Chapter 12 Follow the Smell of Roses and Blood
FOLLOW THE SMELL OF ROSES AND BLOOD
Emotions had me frazzled and I didn’t want to face Olivia just yet, so I wandered around campus for a few hours until something that resembled dusk settled over the grounds and my legs began to complain from my endless wandering.
Word must have gotten out that I was a pariah because everyone steered clear of me as I walked by, which was just as well. Less hassle for me to deal with.
I knew that I still had to deal with Hendrik, and he hadn’t exactly specified a time I had to meet him so I’d make him wait long enough to get pissed off, but I’d still show up before midnight, or whatever passed as midnight around here.
By the time I made it back to the Freshman Dorms I bypassed the worst of Melinda’s Mindfreaks without incident.
I paused at my door and let out a deep breath.
I wondered if Logan would be in there or if Hendrik’s spell would break his habit of sleeping in what had been an abandoned bedroom.
My heart did a jump at the thought of seeing Logan again.
Did that mean he was a Virtue... too?
Only one way to find out.
I waved my hand over the panel and the door unlatched. I ventured inside and then stopped, stunned at its transformation.
Was this even the same room?
All the dusty sheets were removed and the room had been cleaned within an inch of its life. The chandeliers gleamed, no cobwebs in sight, and dancing purple lights gave the room a mystical glow.
Olivia popped her head out of the bedroom doorway. She had a scarf wrapped around her hair and sweat beaded her brow. “You’re back!” she shrieked, and jumped into the living room, waving her arms at the work she’d done. “Ta-da! Isn’t this place awesome? It just needed a bit of sprucing up?”
“A bit?” I said, marveling at how beautiful everything was. I ran my fingers over one of the couches and was surprised at the soft fabric that no longer had any must or grime embedded into it. “How did you do all of this?”
She bounced on her toes and I noticed that her purple eyes had taken on a deeper pitch like the other Dark Mages. “Well, I was practicing some of my magic, it’s kind of coming back to me now, and it worked!” She giggled. “It was pretty fun, actually.”
I sank into a couch, grateful to have a place I could sit without worrying. “That’s cool, Olivia. I’m glad you’re coming into your powers.” I forced myself to give her a smile. “Does that mean some of your memories are coming back?”
She flinched as if I’d struck her, then she shook off the reaction and sat next to me, curling her legs underneath her.
“Yes and no. I’ve started to remember basic things, like how to use my magic, where it comes from, and what I am, but I can’t remember my family or how I found myself on Earth in the first place.
” She shrugged. “I think that’ll come on its own.
I’m starting to remember things, so it’s a start. ”
I rested a hand on hers. “You can’t expect everything to come back in one day. You’ve made a lot of progress already.”
She smiled. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be too hard on myself.” She let out a long sigh. “It’s not so much that, though, that’s bothering me… my memories I mean. It’s the fact that I know what it means to be a Dark Mage now... like what it really means.”
I leaned in. “Oh? Is it bad?” I wouldn’t think Fortune Academy would have accepted any supernaturals that were inherently evil, yet, Hendrik had a lot of wrongness to him that I could taste on his magic.
She shivered. “So, you know witches and warlocks, right? They’re very similar to Dark Mages.”
I nodded. “Yeah, okay. Both are magic-users. What about it?”
“Well,” she said, biting her lip, “they branched off by the means of how they get their powers. The original witches and warlocks made deals with immortal spirits a long time ago and the race was invented. Nowadays some trade their souls to demons to get even more power. But Dark Mages? They’re a step beyond that.
Dark Mages use their own souls as a source of power, in effect devouring it.
..” She leaned in, her eyes taking on a gleaming pitch that had a depth to it that made my skin crawl.
“What I’m saying is… that I don’t have a soul…
Lily. It was sacrificed at my birth to give me immortality and a finite source of magic. ”
I let out a long breath. “Whoa.”
“Yeah,” she agreed and slumped into the sofa. “Whoa.”
“So, all the Dark Mages, Hendrik and the rest, they don’t have any souls?”
She nodded and began braiding a few strands of her hair.
“Correct, which is why their magic is so strong, but it’s not infinite.
That’s where blood duty comes in. They—we…
need to feed off of sacrifice in order to fuel spells that cost more than our natural reserves can handle.
When multiple Dark Mages are in close proximity, like here at the Academy, it’s possible to pool magic together.
