“Dance with me?” he asked.
“It’s not like I’m going to get jealous because you pay attention to another girl for an hour, Lee.”
“I know that,” said Lee. “I just… like having fun with you. Not because you’re a cute girl, well not just because of that, but because you’re…”
Tess was grinning. She’d switched into her own evening gown at some point, through the intangible means available to her as a ghost. It was a variation of the same dress she’d been wearing when he’d first met her: black with a low cut that exposed the cleavage of her small breasts, along with a tight, corset-style waist.
“Go ahead,” said Tess. “I’m a proper lady, so I’ll wait for you to finish. Declare your undying love for me, Lee. You can drop down on one knee if you feel so compelled.”
Lee rolled his eyes and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her in close enough to tickle her. He kept his movements on beat, making it seem to anyone who happened to be watching that he was just a really unskilled dancer. Tess laughed and spun away from him, falling into a twisting dance of her own that was at least a century out of date.
They moved across from each other. They pulled in close. Lee hugged Tess against him from behind, inhaling the flowery scent of her hair as he embraced her while still moving to the beat. He wanted that moment to last forever, but even if it had, he doubted that would have been enough. Tess turned around in his embrace and he kissed her deeply, feeling her tongue dance and tease against his. He didn’t care who was watching or what it must have looked like.
The song ended. Tess grinned at him and started pulling him by the hand off the dance floor.
“Come on,” she said. “You shouldn’t keep your date waiting.”
CHAPTER 30
Lee made a detour on his way to Eliza, heading outside the event hall to continue the search that he’d let himself be distracted from. The Seruna Center was deathly quiet aside from the echoing music. He started to wonder if maybe he and Harper had been wrong about their conclusion.
He wandered through the hallways, expecting to find a shady figure around each corner and feeling a rush of relief each time he didn’t. He had to pee, so he headed to the men’s room, lingering for a minute after to talk with Tess.
“What do you think?” he asked.
“I think you can relax, Lee,” she said. “You deserve to. You’ve been through enough these past few days.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
“See if you can get Eliza to leave early with you,” she suggested. “With the ball going on, I doubt they’ll be as strict about the usual gender curfew for the dorms. You could bring her back to your room if you’re quick about it.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
“Hey, we would both like that,” said Tess. “She’s such a good girl. Wouldn’t it be fun to turn her bad?”
Lee chuckled a little and started washing his hands. He reached over to grab a paper towel, started drying his hands, and gasped aloud at what he saw in the mirror behind him.
Zoe was leaning against one of the closed stall doors with her arms crossed and a broad smile on her face. Lee turned around slowly, half expecting her to disappear in the sliver of time it took. She was still there. She held her arms out as she stepped forward.
“Eldon,” she said, very quietly.
He pulled her into a tight hug, his body reacting on its own accord in the surprise of the moment. After more than half a decade, he’d finally found her. After so much searching, after coming so close to giving up, here she was.
His relief and happiness came and went so abruptly that it gave him emotional whiplash. Why was she here, at Primhaven, after leading him and Harper into a trap? Why had she run from him when he’d seen her outside the store in Gillum? Why hadn’t she ever written, or visited, or called?
“Zoe,” he said, voice choked with feeling. “What’s going on? Why are you here? We went to the ship, and there was—”
“I know,” she said. “I understand how this must feel for you. I can explain everything, but first… you should probably introduce her.”
She shot a pointed look at Tess. Lee glanced back and forth between the two women, furrowing his brow in surprise.
“You… can see her?” he asked.
“She can definitely see me,” said Tess.
“I came into my sight later than you, Eldon,” she said. “But yes, I’m like you. I can see and interact with ghosts, but I also have the Potential.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Zoe,” said Tess. “My name is Tess. I’m Lee’s… friend.”
Zoe raised an eyebrow. She seemed annoyed by her presence and ignored the hand that Tess extended toward her.
