Heathermoor (Of Quirks and Curses #2)

Chapter 1

Well, it’s been a real mindfuck here, so let me catch you up as best I can while I writhe in agony . . .

The breath hissed in and out of my mouth, barely escaping my clenched teeth as the train rattled along, racing us closer to our destination.

Heathermoor.

The sister academy to Neverthorn, and the last place that anyone would think we – me and my fellow housemates of House Phoenix – would run to when escaping our previous school.

I sat with my head tipped back against the wood-paneled wall behind me as I fought the waves of pain and nausea rolling through me, one after the other.

This was the direct result of breaking the bond between Typhon and me – a necessary step if we were going to avoid being found and dragged in front of the Senate Thaumaturgy and split up.

Necessary, yes.

Painful as hell?

Also, yes.

“Harlow, are you sure you don’t want me to get someone?

Maybe there’s a nurse on the train?” Fable was at my elbow, but I couldn’t open my eyes to look at her, never mind my mouth to answer my bestie.

I just shook my head, and even that made my stomach roll as if I were on the Cyclone down on Coney Island.

She lowered her voice to a near-whisper. “Is there anything we can do to help you through it? Did Calypso say things would get worse before they got better, or how long it might last?”

Worse? I wanted to bark a laugh but was afraid I’d throw up. How could things get worse? I couldn’t even open my freaking eyes. If we were put in a position where someone recognized us and I had to protect my friends, we were all royally screwed.

The short version? Me and seven former classmates of Neverthorn Academy had been forced back to our old school only a few months before – mature students, I suppose you’d call us.

We were brought in for training so that we could replace Heronius – the now-dead hero of the Dwimmer world, and the only one who’d been keeping Nocta (that’s the bad guy) and his army of freaks from annihilating not only the Dwimmer world, but the Unlit (the one you live in) world as well.

No pressure, right?

Not to mention that, in the midst of all that, I’d found out Nocta (yup, the bad guy) was my father.

Only Fable knew my secret, and that secret was weighing on me like an elephant had taken a seat on my head.

Yeah, again, no pressure.

Training at the school had been absolute shit since we, as the only surviving members of House Phoenix, had been blocked from tapping into the full potential of our magic.

In essence, we were starting fresh, as if we’d not had any training to begin with, relearning how to cast runes, spells and, in my case, read runes.

And why was our magic blocked, you ask? Because by all accounts, the students of House Phoenix were unpredictable, and our magic was wilder than any other Dwimmer’s. They wanted to keep us reined in, controlled.

Hidden.

But you can’t rein in magic once you realize you need it to stop an evil that wields the same kind.

’Cause that was the real kicker.

Nocta was the same as us, a member of House Phoenix.

We’d eventually figured out how to free up our magic – with a lot of outside help – and we’d even begun to find our Quirks (specialty powers above and beyond what the average Dwimmer might have), only to be forced to flee Neverthorn.

If we hadn’t left?

The Senate was planning to split us up and send us in all directions to train individually. They’d said it was for our own good. That it would help us focus in on our unique talents, but they didn’t understand how House Phoenix worked.

We were a team. We had each other’s backs, and it was only because of that connection to one another that we’d survived the Solstice Games.

If we were going to have any chance of stopping Nocta, we had to stay together.

I knew it in my bones. But none of the powers that be at Neverthorn or the Senate would listen.

Despite our ages, they treated us like children.

Or like Dwimmers that still needed to be controlled.

So, we made a break for it, taking a new deal with a new monster to make it happen.

And to make sure we stayed gone, I willingly shattered my bond with Typhon.

A sharp stab lit up right over my heart as his name floated through my mind. Sucking wind, gasping and gripping at the faux leather seats, sweat dripped from my face and onto my neck. The pain radiated outward, down my arms, through every bone in my chest – exactly as it had so many years ago.

This bond between Typhon and me had started when he’d accidentally-on-purpose blasted a rune at me when we were both still in school the first time around.

A rune that had cut deep into my heart and nearly killed me.

I’d been healed, but that wound had bound us in ways neither of us had truly understood, our magics seemingly welding us together.

