by Chloe Garner
“You think I’m going to stand here and beep a stopwatch at you?” he answered. “Quickly, now.”
Valerie nodded, forcing herself to focus.
She’d been training for this.
She needed to get to the stairwell door, and then down the hallway. She had to remove every thread of the net of magic that the demon had cast, and then… Well, and then she was going to let Dr. Finn or someone else disarm the bomb, because her jeans were still neon green.
“I thought they wanted her alive,” Ethan said. Valerie looked at him, exasperated.
“I don’t know if you know, but the type of magic that we do requires intense focus,” Dr. Finn said, his mind somewhere else.
“Oh, sorry,” Ethan said.
“Don’t move,” Valerie said, closing her eyes and breathing.
She could feel where it was attached to Ethan, the tension of the bit of magic stretching across her body.
But.
She could also feel how easy it would be to pluck.
All she had to do was get direct focus on it and pull along the thread…
Focus proved elusive as she stewed in the awareness of what would go wrong if she pulled the wrong direction, even slightly.
“You can do this,” Ethan murmured, and she nodded, letting the magic form in her head.
It wasn’t… cohesive or mannerly or even real, the way the magic formed, but it had been working for her in her tests with Dr. Finn, and when she let it be, the words came to her, slipping through her lips like reciting poetry. The tendril went tight and she almost choked, but she managed to go on. With no more force than that, the tendril broke free and retreated around the corner like an elastic.
“That one’s gone,” she whispered. “But you still shouldn’t move. There are a hundred more.”
A thousand more, if you went around the corner, or looked up, but…
One more.
Dr. Finn was moving more quickly than she was, but he had use of his hands, and he had stuff in his pockets that he was using.
She just had her voice for now.
She targeted more tendrils, plucking them one by one. The feet were on the landing of the stairwell and she hadn’t moved yet.
Focusing harder, she sensed out the tendril attached to the door, routing her magic around and through all of the others.
If the bomb went off, the people in the stairwell might make it, so long as the door hadn’t opened yet.
Right?
Now or never.
She got hold of it and let her magic ease, not a second to waste, but trying not to rush, either.
Rushing was what had gotten her jeans.
The bolt on the door pulled and she tensed her magic, pulling the tendril free in the same moment that the door opened.
“Stop there,” Dr. Finn said. “If you take one step through that door, every person in this building will die.”
Valerie had never heard him use that voice before, but everyone froze.
Everyone.
“Please let the door close and don’t let anyone try to open it,” Dr. Finn said. “Yes, you. Is anyone upstairs in immediate need of medical help?”
“I don’t know,” the kid said. Valerie didn’t know him by his voice.
“Close the door,” Dr. Finn said. “Stop anyone. It’s quite simple.”
The door swung closed.
“Well done, Valerie,” Dr. Finn said without changing his posture at all. “I didn’t have line of sight on it.”
“I can’t do this,” Valerie answered.
“You can and you must,” Dr. Finn said, tearing through more and more of the tendrils.
The entire hallway behind her, the entire line of doors… Any one of them could set off the bomb.
“You can do this,” Ethan said again, and she nodded.
“Okay. Yes. Okay.”
One at a time.
Just one at a time.
She would have preferred to lock the doors the way she had with her mom, but she was too focused on clearing out the bomb triggers.
One by one, Ethan knocked on each of the doors, as fast as she could get him to them, and he let the girls inside know that they needed to stay in.
Mrs. Gold didn’t answer her door, but there wasn’t anyone in the hallway.
Maybe they’d gotten lucky, though it didn’t explain the sounds Valerie had heard.
“Ethan?” Sasha asked as they got to Valerie’s door. “Is that you?”
“It is,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“What happened?” Sasha asked. “Is Valerie with you?”
“Someone attacked again,” Ethan said. “There’s a bomb out here, but Valerie is working on dismantling it. You just need to stay inside, okay? If anyone comes out, they could set it off.”
There was a long silence.
“What happened upstairs?” Sasha asked finally.
“We don’t know yet,” Ethan answered.
Valerie licked her lips, continuing to work, then she frowned.
“I’ve got stuff in there I could use,” she said.
“What stuff?” Ethan asked.
“My whole kit,” Valerie said. “Sasha, open the door.”
Valerie checked the door quickly as Sasha turned the knob and began to open it, but she was certain she’d cleared it before she’d let Ethan knock on it.
Sasha looked around quickly, but every one of the triggers was invisible; only the bomb there in the middle of the hallway was physically present, though Valerie knew that even that didn’t have to be. Magic was capable of creating enough destruction all on its own.
“I need my stuff,” Valerie said.
“I can help you,” Sasha answered.
“If you come out here, he has to stay in,” Valerie said. “I can’t keep track of both of you.”
“Nope,” Ethan said.
“Can I go upstairs and check on everyone?” Sasha asked.
“No moving around until I clear it,” Dr. Finn said.
“Or me,” Lady Harrington said from the top of the hallway. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Spider bomb,” Dr. Finn said, his mind still elsewhere. “Cast by a big-time demon.”
