CHAPTER 37
It all happened in an instant.
One second, I was turning to pick Alma up, and the next, snatched away to another dimension.
The arms still wrapped around my middle kept me from freefalling through the Ether, and even though I wanted to break away, I knew how dangerous that would be.
I could get stuck. Lost. Unable to find my way back to the earthly plane.
So I didn’t struggle. Didn’t do a thing but allow my captor to whisk me away to who-knew-where.
In the back of my mind, I knew that the person who’d portaled me from the cave was Professor Holt, but I couldn’t understand why. It didn’t make sense. None of this made sense.
Before I could come up with a single plausible excuse for her actions, the dark twisting world around me abruptly vanished, along with the professor’s arms. I stumbled forward into a world of vivid green, one that was suddenly alive and rushing toward me.
Snakes—no, vines—shot around my body. They were everywhere, winding in and out through my limbs, whipping around them, pulling them apart.
They stretched taut and slammed me back against what felt like a window, trussing up my arms and legs like ropes.
Except that they were riddled with thorns, and when the vines forced my limbs apart spread-eagle, I felt thousands of sharp thorn-tips sink into my flesh.
A pained cry burst from me. I didn’t have to look to know that blood was now leaking from the thousands of burning puncture wounds.
I tried to pull away and instantly regretted it as the thorns dug deeper, wringing another cry from me.
Two more vines snaked around my middle and dug into the sensitive flesh, further anchoring me in place.
When I opened my mouth to scream for help, another vine shot toward my neck and quickly coiled around it, squeezing so tight that I could barely breathe. Thorns punctured my throat, and more blood spilled from my body, trailing down my skin and soaking my clothes.
Trussed up so thoroughly that I could no longer move, my gaze at last fell to Professor Holt. She stood before me with her hands encased in green magic, her brown eyes burning with an emotion I’d never seen in them before, an emotion that didn’t make sense.
Hatred. Pure unadulterated hatred.
I stared at her in shock, in disbelief. This had to be a test. Nothing else made sense. She’d always been so kind to me.
A lump formed in my throat, one that I couldn’t swallow due to the vine cutting off my air. Still, I needed to make sense of this, to understand. So I forced out a strangled, “Why?”
She watched the blood trickle down my neck and drip from my arms and legs. As the drops hit the stones beside my bare feet, her full mouth curved into what could only be described as wicked satisfaction.
“Poor naive Winter,” she crooned, not an ounce of warmth in her tone. “So ignorant about the world she’s stumbled into. So tragically oblivious. Did you honestly think that you could survive in this world? That you would belong? You should have remained in exile where it was safe.”
She curled a finger, and another vine animated, gracefully twisting through the air to stop beside her head.
As it did, something moved inside her poofy black afro.
It was so small that I could barely see it, but when it finally emerged from her coiled curls and stepped onto the vine, unease filled my stomach.
A spider. A black widow, to be precise. This whole time, she’d been carrying around her familiar, and I hadn’t even known.
“Zola has been spying on you for months,” Professor Holt went on, curling her finger again.
The vine bent to her will and trailed forward, carrying the deadly little spider toward me.
“She’s been dying to sink her fangs into you, so be a good girl and hold still while she injects you with venom, hmm? ”
My heart started to pound, faster and faster as the spider approached me.
I tested my bonds again and paid the price, the thorns mercilessly digging in deeper.
As the vine stopped beside me, the spider jumped off and onto my shoulder.
I lost sight of it a second later as it crawled toward my vulnerable neck.
Fear coursed through me, and I choked out, “Please, Professor Holt. I—”
“Silence!” she snapped, her gaze locked on her spider familiar.
I felt the moment it reached my neck, its skinny legs tickling my skin.
I instinctively tried to jerk away, but the vines held me in place.
Seconds later, a sharp pain lit up my insides as the spider bit me, sending venom into my bloodstream.
A tear spilled down my cheek, then another and another.
A second painful bite followed the first, and a pitiful whimper burst from me.
Professor Holt looked on with pride, but the look wasn’t for me. It was for her familiar.
How could I have been so oblivious? So trusting? I’d so easily been fooled by a warm look and kind word, so desperate for acceptance that I’d ignored every instinct, every warning my body gave me.
Another sharp bite of pain raced through me. The bites hurt like hell, but I didn’t think the venom would kill me. I’d be writhing in agony soon, though, a fact that Professor Holt seemed to be looking forward to.
“Do you know how my daughter died ten years ago?” she abruptly asked, smiling a little as her familiar bit me again.
“She was bitten and drained of all her blood, attacked by a vampire just outside the protective wards of the academy responsible for her safety. And do you know who the headmistress of the academy was at the time? The one who was supposed to protect my Jordan at all costs?”
My heart dropped to my feet.
Seeing the sudden look of understanding on my face, the professor’s mouth gave a sardonic twist. “That’s right, Winter.
Your aunt Clarice. The Head Elder whose sworn duty was to keep the children of Thornecrest Academy safe, who abused her power by allowing a Syphon inside the wards and risking the lives of all who depended on her.
My Jordan never would have been outside that night if not for your aunt’s selfish choices.
She used my daughter, exploited her for her own personal gain and managed to fail even then.
My only child died for nothing, and that, Miss Mayweather, is why you’re here. ”
Another tear slid down my cheek as the pieces slowly came together. She was getting revenge by reversing her tragic story. My aunt had been responsible for her daughter’s death, so killing me would finish that vengeful loop. An eye for an eye. Or, in this case, a niece for a daughter.
