Outwit: Spellslingers Academy of Magic (Enforcer of the East Book 1)

by Annabel Chase

  “You have to do more than that,” Mona said. “We can’t risk him attacking us inside the ward or messing up the crime scene.”

  My gaze swept across the clearing and I came up with a plan. “Fine. Get this stupid lasso off me and I’ll handle it.”

  The League trio exchanged glances. Finally, Callan shrugged. “She’s a caster from Spellslingers. She can’t be too incompetent.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about,” Mona replied.

  “There are three of us here now,” Kendall said. “We can handle one little witch.”

  “Unless one little witch is responsible for this disaster,” Mona said.

  “I’m making an executive decision.” Callan squeezed his end of the lasso and it dissolved as though it had never existed. “You’re up, Goldilocks.”

  I dusted myself off and produced my wand from my back pocket. I unfurled it and aimed it at the top of the oak tree.

  “Fancy that,” Kendall said admiringly. “It expands.”

  “Otherwise it pokes me in the back too often,” I explained. I summoned the energy around me, pulling it to me, and focused on the tree that housed the mapinguari. I used my wand like a conductor, guiding the movements of the tree. One of the branches shot out and latched onto the creature’s branch, slithering over his shoulder like a seatbelt. More branches moved toward the mapinguari and the creature screeched in protest. As the sound echoed, birds scattered from treetops that I didn’t even know were there. I kept my focus on the branches, using them to secure the creature limb by limb.

  “She’s good,” Mona said under her breath.

  A smile touched my lips. Take that, Chancellor Tilkin.

  “Can you subdue him?” Callan asked. “He’s distressed.”

  I shot him a quizzical glance. He thought there was a chance that this creature had murdered twelve young men, yet he was concerned that it might be in distress? Interesting.

  “I know a spell that will help.” The Sleeping Beauty spell was a basic spell for a young witch. It would put the mapinguari to sleep and the security of the branches would keep the creature from falling to the ground.

  “By all means,” Kendall said, “have at it.” He ushered me forward.

  I performed the spell the way I’d done a hundred times on my younger siblings at bedtime. My parents had relied on me to get them to sleep without a fuss and Sleeping Beauty had been my spell of choice.

  The mapinguari stopped struggling and its eyes closed. Soon enough it began to snore.

  “Well, there’s an unfortunate side effect,” Kendall remarked.

  Callan eyed me curiously. “Which AMF quadrant?”

  “Enforcer of the East,” I said.

  “You got family out that way?” Kendall asked.

  “No,” I said. “I just like the idea of a change in environment.”

  He shifted his attention to the mangled bodies in the clearing. “What do you say we get these bodies out of here before sundown? Did you put the call in to transport?”

  “I’ll do it now,” Mona said.

  “I’ll create the ward,” I said.

  “Make it so that we can still move in and out,” Callan said. “We need to be able to clean up the scene.”

  I pulled magic from the land beneath my feet and my body hummed with energy. Thanks to the convergence of the ley lines, it was much easier here than at the academy. It took hardly any effort at all. The ward snapped into place, sealing the clearing from newcomers.

  “You seem powerful for a trainee,” Callan said.

  “It’s this place,” I said. “The vortex.”

  “Magic is crazy strong here,” Kendall said.

  “Maybe stronger than you anticipated,” Mona said, finished with her phone call. She looked from me to the dead bodies. “These boys were put through the ringer. Some of their limbs are out of their sockets.”

  Callan stood over a blond man who looked to have been in his mid-twenties. “They look like they were mid-shift, except…” He shook his head, puzzled.

  “Are any of them shifters?” Other than their appearance, they didn’t give me a shifter vibe.

  “No,” Kendall said with certainty. “They’re humans. All of ‘em.”

  I felt the intensity of Mona’s stare. She still wasn’t convinced I had nothing to do with this.

  “I didn’t kill anyone,” I said firmly.

  “Maybe not on purpose,” Mona said. “Like Kendall said, the magic is crazy strong here. Maybe a friendly ritual got out of hand.”

  “I wasn’t part of any ritual.” How could I convince them?

