Chapter 8
Quinn
Professor Holiday’s monstrosity loomed in the arch of The Great Hall, a patchwork horror of cables, meat, and metal.
This time, it wasn’t harmlessly lying on a table, half hidden by the dark; it teetered on two lumpy legs of cloth and massive cables bound with strips of metal.
Rotting meat and wood twisted together in the semblance of a torso while two arms covered in furs, plastics, and things I couldn’t identify pinwheeled around its body.
One arm crashed into the roof of The Great Hall, and not for the first time, based on the dents already buckling the top floor.
Professor Holiday’s nails-on-chalkboard cackling mixed with the static and booms of falling rock.
The horror’s momentum made it continue turning until it faced me and wobbled.
The laughter turned into a screech. I hadn’t noticed Professor Holiday’s perch on his monster's shoulder, but he gripped the too-short railing he’d fashioned for himself.
He scowled before his gaze dropped to me, and a creepy grin filled his skeletal face.
My heart raced. Every fiber of me screamed to run, yet my magic dragged me forward.
The world spun. I was a monster, like Chancellor Morgen, Winston, and Professor Holiday. I’d been alive before the tremors, though magic hadn’t twisted me like the chancellor or the dog shifter. Was that why I moved closer? Because deep down, I wasn’t fighting him, but recognizing myself in him?
I hated that thought, but it didn’t stop my steps.
Movement between the monstrosity’s legs pulled my attention. Brit, with Joe on her heels, veered left, staying well out of the creature's range. One of her arms was bound to her chest. The last image of Brit broken under Horax punched through me, raw and blinding, and I screamed her name.
My friend didn’t stop until she slammed into me. I held on to her tightly as tears ran down both our faces. After everything with Alex, being kidnapped by the Lawsons had been buried under my pile of stuff to deal with later. For now, it needed to stay there.
I pulled away from Brit and scrubbed my eyes. “Go back inside. I’ve got this.”
“Bullshite.” Brit spat on the ground. “All those men circling you, and I find you all alone in a storm of magic with that thing.” She jerked her thumb toward the monster. “I’m not moving an inch.”
My heart lifted. I gave my friend a grateful nod before turning back to Professor Holiday.
He pulled his thin, cracked lips back in a grin, exposing yellowy teeth and gray gums missing chunks. “You see me, girl. You came because you know… because you found yourself in me.”
Pure panic clawed at me—his words mirrored my own thoughts—but my feet still carried me forward.
Joe darted forward, trying to cut me off. My Majekah rippled along my back with tangible need. “Please, Joe, move. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Magic swirled wildly around us. The buzzing sharpened, shifting from irritation to pain. I didn’t understand what I was feeling, but the ‘wrongness’ sank into my bones. The need to touch it clawed through me until it wasn’t thought, but pure instinct, gnawing and absolute.
Brit met my gaze and nodded before pulling the tank of an enforcer to the side.
With nothing between me and Professor Holiday, I stepped again, and a surge of confidence opened my mouth. “Actually. I bet your view of the castle is spectacular. Give a girl a lift?”
Professor Holiday laughed and beckoned me forward, and I took another step.
Brit glided to my backside, ready to grab me if anything went wrong.
“Ah, Sugar, Pumpkin…” Joe’s unease blended in with the background.
‘Quinn, no,’ Ezra’s voice sounded in my head.
Xan, Cayden, and Rowan yelled from the doorway of The Great Hall, all trying to stop me. But I wouldn’t, I couldn’t, no, I didn’t want to stop.
The pressure in the air increased. Blood leaked from my ears as ringing swallowed every sound. One more step, and a little glide brought me to the monstrosity’s lumpy leg. I placed my hand on the cold surface as if it were delicate glass.
My Majekah rushed forward. Power ran down my arm, making my hand go numb, but I didn’t pull back. I didn’t even want to try. I needed to do this. Oil hissed where it splattered. Terror shook me.
‘Don’t do that,’ my dad said in my head.
I took a deep breath. It was too late. I already did it. I was using my Majekah because it felt right. Do that. I couldn’t run from myself anymore. I needed to understand. I tilted my head up and opened my eyes wide to see everything.
Professor Holiday’s monster began to unravel under my touch. One foot at a time, its legs melted into piles of plastic, copper, threads, and materials I didn’t have names for. The torso sloughed apart, slabs of meat and strips of hide tumbled into wet heaps, tangled with gleaming metal.
