44. Matilda
44
MATILDA
My hands are still shaking as I follow Vex through the darkened halls of the academy to the library as all hell breaks loose with staff. We take the opportunity to sneak out, hoping no one stops us. The Araxi, whose name still hasn’t come to me, sits on my shoulder, a comforting weight against my neck.
“The restricted section has to have something about Praxian magick,” he says, his tone leaving no room for doubt that if it doesn’t, he will kick its arse until it does.
The library is fairly quiet at this hour, and warm light spills through the door when Vex shoves it open. Not really having any words to add, I walk beside him, my mind caught between shock at what happened and needing answers and wanting to shut down completely and ignore all of this shit.
Vex leads me to the back vault, and with some fancy handiwork, it clicks open. I gulp when I step inside. It’s like something out of a movie. It’s like a round tunnel with books covering every inch of the wall and several stacks cutting down the centre. “I thought the restricted section was that big caged-off area,” I mutter.
He smiles. “It is. This is a super restricted area. Only for those in the know.”
“And you are in the know how?” I ask with a pointed stare.
“I told him about it,” Blackthorn says, stepping out from between stacks, a heavy book in his hand. His eyes fix on the Araxi warily, but he shifts his gaze quickly to me. “Miss Matilda. You are causing quite the ruckus, aren’t you?”
“Not on purpose,” I snap, harsher than I meant to. I shoot him an apologetic smile, which he chuckles at.
“There was no offence meant. I apologise if I caused you any.”
“You didn’t. It’s me. I’m out of sorts. I apologise, sir.”
He waves it off and turns back to his book. “Praxian magick,” he states. “Yes?”
“You know already,” Vex says. “So you don’t need to play dumb.”
“Ouch,” he mutters. “I don’t think anyone has ever called me dumb before.”
“Let it be noted, I didn’t call you dumb,” Vex retorts and I could honestly listen to them go at it for hours. I’m too busy studying their features, and I’m agog at how much alike they look now that I know they are related. Blackthorn is more refined, of course, and definitely holds ancient wisdom in his eyes, but I can see the rebel under the robes. I bet he was a real daredevil back in the day.
Blackthorn’s eyes twinkle with amusement as he regards Vex. “Noted. Now, shall we get down to business?” He gestures for us to follow him deeper into the stacks.
We wind our way through towering shelves filled with ancient tomes until we reach a small alcove with a table and chairs. Blackthorn sets his book down and takes a seat, motioning for us to do the same.
“What happened tonight was not unexpected,” he says, his tone serious. “The re-emergence of Praxian magick has been rumoured for centuries.”
I lean forward, eager for answers. “Okay, so we know that Praxian magick is the first magick. The origin of all magick. But I don’t really understand what that means. What does it do? For lack of a better question.”
Blackthorn nods. “Praxian magick, as you say, is the source of all magick before it was divided into different schools and elements. It’s raw creation energy. Godlike, if you will.”
I gulp and shoot Vex a worried stare. He glares back at me, but I can see the wheels turning in his mind.
I turn back to Blackthorn. “That sounds terrifying.”
He nods gravely. “It is. Which is why it was split apart long ago. The power was too great, too dangerous in the wrong hands.”
“Okay, so it was a deliberate split, yes? That’s what we learned under…” Vex kicks me under the table.
“Under?” Blackthorn asks, eyebrow raised.
“Under the full moon,” I intone, making Vex snicker uncontrollably.
“Indeed,” Blackthorn says wryly. “I shall glide past your full moon escapade and answer your question. Yes, Miss Matilda. It was deliberate. The ancient druids of the time, practised more paganic rites of old—nature, communion, releasing energy and all that. But then all that energy, all that force of nature, created something they were in no way prepared for.”
“Praxian magick?”
“That’s right.”
“Wow, so we are talking some ancient druids, then.”
“We are.”
“Cave druids?” I mutter because my brain just won’t quit with its rampant thoughts right now.
He snorts, but then composes himself quickly. “Possibly, cave druids. To cut an extremely long story short, they found a way to split it into different schools and elements to create the basic form of what we know as magick today. But…” He holds up his finger, stopping me from rambling some more about cave druids. “… they had to ensure the site upon which they did the ritual could never be used to bring back the latent energy they believed was still in the ground under their feet.”
“So they cursed it.”
He blinks and nods slowly. “Yes, quite. A very powerful curse with ancient wards of protection.”
“And MistHallow just happens to be built on that site?”
“It does.”
“Great. Just great. So here I am, its vessel or whatever the fuck?—”
“Language, Miss Matilda,” he chides mildly.
“Sorry. Its vessel or whatever, coming here for sanctuary and instead, I get a cursed descent into a magick that no one knows how to control or what it does.”
“That’s about right. But you being here is not a coincidence.”
I gulp. “What do you mean?”
“Fate?” Vex mutters.
“Yes and no. The events that led to your arrival could be tied up in fate, but your sister told you to come here.” His blue eyes bore into mine, and I squirm uncomfortably.
“She did. To protect me.”
He sighs softly. “I know you want to believe that, Miss Matilda, but we have to look at this from every angle. It is possible she drove you here to break the curse of the Praxian magick, to release it into the world, to cause chaos, to take that power.”
“How could they do that if Matilda is the vessel?” Vex asks before I have time to even process what Blackthorn said.
“By syphoning off her power.”
“What?” I stammer. “Syphoning?”
“Fucking hell,” Vex mutters, earning himself a sharp glare from Blackthorn. “The pendant. It wasn’t only suppressing your magick, it was syphoning it off in small doses.”
