“Meena?” Braden groaned, pulling my attention back to where it belonged. He had rolled onto his side and lay curled in the fetal position, squinting into the darkness. “Is that you?”
“It’s me,” I said, voice thick with emotion. “I’m here. You’re going to be okay.”
He grunted. “I’m sorry. I tried—”
“Nope. Not doing that.” I cleared my throat. “Not your fault.”
“You know that’s not true,” he said softly, dropping his cheek against the forest floor.
“Stop. It’s fine. We’re fine.” I looked miserably from him to Castle, whose lips were puckered into a silent whistle, as if pretending she wasn’t stuck in the middle of this conversation. “I just have to do one little thing, and then we can go.”
Braden twisted his neck to stare up at Yates’ imposing figure. “Huh. Really?”
“Really.” I emphasized the word with a glare into the impassive eyes behind the golden beak. “Professor Yates has given me his word.”
Braden’s eyebrows shot up, then slammed right back down. “Of course.”
“I know, right?” I mumbled. “How did we not—?”
“Enough!” Yates thundered in his demonically distorted voice, making everyone in my field of vision cringe. Even Serenity.
Yates leaped down from the stump in a flutter of dark robes. He grabbed Braden by a tuft of hair, yanking his head back to expose his throat. With a flicker of Yates’ fingers, a gleaming knife appeared, the same knife he had used for his last human sacrifice. Braden’s bound hands rose, but then fell into his lap, defeated.
“Demonstrate your talent and the boy lives,” Yates sneered, drawing the broad side of the knife across the stubble on Braden’s neck with a metallic scratch. “Fail…” Yates trailed off and shrugged.
“Fail and what?” Braden demanded, his voice rising to a pitch I’d never heard before. “Fail and what?”
Yates bent at the waist until the point of his golden beak pressed into Braden’s forehead. He inhaled loudly. “My brothers and sisters and I consume your power, of course.”
Braden’s eyes locked on mine with undisguised fear. “So, uh, what is it you can’t fail at?”
Castle pushed up onto the elbow closest to him and said in a conspiratorial whisper,
“She has to turn me into a wolf.”
Braden’s jaw dropped, and then he winced. Even that slight movement must have pinched the blade into his skin. “That’s impossible,” he hissed carefully. “No witch can do that! Not even a Proteus.”
I flitted my gaze away. It really seemed like there could have been an easier way to find out that I was apparently not just special, but impossibly so.
“No witch can do that,” Braden repeated frantically. “Meena, you can’t do that. Whatever he’s told you is a lie. That’s not within our—”
“Repertoire?” Yates chuckled, jerking on Braden’s hair. “We’ll see about that. Go on, girl. I haven’t got all night. And neither does he, if you won’t deliver.”
A small whimper sounded off to the left. Yates looked sharply at Serenity, whose beak was pointed at Braden like the arrow of a compass. Magical energy crackled to life in my hands, driven by rage. How dare she start to grow a conscience now?
Braden’s eyes cut in her direction. “That you, Ser?”
The red-cloaked witch didn’t answer. I pushed my power into my fingertips, visualizing gloves filling with water, just as Professor Yates had suggested. I imagined the fingers swelling first, and then the palms. I imagined the magic spilling over.
“Figures.” Braden frowned. He drew himself up into a more dignified posture and closed his eyes. “Try not to enjoy it too much, okay?”
Serenity turned her mask away from the scene. It should have given me hope that she could somehow be swayed from this dark path, but it only heated the fire sizzling in my palms. If she had kept her mouth shut about what I had done to her in self-defense, then none of this would be happening. Not to me. Not to Braden. It was too late for regrets.
Meanwhile, on Yates’ other side, Leia had leaned forward. Even with the mask hiding her expression, I could feel the bloodthirsty glee radiating from her body. I made a mental note never to trust my judgment of a person again as long as I lived.
“Whoa, easy there,” Castle said. “I don’t think that’s gonna do what you want it to do.”
