by Megan Linski
After I was done with the sharpening, I’d harden the sword by heating it to a very high temperature, then place it into a quenching tank. I’d repeat the process at a lower temperature to temper the sword. I was just now getting to the part where I’d be able to add a hilt.
This was nothing like working on the daggers and tiny weapons I’d made in my Simple Weapons courses the past two years. This was taking all my craftsmanship. These swords were supposed to be for our careers as monster hunters after we graduated, but I didn’t need one— I had my father’s. I wasn’t sure what I was going to use this one for once I was done crafting it. A backup, maybe?
I was behind everyone else, but I believed in taking my time with this. I’d wanted to make the sword special and wanted to spend a considerable amount of time carving an intricate design into the metal— a wolf pack running through the woods, on both sides.
Most of the other students hadn’t bothered inscribing anything special on their weapons. They’d go out and purchase professional ones after graduation, and leave these at home. But me? I don’t know… for some reason, I felt that creating this sword was of grave importance, and it needed to be perfect.
Professor Desmona walked by and observed my work. She put a hand out, and I gave the blade to her. She took in the weapon with an approving nod. “Very good, my prince. This will be a weapon that will stand the test of time.”
Professor Desmona was the only teacher on campus who still used my royal title when referring to me— and no way in hell would I challenge her on it like all the others. She’d kick my ass. “Thank you.”
I took the sword back and resumed my work. A Marked girl whose sword was curved and bent after she forged it wrong gave me a sour look.
Class ended at five, but I stayed at the forge long past that, until six o’clock. I wasn’t satisfied with my work until I knew I was ready to move onto the next step. Professor Desmona was working on forging armor when I passed, but still, her eyes glinted with an approving glaze. She liked that I put in more time than all the others, but I liked the forge. My blacksmithing skills had proved useful in creating a variety of items, such as my grappling hook that I used when surveying the city as the Phantom.
Also, it took my mind off of things I couldn’t control— like the fact that I couldn’t protect Emma.
After I was done, I took a shower, then headed downstairs to get some dinner. Emma was in the cafeteria with Delmare, Odette, and Kiara. They were sitting at a table in the corner. All the tables around them were empty, and people avoided being near them like they had the plague.
I got three cabbage rolls and slid into the seat next to Emma. “Rough crowd?”
She glumly played with her pasta. “Everyone thinks I attempted murder.”
“Not everyone,” Odette piped up. “We’re still here with you.”
“I’d still hang out with you even if you did do it,” Delmare added through a full mouth. “Morgan’s a jackass.”
Emma put her face in her hands. Kiara, who was on her other side of her, put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Emma. They’ll figure out who’s really behind this, and everyone will owe you an apology.”
“If you think these stuck up pricks are going to apologize, you’re in for a rough go of it,” Delmare said.
Emma groaned. “I keep getting into trouble. I thought the attacks would stop once I left home.”
“You were attacked before you came to Arcanea University?” I asked, shocked.
Emma nodded. “Yes. It was a huge black wolven, no wings. It found me in the woods outside my house, back in Detroit. I managed to kill it with my illusion magic. Lady Magdalina said he was sent by the Black Claw. She promised me I’d be safe here, but I guess not.”
This was turning my dinner. Emma had almost been killed once before. But she was all the way in America when the attack happened. Why would someone from the Black Claw want to hurt her? She was an innocent girl that had no ties to any of this. She didn’t even know about our world until it was forced on her.
Emma shrugged. “I don’t know. Lady Magdalina said that the Black Claw sends out assassins to kill unbonded Marked, so that they’ll never mate with their Companions and Malovia will become weaker, and easier to take over.”
That sounded like a bunch of bullshit. It would take far too many resources and too much effort for the Black Claw to be interested in taking out unbonded Marked one by one. They had bigger issues to face here. They wanted her for other reasons.
But I didn’t want to worry Emma, so I said, “Yeah, maybe.”
