by D. D. Chance
Either way, Tyler came over a few minutes later with two beers in his hands, the bartender following close behind with a tray carrying three more and a bowl of chips. My stomach growled as she laid the food down on the table.
“Kitchen’s closed,” she said, her voice low and graveled, like she’d spent the day smoking cigarettes and pounding whisky. She nodded to me as I looked her way, and I didn’t miss the dark shadows under her eyes, the more pronounced lines at the corners of her eyes. I’d only been here a few days ago, but it may as well have been a year, as tired as she looked. “You guys need food, you can order it in.”
“We’re good,” Tyler assured her, but as she turned to walk away, I blurted, “Hey…are you okay?”
She stopped and pivoted back to me, and I realized that the weird half-light in the bar had played tricks on me a bit. She looked…better, I decided. Still exhausted, but not quite so gray. “Oh, sure. Long day,” she said, and when she smiled, more of her fatigue cleared away. She was probably used to putting on a good face for customers.
She looked like she was going to say something else, then seemed to decide against it. Instead, she nodded to us. “You all take care. Let me know if you need anything else.”
We assured her we’d be fine, and she seemed to accept that, though her sharp gaze swept over us again, and I got the feeling she probably didn’t miss the fact that our energy was keyed up and we were stressed to the max. Once she moved off, Liam leaned forward. “We’re going to have to be prepared for the illusionist to be a member of the first families. Probably someone that no one expects.”
Grim leaned back in his chair and grunted in disgust. “The families,” he muttered. “You all have so many secrets, how can you trust anyone?”
“That’s not a bad question, actually,” Tyler said, tilting his head. “It comes down to the old agreements struck, the alliances, yeah?” He looked at Liam. “And you know, a lot of the monster hunters from years past came from those first families. Not all of them, like Zach here, though I bet if we searched long enough we’d find a distant link. But still, a lot.”
“And now those monster hunters have gone missing…and are maybe even dead,” Zach said thoughtfully. “That’s gotta make for some unhappy families. You think they’re striking back?”
“Could be. There’s definitely a lot more attention being paid to the minor, right?” Tyler mused. “Maybe they think we will pay more attention to their missing sons and daughters if they stir up threats?”
“But why the cloak and dagger?” I protested. “Why didn’t they just contact Frost or Dean Robbins and demand they start a search?”
“Robbins,” Liam said, and it was his turn to sound disgusted. “I still can’t get over him and that Mr. Bellows at your apartment. That’s some shady shit right there. We can’t trust them not to be working for both the academy and whoever this illusionist is.”
“Agreed,” Tyler sighed. “The illusionist has been ahead of us at every turn. First he—or she, I guess, if it’s actually a woman—carved up that grave marker to dick with us, then she showed up as Grim at Guild Hall.”
Grim sat up sharply. “She what?” he asked.
Liam shook his head. “Sorry, my man, totally forgot about that part. But Tyler’s right. When we were trying to overload one of my mom’s gadgets right after the presentation, you showed up in the doorway. Only, it wasn’t you, which we realized less than a minute later. It had to have been the work of the illusionist. She’s really fucking good.”
Grim grunted something that sounded like a curse, though I wasn’t sure of the language, and he didn’t look happy. “Did she take the form of anyone else?”
“No, but I’ve been thinking about that,” Liam said, leaning back in his chair and casting his gaze toward the shadowed ceiling, gesturing vaguely at me. “The bug thing, you know? You said something about it, and you’re right. From the rat moths to the spiders to the dragonfly to those murder hornets. What’s the big bug deal?”
Zach blew out a breath. “Well…insects are everywhere, they’re strong, they’ve been around since ancient times, and they seem impossible to kill. I guess that makes for a good theme.”
“They’re also massively adaptable,” Liam agreed. “They can survive some shit. And I mean—that poison they were spitting out in Guild Hall? Somebody put it in those monsters, and it worked. That…is kind of friggin’ scary.”