I stared down at my throbbing hands. Thin webs of red magic spread between my fingers. I couldn’t remember what color my magic had been when I transformed Serenity, but I knew Castle was right not to want me throwing this at her. She wasn’t my enemy. She was my victim. Even though anger had so far proven itself an irresistible bait to my magic, I had no business unleashing it on her.
With a heavy sigh, I lowered my hands, releasing the hateful magic toward the ground as some instinct told me to do. The dry leaves around my feet hissed as the energy burned through them, but only for a brief moment before my power was totally absorbed by the earth. How had I known how to do that?
Shaking out my hands to clear away any dark residue, I turned inward, searching for another source to draw power from. I found… nothing.
My useless hands balled into fists. Tears stung the corners of my eyes. Maybe I belonged with these people after all. Maybe this was the real reason my wand wouldn’t come back. My family magic had realized its mistake. Sure, I had helped a wolf out in a fight, but that didn’t change who I really was inside. That didn’t mean I could be trusted with my power.
“Is there a problem?” Yates asked slowly, implying that there had better not be.
“No,” I lied. “No problem. Just… warming up.”
Yates released another whistling sigh through his hollow beak. “Looked a little more like giving up to me.”
“It wasn’t the right magic,” I snapped. “It wasn’t from… the moon.”
I turned my eyes toward the star-studded patch of sky. If the moon was out, it was hidden from me by the tops of the trees. I didn’t know if it really had anything to do with this particular power anyway. It seemed a bit far-fetched, even in a world with real magic, that a large rock trapped in orbit around a planet could have anything to do with turning people into animals.
“It doesn’t.”
The woman’s voice floated into my head, barely more than a whisper. I fought the urge to scan the tree line for Rhea’s glowing eyes or shadowy form. It wouldn’t do for Yates to see me searching for reinforcements.
“It’s in your blood, my darling.”
My heart seized hard enough for my hand to rise toward it. That wasn’t Rhea’s voice at all. Nor was it my grandmother’s. Tears gathered in my eyes, and my lower lip began to quake. I bit down on it hard. There wasn’t time for that. The seconds of Braden’s life were rapidly ticking away.
But I understood now. The pact. That’s what caused all of this. Two little girls pricking their fingers and pressing them together. Breaking a rule they hadn’t even known existed. Forging a bond that had somehow been passed down to me.
As my heart began to pound, my palms began to tingle. Glancing down, I found a faint white light emanating from their centers, like no magic I’d seen so far. The man who held me by my belt loops gasped.
“Whoa,” Castle breathed.
“Damn,” Braden murmured.
“Yes!” Yates crowed. “The power of the moon is ours!”
The light flickered and dimmed. I closed my fists, but it was not something that could be grasped. It slipped through my fingers as easily as water. My nails dug into my empty palms.
“No!” Yates howled, turning his blade so the sharp edge pressed into Braden’s neck. “Do it now, girl!”
Closing my eyes, I scrambled to find the feeling of wonder and connection that had called forth the white glow. I pushed past the distrust I felt for the woman trapped as a wolf. Whatever had happened between Rhea and my mother later on, their promise of sisterhood was embedded in my DNA.
The
tingling returned. I opened my eyes. The magic danced in my hands, stronger than before, but fear tempered my excitement. How did I wield it now that I had it? Did I just… throw it at Castle and see what happened? Was it guaranteed to turn her into a wolf just like that, or were there finger movements needed to refine the spell? What would happen to her if I did it wrong?
Once again, the magic receded into my body. I could feel it traveling like ice water up through the veins of my arms and back toward my heart.
“No,” I moaned softly, pushing against the tide with all my might.
I barely noticed when my captor let go of my belt loops, but a moment later, I sure as hell noticed his hands return. Bare now, they slipped under the hem of my sweater, fingertips pressing into my skin.
I gasped. Electricity gathered in my core, crackling like a lightning storm on a summer night’s horizon. The pleasing warmth of Dasharath’s fingers radiated across my skin. His magic surged into my arms, forcing my own magic back through my veins and into my hands.
