Chapter 53
Chapter Fifty-Three
Selene
Aphantom sharp pain pierced the side of my stomach and I sat up straight.
My pajamas were soaked, my heart pounded, and I was breathless.
Slowing my heart rate and reminding myself it was just another nightmare, I closed my eyes.
This nightmare wasn’t easily recalled like the others.
The pain lingered, but the images of what the dream consisted of weren’t there. I shook it off.
I grabbed my phone and saw it was almost seven a.m. I had no messages, and my phone said there wasn’t any service.
Sydney slept, a quiet snore rhythmically coming from her.
The end of the bed was oddly free where Chaos usually slept, and a slight breeze filtered in through the window.
He must’ve been impatient for his walk this morning.
Now that the academy knew about the little dragon, we left a window open for him so he didn’t feel caged.
Actually, he had torn the window screen and then we decided we would leave it open if it wasn’t a scheduled snow day.
Our windows faced the woods and helped keep him out of sight from most students when he flew into the trees.
Sighing, I swung my legs off the bed and headed to the bathroom to wash up. My phone buzzed the moment I set it on the counter, and I glanced at it to see my dad was calling.
Huh.
Must be whatever he did when I had left made it so he could still call me with no service. But why was he calling so early?
“Hello?” I answered quietly.
There was some sort of commotion and then the line was disconnected.
A hard, frantic knock came at our dorm room door. I ran out of the bathroom, sharing a glance with Sydney, who had sat up at the noise. I opened the door while the person on the other side still pounded against it.
“David.” I assessed his heavy panting and the sweat lining his forehead. “What is it?”
“Dark mages and Demonher rats,” he breathed out. “They have Ender.”
“Where is he?” Alarm set my adrenaline on fire.
“They went toward the front of the main building,” he said. “I saw them snag him on his run. I came straight here when I couldn’t call anyone.”
“Couldn’t call as in didn’t have your phone or there was no service?” I glanced at my phone in my hand.
“No service,” David panted.
I nodded as understanding dawned. The lack of service was most likely due to the dark mage attack, not the normal faulty signal. The person on the inside must have had something to do with it—and the dark mages getting through.
I picked up my phone and tried calling my dad again. The phone rang but there was no answer.
“It doesn’t work,” David said.
“Headmaster John was just able to call me, but it got disconnected.” I then tried Vivian and Priscilla. The line didn’t even ring. “Sydney. Go warn Vivian and then get to my father.”
I immediately set foot out the door, not wasting precious time throwing shoes on. A natural habit of mine was sleeping in similar daytime clothes, so my cargo-style joggers and loose tank top were better to fight dark mages in rather than the Let’s Avocuddle pajama set I’ve seen April wear.
“Father?” David faltered behind me, but I didn’t slow.
“John is my father,” I said, realizing that he hadn’t been privy to that information.
There was a short moment of silence.
“Do you think they will be able to make it to the headmaster in time to warn him?” He caught up to me.
“I hope so.” My dad would know what to do to help bring up the barrier and wards if they were down—if he was okay. The phone call had me worried. How many dark mages and Demonher rats were there?
Ugh. Why did this academy have to be so huge? The grass made an excellent terrain for my bare feet as we ran along the side of the academy building. We reached the front of the building and I stopped short.
“David.” I stayed still, searching the surroundings. “You said they had Ender.”
“I-I did,” he stuttered. “They did.”
Two dark mages, one completely covered in a brown cloak and another in a black cloak, stood near the fire dragon water fountain.
The one in brown stood closer to my sister, whose bloodied wrists were tied to each wing of the stone dragon.
Her torso was strapped to the body while her ankles were bound at the base of the statue.
Viv lifted her head, glancing at me through her soaked strands of hair.
Her face was covered in different shades of purple, and heated rage boiled in my chest. Her bruises indicated they’d had her for at least a few hours.
She tried to speak, but her lips barely moved as she tilted her head to her right.
“Viv—” Wind spiraled in my direction, and I threw my hands up, easily deflecting it.
The dark mage in black advanced, and I wondered if it was the one who killed Mom. If they were here, baiting me like this, chances were it was one of the three.
Anger and the unhinged energy inside me swirled and heat blasted from my hands, sending flames toward the dark mage, who threw their hands up, easily blocking my attack. Another set of fire sailed their way, and I glanced behind me to see one of David’s hands outstretched.
Using the distraction, I ran at the dark mage, landing a solid kick to their face and a punch to their stomach.
No shoes helped me move swiftly but also caused more of an impact on my feet that I wasn’t used to.
My magic felt along the ground around me until it found something useful, wrapping its tendrils around a large rock.
I recoiled my magic back like a whip and slammed the rock into the dark mage’s head.
“What did you do to him?” I shouted, dread filling me. Was Ender okay?
The dark mage barely staggered, and then, with a movement so quick I could barely see, it thrust its hands against my chest, knocking me down and sending me skidding across the gravel driveway.
With a groan, I propped myself up. Why did dark magic have to be so powerful?