  “Cerys, are you all right?” Bryn’s voice broke through the trees.

  “I’m here,” I called. “But you can’t come in. There’s a ward.”

  “Who’s that?” Callan asked. He shaded his eyes and waited for Bryn to appear. I spotted her dark head as it passed through a patch of sunlight.

  “My roommate,” I said. “Bryn Morrow. She’s a witch, too.”

  Bryn sensed the ward and stopped before she smacked into it. “Made new friends, did you?” She gasped when she noticed the bodies. “What the…?”

  “I found the mapinguari,” I said weakly, pointing to the oak tree where the creature continued to snore.

  Bryn didn’t know where to look next. “What happened?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to ascertain.” Callan swaggered toward the perimeter to talk to Bryn. “We knew there’d been an event….”

  “An event?” Bryn repeated. “You mean a disturbance in the force, Obi Wan? I guess that makes you members of the League.”

  Callan ignored her. “When we arrived, we discovered your friend standing in the middle of these twelve corpses.”

  “Probably trying to revive them,” Bryn said. “Cerys is more heart than head.”

  I sighed. “You make it sound like an insult.”

  “Can I come in?” Bryn asked. “Maybe I can shed some light on the situation. I promise you Cerys didn’t do anything.”

  “You can stay right where you are,” Mona said. “We need to assess this crime scene and collect evidence.”

  “And I need to make sure my friend is okay,” Bryn insisted. “She looks upset. Cerys, are you upset?”

  I hugged myself. “I don’t know. They seem to be accusing me of murdering twelve humans.”

  “No one’s accused you,” Callan said.

  I pointed at him, incredulous. “You lassoed me!”

  “And then I released you,” the werewolf said. “We’ll need to bring you in for questioning, though. That’s standard.”

  “Drop the ward and let me in,” Bryn said.

  Mona gave me a threatening look. “Don’t even think about it.”

  Bryn heaved a sigh of annoyance. “Are you really going to make me do this?”

  “Last time I checked, abracadabra doesn’t work on breaking a ward,” Kendall said, and laughed at his own joke.

  Bryn ignored him. She pulled a dagger from her boot and sliced her palm. Blood dripped to the ground, destroying the ward. Callan’s jaw unhinged as she sauntered into the clearing.

  “What…How?” The werewolf suddenly lost the ability to form full sentences.

  “I’m special,” Bryn said, flashing a smile. “Deal with it.” She sailed past him and put an arm around me. “It’s okay. I’ll get Gray and Warden Armitage here to sort this out.” She pulled a face. “Ugh. Did I really just suggest we’re damsels in distress waiting for our knights in shining armor? Gross.”

  “You didn’t,” I assured her. “They’re technically in charge of us here, so it makes sense.”

  “Did you say Theo Armitage?”

  My head whipped toward Mona. Her expression was inscrutable. “You know him?”

  “She knows him,” Kendall said ominously.

  Callan couldn’t stop staring at Bryn. “You used blood magic.”

  “Good eye,” Bryn replied. She patted him on the shoulder and then went to examine the closest b
ody. I could tell by her expression that she wanted to vomit. Pride was the only thing that likely stopped her gag reflex.

  “What kind of witch are you?” Mona asked, her tone laced with suspicion.

  “The pretty kind,” Bryn said. She crouched beside the body. “Why are they naked with weird hair and broken bones? Were they transforming into something?”

  “We don’t know,” Callan said.

  “Ask your friend,” Mona added. “She was here.”

  Anger bubbled beneath the surface. “Not for very long,” I said. “The four of us split up to capture the mapinguari.”

  Bryn returned to a standing position and faced Mona. “You’re actually making her angry. Cerys is never angry. She’s the mother hen that soothes our ruffled feathers.”

  “Perhaps the mother hen finally snapped,” Mona offered.

  I was inclined to snap her neck if she kept accusing me of murder. At least then she’d be right.

  “Cerys is an earth witch,” Bryn said. “She’s all about love and light. I’m the ornery one. My dad was an evil sorcerer who wanted me dead. I grew up in Terrene terrified that he’d find me and kill me.”