White light exploded from my fingertips, nearly blinding me. Cries of shock and terror sounded throughout the clearing as the tendrils of my magic wrapped themselves around Castle, lifting her off the forest floor.
She writhed in the air, her face contorting with pain. Our eyes met. I could see the regret plain on her face. Her bravado had been all bluff.
The light waned, but Dash was having none of that. He gripped my waist, infusing my magic with his own. The white light flared, its power burning my fingers as it left me, enveloping Castle completely.
Beyond the ball of light the Divination professor had become, Braden let out a surprised roar. Yates whooped, a bizarre sound coming from his distorted vocal cords.
Breathless, I collapsed against Dash’s solid chest. There wasn’t time or emotional energy to dwell on the fact that he was part of this cult. My knees trembled. His hands left my sides as his arms encircled me, holding me up. His own shuddering breath fell hot across my neck.
“Wow,” he said in his own undisguised voice. “That was—”
“Shut up,” I growled. Now wasn’t the time to get mushy over what our magic could do.
The white orb of light in front of us was rapidly shrinking around the dark silhouette crouched within its glow. The creature flattened its ears and lashed its long tail, pacing on four unbound paws.
“What the—”
A primal scream sliced through the night as Castle lunged forward, baring the fangs in her short, feline snout. Several human screams echoed her own, and the clearing thundered with fleeing feet.
“No, you fools!” Yates bellowed. “Get back here! We must complete the ritual!”
Dash’s arms tightened around me, dragging me away from the advancing mountain lion. I stared at the tawny beast. Did it still count if she wasn’t a wolf? Why wasn’t she a wolf?
“Braden!” I called out, fighting the vice grip of Dash’s arms. He must have been wearing his glamour again, because the Dash I knew on campus couldn’t possibly be this strong.
A shadowy form rose up from behind the angry cat. It had the rough shape of a man—blocky head, broad shoulders, two arms—but was far too large. Far, far, far too large.
A bear stepped forward on two wobbly legs. In the last fading light from my magic, I glimpsed the surprised face of a space cat on a piece of fabric clinging to the monster’s shaggy fur.
Chapter 9
My dry lips parted to call Braden’s name, but only a single hoarse squeak emerged. The mountain lion’s head snapped toward me, eyes glowing green in the darkness. Her whiskers folded against her muzzle as she snarled, batting the air between us with one large paw.
My mind raced, trying to remember the finger movements for the blocking ward Yates himself had taught me in martial magic class. Castle had been so nonchalant about this that it never occurred to me her feline form might not feel the same. Of course, it had never occurred to me that her form would be feline.
Or that Braden’s would be… I don’t know. What’s the scientific name for a huge, brown bear with three-inch claws and a snout full of yellow fangs?
He dropped onto all fours with an earth-shaking thud. Grunting and growling, he raked his claws through the leaves, kicking up a storm of dust that floated in the cool air like fog. The mountain lion whipped around, lithe frame hunkering low to the ground as she hissed at the much bigger beast.
Human screams echoed through the forest as at least some of the students-turned-occultists reconsidered their decision to take part in this mess. I had no idea how many were actually left behind me, since I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Braden and Castle, but judging from the furious red aura materializing around Yates’ silhouette, there weren’t that many.
“Cowards!” Yates yelled, waving both his wand and his free hand through the air in a rhythmic motion that suggest knitting. “You will see this through!”
A beam of red magic erupted from his wand and shot into the sky like a distress signal. I barely had time to wonder if that’s exactly what it was—a call for reinforcements—before a loud crack answered my question with a resounding no. A spiderweb of magic exploded over our heads and arced downward in all directions, creating a dome over the clearing.
“Return to me!” Yates ordered. “Those who do not participate in the ritual will find themselves on the other end of it!”
“What ritual?” I shouted over the chaos. “I did what you asked. I did more than you asked! Let us go!”
