7. Chapter 7
Chapter 7
F uck. I turn around and communicate to Lorcan and Raven that there’s one of them standing on the other side of the door.
Lorcan lets out a soundless, frustrated breath, while Raven, still in the haze of her sudden depression, seems to barely register the situation we’ve found ourselves in.
As for myself, I’m still angry and determined at the same time, but I’m not stupid. I’m not about to ruin our chances of taking over the Academy by underestimating the man patrolling the hallway outside.
So I start a wordless exchange with Lorcan to come up with a plan. Raven pleasantly surprises me by putting effort into making herself useful, while Lorcan’s initial frustration grows into cautious determination to follow through on the reason we came here in the first place.
Within a matter of minutes, we decide to restrain the guy and take his uniform.
Inhaling deeply, I turn my back to my friends and take another look through the spyhole. He’s still there, he’s just moved onto the next painting, his back still turned to us.
It should definitely work in our favor — the fact that he doesn’t seem to be awfully alert or disciplined.
I step to the left, placing my hand on the knob while Raven shifts. As soon as she does, I slowly open the door and she flies out.
While she’s distracting the man, I simultaneously summon a thunder whip and open the door — wide. While the soldier’s entire focus is on the bird flying in the other direction, I step outside and send the whip in his direction, grabbing him around both ankles and knocking him down face first.
I hear muffled grunts even before Lorcan lunges from behind my back, throwing himself on his knees and pinning the guy’s upper arms to the floor.
There’s a moment of thrashing before the guy stills. Just as a smile tugs at my lips, my eyes dart to Lorcan, who’s gone unnaturally still.
My eyes widening, I watch him lift one hand to his own face and slap himself, hard.
Fuck, Mind Magic.
Still holding the guy’s ankles pinned to the floor with my whip, I lift my other hand to summon another one, when the guy chokes out, “Raven,” just as I spot her flying back to us.
The electricity starts crackling at the top of my fingers, but it’s just at that moment that Raven shifts, hits the ground running and yells out, “No, stop that right now.”
I freeze.
She drops to her knees in front of the guy, making Lorcan get up and the both of us step away in confusion. Raven helps the guy pick himself up and she throws herself into his arms, sobbing, but it’s only when he spins her around that I finally see his face.
The shock of relief renders me mute. I exchange an incredulous look with Lorcan.
We let the couple have their moment, but as soon as Raven lets go, I rush to give him a hug as well. “Alaric,” I practically sob, tears of happiness running down my face.
He chuckles.
I let him go and step away to stare at him some more. He grabs Raven’s waist and presses her close to himself as he happily glances between me and Lorcan.
“Anna, Professor MacArthur,” he starts. “In the name of the Holy Blood, what took you so long?”
I frown, albeit without wiping the grin off my face. “What the hell are you talking about? And where is Jaeger?”
He laughs and presses a kiss on Raven’s cheek. Then he motions for us to follow. “Come on, there will be plenty of time for questions.” He pauses for a second, this mischievous spark in his eyes. “Right now, I’m taking you all to meet the Resistance.”