  Kendall looked like he wanted to dive under the nearest boulder. “You’re Moldark’s daughter. I thought you were a myth.”

  Bryn spread her arms wide. “Nope, just a legend.”

  “And why would a touchy feely earth witch keep company with Volans Moldark’s daughter unless she was tainted herself?” Mona asked.

  Bryn smacked her forehead. “You League members are stubborn, aren’t you?” She sidled up to Mona, not remotely intimidated by the Amazon’s size. “Cerys and I are training to be AMF agents under the watchful eye of Chancellor Lindsey Tilkin. Perhaps you’ve heard of her.”

  “Of course we have,” Mona said, unimpressed. “It doesn’t make your friend innocent. Power corrupts. Everybody knows that.” Her lip twitched. “You especially.”

  “We’re taking her in,” Kendall said, puffing out his sizable chest. “Don’t even think about taking off in this territory. Callan and I can cover this whole place faster than you can whip out your pretty little wands.”

  Bryn groaned. “Really? Do you have to go there, big guy?”

  Mona pointed at me. “If she takes off, then we’ll consider her guilty.”

  “That’s not how justice works,” I pointed out.

  Mona rolled her eyes. “Leave it to a caster from the academy to still believe in justice. How quaint.”

  Callan gave his partner a warning glance. “Calm down, Mona. We should be encouraging the witch to work with us on this, not against us. The best course of action is to bring her in and keep her in the League’s custody until the investigation’s been concluded.”

  “Just so you can satisfy League protocol?” I said. “I don’t think so.” There’d be no way to prove myself to the academy while I was locked up in a League cell.

  “Fine, have it your way,” Bryn said. “But if Cerys is under lock and key until that time, then so is he.” Before anyone could stop her, she blew droplets of blood from the open wound on her palm. They drifted toward Callan and I like a shower of red mist and dissipated around us.

  “Bryn, don’t,” I said.

  Callan blinked. “I don’t understand. What have you done?”

  Bryn wiped her palm on her jeans and said nothing.

  “What have you done?” he thundered.

  “I created a blood bond between you,” Bryn said. “Now you’re bound to each other. That’ll keep you from doing anything stupid like locking her in a cell while the League demonstrates its incompetence. It also resolves your concern that she’ll flee because she can’t while she’s attached to you.”

  A vein in his neck pulsed. “Define attached.”

  “You can’t be more than thirty feet apart,” Bryn said. She held up a finger. “Oh, and footnote. You have to do as I say because I can control anyone with my blood in their system.”

  “Why didn’t you just do that instead of binding me to him?” I asked under my breath.

  “Because then I would’ve needed to get my blood into all three of their systems to get them on board,” Bryn said. “Using you as leverage is a shortcut.”

  “Undo the spell now,” Mona demanded. Her hands were balled into fists and her eyes wild with anger. “We need to perform an official investigation. Terrene is our territory.”

  Bryn held up her hands. “I’m not stopping you.”

  “No, but you’re stopping me,” Callan said. “I can’t do my job with someone bound to me.”

  “Then you’ll do it together,” Bryn said. “And Cerys will persuade you that she had zero involvement and saw nothing.”

  Mona’s jaw tightened and she thrust her face close to Bryn’s. “Undo the spell. Now.”

  “I can’t,” Bryn replied. “It’s got an automatic timer. I’ve been working on developing blood magic with a friend of mine and we’ve come up with all sorts of cool tricks. For this one, you’ve got two weeks before the spell breaks and it can’t be undone before then.”

  “Wait until the Board of Regents hears about this,” Mona seethed. “You’ll be expelled.”

  Bryn laughed. “Oh, they already hate me, but they won’t expel me. It’s part of the whole keep-me-from-turning-to-the-dark-side-like-my-father plan. Sometimes it pays dividends. Like now.”

  I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to hug Bryn or punch her. I knew she was only trying to help, but how could I prove myself to the academy if I was stuck with a member of the League? I shot a tentative look at my new companion. A snarl erupted from Callan and I thought it was directed at Bryn until I saw that the cavalry had arrived.