“They also incite fear,” Grim put in. “Among all the creatures, there is something unnerving about insects as attackers that terrorizes people at a base level. That’s why the illusionist chose it. She wants to cause terror.”
His words hung over the table with frigid finality, and Liam took a long, slow pull of his beer. “Man,” he sighed. “When it comes to enemies, we sure do know how to pick ‘em.”
“Speaking of enemies…” Zach lifted his own beer, and gestured to us. “What’s up with those elf guys—or the Laram, I guess it is? Are they in league with the illusionist too, or…”
“No way,” Liam said, but Tyler immediately countered, and the debate was on…a debate that had no conclusion, of course. We simply didn’t have enough information about the shadowy watchers—other than they’d tried to turn Zach and me into pincushions. But was that part of a conspiracy, or simply monsters being monsters?
Two beers later, we were still arguing, but the debate had gotten decidedly louder and…less focused. By the time we finally stumbled back to Fowlers Hall, we were all dead on our feet—so tired that we instinctively headed to our own rooms. Even Grim, I suspected, though I had no idea where his rooms actually were in the enormous building.
I got lost only a couple of times, then finally made it to my room, stepping into the enormous chamber with a sigh before carefully shutting the door. There was enough moonlight streaming in through the tall windows that I could see easily, so I didn’t bother hitting the lights.
I was halfway to the bed when I realized I wasn’t alone. I froze, then turned slowly to the side. “You realize I’ve killed monsters for less.”
Liam sat in one of the wing backed chairs that flanked the honest-to-God fireplace in my room, a fireplace that was not currently lit, but had suspiciously new-looking logs piled up.
“Are you surprised? You gotta be surprised right? Come on, tell me you were surprised,” he said, leaning forward and grinning as he rested his elbows on his knees. “I didn’t mean to scare you, but, I mean, I haven’t been rattling around this mausoleum of a residence hall for all these years without figuring out how to get around, you know?”
I shook my head, but couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m surprised,” I assured him. “But I guess I shouldn’t have been. How did you get here so quickly?”
Liam waggled his brows. “A magician never reveals his secrets,” he said, as he hooked a thumb toward the fireplace. “But going forward, if you’re not looking for unexpected guests, I recommend lighting a fire. It would take someone with a lot of grit to get through the way I just did, if a fire was going strong.”
He cocked his wrist with a sharp gesture. A thin stream of fire zipped across the room, landing in the grate and catching the logs ablaze. The fire swept up quickly, making me wonder again just how fresh those logs were, but I didn’t really mind. Having Liam in my room, cozied up for a fireside chat, felt more right in this moment than anything else I could imagine. As I moved toward him, he stood and hefted a pile of blankets and pillows, which he tumbled in front of his chair and spread out on the thick rug that covered the hardwood floor.
“Did you have any of this set up before tonight?” I demanded, but he just laughed.
“Nah, the idea came to me as we were walking back from the White Crane—and I guess I was motivated.”
“I’ll say.” I felt absurdly happy as I flopped down on the pillows, leaning one elbow onto the seat of the wingback chair. Liam did the same, the two of us facing each other in front of a roaring fire.
“I guess it just felt like
we’ve never really had a normal date,” he explained without me asking the question, because of course he did. He looked off toward the fire, as if slightly embarrassed by the revelation. “And I wanted that with you, you know? I want everything with you. From our first fight, to our first round of makeup sex, to our first day on the job as fully graduated monster hunters, to our first fight in another city, another country. It doesn’t matter what, really. I want an entire lifetime of firsts with you.”
His words were quiet and a little rueful, and my heart tugged as I drew my fingers along his arm, an arm I’d seen bloodied and scorched not all that long ago.
“Just the firsts?” I asked, as his head came around, his gaze once more meeting mine. “What about the lasts, too? What if I want you to be the last guy I see as I close my eyes at night, the last voice I hear whispering that everything is going to be okay? The last guy I kiss in front of a roaring fire on a warm May night?”
