Chapter 19 #3
He knew I couldn’t be calling mass amounts of my power in front of others. It would… scare them. Son of a bitch! He was forcing my hand this way, trying to bring that terror others had of me to my door.
I gritted my teeth and pulled my power back.
With a shaking hand, I eased my phone from my hoodie pocket and fired off a text to Ketheron.
Winter: Can we meet? Need your help with a spell for Grimoire Creation class. It’s got a Celestial element and I want to be extra careful with it.
I winced at that. Having to lie. But I needed the meeting to occur without oversight or interference from others. Once I reached him, I’d tell him the whole deal. But I had to be safe with arranging it.
I noted there were a slew of texts and calls from my loves. Likely looking to set our plans for tonight. I’d had my phone on silent, as was the norm when conducting a Ruminat anyway. I was just about to start reading through them, when a knock at the door of the hut startled me.
What was going on?
People didn’t interrupt Ruminats in progress.
I pocketed my phone and headed for the door.
One step in, and a sudden weakness in my limbs afflicted me. It had me smacking into the wall again. Fucking Ruxnoth. I’d been right—this was exactly what he was doing.
I called my power to one palm, letting it surge for a few seconds, just to will away the nastiness, so I could at least appear fine to whoever was outside.
With a grunt, I reabsorbed it, then made it to the door and opened it.
My breath caught in my throat.
This wasn’t good.
Because there stood Grandpa.
Given the fact that his agents of The Shadowed were keeping an eye on me, protecting me but very covertly, and yet here he was, their leader, the great Remnant… shit.
I cleared my now slightly dry throat. “Grandpa, what is… what are you doing here?”
Hold on.
He was standing there without a film of magic shielding him from the sun.
He had his metal face mask concealing his identity as usual for whenever he was out in public, and the robe, hood up and all, but…
he stepped to the side a little, his broad form no longer blocking my full view of the campus grounds outside… and then I saw it was dark now.
No. That couldn’t be.
I’d come here just an hour ago in the early afternoon. There’d been at least four hours to go until sundown.
He turned his head and gestured to somebody behind him, and then Evira came up on his other side.
She pushed into the hut and threw her arms around me. “We’ll figure this out. It will all be okay,” she breathed against my neck, as she clutched me fiercely.
She was scared. Our dragon warrior was actually scared.
There was only one way I could see that being possible.
She was scared for me.
As I stroked her hair, I looked out at Grandpa. The grave look in his eyes had my gut twisting.
“I need to remove you from campus immediately, Winter.”
“What? Why?”
Evira eased back from me.
The two of them exchanged a look, and he gave a nod.
Oh no. When there was a serious situation, Grandpa often slipped into Commander of The Shadowed mode, which came off harsh and intense.
So he was having Evira, one of my loves, give me the news instead, to steady me, and comfort me, while he couldn’t currently allow that of himself when this sort of compartmentalization was required of him.
Clutching my hand, Evira told me, “You’ve been in this hut for four hours.”
I thought for a moment. Ruxnoth. When he’d released me from that dreamscape, he must have held me in stasis for a bit. No—for fucking hours according to her.
But why would—
His words slammed into me.
“You require a push. It is time for you to see unequivocally that you have no choice.”
He’d done something. And it clearly hadn’t only been afflicting me with more symptoms of being without that warmth.
“I’ve been texting, calling you,” Evira told me.
“I received word from Torvek, then my dad in the Dracoryn Realm. House Athyras picked up additional information regarding the destabilization rooted in death magic that they sensed weeks ago. Word’s spread across the Realm, and it isn’t going to stay contained there.
I flew back to try to discredit it, to calm everyone down, but an hour ago Ruxnoth forced a holoscreen into the center of the Dracoryn Core and revealed himself, the necromancers with him, and your supposed role in all of it.
He claimed you agreed to drag Sanctus onto the mortal plane, starting with the Dracoryn Realm, then let that construct overrun it—some dark, twisted terraforming. ”
“No,” I choked. “That’s not—”
“Winter,” Grandpa spoke. “Word has also reached me that Ruxnoth projected this same message at the Guardian Compound thirty minutes ago. He intends to do so with all sovereigns and leaders across the supernatural world.”
He was outing me.
He was making me seem like the severe threat so many feared I was.
Time had run out.
Grandpa stepped forward and held out his hand to me. “Come with me. We must make haste.”
“Where… where are Vax and Zayn? Do my parents know? Do—”
“Your mother is being informed as we speak. I’ve sent agents to the Dark Fae Realm where she was conducting business today. Lazriel is with your grandma and agents are on their way to them at Vyrn Hollow.”
Evira told me, “Zayn is off the grid for the next couple of hours on a Requital operation supervised by Charles Petrone.” He’d been learning intensively with Requital for the last few days since his induction.
Grandpa went on, “Your dad, father, and Vaxan are proving difficult to reach, so I’ve contacted Ambrose and he’s seeing to that. They are together currently.”
“Together?” Evira and I asked in unison.
“I believe they are working on some dangerous spellwork concerning Ruxnoth. Alongside Kai.”
I started. “What?”
Vax going to them without telling me was…
actually understandable. It made sense with how he was.
I also got why he hadn’t told me, Evira, or Zayn.
It would be Dad and Kai’s price for admission into their secrecy, and Vax would reason that he had to be pulled into that in order to protect me and lessen the danger involved in what they were doing.
Father getting involved actually boded well.
He was the voice of reason through most things.
“We must leave immediately, Winter,” Grandpa pushed again.
Evira rubbed my arm. “I need to speak with Vorzyr, but then Remnant will send me your coordinates and I’ll be right there with you at the safe haven.”
“Safe haven? We’re not going to Glacialis Arx?” I asked Grandpa.
“It is too well known.”
I swallowed at his response. Short, but deeply loaded. Fuck.
I went to lean in to say goodbye to Evira, but then Grandpa jolted.
“Go now,” he told Evira. “Take your leave to Vorzyr.”
“What are you sensing?” she asked, scenting the area herself, but frowning.
“Clan Languim. They’re cloaked,” Grandpa told her.
“The vampire clan that’s been growing in power, sometimes challenging The Shadowed?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Cloaked?” Evira asked. “Then how can you—”
“Leave. Now,” he ordered, the Commander in him out in full force.
As for how he could feel that sort of concealed approach… he was an Ancient Vampire who headed a clandestine underground whisper network. His senses were virtually unmatched. Even by a dragon as formidable as Evira Vortimer.
I pulled my hand from hers. “He’s right, little dragon. Please. I don’t want you caught in the crossfire.”
I could see the resistance all over her, the pain.
I hated it.
I hated all of this.
But she was obviously reading my distress, because she gave a nod, then went to call her magic to teleport out.
She never made it.
In the next second, Grandpa blurred forward, snagged both of us, then rushed us through the open door of the Ruminat hut, and out onto the campus grounds.
I jolted as blasts of magic tore into the hut in the next second, blasting it to kindling.