Chapter 8 Raven
Raven
“We can’t do the spell here,” Glynda hissed, eyeing Maverick’s cabin with concern. My brow scrunched in confusion.
“Why not? I have all the ingredients here.”
My witch friend rolled her eyes. “Um, because if it goes wrong, we’ll burn the place down.
There’s a reason spellcasting lessons take place in the underground rooms of the main academy building, Raven.
The walls there are thick stone and protected by wards to reduce the risk of damage caused by fires and explosions. ”
I glared at her. “Are you suggesting I might cause an explosion?”
She nodded. “Your magic is temperamental, and this is a tier-ten spell. We shouldn’t be risking it without supervision, but I guess that’s not an option. Unless…” She squinted and tapped her fingers on Maverick’s kitchen counter while he stood back, watching the pair of us.
He’d avoided commenting so far, but from the concerned expression on his face, he was also worried I might blow myself up, or worse, blow us all up.
“You need help if this spell is dangerous. It’s too risky trying to cast it alone.”
I threw my hands in the air in frustration.
Since waking from my dream of Rasmus, anxiety had eaten a hole in my gut.
Every time I thought of how weak the vampire had been, I wanted to cry.
Knowing we had the spell ingredients was the only thing keeping me from having a meltdown.
And since Montgomery had canceled all lessons, now was the perfect time to cast it without interference.
Besides, the headmaster was too busy organizing the cleanup operation after last night’s disaster to worry about what some random first-years were up to.
Today was the day. Tomorrow the school closed for the winter break, and all second- and third-year students would head home.
First-years stayed on campus. We couldn’t leave until the end of the summer semester.
It seemed like a stupid rule, but the Supernatural Council ruled many years ago that first-years lacked experience in controlling their abilities, so they were safer contained in a secure environment.
Not that the campus felt especially secure. From what Glynda had told me, a lot of parents were trying to pull their kids out, worried about the risk of further demon attacks.
The headmaster had done his best to stop news of the attack from leaking, but several students had live-streamed footage of a hellhound attacking two shifters. The clip had gone viral on Magigram and WitchTok, and despite the Mage Council’s attempts to have it taken down, it was still trending.
Three million views and counting.
“You need a mage,” Zane said when he popped into view next to Maverick. Glynda yelped in shock, spilling her coffee everywhere.
“Can you not do that? I hate it when you pop up like that!” she grumbled.
“Raven loves it when I pop up.” He threw me a lascivious grin before grunting when Maverick elbowed him hard. “Hey! Be nice, care bear! We shared a bed last night. That makes us best buddies now.”
Glynda’s eyes widened before she looked at me. “Wait, what? Are you and…him…Oh my goddess!”
“No they’re not!” Maverick shoved the incubus away and dragged me into his arms. He’d not been happy to wake up and see Zane wrapped around me like a koala this morning. Much growling and snarling ensued, which completely ruined my sleep vibe.
“Only a matter of time, care bear.” Zane’s smug grin did nothing to improve the atmosphere in the kitchen, but Maverick huffed out a long-suffering sigh and turned his back on the incubus.
“Damn, we’re getting distracted,” Glynda muttered. “Zane’s right, though. We need an experienced mage or witch.” She threw me a look that promised pain and suffering if I didn’t agree. “I know you’re not going to like this, Raven, but we need Alaric’s help.”
The mage took forever to answer the door. Stars, he looked awful. Still hot, but awful. From Glynda’s wince when she looked up at him, she agreed with my assessment.
“Seriously?” he grumbled, bleary eyed and sleep rumpled. “It’s barely nine a.m.” He scrubbed his jaw and scowled.
“Are we interrupting something?” I asked brightly, peering over his shoulder to check whether he had some poor witch chained to his bed.
He caught me looking and smirked. “Jealous, witch?”
“Why would she be jealous?” Zane remarked from behind me. “She’s more than satisfied with me, mage.”
Glynda rolled her eyes. “I’m buying him a collar with a bell on it,” she muttered.
Alaric’s jaw clenched when Zane slid his arm around my waist. I struggled against his hold, but he refused to let me go.
“Stop wiggling your cute little butt, witch, or I’ll whisk you back to bed.”
I froze as he licked the shell of my ear.
“Get inside,” Alaric snapped. “Before anyone sees you.”
A cute mage with spiky ice-blond hair appeared from a side door when we entered Alaric’s apartment. He looked at us, confused. “Huh?”
“Ignore them,” Alaric said before disappearing for a moment. The guy shrugged and wandered into the kitchen. A coffee machine spluttered to life, and my mouth watered. I’d kill for a decent cup of espresso. I’d been in too much of a panic to enjoy the one Maverick had made for me back in his cabin.
When Alaric returned, he’d pulled on a clean pair of sweats with a zip-up hoody. His blond hair curled over the back of his neck. My fingers itched, like they wanted to tug on his hair as he kissed his way down my neck and…
“Careful, little witch,” Zane whispered in a low voice. “I know exactly what you’re thinking about.” He pressed closer, ignoring Alaric’s glare. Stars above, between him and the bear, I had no privacy.
“Not unless you learn to shield your disgusting thoughts, no,” Kenji piped up in my head. “Gross.”
“Get out of my head!” I yelled. When Zane snorted and Glynda jumped, I realized I’d said the words out loud. My cheeks flooded with color while Alaric’s friend stared in confusion.
“It’s really hard to ignore someone who talks to invisible people,” Alaric’s friend muttered before wandering away with a cup of delicious coffee in his hand. I stared longingly at the coffee machine, but Alaric ignored my subliminal plea.