That wasn’t the only reason my heart was aching, though.

I’d had to leave my adopted little sister Ophelia behind with my little trash panda buddy, Bandit, and our last remaining House Phoenix member, Phyllis.

I trusted them both with my life, and knew they’d take a bullet for her if they had to, but truth was, it made me physically ill to think about the fact that we’d left them behind.

No matter how I sliced it, I’d still left Opie at the most dangerous magical academy where kids died every year.

Died.

Opie, who had no magic to protect herself with . . . and it terrified the shit out of me.

A groan slid from my mouth as fear warred with pain, and I fought not to pass out.

We’d left behind more than my little sister.

Liam, the one teacher who’d done everything he could to encourage our growth and help us find our Quirks was still at Neverthorn.

He’d understood the importance of us finding every bit of strength we each had if we were going to stop Nocta and knew that we had to leave in order to stay together.

In the end, we’d agreed it would be better for him to stay behind for a short time.

It would give him a chance to see who was put to the task of looking for us and where they planned to start the search.

Because none of us were fooling ourselves – the Senate and Tarquinius would be looking for us.

But with Liam at Neverthorn, he could cover our tracks. He’d promised to catch up to us before we got to Loch Shin – the final stop before Heathermoor – but so far, a week into our travels, and with us nearly there, we hadn’t heard so much as a whisper from him.

“How long do you think this will last?” Ellie’s voice cut through my scattered thoughts.

Her hands were warm as she pressed them gently against my face.

She was the Healer of our group and the quietest of us by far – but also the one with the most kindness in her.

No matter how good she was at healing, though, this thing I was fighting could not be healed, not even by her.

A cackle erupted from my pocket – yeah, pocket.

Someone pulled the locket free and flipped it open, the click sounding like a gunshot in the quiet of the cabin.

Calypso’s voice filled the space. Not a phone, but a magical leash that let the siren in Neverthorn’s wishing well spy on me and enforce our bargain.

She’d helped free me from my bond to Typhon but, in return, I had to find her a trinket she wanted, which just happened to be in Heathermoor.

“The attachment is strong between them . . . he bound her to him when he struck her heart all those years ago, and heart poison runs deep. That’s how Dwimmers like him keep their favorites in line – She should be strong enough to see it through.” Her chuckle was low, and maybe even a little sad.

“Is it almost done, the breaking of the bond?” Ellie pressed her fingers to my wrist. “Her heartbeat is all over the place, I don’t like what I’m feeling . . . like it’s in its last throes.”

“As long as she doesn’t actually die, she’ll be fine.”

I could almost see Calypso shrugging her green-tinged shoulders, water swirling around her in the well where she was trapped, hidden within the grounds of Neverthorn.

The others in the railcar started talking all at once, but it was Fable’s voice above them all. “You never said anything about her dying!”

“I didn’t realize she would be this stubborn .

. .” Calypso sighed. “Obviously, I need her alive, but in order to fully remove her bond, she needs to be willing to release it as well. Some piece of her is hanging on, whether intentionally or not – that’s why it’s killing her.

Slowly, but still killing her nonetheless. ”

Ellie’s hand didn’t leave my wrist. “Harlow . . . do you hear what she’s saying? You have to let go! You have to!”

I shook my head, teeth still clenched. How did I explain this to them?

It wasn’t just the binding spell that connected us.

It was our past, of course, but also our present.

I’d allowed myself to feel something for him these last few months at Neverthorn.

I’d even fooled myself into thinking we could save each other.

But then I’d found out the truth. And what he was . . . what I knew him to be now.

Changed everything.

He was a Draw . . . a Dwimmer who could steal magic, and even life force if he was strong enough, from others, siphoning them away until nothing remained but an empty husk.

A vampire in his own right.

He’d lied to me. He’d lied to us all.

And yet a corner of my heart still ached when I remembered his face, the way it carried the weight of a man at war with himself.

“Lift me up to her ear so I can speak to her,” Calypso demanded. “Some things are only meant for the one swimming in dark waters.”

The silver locket was pressed to the curve of my ear, the cold metal a strange relief to the heat that flooded me, a magical fever that burned me up from the inside.