Royals of Villain Academy 7: Grim Witchery

by Eva Chase

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Rory

  At night, the campus garage was even gloomier than usual. I walked to Connar’s car with him, noting the empty spot where Malcolm usually parked. He’d let us know that he’d gotten his sister safely to the apartment, but he had to lay down more protections to stop anyone from locating her there, so it might be a while before he got back.

  And now the Stormhurst scion was heading out too, with a similar mission. We stopped at the car, and he turned to me, setting his hands on the sides of my shoulders. “I’ll let you know everything that’s going on,” he said quietly. “And I won’t get close to the house until my parents are definitely gone.” He paused. “Did Viceport say how soon that doctor might be able to see Holden?”

  “She didn’t want to tell him the details ahead of time, but it sounded like he could fit it in quickly as long as the situation seems secure enough. Hopefully whatever happens in the next couple days won’t change that.”

  “I guess waiting is a heck of a lot better than not being able to heal him at all.”

  “Yeah.” I leaned into him for a second, soaking up his solid strength. Despite what he’d already said, I had to add, “Be careful out there.”

  “You be careful here,” he said. “You’ll be closer to the line of fire than I am.”

  He lowered his head to kiss me, and I kissed him back as if I could pour enough emotion into the gesture to make up for however long we had to spend apart. Connar was going to stake himself out near the main Stormhurst home and wait until the joymancers attacked. His parents would almost definitely race off to help, and that would give him the perfect opportunity to get his brother out. He’d already arranged an apartment in the same town where Malcolm was setting up his sister.

  And then none of the barons would have an heir under their direct control, other than Killbrook’s unborn daughter. How they’d respond to those moves, we’d find out in the aftermath.

  I didn’t really want to let Connar go, but he needed to be well away before the attack started if he was going to avoid getting caught up in it. I stepped back and gave him a gentle nudge toward the car. “I’ll see you soon.”

  He gave me a crooked smile. “Let’s hope so.”

  I watched him drive off and then headed back down to the doorway, my steps echoing off the concrete floor. I should probably go back to my dorm and try to get some sleep, but the way my nerves were jittering, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to drift off. There was too much uncertainty ahead, too many people I cared about taking dangerous risks. Even if our gambit bringing the joymancers here changed enough minds about revealing ourselves to the Naries, who knew what else the barons might have in the works?

  My feet carried me down to the scion lounge instead. Jude was still there, parked on the sofa with a game controller in his hand as the racecar on the screen zoomed through a digital course. He paused it when I came in.

  “Not ready to call it a night yet?” he said.

  “Don’t think I can.” I rolled my shoulders. “I wish we’d gotten an ETA.”

  “That would be too considerate of them.” He stretched his arms back over his head with a yawn. “I’m just doing my best not to think about it. You want to join in? Smash a few things up, pretend it’s the barons’ faces?”

  I dropped onto the sofa next to him. “Sure, why not? Although maybe I’ll skip the violent imaginings.”

  “Suit yourself.” He grinned and grabbed another controller. As he clicked back to the menu to start a two-player game, he glanced over. “You’re still hoping your mom will rise above, huh?”

  I grimaced. “She’s not one hundred percent horrible. I think she’s trying to look after me the way she believes is right. She’s stood up for me with the other barons. And she’s at least a little conflicted about what they’re doing to the Naries too.”

  Jude scooted closer to kiss my cheek. “You’re just too good at seeing the good in people.” His expression turned more serious. “You know that even if we all stay together the way you were talking today—I’m never going to be baron. The confirmation ceremony can’t be changed like that. And I really shouldn’t be if I can barely cast at all.”

  “In case I haven’t already made it abundantly clear, my wanting to be with you has nothing to do with whether you’re eligible for the barony.” I tipped my head against his. “We’ll figure something out. You didn’t turn out so bad despite how your dad treated you. Maybe your sister won’t be like him either.”

  “I guess he won’t stand a chance even as regent once the rest of you take over.” Jude motioned to the TV. “All right, enough depressing talk. Prepare to get your ass handed to you.”

  Even with all the tension hanging over us, I laughed and launched into the game. Jude did kick my ass in the first few races, but once I got the hang of it, I gave him a pretty good run for his money. I’d just squeaked out my second victory to Jude’s playful grumbling when both of our phones pinged with text alerts.

  We exchanged a worried look as we groped for them. Declan had sent the text. All it contained was a flame emoji, but we both knew what that signified.

  The attack had started.

  A chill shot through me alongside a jolt of adrenaline. Without any discussion, we dropped the controllers and hustled upstairs. Other senior students were already milling in the first floor hallway as a couple of the professors hollered orders.

  “Anyone who was trained for the town squad or otherwise feels solid in their defensive magic, head to the front of campus now,” Professor Crowford called. “We need all the force we can gather.”

  “And that’s my cue to step back,” Jude said in a wry tone that was only a little bitter. He squeezed my hand and released me.

  I wove between the other seniors to reach Crowford. “What’s going on?” I asked him, since I really shouldn’t know.

