Chapter Twenty-Four - Graveyard
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Graveyard
I HAD NO idea following Nick would have led me here, straight to some sort of ritual that had me terrified and running for my life.
What was he doing? This was more than just following students. Now, I hated my dumb curiosity. I wished I never jumped into the portal he used right before it closed. If it wasn’t raining so hard, I was sure he would have heard me. Staying far back, I followed him to a graveyard.
Once I caught up to him, the hooded figures were killing the last two of a group that laid motionless on the ground. The cries coming from their victims had my steps completely frozen. I wanted to scream, to cry, to lash out in anger. Instinct had me keeping my walls up the whole evening .
There were only two people I recognized standing beside each other. That realization made my head spin. Only for a moment did their cloaks shift, and I saw the same shadowed faces of Caleb’s parents. The recognition hit me immediately from the painting in the library. Though it was dark and they were older, they were still unmistakable.
We kept running through the woods. Another scream tore through me as more magic came flying toward us, but I stayed close to Nick. My arm burned from when I let the fear get to me and I jumped away. Dampness covered my arm as blood soaked into my sleeve.
The magic attacking us fell off his air shield. The wall of shadows he kept up blocked them from targeting us exactly. Magic constantly flew just inches over our heads. We kept running, his grip stayed tight on my hand.
Nick’s face was completely focused while we dodged trees in the storm and tried not slipping in the mud. He was constantly protecting me. I didn’t like how unprepared I was. Earlier today, I had just learned how to ruin an air shield, even trying was useless at this point.
I focused on keeping light magic from seeping up from the ground under our feet by using shadows to chase them away. Everywhere it sprouted up like vines made of burning light threads.
“Solace,” he said. I turned to look at him, knowing fear so clearly shown on my face. “I need your help.”
I just stared at him .
“Harper,” he corrected as we ran. He spoke calm and slow, as if not wanting to scare me out of helping him.
I didn’t focus a second on concealing the fear racing through me, but I wanted to do whatever I could. Fear felt like a vice choking me, it was like a nightmare come to life. With how much I was shaking, how numb I felt, it was hard to believe this was real.
He continued, “I can’t get us out of here safely without your help. I’m going to release a burst of magic. You’re good at earth magic. I want you to let it out. Build up a wall the best you can, make it strong, like in the common room. Can you do that?” While he spoke softly, his voice was steady, telling me how much we really needed this.
“I can try.”
I cast backward as we ran. Vines came up, racing along the ground. Faster than my heart was racing, they started to build up in loose nets. They weren’t anything like in the common room, they were flimsy and thin. It got harder the further away we ran.
“Good. More of that,” he shouted over the rain. “We have to stop soon. Give it your all, Harper.”
I looked in his eyes, shining back at me through his hooded jacket. A black cloak came out from the shadows, racing toward us.
“You can do it,” he said, his patience slipping as they got closer.
My eyes darted between them. “I can’t!”
He pulled my hand forward, helping us run faster. His jaw clenched tight while casting his own vines and more shadows. “STOP HOLDING BACK. There’s no way that—” He cut himself off. “I know that you can do this.”
I shook my head at him. I couldn’t. I might have still been one of the worst students at controlling my magic.
He peered down at me, his features grim. “You have to let go. I can help control whatever you let out, but you have to stop being afraid of yourself. I know you have it in you.”
“How do you know?” I cried.
He just stared at me. Then, I nodded my head. Though I didn’t feel that confidence at all while light and ice relentlessly attacked us as they got even closer. There were so many. So many cloaks.
Nick raised his hand again, letting out a large burst of magic. vines rose from the ground in a three-foot wall. Shadows poured from him like a cloud, becoming a thick wall.
He looked at me again. This was it. I had to.
It released from me while thinking of the fear making my hands tremble. Just like in the common room, I channeled that into armor, becoming the protection we needed. I listened to my instinct, to the call of magic. It wanted out, to protect me the way it did before.
Looking back, I took his vines, it was so much easier to use the professor’s magic with mine than anyone else’s before. Raising two hands, I combined his vines with mine. Making them thick, making a wall of protective sap. Shadows seeped out, weaving with the earth magic. It blocked the light in the same way that I watched light dance on the edge and get pushed away from me by shadows .
That feeling, that feeling of protecting myself, knowing I was doing it. I held onto that and gave it everything. The people coming for us were no longer visible, though it was hard to see through the dark.
Nick grabbed me, his arm looped around my waist, then we were stepping through a portal.
He practically fell out of the portal with the quick movement. I crashed into him, pressing him against a brick wall. He steadied me forward while waving his hand over it, making it disappear completely the moment we were out.
Turning, my back hit the wall. My body shook. Exhaustion made it hard to even want to talk through breathless panting. My hands and arms were numb from all the energy released. I sank down against the rough brick wall, nearly falling to the ground.
We were in Deimos. I had just been here earlier today, though this was the back of the buildings. It was dark, no one was around this late. The ocean waves below us crashed against the cliffs. The same wood railing I saw bordering the back of the town was now just yards in front of me.
Nick’s back slid down the wall, sitting beside me.
We sat in complete silence, listening to the rain pour down and the ocean. His hood fell back, his white hair was a complete mess. It made him look oddly sweet. He was just sitting there beside me, looking so off guard.
I probably looked like a complete disaster with mascara running down my face, completely caked in mud. I couldn’t care what I looked like, my heart beat in a panic with all the questions in my mind. Still, I stared at him, unsure of what to ask first .
Drops of water fell from his hair. His head leaned back against the wall as he breathed heavily. I’d never seen him with his guard down in this way before. There was something soft there, making me think of a waning sunrise before the start of an impending bad day, like the calm before a storm.
There was also something that hurt me to look at him, to see whatever he was doing, he had been doing it alone. He had to have known something about what he was getting into tonight, and he didn’t take a single other person with him.
I supposed I didn’t either. My curiosity brought me here, but I didn’t have any idea what it would have led to. I didn’t know the depths of what we’d see. He knew something, he was headed there with a purpose. I wondered if he was alone because he didn’t want anyone there or because he didn’t have anyone else to count on or trust.
Flashes replayed in my mind, and I tucked my knees up to my chest. Staring forward, we caught our breaths in a comfortable silence, despite my panic. It was like I was sitting there with myself, but without feeling alone.