for handing out retribution." She nudges me and I break my staring. "Are you listening, Andrei?"
I grunt in response and scrutinise each person with her. Two vamps. Couple of witches. No Clive. Nothing special about how they look, but the witches are new to her clique. Hmm.
"Do we know who made the powder for her?" I ask. "Katherine doesn’t have the skills or knowledge for that."
Jamie taps his coffee stirrer on the table. "I’d guess Lorna. She’s a witch who’s big mates with Katherine recently."
"Which one is she?" I sit upright.
"The one who’s dressed like Katherine. As if a witch could be a lamia clone," Amelia says with a sneer.
I flick my nails against my teeth and watch through narrowed eyes as the Lorna girl fawns over Katherine. This girl is who I need to ‘have words’ with.
"I bet Katherine didn’t need to use mental influence on Lorna, either," adds Jamie.
"Why?"
"She’s part of a Walcott group who don’t like Maeve."
I sit straighter. "You think she deliberately wanted to hurt Maeve?"
"She better fucking hadn’t," growls Ash.
We glance at each other. We may not agree on much, but where Maeve is concerned, we share the same motivation. Keep her safe.
"Jamie?" I ask. "Amelia?"
They both shrug. I huff and slump back in my seat. The Dominion think Confederacy are wrong to mix the races? They should thank them—the division caused by throwing together a load of opposing teenagers grows daily.
I don’t believe Katherine is malicious to the extent she’d hurt Maeve—she slipped up when she hurt Amelia and had a lucky escape. Only I know what happened to Amelia the night Matt lost control, and I told Katherine. The girl was genuinely terrified I’d drop her in the shit and she’d face serious consequences. Since that day, she’s left me alone and won’t dare cross me.
No, Katherine’s bullying is insidious. For her own ends. Not to cause harm. Katherine wasn’t aware what would happen—or she’s too stupid to consider what the powder might do.
But what about Lorna? I pull on my bottom lip as I watch Katherine’s group, no longer hearing the conversation happening at my table.
I hang back from the others when we leave, and I loiter in the quiet hallway outside the cafe.
Katherine refuses to meet my eyes when she walks out, sweeping down the hallway with her vamp friends hurrying to catch up. Tightening my jaw, I wait for the witch to head in the opposite direction towards Walcott.
Lorna appears, oblivious to me as she types on her phone. I don’t know much about her, since I rarely interact with Walcott, and the average-looking girl with straight brown hair blends into the uniformed kids in class. I wait for Katherine’s voice and footsteps echo into the distance, before I stride after Lorna.
Catching up, I walk past her then double back and halt, forcing Lorna to stop almost face to face with me.
She sneers down at me. "What?"
"You helped Katherine."
"I help Katherine with a lot of things. Is there something you’d like help with, Andrei?" she asks sweetly.
"No. Tell me what happened to Maeve."
"Everybody saw. She had some kind of fit."
"Don’t act like you don’t know. You made that powder for Katherine, didn’t you?"
Shaking her head, she steps past me. Or tries. I move to stop her walking away, and stand as close to her as I find comfortable.
Sometimes, a witch’s blood tempts me because I’m intrigued by how it would taste. Lorna’s? I’d like to spill.
I take a deep breath, fighting the side of me that whispers evil intent, thanks to my mother’s blood in my veins. I avoid anything that provokes my emotions, resisting the urge to let them control me.
No. I can scare Lorna enough to satisfy my vengeful need to hurt someone who’s damaged Maeve.
"You made a magic powder for Katherine, which made Maeve very sick."
"Maeve is very sick. She’s a freak."
"Did you know what the Confusion Powder would do to her?"
Lorna runs her tongue across her teeth and her heart rate stays steady. She doesn’t give a crap.
"There was a risk, yes."