“Tell me you didn’t make a pact with her,” said Zoe.
“That’s not what matters right now,” said Lee. “I trust Tess. You, on the other hand, need to explain what’s going on. Were you trying to lure me and Harper out of Primhaven?”
“Yes,” said Zoe. “I was. We were, I should say. It’s complicated, Eldon. Primhaven and the Order of Chaldea have been lying to you.”
A loud crash came from outside the bathroom in the direction of the event hall. Lee stared at the door, knowing he needed to go investigate but unable to walk away from Zoe after spending so long apart from her.
“You’re working with others,” said Lee. “The prison break… You were a part of it, weren’t you?”
“Don’t jump to any rash conclusions, little brother,” she said. “You’re caught up in something more dangerous than you realize. This ‘college’ isn’t what it seems like. Your instructors aren’t what they seem like.”
“Harper is one of my instructors,” said Lee. “She took me as her apprentice. Are you telling me she’s dangerous, too?”
“Quit being so thick,” said Zoe. “I lured her away because I think that she might listen to the truth, just like I think you will. But you have to trust me for now, okay?”
“Zoe…” He shook his head without meaning to. “You’re asking for a lot, after so long. I need to know what you’re really doing here.”
“And I’ll tell you,” she said. “Soon.”
Her arms moved quicker than Lee could react as she fell into the conjuration casting stance. Magical bindings snapped into place around his wrists, locking him in place. Zoe looked sad as she stepped away from him, and she brought her hands together as though pleading for his trust.
“Just stay here and don’t struggle,” she said. “This will be done soon.”
“Zoe!” he shouted. “Get back here!”
She disappeared and the door swung back and forth on its hinges, mocking him in the wake of her departure. Lee strained against the conjuration bindings and, unsurprisingly, they didn’t budge. He took a slow breath, stilling his mind as he began to focus on using dispel.
A splitting headache ricocheted throughout the interior of his skull. He groaned and tried to calm himself through the pain. No nosebleed came this time, but he somehow doubted that it was a positive sign.
“Lee, are you sure you’re okay?” whispered Tess.
“No,” he said. “But I can’t stay here. I need to know what’s going on, Tess!”
He saw her flinch back at the sharpness of his tone and immediately felt bad.
“Just watch the door,” he muttered. “If anyone is about to come in, shout to me.”
She nodded, and Lee began the process over, this time forcing himself to ignore the pain. He wondered if he was doing something, if perhaps the fact that he’d been a self-taught mystic from the beginning had led to him developing flaws in his abilities that were starting to catch up with him. It wasn’t anything he could address in the moment, if it was the case.
Lee used dispel, his ability compromising the integrity of his sister’s spell as it took effect and making the air around him feel like it had suddenly changed pressure levels. The bindings loosened just enough for him to slip out of. He fell forward onto his hand
s and knees, feeling like he’d taken several blows to either side of his head. His nose had started bleeding in the end, and he quickly wiped the lion’s share of it away as Tess made her way back over.
“Come on,” he said.
CHAPTER 31
They were only a couple of steps down the hallway when they heard the commotion. Screams were followed by the hissing thrum of a massive spell exchange. Lee sped his pace up, then slowed down as the floor underneath his feet began to shake wildly.
“Is that an earthquake?” he asked.
“Geomancy,” said Tess. “Earth magic. Lee, this is bad!”
He nodded and took off at a sprint, only slowing when they reached the last corner before the event hall’s entrance. Lee pressed his back to the edge and peered around the side, scanning ahead. The student who’d been taking fees at the door was gone, and the music had cut off, leaving an eerie silence in its wake.
Another tremor rippled through the ground, shattering floor tiles and making the walls tremble in a worrying manner. A few shouts came from within the ball, but far fewer than Lee would have expected.
He paused outside the doors, gesturing for Tess to peek around the corner first. Her eyes went wide when she did, and she gave him a quick nod ensuring the coast was clear for Lee to observe for himself.
