Royals of Villain Academy 7: Grim Witchery

by Eva Chase

  I let my voice break on the last few words. Then silence fell between us. I didn’t dare glance Maggie’s way, but I could see her at the edge of my vision, rigidly still. She didn’t interject any critical commentary. Lord only knew how she’d interpret this as part of her assumptions about me.

  She could think whatever she wanted. The blacksuits could know the Bloodstone scion had an aversion to blood. All that mattered was whether my mother would take the opening I’d just given her.

  They could wipe the townspeople’s memories and roll back the changes. She could blame it all on me and wanting to make sure the heirs weren’t saddled with responsibilities beyond what we could have expected or something like that. Please, let her give in to that horrified pang she must have felt staring at the little boy, a kid as magicless as I’d been at that age, when for all she’d known I’d been dead too.

  The baron’s hand clenched around mine. Her expression twitched. She closed her eyes for a second, and a fresh flicker of hope rose up inside me.

  Then one of the blacksuits watching us stirred with a rustle of the grass, and my mother’s gaze snapped to them. To the figures standing around us, waiting for her response as much as I was. I read my loss in the stiffening of her posture.

  Her attention came back to me, her eyes going hard. “This is what we’ve always been meant for, Persephone,” she said. “We can give our people everything they deserve. No more hiding, no more tiptoeing around the feebs. You need to focus on that and not sympathies they don’t deserve. It’ll be difficult, but it’ll be worth it. We have to do this for ourselves. No one else is going to stick up for the fearmancers. We’re in this alone. Now come along.”

  My stomach had sunk farther with each word she said. Her tone was so unyielding I knew there was no point to making another attempt. That would take this confrontation from a momentary lapse to outright disobedience.

  But as she nudged me with her back toward our cars, one thing she’d said dug a little deeper inside me with a resonance I couldn’t ignore.

  We weren’t really alone in this world—not as a barony, and especially not as mages. Maybe it was time I stopped thinking as if we were.

  Because there was no way I could stand back and let this awfulness continue after the blood I’d watched spill today.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Rory

  I felt a little silly parked at the edge of the fallow field beyond town, like a kid playing secret agent. But if the barons felt spots like this made for ideal clandestine meetings, then I figured this once I should take a page from their book.

  I leaned against the hood of the Lexus, my arms crossed against the damp breeze. The clouds overhead had only gotten thicker and darker since yesterday afternoon. No sound reached the meeting place I’d picked except the rustle of the autumn leaves on the nearby saplings and the occasional drone of passing traffic—rising to a growl when it was one of my fellow scions arriving to join me.

  When I’d texted the guys about this meeting, I’d suggested we leave campus at different times and take different routes so it wouldn’t be obvious to any blacksuits who spotted us in town that we were getting together. Even with all that subterfuge, as soon as the last car—Jude’s Mercedes—pulled onto the uneven grass to finish our rough circle, I cast a spell around us to deflect any attempts at listening in.

  The guys had all gotten out, matching my pose against their own cars. Declan was the only one who looked apprehensive rather than puzzled. He must have experienced meetings like this with the barons before, and I’d imagine most of those hadn’t been any more cheerful than my recent confrontation with them.

  “You have an idea for pushing back against the barons,” he said before I could figure out how to start.

  I guessed it wasn’t hard to guess what this gathering might be about considering the circumstances. My hands braced against the cool metal. “Yeah. It’s probably going to sound really extreme. You all might think I’m crazy. But… after what happened yesterday, I think we have to do something before even more people die over this.”

  An image of the fallen kids, of the little boy and the blood, flashed through my mind. My stomach lurched with it. I closed my eyes for a second, though that hadn’t helped keep the memories back all the other times they’d risen up.

  “The barons don’t see any problem with how the incident went down,” Malcolm said in a derisive tone. “I talked to my dad about something else last night, and he didn’t even bother mentioning it. Just another day’s work.”

  I shivered. “Exactly. I know it upset my mother in the moment, but even then, nothing I said to her got through. I don’t think we’re going to be able to shift their opinions just talking about it. We have to force their hand, make the price of continuing with this too much even for them. Show all the families supporting them how easily even an experiment on this small a scale can fall apart.”

  “I’m in if there’s a way we can make that work.” Connar adjusted his position with a flex of his brawny shoulders. “And I can’t imagine that any plan you’d come up with would be horrible, Rory. What’s your idea?”

  “First, I wanted to check…” I motioned in the direction of the town. “The blacksuits put up wards to make sure no Naries can enter or leave town, and that no one in there can communicate with the outside world. The wards around the university have made it totally impossible for even other mages to find the location if they haven’t been granted access. But the school ones are a lot older with more layers and built-up strength, right? The ones around town wouldn’t be anywhere near as potent?”

  Jude raised his eyebrows. “Are you thinking of smashing the wall and letting the Naries run loose? If they go blabbing what’s been going on to anyone who’ll listen, the barons might bash up a lot more skulls.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not— I just want to be sure that they could be broken… and that someone right here who’d broken through those still wouldn’t be able to find the school.”

