Chapter 28 #2
“As you can see, this is something of a group assignment. You will work with your house to decipher the curse I have just now laid on all of you, trapping you within your designated section. Your job is to find a way to break through. I will reiterate, as I do in all my Curse Breaking lessons, that every curse has a weakness, and that is the only way you can unravel them – find the weak link in the armor. There is no manual for this, it is a matter of feel and using your understanding of magic. You cannot break curses with brute force. You must think your way through how the curse was created, and what loopholes are inherent to it.”
I listened carefully, thankful that I was no longer in dire need of this information, given how much Calypso’s curse had softened after getting the coin in my hands.
Not unlike working your way through a warding spell – though you could use brute force on those if you wanted – it just didn’t leave you much time to get your job done.
“What’s our time limit?” Ross shouted from over in Draconell.
Thalienne laughed. “So eager to start without any clues?”
He shrugged and flexed a little, making more than a few girls laugh. “We got this.”
His eyes flicked over his new house, but I felt the connection between us open a little. It wasn’t Draconell he was speaking of. It was us.
It was House Phoenix.
Warmth suffused me. I hadn’t lost them to other houses, I’d just . . . loaned them out. And Zeed was right. Despite my secret, it seemed like they might be willing to forgive. I felt the weight of another stare, and I turned to find Marina glaring at me.
Correction.
Most were willing to forgive.
“Don’t worry about that right now. Let’s focus on our task, okay?” Zeed whispered.
I turned my attention back to Thalienne, who scanned our faces with a wide smile on hers. “Are we ready?”
Zeed and I stood on a little patch of grass and, even while questions bubbled through me, I kept my mouth shut.
Then again, after getting to know the Sage a bit in our one-on-one sessions, I was beginning to see that Thalienne never spoke more than she wanted to, even when she promised to answer a question.
“You will have twelve hours to break the curse.”
More than a few gasps and muttered grumbles, but I wasn’t overly worried. I mean, the Solstice Games had gone on for three days, give or take.
Twelve hours was a piece of cake.
Bryony arrived amidst the grumbling and shock of the students, with a few other teachers in tow. They set themselves up near each of the wide ends of the spokes. “You will have the opportunity to ask the teachers here three questions each.”
Typhon moved to stand behind Zeed and I.
“What is the meaning of this?” Mallachtan strode out of the school toward the students, hissing as he bumped up against the wall of magic that had locked us onto the different sections.
“You said nothing about teaching the entire school this morning. I have every right to interrogate these little shits as agreed upon last night! My men were set up while I was off school grounds, and I won’t stand for it! ”
What was this? I glanced at Zeed who just shrugged.
Sage Thalienne turned to face Mallachtan, staring down into his piggish blue eyes.
“Last night when we spoke, what we agreed upon was that I’d be allowed to teach my first class of the day before your .
. . question and answer session. This is that class.
” She shrugged her elegant shoulders with a tight smile.
“A twelve-hour class? With all of them!” He spun, pointing his stubby fingers toward the students. “You’re doing this on purpose. You think the Senate will allow you to defy them like this?”
“This sort of challenge is not unheard of in Neverthorn. We host the Solstice Games – our last was over three days,” Typhon spoke smoothly over Mallachtan’s stuttering as he joined the two of them.
“I am quite sure Tarquinius would approve of Sage Thalienne’s decision to push her students harder.
In fact, I should probably send him a message that Thalienne is finally coming around to his way of thinking. ”
Mallachtan’s face mottled, as if he’d developed measles in a matter of seconds. I openly grinned, watching as he struggled to come up with some kind of further argument. His gaze darkened even further if possible as he turned to face Thalienne. “We are not done here, half-breed.”
Gasps littered the air. Bryony lifted her left hand, her fingers twitching. “How dare you!”
“You!” Mallachtan rounded on her. “You set this up, all of it, didn’t you? My men were watching you for days and then suddenly, two nights ago, they’re sick, addled, and find themselves surrounded by empty wine bottles!”
Bryony frowned, and it felt like the students around us hardly took a breath. “What do you mean?”
“The day you’re referring to, she was with me almost all night,” one of the other teachers said. “Discussing the many uses of the quillitene herb.”
If I didn’t know Bryony had been caught doing something wrong, I’d have never guessed, and I was a pretty sharp guesser. There was no hesitation from any of them.