Hundreds of bodies lay across the floor of the chamber, sprawled with incidental posture, some crumpled into heaps on the dance floor, others half leaned against a side wall, a few still in their seats at the tables. Lee felt his stomach churn wildly as he saw Toma on the floor near a wall with his date beside him, and Eliza only a few feet away.
Half a dozen figures in black robes with their hoods up were moving amongst the fallen, scanning over each face as though in the midst of a search. Lee’s breath caught as he saw another figure in black pulling two terrified disciples out of a corner. One of them, a small girl, started screaming.
“Put them both to sleep,” said a gruff voice.
Another black robe stepped forward, hands pulling up into the illusion casting stance, and the two disciples crumpled to the floor. Lee managed to reel in his pounding heart a bit as he made the connection that the rest of the students were also likely asleep, not dead as he’d initially feared.
Had the punch been spiked after all? He’d only taken the smallest taste. Perhaps it helped explain, in part, why his dispel ability was causing him so much extra strain.
A massive crash came from the side entrance of the event hall, along with a plume of dust and chunks of pulverized brick. Head Wizard Odarin stood in an entranceway of his own making, his face a mask of cold, barely restrained rage.
“Do any of you have the slightest idea who I am?” he asked.
He began attacking without giving the figures in black a chance to answer. The ground shook, and plumes of earth and rock jutted upward like gigantic fists below the nearest of the rogue mages, scattering tiles and sending each of them flying.
“Call for the Dealmaker!” shouted Zoe’s voice. “Hurry!”
Lee pulled back a few paces and pressed his back to the wall, hiding himself behind the event hall’s door, which was held open with a doorstop. One of the rogue mages sprinted by him, and he was about to rush to Odarin’s aid, but the mage seemed to find their target only a few paces down the hall.
“The Head Wizard!” shouted the mage. “He’s—”
“I’ll handle it,” came a deep, echoing voice.
The two mages walked right by him. Lee took a step toward the event hall, hoping to take advantage of the element of surprise. He felt Tess’s ethereal hand dance across his shoulder.
“Not yet,” she whispered. “You need a better of idea about what’s going on.”
“I can’t just leave my friends in there!” he hissed.
“There’s a difference between leaving them and joining them,” said Tess. “What would you even do if you had a sleep spell cast on you like the one they used on the two stragglers?”
Her point was valid, even if it was hard for him to accept. Lee chewed his lower lip as he watched the seventh man in black join the battle. Odarin was in the process of carefully reorganizing the room, gently moving the sleeping students through the air with his telekinesis to place them in a pile in the corner of the room, where they’d be safe from stray spells.
“You pathetic cowards!” he shouted. “I’ve heard of the way you slink around before, never fighting openly. But to attack a school full of innocents… that’s low even for the House of Shadows.”
“You speak as though you don’t have your own share of blood on your hands, John Odarin,” said the deep-voiced mage. “That’s right, we know about you. It’s part of the reason why I came in person.”
“You’re him, then,” said Odarin. “The Dealmaker. I expected you to be, well, friendlier, given the name.”
“It’s a name I earned rather than one I chose,” said the Dealmaker. “If you really want a fight, Odarin, I’d be more than happy to show you why they call me that.”
“Abomination!” Odarin let out a furious snarl and shifted into the conjuration casting stance. Hundreds of chunks of bricks and tile from the mess he’d made earlier snapped aloft, hovering like massive insects ready to descend on a fresh feast.
The Dealmaker took a step forward. Odarin unleashed his projectiles in a single, savage barrage that would have easily overwhelmed a normal man. The Dealmaker seemed to vanish an instant before the first brick struck him, at least, to the eyes of everyone but Lee.
