58. Chapter 57
“This is taking too long.” He paced the short distance between the two buildings. “What if they took her already, and she’s somewhere on the opposite side of campus? I should’ve gone in there with her.”
“What’s your magic telling you?” Maeve sighed. It was probably at least the fifth time she’d asked him.
He took a deep breath, reaching out to find traces of her, and relief flooded him when the familiar petals fluttered against his magic.
They weren’t as soft or calm as most other times, but that was to be expected.
He could at least sense she was alright, given the circumstances, and she was still in the same spot as when he checked thirty minutes ago.
“She’s still in there,” he said. “But it’s been two hours since she went inside.”
“They won’t take her right out the gate,” Liam said, leaning against the brick wall.
Before Ezra could respond, he sensed Ivy’s magic again. This time it was sharp, rigid, and burning. He inhaled sharply, snapping his attention toward Belarune. “Something’s happening.”
He stepped to the edge of the alley between the buildings.
The plan was for them to wait here until she ran, but he wasn’t sure how long he could hold back knowing she was in trouble.
He took another step out into the clearing, trying to use their bond to help her in any way possible.
Even though he could sense her, he couldn’t close the distance.
It was as if there were a pane of glass between them.
“Fuck it, I’m going in there,” he muttered. Liam’s and Maeve’s footsteps crunched in the snow behind him.
“Uh, no, you’re not,” Maeve said, trying to pull him back. “You go in there now, and things go wrong, we could lose her.”
“We stick to the plan.” Liam clapped a gloved hand on his shoulder. “We need to hold on to as much of our magic as we can, since we don’t know what we’ll face.”
“Fine,” Ezra said. But when he turned back to the alley, a group of four masked figures dressed in all black approached.
“You will not get in our way any longer,” one of them said, their voice distorted into a low, inhuman pitch.
“You won’t take her,” Ezra spat, taking a step closer to them. He called to his magic, and beads of snow swirled on the ground.
Another stepped forward, their head tilting. “You’re already too late.”
The exit door to Belarune slammed open, and the three of them turned to see Ivy running out. She screamed into the night as she ran in the direction of the forest.
“Ivy!” he yelled, his voice cracking. He moved to chase her, but ice encased his ankles, freezing him in place. The same happened with Liam and Maeve.
“Can’t you see?” the first one said as they stalked closer. “You were never going to win. You’re outnumbered.”
“No, they’re not,” a voice said from the alley. They all glanced in that direction and saw Rhea dropping her cloaking spell behind the masked figures. An avalanche slid from the roofs of the buildings, crushing three of their assailants.
The ice around Ezra’s ankles melted, and as the last masked stranger returned his attention toward him, Ezra threw out his fist, landing a hard blow to the side of their face. A part of the porcelain cracked, and the person crumpled to the ground.
“You guys go after Ivy,” Liam said, turning to Ezra and Maeve. The three that were covered by snow were already trying to get out. “Rhea and I will hold them off.”
He wasn’t sure how or when Rhea got there, but he could ask her once they made it out of this. If they made it out of this. He nodded once, turning to Maeve. “Let’s go.”
They moved quickly, following the small footsteps leading into the forest. As they tracked her steps, he searched for her magic.
His heart clenched when he could barely feel it.
Either she was so far from them or…well, he didn’t want to think of the alternative.
The deeper they went into the woods, the more footsteps they saw.
They screeched to a halt. The footsteps had all crowded around a deeply set intrusion in the layers of snow. Near the top of the shape was a small vial, still full of the antidote Ivy had made.
“No.” His voice barely audible. He reached for her magic, trying to find her.But only a single pulse of her magic called to him, deep below the ground.
“She’s down there. There has to be an entrance nearby.
” He paced around every inch of where the footsteps ended.
They couldn’t have completely disappeared.
And they couldn’t have brought her to the exam hall on the other side of campus.
“Belarune.” Maeve gasped.
His brows knit together. “What about it?”
“Ivy said something about another door next to the exit.” Maeve stumbled to get over to him. “It was locked, but between us, Liam, and Rhea, I’m sure we could get it open. If people are disappearing from the party, that’d be the fastest way to get below the school.”
“We don’t know if it leads down there for sure or not,” Ezra said, his hands balled into fists.
“It’s the only theory I got.”
Ezra’s jaw tightened, and he nodded. There wasn’t time to argue or to get to the exam hall. “Fine, let’s go.”
They rushed back to the clearing between Belarune and the Nature buildings to find Liam at the edge of the forest.
“Did you gu—”
“No,” Ezra answered, already knowing the question. They didn’t get to her before they could take her away.
“Where’s Rhea?” Maeve asked.
“Finding help. We chased off the guys who attacked,” Liam said quickly. “What’s the plan?”
“Follow us.” Ezra ran toward the door Ivy had burst out of.
The illusion magic covered this entrance too.
