Chapter 11 Kai
Kai
After the demon attack, everyone had been subdued, many downright terrified. None of us expected demons to appear, and the parents and family members who’d come to see their first-year offspring were horrified by the blatant security breach.
Several of the mage families tried to pin Tiberius Vane down for an explanation, but he vanished. No surprise there. The Mage Council leader was an expert at avoiding trouble. No doubt he’d go home and write a press release blaming everyone but himself for the attack.
Montgomery had stood wiping sweat from his brow on the dais, his usual bluster absent. I wondered how long it would be before the council replaced him with someone new.
When Montgomery finally let everyone return to their rooms, Hulder poured us both a drink.
“Not random,” he’d grunted thoughtfully before slugging his rumelk.
Not in the mood to talk about what had happened, I left him and went to bed.
It took me forever to fall asleep, but when sleep finally came, my dreams were full of faceless demons hunting me down. It wasn’t until the sun climbed high over the tips of the trees beyond our window that the dreams faded.
The sound of Hulder banging around in our small bathroom woke me. I lay in bed listening to the pipes gurgle and squeal as they channeled a pathetic stream of cold water through the rusty showerhead that wobbled precariously whenever we dared take a shower.
Just as I was about to crawl out from under my thin blanket, a vision hit me.
Like all my visions, this one was hazy, but the biting cold in my limbs and the fresh scent of air unpolluted by humans suggested a location to the north. Snow-capped mountains soared high above, and in a gorge below, the sound of fast-running water pummeled my ears.
I watched as Raven stepped onto the bridge crossing the gorge.
Her dark hair hung in a heavy braid down her back, her cheeks red from the cold.
Mist swirled around her, making it hard to see the details.
Her lips moved, but I couldn’t make out her words, and when I tried to focus, the vision swam inside my head.
It showed her stepping forward before something snaked up from under the bridge and knocked her sideways. A cetus.
Nobody had seen a cetus for years. Not since my mother killed the last one in the Northern Ocean.
This cetus must have evaded hunters by swimming up an estuary and making a new home in the river below the bridge.
Raven would not survive a cetus attack. She couldn’t swim, dammit!
The vision faded. Not waiting for Hulder to emerge from the bathroom, I tore out of my bedroom, grabbing what few belongings I had and shoving them into my pack. Just as I was about to step out of the door, my friend appeared, water dripping down his armored skin.
He stared at the bag in my hand and frowned. “Leaving now?”
“I have to find the witch. She’s in danger.
” She’d be with the bear shifter. I knew she hadn’t gone too far because I’d have felt unbearable pain if she had.
We weren’t mated, but the mating rune had been activated.
Until we sealed the bond, too much distance between us would cause me immense pain.
That would fade eventually if we didn’t mate, but not for a few months.
Hulder nodded. “Go. See you soon.”
I patted his shoulder and ran across campus like the hellhounds were on my ass.