“I have it on good authority that all those things can be yours.” Liam’s words were harder, almost gruff as leaned forward to brush his lips against mine. Then he pulled back to look at me, his expression fiercer than I’d ever seen it. “I love you, Nina. And everything is going to be okay, because no matter where you go, no matter who you fight, no matter what monsters you find waiting for you in the dark, I’m gonna be there, too. I’m going find you when you’re lost. I’m going to bring you home the moment you say the word. And I’m never going to let you go.”
He gripped my arms, then, pulling me close, his whispered words coming fast as his heart beat frantically against mine. “You’re my family. You’re everything. You’re the first person whoever believed in me just by looking at me…without me having to prove a damn thing. I’ll never stop loving you.”
“Oh, Liam,” I managed, but there wasn’t any more need for words after that. Liam and I collapsed into each other like two starving people presented with a feast, the electricity of our symbiotic magic leaping and arcing as we kissed, touched, and devoured each other. With every stroke of his finger along my skin I came alive, with every kiss and taste of him, I felt him gasp and shudder, the surge between us undeniable.
I didn’t know whose clothes came off first, but it felt as if they had been burned away. Liam drew me up to my knees to straddle him as he laid flat, letting me sink over him. He stared up at me, his eyes filled with more magic than I had ever seen, and I couldn’t stop the burst of emotion that welled up within me, half a laugh, half a sob, and wholly, completely Liam.
I shivered with happiness as we began moving together in perfect time to the crackling, leaping fire. The shadows danced along the walls to their own soundless melody, and for just this moment in time, everything was perfect. Everything was right. “What am I going to do with you?” I sighed.
“Well that’s easy,” Liam smiled, sliding his arms around me and anchoring me tight. “Whatever you want.”
32
It wasn’t until two o’clock the next afternoon that my phone blared, with Frost summoning us all to the library—and I was still in bed at the time. It took me a second to fully comprehend where I was, alone in an enormous canopied bed, Merry’s beautiful dress draped over the nearest chair, and me boneless in the sheets. I stared around, trying to get my bearings, when my phone buzzed again. It was Liam, with Tyler and Zach right behind. Even if I’d wanted to keep sleeping, I wouldn’t have been able to, so I got up and hurriedly dressed.
Within a few minutes, we met at the front of Fowlers Hall—most of us anyway. Zach, Liam, Tyler, and me. As usual, Grim was off somewhere else.
“Did Frost tell you anything at all?” Tyler asked Liam as I trotted down the steps. Liam shook his head.
“Not nearly enough. He said it was worse than he thought and that we needed to get over there, which is basically a whole lot of nothing, but I guess we’ll find out.”
“Something’s definitely going on,” Zach said, his head tilted slightly, one hand raised as if to get a feel of the very air. “They’ve got a perimeter established around Guild Hall. That’s gotta be where they’re doing the interrogation, which is kind of curious, don’t you think?”
“Really?” Tyler said. “I wonder if that building has more built-in protection than we thought. Makes sense given all the magic they were trying to throw at us during the presentation. So who were they really trying to protect? I’m betting there were a whole bunch of cross-currents going on there that we didn’t realize.”
“I suspect you’re probably right,” Liam said. “What I would do for a do-over now that I can pick up a little bit more on that sort of thing.”
Tyler laughed. “I have a feeling you’ll get your chance, my man.”
We made it to Lowell Library a few minutes later, the only one not making an appearance being, of course, Grim. That guy would probably be late to his own funeral.
Frost nodded to us as we filed into the war room. “Don’t get comfortable,” he said. “They began transmitting about two hours ago, not making much headway at first. Then there was a lot of commotion and a lot of arguing. The Hallowells’ name was mentioned repeatedly.”
I perked up at this. “Really? They’re bringing them in?”
“Unclear. Most of the commentary centered around the idea that they were going to be extremely angry about the outcome of the interrogation. Then there was a lot more static, screaming, feminine in nature, a loud slam, then a lot of quiet rumbling. Symmes started talking at that point, sounding remarkably satisfied. And it’s been quiet for some time now.”
