Chapter Twenty-Three - The Woods
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The Woods
FRIDAY NIGHT, I’D been going over the information from the prisoner locked in the old, abandoned apothecary since Tuesday. His memories had been completely addled, making it hard to decipher. Luckily, due to my recent outings, I’d been able to piece together where this ritual would be that the secretive group within the council mentioned during their trip to Cerberus Prison. Finding out when was more difficult. Until it clicked.
Stepping out of the portal I created, I hummed, noting this location wasn’t too far from the old apothecary. In front of me stretched a nearly dead, dense forest. A singular road divided the forest, leading to the prison. Instead, I traveled into the woods.
The storm that had begun this evening hadn’t eased. Its furious downpour drowned out the sound of anything else. I let it fall over me, unsure if I’d need to conserve magic for whatever I was stepping into. I knew I was careful, but this was still dangerous, as I was unsure of what wards they would have. If I was correct on the location, I knew nothing about the ritual they mentioned. Risking my life before bringing down the people responsible for my parents’ deaths and so many others was not a part of my plan. Some risk was necessary to get information that I had been missing.
Determination fueled my every step forward. Darkness covered the woods completely, no light from the road shone this deep within the trees. The sky held a faint glow from a full moon, covered by the thick clouds.
The hood of the black jacket I wore concealed me in the dark night, thick boots made it easy to maneuver over the terrain I knew I’d be entering. Despite how well I blended in, shadows poured from me to help conceal my presence as I got closer to the suspected location. It made sense they would choose the graveyard within the same forest as Cerberus, where they spoke of transporting prisoners.
Stepping forward, it was so feather-light, so intricate, I almost walked right through the alerting barrier in front of me. Now that I knew it was there, the charge could be felt off of it just inches from my face.
“Of course,” I ground out to myself.
There was no one around that I could see to try to figure out what the tribute would be in order to pass through without alerting who set it. It was strong, carefully cast to be undetected. The rain passed through as if it didn’t exist .
I ran a hand down my face. I could tear a small hole, but this wasn’t like the simple shield at the prison to alert of visitors. I would need to use what it was made of and a lot to tear a hole small enough for me to fit through.
This wasn’t a tribute, but it would take from me all the same. I knew that before I raised my hand to channel the raw light magic. The effort of unraveling a part of the barrier caused my hand to shake, the strain pulsed through my forearm—then I knew I was on the right track. It would have taken a large group of wizards to cast this, and not just any group either.
Anger rose within me. I welcomed it, channeling it into my magic. The air sparked around me as I ripped it thread by thread. The rain pounded against me, the strain of the magic caused my skin to heat, and my vision to blur. Finally, I caught my breath, stumbling through, leaving it open to cross back out.
Passing a mostly broken, cobblestone half-wall bordering the graveyard, my slow footsteps squelched in the mud as I walked between hundreds of headstones. The sound of a creaking gate cut through the loud sounds of thunder. I cast an air shield, keeping it tight in case I were to be spotted. Sticking to the back, passing vine-covered crypts, I could feel I was close.
Across the graveyard, a large van pulled up. Lanterns flickered on the ground, not too far from where I stood. Shadowed figures stepped in front of the lanterns, toward the van. I stepped closer, behind a nearly crumbling crypt. I was close enough that the voices shouting to the group became clear with air shielding most of the rain above them .
This was it. Tension built within me. I didn’t dare move an inch. There they were, the secret society in action that I had been searching for. Whatever they were up to, I was going to find out.
I carefully watched figures in black cloaks that draped to the ground, with hoods pulled forward, covering their faces. My hand pressed into the cold stone of the crypt. Twenty robed figures—that was just over half the current council of thirty-two. None of this was in the prisoner’s mind, only words in past conversations he overheard, including deals made with the warden.
They moved to the back of the van. As the light from opening the doors shone into the cloaks, I was able to catch a glimpse of a few familiar faces. It particularly irked me to see Rufeus Emerson and the Thornes, both of Caleb’s parents, people I knew were on the council when my parents were murdered in a fire.
It relieved me—only slightly—to note the man my mate had been seeing didn’t yet appear to be among this group. That only meant so much to me.
They grouped together to pull out prisoners wearing shackles on their hands and feet. The van doors closed, leaving only the large circle of lit lanterns.
Light magic spun in twisting threads around the prisoners, burning them if they got close. It kept them in a tight circle. Their mouths were gagged, they shook with fear, forced to remain on the ground.
One thinner robed figure stepped forward in front of the group that now circled the prisoners. It spoke in a distorted voice, “Any opposition, speak now or be silenced forever. You’re bound by blood.”
The group stuck out gloved hands, gripping large, white bones. I recognized it as an old type of dark magic but couldn’t remember how it worked. They spoke an incantation I didn’t recognize. It was like the words hummed through the ground, vibrating at my feet.
Two of the cloaked figures came forward with bones in their hands. “This is part of your punishment,” said another distorted voice. “You will rot.”
