Crystal Wing Academy- The Complete Series

by Marty Mayberry

  I wasn’t a true threat, in other words. But wait…

  “Watch me.” I took great satisfaction from the way her pincers trembled. “I’m not so untrained that I didn’t see what you were doing with white threads, Bespeller, and it appears I’m not as useless as you assumed.”

  She scowled. “Do not play with me.”

  “Ditto.”

  A growl burst from her. “Then it appears we’re at a standoff. You need something from me and I…I need a few things from you.”

  “An equal trade, I’d say.”

  “Things will never be equal between us.” She studied my face, and I hoped it didn’t give me away. I was scared, afraid she’d tell me to leave before I’d received what I’d come for. Gathering herself, her face hardened and she stomped forward, crowding me backward. “My final offer. One sliver from your moonstone, and I’ll give you two full days to return with the items.”

  “Two days?” She’d said one.

  She smirked. “Picked up on that, did you? I changed it to two days. This shows I can be generous.”

  “I need a week.”

  “I’m not that generous. Come now. You’re trying my patience, lovie.”

  “Three days,” I said, my voice rising to screech.

  Her gruff laughter chuffed around the room. “I do like you, Fleur. You’re a girl anyone would be happy to claim.”

  Except my mother. Or my father, for that matter. And my half-sister could also be added to the equation.

  “I will not change my mind,” Katya said as if put upon, but that was me. “Two days is my only offer. Do we have a deal?”

  As if I had a choice? She had me, and she knew it. I wanted to stomp my feet. Howl. But I also wanted to keep my hand. I wanted to live.

  She must’ve seen my posture loosen, and I hated that I couldn’t hide my desperation.

  “You’ll bring me the things I demand?” she said, holding out a pincer. “It’s a deal?”

  My exhale bled every scrap of air from my lungs. “Yes.”

  When we shook, a spike of electricity shot through me, binding me to this creature’s demand.

  Her snicker was cut off when I pulled my blade and slammed it down so hard, it embedded itself in the counter.

  Chapter 26

  Overhead, muted screams erupted, deadened by the doors and walls. Dull thuds that shook the ceiling followed.

  “Go!” Katya pushed me backward with her pincers. “You need to leave. Now.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “We’re under attack.” She peered up at the ceiling and hissed. “He found me. I knew he would one day.” Hustling around me, she dumped a bucket of herbs on the floor then started tossing items inside the empty container. Skulls and wands banged together with crystals and candles. Reeling back to me, she glared. “Go!”

  When the ground rocked, I flung my arms out and banged my hand on the wall hard enough something inside snapped. Pain exploded in my pinky finger, and I stumbled around the counter and dropped to my knees, cupping my right hand with the other. Tears smarted behind my eyes, and I bit my lips together to keep from screaming.

  “Get up, girl,” Katya shouted. Grabbing my arms with her pincers, she hauled me to my feet and shoved me toward the door, stomping behind me. “Get out of here. I’ve got to…” Her inky gaze flew to the ceiling where pieces of tile rained down on the room. “My precious babies! I need to protect them.” Her snarl rang out. “How dare he! He’ll pay.” Fangs gnashing, she rammed into my back, projecting me into the main entrance door. “Go. When you have the bone and cupla stone, ping me and we’ll make an exchange. Otherwise, don’t bother stopping by for a visit.”

  “Wait. You said I could choose. You can’t change the rules now. We had a deal!”

  “Deal, smeal. This is what happens when you don’t pay attention. Before we shook, I said items. Items! That means dragon bone and a cupla stone.”

  My spine stiffened. “I won’t do it.”

  Coming to a halt, she turned to me, her face blazing with anger. “How many days did the healers give you?”

  “A week. Two days are gone. See, this is why—”

  Her hand swept out and when she touched my right shoulder, heat shot beneath my skin. It rushed down to engulf my hand.

  I screamed. “What did you do?”

  “Accelerated things a bit. You no longer have five days, little girl. Leave on your quest today, and you’ll have your two. Nothing more. To show I’m kind, I healed your broken finger. Call it a peace offering.”

