Chapter Fourteen
Selene
Two days later, I was wishing Thursday was Friday.
I had already attended my Elemental Laws in the Human World once this week and couldn’t bear it again today.
So I went for a run. All the classes I had been enrolled in felt moot.
Vivian and I had been taught year-round; we were way ahead of the academy’s curriculum.
My mom’s wealth of knowledge was far greater than I had realized.
The fresh air did nothing to suppress the anxiety rising inside my chest as I ran.
Based on the knowledge Ivy had given me in the library two days ago, someone was trying to kill me.
It meant someone had found me. But who? Viv hadn’t been attacked—yet.
The culprit had to be inside the academy if they tampered with the creature spell book. Was it a dark mage?
But the someone trying to attack me wasn’t the main perpetrator of my stabbing, piercing anxiety—Viv could be in danger, and I had no idea from who.
My stomach twisted at the possibility of the academy no longer being a safe haven and at the old memories of Mom.
I pumped my arms faster, pushed my legs harder.
The brush blurred by as I dodged hanging twigs and jumped over knobbed roots.
The quarry wasn’t too far from my location, and I hoped to clear my head there.
Something hit my ankle and I fell, my hair snagging on a branch.
That hurt. I flung my hands out just in time to save my face from hitting the ground, my palms and knees burning.
This all felt too familiar, like déjà vu—except this time, my face wasn’t almost skewered.
I rolled over to see what I had tripped over, but there was pressure around my ankle.
Then suddenly, I found myself being dragged through a prickly brush.
An emerald green vine was snuggly wrapped around my ankle, and it was pulling me. I lashed out with my magic, sending a sharp fragment of rock slicing through it. The vine turned black from the inside out, decaying until it had crumpled into dust, which meant it had been created.
I attempted to stand so I could see who was attacking, but another vine wrapped around my throat, squeezing instantly.
I pulled at the vine and tried to control it with my own magic, but I couldn’t—its mage must be using enchantments.
My hands and magic searched the ground around me, trying to feel for the rock again, but more vines bound my wrists, constricting them against my body.
My heart pounded against my chest, its uproar banging all the way to my eardrums, and black and white spots obscured my vision.
Without movement of my wrists and arms, my ability to use magic was hindered.
There was no one in sight, and my earth magic wasn’t going to get me out of this.
Whoever’s magic it was, it was strong, and I had to do something.
I resorted to a trick Mom had taught me and ignited flames across my skin, commanding them to burn anything that wasn’t my skin and clothes. It was a spell that would drain me fast but would incinerate the vines.
The vines started to wither away. I thrust my arms out, breaking the rest of the vines and sending a burst of air outward into the woods. Small smoke trails of burnt foliage and flattened plants circled me. I took the moment to recover and try to find my attacker, but they were nowhere to be found.
I glanced down at my shirt, where the heat from the flames had incidentally melted a small area, and I rubbed my wrists where bruises were already forming. The attack didn’t feel like the one back home.
The danger was evident, even if it hadn’t been a dark mage.
The hatch to the east dorm’s roof opened, and I didn’t bother checking to see who it was. I had sent an SOS for Viv to meet me after the attack.
“Sal. What happened?” Viv called from behind me.
“I was attacked in the woods.” I had texted Viv and changed my clothes while Sydney was at class. My pullover’s sleeves covered my wrists, and my hair covered just enough of the red marks around my neck. “Their magic is strong.”
“Did you see them?” she asked as she came and sat on the ledge next to me. The sun would fade fast thanks to the shorter daylight this time of year.
“No. I was blindsided.” I casually swung my dangling feet off the roof as if someone hadn’t just tried to kill me. “There’s more.”
I filled her in on the details and then my conversation with Ivy.
“What are we going to do?” Viv asked.
“I don’t think you’re a target—for now,” I said.
“But we have to be careful. The magic doesn’t feel dark, just powerful, so it’s not the dark mage.
I think we’re still safest here.” I thought for a moment about why it had so happened to be Fives Academy guards and John who had found us.
“Have you seen the headmaster use magic?”
“No.” Viv tapped her dangling feet together. If either of us fell, we wouldn’t be harmed. I could use air to help carry me to the ground, and she could create and control a solid enough water bubble to lower her slowly, although her magic would be drained. “Why?”
“He’s the reason we’re here. And that message on his phone.” I had told her about the locked-away phone, which she didn’t think was odd—or didn’t want to believe it. “It doesn’t add up.”
“Something doesn’t add up, but I don’t think it’s him,” Viv said. “If he knows you’re an ether mage, why not kill you before you arrived?”
I sighed. I had no clue. But someone at the academy must’ve found out I was an ether mage and that was a problem.