The trees around us stopped moving in the wind, the flames in the lanterns stopped flickering. My brow furrowed. The two cloaks targeted one prisoner together. He screamed through the gag and tried to move. The strings of light tightened around him.
I could barely believe my eyes. They siphoned magic from the prisoner, similar to how it was done when someone purposely misused their magic or was caught using shadows. This was slightly different when I watched the essence of all the prisoner’s magic getting pulled into the bones. It was converted into veils of light being pulled from them in a way that was completely unnatural. The prisoner screamed, writhing on the ground. Still, they didn’t stop. They were going to kill him—taking from his life force once his magic was gone.
This was not how the council was supposed to work. This was out of control. The type of dark magic they used would come at a cost. They’d be plagued with the wizard’s fears and nightmares, cursed to relive their worst moments in their dreams over and over, often giving up sleep. There was a reason no one used that kind of ancient, dark magic. If I recalled correctly, the bones made it easier to share the burdens between them.
They did it to each prisoner, in groups of two, until each dropped to the ground. They killed them all, the wails of the prisoners rattled in my mind. I wanted to go out to stop them, but I’d be completely outnumbered. I knew I held more power within me than most, learning that quickly in Magical Combat. This here, with this magic, it wasn’t something I could step into. There were too many in a fight against one—now with stolen magic.
The cloaked figures moved together and cast magic between them. I was stuck in place watching as the bones in their hands rattled. All the power they took instantly converted into light magic, crawling up their arms and being absorbed by each member.
It made sense, but this was too far. Light could do your bidding with better control and finesse than shadows. Not everyone had shadows or had the confidence to use them right. It took a lot of light magic to use more than just making light orbs, a lot like making the barrier they used. This type of ritual would give them much more.
Anger overwhelmed me, causing my fists to shake. My magic rested at the surface, eager to be let out. My parents wouldn’t have agreed to be a part of this. These people were driven by greed and hungry for power.
A breath drew in from behind me, my head snapped back. My heart might have stopped beating. I looked in pure horror. More fear than I had ever felt raced through me as soft blue eyes looked through a zipped-up black jacket at the robed figures.
I was stunned for a second before my thoughts caught up to me. How did I not know she was there? My magic didn’t tell me. I’d been teaching her how to block too well.
NO. Suddenly, finding out whatever they were going to do next wasn’t important at all. She can’t be here.
Harper gripped her chest, eyes wide. Her trembling hand rose in shock as if she wanted to cast magic on a group of twenty. She took a step toward them. I lunged for her, casting what might have been the strongest air shield I ever made around her.
“Whatever you’re thinking, you can’t. We have to get out of here,” I whispered.
Her eyes blinked, snapping out of the shock she was in. “Nick?” She stared at me with tears pooling in her eyes.
“Come on.”
Then, I heard it. Perhaps, what I didn’t hear was the problem. The low incantations stopped, murmurs stopped. Looking back over my shoulder, all of them started to face us. Luckily, we both wore dark jackets and stood in the shadows. By some divine miracle, she was not in the academy-provided clothes.
“Run,” I told her, but I was already yanking her hand, taking off.
I summoned shadows, after the light magic I saw being used, shadows were the best defense against it. The shadows shielded us as we took off to the left, vines lifted from the ground to create a barrier between us, and I ran with her. The barrier would only slow them down a fraction .
We kept running, jumping over the low cobblestone wall that bordered the graveyard and darted into the woods. Their shouting drew nearer. Sweat beaded on my forehead, I kept pouring out shadows. Not bothering with the energy it took to refine it, it cloaked our exact location, as well as slowed down magic aimed for us.
I was breathless, constantly staring at Harper to make sure she was okay, fear kept my magic brimming. Fear not to lose the only person remotely close to me—even if she didn’t know it.
Light seeped around our feet, shooting out in sharp daggers around us. Harper screamed in fear so loudly the sound cut through my entire body. My hand tightened on hers. She stepped away from me too fast, the jerking motion made it hard to keep the shield on her. The moment her steps faltered, the sleeve of her jacket was sliced open by a shard of light. She cried out, I was already pulling her closer to me.
“Shadows,” I said to her.
Magic poured from our hands with no hesitation. Shock had her eyes wide and her face pale, but the shadows did what she wanted. It looked easy to her, as it was for me. I couldn’t think of that now. Our shadows push back tendrils that reached for us.
Ice shot toward her, trying to pierce through her air shield, falling to the ground, another one followed. I went to melt it, Harper looked back and used her own water magic to dissolve it enough to dull its impact on the air shield. Only briefly did I glance at her, completely stunned. My mate.
Magic relentlessly kept surging toward us, weakening the shields that I poured myself into retaining. I’d have to stop running for long enough to make a portal. It would be nothing other than mist if it wasn’t created carefully enough to make a connection to anywhere. Literally anywhere would be better than running through the forest right now. It had to be well done so that it wouldn’t stay open long enough for anyone to figure out where we went.
It was the only option that I could think of right now to get out of this. Portals were easy magic, but it required complete focus. We couldn’t slow down. I couldn’t stop them on my own and take the time to make one.