A dark figure appeared through the tree line, gliding its way toward us. David shifted next to me, his face seething with anger as he glowered at the approaching dark mage. The dark mage in the brown cloak hadn’t moved.
Vivian cried out, pain contorting her expression, and I got to my feet.
I tried to see where the source was coming from, but there was no movement near her.
Wind lashed across my side, forceful enough that it tore my shirt and left a red, oozing welt across my hip, extending over my stomach.
The dark mage I had originally been fighting lowered their hands to their side, taking a step back and angling themselves toward the approaching dark mage—almost defensively?
I glanced toward the housing for the staff—it was eerily quiet. We needed support, but something told me that help wasn’t coming. Sydney would have found someone by now, and the commotion should have sent guards or professors running.
My inner forearm burned, but nothing was there. It spread from inside my veins as if my blood was lava and my arm twisted on its own accord, sending a sharp pain to my shoulder and causing me to drop to my knees.
No. No. No. No.
This was blood magic, and I had no doubt that the dark mage advancing was the one who had killed Mom.
David’s boots crunched the gravel in front of me, blocking the path of the advancing dark mage.
Time for support.
I had been afraid to create creatures the past few months, but that ended today.
My magic reached for the fiery dragon breath coming from the fountain.
Anger, hurt, and revenge seethed at my core.
I began chanting and pulled the magic, severing its connection from its phantom fire spell and adding flames, hues of red, orange, and blue at its core, until a lion, its back reaching chest high, formed.
Still on my knees, I took a deep breath.
David stared in wonder at the lion, then his appraising gaze assessed me. He reached out a hand to help me up, and I took it. Something dark in me swirled at the contact, and I invited it in.
No one else was going to die—not Vivian, not Ender. He had to be okay. I would find him. And I would avenge my mother’s death.
After mentally commanding the lion to attack the dark mage who had air-whipped my stomach, I focused on the approaching dark mage.
That one was mine. I could feel their magic crawling inside my veins, searing my arms and legs as they tried to control me.
I could feel my magic snuffing theirs out, and I began to doubt this had been the mage who killed Mom—they weren’t strong enough. Mom had been too powerful.
Then again, what were the coincidences? The black circle clan had killed my mom and had been actively hunting me down. The one who killed Mom could do blood magic—a rare, powerful magic.
I slowly started toward the advancing mage, trusting my lion creature to watch my back and the other mage. Each step felt like my entire body was walking through sand, but with each step, I gained more control of my limbs. The dark mage halted, its arms outstretched.
Grinning, I continued forward. David stayed back, and I would have thought fear paralyzed him, but he was watchful, studying the situation.
Viv cried out as the burning sensation in my veins dulled. I glanced toward her, the blood magic most likely being used on her. My reflexes had me shifting to the side just as a dagger landed in my shoulder.
The hood of the dark mage in front of me must have fallen when she threw the dagger, her skin a smooth pale grey as she snarled at me.
Her dark eyes were rimmed by yellow whites.
Her bare head and skin the color of a very old, very rotten mage told one story, but her teeth, which were yellow-tinged and not rotted, told a different one.
She lunged at me, her expression unhinged.
Ignoring the stabbing pain, I pulled the dagger from my shoulder and dodged the dark mage’s attack.
Gripping the dagger tightly, I jammed it into her lower back, right in the location of her kidney.
She screeched, but I didn’t slow, the power and bloodlust rising in me.
Yanking the dagger out, I twisted her and turned her around, then pierced her chest. Using my other hand, I forced the blade in farther, bringing her to the ground and pinning her between my legs. I let go of the dagger, placing my hands on either side of her head, and let the flames roar.
There were only two ways to kill a dark mage. Decapitation or setting it ablaze.
The ear-piercing screeches of the dark mage below me faded as another guttural roar took its place.
I glanced behind me just as my creature turned to ash, the black-cloaked mage standing in its place.
Movement toward Viv caught my eye as the other dark mage moved toward her in a jerky motion.
They pulled a knife, reaching it high in the air, aimed at her chest.
“No!” I screamed and pulled the dagger from the dark mage below me, and using magic, sent the knife toward the dark mage in the brown cloak. It struck their back before they could finish their attack. If they’d been human, the strike would’ve killed them in seconds.
Vivian cried out though the knife never reached her. I was about to run to her when the hood of the brown cloak fell, revealing a beautiful floral crown set upon short red hair. April. Tears ran down my sister’s face.
April fell to her knees, the knife sticking from her back. I stood frozen… horrified… as David passed me and knelt over the dark mage behind me, I imagine making sure she was truly dead. I assessed the other dark mage, who stood unmoving.
“Dear Enid, your death is of your own betrayal.” David’s voice was gentle yet stern. “You took more than what you were capable of, despite my assertions.”
Who in the dark magic was Enid?
I made my way toward Vivian in a daze. Blood flowed from my shoulder wound, and I wondered whether the combination of blood loss, fatigue from fighting, and the shock of what I had just done had caused my ears to imagine his words.
I killed April.