Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
He didn’t even try to grab me when I was alone or to hide that he was there for me.
He burst into my Inner Beast Management class, right after the entire class had entered the simulation room for another lab experience, this one counting as our final, and somehow completely shattered the simulation for everyone.
There was a moment of confusion, with all of us looking at each other, wondering why the simulation had already ended when it had barely begun. Then Zowen was there.
He came out of the shadows at the far end of the room, a truly terrifying sight, with his dark, dragon wings spread wide and shadows streaming from his form as if he wasn’t physically there anymore.
I remembered him having a physical form last time, but maybe that had just been my brain trying to make sense of what I’d seen because today he was shadows and mist more than physical man.
He dove straight for me and the other students all scattered, screaming.
They raced for the outer door and began banging on it when it wouldn’t open.
“It’s locked!” someone shouted.
I couldn’t reply as I was busy grappling with Zowen, burning him with my fire over and over again, but it seemed he had a million shadow arms and when one retreated, another took its place.
Miki-Leopard fight?
No, Miki. Today, it’s my fight. I’d made a vow to myself that although there were many things I couldn’t protect Miki from—the glory of sex being one of them— this , fighting our enemy, was one thing I could.
I heard a scream to the right and glanced over to see Tabitha struggling against long tentacles of shadows that had lifted her off the ground.
“No!” I flung out one arm and threw my magic toward the shadows that were about to chuck her into the Shadow Realm.
I didn’t see the result because in my distraction, Zowen got a couple shadow tentacles around my waist and yanked me back. I managed to shove my fire right into them, dislodging them, but two more came flying in.
“Fuck this,” I muttered. This time, instead of constantly trying to battle individual shadows as they attacked, I envisioned the aura of magic that had settled in my skin expanding outward, so that it attacked every shadow around me.
The bands loosed and as I fell to the ground, I caught a glimpse of that idiot Taggart in the clutches of a different shadow.
He wasn’t fighting at all. Instead, his eyes were closed and he was muttering something.
I hit the ground running and was incredulous when I got close enough to hear what he was saying.
“I am one with my wolf. I am one with my wolf.”
“Oh, my goddess!” I shouted as I flung my icy fire at the shadows dragging him toward the Shadow Realm. “Stop embracing your beast and fight!”
My magic missed the shadows holding him, but hit others that slithered back.
His eyes flew open and he stared right at me. “But I need to become one with my wolf!”
“If you aren’t one by now, it’s too freaking late. Now SHIFT!” I threw out another barrage of my flames.
As if that was all he needed to hear, Taggart shifted to a snarling wolf just as my magic connected with the shadows holding him.
He leapt for the ground with a furious howl.
I slid to a halt, disgusted that I’d just been forced to freaking save Taggart .
He backed toward me, his fur brushing my legs.
Another wolf came rushing up to stand at his side. Tabitha maybe.
Chaos surrounded us.
Shadows slithered closer.
Students threw magic hysterically, some of them accidentally hitting their classmates and friends.
Other students were beasting out, roaring and slashing, fighting against an enemy they couldn’t really harm or kill.
Sirens were going off and from outside the room, we could hear people shouting and banging. At least they knew this time that something had gone wrong.
Uncertain what else to do, how to protect everyone inside this room, I did the only thing I could think of.
I reached for my magic again, and like before, expanded my aura, shoving every last bit of my magic away from me, flames of fire and crackling bolts of ice lightning filling the air with heat and light.
I grappled with the roaring power of it, struggling to infuse it with intent, to burn and freeze shadows only.
I hesitated, terrified my flames would burn out of control, but all around me, shadows were throwing students into the Shadow Realm and this was the only way I could help.
Heart pounding, dizzy from the sheer volume of magic I was grappling with, I flung my arms wide and let the magic go.
It burst free in an explosion of light.
My flames passed over Taggart and Tabitha, lighting up their forms. The two wolves settled back on their haunches, tongues out, breathing heavily as the flames passed on.
They passed through shadows where a storm of icy lightning lit up their darkness and sent those shadows spinning away in tiny fragments of light.
They passed over students lying unconscious on the floor, huddled against each other, fighting still more shadows. As my flames released them, those who were unconscious stirred to life while the others glanced around in wonder.
My flames pressed to the very walls of the room, filling every single shadow with light.
Zowen, who had retreated to the far corner when my magic hit his shadows, shouted, “I won’t be locked away again. This is my Realm and I will reclaim it.”
Then, as my flames got closer and closer, he faded into the shadows and was gone.
Barely a second later, the door blew off its hinges and my dragon came storming inside, a veritable army of professors behind him.
My flames retracted, barreling back into my form with such force, I went flying .
Somehow, Elliot, who’d already been heading toward me, caught me in his arms and held me tight.
Kasi hurtled past, Shadow at her side. They dove into the shadows and came back a few moments later with nine students Zowen’s shadows had managed to drag into the Shadow Realm before my flames had forced him to retreat.
Those nine students were shivering and shell-shocked. Two of them I immediately recognized for they had shared their memories of their time in the Shadow Realm once before.
My heart broke to know they’d been unlucky enough to have been victimized a second time by Zowen.
Still, all nine students were alive and none were in a coma, so I would call that a win for our side.
Then, Zowen tossed Leslie’s body out of the shadows.