  Gray stood at the edge of the clearing, followed by Warden Armitage, Dani, and Mia. I wasn’t sure whose eyes were roundest. Mia covered her mouth as she turned away.

  Gray swore. Loudly. “What happened?”

  Armitage locked eyes on Mona and a flicker of surprise rippled across his features. “I was about to ask what brought the League here, but I can see it’s obvious.”

  Gray gave his girlfriend a look of concern. “You okay, Bryn?”

  She nodded. “Can’t say the same for these guys.”

  “They’re all dead,” Kendall said. “Twelve young men.”

  Gray’s posture stiffened and I could tell that he’d picked up on something. He shot to the middle of the clearing and whirled around, trying to detect…

  “A pulse,” the vampire said. “They’re not all dead. One has a pulse.”

  My breathing hitched. All this time we were standing around arguing while a young man clung to life. Some public servants we were.

  Gray zeroed in on the unconscious victim and rushed to his side. “We need a healer.”

  “Can you give him some of your blood?” Bryn asked.

  Gray gave her a terse look.

  “He can’t do that,” Mona interjected. “This is Terrene. Rules are rules.”

  “I don’t know that it would do any good anyway,” Gray said. “I think he’s comatose. My blood won’t heal a brain injury.”

  I started to move toward them, but Kendall’s huge arm blocked my way. “Not you, missy. You’ve caused enough trouble.”

  Armitage approached us. “Trouble? Davies? Exactly what are you accusing my trainee of doing, Kendall?”

  “Your trainee was alone at the scene when we arrived,” Mona said, placing herself between them.

  “Then Cerys Davies was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Armitage said. “It’s as simple as that.”

  “That’s for us to decide,” Mona said. “This is our territory, Warden Armitage. You have no jurisdiction here.”

  Armitage exhaled loudly. “Mona, let’s not pretend we don’t have a history.” A few heads swiveled at that admission. “I don’t want that to get in the way of a thorough investigation.”

  Slowly, more Spellslingers trainees arrived at the scene. Thankfully Mia and Dani were on hand to prevent them from en
tering the clearing. It was crowded enough.

  Callan pushed his way past Mona to confront Warden Armitage. “No, what’s going to get in the way of a thorough investigation is the fact that your blood witch bound me to your trainee.”

  Gray squinted at his girlfriend. “You did what now?”

  “They were going to put Cerys in a cell indefinitely while they determined their ass from their elbow,” Bryn said. “So I made these two blood buddies.”

  Gray raked a hand through his blond hair. “Oh boy.”

  “That’s…not ideal, Morrow,” Armitage said, though I detected the slightest hint of pleasure in his voice.

  “We can figure out the conjoined twin situation later,” Kendall interrupted. “Right now we need to transport the coma kid to a League facility. We’ve got folks who can wake him so we can ask our questions.”

  “Maybe you should be more concerned with healing him than with your questions,” I said. “He’s not napping. He’s near death.”

  “We’ll take him to Spellslingers,” Armitage said. “We have skilled healers there.”

  “You cannot seriously be suggesting that we take a human to our realm for medical treatment,” Mona said. “The victim stays in Terrene.”

  Armitage rubbed his stubbled jaw. “Fine, then we get access as well.”

  “We’ll be happy to pass along any information we learn,” Mona said.

  “I’m not talking about access to information,” Armitage said. “I’m talking about getting the boy access to medical help.”

  “We have our own healers at the facility,” Callan said softly. “We have no interest in sacrificing this young man’s life. There’s been enough carnage.”

  My gaze traveled over the twelve young men on the ground and I steeled myself against the onslaught of emotions. If I intended to work as an AMF agent, I had to be tougher than this. Death and destruction would be part of the job.

  “We need to capture the mapinguari,” Armitage said. “Can’t leave him running amok out here for humans to find.”

  “Oh, about that,” I said, and pointed to the top of the oak tree where the creature slumbered. “I can wake him up if you want, but it might be easier to just magic him away while he’s out cold.”

  Armitage walked closer to the oak tree to inspect the mapinguari. “How about that? You’ve had quite a day, Davies, haven’t you?”