  The Persuasion professor’s normally suave demeanor had cracked with an aura of panic. He had enough sense of those around him to pitch his voice low when he answered. “Joymancers have converged on the town. They seem to have gotten wind of our activities there. We need everyone who can get down there to help push them back.”

  I let my face tighten with the anxiety I really did feel. “Shit. Okay.”

  As I dashed out the door, I tapped on my mom’s number in my phone. When the call went through, the hum of a car engine sounded through the line. “Persephone?”

  “Mom! I just heard the town is under attack—by joymancers?”

  “I’m on my way there right now,” my mother said, her voice even but strained. “Thankfully I was spending the night at one of our closer properties. I’ll meet you there. We need to show our solidarity more than ever.”

  “Of course. I’ll do whatever I can.”

  I had the urge to reach out to Connar and Malcolm too, but Declan’s text had gone to all of us. They’d know what was happening.

  Cars honked in the garage as students clashed trying to get their vehicles out at the same time. I opted to skip that step and jogged along the shoulder of the road toward town. The forest stood darkly still on either side of me, no sign that a battle was raging up ahead.

  Car after car roared by. Then one pulled onto the shoulder near me. Declan shoved open the passenger door. “Come on.”

  I dove in, and he took off again. A magical light flashed against the night up ahead. My stomach knotted.

  “If this doesn’t work—if it just screws things up more—”

  “We’ll do our best,” Declan said firmly. “If the blacksuits are struggling to fend the joymancers off, that means we’ve already proved this ‘project’ is impossible to sustain. Even if we send them running the second we get into town, no one can deny this was a catastrophe. Then all we need to worry about is the impact on the locals.”

  I nodded, trying to hold onto that certainty.

  The cars were coming to a halt at the edge of town, parking all across the road. Blacksuits there waved us out and poi
nted toward the east end of town. “They’ve broken through some of the wards. Don’t let them get any farther into town—and don’t let any of the townspeople leave!”

  A group of us hurried through the streets lit by streetlamps and lights flaring on as the locals stared from their windows. Farther ahead, something screeched and glass shattered. Shouts rang out, so blurred together I couldn’t tell which side they were from.

  No matter what deal we’d gotten the joymancers to agree to, things were going to be broken tonight. People would die. Just not anywhere near as many as might have otherwise, I had to hope.

  I didn’t want to be part of the breaking and killing, though. As we reached the defensive line where more blacksuits were yelling spells, I drew my own magic onto my tongue. Push them back, block them off, sure. I wasn’t out to draw blood.

  “Bolster the wards!” someone shouted nearby. “We can’t let them completely break through.”

  That I could do. I rolled a casting word that fell right off my tongue and propelled my magic into the splintering barriers that surrounded the town. Opposing magic slammed into that invisible wall at the same time, the impact shuddering right into my body. Other voices muttered spells all around me.

  A figure dashed by beyond the wards—a joymancer, presumably. A blacksuit hurled a spell their way that knocked them off their feet and sent them sprawling on the road. The man swung around and blasted back, and someone on our side shrieked. Our deal to avoid deadly force didn’t count when their own lives were on the line.

  I cast more magic toward the wards, sweat beading and cooling on my forehead. The ground shook beneath our feet. As I struggled for balance, several of the mages around me toppled completely.

  A hand caught my arm before I could fall too. I glanced around to see Maggie had found me, my mother just a few steps behind us. My newly-discovered cousin gave me a quick nod as Baron Bloodstone came up at my other side. My mother’s eyes were wild, her face nearly white in the hazy light, but that didn’t stop her from stomping her foot with a sharp word that settled the magical quaking in an instant.

  Not fast enough. In the chaos, with our castings interrupted, the joymancers must have launched a major battering of the wards. Even as I opened my mouth, the energy shattered, rippling across my skin.

  “You’re free,” someone bellowed through a loudspeaker. “Don’t let these monsters torture you anymore. Leave town to get help if you can, or call for it. They can’t stop you now.”

  My mother swore under her breath and rattled off a casting word to start reforming the wards. But it had taken a dozen or more blacksuits at least a day to build them up in the first place. Car engines gunned in the distance. In the buildings all around us, people might already be dialing emergency services on their phones.

  “We can’t block them all in time,” Maggie gasped out. “What are we going to do if they call the police in to help? The fearmancers won’t even be able to set foot in town again. We’re not set up to engage all the cops and whoever else they’ll send in.”

  “We’re not,” my mother agreed grimly. Her gaze shifted toward the end of the street where the joymancers were attacking, and a tremor racked her body. Guilt twisted through me. How awful must it be for her to find herself facing the people who’d kept her imprisoned and helpless for so long?

  Whatever distress she was feeling fell back behind a flash of fury. Her jaw tightened. “If we all put everything we’ve got into it, we can stop the bastards from ruining this too.” She raised her voice. “Everyone, cast all the magic you have into rebuilding the wards, now.”

  A chorus of contrasting voices rose up. I added mine to the mass. But with every layer we conjured up, the joymancers kept battering at it, forcing us to patch the cracks rather than build it thicker.

  More vehicles raced out of town down the other roads. And as I paused after who knew how many minutes to pant for breath, the wail of sirens reached my ears from somewhere far away—but growing louder.