“Lady Magdalina said you’d bond with someone important,” Odette sang. Emma waved at her to try and get her to shut up.
“Did she?” I leaned in closer, curious. How would Lady Magdalina have any idea of that?
Emma nodded. “She did. Lady Magdalina must know the Phantom personally.”
I suppressed a groan, but Emma caught my look of disgust. “I see that. I don’t care if you don’t believe he’s my mate. We’ve been over this.”
“One thing I don’t get,” Kiara said, interrupting me before I could say anything to Emma, “is how this could be happening at Arcanea University. Security is insane here. It has to be, to prevent monsters from getting in. Lady Magdalina is extremely gifted. Her magic is stronger than anyone else’s in Malovia.”
“Is it?” Emma asked.
“Lady Magdalina is the most powerful sorceress alive,” Delmare said. “The Black Claw is rumored to be terrified of her retaliation. Whoever is committing these crimes is either not afraid of her— which is crazy, because that’s basically suicide— or they’re cocky enough to think that they can get away with it.”
“Which probably means that they’re right under her nose,” Kiara said. “There’s no other way they could get away with all of this, unless they were a student or a teacher. Someone Magdalina trusts.”
Emma sat in silence for a few moments before she said quietly, “I think it’s Lady Korva.”
I nearly choked on my food. “Lady Korva?” I asked in disbelief. “What does she have to do with any of this?”
“It’s clear she doesn’t like me. She accused me of hurting Morgan the moment she got a chance to,” Emma pointed out.
“Yes, but what reason would she have for targeting you?” I asked.
The aura around the table became awkward. Odette looked the other way, while Kiara blushed. Emma didn’t say anything— just stared at me like it was obvious.
Delmare threw her hands up and blurted out, “Oh gods, Ethan. Lady Korva thinks you’re going to pick Emma as your mate for the King’s Contest. Fucking duh.”
“What?” I stuttered. “That… that’s impossible. We could never—”
Emma took my bad cover up as disgust and snapped, “That’s okay, I know you’d never pick me, anyway. Lady Korva sees us hang out a lot, so in her twisted mind, she probably figures that you like me.”
“Yeah, and if you don’t have a mate before the Contest, you can’t compete,” Odette pointed out. “Lady Korva wants her son to win. So if she takes Emma out, her chances of Elijah obtaining the crown get a whole lot better.”
I tried to think quickly as Emma stared me down. To be honest, I still wasn’t sure what I was going to do about the King’s Contest. Yes, I’d found my mate— but she didn’t know, and I wasn’t going to reveal that information to her and put her in more danger than she was already in. She wouldn’t believe me, anyway. She was so wrapped up in the Phantom fantasy that the only way I could prove to her that we were bonded was to blow my secret identity— and I wasn’t about to do that.
At the same time, the Contest was less than two months away. I didn’t have time to keep dawdling around with this decision. Either I had to tell Emma we were bonded, or I had to find another girl to take her place.
The thought made me feel like my guts were being ripped out. Another girl couldn’t take Emma’s place. Not ever. And I didn’t want to live my life with any other quee
n by my side but her.
I was silent for too long, and Emma sneered, “We all know you’re going to pick Chastity. Why don’t you hurry up and do it?”
“Chastity? My ex?” I said, confused. “I haven’t talked to her in weeks.”
“She’s not going to be your ex for much longer, is she? She’s going to be your queen,” Emma snarled.
“Whoa there, everybody calm down.” Delmare extended her arm between me and Emma from across the table. “Just chill.”
Emma huffed, and I rolled my eyes. “Okay, fine. Maybe Lady Korva is going after you, because she’s worried about the King’s Contest and thinks I’m going to choose you, so she wants to make sure I can’t compete by taking you out. But that doesn’t explain why she’d go after Professor Waldron, or align herself with the Black Claw.”
