by Logan Jacobs
Before I could leave, though, Crimson stood up and blocked my way. Then she turned to look at my coven and waved her hand.
“Go on, you lot,” she demanded. “He’ll catch up with you later. I just need a moment.”
My coven looked confused, but they nodded and left the room. Once we were alone, Crimson turned to look back at me, and her red eyes seemed darker than usual.
“Cole,” she sighed. “If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about tethered souls right now. Your head should be in the game.”
“But--” I started to say, but she put a slender finger to my lips. Her touch was hot and electric, and it sent a pleasant chill through my body.
“You will solely focus on the game,” she whispered. “Trust me, you will need all your strength and willpower for this next one, so I strongly suggest you go and rest before the next tournament game.”
I nodded slowly, and she smiled. Then she pulled away from me and gestured for me to leave.
“Have a pleasant night, Cole,” she purred.
I left the classroom and felt a great many things, but mainly, I was confused as to why she didn’t want me to ask any more questions regarding tethered and lost souls. I knew a part of her cared about my well-being, and I understood why she would want me to focus only on the game, but I thought there was more to it than that.
Just what that was, I had no idea, but I intended to find out.
Eventually.
Chapter 16
Wake the fuck up!
I stirred in the bed and slowly peeled my eyes open. A pale light was streaming in through the stained glass window, and it cast a ray of colors to shine across the wooden floor.
Alexander was lying on my chest and staring at me with his red eyes, and I blinked groggily at the black rabbit. Who knew how long he had been staring at me for?
When I said nothing, he extended one of his feet and kicked me in the face.
“Hey!” I grumbled. “I was already up!”
No, you were awake, he said, but you weren’t up. There’s a significant difference.
“Great,” I muttered as I shook my head, “my familiar is a smart-ass.”
And you better get used to it, he said as he sniffed the air. I’m here to serve you, and to take care of you. Now, stop lying about and get up. You should take an ice-cold bath. It will help you wake up.
“Sure,” I sighed. “Why not? Since you seem to know what’s best for me, all of a sudden.”
One perk of being a familiar, he replied, is that we always know best. Now, hurry the hell up! You’ve got a game to win.
I shook my head before I pulled the red covers off. Then I stepped onto the floor, stretched, and yawned. When I glanced back at Alexander, I could have sworn he rolled his eyes, but I just chuckled under my breath.
“Cordelia?” I hollered. “Could you please draw me a freezing cold bath?”
“But of course, sir,” the obedient ghost-maid replied. “Are you sure you want it to be freezing cold, though?”
“Apparently, that’s what’s best.” I winked at Alexander.
“As you wish, sir,” she responded.
Once I’d done some stretches to limber myself up, I headed into the bathroom and stepped into the tub, and I shivered violently as I submerged myself into the icy water. It was like needles were piercing my nerves as I forced myself to soak in the tub. Ice coated the edges of the bathtub, and it felt like my bones were shaking.
“W-Well, I-I’m certainly a-awake now,” I said through chattering teeth.
Good, Alexander said as he hopped into the bathroom. You should come out now, though, your lips are turning purple.
“Oh, are they?” I responded sarcastically.
I rolled my eyes before I stepped carefully out of the tub and quickly wrapped myself up in a towel. Goosebumps pricked my skin, and I shivered in the cold air. Then I headed slowly into the bedroom and spotted a clean set of clothing on the blue velvet chair by the window. I was still shaking as I buttoned up my black shirt and slipped on the matching black trousers, but by the time I tossed my cloak over my shoulders and strapped on my boots, I was back to a normal body temperature.
Before I left, I took one quick glance in the mirror that hung by the bathroom door and studied my reflection. The color had returned to my lips and cheeks, and I didn’t look like a ghost. My black hair was plastered over my forehead, and as I pushed it out of my eyes, I thought I saw someone else staring back at me in the mirror.
I thought I saw her. The woman from the painting.
