Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
“A worthless, powerless, weak, auraless, piece of nothing.”
Mavyn’s words echo in the room still teeming with Professor Asier’s aura and magic.
I shift in Asher’s hold to watch. To look and actually process all the destruction.
That devil. . . my soul had trembled. I had frozen because of the force, and I hadn’t been able to do anything until Mavyn’s aura became known.
And her aura. . .
Her power extended further than that devil’s. Her magic exceeded his by leagues.
Weak. . . ? Auraless. . . ?
I mean, technically right now she does feel auraless, but not before. Most definitely not before.
The men still standing below, all their eyes on Mavyn, lower their brows as they survey the space again. I don’t blame their confusion. A vampire against a devil? There’s no comparison, no doubt about who would win and who would lose.
No, it’s not possible. No matter who the vampyr was. Mavyn can’t be a vampire.
So what is she?
“Ms. Tsuki. . . “ Chairholder Arcturus steps further into the room. His red eyes slightly glowing as he peers at Mavyn. “We were led to believe you have no aura and barely any magic.”
Her back is to me so I can’t see her expression, but I do see her head cock. “I don’t remember ever telling anyone I had no magic.”
Her tone chills my spine and has me tensing in Asher’s hold. She went from zero to infinite and back to zero again. I didn’t know it was possible to conceal your aura to the point where others can’t feel it at all.
“So what exactly is your magic that could go against Kolasi? He is a devil who has no leash on his true form.”
I can’t move. Asher is rubbing my back – I think – but I can’t feel it. Mr. Arcturus had asked who was able to go against Kolasi before but it didn’t process. My brain didn’t register that the Death Devil had been in my presence. Who was going to kill us all.
His stories proceed him and they’re drenched in blood and broken bodies. For a devil or angel not to have a lock on their true form. . . those things can decimate worlds. They say he’s gone insane because of how all-consuming his true form is over him.
He’s a lunatic.
A psychopath.
A monster.
And Mavyn’s magic surpassed him. Both in power and emotion.
Her head twists and I catch a glimpse of pale pink. Her eyes lock on mine with a blank expression, and then they shutter as she looks at the ground. Her shoulders drop and she looks back over the room. Looking at the mess, the ruined room.
She could have annihilated us.
I push Asher’s arms off and stumble over debris before righting my footing and stepping over to Mavyn. Steeling my spine, I level a glare I know my mother would be proud of to the blood demon. His red eyes that look exactly like Thorne’s widen at me.
“You sound like you’re accusing someone of something malicious when she is the reason we’re all alive and unhurt.
” He blinks at me and his sneer drops. “I would think the wellbeing of the students of this prestigious university would come first when faced with an attack from an enemy the Mage Board should have been able to handle decades ago.”
I step in front of Mavyn and shield half of her body with my own. My aura of water and ice and frost dropping the temperature in the air. It’s no match for the celestials – not even close to a match against Mavyn – but even the weakest, at times, can be more powerful than the gods.
“When all of us shrunk to the furthest corners of the room, helpless despite all of us having magic that is anything but, Mavyn stood before two beings with magic and aura that surpasses most celestials. When she has only ever been discriminated against, hated, faulted, berated, tormented, Mavyn was the only thing standing between us and death. She saved all of us. She, who you sentenced to this school because it was either this or death, protected us without any of us offering even a promise of help.”
I point my finger at them. The celestials who do have hatred for her. Fury fueling my blood because of the unfairness to my friend who has been tortured but never asks for anything.
I didn’t help her before, but I will now. She didn’t hesitate before. Starting now neither will I.
“So watch your fucking tone.”
Warmth seeps into my shoulder as a hand grips it. I twist my head and am greeted by shining rosy pink. And then warmth consumes me in total as I’m pulled into Mavyn’s arms.
My frost melts from where it had been spreading onto my skin, and while most people can’t stand to touch me when it covers me, Mavyn does not stop.
Not even Asher can hold me when my frost freezes.
But this girl who I’ve only known for two months, who was resigned for me to already hate her before I met her, she doesn’t care.