He pushed through it and, when he came out on the other side, saw the door marked STAFF ONLY.
He immediately tried the handle, and it was unlocked.
As soon as he opened the door, the pull of her magic became stronger.
Maeve and Liam stepped through the emergency exit, and he nodded ahead. “She’s this way.”
They walked through the door where a set of stairs descended into pitch-black darkness. Maeve conjured a small ball of light, illuminating the narrow passageway, but he still couldn’t see all the way to the bottom.
“Come on,” Ezra said, hurrying down the steps. He braced his hand along the wall as he descended. Maeve and Liam followed him. The deeper they went, the harder it became to breathe and the stairs didn’t stop. But her magic was getting stronger. She had to be close.
They continued, and he couldn’t tell how much time had passed. The walls stayed the same, some a little worse for wear, but there was nothing else. Almost like they weren’t expected to make it there, or they were headed into a trap. The latter was most likely.
“There!” Maeve gasped quietly.
Ezra focused his eyes on a landing that split into three directions. Each with a plain wooden door at the end. But something hung in the air at the center. Smoke curled around the hazy figure and the closer they got, the more putrid the air became.
“What the hell is that?” Ezra asked, his voice muffled as he covered the bottom half of his face with his hand.
“God, I’m gonna be sick,” Maeve gagged, pulling her jacket up.
They inched closer to the landing and the ghostly head of Everard Grayson lolled as his body dangled above them. Black spots decorated the ghost's form, as if he’d been singed by fire.
“Liam?” Ezra turned to him, and his stomach roiled as his friend gaped at the body with morbid curiosity. “What do you make of this?”
“Someone incapacitated him,” he uttered. “Brutally. Whoever did this has no respect for spirits. He’ll recover on his own or someone with more skill can revitalize him. This can only mean t—”
“The gate is somewhere nearby.” Ezra finished for him, spinning to look in all directions sprouting from the landing. Each had the same door as the one ahead of them.
“Which way do we go?” Maeve asked.
Ezra called to his magic, reaching out for her, and it pulled him toward the right. “This way.” He reached for the handle and threw the door open, but stopped before he stepped inside.
“The fuck is this?” Maeve asked as she peered in from around his shoulder.
Inside was a large, circular chamber with cells lining the room, each with iron bars holding whatever was inside. Between the bars of one of the cells was a pale figure chained to the wall.
Ezra stepped inside cautiously, checking the floor for any traps before moving farther. Each cell had someone in it. His breathing increased, and the edges of his vision grew dark. Were these…?
“Holy shit.” Maeve kneeled in front of one of the cells and glanced over her shoulder at him. “I think this is Callum!”
“What?” Ezra’s voice trembled. He stumbled over next to Maeve, and sure enough, there was his former roommate.
But he was hardly recognizable. His body was emaciated, and his once golden-tanned skin was translucent.
His blond hair was scraggly and loosely hung from his scalp.
Chains bound his wrists to the wall, and his head hung low.
But there was a rapid rise and fall of his chest. He was alive… somehow.
“Callum?” Ezra asked, wrapping his hands around the bars and pulling with no avail. It was no use. The bars wouldn’t budge.
“This is where they’ve all vanished to?” Maeve’s voice cracked as she searched around the room.
“Appears to be,” Liam said, his voice barely above a whisper as he approached a cell next to Callum’s. “It looks like their magic’s been sapped.”
Ezra backed away from the bars, his eyes bouncing around to the rest. Every single victim that he erased was here. Trapped. Most of them for months. His body shook violently. His palms sweated as his breathing quickened.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he muttered to himself, pulling at his hair. “My fault. This is my fault.”
He ran along each of the cells, searching for one person in particular.
Ivy. But every face he passed was someone else.
She wasn’t there. He growled as rage coursed through his body and pain radiated up his spine as he clenched his jaw.
He wasn’t even sure who to be angry with. His father? Declan? Silas? Himself?
Ezra moved to the center of the room, spinning as he tried to find any other option.
He tried using his magic to find her, but he couldn’t pinpoint her anymore.
She was everywhere and nowhere. Cold seeped into his skin, and he turned sharply on his heel to see shadows crawling through the cracks in the walls.
The door behind them slammed shut. Maeve yelped and ran to the center with him and Liam. “What’s happening?”
Shadow filled the room quickly, engulfing them all and obscuring their vision.
Silas. Maeve cried out, her hand reaching out for Ezra, but before he could grab it, she was yanked away.
Liam’s muffled shout came next. He turned, trying to search for them both in the darkness, but he knew it was useless.
When he turned one last time, he came face-to-face with a porcelain mask and a pair of familiar eyes.
“Silas, my star, please…don’t do this.”
Instead of saying anything, Silas only held a single finger to the mouth of the mask. Heavy sets of hands grasped onto his arms and hauled him away, leaving Silas to fade back into the dark.