I shook my head and tried to forget about the dark-haired beauty with the same color of eyes as mine. There was no use dwelling on matters that would only distract me during the game. I’d question Theodora about it when the time was right.
You look ready to kick some ass, boss, Alexander said.
His voice broke me away from my thoughts, and I glanced down at him as he twitched his nose and stood on his hind legs.
“Thanks.” I grinned. “Wish me luck.”
Good luck… but you don’t need it, he snorted. You are the best. You are my master.
I nodded at my little buddy, and when I came downstairs into the common room, I was surprised to see no one was in sight. I mentally debated going into the witches’ bedroom to retrieve them, but then their door opened, and I smiled as I watched them come down the stairs.
Each witch had worn their hair in a unique style for the third game. Morgana had her dark curly strands in a long, intricate braid. Faye wore hers in two high red ponytails, and Vesta had hers wrapped in a sage-green bun. Akira wore her short hair down, with just the sides pinned back with bone pins. They all wore their plaid short skirts and button-up white blouses with knee-high socks and leather thigh-high boots, and their cloaks floated behind them as they swept down the stairs and talked amongst each other.
“I’m just saying we should treat newts with more respect,” Morgana sighed. “Do you know how good they are for the environment?”
“So what?” Akira laughed. “Now, you’re going to be a leo?”
“A what?” I asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs, one by one.
“A leo,” Akira repeated. “You know, a plant-eater?”
“Are you all seriously discussing dietary preferences before the third tournament game?” I asked in amusement.
“The nerd started it,” Akira snickered. “I’m just giving her a hard time.”
“Well, excuse me, but initiating random conversations helps to calm me down,” the bookworm replied in a defensive tone. “Especially when I find the topic to be interesting.”
“I see.” I nodded before I stared at each witch. They all wore neutral expressions on their beautiful faces, and I knew even if they were a little nervous, they were ready to go kick some fucking ass.
“Are we ready?” I finally asked.
“Yeah, let’s get this over with,” Vesta sighed.
“Agreed.” I smirked. “Let’s kick some ass.”
We headed out the common room door and sauntered down the halls, and it was eerily quiet, aside from the occasional portraits that waved and cheered as we passed them by. As soon as we reached the banquet hall, I took in a deep breath and mentally prepared to open the doors, but before I did so, I turned to look at my coven.
“Are you ready?” I asked again. I wanted to be sure they were solid before we faced the masses.
“As ready as we’ll ever be.” Faye grinned as she tossed back her shoulders.
“Yeah, not like we can back out now,” Akira snorted. “Let’s do it.”
I nodded and took in a long deep breath before I pushed the doors open, and as soon as the entranceway parted, the cheers and screams from the Scholomance students deafened me.
Pride swelled in my chest as I walked past my fellow classmates, though. It still felt strange to see these witches cheer for me and my coven, but I relished in it. I’d grown used to the side eyes and the disgusted looks, but I couldn’t deny this was
a pleasant change of pace.
We continued to march onward, and Theodora and Vanessa were at the front of the hall, with the other two headmasters behind them.
What completely caught me off guard, though, was the Mors team.
Bram was standing there with only one arm left, but somehow a smirk played across his face as his other two teammates stood by his side. Malcolm shot me a cold glare, and I briefly wondered how the hell they had survived the last game. By all rights, they should have died where we left them, and it just didn’t seem possible they’d somehow made it out alive. I had a feeling that something, or rather, someone, had interfered, and I intended to find out what exactly happened after we completed the third game.
Still, the warlocks looked pretty beat to shit, and satisfaction burned in my gut.
I smirked in their direction until I caught Theodora staring right at me, and as we approached her, I had a feeling she knew exactly what I was thinking. If she could, I knew she would tell me to ignore the idiots for now and just focus on the games.
So, that’s exactly what I did.