The golden beak flashed toward me. “Indeed, Miss Song. You are more powerful than I ever imagined. Too powerful, I’m afraid. Which is why—”
His words were lost under an ear-piercing scream from the mountain lion as she launched herself onto the bear’s broad back. Braden bellowed in pain as her talons sank through his thick fur and into his flesh. Throwing himself down on one side, he attempted to crush the wild cat with a roll, but she leaped free just in time.
And collided with a snarling white wolf draped in a red cloak, knocking it off its paws. In an instant, Serenity and Castle lunged for each other’s throats, melding into a hissing, yelping, growling, snarling ball of red, white, and yellow. A moment later, green jumped into the fray. Leia. Or what used to be Leia. Now she was a sleek black wolf, snapping her jaws at Castle’s long tail.
Holy crap.
My magic had overshot its mark and manifested an entire menagerie.
A sudden fear gripped me. Had I done the same thing to my father? Was he roaming the streets of my hometown, wild and scared, in danger of being destroyed by the authorities, who would never know he was an innocent man? If only I’d listened to Braden when he’d urged me not to go…
Braden. What have I done?
While the dog-and-cat fight raged on, the bear heaved off the ground and shook the leaves and twigs from his fur, slinging saliva from his drooping jowls. Our eyes met. I searched for any sign of recognition, any glimmer of hope that there was still something human inside that skull. From what little I had learned about shifters this evening, I had assumed the transformation could be a two-way street, but now I wasn’t so sure. His beady brown eyes seemed utterly blank.
I had to fix this. Fix them.
Sliding my hands over Dasharath’s arms, I found his fingers and laced them with my own. I understood now what he was to me. Not a boyfriend, but a battery. The spark between us was literal, not metaphorical. Though I couldn’t even begin to comprehend why or how, Dash’s magic had the power to jumpstart my own.
“Whoa, what are you doing?” he asked, pulling back on the magic flowing between us, but it was no use. His hands plus my bare skin equaled a current that couldn’t be controlled.
“Fixing this,” I hissed.
“Meena, no.” He fought to untangle our fingers. “You can’t just take—”
“What is this?” Yates demanded, gliding down from his stump to hover in front of us. He jabbed his wand into Dash’s shoulder. “Who are you, brother? I cannot seem to plac
e the mask.”
Dash deepened his voice again. “I am, uh, no one, Master. Only a faithful serv—”
Yates swished his wand. A loud pop sounded right in my ear and the shards of Dash’s mask peppered my neck.
“Singh!” Yates spat the name. “How dare you show your face here!”
Dash cleared his throat. “Technically, sir, you just showed my face here.”
Growling, Yates slid his nasty looking blade from beneath the folds of his black cloak. “Two it shall be then.”
Dash swung me away from the knife, curving his shoulder around my body. At the same time, he threw out a blocking ward.
Yates let out a sharp, strangled cry and the knife fell to the ground. Dash swore and leaped backward, dragging me along. Yates’ cry escalated into a blood-curdling scream as his whole body yanked to the left. His feet skidded in the leaves as he was twisted around until he crumpled to his knees.
Braden’s massive jaws were clamped around the man’s arm. The bear swung his head side to side, shaking the cult leader like a rag doll.
“Release me, you brute!” Yates wailed, stabbing wildly at the creature’s face with the wand still clutched in his right hand.
A higher-pitched snarl interrupted the bear’s guttural grunting. With a flash of her paw, Castle swiped the wand away. Her claws hooked Yates’ flesh even through his baggy sleeve, drawing blood and more screaming.
“Time to go,” Dash muttered, hugging me tight.
My stomach dropped with the sudden sensation of plunging down a roller coaster. The forest fell away in the space of a heartbeat, but Yates’ dying cries were still echoing in my ears when Dash and I landed hard on a carpeted floor.
The breath whooshed from my lungs. Lights danced before my eyes in the otherwise darkened room. Gasping for air, I wriggled out from under Dash and then collapsed on the plush rug. That’s what it was. Not a carpet. A rug. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light streaming through the large window, I recognized the colorful pattern stretching out before me.
Broken Wand Academy Page 36