They had planned this.
Sage Thalienne dipped her head, a heavy sigh sliding from her.
“Oh, dear, Senator, I’d forgotten until now.
Your stay with us is complete at the end of the day today, is it not?
Pity.” She paused and tapped a long-nailed finger against her chin.
“I’m not mistaken, am I? The Senate did say you were to return if you could find no wrongdoing? ”
My grin widened; I couldn’t help it.
Checkmate, motherfucker.
It wasn’t a solution. Just a band-aid, so to speak. He wasn’t the type to walk away with his tail between his legs. He’d be back, but having him and the Runecoats off our asses for a few more days would be ideal.
Mallachtan circled us, acting like a rabid dog. “We’re not done here,” he repeated.
His eyes found mine and I grinned even wider, making the motion for a rune well-known to the Lit and Unlit worlds alike to cause agitation, indignation, and outright rage when used at the proper time.
I lifted my middle finger and used it to scratch the side of my head.
Mallachtan spun on his heel. “You think you’ve beaten me, but we are only just getting started.
Agent Holder, Agent Rackson, keep an eye on them.
Bring anyone who gets through their task between now and dinnertime to me for questioning.
” As he walked away, he trailed a finger through the magic around us, and the bell sounded again, only deeper this time, rattling my bones.
“I think they will find they are sufficiently motivated to break the curse now.”
The itch on my body intensified, and I jumped at the pressure that pushed in from all sides. My ears popped and I looked at Zeed.
“What the fuck was that?”
I could still see the teams in the other boxes, but on the outside of the circle, there was nothing. As if a veil had been dropped between us and the outside world. No way to ask anyone questions anymore.
“He . . . I think he took control of the spell from her?” Zeed offered. “A Quirk, maybe? Yes, that makes sense. Someone who can take over another’s curse. Like a Borrower.”
“More like a thief.” I tried to hurry to the edge of our area, so I could put my hands on the curse. My limbs felt so heavy, as if I had weights on my arms and legs.
“It’s slowing us down,” Zeed said, grunting with effort.
My fingers brushed against the curse surrounding us, and I yelped and tried to jerk back only to find that it was sticky, the magic dangling from my finger like a long line of sap.
Painful, sure, but minor, as if I’d bumped my fingers into something solid. I tried again, and the pain increased.
Zeed stood next to me, lifting his hand.
“No. Wait. This . . . he’s made it so that the pain gets worse each time you put your hand in. I don’t know if it’s limited to each person, or if it will get worse if more than one . . .”
A chorus of shouting erupted from the right of us. It was distant and somehow distorted, but I could see clearly that it was House Kelpish. Marina was in there.
Feel.
This was about feel.
That’s what Sage Thalienne had said, and while Mallachtan had Borrowed her curse . . . the basis should still be the same.
Zeed tried casting runes at the curse around us, but they bounced off or were absorbed. “I can’t get a read on this. Doyen Moreno warned me about Mallachtan. But this is worse than I could have imagined . . .”
We had to break a curse by Mallachtan.
Thieving 20-whatever: Know your mark.
More yelling, now from both sides. What the hell was happening to them?
My chest tightened, and the thought of the space around us getting smaller, closing in . . . the only way to break through was to do it on our own.
I drew a breath, tried not to think about anything but the problem at hand. Not my panic, not my friends, not Typhon or Liam, who were both probably freaking out.
“What did he say about Mallachtan? Tell me everything.” I bowed my head and closed my eyes, wincing as I pushed my hands into the curse all the way up to my elbows while Zeed spoke.
“Shit . . . okay. He said he is often used by the Senate because he has no fear, not really. He’s from the old bloodlines and his family has money. There are rumors of him belonging to dark sects of Dwimmers. Those who came before Nocta, maybe even some who were cast into Everdark.”
The curse swirled across my skin, biting harder now, heating up in places, and sending out jolts of shooting pain. I breathed through it, focusing on the expansion of my chest as I drew air in and out slowly, the feel of the curse whooshing through me.
Zeed crouched beside me. “They said he had a daughter, and she married a half-Fae. She died in childbirth, and he’s hunted them down ever since, in whatever ways he can.
Sometimes in secret, and sometimes not. He’s been a strong advocate within the Senate for the execution of any Dwimmer with any amount of Fae blood. ”