When we reached the front of the room, we all took our spots among the other teams. Then I stared at the students in front of me, who continued to cheer until Theodora raised her pale hands up into the air.
“Welcome to the third game of the Ludi Mortiferum!” she roared.
Everyone began to clap wildly, and the headmistress had to raise her hands even higher to calm everyone down. When I discreetly turned to look at my coven, I noticed Akira was smirking, while the others wore forced smiles plastered across their faces.
I turned away from them and discreetly checked out the other Scholomance team. They all appeared straight-faced, and it was hard to read their genuine expressions. The Vipera women, however, all looked incredibly pleased with themselves, and when Nyx caught me staring, she flashed me a discreet wink.
I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it.
“Now, this game is one of my personal favorites,” Theodora continued. “It is the Battle of Bones, and the task is simple, in theory.”
Everyone stared at us with wide eyes, and it felt as if the entire room was holding their collective breaths. Theodora was good at making this into a real fucking show, and she waited and teased the students before carrying on.
“For this game, the teams must enter a graveyard and bring a Wicca back from the dead,” she explained. “They will be given the proper ingredients to concoct the right spell, but it is up to them to find the strength to battle against shadow demons and other beasts while they locate a golden locket somewhere in the graveyard.”
“Doesn’t sound too bad,” Akira muttered at my side.
“And what makes these undead Wicca so special,” Theodora went on, “is the fact they possessed elder magic when they were alive. Of course, these witches were tried and prosecuted for forming relationships with Elder Gods in exchange for power, which is why they were kept in pristine condition for educational purposes. Should any team member fail to resurrect them properly, or if they lose control of their witch, their souls will be tethered to their hosts, and they will be forever trapped in purgatory.”
“I retract my last statement,” the short-haired witch gulped.
I remained composed as I tried not to think about being dragged into a grave and stuck with a law-breaking Wicca for all eternity, and when I glanced back at my coven, I could tell they were all thinking the same thing.
“Now, without further ado,” Theodora announced. “Let the Battle of Bones begin!”
As the crowd roared, the headmistress whipped around and smiled at us before she twirled her wand around three times. A purple smoke began to engulf all the teams, and I could feel myself being tossed and turned in between realms. The banquet hall disappeared from view, and I squeezed my eyes shut before I landed on something hard, like dry dirt.
When I opened my eyes, I stared all around me, and I saw my coven and I were lying on a massive patch of deep, red soil that extended for as far as the eye could see. The sky was the same color as the dirt, and the only other things that surrounded us were bare, black trees that grew from the earth.
But other than that, there was not much else.
“Where are the others?” Akira asked as she slowly sat up.
“I’m sure they are nearby,” I replied.
“Wait, where are the graves?” Morgana wondered, and she whipped her head back and forth like she’d missed something. “I thought she said we would land in a graveyard?”
“I don’t know about the graves,” Faye said, “but we have the ingredients with us.”
I followed her gaze and spotted a small cauldron right behind us. It had been placed carefully against a tree, and I headed over and peered inside the small pot while the others all got to their feet. Inside, I spotted the bright red flowers and blue herbs needed for the spell, and next to the small pot were a wooden spoon and a small vial.
“Great,” Morgana said as she hovered over me. “So, we have Persephone’s flower and the herb of Hades… but we have no corpse to resurrect.”
As soon as her pessimistic words left her lips, I felt something beneath my feet, like a voice calling up to me, and when I peered down, I noticed the dirt was covering something up. So, I crouched down, swept the soil away, and smiled.
There, beneath my feet, was a stone with the word “traitor” and the name “Magda” marked across it.
“I think we found it.” I grinned. “Whoever this Magda is, she’s our assigned Wicca.”
“Well done, Cole,” Morgana gasped, and then the brunette cleared her throat and pointed her wand at the stone. “Vos!”
The dirt in front of the stone parted, and we were staring down at a chained-up coffin. Worms, maggots, cockroaches, and other critters were crawling all over the grave, and I wrinkled my nose at the sight.