“I can turn it off if you can get all of the triggers reeled in,” Lady Harrington said.
“Approaching halfway done,” Dr. Finn said. The man was a machine. Valerie had stopped detaching triggers the moment Sasha had started speaking.
Sasha left the door and came back with a zippered leather bag of stuff, handing it gingerly to Ethan.
He nodded, then Sasha looked at Valerie once more, as though hoping she would change her mind, but Valerie shook her head.
“As soon as we know anything,” Valerie said, and Sasha took a deep breath and closed the door again.
Step by step, Valerie talked Ethan through to getting to her, then step by step back to the wall.
She unzipped the bag, her fingers itching, and she smiled.
Yes.
She needed to be slow and methodical, especially compared to Dr. Finn, because she was prone to making mistakes where he wasn’t.
But the things she could do with that bag at this point.
Yes.
They were amazing.
Valerie sat down at the end of the hallway, her palms over her eyes.
She was exhausted, and she had no idea what time it was.
Ethan was sitting next to her, but he seemed to know better than to touch her.
They’d gone into Mrs. Gold’s room and found her unconscious, but alive. The nurse, a woman named Mrs. Adams, had come and was working on her. Whispers had gone around that if it had happened to anyone else, they would have been dead.
News from upstairs was worse.
A lot of the guys had gotten out, but the rooms right where the demons had originally appeared had gotten… Well, Mr. Tannis was upstairs helping to get the bodies ready to take out.
Some of them had put up a good fight, and Franky Frank was al
ready in the infirmary with serious injuries, but they said that he, at least, would recover.
No one would say who had died.
“You did it,” Ethan said finally.
“People died because of me,” Valerie answered.
Ethan looked over at her, but he didn’t have words.
“You asked why they’d kill her, if they wanted to use her as leverage,” Dr. Finn said. Valerie hadn’t noticed him, but apparently he was leaning against the wall there at the end of the hallway not far from where she sat.
“I did,” Ethan said slowly.
“It’s because she’s the only person the bomb wouldn’t have killed. I’m not sure if it would have gotten me, honestly, because I’m like a roach. I’d survive nuclear holocaust. But. It was designed as a trap for her. If the bomb had gone off, every remaining trigger would have launched itself at her, so long as she was in range, and it would have held her until the demons had come back to collect her, which wouldn’t have been long, presumably.”
“Are you always this weird?” Ethan asked.
It had to have been partially because the man looked like he was their age, but it was also the exhaustion talking. Valerie almost laughed, as tired and upset as she was.
“Yes,” Dr. Finn said. “Though I’m not sure that I’m the weird one.”
“You two need to get to bed,” Lady Harrington said, coming to stand in front of them. “The bomb is disabled and we will dispose of it before tomorrow. Mrs. Gold is going to make a full recovery, and most of the teachers are out in the woods trying to round up the students who got out. We’ll have an assembly in the morning in the cafeteria, where we will discuss what happened.”
“Lady Harrington,” Valerie said, standing. “Please. What happened upstairs?”
“I will tell you when the time comes, once everyone is assembled.”
“I think she deserves it,” Ethan said. “She saved all of us tonight.”
Lady Harrington paused, considering this for a moment, then dipped her head.
“I am very sorry to inform you that Patrick Rose and Conrad Smith were killed tonight,” she said quietly. “We don’t know if Kit Memer will survive the night or not, but we’ve done everything for him that we can.”
Valerie looked over at Ethan, who had closed his eyes.
“Both of them,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” Valerie answered him, and he nodded.
“I… I don’t know what to think. There were seven of us and none of us knew which five it was…”
“You’re talking about the curse,” Valerie said, shifting to look at him. He nodded.
“I mean, I never really believed it, but… It was supposed to be five of us who were the dark power who were supposed to take on leadership of the Council…”
Valerie blinked.
She’d never really put it together like that.
“You thought that the cursed ones were supposed to lead the Council?” she asked.
He nodded.
“The five cursed had a special power that would be able to break the Superiors.”
“And you just assumed that that would involve the Council?” she asked.
“Obviously we would be leading the Council by then,” he said, frowning.
“Yasmine, Patrick, and Conrad,” Valerie said softly. He nodded.
“There are only four of us left.”
“And me,” Valerie said, her voice very soft.
He looked over at her.
“Why you?”
“My mom was there when Lan died,” Valerie said. “She told me. She said I was part of it. I think. Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought that was what she was telling me.”
“But neither of your parents were on the Council,” he said.
“They both hand handlers reporting to the Council,” Valerie said. “I don’t know. I just… I’m pretty sure that I’m the last one of the five.”
He put his head back against the wall and breathed for a moment.
“I don’t want you to be dark-touched like the rest of us. I can live with it, but…”
“Why does it even matter?” Valerie asked. “If we can win the war, who cares what style of magic we use?”
“Because…” he started, then shook his head, smiling with a drainedness that he hadn’t had before. “You don’t even know. You’ve never had anyone look at you and think you were less because you weren’t solid light magic. That’s so strange.”
