by Fiona Starr
“Why would you bring back the Vessel?” I feel as though I am having an out-of-body experience. I’m not myself. I am floating above my body and watching myself say what I am about to say, and I can’t stop it from happening.
Allbright nods as if to thank me for teeing up the question. “Well, I am glad you asked. And I am happy to give you an answ—”
I clear my throat and shout over him, my voice oddly stronger and amplified so it carries throughout the large room. “Why would you bring that horrible Vessel back? The Vessel of Truth is based on a lie. It uses Ancient Magic. It drains Ancient Magic from its victims, just like the vampire who created it. The Vessel is what has been killing the students you’ve all been told are missing.”
The crowd explodes into chaos. People scream at me, demanding an explanation. The people with Allbright on the stairs gape at each other, clearly not aware and wondering what the hell I'm talking about. Porter Allbright shouts into the crowd, trying to regain control of the situation. And Professor Gilvray is doing the same, only now he's looking at me.
A crack of lightning pops overhead, stunning everyone.
“Silence!” Professor Gilvray’s voice is amplified by magic. “Everyone, please calm down.” He turns his attention on me. “Miss Everstar, would you please explain yourself? These are terrible accusations.”
I press my hands onto my chest, feeling my medallion under my sweater, letting the ripple of magic course through me and give me courage. I don't know why I spoke up, but now that I have, I feel like I have to keep going. There are so many secrets… so many dead…
Porter Allbright’s face is red and he’s sweating. “Wolves! Wolves are to blame for the missing students! Don’t listen to the words of an ignorant student spewing conspiracies! She’s simply trying to stir up trouble. The Vessel has never hurt anyone! It’s a beacon of purity. It’s the reason the Society exists—to keep our magic lines pure!”
“Here here!” a man by the door says, and he’s joined by several people who cheer in agreement.
Porter Allbright continues. “Wolves are to blame! As some of you know, I was attacked recently myself. The tracks we found are definitive. We have wolf shifters in our midst.”
One of the faculty standing with Gilvray shouts, “I think it’s high time we did away with the Society. This kind of bigotry has been a scourge on our people. Haven’t we risen beyond this kind of segregation? Haven’t we proven there is nothing to be gained by keeping your precious magic lines pure and pristine? It’s time we moved past this as a people and created a new way.”
A hand grabs my arm and pulls me gently backward. Van whispers into my ear. “We’re leaving. Now.” Angus and Marco turn at the same time, no doubt getting their orders from Van through their hive mind.
Gilvray raises his hand. “I vote that we pause a moment and look into these allegations made by this young woman.”
Van leads the four of us around a column and out the side of the room. I look over my shoulder as we disappear into the hallway. As the crowd turns to look at me, I’m no longer there.
Chapter Nine
JOELY
Van is incandescent with rage. He brings us into a small office off the hall by the kitchen and once he places a concealment spell over the door, he lets go of my arm. “What the fuck was that, Joely?”
I feel oddly calm. “I don’t know. It just came out. They’re going to make a new Vessel. We can’t let them do that.”
Van paces the length of the room, shaking his head and running his hands through his hair. “And you just decided to tell them they shouldn’t? You figured now was the time to tell them about their children being killed? Are you insane?”
Angus reaches for his brother. “Hey man, chill out. It’s okay.”
Van pulls his arm away. “The hell it’s okay! How can you think that? She just started a fucking wolf hunt!”
“Don’t blame Joely,” Marco says.
“Why shouldn’t I blame her? It’s her fault.” Van turns on his heel and storms across the room pacing like a caged animal.
Marco looks at me and his eyes are so sad. “Allbright brought up the wolves. He did that all by himself.”
I want to go to Marco and tell him how sorry I am for causing any trouble but I don’t feel sorry. I don’t feel sorry at all.
“Yeah, and why did he do that?” Van shakes his head and mumbles to himself, “She should have kept her mouth shut.” Then he glares at me, still pacing the room. “You should have kept your mouth shut!”
Outside the room, people are shouting. It’s hard to make out what’s being said, but throngs of them are moving past the door, marching and chanting. It’s like a mob has erupted and chaos reigns.
I close my eyes and try to stay calm. “I get why you’re upset.”
Van laughs. “Upset? I am so beyond upset. Upset? I am light years beyond upset.”
“I couldn’t handle another lie. Everyone is so full of shit and nobody knows what’s really going on. They are going to just build another Vessel! I had to say something.”
“You’ve put everything in jeopardy.” Van’s anger simmers down and now he just seems exhausted. He drops into a chair and holds his face in his hands. “Fuck.”
“I’ll fix it. I’ll…”
He looks at me like I am crazy. “Fix it? You just told a couple hundred people that the Society of Ancient Magic is killing students and now you’re going to fix it? You just forced Allbright to make everyone go wolf hunting and now you’re going to fix it? How are you going to do that, exactly?”
“I’m sor—” I stop myself before I can say the words. No. I am not sorry. I am tired of moving through the world under everyone else’s agenda. Kate feels I am worthy of her attention now because I am one of them. For her it’s conditional. For Eliza it wasn’t a problem as long as I was lower on the totem pole than she was. For my father I had to stay small and powerless, and for my mother… No. Just no.
