Chapter 10
The following month was packed with dragon riding practice—much to my delight, we were now learning how to mount and dismount from a dragon in flight—and increasingly difficult water sports challenges.
Then, when we least expected it, Zowen attacked again.
I’d just stepped into the locker room shower after Extreme Water Sports Ed when shadows burst from the walls on either side of me and yanked me elsewhere.
Zowen’s mistake, though, was in taking me so soon after I’d exited a body of water.
A body of water that had filled me to the brim with power.
Even better, I was still covered in droplets that quivered with the power of the seas.
This time, I didn’t give the shadows a chance to attack. Instead, I immediately opened the gateway to my power and began to sing.
As my voice echoed through the Shadow Realm, something inside me cracked open, just a little, and something else poured inside.
It was dark and filled with sorrow.
We fight when you fight.
It quivered with purpose.
Fight so we can fight.
It was a beacon.
Fight.
A calling.
Fight.
A raging war.
Fight!
My voice hit a high note that pierced the shadows, a spear of light cracking them open.
A roar filled the Shadow Realm, reverberating all around me, then I was flung from the shadows so hard I should have slammed into the wall of the shower where I’d been, but instead, there was a tower of water waiting for me there.
It caught me in its depths, cushioning me for just an instant, then The Hissies were there, wrapping around me and yanking me into Vorzak’s arms.
He held me close, his snakes wrapping me tight, as we stood there, drenched and shaking, both of us unable to let go of the other.
“What in the name of all the gods happened in here?” Puddlemoan thundered.
Vorzak growled and wrapped me even tighter in his snakes as he stormed across the room to grab several towels to shield me.
“How did you know something was wrong?” I asked him.
“The other women came pouring out of the locker room, told me you’d been taken and raced off to get some help. I could hear you singing, but I couldn’t find you.”
“I was in the Shadow Realm. You heard me?”
“We all heard you.” Headmistress Blackthorn stepped into the locker room and glanced around. “Whatever happened in here? Why is it so wet?”
“Because half the water from the pool’s in here, that’s why,” Puddlemoan snarled, whirling on me. “How did you do it?”
Oops.
“I didn’t do it on purpose. There must have been some droplets from the pool still on my skin. I guess they liked my song.” Or they’d been angry I’d been taken.
“The water came in like an ocean wave, all at once. It protected you from slamming into the shower wall,” Vorzak rumbled. “I didn’t even know you were about to come back, but the water did and it was there to save you.”
Despite the fact that it had clearly been a case of dire need, Puddlemoan was furious that I’d “stolen” half the water from his pool. He was so busy ranting, he didn’t even notice when that same water started streaming out of the locker room and down the hall, back toward the pool.
Vorzak and I sneaked away when he started complaining to Headmistress Blackthorn about students always playing pranks on him.
I don’t think Puddlemoan even noticed, though Blackthorn definitely did.
She didn’t try to stop us, though, probably because she knew how ridiculous Puddlemoan was acting.
That night, after Vorzak took me with a singular desperation, no doubt stemming from his fear that he’d lost me earlier that day, I fell into a restless sleep.
In my dreams, the crack that had opened while in the Shadow Realm widened, and into that crack, the voices of the dead poured.
Over the next couple weeks, my dreams took a turn for the weird.
I dreamt the dead walked, marching through my dreams, through the crack in my soul to pour into Blackthorn Academy, a shadow army of the dead.
As they marched, they whispered, We’re coming. We’re coming. We’re coming.
Night after night, I dreamt of that shadow army, of their whispered promise, and I woke every morning, heart pounding in fear, terrified the army had already invaded Blackthorn Academy.
“What do you think they mean?” Kasi asked when I finally shared how intense my dreams had become, how they’d evolved into something much scarier than a few shadows whispering of darkness.
“I don’t know. The thing is, I’m not a dream-walker like Leslie. I’m not visiting other people’s dreams. These are my dreams and I don’t like them. What’s freaking me out is how real they feel.”
“Do you think they’re prophetic?” Mikaela asked.
“I sincerely hope not, but I’m terrified they might be.” I hesitated, then shared a bit of my back history that only Vorzak knew. “I don’t have any living relatives, but I do know who my ancestors were, at least on my father’s side.