“I don’t know. But it’s the best explanation I’ve got.” Emma crossed her arms and sank back in her chair. “But I’ve got no proof. And if Lady Magdalina trusts Lady Korva, then it’d be all too easy for her to sneak around the headmistress’s back and commit murder.”
“Well… let’s find some proof, then,” I suggested.
Emma’s eyes widened, and she uncrossed her arms. “What do you mean?”
“If you think Korva’s hiding something, then she’s a threat to all of us. We can’t just sit here and allow more people to be mutilated or murdered. She needs to be exposed,” I said.
“You mean… you could order a search through Korva’s stuff?” Emma asked.
“I could. I am a prince, and I have the authority,” I said, before I hesitated. “But if I ordered a search, it’d go public. And if nothing was found that was incriminating, it’d be a huge scandal. It would affect my entry into the King’s Contest. I’d prefer we do this a bit more… quietly.”
“You guys aren’t talking about sneaking into Lady Korva’s office!” Kiara squeaked. “That’s strictly forbidden!”
“Not her office. She wouldn’t keep anything here at school. Too risky,” I said. “She’d hide evidence at her house.”
“Breaking and entering? I’m in,” Delmare said, and a wide grin spread across her face.
“Guys, this is really dangerous,” Odette said nervously. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
“Of course I do,” Emma said, without a moment’s hesitation. “Ethan’s right. We have to stop this before anyone else gets killed. You guys don’t have to follow, but I’m going.”
“We’re obviously going to help,” Delmare said, and she wrapped her arms around Kiara and Odette. “Just tell us what you want us to do.”
Odette and Kiara both seemed anxious, but neither one of them backed out. I leaned forward, and their heads came inward toward as I began to whisper. “Lady Korva lives on a huge estate on the royal grounds,” I said. “It’s staffed by guards and servants twenty-four seven, not to mention her husband rarely leaves the estate.”
“So how do we get in without being seen?” Emma asked.
“We wait until nightfall, when everyone’s asleep. She has an office on the third floor. We can scale the walls and sneak in,” I said.
“Or we get the boys to fly us up,” Odette said, and her eyes glittered.
“Odette, no. The more people we involve, the riskier is it we’ll get caught. We can’t trust anyone,” Delmare said.
“I’m guessing by the boys you mean Theo, Stefan, and Alexei?” I asked.
Odette bobbed her head enthusiastically, while Delmare mouthed no. I gave it some thought.
“Backup would be nice to have,” I admitted. “Just in case we get into trouble. I don’t want to drag them into this, but at the same time, I trust them. They can create a distraction that’ll make it easier for us to break in.”
“Okay, so let’s go.” Emma got up from the table and started walking. I wolfed down my last cabbage roll and headed after her, while the girls followed.
I wasn’t so sure if Lady Korva actually had anything to do with the attacks, but I did know my aunt— she’d do anything to make sure Elijah got that crown. If she hadn’t committed the attacks herself, I was at least certain she was involved. Something strange was going on around here.
And tonight, I intended to find out what.
“Are you guys ready for this?” Alexei asked.
We were waiting in the bushes outside of the Zlodia estate. I’d managed to sneak everyone onto royal grounds due to my clearance, but we didn’t have long. There were eight of us here. Eventually, someone would notice we were gone from the university and would sound the alarm. Nearly a dozen students missing from their beds on a Thursday night would cause a panic, with how on edge everything was lately. We had to move quickly.
“Ready or not, we’ve gotta do this,” Emma said. “Is everyone good with the plan?”
There were murmurs of agreement around us. I focused on the house. The Zlodia mansion was massive. It was five stories and built in the Baroque style. It boasted elegance and money.
I could see Lady Korva’s office from here. It was high in the air, and had dozens of windows. They were locked from the inside. We wouldn’t be getting in that way, not unless we broke them.
“So let me get this straight,” Theo said. “You want us to create a distraction, while you and the girls walk right into the Zlodia mansion and find… whatever it is you’re looking for?”