“You almost foiled my plans, though,” the professor continued, curling her finger again.
The spider on my neck skittered off and hopped onto the vine, retreating back to its hidden spot in Professor Holt’s hair.
“The moment your application letter to Heartstone arrived, I knew fate was telling me that justice for Jordan’s death had finally come.
Convincing the board to admit you was a challenge, but they were intrigued by the thought of a Mayweather struggling to rise against the odds.
No one thought you would succeed, of course.
“When the cauldrons chose Thorne Hudson to be your mentor, I knew your days at Heartstone were numbered. The Head Prefect paired with the disgraced outcast? Fate couldn't have chosen more perfectly. I watched you struggle to survive, each day worse than the last, until finally, I knew it was time.”
She paused then, staring at me so intently that it suddenly hit me. Realizing what she’d done, I sucked in a ragged gasp and whispered, “The curse.”
“That’s right, Winter. Death by a thousand cuts was destined to be your fate.
Just as my daughter bled to death, so was that to be your end.
But you survived, somehow, a phenomenon that shouldn’t be possible.
I had to retreat then and alter my plans, making sure to choose a time for your death that wouldn’t cast suspicion on me.
“Your end-of-semester trial was perfect, as no one would be looking at the professors that day. I could come and go as I pleased, and none would be the wiser. All I had to do was wait for you to fall into my hands. You trusted me so easily, and no one witnessed our departure. Of course, I’ll return you to the cave soon enough, as it’s necessary for everyone to believe that a fellow student killed you during the trial.
I only wanted to take you someplace private where no one would interrupt us.
Isn’t my greenhouse lovely? Jordan and I tended it together, even before she manifested her Earth Elemental abilities. ”
She sniffed and dabbed at her eyes, then slipped a hand inside her jacket pocket to pull out a green stone.
An emerald. Her relic. “It’s not that I hate you personally, Winter.
I would have much rather your aunt Clarice be punished, but destroying her legacy is the next best thing.
My daughter died under your aunt’s care, and you will die under mine. ”
“Please,” I whispered, silent tears tracking down both cheeks. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do. My daughter deserves justice, and this is the only way I know how to give it to her.”
Her expression changed then, flattening to one of deadly concentration, of determination. She raised both hands, along with the emerald, and clenched them into fists. The vines around me viciously squeezed, forcing the thorns in so deep that I cried out in agony, in fear.
This was seriously happening. My professor was going to kill me.
Amulet, protect me. Pendant, save me! I inwardly cried as the vine around my neck completely cut off my air.
Terror and desperation twined together, and I frantically fought against my restraints, cutting myself even deeper.
“It will all be over soon, Miss Mayweather,” Professor Holt said over my struggles. “The more you resist, the faster you’ll bleed out.”
So it was death by blood loss, after all. She truly thought her daughter’s fate was to be mine.
Feeling blood slide down my arms and legs, my life force slowly but surely slipping away, I did the only thing I could.
The darkness within me immediately responded to my desperate call, rising up to challenge the threat.
I didn’t shrink from its eagerness this time, didn’t balk as it boiled and hissed, intent on killing whoever was harming me.
It surged through my veins and into my hands, but before I could release the angry maelstrom, the vines around my arms swiftly shot to my hands and sealed them shut.
The thwarted darkness went wild with rage, and I cried out again as it pushed and shoved, determined to get out.
The vines tightened further, and blood ran in rivulets down my trapped fists.
A chill suddenly crawled up my spine, followed by a scent I knew all too well. Dirt, decaying leaves, despair.
No. No!
Death was coming. Coming for me.
Angry shadows leaked past the vines’ stranglehold, billowing into the air, but they weren’t enough to save me.
“You can’t win,” Professor Holt shouted over my cries. “I have the strength of a relic on my side. You might come from a powerful bloodline, but I’ve been watching you, Winter. You’re afraid. You don’t have what it takes to—”
She abruptly gasped, and the vine around my neck loosened, then slithered away. I dragged in air, violently coughing and wheezing as I gulped down too much.
“It can’t be,” I heard her say in disbelief. She was suddenly inches away, her expression one of shock as she gaped at something just below my neck.
As she lifted a hand toward me, I finally realized what had caught her attention. My amulet. The invisibility spell must have worn off. Everything in me went cold.
“No wonder the curse didn’t kill you. A heartstone’s power is unmatched. Oh, to touch it, to hold it. I can only imagine how it must feel to—”
The second her fingers made contact with my amulet, something shot through me.
A need. A demand. It rose violently, consuming me completely.
The stone pressed to my skin heated. And as Professor Holt closed her hand around it, the darkness within me expanded and expanded, stretching my insides until I could no longer contain it.
I threw my head back and screamed, releasing all of that boiling tension in one powerful explosion. It whipped from me like striking serpents made of shadow, shooting from my bleeding cuts, from my very pores. The raging magic attacked the vines, strangling them, obliterating them to dust.
The professor’s grip tightened on my necklace as she prepared to yank it off, and I simply reacted.
No thought. No instinct. Nothing. My body was no longer my own.
I was a passenger, an observer as my gaze locked with hers, as my hand broke free of the vines and shot toward her.
Just shy of touching her, it stopped. Stopped and savagely twisted.
One swift pull. That’s all it took.
Her eyes flew wide. She released my necklace and stumbled back, looking at me like she’d seen a ghost. “Impossible,” she whispered, clutching at her chest. She opened her mouth again, but her brown eyes suddenly dulled, the life in them fading.
As she started to fall, I fell too, darkness consuming me before I could hit the ground.