We gathered around the speaker, exchanging glances. Just as I was about to ask how long we should expect to wait, a new voice broke in. Dean Robbins.
“Our fearless leader,” Tyler commented drily as Robbins began apparently to protest the treatment of the illusionist. Liam spluttered, but Frost lifted a hand and Robbins’s voice came across clearly.
“There’s no reason for us to continue this outrage,” he insisted. “This is a Hallowell problem, and one they can fix far more easily than we can.”
“It’s a Wellington problem now,” Symmes retorted, speaking sternly. “And one that’s been going on apparently for some time. We’ll deliver that problem back to the Hallowells, but we’ll also hold them accountable for solving it.”
“Oh, aren’t you brave?” a rasping voice sounded, muffled and furious. No longer a strictly female voice, it was nevertheless impossible to identify. It sounded vaguely familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite place it. A voice I’d heard recently—maybe in the tunnels below Fowlers Hall? It had to be.
“Commander Frost and his team should be here,” Symmes said abruptly. We all perked up at that, even as Frost gave us the round-up gesture for us to head out.
“Absolutely not,” Robbins retorted. “I’ll have you know that I have received strict instructions from the academy’s administration to keep them as far away from this situation as possible. They’re untrained, unvetted. They’re also the last monster hunters the academy has. Do you really want to risk them for a photo op?”
We all exchanged glances, though by this time, we were moving quickly through the main chamber of the library, heading for the front doors.
Claudia Graham spoke next. “I can’t speak for my son anymore, but I can tell you he would not stand down from this fight.”
Liam gave a thumbs-up as Robbins chimed in again.
“Oh?” Robbins sneered. “Even if it meant the closing of the minor? No students, no minor. And that would be a shame, wouldn’t it?”
Dean Robbins’s callous suggestion seemed to put a pall on the group gathered in Guild Hall for a moment, and we quickened our pace. But it was Theodore Perkins who spoke next.
“The monster hunter minor is the most important thing in my son’s life, but I can tell you right now, he would sacrifice anything for the greater good of Wellington Academy and his fellow hunters. I know that for a stone-cold fact. So you can keep your politics under your hat for another day, Dean Robbins
. We need to summon the team.”
The arguments on the floor continued, and by the time the formal summons came through, we were almost at Guild Hall. We hurried up the front stairs, and the door opened to reveal another completely impassive attendant, who expressed zero interest in the monumental events taking place in the ballroom. He escorted us back to the same room we’d been the night before, though I noticed the coatroom had been locked up tight.
“Holy smokes,” Liam said as we walked down the long hallway. “Are you guys feeling this? The force fields they’ve set in place here are epic. They’ve got a criss-cross weave over all the doors, additional reinforcement at the windows. The floor is completely impenetrable. You can bet that nothing is going to be coming up from below this time.”
Zach nodded. “We’ve got a lot of minds at work here too,” he said quietly. “Both inside the building and surrounding it—concentric rings of effort. This is a big deal.”
Tyler grinned excitedly. “I’m not gonna lie, I like having all this advance intel,” he said. “Imagine the damage we could cause if we could enter a place that’s been infested by monsters, already knowing where all the players are? This is excellent.”
“We don’t know where all the players are,” Liam pointed out. “Where’s Grim? He should be here.”
“He will be,” Frost said. “He’s doing a perimeter check around the entire academy, testing the wards. He’ll be here presently. His gifts aren’t all that helpful against straight-up magicians, but he’ll be here.”
I snorted. I felt for the guy. I wasn’t all that impressive against straight-up magicians either. No matter how well I could wield a knife or hurl a bag of magic pellets, I wasn’t awesome against magic thrown by another human. Something to focus on in my postgraduate study it appeared, since from the sound of things, we weren’t going to be finishing out our senior year like normal students. Hell, we were barely getting through our junior year.