“Pendant?” Blackthorn asks, eyes narrowed. “The amethyst?” His gaze shoots to my neck, but Vex pulls it out of his pocket and holds it up.
“I convinced Tilly to take it off, thinking it was the cause of her weak magick. I was right, but I was also wrong.”
Blackthorn snatches it from Vex and peers at it. He examines it closely, frowning in concentration. “This is an ancient artefact. Far older than it appears. The amethyst itself is merely a conduit for something much more powerful.”
I lean forward, my heart racing. “What do you mean? What’s inside it?”
He looks up at me, his eyes serious. “I can’t say for sure, but I would hazard an educated guess that it is a fragment of the original Praxian magick, placed there by one of the druids who split it apart in the first place. It was meant to slowly drain your power away, which is likely why you have experienced weaker magick than you are capable of. It wasn’t suppression so much as syphoning. Your sister sending you here under the guise of protection was, in fact, a power play, Miss Matilda. Your family wanted you to be at the source of the power.”
“But why now?” I ask, my mouth dry. “Why not send me here years ago?”
“Maybe they didn’t know where the source was?” Vex states.
“Without a doubt. It is a well-kept secret.”
“So, who told them?” I whisper.
“My guess is Laurent,” Vex grits out. “She was definitely acting shady earlier during the attack.”
“I would say you are probably right,” Blackthorn says with a sigh. “She is legacy staff. She has been here for centuries. There is no way she didn’t know about the cursed site.”
“I’m sorry, Professor, but fuck!” I snap, shoving my hands into my hair. “Fucking fuck!”
“For once, Miss Matilda, I quite agree.”
“So what now?” Vex asks. “The Praxian magick is very much alive, and I would say it’s grown since the druids cursed the site.”
“Oh, it’s grown all right,” Blackthorn states. “Into something far bigger and more dangerous than anything we have come across here at MistHallow, and that’s saying something.”
I stare at Blackthorn, trying to process everything he’s just told us. The sister who I’d thought was on my side, even when the odds were stacked against it, sent me here as part of some plot to unlock ancient, potentially world-ending magick. The pendant I’ve worn for years was slowly draining my power, not protecting me from the worst of my family’s abuse. Now that power is growing, evolving into something dangerous.
“So what do we do?” I ask, my voice steady, even though I want to curl up into a ball and cry until this goes away. “How do we stop it?”
Blackthorn’s expression is grim. “I’m not sure we can stop it, Miss Matilda. You are of the blood of one of the druids who cursed the ground to keep the magick imprisoned. By being here, you have disturbed the curse and it has awakened, and it will continue to grow stronger.”
“But there has to be a way to contain it, right?” Vex leans forward, his eyes intense. “If the druids cursed it once before, surely we can curse it again?”
Blackthorn nods slowly. “In theory, yes. But we’re dealing with magick so ancient and powerful that our usual methods of containment may not be enough.”
“So we use the original curse,” I say.
“That is something we can’t do. It pre-dates the written word.”
“Of course it does,” Vex mutters, slumping back in his seat. But then he sits up straighter. “The runes. The runes are the curse.”
“What runes?” Blackthorn asks carefully.
“The runes down there.” Vex waves a hand vaguely.
“You mean the ones that were underneath the statue of Morgan le Fay?”
“Huh?” he asks as I feel confused too.
“The ones in the circle at the back of the ground floor,” Blackthorn says, exasperated. “They were uncovered when the statue of Morgan crumbled a few months ago.”
“Oh,” Vex says, but shakes his head. “No, deeper underground.” He shoots me a ‘fuck it’ look. We can’t have secrets now. We need everything on the table.
Blackthorn’s sigh is weary, and he rubs his face. “You students really need to start respecting boundaries. You went into the chambers?”
“As if you didn’t already know,” Vex says.
Blackthorn ignores him.
I take a deep breath. “There were ancient runes and symbols down there. I could translate them somehow.”
Blackthorn leans back, his expression unreadable. “This changes things. If you can read the runes, if you can read the curse…” He trails off, lost in thought.
“What?” I press. “What does it mean?”
He focuses on me again. “It means, Miss Matilda, that you are more deeply connected to this magick than we realised. The ability to read the runes of the ancient druids is something no one has ever been able to do with any form of accuracy. Many have died as a result of inexact interpretation. If you have accurately translated the glyphs, it suggests you may have a more active role to play in all this than just being a vessel.”
“Meaning?”
“Can you remember any of what you translated?” Blackthorn asks urgently. “Anything specific?”
I close my eyes, trying to recall the swirling symbols. “There was something about containment. And barriers. It mentioned fire and shadow, chaos and order.”
Vex sits up straighter. “That’s right. It said Tilly would stand between those forces.”
“The Princes?”
“I think so,” I venture. “Their magick exists outside of our magick.”
“It does. It is celestial in origin. It has nothing to do with Earthly magick,” Blackthorn agrees. “So you think they can contain it?”
“I think they can help re-curse it,” I state, more confident than I feel. I know one thing for sure in all of this upheaval. I do not want that magick being released into this world. We aren’t ready for it. It will annihilate us. The Araxi on my shoulder, fidgets, his first movements in a while. I’d forgotten he was there.
“It’s worth a try,” Blackthorn says. “Assuming you can read the curse accurately.”
“Well, we have an ancient druid in the body of a rainbow-haired witch, an old as dirt, beyond powerful vampire mage from the Black line, a dark warlock with more power than I know what to do with, and two Princes of Hell to get this done,” Vex states with a wicked grin. “What could possibly go wrong?”