I push my shoulders back and stand up straight, my chin high and my eyes locked on Van. “Look, I don’t want you guys hurt, I don’t want anything to happen to any of us, but this is bigger than just us. And I know how much your brother means to you but there’s more at stake here than just your vendetta.” It’s hard enough knowing that Van is so angry, but now even Marco and Angus look worried.
But I don’t back down. “You act like I’ve forced your hand, but nothing has changed. Nothing I’ve said puts you in danger. You’re stronger than all of them. Don’t stand there and tell me that you’re afraid that a bunch of mages are going to find the wolves. If they do, one of you is stronger than twenty of them.”
It stops Van in his tracks.
“You guys are so much more capable of defending yourselves than any of them. Nobody else here can protect themselves against a vampire. You can. You have. You said yourself that you’re immune to whatever power was inside that Vessel, none of the mages with Ancient Power can say that. You need to think about other people for a change.”
Van blinks and looks at me as if I’ve slapped him. “But, you’re with us. You’re the Nightbird.”
I walk over to him and stop in front of Van, challenging him. Power surges through my body, emanating around me with a crackle of electricity.
“Whoa.” Angus steps around me as Marco touches a finger to the field of energy glowing over my skin. He pulls back as if he got a shock.
“I am with you—all three of you—even though you’ve made it crystal clear that you want nothing more to do with me than what is needed to finish this thing with Underwood. That’s fine. Deny me all you like. I can take it. But I won’t stand by and let them continue using people—killing people to stay in power. Not when I can do something about it.” I’m not afraid.
“Joely,” Van stammers as if trying to find the words.
“I’m here because I want to be. Not because of your prophecy and not because I have nowhere else to go. Fate may have thrown us together, but I still chose you. And o
nce your mission is completed, I will still be here. I will still choose you. I will always choose the three of you.” I grab the door, swing it open, and step out into the foyer. The crowds are gone and the mansion seems quiet, but I have to get out of here.
I need to think. I need to be away from Van. I have to find a way to fix what I’ve started, though I don’t know how to take back words once they’ve been said.
Angus calls out behind me, “Wait! Joely!”
I turn to him, but the door is hidden under a concealment spell. I hurry to the exit before any of them can catch up to me.
Outside the mansion, it’s absolute mayhem.
“Oh my god.” I cover my mouth and take in the scene.
Hundreds of people are clustered on the grounds, shouting and yelling at each other. Wisps of magic fly through the air, sending people flying and knocking branches off the trees. I duck as a wild ball of orange flame sails toward me. It smashes into the stone wall and disintegrates into a thousand dots of light.
Porter Allbright stands near the road, a group of people surrounding him. He’s speaking to them and waving them to follow him as he marches them through the gate and into the street.
I don’t see Professor Gilvray anywhere, but there’s so much chaos it’s impossible to tell if he’s still here. A line of people march by the bottom of the steps shouting, “End the Society! End the Society!”
Roz finds me as soon as I step outside. She shoves a baseball cap on my head and puts her arm over my shoulder. “You can’t be here.” She walks me along the side of the building and then across a rear driveway that leads to the service entrance and into the street on the opposite side of all the crowds.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“No talking.”
Once we’re in the road, she grabs my hand and drags me along behind her. We weave our way through the neighborhood and then into the back yard of a small single-story house covered in green ivy. Roz lifts a flower pot and grabs a silver key and uses it to unlock the back door.
“Whose house is this?” I ask.
“No talking.” She shoves me inside and then checks left and right before closing and locking the door, covering the door with a magical alarm, and then ushering me through the tidy little kitchen and into the living room. “Sit.”
I do as she says, dropping into the plush cushions and folding my hands onto my lap.
Roz sits down next to me. “I’m worried about you.”
“Roz…” I stretch out her name like a kid whining for their mom.
“Don’t Roz me, Joely. Talk to me.”
I shake my head and she grabs my hands.
“Joely. I’m serious. I saw you that night when Marco carried you to your room covered in blood. I didn’t say anything because Marco waved me off at the time and has sworn me to secrecy since. It’s been killing me but I did it because I love you and I don’t want to push you if you’re not ready.”
“I can’t. I—”
Roz lifts her hand to cut me off. “I know something happened to you. You haven’t been yourself for weeks. And after seeing you today with Quinn and then that scene in the meeting… I know that whatever was going on is still going on and I just wish you’d let me in. You look like you need a friend.”
And just like that the floodgates open inside me and I let it all out. To her credit, Roz sits through it all without interrupting even once. I tell her about the night my magic sparked, and the visions and how the wolf in my visions is actually Van’s brother, Tobias. I tell her about Angus and Marco and Van, and how the three of them are not twenty-something, but over two hundred years old, kept alive because they drank two bodies’ worth of vampire blood.