“Thank you,” she whispers beside my ear. It takes me a second to knock myself out of my trance and I throw my arms around her too. Pulling her tighter to me as I hug her like I hug Hanna. Tears building within my shut eyes because she did save me. I would literally be dead right now without her.
Someone clears their throat and she pulls away. Turning back to face the celestials and now the Dean. For once he isn’t scowling.
“Ms. Tsuki,” he greets. He nods to her too. “Thank you. For protecting our students when the rebels slipped through our defenses. It takes a truly courageous being to stand against the Kolasi.”
“The Gods punishment,” she says – not directly at the Dean. “No wonder his true form was that of damnation. To wield the death element is a magic I’ve never seen before.”
The Dean nods again. “With that, would you mind telling us how it was possible you were able to face the devil?”
Her eyes snap from point to point. Looking at all of them below who are all probably wondering what she is. She’s insinuated she is a vampire. She’s delivered proof she has the makings of one. But. . . as I think about it now, Mavyn has never said herself that she is a vampire.
I am a vampire, has never left her mouth. Though when Asher said weeks ago that she wasn’t one, she did say he was wrong. But even that deliverance with her answer could be twisted if you look at the situation long enough.
This is where many would say not to overthink. Sometimes the simplest answers are the correct ones. But that response doesn’t work with the high fae or oracle’s and fortune tellers. It doesn’t work for all magics.
It does not work for Mavyn.
She is complexity at its definition. A paradox and contradiction.
“Magic,” she answers simply. “The only way you would be able to face a being who uses magic as powerful as his is with magic.”
I’d laugh at the answer because of how obvious it is. Of course only magic would be able to defend – let alone go up against – a being like the Kolasi. But I’m learning that that is Mavyn’s specialty. She simply answers the question front face. She never gives context unless she wants to.
How did she face the devil?
With magic.
Obviously. But the celestials didn’t specify what or how she used the magic. She’s a freakin genius.
I notice Professor Asier fisting his hands as he glares at Mavyn. Clearly he didn’t find her answer amusing.
The Dean clears his throat and straightens. He doesn’t scowl, but his facial muscles do twitch as if he wants to.
“My apologies, I should have been more clear.” I’m sure that took a lot out of him to say. “What kind of magic could have been used to be powerful enough to go against the Kolasi? And how did you wield it?”
I glance at Mavyn and the corner of her lip twitches. Like she wants to grin but forces herself not to.
She looks around the room again, rosy eyes following the cracks lining the walls that cover the ceiling too. They almost look like lightning bolts.
“The kind of magic that goes against death,” she answers simply. As if it is a simple answer. “And I wielded it like how everyone else is able to wield their magic.”
Answering the question without giving an actual answer. I catch Callahan grinning now but bowing his head to try and hide it.
The Dean clears his throat again but I get the feeling he really wants to growl.
Frustration is so easily written on him as well as the professor and the councilmen.
Darian off to the side looks like he’s calculating while being intrigued.
Seeing him makes me wonder where his father, Thorne, and Professor D’etre are.
Asher had said they were all working together to stop this battle.
Before the Dean can ask another question, Mavyn shrugs a shoulder and shifts away from them.
“I didn’t think it mattered. Afterall, this is a school catered to beings with magic with classes they’re able to take throughout their five years that can help them control and further their manipulation of abilities.
I am not human, so therefore I have magic.
It’s not required to have listed individual abilities.
We are supposed to request the classes we believe will help further us ourselves. ”
The Dean takes a step towards the destruction between us but Mavyn doesn’t spare him another look as he asks, “And what classes will you be requesting for next years?”
She’s still looking up at the cracks along the ceiling. This time the corners of her mouth lift all the way into a smile.
“I’ll let you know when we’re all able to reenroll. We’ll have to see if I’m even still alive then.” She glances at Professor Asier. “Apparently I have a test on Friday I need to take that will be the defining factor if I pass a class I need in order to not be expelled. And therefore, killed.”
I glance at Callahan, the professor, and then Asher. He has the same confused expression that’s marring Callahan’s face because we don’t have classes on Friday, and teachers aren’t allowed to assign any work for this weekend.