  Crying about this being unfair would get me nowhere. If I stayed here another second, she’d outright kill me.

  “My business is under attack,” she shouted. “To find another hiding place from my son, I’ll need power. Lots of bone-bled power!”

  I stomped my foot on the rumbling floor. “The dragon bone or the cupla, not both.”

  “It’ll be both!” She latched onto my forearm and shook me. “If you ask the Cerberus nicely, they’ll give you a cupla. As for the dragon bone…”

  No.

  Her lips curled. “I imagine that boy can help. He’ll do anything for you, now won’t he?”

  Wrenching away from her, my hands curled into fists. “Then I choose death. I won’t do it.”

  “We don’t have time for this.” Katya hauled open the door. “Go. Get them for me, and I’ll sweeten the deal. I’ll not only remove the serum, I’ll give your cute boy a charm that comes with no price.”

  My breath caught. “You’d be willing to override a spell created by the Court Bespeller?”

  She scowled. “Is that who did it? I’d thought…”

  I latched onto her pincers and yanked her face closer. “Who? Who is the third Bespeller?”

  Ripping herself from my grip, she scrambled backward, limbs flailing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I advanced on her, rage lighting my lungs on fire. “You do. Tell me!” She knew more than she was saying, and I was desperate to make her talk.

  Booms overhead sent hunks of tile flying through the air. I ducked before one impaled my head. Straightening, my heart bolting against my ribcage, I caught Katya rushing toward the back of the room, her legs thundering on the floor. She snatched up the barrel as she passed then scurried around the counter, pausing only to snatch a few things out of the cabinet and toss them into the barrel.

  “Children! We must flee.” Her pincer swept out, and I was blasted back against the door by the shockwave.

  I clutched my head and shuddered. “What…?”

  Her glare fell on me. “I’ve warded the door to keep anyone out.” Tipping her head back, she roared loud enough to burst eardrums. “Children! We haven’t much time.”

  A scratchy-scraping erupted from around me. Spiders, thousands of creepy-crawly creatures the size of my fist poured from the holes in the ceiling and the cracks in the walls. More squeezed from the cracks in the floor beneath me. They skittered over my boots and around my legs, their pincers brushing my calves. Others flung themselves from the ceiling. They smacked into my head and my back, sending me stumbling forward. I caught myself against a bookcase before I fell.

  My flesh crawled as I beat them off, shrieking.

  I turned and wrenched open the door. Dust and smoke poured down the channel, rushing into the room to choke out the air.

  I had to get out of here before I smothered.

  Stumbling forward, I took the stairs two at a time as the door slammed shut behind me.

  When I arrived at the upper door the handle wouldn’t turn. Was it locked?

  I braced my shoulder against it and shoved. Hard. And again. With a grinding shriek, the door flung open.

  Tria, her eyes ablaze, grabbed my arms. “Thank the fae!” She threaded her hand down to take my good one and, snatching my fingers in her own, yanked me forward. “Everyone else is waiting for us at the flit circle. We’ve got to get out of here!”

  Around us, wizards and creatures f
led in various directions.

  A cluster of vrilla toddlers, herded by their mothers, raced toward an exit, their skirts flicking up behind them. One fell and was almost run over by a troll carrying a statue of Venus.

  Five leggy, giraffe-like creatures loped past the troll, their young wailing as they raced beside them.

  A mother cyclops pushed a carriage, frantically weaving around centaurs and people and plants who’d ripped their roots out of the dirt and scrambled along with everyone else, their leafy limbs fluttering in terror.

  Clinging to me, Tria squinted her eyes shut. They burst open. “I can’t flit!”

  “What?”

  “Something…” She shook her head. “No time to talk. Come on.” Dragging me forward, we raced around lights and planters.

  Why couldn’t she flit? I didn’t like what this could mean.

  “Almost there!” Tria shouted, hauling me behind her. We rounded a corner and crowded behind a mom and dad and two teenagers.

