Chapter 28
Simple, Adept or Die
ANNA
The wind was cold and gusty as I stared out into the night sky.
The southern balcony of Meridian Hall was empty this late. I leaned against the chilled metal railing, my skin numb and my mind chaotic.
This place was like another world. One that was far away from my home-turned-hell where shadows possessed me and took my mom’s life. As I peered into the heavens I could almost trick my mind into thinking it hadn’t been real.
But I knew now that it was.
All of it was real.
That place—the dark, cold, and terrifying place that felt like death.
A shudder overtook me as I tried to shake the memory of being there.
What kind of power did it take for a mage to have done that?
The thought made me feel alone and vulnerable.
Not even Nightfall’s barricaded walls of intensely potent everi could change that.
It made sense now. The river that flowed in far below-freezing temperatures.
The radical impact that knocked out most recruits when they jumped from the cliff.
The body had to be disarmed and forced to adjust. The more tense you were, the more injuries you would sustain.
Just being here would probably kill a normal person.
The fear my mom lived in, heard throughout my childhood as she screamed in the night from horrors while she slept, was all too real now.
My guilt was unbearable.
It was no longer hard to imagine something horrible happening to Annabelle here. Those who played with fire would eventually get burned.
I never would’ve guessed my mom was hiding a secret like this. A secret that, if they’d told me, might have been avoided. Anger welled up in the pit of my stomach like a devil on my shoulder. Her reasons had been valid to her, but it was a mistake that resulted in her death—and I was liable for it.
I used to think it would be freeing to know for sure, one way or the other, if I was crazy. But I was trapped now more than ever by my own guilt.
Her death was still my fault—whatever that power was, I’d let it in. I was angrier than I’d ever been. That, I was sure of. And nothing would ever change that fact. I could never fix it. She was dead because of it and I still didn’t know why. People got angry. People felt things.
That didn’t mean those feelings killed people.
Or shadows.
Right?
Why had someone wanted to hurt her? Did she know something? It wasn’t like she ever shared information.
I had to know. I had to know why. Why had they taken her from me? But where did I start?
My everi was pulsing through my body.
I had to get control of it.
In this world, power was all that mattered.
Ezreal was right—I was weak.
I laughed, a low and hollow sound, alone, and utterly lost, as the wind carried all sound away.
I’d finally gotten what I wanted—the truth. And yet, the entire world was now my prison. I was locked in with fear, anger, and pain as my companions. A pain that caused me to lose control in moments spent alone and, in the darkness, where the despair I’d tried to keep inside consumed me.
Isabella and I hung out that night in my dorm, processing impossible information.
“I’m glad you didn’t take forever to become an Adept!” she squealed.
I smiled softly, wishing I could feel excited about it. I still hadn’t spoken with her about Malakai’s attack. I wanted to give her time before pressing her, but I couldn’t wait any longer.
“Isabella, what happened with Malakai?” I whispered.
She laid back on my bed, clenching a pillow. “It’s a long story.”
“I heard Commander Everson talking about it in my meeting with the Aurkai,” I said. “It sounds like he’s barely getting a slap on the wrist.”
Isabella tsked. “These people don’t look at things the same way we do, Anna. They think that since both Saryna and I were easily patched up, there was little harm in Malakai’s actions and an understandable mistake. And by ‘they’ I mean Ezreal Kalmont.”
A hollow ache formed in my chest. She was right. Ezreal Kalmont. Who was he, and why did he have such power over the others?
“Why did he attack you? What the hell was he thinking?” I asked.
Isabella looked irritated. “I don’t think he was thinking. He thinks he will awaken some long dormant power if he consumes enough blood—he’s insane.”
“What?” I asked.
Blood? Did that mean in the catacombs his wine glass had contained blood? And when he attacked me and cut my wrist, he was going to drink my blood?
“Yeah,” Isabella whispered. “It’s hard to get anyone to talk about it but there are mages who use blood as a way to gain significantly more powerful everi.
Malakai told me at first it was a fun bit of foreplay—then he ditched me at the ball, and I found him with Saryna and confronted him, but instead, I found him drinking blood from Saryna’s neck like a fucking vampire.
His eyes were red, Anna. Bright fucking red.
Saryna was in bad shape and he let go of her when he saw me.