I tell her about how my father made a deal with Porter Allbright to swap me and Quinn when we were babies. I tell her about Damon Underwood and Daria and how I saw Mel’s ghost the night of the gala. I tell her the truth about the origins of the Society’s Vessel. I tell her about everything, all of it, and how my entire life has been upended because of a pair of prophecies that I don’t even understand, and how I stood up to Van and how I am no longer willing to stand by and watch as they try to bring the Society back to its old ways.
I feel like I talk for hours, and when I finally finish, Roz sits back, stunned.
“Say something,” I beg, feeling my old fears creeping in. Will Roz run away and cut me off now that she knows who I am? Will she forget that she’s my friend? I settle myself because whatever she is going to do is beyond my control.
Roz gets up and disappears into the kitchen. When she returns, she’s holding a knife.
“Roz! What are you doing?”
She places the knife on the couch and takes off her shirt. Standing in front of me in her jeans and a bra, Roz picks up the knife and slices the blade across her hand, barely flinching as blood pools in her palm. She pulls me to my feet and presses her bloody hand over her heart.
“Joely. You just told me about five thousand things that could really hurt you and a lot of other people. I need you to know that you can trust me.”
“Roz, you don’t have to…”
She shushes me. “After what you just told me, I look at you and I see someone who has been betrayed by just about everyone you’ve ever known. You need to know there is someone in the world who will be there for you, no matter what. You need to know it. Someone who has your back.”
“Stop this,” I say. The tears are in my eyes, making my vision blurry, and my throat aches. How can she know? How can she know this is what I need to hear? Why did I wait so long to trust her? How—
She shakes her head and closes her eyes, stopping my brain in its tracks. “I, Rosamund Yellenbard, swear a solemn oath to protect my friend Joelle Everstar. I will shield her from harm and keep her secrets. No matter what. No matter who. No matter how. With my blood, I am bound.” She pulls her hand off her chest. The bloody handprint glows white for a second and then disappears into her skin.
I blink back tears at the gesture. No, this was more than a gesture. It was everything. “Roz…”
Roz pulls her shirt back on. “Sorry to be so dramatic, but seriously, girl. You’ve been let down by all the people who are supposed to have your back. I didn’t need to take that vow for myself. I know what it means to be your friend. But I wanted you to know for sure, in your mind and in your heart that you have someone whose word you can really trust.”
I feel as though a weight has been lifted from me. “Thank you,” I whisper. “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that.” I laugh, but it comes out shaky and uncertain. “I had no idea how much I needed to hear that.”
She taps my hand. “Well, now that you know you can trust me, I have some questions.”
“All right… hit me.”
“When you’re in bed with the two of them, is it really that good? I mean, what is it really like. I mean really. Are they hung like wolves?”
I throw my head back and laugh. “I just told you all of that and this is where your mind goes?”
She waves my concern away. “Excuse me, sister. It’s been so long since I’ve seen any action, I feel the need to prioritize my questions. Right now, I need you to spill the threesome wolf sex beans.”
Chapter Ten
JOELY
“So, whose house is this anyway?” I ask, warming my hands on my coffee mug.
Roz serves up two plates of scrambled eggs and toast and then sits at the kitchen table with me.
She takes a bite of her toast. “Professor Xandra Drysdale. Teaches advanced conjuring and alchemy. She’s an old classmate of my mom’s back when they went here. She’s on sabbatical for two years in India, living with some nuns in the mountains. I promised I would check on the house and keep her plants alive until she gets back. She won’t mind that we spent the night.”
I turned my phone off yesterday, but I don’t need to check my texts to know that Angus, Marco, and Van are worried sick about me. I can’t blame them, the last time they s
aw me I disappeared into the bloodthirsty mob outside the Society. But I know they can feel me just like I can feel them, so if nothing else, they know that I am okay. I just need some time. I’m not ready to argue with them, to go to battle with them again. Not yet.
We clean up after breakfast and put the house back the way we found it. Roz hasn’t said anything, but I know she needs to get back to her family at home. It’s still the holiday break after all.
“So, what are you going to do?” Roz asks.
I shake my head, because I have no idea. “I should probably go to my room and get some fresh clothes. After that, I don’t know.”
“Fair enough,” she says. “And if you need a place to hide out, you know where Xandra Drysdale hides her key.”
We walk back toward campus, our arms looped together, enjoying a companionable silence. I have my hair tied up under a black wool cap, and I’m wearing a scarf to cover some of my face. I feel like an idiot for speaking out because as much as it kills me to admit it, Van is right. It’s made me a target.
It’s so quiet on this residential street, it feels like I am in a dream. Or maybe this is real life and everything else was a dream.
“What’s that sound?” I ask absently. It sounds like someone’s watching a sporting event on television and the home team just scored.
Then we turn the corner and reality comes crashing back with a vengeance.
We’re a block away from campus with a view of the quad, and from here it looks like all hell has broken loose.
“Holy shit,” Roz stops walking.
I tug on her coat. “Let’s go.”
There must be two thousand people gathered on the quad. There are groups holding up signs and marching in one direction while another group shouts at them. People have set up tables for gathering signatures for petitions and others are rallying their followers with bullhorns and magic. As we move through the crowd it’s clear this is my fault.