  “What’s happening?” I yelled, my voice barely rising about the roar of the crowd.

  “Not sure.” She turned wide, panicked eyes my way. “Something exploded and chaos took over.” Gasping, she yanked me sideways before I was run over by a battalion of centaur Seekers. Their hooves smacked on the floor, and they lifted their weapons. One centaur’s gaze fell on me, and her steps faltered. She reeled around to face me, her flank smacking into a wizard and sending him flying through a store’s glass window. He crashed through and landed in the rubble inside.

  “You.” The centaur trained her weapon on me.

  Tria yanked me behind her. “She’s with me. We’re from Crystal Wing Academy.”

  “We saw… I saw.” The Seeker shook her head, making her numerous coils of dark braids flick back and forth.

  What had she seen?

  “She was in a store when this place erupted,” Tria said, ducking when a stream of wyleens zipped by too low, packages falling from their clutches rained around us like plastic-coated bombs. “Fleur didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “But…” The centaur frowned as if using mindspeak. “You’re right. It can’t be her. Just get out of here. Go back to the Academy. This place is out of control.”

  “Come on!” Tria said, bolting toward the end of this passage, dragging me behind her. We rounded the corner and rushed toward the flit center.

  My lungs ablaze, I clutched my injured hand to my chest. We wouldn’t make it. We were going to be trampled.

  “You said something exploded?” I panted out as I jogged with Tria. We flattened ourselves against a storefront as a herd of reindeer who must’ve escaped Santa’s winter wonderland thundered past, their antlers slashing at anyone who came near.

  Someone was hit and they reeled backward, their hands pressed against their bloody belly.

  My right hand throbbed as the endless burning sank deep, all the way to the bone, telling me Katya’s final bespelling had taken effect.

  Only two days left. Was that enough time to locate a dragon bone, beg the Cerberus’s for a cupla, and arrange for an exchange with Katya?

  I’d find a way.

  Because she’d dangled a carrot on a stick in front of me: a way to suspend Donovan’s bespelling.

  Tria yanked on my hand. “Come on!”

  With the world floundering around us, we ran for the flit circle.

  Wizards, their robes slapping their calves, darted past us, heading in the same direction. A hive of baby wilty-sparks, their bright colors fading, bumped and bobbed, slamming repeatedly against a store window to avoid being hit. One fell and barely avoided being trampled by a centaur.

  I wanted to scoop them up and take them with me to keep them safe, but Tria yanked on my arm again.

  Her gaze followed mine, and she groaned. “We don’t have time! We need to get out of here before the building collapses around us.”

  She must’ve seen the sadness shadowing my face, because she came to a halt and groaned. I dragged her in the other direction, fighting and shoving our way toward the sparks. We gathered them up and, dumping someone’s purchases from a bag, tucked the wilty-sparks inside and secured the top.

  I slung the bag over my arm, and we took off, running toward the middle of the mall.

  A roaring thunder rose behind us and, slowing, we spun to face that direction.

  Their enormous feet stomping on anyone who got in the way, a swath of stony gargoyles rushed our way.

  Tria yanked me sideways, and we darted into a narrow alley lined with smaller, more exclusive shops. The shaking lessened as if the alley was untouched by what happened around it.

  “Let’s wait here,” she huffed, pulling me with her. “Stay out of their way. Things will settle down and we can go faster.”

  She turned, and her footsteps slowed. Shock consumed her face as she stared toward something—somebody—lying on the floor ahead of us.

  I frowned. Why would someone...?

  The person wasn’t lying on the floor by choice. Bands of steel held her pinned to the ground. My gaze was drawn up from her bound feet, but it stalled at her neck. The beatleycarne crouched over her, its lumpy, gelatinous body pressing its gooey mass over her mouth and nose.

  Smothering her.

  Cloven was wrong. The exterminator hadn't killed the prankster. It had followed me to the mall.

  “It’s killing her!” I shouted as I stooped down and punched the beatleycarne, loosening its grip. It flew to my right, thunked against a storefront, and slithered down the glass, leaving behind a black, streaky line of slime. Landing on the floor, it staggered upright then streaked away, losing itself in the crowd at the end of the alley.