It was as though he’d disappeared into the shadow itself, his body dissolving into inky blackness that could move along the darkness clinging to the edges of the dimly lit chamber. Lee could still see him, but it was as more of an amorphous, creeping entity, rather than in the shape of a man. It was unlike any spell he’d seen before, closer to the trick he’d seen the slime girl use rather than an ability achievable through normal means.
Odarin spun, clearly losing sight of his target. Lee gritted his teeth, desperately wanting to shout a warning as he saw the Dealmaker slip behind the Head Wizard and reembody over the span of a half-second. Tess’s hand was still on his shoulder and he knew that revealing himself would be a mistake that might cost more lives than just his own.
The Dealmaker struck Odarin in the back with a push that sent him flying through the air. Odarin was quick, however, and as he cast his next spell a gust of wind surged through the chamber, catching him with the firmness of a baseball mitt before he collided with the far wall.
One of the other black-robed mages brought his hands up into a casting stance and unleashed a red magic missile at Odarin’s head. The Head Wizard’s reaction was so reflexive that it almost seemed precognitive, his arms slapping into an x-shape across his chest, his spell shield easily deflecting the projectile.
“Leave him to me,” said the Dealmaker. “Zoe, Ryan, stay here and make sure the students don’t wake up. The rest of you can go help the others. The Head Wizard is powerful, but he’s fighting at a handicap.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” snapped Odarin.
“I’ve heard about what happened in Caracas,” said the Dealmaker. “Is that how you want this to play out? This time, it’ll be the blood of students you know and have been entrusted with rather than mind-controlled innocents. You’ll kill them if you attempt to fight me at full strength, John.”
Odarin’s face turned red with fury and he snapped his hands up into the elemental casting stance, tensing his fingers as though squeezing at the neck of his opponent. The ground began to shake wildly underneath them, bringing ceiling tiles crashing down and sending dust and plaster from the walls up into the air.
He cast more spells on top of his geomancy, first sending another salvo of telekinetically thrown projectiles, then unleashing a blast of fire as thick across as a train tunnel that blessedly ended just short of the chamber’s wall. The Dealmaker dodged both with the ease of a hologram, fighting with the elusive air of an opponent
who was confident that they could do whatever they wanted and still win.
The Dealmaker appeared behind and to Odarin’s left. He rolled his shoulders forward as a half-dozen tendrils of dark, shadowy energy burst forth from his back and lanced out at the Head Wizard. They reminded Lee of the arms of an octopus, except thicker and dripping with shadows, like ink beading under water.
Odarin reacted with his previous responsiveness, the orbiting green spheres of his spell shield flickering into existence just before the tendrils could touch him. For a couple of seconds, a battle of wills took place, the tendrils pushing against Odarin’s glimmering spell shield. One of them seemed to pierce through for an instant before suddenly shattering into its base essence, destroyed by the shield.
Odarin snarled and shifted back into the elemental casting stance. Snaking tufts of fire danced around his body, and he pulled his hand back, readying a spell so powerful that Lee could feel the heat emanating off it from a distance.
He saw the expression of the Head Wizard in that frozen instant. Odarin wasn’t there at the school anymore. He wasn’t protecting the students. He was a battle mage in the midst of a war, willing to take whatever measures were necessary to ensure his victory.
The heat from the spell intensified and Lee felt his palms sweat as he realized that what the Dealmaker had said earlier might be true. The spell Odarin was preparing would obliterate his opponent, but it would also turn the entire Seruna Center into a hellish inferno.
Odarin realized it too, and a measure of control stole across his expression. He lowered his arms and let the arcane essence dissipate along with his spell. The Dealmaker immediately seized the Head Wizard with his shadow tendrils, lifted him a few feet aloft, and cracked him down against the fractured tile floor, ending the fight.
CHAPTER 32
Lee was numb as he watched two of the rogue mages carrying Odarin’s limp form over to join the rest of the unconscious students. He felt paralyzed by indecision, though he knew that he’d made the right choice—the only sane choice—by not joining the fight and volunteering himself for the same fate.
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