She was withered and worn, almost unrecognizable, her light entirely extinguished.
I fell to my knees at her side and brushed back hair that had once been a pale blonde, that was now a smoky gray.
He’d clearly used every bit of her magic for his own ends and when she was no longer of use to him, he killed her.
Had I caused this?
When he discovered the fire shield I’d built and realized he could no longer enter my dreams, had he decided then that he no longer needed her?
Had he discarded her because of me?
I sat there at her side, Elliot’s arms around me until they came to take her body away. When she was gone and we were the only ones left in the room, I turned into Elliot’s arms and broke.
The rest of the semester was a somber one.
We may have driven Zowen back again, but we’d lost one of our own. Though Leslie had walked a dark path at the end of her life, we still mourned her loss.
Headmistress Blackthorn notified her coven and the entire coven showed up for the service we held for Leslie. They took her body home, accepting her back into their fold as their one final gift to a young woman so lost she’d actually joined forces with the serial killer who ultimately took her life.
I found her diary a few days after her death.
I don’t know if it had been hidden by a spell that dissipated upon her death or if I’d just never noticed it before.
It was in her nightstand drawer, not even really hidden, and in it, many of our questions were answered.
Zowen first found his way out of the Shadow Realm the year we started at Blackthorn Academy—Kasi, Jasmine, Leslie and me.
He’d sought out someone vulnerable, someone he could turn, and Leslie was that someone.
She’d been turning dark since the moment she walked into our Academy and Zowen targeted her.
Kasi’s theory was that when she shadow-walked for the first time, she somehow woke the sleeping killer and made it possible for him to shadow-walk as well.
The more she shadow-walked, the more he could.
Kasi pointed to spots in Leslie’s diary that coincided with turning points in Kasi’s life.
Leslie began seeing Zowen more frequently when Shadow came into Kasi’s life at the beginning of last year.
Things intensified between Leslie and Zowen again when Kasi discovered the shadow library several months later. This was when she began to spend extended amounts of time in the Shadow Realm, conducting research, potentially strengthening Zowen every time she visited.
Even though we now suspected that her trips to the Shadow Realm might be what Zowen needed to get stronger, Kasi couldn’t just stay away.
After all, Shadow was born in the Shadow Realm, which meant she spent a huge amount of time there.
Kasi would never agree not to shadow-walk if it meant losing time with Shadow, and Jahrdran would never agree not to shadow-walk if his mate was.
Technically, I was a shadow-walker too, at least when in leopard form.
Miki-Leopard adored playing with Shadow and when they played together, they were always diving in and out of the shadows at will.
This meant there would always be shadow-beasts visiting the Shadow Realm, and so, the Shadow Killer would continue to shadow- walk until we managed to stop him. Until then, we would remain vigilant and do our best to somehow increase our abilities to fight against the shadows.
Headmistress Blackthorn announced the professors would be spending their winter break developing new lessons for the spring that would better prepare the students.
Professor Diaz would be adding a section to her Inner Beast course about fanning one’s “inner light” so that it could be used for defense while Professor Fotheringham would be adding a module on defending against the shadows.
Fotheringham planned to use some of the techniques I’d used as well as some that Kasi had used and would be interviewing every student and professor who had spent time in the Shadow Realm to see if he could come up with a battle plan for anyone who found themselves trapped there, a way for them to resist that might give them a longer window for survival.
And so, life went on.
Professor Diaz announced that our fight against Zowen would count as our final for that class and that everyone had passed with flying colors. Apparently, surviving the attack was enough for everyone to get full marks.
We took the rest of our finals over the next couple days, some of us still a little shaky from the last encounter with Zowen, then we all headed home for winter break.
Elliot traveled home with me to meet my parents and we had a fantastic holiday season, with lots of laughter and joy.
I could see the relief written all over my parents’ faces when they saw me for the first time and realized how much happier and healthier I was than the last time they’d seen me.
I was practically radiating joy as I introduced them to my mate.
They welcomed him into our family with such excitement that I was completely overwhelmed at how truly blessed I was.
It was a wonderful homecoming.
The best part, however, was my first evening home, when I invited my dad to go for a run.
The joy he radiated when he first met Miki-Leopard about made my heart burst.
His leopard took us for a run through the nearby forest, showing us all the places he loved and generally treating Miki-Leopard like she was his cub, which I suppose in a way, she was.
After that first run, Elliot sometimes joined us, sometimes running at our side in human form and sometimes flying high above in his dragon one.
He had to engage some pretty serious camouflage when flying since witching communities were fairly integrated with human ones, but he said it was good practice and worth it to fly above us and watch the two of us run together far below.
We stayed with my family through the new year, then traveled north to visit Elliot’s family. Though I was nervous to meet a family of dragons, it turned out there was no need .
They were loud and boisterous and so very kind and I had as wonderful a time with them as Elliot did with my family.
And of course, everywhere we went, everyone we met fell in love with Miki-Leopard, who often insisted that I share her thoughts with the crowd.
Elli-Dragon mine, she insisted when Elliot’s older brother, Jason, clapped a hand to his shoulder and pulled him in for a manly hug as we were leaving at the end of our vacation.
I snickered, Elliot grinned and we held hands all the way to the ferry that would take us back to Blackthorn Academy.