  Declan’s expression had become even more pensive as I’d spoken. Maybe he could guess where I was going with this too. After all, he was the only one of the guys who knew my most direct inspiration.

  “Someone who hasn’t been granted permission could be standing right at the barrier around the university, and I don’t think any amount of magic would penetrate it or even confirm for them that what they’re looking for is there,” he said. “I’ve looked at the records of the castings. There’s layer upon layer of wards with different functions and approaches. You can’t crack over a hundred years of spells laid by the top mages around very easily. What they’ve got around town will be much weaker. They only needed it to hold off the Naries anyway.”

  “Okay.” I dragged in a breath. “That solves one part of the problem. I’d hate to end up causing even more destruction than if we didn’t intervene.”

  “Where exactly are you going with this, Rory?” Malcolm said, his tone more gentle than impatient. “Connar’s right—if this is your idea, it’s obviously not going to be a bloodbath. You’re going to have to tell us eventually.”

  I was. I grimaced at the grass, resisting the urge to hunch my shoulders defensively. Then I forced myself to raise my head so I could look them all in the eyes in turn.

  “It could be a bloodbath if it goes wrong. So we’ll have to figure out how to control the situation so it doesn’t. But… I think we should tip off the joymancers.”

  For the first few seconds, the only response I got from the guys was disbelieving stares. Then Malcolm let out a sputter of a laugh. “Very funny. You are kidding, right?”

  I swallowed hard. “No. I’m not saying that we trust them or tell them anything more than we need to… But they have the power to make this experiment way more trouble than it’s worth. They won’t be held back by worrying about how the barons could retaliate, the way we and the other families who aren’t happy with the situation have to be. And they’ll definitely want to intervene if they find
out this is happening.”

  “And once they know, they’ll be even more on guard against the fearmancers taking steps like that again,” Jude said slowly. “You know, I’m hardly a joymancer fanboy, but I think she has a point. As long as everyone at the school will still be safe…”

  “What about the people in town?” Malcolm demanded with a swing of his arm. “We know what the joymancers are like. You know how they treated you even when you were trying to make peace with them, Rory. They’ll blast apart every fearmancer they can catch, and probably a heck of a lot of Naries if any get in their way. Our classmates are out there helping the blacksuits patrol, and not all of them even want to be there.”

  Like Cressida hadn’t. “I know,” I said. “That’s why we’re talking about it and not racing straight ahead. I don’t want to give the joymancers the details unless we can make some kind of deal with them, magically-enforced, that they won’t resort to lethal spells unless they have to in self-defense—and then only to the extent that they need to defend themselves. I don’t want a bloodbath. But we have to step in somehow. What happened yesterday…” My voice caught. I paused to steady myself. “I was hoping the four of you might have some ideas for how to put that deal in place.”

  Declan had stayed silent so far. When he did speak, there was a carefulness to his even tone beyond what I was used to. “It is possible to magically enforce an agreement through a combination of persuasion and physicality. We cover it in the junior years—any of us could cast it alongside the joymancers, and you’d be able to pick up the technique quickly. But the parties need to be in close proximity.”

  “If you go to negotiate with them, they could grab you all over again,” Connar said. “Or maybe kill you this time. You can’t take that risk, Rory.”

  “It wouldn’t have to be her,” Jude put in.

  “It shouldn’t be any of us,” I said. “It’s too big a risk. But there’s got to be a way we can make it work without putting ourselves or anyone else in that much danger. We do have some leverage. It’d be more important to them to tackle a whole bunch of fearmancers than to take one into custody.”

  “If they even see that as the choice.” Malcolm frowned. “They do have plenty of power of their own. If they get their hands on any fearmancer who knows what’s going on, they could pull the information they want out of them through magic given enough time.”

  I held up my hands. “We’re supposed to be the most powerful fearmancers in the country other than our parents. Surely we can figure something out to make this plan viable if we take a little time to think on it. I just can’t see any other way we’re going to turn this disaster around if we don’t bring in outside pressure. If any of you can think of something, I’d love to hear it.”

  Malcolm opened his mouth and closed it again with a deeper frown. Jude just winced. Maybe I shouldn’t have made that comment about how powerful we were all supposed to be.

  Declan bowed his head. I was waiting on his reaction more than anyone else’s. He’d had to hear that his mother might have betrayed the fearmancers in a similar way—he knew what that decision, if it had been hers, had cost her and his family.

  If he said he didn’t think we should go through with my plan, I didn’t think I could argue with him.

  “I’ve been trying to come up with a viable counter-strategy since we first found out about the policy,” he said after a minute. “I’ve scoured the records for precedents, looked at the probable allies we could bring to our side, and I still don’t have anything definite. The assault on the Naries is only getting worse. I don’t think we should invite the joymancers to our doorstep without plenty of precautions in place, but if we can restrict how much violence they can deal out… It could work.”