I didn’t know what hit me. The next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital wing with Roslyn there. ”
I sat down on the edge of my bed.
Isabella played with a strand of her hair. “It feels good to have someone to talk to about it. When I remembered Cody and Skylar, it was like waking from a dream only to realize it had all happened. Then I realized how you knew from the beginning that they didn’t make it.”
I turned to her, shocked. “Did they give you the memory back, or?”
“I have no idea,” Isabella said. “There’s still much I don’t understand. I think it’s going to take some time for all of this to make sense. It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
I looked at my hands. “Yeah, it is.”
I stood at the top of the Northwest Tower, waiting for Isabella to catch up. It was the first day of the semester after winter break and I was starting all new classes.
“Are you sure this is where the Adept Wing is?” I asked.
Isabella nodded. “I didn’t make it to Adept for no reason, ya know.”
I shot her a wry look. “How did you manage to get there so quickly, anyway?”
Isabella shrugged. “I know my charm throws people off but I’m pretty smart too.”
I raised an eyebrow. I never doubted her intelligence, but there was something she wasn’t telling me.
“Uh-huh,” I muttered, the chill in the air reminding me I couldn’t be delving into Isabella’s hidden secrets right at that moment. Not when she was taking me on the scenic route to my first lesson as an Adept.
I was sure there was a balcony that wrapped the tower that rose high over the castle grounds.
“Go out onto the balcony,” she said. “You can’t see it until you are awakened.”
I eyed her skeptically as I muttered, “See what?”
She opened the door, and I followed her out, finding a sky bridge from the tower that certainly had not been there before.
It was a golden bridge that gleamed in the sunlight. It stretched far across the grounds to an opposite part of the castle that I had never been inside.
“It’s made of everi,” Isabella said. “Everyone envisions the bridge to the Adept Wing in their own way. Mine is covered in ivy and moss-covered planks.”
I blinked, and the bridge changed, now with better railing and a stone floor that appeared more structural.
“It changed,” I said. “Why would it change?”
Isabella giggled. “Yeah, mine has changed before too. It tends to adapt to what your mind needs at the moment.”
Oh. Structure and sturdiness did appeal more to me than thin twisting rails twenty stories high.
“What everi is it made of? Our own?” I asked.
Isabella nodded. “And the Aurkai’s. Try not to change its structure once you are on it. It tends to feel less stable.”
She ventured out onto it and crossed, pausing to look at me.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve never seen anyone fall.”
I took an unsteady breath.
“How did you get to Adept so fast again?” I asked, my voice higher than usual.
She grinned. “By being awesome.”
I side-eyed her hard with a smirk. Maybe I should sprint across; that might be easier, like ripping off a bandage.
“Okay,” I said under my breath.
I placed my hand on the gilded rail and nearly jumped at the moving current beneath my fingertips. I almost passed out from holding my breath as I reached the opposite side of the bridge.
Saryna was there, her long, silky hair flowing to her waist.
“Congratulations, Anna,” she said. “You passed your first test.”
I was still trying to calm my frenzied everi as I glared at her.
“What test?” I asked.
“Everi control,” she said. “Without stabilizing your everi, you cannot sync with the everi that is here to form a stable crossing. Follow me.”
Saryna stepped inside, the aged wooden doors groaning as they opened.
Inside was a place unlike anything I had ever seen.
A cavernous chamber lit with warm candlelight, flickering against high stone walls, cast long shadows across rich, gorgeous tapestries and banners of sigils I didn’t recognize. I could smell wax and parchment as I passed numerous tables.
Students sat at benches at the worn wooden tables, some diligently writing with quills and ink, while others read from aged tomes that took up much of the surface.
At the center, a large and darkly colored stone basin was filled with dark liquid, a fire burned beneath it, and a thick steam mingled with the smoke. Great stone hearths contained fires at both ends of the hall with sparks that glowed through the air far longer than they should.
Saryna moved through the hall and paused in front of one of the towering arches that lined the perimeter of the room.
“As you can see,” she said, gesturing to a table full of scattered scrolls and chairs in disarray, “the Adepts spend a lot of time studying here. It helps them collaborate, and sometimes the presence of others’ everi can foster growth.”
Saryna handed me a piece of parchment.
“Your new course schedule,” she said.
I took it and glanced at it before returning my attention to her. “Saryna. About Malakai.”