  I turned to the girl, hoping I’d find her okay.

  When I got a good look at her face, I flailed backward and landed on my butt.

  “Fleur?” Tria croaked, glancing back and forth between the girl and me. Her finger touched the girl’s throat before she shook her head. “She’s dead.”

  That wasn’t the only reason for the terror in Tria’s voice.

  The girl’s face… Her body…

  She was me.

  Chapter 27

  The girl’s face shifted as if it scrambled to make sense of the world collapsing around us. It twisted and scrunched and moved around before it changed into another First Year student—Carly.

  “Whoa,” Tria said, skidding backward. Her wide-eyed gaze met mine. “Did you see that?”

  “She’s…” I swallowed back bile. “What just happened?”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say the beatleycarne believes it killed you.” Tria glared in the direction the slug had fled. When I peered over my shoulder, it hadn’t returned. Probably hiding while it plotted to kill me for real the next time.

  The bag of baby wilty-sparks I’d rescued slipped from my hand. When the top creased open, the babies bobbed out. They drifted up to the ceiling and floated farther into the alley. Safe for the moment.

  “Let me call…” Closing her eyes, Tria remained motionless.

  Roark, Eirib, and Leelith, all Seekers, popped into view at the end of the alley and trotted toward us, slowing as they took in Carly lying on the ground.

  As Tria stood and backed away from Carly, Eirib and Leelith stooped down on either side of her. These two centaurs had caught me, Bryce, and Patty while we were returning the dandybucklions to their natural habitat. They played good cop to Roark’s bad.

  Roark, the Seeker who seemed to take extreme pleasure in grilling me, stood at Carly’s feet, staring down grimly. He shook his head and swore.

  Eirib laid a hand on Carly’s arm and he, Carly, and Leelith flitted from view, likely heading for the morgue. They’d been busy lately, dealing with bodies from the Academy.

  Roark advanced on me. “Did you see what happened?” he barked.

  Tria and I explained in hushed, shocked voices.

  My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, and my heartrate had slowed to sporadic thuds, as if it floundered in mud. Sc
rambling to my feet, I backed away from Roark until I slammed against a storefront. An edge of trim dug into my side.

  “The beatleycarne isn’t the only one responsible for her murder,” I said. The horror rising inside me made my words come out a shriek, drowning the ruckus of wizards and creatures rushing past the alley.

  Roark clomped closer, glaring at me. “What do you mean? What aren’t you telling me?” His eyes, darker than the endless pits of hell, drilled into mine. “Spit it out, girl.”

  “The rogue Bespeller’s involved.”

  “What makes you think that?” He plodded closer while I pressed myself against the glass, wishing I could melt through. “Explain.”

  “That was…” Lifting my good hand, I pointed to where we’d found her. “She’s Carly.”

  His gaze slid in that direction. “A fellow Academy student?”

  “A fellow outling.”

  Tria slammed around Roark to stand between us as if I needed protection. “Outlings are dying. What are you going to do about it?”

  “We already took care of the slake,” he snarled.

  Donovan and I had taken care of the slake, thank you very much.

  “And we stopped the nightlace from killing anyone else,” he said. “It was a bespelled girl. Now she’s wearing a charm that keeps her from shifting into the plant.”

  Actually, Tria had exposed the nightlace’s identity when she’d chopped off Alys’s little finger. Pain had temporarily eliminated the bespelling.

  “Someone’s still murdering outlings,” I said. “I think it’s been the same person all along, directing the others.”

  “A wild theory.” He raked his hand through his long hair. “Who do you suggest?”

  At least he was sounding more reasonable. And less apt to blame me.

  “That’s just it,” I said. “I don’t know who it is other than it must be the Bespeller who performed magic on Alys. The person worked with Professor Mealor. And he or she killed Eben yesterday.”

  “The student incident with the slork?” he asked frowning but at least listening. “These acts can’t be connected.”