  When he looked at me, my throat closed up. “Are you sure?” I couldn’t help asking.

  He gave me a crooked smile, his gaze so fond it sent a pang through my chest. “I trust your judgment. I know you wouldn’t have suggested it if you hadn’t given it a ton of thought already. It’s a desperate measure… but this situation has gotten pretty desperate.”

  His vote of confidence filled me with not just relief but a rush of love. Declan didn’t hand over authority or bend the rules easily, but he had that much faith in me. He was putting his future in my hands all over again.

  I’d better make sure I deserved that faith.

  “We agree, then?” Connar asked. “Even if we don’t like the plan, it’s our only real option?”

  “Seems that way,” Jude said.

  Malcolm sighed, but he gave his acceptance with a jerk of his hand. “I guess it’s back to the books to see how we can work around the sanctimonious assholes.”

  “I don’t want to hold off any longer than we have to,” I said. “I thought I could contact their headquarters and let them know something’s happening in New York state, that if they’ll send a force to New York City, we can give them more details then. It’ll take them a little while to get organized… and hopefully by the time they’re in place to strike, we’ll know how we’re going to handle the rest.”

  If one more kid—or anyone else—died because we’d wasted a day being overcautious, I didn’t know if I’d be able to forgive myself.

  “That’s reasonably vague and keeps them at a good distance,” Declan said. “Do you know how to contact them?”

  “There’s a phone number registered to the building where I talked to them before,” I said. “I haven’t tried it yet for obvious reasons, but I’m hoping it’ll work. If it doesn’t, then we’ll have even more time while I figure that out. I guess I could find out now.”

  “It’ll be safer doing that here than making the call on campus,” Jude said.

  I pulled out my phone. I’d already added the number to a note when I’d looked it up yesterday as I’d mulled over the idea. My thumb hesitated before I tapped in the digits. A chill raced down my back at the ring on the other end, even though I hadn’t actually set anything in motion yet.

  These were the people who’d dragged off my mother and me, held her prisoner for years, and treated me like a criminal when I’d come to them only wanting to negotiate before. The people who’d killed my familiar, even if that’d been an accident. But they also held themselves up as the defenders of regular society from the fearmancers’ machinations. Please, let them do the right thing by us.

  I was just starting to get nervous that the number would lead nowhere when a click sounded on the other end as someone picked up. “Hello?” a woman said. The one who’d interrogated me last month? I wasn’t sure I remembered her voice well enough to recognize it.

  “Hi,” I said, quick but clear, willing my voice to stay steady. “I wanted to notify the joymancers about a destructive plan the fearmancers are carrying out.”

  The woman’s voice snapped to sharp alertness. “What plan? Who is this?”

  I’d obviously reached the right people. “I can’t tell you everything right now. We have to be sure you’re really prepared to stop them. You’ll need a lot of people. If you can assemble them in New York City, we’ll reach out again with more information.”

  “Wait a minute. What—”

  “I can’t talk any more right now,” I said. “Please get there quickly.”

  I hung up, my hand trembling. A sweat had broken out on my back. The guys were watching me intently.

  “Do you think they’ll come?” Connar asked.

  “I’m not sure. But… I didn’t ask for much. It’s not as if we could easily ambush them when they’ve got all of NYC to work with.” I wet my lips. “I think they’ll decide it’s worth the risk.”

  Malcolm hadn’t been kidding that we needed to go back to the books. The next morning found me holed up in the library bright and early, looking up techniques for magically confirming deals and trying to determine if any of them could be done at a safe distance.

  I wasn’t surprised to see Declan coming down the aisle to join me. His worried expression made me pau
se.

  “Did something else happen?” I asked, my gut twisting at the thought of just how awful any “something else” could be.

  “I don’t know. Did Jude say anything to you about leaving campus today?”

  My heart outright stopped. “No. Why? Is he gone?” If Baron Killbrook had managed to get to him somehow despite our efforts… My hands clenched. “Did you check with his part of the Guard?”

  “That’s why I’m asking. One of them saw him heading for the garage a couple hours ago. He called after Jude, but Jude either didn’t hear him… or pretended not to. He took off quickly. So it sounds as if he left of his own accord, but he isn’t back yet, and if he didn’t say anything to any of us, not even you, that seems concerning.” He raked his hand back through his hair, his eyebrows drawing together.

  “I don’t think he totally liked us being so protective of him,” I said. “Maybe he just wanted a little time to himself.” But that didn’t mean taking that time was a smart move. “I assume you’ve tried calling him.”

  “And texting. He answered saying that he’s fine, but when I asked him what he’s doing, he just told me not to worry about it. He wouldn’t pick up when I tried to actually talk to him.”

  That wasn’t great, but it also didn’t make for an emergency. “Can we—” I started, and Declan’s phone pinged.

  He checked the screen, and the furrow in his brow deepened. “That’s Connar. He was in the scion lounge, and a note just appeared out of nowhere on the coffee table. He didn’t want to open it on his own, but he says it looks like Jude’s handwriting.”