“Why are you here interrupting my morning? I need to pack.”
“Spellcasting,” Zane said before Glynda and I could get a word in. “The witches need help.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Alaric sighed as if we’d massively inconvenienced him, which I supposed we had. Oh well. I had a vampire’s life to save, and he was the only person qualified to assist.
“Either you help, or Raven blows up the campus. Your choice.”
Alaric scowled but nodded. “Fine. I assume you have the ingredients you need as well as the spell instructions?”
“No, but we can fetch them,” I told him.
Glynda or Zane could teleport back to Maverick’s cabin.
We’d decided before we left it was safer that way, in case anyone—i.e.
, a faculty member—caught us with the not-at-all-dangerous or banned ingredients.
The merman’s scale was on the Mage Council’s watchlist following incidents in the past where merpeople had been targeted by mages for their scales.
Anyone caught with a prohibited item on the watchlist faced a very long sentence in the magical penitentiary.
“We also need somewhere safe to cast the spell.”
“I thought we’d use the spellcasting chamber.”
Alaric rolled his eyes at Glynda’s suggestion. “The chamber is monitored. Do you really want Montgomery asking questions about what we’re doing in there?”
Glynda’s face fell. I scowled at the mage.
“How are we supposed to know that? We’re first-years!”
“Did you not read the student handbook?”
That threw me because, no, I hadn’t. I’d skimmed it but then fallen asleep somewhere around page ten and never bothered picking it up again. Talk about boring. Whoever wrote the stupid book ought to be locked up in the penitentiary for crimes against my sanity.
“Of course you didn’t. You have the attention span of a sun gnat,” Kenji piped up unhelpfully.
I ignored him.
Alaric sighed. “We can’t leave campus, so unless you have any bright ideas, I may as well start packing.”
Panic flooded my system as I thought about the vampire. If we didn’t find him soon, he might die. Oh my stars!
“Calm down, pet,” Zane said, his breath feathering my cheek. Then he grinned at Alaric. “I know a perfect place for private spellcasting.”
Glynda's lip curled as she gazed around the crypt. When she spotted the suspicious stains around what looked like an altar, distaste morphed into horror.
“Oh my goddess, are those…bloodstains?”
Zane shrugged before reaching for the bag he’d swiped from Maverick’s cabin.
“I can neither confirm nor deny what those stains are, but I suggest you never visit here with a black light.”
I fixed him with a hard stare. “Are you a serial killer?” That this suspicion didn’t disturb me was a concern. If I were human, someone would have locked me in a psych ward by now. Luckily for me, I was a witch, and mental health problems were usually blamed on magical quirks.
“Yes.” Zane ignored Glynda’s shocked gasp and grinned at me. “Ready to blow some shit up, pet?”
“I’m not blowing anything up,” I huffed.
Zane just laughed before kissing my cheek. “Of course not, pet.”
“Look, can we get the fuck on with it? I have shit to do. Like a funeral to attend.” Alaric threw Zane an irritated look.
“Someone needs to get laid.”
“I get laid on the regular,” Alaric hissed. “Daily. Twice daily.”
Zane smirked. “Really? Not what I’ve heard.”
“Well unlike you, I keep my sex life private.”
“Funeral?” Other than the two shifters, RIP, who else had died?
“Kinara Blake passed,” Glynda told me. She cast a sympathetic look in Alaric’s direction, which had me wondering exactly who Kinara was to the mage.
“Vane’s fiancée,” Zane explained with zero tact. “Don’t feel bad for him, pet. He hated her.”
“Fiancée?” I almost choked on my spit. Why did he have a fiancée? Alaric was my…no. I refused to give space to that thought. He wasn’t my anything. He’d made that more than clear in the weeks since I’d arrived at Starfall.
“I didn’t hate her!” Alaric kicked a stone. It skidded across the room and bounced off the wall, sending a cloud of dust into the already murky air. If not for the candles burning in sconces, this horrible crypt would be creepy as hell.
“Did you love her?” I asked this through gritted teeth, not sure if I wanted an honest answer but equally certain I needed to show some empathy for the mage’s loss.
“No,” he admitted with a frown. “She was not a nice witch.” His honesty took me by surprise. Alaric rarely faced the world without a mask in place. We all fell silent as his words soaked in. Even Zane refrained from making an obnoxious comment, which surprised me.
Empathy was not his strong suit.
Did he even know what empathy was?
I chewed my lip for a moment before speaking.
“It doesn’t matter whether you loved her or hated her; she’s gone. And that means those who did care for her are hurting. So it’s okay to hurt for them even if you felt ambivalent about her.”
Glynda nodded sagely. “Raven’s right. I might not have lost someone special yesterday, but several other families did, including a family my parents are friendly with.
So we’ll all be thinking of them over the next few days and weeks.
” I wondered who else had died, but I didn’t ask. Now wasn’t the time.
“If we’re done sharing secrets, can we get on with the spell? I have shit to do as well.” I dug my nails into Zane’s wrist as punishment for his inability to read a room, and he shivered like he enjoyed the pain.
“Hey, I don’t even want to be here, so blame your witch,” Alaric muttered, apparently over his brief attempt at acting like a half-decent person. “I’d quite like to get this done too.”
Zane picked up the bag I’d packed and threw it at Alaric, who caught it with one hand and used the other to pull everything out. He looked up and frowned in consternation once he’d neatly laid everything out on the stone slab.
“If this is a spell to locate something or someone, we need a map.”