“I tracked the generations years ago, trying to connect with my history, I guess. Anyway, my great-great grandmother was a witch and all reports claim that she could see the future. Far into the future.
“I’ve never had that power, but if that’s suddenly changed, we’re screwed because if the shadow army’s real, and not just a figment of my imagination, they’re coming here. My dreams are all about them invading Blackthorn Academy.”
“How the hell do we prepare to fight a shadow army?” Elliot demanded.
That, right there, was the dilemma in a nutshell.
How to fight the shadows.
How to stop a killer who was more shadow than man anymore.
Vorzak was furious that my dreams were haunted and that I wasn’t getting as much sleep as I should. He hated that he couldn’t protect me from my own mind, and so every night, he loved me into a stupor, hoping to wear me out so much that perhaps the dreams would let me be for one night.
They never did, though.
Even with the threat of Lydrel Zowen hanging over all our heads, time marched on.
We continued to study and ride Nika (or more accurately, get tossed off her) and before we knew it, the day of The Gauntlet arrived.
Despite all our preparations, I was pretty certain it was going to be an epic disaster.
That outcome was pretty much guaranteed considering my team was made up of Mikaela, Kasi, Vorzak and me, and I was the only one successfully riding Nika every single time.
Mikaela was still too timid to do much more than clutch Nika and squeal as she barreled through the air.
Kasi was much better at keeping her seat, but Shadow had a bad habit of hitching a ride as Kasi was walking out the door.
As a result, Kasi had started making Jahrdran examine every inch of her body before heading to class, just to make sure Shadow wasn’t riding her ass (or other body part) in tattoo form.
I imagined this was a task Jahrdran thoroughly enjoyed, which was probably why Kasi had begun arriving late to class more often than not.
The most ridiculous part about this tactic was that it was only successful about half the time since Shadow could literally slip onto Kasi’s skin from almost any shadow nearby and she was exceptionally good at doing so without any of us noticing.
Personally, I was of the opinion that Kasi getting naked was accomplishing nothing (well, other than the obvious side benefits) and that the only reason it appeared to work half the time was because Shadow had no interest in hitching a ride on those occasions.
When she did, though, things typically went haywire fast, with Nika immediately bucking both her and Kasi off her back.
As for Vorzak, it was pretty much guaranteed that if Nika allowed him to mount her, she’d fling him off within seconds of them being airborne.
Kasi, Mikaela and I had gotten really good at using our powers to save him from a bad fall, but I was afraid one of these days, we wouldn’t be fast enough.
And now, our grade depended on our ability to work together to ride Nika through an obstacle course that was clearly designed to defeat us.
Actually, work together was the wrong terminology.
The Gauntlet was a relay race. We each were assigned one section of the obstacle course we had to ride Nika through, at the end of which, we’d pass her off to the next team member. Knowing Nika, though, she’d be passing us off by way of a quick toss off her back.
Each portion of the course was terrifying, which meant no matter who tackled what, we were all quite likely to fail.
There were four courses in all—one on land, one in the air, one underwater and the last course was a combination of all three.
Mikaela would tackle the course on land since she had the most experience in Extreme Sports Ed and she was the one most terrified of flying.
Kasi would tackle the air course since her ability to shift to shadows made her the safest when riding a dragon and Vorzak would swim the water course. This ensured at least he was underwater and not in danger of falling should Nika decide today was the day he should die.
This left me for the last part.
I was fairly certain I wouldn’t have to do anything at all because there was no way my three teammates were going to manage to ride Nika from Point A to B to C to D where I was waiting.
I’d already resigned myself to a failing grade and was instead, determined to simply enjoy cheering on my best friends and my mate as they raced The Gauntlet.
I wasn’t terribly surprised when Kasi aced the air course. She was athletic and calm in the face of danger. I was surprised, however, to see Shadow peel herself away from the back of Kasi’s neck to sit in Kasi’s lap for the duration of the flight.
It wasn’t that Shadow decided to hitch a ride today of all days, but rather that Nika kept flying. Instead of flinging her passengers off her back, she hurtled around mid-air obstacles, avoiding booby traps, ropes and nets meant to entangle her wings and drive her to the ground.
She had to know that Shadow was on her back, but she showed no emotion, not even a twitch, to betray that awareness.