37. Matilda
37
MATILDA
I stand at the window of our bedroom, watching the mist curl through the ancient trees that surround MistHallow. The early morning light struggles to penetrate the thick fog, creating a ghostly landscape of half-hidden silhouettes and foreboding shapes. Something feels wrong. The sensation has been building for days, a persistent unease that buzzes beneath my skin like static electricity. We haven’t been able to figure anything out about the blips in the stones. Not even Blackthorn had any suggestions other than to sit it out and see if things get worse. Things haven’t got worse, but neither have they got better either.
Last night, I barely slept. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the classification stones. In my dreams, shadows moved between them, distorting their alignment, corrupting their purpose. I woke sweating, the sheets tangled around my legs, the Praxian force inside me restless and agitated .
“You’re doing it again,” Vex says, coming up behind me.
“Doing what?” I ask, though I know.
“That thing where you stare into the forest like it’s about to attack.” His arms encircle my waist, and I lean into him, finding comfort in his solid presence. “The classification stones aren’t getting worse. We have to take that as a good sign.”
“No news is good news?”
“Pretty much.”
I nod, but the unease remains. The magickal disruptions have followed a pattern, but patterns mean intention. Someone or something is systematically undermining the new magickal order we established after Anu’s death. I just know it in my bones. It’s like playing a game of chess with an opponent I can’t see.
“I keep seeing it,” I whisper. “That shadow moving between the stones.”
Vex’s arms tighten around me. I know it’s someone or something who can navigate the network we created. The implications are terrifying. Only a handful of beings could access that level of the magickal framework, and they are either dead or standing in this room.
“Is Annabelle sure the Hellcube is safe?” I ask again for the millionth time.
“She is. She said you can go and check yourself,” Luc says from the bed,
“She’s getting irritated with me,” I muse.
“No, it’s not that,” Luc sighs and climbs out of bed. “ She just wants you to see with your own eyes that the Hellcube is fine.”
I want to. With every cell in my body, I want to, but I know it will prove something to Annabelle that is not good. She will think I don’t trust her, and I simply can’t have her think that. Not when I’m soul bonded to her sons. It’s out of the question for her to even think something bad about me. I have to trust she is right, and that this is something on our end that we will figure out and fix before it’s too late.
“No, I trust her,” I say when he kisses the top of my head. “I’m reaching, that’s all.”
“I know, but she doesn’t mind you going to check yourself.”
I shake my head, and he chucks me under the chin.
“So what did the forest do to you to earn such a fierce frown?” he asks, trying to lighten my mood.
“Matilda’s sensing something out there,” Vex explains, keeping one arm around my waist.
Luc stares out over the grounds as Draven appears in the room, slightly damp from being outside.
“The wards are intact.”
He has been going three times a day to make sure that the wards haven’t been broken through and that someone is on the grounds fucking with us. Luc has been monitoring student activity for days, pissing people off with his inquisition and poking into their business. Vex and Blackthorn have been having meetings, trying to figure something out, but it’s all not right . I don’t even know how to explain it .
Vex leaves me to pour a cup of tea, which he hands to me. I take a steady sip and feel the warmth spread through my cold body. I feel marginally better than I did, but then, the teacup shatters in my hands.
I don’t register the hot tea splashing across my skin or the porcelain shards cutting my palms. The pain is distant, overwhelmed by the sudden, violent intrusion in my mind—a voice that I never wanted to hear again.
Hello, sister. It’s been too long.
Gray. My brother who stood by while his friend violated me, who was cruel in insidious ways that have left scars on my soul. The mere sound of his voice in my mind sends me back to the times Stryker forced me to service him.
Did you think killing our mother would end it? You’ve only made things worse.
I gasp. Our mother. Our mother.
My vision narrows to a tunnel. The room around me fades. I’m vaguely aware of warm liquid running down my wrists. Gray’s presence fills my consciousness, cold and calculating. He’s stronger than I remember, his mental touch heavy with malevolent power.
Look what you’ve done, little sister. You’ve woven the Praxian force into the very fabric of reality. So much power, so vulnerable. Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Wouldn’t come to claim what’s rightfully mine?