“That’s the plan,” I said. I was shocked we’d managed to rope goody-two-shoes Theo into helping us. But all it took was a little begging from Odette, and he’d caved like a house of cards.
“I am very good at creating distractions,” Stefan said, and his grin widened. He playfully elbowed Delmare.
“Shut up,” she growled. “Can we get moving? I’m freezing my tits off out here.”
“Right. Let’s go.” Me and the girls went one way, while Theo, Alexei and Stefan went the other. When we were directly planted behind the back entrance of the house, we huddled together and waited.
There was a loud boom, followed by the sound of an explosion. Glass went flying everywhere as the greenhouse on the other side of the estate exploded into flames. I could barely see the outline of a dragon hovering above, black scales blending in with pitch night.
I rolled my eyes. Stefan certainly couldn’t be trusted to be subtle.
Servants and guards came running out of the estate in droves. Theo and Alexei, who were both in their animal forms, hovered at the edge of the burning greenhouse. The guards went to give chase, and the two of them flew off into the forest. The servants massed around the greenhouse and quickly got to work on trying to put the fire out.
“Move.” I ran out of the bushes and to the back door. It was locked, but when I rammed myself against it, the door gave way. The girls followed me inside, and we pressed ourselves to the walls as we crept through the shadows, ascending the stairs.
There were giggles behind us from Odette, as well as loud swear words from Delmare every time she accidentally ran into or broke something. So much for not leaving any traces behind that we were here. I should’ve just done this myself. In, out, done. It would’ve taken me no more than a few minutes. The girls were quickly proving to me they had no experience doing special-ops. Even worse, I had to leave most of my gear in the hideout so I didn’t incriminate myself, so we were doing a lot of this the old-fashioned way.
A sudden light came on in front of us as we were climbing the staircase to the third floor, and I flung out my arm to stop the girls from going forward. “What’s this?” I heard Lord Zlodia’s sleepy voice ringing throughout the hall above.
“A fire, sir, in the greenhouse,” a servant replied. “It’s been taken care of. Everything is under control. Go back to sleep.”
Lord Zlodia mumbled, but the light turned off and we heard no more from him. The servant above blazed past us— we all held our breath as he passed on the other side of the staircase. I was sure we’d been seen, but it was dark, and the servant was in such a hurry he didn’t even notice
us glued to the wall. We all breathed a sigh of relief as soon as he was gone.
“Hey, Ethan? What’s the penalty for breaking and entering in Malovia?” Emma whispered.
“Into a lord’s house, on royal grounds? You don’t want to know,” I told her.
We reached the third floor. There were so many doors— I wasn’t sure which one led to Korva’s office, until Emma strode down the hallway and guessed by peeking her head inside the first door she opened.
“It’s clear,” she called. We picked up the pace. Emma opened the door and revealed Korva’s office. We hurried inside, and I locked the door behind us.
Korva’s office was huge and expansive. Dozens of bookcases lined the walls, packed with hundreds of books. A large oak desk with a high-backed chair sat in the middle. The floor was crowded with alchemist vials and various objects useful for enchanting. Cauldrons, jars of ingredients, and strange artifacts littered the ornate rugs. A stuffed raven sat on a perch in the corner. It seemed to watch us with a creepy stare.
It looked more like a library than an office. By the Seven Gods, there was a lot of crap in here. It could take hours to go through. We didn’t have that kind of time. I was glad we’d brought five people to search.
“Start looking,” I said. We scrambled to comb through the stuff. I gently sorted through the items, starting with the books that looked like they’d been read recently. “Try not to make it look like anything’s been—”
There was the crashing sound of a vial behind me. Odette stood above a smashed collection of glass, raising her hands in an apology.
I sucked in an irritated breath. “Touched.”
Fifteen minutes passed. We went through as much as we could, but everything we came across was either mundane or unimportant. Maybe we’d been wrong and Lady Korva had nothing to do with the attacks. If that was true, we needed to get out of here. Before we got caught.