  That wasn’t the kind of Nary interaction the barons wanted. Who knew what crazy-sounding stories the locals had already reported, but while any fearmancer could avoid arrest, we weren’t prepared for all-out war against the entire population.

  My mother didn’t need any further prodding to realize we’d lost. Her jaw clenched, but she swept her arm through the air to draw attention to her. “Forget the wards. We need all the feebs here to forget everything that’s happened—any magic cast around them and who did the casting. If we work together, we can send a cloud of energy over the whole town. Follow my lead.”

  The blacksuits near us passed those orders on through their phones. My mother lifted her voice loud enough to carry with a surge of magic that crackled like electricity. I wasn’t very practiced with memory spells, but I thought I had enough of an idea to carry this one out. If the Naries forgot all the horrors they’d been through in the past week at our hands, I was all for it.

  No magic, I thought as I cast the energy from behind my sternum into the air to flow through every wall across the town. No threats, no danger. It’s just been a regular week. No reason to need the police. Nothing unexpected or frightening. Everything is okay.

  A sort of lull settled over even me. My chest loosened, more breath rushing into my lungs. I cast out the spell again alongside so many of my classmates, like the fairies in Sleeping Beauty putting the entire court to sleep. Except what we were really doing was erasing what should have been nothing more than a nightmare.

  My throat was hoarse and the sirens pealing loud enough to make my pulse jump when my mother sliced her hand through the air. “Enough. We’ve done it. Fall back to wherever you’re meant to be.”

  The joymancers appeared to have eased off with the arrival of the Nary reinforcements too. No more spells hurtled our way. They must have felt their immediate job was done.

  My mother grasped my arm as we strode away down the street amid the scattering students and blacksuits. “I’ll see you to your car. Better you don’t take the chance of any officer of the law spotting you.”

  “It’s not here.” I jerked my head around, scanning the darkness. “Declan drove us. I’m not sure where he ended up.”

  The baron let out a sneering laugh. “I’d better get you back to the university then. I can’t imagine we can count on him for anything. He’s probably celebrating his victory.”

  My gaze shot back to her with a lurch of my heart. “What are you talking about? What victory?”

  She clicked her tongue. “Do you really think this could all be a coincidence? The exact same tactic his mother used all those years ago? It couldn’t be more obvious. The only one we have to blame for this disaster is Mr. Ashgrave—and you’d better believe I’ll make sure he pays the way Baron Ashgrave never had to.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Connar

  Word traveled fast among the fearmancers. When I got Declan’s text, just halfway to my family’s primary home, I only dared to drive another fifteen minutes before I pulled off into a small lane that branched off from the highway. The house was still an hour distant, but this was the only road it’d make sense for my parents to take if they headed toward Blood U.

  I cast a concealing spell around the car to ensure no one would notice it and sat back to wait, but it was only twenty minutes later that my mother’s Jaguar zoomed by at what must have been nearly twice the speed limit. She’d gotten the word before Declan had even had the chance to notify us. I was just close enough to make out my father’s face in a flash of the streetlamps where he was sitting next to her. Then they were gone, tearing on down the road with a droning sound like a fighter jet.

  Rory was probably in the fray now. I didn’t want to risk texting her when her mother might be nearby. Willing back the thudding of my pulse, I forced myself to wait another ten minutes to be completely sure my parents wouldn’t randomly turn back around. Then I turned back onto the highway and gunned the engine.

  Even taking into account my
parents’ current speed, I’d make it to the house before they arrived at the town. I should have plenty of time to get Holden out, and then we’d take a roundabout route to his temporary living space so we wouldn’t risk running into them on their way back. So very simple. Except for the fact that I was going against a baron in the way most guaranteed to infuriate her.

  Well, if everything worked out with this doctor Professor Viceport was going to set us up with, by the time my mother found us, she’d have two heirs to contend with—both of whom would have every reason to fight back.

  When I reached the looming stone mansion, my chest tightened. I activated the spell to open the gate and drove onto the property with my hands clutching the steering wheel.

  I hadn’t been back here since my parents had cast that awful mind-warping spell on me. I’d have preferred to never set foot in the place again. It was the building where they’d pushed me and my brother around, where they’d tortured us until I’d given in and attacked him, where he’d been kept as a virtual prisoner both behind a locked door and locked in his body for nearly six years. Nothing about it was welcoming.

  Someday it would be mine, I reminded myself. Mine and Holden’s, to do whatever we wanted with it.

  Maybe we’d raze it to the ground and build something new.

  At this time of night, the few staff who lived on the property would have gone to bed. To avoid turning on any lights, I murmured a softly glowing ball into being as I stepped into the foyer. It gave me enough illumination to make my way up the stairs and through the halls to Holden’s rooms at the far end of the house.

  No sound carried through my brother’s door. He was probably asleep too. From the little time I’d been able to spend with him since our catastrophic fight, I’d gathered he was still a morning person.

  It seemed better not to give my parents anything at all to worry about back home, as distracted as they had to be by the joymancer attack. I took the time to curl my magic around the ward that would alert them if broken or if the door was opened and shifted it into the wall. It could stay there from now on for all I cared.