“Matilda!” Vex’s voice is muffled. His presence is distant.
I’m vaguely aware of him taking my hands in his. The concern on their faces is evident even through my tunnelling vision.
I’m waiting in the place where you made your first kill. Come alone, or I start unravelling everything you’ve built. You have one hour.
The voice retreats, leaving a cold, oily residue in my mind. I gasp as awareness floods back, the pain in my hands is suddenly sharp and present. My legs give way, and Vex catches me, lowering me gently into a nearby chair.
“What happened?” Luc demands, already examining my hands. “Your shields are intact; I can feel them.”
“He’s here,” I manage, my voice tight with fear and rage. “Gray. He’s in the forest.”
The name drops like a stone into still water.
“Your brother?” Vex confirms, his voice deceptively calm.
“That fucking bastard!” Draven spits out. “I knew we shouldn’t have discounted him.”
“I didn’t think…” I say, shaking my head. “He never exhibited any kind of power, any kind of interest in me. He barely acknowledged me…. He’s the one who’s been corrupting the classification stones. He’s been here all along, hiding in the shadows.”
“That’s not possible,” Draven insists. “The wards would have detected him.”
“Not if he was using our blood connection,” I say. “He said our mother . In that fucked up family, he is actually my brother. ”
“So he says,” Luc spits out. “Well, he won’t be anything for much longer.”
The reality of my idiocy sinks in. The enemy we’ve been searching for has been hiding in my own magickal signature, using me to slip through the wards of MistHallow.
“What does he want?” Luc asks.
“To finish what Anu started,” I grit out. “Whatever that means. He wants to meet me in the forest. Alone.”
“You are not going alone.” Draven’s tone leaves no room for argument as he heals the cuts on my palms, his cool, gentle touch at odds with the fierce protectiveness in his eyes.
“You don’t understand,” I say. “He’s the one who’s been corrupting the classification stones. He said if I don’t come alone, he’ll accelerate whatever he’s doing. He’ll destroy everything we’ve built.”
“It’s a trap,” Luc says. “He can’t possibly have more power than all four of us combined. He’s bluffing.”
I shake my head. “We don’t know that. He has been hiding in plain sight this whole time, pretending to be oblivious to everything.” Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe it was just me cutting him out of my sphere because of what he was allowing to happen.
Draven finishes healing my hands, but holds them tightly in his. “All the more reason you can’t face him alone.”
I pull away, moving to the window again. The mist seems darker now, more ominous. Beyond it lies the forest where Gray waits. “I don’t have a choice. He’s using our blood connection to disrupt the classification stones. He has to be. If he is also of Anu’s blood, then who knows what he is capable of? If he succeeds...”
“Magick dies,” Vex says, the words hanging heavy in the air.
If the classification stones fail completely, the carefully balanced system of magick that governs our world will collapse. The consequences would be catastrophic.
I turn to face them, my three partners, my chosen family . The love I feel for them is almost painful in its intensity. These men who have helped me find my best me.
“I need to go, but I won’t be stupid about it. You can come with me to the edge of the wards, but when I go to meet him, I go alone—at first. Give me ten minutes, then follow.”
None of them look happy, but they nod. They understand what’s at stake.
“If he’s half as dangerous as I think he is,” Vex says, “we need to be prepared.” He moves to a chest in the corner, pulling out something that looks like three amulets. “Forbidden runes. You will be impervious to fatal harm.” He hands them out. “We aren’t taking any chances with this fucker.”
I take it and shove it in the back pocket of my jeans. I close my eyes, reaching for the Praxian force within me. It responds instantly, a rainbow of warmth flowing through my veins.
In the back of my mind, I hear Vex’s voice from a few weeks ago, recounting the vision he had during our trials in the underground chambers where he saw a version of me consumed by power, transformed into something terrifying and destructive.
If it comes to that now, I hope Blackthorn holds his promise to destroy me before I do too much damage.
“Tell Blackthorn what’s going on,” I murmur. “Before you come to meet me.”
The clock on the wall chimes softly. Half an hour. Gray is waiting.