“Well, that’s new,” Akira muttered. “I’ve never seen a chained-up coffin before.”
“This Wicca used elder magic when she was alive,” Morgana reminded us. “That’s why she’s marked a traitor. Who knows how this resurrection will play out… the ones who buried her probably didn’t want to take any chances.”
“Let’s find out who we’re dealing with, then,” I said.
The coven nodded, and Morgana raised her chin up into the air and looked at each of us. Then she placed her hands on her hips, and I knew she was ready to take charge, but she still glanced at me for permission.
I really enjoyed being their master.
“Go ahead,” I chuckled. The bookish witch was excellent with plans and spells, so I’d let her take the reins for a bit.
“Alright, here’s what we’re going to do,” the brunette said in a firm voice, “Faye, stand guard and make sure no one comes out to surprise us.”
“Got it.” The redhead nodded.
“Akira, you will work with Vesta to mix the ingredients,” Morgana continued. “And Cole, you will keep watch over me while I bust this lock open and take something from the Wicca. We have no idea why she’s chained up, and if you need to kill her on the spot, then do so… even if it means we lose the game.”
I nodded and took out my wand, and Akira and Vesta began to mix the ingredients while Faye stood in front of us with her wand extended outright. Then Morgana looked at me with wide, pale blue eyes before she glanced down at the coffin.
“You’ve got this,” I whispered.
She nodded, and her long eyelashes fluttered downward as she aimed her wand at the coffin.
“Recludo,” she muttered.
The thick chains fell off the coffin, and then the lid slowly lifted open. It began to hover up into the air, and when I caught a glimpse of the corpse inside, my mouth parted open in surprise. It wasn’t a corpse at all. Instead, I was glancing down at a beautiful, pale woman with long blonde hair and a white gown, and she looked like an angel that had fallen into a deep, peaceful sleep.
“What--?” I said slowly.
�
�She’s preserved,” Morgana said as if she could read my mind. “Elder magic keeps her beautiful in death, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t suffering. She’s still torn between the dead and the living.”
“She deserves whatever punishment was given to her,” Akira huffed from behind us where she was still with Vesta by the tree.
“That may be,” Morgana replied, “but that’s not important right now. Have you lit the herbs and flowers on fire?”
“Yeah,” Vesta responded, “we just need something from her.”
Morgana bent down and quickly plucked a long blonde lock from the beautiful corpse, and her hands were trembling as she handed it over to Vesta and Akira.
The black-eyed witch snatched the hair and placed it into the cauldron.
“Here we go,” Morgana breathed.
The brunette took the vial and scooped up just enough of what was needed. Then she looked at me with her large, blue eyes, and her hand hovered over the body.
“I’ll part her lips,” I said without breaking eye contact.
Morgana nodded in gratitude, and I lowered myself down into the shallow ditch, but when I touched the dead Wicca’s rosy red lips, a strange jolt shot up my arm. A vision took over my mind, and all I could see was this woman as she laughed like a maniac while two other witches burned at the stake. I nearly flinched back from the suddenness of it all, and Morgana must have noticed because she stared hard at me.
“What’s wrong, Cole?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I lied. “Sorry.”
I forced myself to touch the woman again, and I parted her lips just wide enough for Morgana to seep the brew into her mouth. As soon as Morgana poured the mixture into her mouth, she aimed her wand at the Wicca and took in a deep breath.
But then she just stood there for a long moment.
“I’ll do it,” I offered.
“Okay.” She nodded and bit her lip. “Thanks.”
I pulled out my wand and pointed it at the witch named Magda. “Revenite!”
The air grew ice cold all around us, and we all held our breaths as we stared at the dead blonde Wicca. Then she slowly peeled her eyes open to reveal black orbs. They were even darker than Akira’s, and there was no white around her irises, so the eyeballs were as dark as a night with no moon.