“Miss Blake and Mister Trent, I have given you all the leeway I intend to. Please see yourselves to bed,” Lady Harrington said, and Ethan stood up, offering Valerie a hand.
“You did really good, tonight,” he said.
“So did you,” she answered, and he gave her a sideways smile.
“I don’t know what Shack did with your books, but if he has them, we’ll get them to you before class in the morning.”
“You know what my first class is?” Valerie asked, and he smiled.
“Of course I do. Just because I haven’t been walking you doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention.”
She nodded, closing her eyes and finding that they didn’t want to open again.
“I need sleep,” she said.
“Class is going to start early,” he observed.
She nodded.
“Too early.”
Way too early.
Valerie checked the library on her way to the cafeteria, but Shack appeared to have packed up her stuff and taken it with him when he’d left that night. She didn’t stop in the cafeteria long on her way to her magical first aid class, where she found Ethan leaning against the wall holding her backpack.
“Hanson’s worried about both of you,” he said as Valerie slung her backpack up onto her back and shoved half a muffin into her mouth.
Breakfast.
“Well, Sasha can take care of herself, and I’m apparently the one who has to save everyone, so tell him to stuff it, and that if anyone’s allowed to be worried, it’s us about him.”
Ethan grinned.
“Shack is planning on building a bunk bed over top of his old bed,” he said. “He refuses to move out.”
Valerie didn’t blame him.
“He lost the bet, fair and square,” she said, anyway, and Ethan nodded.
“I don’t know where we’re going to put all of our stuff, when this is done.”
She let the humor slide from her face for a moment.
“Are you okay?’ she asked. He shrugged.
“Shack is taking it pretty hard,” he said. “Wouldn’t admit it, but he and Conrad go back a long way, and… He’s just a nice guy, you know? Thinks everyone is his best friend.”
Valerie nodded.
“He is,” she said. “I wish I could have done more.”
“You defused a bomb,” he said. “That’s good enough for me.”
“But they were here for me,” she said. “And… that’s three people, now, Ethan. I don’t know how much more of this I can live with.”
“It isn’t your fault,” Ethan said darkly. “I’ve been thinking about it, and you’re right - someone is letting them in on purpose. Demons shouldn’t be able to just come and go as they please, in here. The warding is way too strong. The first time, I was worried that between the two of us both sneaking to the library, we’d done something that had damaged the warding and let them in, but this time? We were outside, and we hadn’t done anything. Someone else did this on purpose.”
Valerie nodded.
“We need to keep thinking on that,” she said. “It could be anyone, but… It’s going to keep happening, and people are going to keep dying, if someone doesn’t do something about it.”
She glanced at her watch, then shifted her backpack again, still frowning. Ethan kissed her cheek quickly and brushed past.
“Gonna be late,” he said.
She nodded and went to stand in the doorway of her classroom, watching him until he went around the corner, then going to sit in the back of the
class.
Mr. Turner was sitting behind his desk, working on something that Valerie suspected had nothing to do with instruction.
He glanced up when the bell rang, but didn’t stand.
“We have an assembly in the cafeteria five minutes after the start of class,” he said. “Don’t get out any of your things; plan on taking everything with you when we go.”
Valerie frowned, shifting lower in her desk.
Someone was trying to get her killed. It wasn’t absolutely conclusive, but it felt inescapable. They were sending demons - and they hadn’t even managed to kill one this time - and those demons were eventually going to succeed at it.
Valerie didn’t know how to defend herself against them, for sure, and just hoping that her reservoir of instinctive magic was big enough… It was foolish.
She’d gone running at them both times, and both times it had just been a matter of luck and timing that they hadn’t gotten her.
How was she not dead already?
Her father had rescued her the first time, and the second time, the demons had left.
Why had they left?
It was all so strange and so surreal. Sure, she’d been here a few months, but the idea that her life might actually be at risk just wasn’t sinking in.
That her mom might be risking her life…
That her dad was alive…
She startled as the other students started standing up, and she got her backpack up off the floor to follow them, going to crowd into the cafeteria. She saw the guys standing against the wall, but she went to go sit with Sasha.
Lady Harrington arrived a few minutes later, walking with Mr. Benson and passing a paper back and forth between them.
The woman cleared her throat, silencing the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, handing the page back to Mr. Benson. “I know that last night was a difficult one for most of you, and that very few of us were prepared for the idea that our students and our faculty were not absolutely safe while at school. We have been reviewing the magic defenses, and have come to the conclusion that there is a flaw in them, one that we have not previously discovered, and that someone has been exploiting in order to gain access to the school. As a result, classes will be canceled and all faculty retasked to working with myself and Mr. Benson to secure the building and grounds. Students are expected to remain in their rooms with the doors locked outside of mealtimes and for biological necessities. I know that this is a disappointment to you, that you have come here to learn, but we cannot learn if we are not first safe. So we will address the issue of safety and then - and only then - resume classes.