When I Awakened, I didn’t know what I was doing and I might have… stolen a bit of Hendrik’s clan magic.”
I gripped the side of the sofa, anger building up in me. “So, now you owe a debt,” I concluded. Great. Then I straightened. “So in order to fuel the Awakening Arena and the other spells I’ve seen Hendrik use, people have to suffer?”
“Sacrifice,” she agreed, “the shedding of blood.”
Well, hopefully that meant that places like the Awakening Arena might be self-sustaining, to an extent.
“That doesn’t make me feel any better about having to see him tonight,” I admitted, “much less donate to his blood duty.” I looked around the room again warily.
“How much magic did you expend cleaning this place? I mean, you said you have a finite source and you might be drawing on the clan resources without even realizing it. Should you really be wasting it on frivolous things?” If she was using her own magic, it might be magic she needed to survive.
If she was using Hendrik’s magic… I was sure he was keeping a close tally.
Not that I didn’t appreciate a clean room to come home to, but all of this could have been done by some good old fashioned elbow grease. I didn’t want Olivia to expend magic she didn’t have, especially not to make my life more comfortable.
Olivia shrugged. “I guess you have a point. I was so excited to remember how to use my magic again that I guess I got a little carried away.” She jolted upright.
“Oh, that reminds me. I made this too.” She dug into her skirt pockets and produced an orb.
It reminded me of my demon conjuring orb, but it had a rainbow hue to it.
“A few spells came back to me, one of them being how to make a truth orb.”
I raised a brow at her. “Truth orb?”
She dangled the object between her fingers before I relented and took it, letting the bauble fall into the palm of my hand. It surprised me by how chilled it was, as if she’d put it in the freezer before giving it to me.
“If you crush this around someone, say... Hendrik, then he’ll be forced to tell you the truth. It’ll also make him more amenable to suggestion without outright fighting his free will. It can’t make him do anything he isn’t inclined to do already, but it’ll help.”
I sighed and tucked the bauble into my skirt pocket.
It hissed in a moment of protest as it bumped up against the demon conjuring orb before calming down.
I was building quite the collection of magical artifacts.
“Well, I appreciate it, but don’t use any more of your magic until we understand how it works, all right?
We don’t know what happens when you run out. ”
Olivia’s face paled, making her dark eyes stand out even more. “Oh, I guess you’re right. I hadn’t even thought of that.” She swallowed hard, then seemed to force on a smile. “Well, ready to go talk to Hendrik? Can’t keep the big bad Dark Mage waiting!”
I groaned and rolled onto the edge of the couch.
“You’re far too chipper. You know he’s just going to bully us some more, right?
” Ignoring him likely wasn’t an option either.
He had too much information that we needed.
Olivia needed to get her magic under control and I needed to get Dante—and his lost hand—back.
Plus, I needed to know about the vision he’d had about me.
I needed to know if I was really this fated savior that Kaito saw me as.
Olivia bounced to her feet and offered me a hand. “I’m counting on it, because if I’ve learned anything about you since we met, it’s that you don’t let anybody push you around.” She grinned. “Let’s truth bomb this bully.”
Fortune Academy was creepy at night, although the fact that we were going to pay blood duty to a Dark Mage didn’t help the ambiance.
“What do you think he’ll do?” I asked, starting to worry about this arrangement. I hadn’t tested to see if Kaito’s magic had worked on me.
Olivia shrugged. “I don’t think it’ll be so bad. The other students do blood duty all the time.” She nudged me playfully with her shoulder. “You know, I think he just likes you. Big bad mages like Hendrik have better things to do with their time than frighten freshmen.”
I doubted that Hendrik was giving me so much attention because he had a crush on me. He was close to figuring out who I was, which both thrilled and terrified me. Hendrik might give me answers that Kaito wouldn’t… but at what cost?
We arrived at the Dark Mage dorms far too quickly for my liking.
I was tired from the long day and I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with whatever crap Hendrik had in mind for us, but Olivia squeezed my hand and gave me a reassuring smile.
I wasn’t just doing this for me. Having someone else who deserved my help—or at least rectify the damage I’d caused—gave me enough resolve to wave my hand over the pad next to the door.
A strange beep I hadn’t heard before sounded, then a glow blinked above us. Olivia and I looked up.
“A magical security cam?” I wondered.