“How are you doing this?” Professor Holiday still hadn’t moved off his creation's headless shoulder, frozen in shock. “What are you doing?”
I met his gaze and confidently said, “I don’t know.”
His face twisted. “You’re unmaking him! Years, lifetimes, gone! He was our salvation, girl. He was my key. Our key.” He held up both his hands, fury and terror making him shake. “I unlocked your magic. I can lock it back up.” Pink power wove between his fingers.
A ball of hard earth, glowing with heat, flew over my shoulder and hit Professor Holiday’s hand with a sickening crack.
He screamed in pain and rage as he and his monster continued falling to pieces under my Majekah.
The pile of materials that used to be the monstrosity rose into a small mountain, pieces spilling down.
Cayden’s forest green threw a wad of something shiny to the side before it could hit me.
A blast of wind at my back caught what looked like part of a bloody goat and flung it to the side. Ezra stepped out of my shadow.
Professor Holiday glared behind me, where I assumed all my friends now stood, before focusing back on me. His body dropped to almost eye level. The thick air eased along with the smell of roses. Gold sparkles swirled as if they were flurries of snow.
“You will pay for this.” He tried to step off his monster, but his feet didn’t move.
The cloth directly under him unraveled.
My racing heart thudded. “Move, Professor.”
“I’m trying, girl,” Professor Holiday said with a sneer.
Someone wrapped their arms around my stomach. For a moment, sheer terror made me panic.
“You’ve already touched me, relax,” Cayden said.
I didn’t relax, but my attention returned to Professor Holiday. Cayden tried to pull me away, only to be pulled against my back. My Majekah locked me in place.
Professor Holiday’s feet hit the ground, and his leather boots turned into scraps, followed by his white robe. I wasn’t sure what I was more afraid to see, his naked body or a pile of guts.
Fortunately, our eyes locked before I could look down.
“We were going to fix this world together, starting with me.” A lifetime of resignation filled his words, sinking into me.
The glowing pale pink drained from his gaze, leaving simple brown behind. His gaunt face filled out. For a brief moment, a young man looked at me. He mouthed two words that could have been either ‘thank you’ or ‘fuck you.’
The gold flurries froze in place. Cold nipped at my nose before the air heated as if a bomb had gone off. Instead of exploding, the magic filling the air rushed toward my hand and surrounded Professor Holiday in gold light.
A tornado of power spun, yanking my hand away from where the professor had been.
Cayden pulled me backward, and the two of us stumbled against Ezra’s chest before the magic in the air vanished with a pop.
Right where the professor had been, among a pile of fibers and scraps of leather, stood a dragon no bigger than a house cat, jewel-toned wings twitching, every scale too sharp, too real.
The horns along its back twisted with dark gem colors and ended in a small, spiked tail.
Feeling rushed back into my hand. I took a deep breath and studied the newest byproduct of my magic.
Cayden squeezed me, and I realized he’d never seen this side of my magic.
“I made it. It’s not my first one.” I clasped his arm around my waist. “But the others were just little shadows.” I pointed. “Look at the scales and those eyes! He could be a real dragon. Why is this one different… Oh.” I swallowed my question and leaned toward the dragon. “Professor Holiday?”
The dragon exhaled a small puff of rainbow-colored smoke.
It spread its wings and darted toward me, then nuzzled into my chest, its spiky, horned nose narrowly missing my skin.
My heart raced in my chest. I looked past him at the pile that used to be a monster, and his even bigger monster, and my anxiety soared.
Cayden’s blood-spattered face slid in front of me, blocking my view. “Quinn.”
He said my name like it shattered him, voice breaking into tears. The last time I saw him killing his father filled my memory. Whatever I’d just done to Professor Holiday tumbled to the bottom of my list of shit to deal with.
Cayden needed me. I dropped the dragon to throw my arms around my best friend.
“We’re okay. It’s okay,” I said over and over.
Cayden shook in my arms, dropped his head to my shoulder, and cried.
I held him as tears streamed down my face, too. Rowan’s warmth supported my back. I don’t know why I expected Xan and Ezra to join our little reunion. But when I looked up, Ezra had already retreated to his lover’s side. Xan had his TB in his hand, and the general spoke with one of his five.
My heart cracked wide. For a single moment, Ezra had been everything; now he was already gone, back where he belonged. Our moment was over. Maybe it never should have happened. I looked away.
XanRa had each other. I had to stop forgetting that. Instead of letting hurt sink in, I leaned on my friends, who needed me as much as I needed them.