by Kat Adams
That didn’t sound good. I thought of my mom. She had magic in her. Did she dabble in the dark arts and go too far? “What do you mean too late?”
“They push their powers beyond their limits. The draw to all that power is too strong to stop until they no longer have any control. Simply put, they snap. Because I don’t know how far Spencer has taken his powers, I will be joining you at your trainings.”
Crap. That backfired. It was getting pretty crowded at my training sessions. “I already have the guys taking turns babysitting me during lessons.”
“Now you’ll also have your faculty advisor. I won’t be there to watch you.”
That made me feel a little better. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to change her mind, I instead changed the subject. “Why’d the Council suddenly declare me the prophecy?”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Have a seat.” She walked around the desk and sat in her chair. I pulled up the corner chair and sat on the opposite side. “Before the meeting, the Council had every intention of decreeing Spencer the prophecy.”
“Why didn’t they?” I still didn’t understand and had been so excited to not lose my title I’d completely forgotten to ask.
“His birthday.”
Another thing I still didn’t understand. “I get why they think mine is some sort of sign. The Ides of March is a pretty significant date in our world. But what’s the big deal about December twenty-first?”
“It’s the longest period of darkness every year. Some believe the darkest of elementals were born on or around that time, and that’s the reason why the darkness lasts so long on that day.”
“Were these the same people who believed the world was flat?” I loved my world, but some of our traditions and beliefs were ridiculously unbelievable. “It’s the shortest day of the year because of the position of the sun to the earth, and it’s only the shortest day in the northern hemisphere.” Well, look at that. I actually used something I learned in school. Go me.
“I didn’t say it had merit,” she defended, her hand up to stop me from continuing my argument. “And not everyone believes it.”
“But clearly, Albert Stephens does.” I can’t believe the guy refused Spencer the prophecy over something as absurd as a birthdate. Then again, I still had a hard time believing him decreeing me the prophecy over the same thing.
Talk about irony.
Stace leaned forward in her chair, so I did the same, mirroring her position by resting my elbows on the desk. “Now that the Council has once again invoked the prophecy—and decreed you as the one to carry it out—there are a few ground rules we need to go over. First, you’re not to leave the academy without informing me.”
Thinning my lips, I set my jaw to stop myself from telling her exactly what I thought of her bullshit rule. I was an adult, for crying out loud. I didn’t need a curfew, and I most definitely didn’t need to check in with her. “So basically, I’m on lockdown.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t leave. I said you had to tell me before you go anywhere.” She gave me a look.
My cheeks heated. Over embarrassment or irritation, I didn’t know and didn’t care. I was being grounded at twenty-one. “Anything else?”
“Yes.” She relaxed back, keeping her focus on me. “There’s something else I’d like to discuss with you.”
“If this is about Rob going to work for the Council, I already know. I also already know about him renting the cabin from you.”
“It’s secluded and powerfully warded. It would be the perfect getaway for, say, someone wanting some alone time with her quad squad.”
Was she giving me permission to teleport to the cabin at will? “Do I have to tell you when I go there?”
“Just tell me when you’ll be off-campus.”
“Okay.” I stood and replaced the chair in the corner. As I turned to leave, I remembered the other question I had. “Do you know how to make fog?”
She blinked at me. “Fog?”
“Magic fog,” I clarified. “I asked Spencer to help me, but he just tells me to bring my earth elemental to him.” I stated in a deep, mocking voice, buttery accent and all. Except from me. it sounded like someone really bad at both accents and mocking male voices. “I can call earth on my own. I don’t need Bryan to create magic fog. It’s my primary, for cripes’ sakes.”
She nodded, as if my ramblings made perfect sense. “That’s not why he wants Bryan to join you. It has nothing to do with your primary.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No. If it had to do with earth, Spencer could simply call it himself.”
Good point. “Then why?”
“Have you mentioned any of this to Bryan?”
What did that have to do with the price of tea in China? “No. Why?”
“He’d be able to tell you why Spencer keeps asking for him.” She stood and walked to the other side of the classroom and began erasing the whiteboard. “This is about his lineage.”
“This is about the darkness in Bryan’s bloodline?” I did not see that coming. Not knowing what else to do with my hands, I moved to the opposite side of the board and ran an eraser across the surface.
She finished erasing her side before facing me. “His grandfather was a powerful elemental who did terrible things, mainly capturing and torturing Nelem children at summits. His father worked hard to protect Bryan from that life, and it ultimately cost him everything, including his own life. The grandfather had this thing he did—a fog of sorts—to disorient others. He’d use it to steal Nelem children, escape the patrols, things like that.”
“Did you say a fog?” No way. No freakin’ way. I’d never get Bryan involved in something that hit so close to home. No wonder Spencer needed him. He didn’t know how to create it and hoped Bryan did.
I’d have to go out of my way to disappoint him.
“A really nasty-smelling fog,” she added. “Some said it smelled like death.”
How was that possible? My blood slowed, and I nearly dropped the eraser. I set it down before I did. “Alec’s call smelled a lot like that. I’ll never forget that scent.”
“Which is why you thought Alec created the fog. It’s understandable. Dark elementals have very similar scents to their calls.”
I thought about Spencer, about how many times I’d picked up that stench on him. “You don’t believe it was Alec?”
“I believe it was a dark elemental, but I don’t believe it was Alec. The scent of an elemental’s call is as unique as a fingerprint. The Council tracks them and stores them in an elemental database of sorts. Without getting too deep into the logistics I don’t quite understand myself, they have ways of picking up an elemental’s call. If the scent is on file, they know whose call it is. If Alec survived that fall and uses his powers, we’ll know.”
Which meant another dark elemental was after me. Super. I loved having a target on my back, said no one ever. Still, this was my choice. I could have let the Council give the prophecy to Spencer. I could have stood back and let him steal the show, charm the middle-aged men in fancy black suits the way he seemed to charm everyone else. Instead, I chose to protect my world the only way I knew how. It was time to stop whining about it and do my job.
Another troubling thought hit me. Could Spencer be the dark elemental after me? Cressida did say things were not as they seemed, but couldn’t give me any specifics. “If Spencer is dark, he wouldn’t be able to step foot past the wards, right?”
She studied me for several long, awkward seconds. “I have a theory about the wards protecting this school. They physically stop dark elementals from stepping foot onto the grounds, true. However, I also believe they can be fooled.”
“Fooled? How?” That didn’t sound good.
“If the dark elemental is strong enough and remains focused, they can mask their powers and pass through the field guarding this school. Once they’re inside the grounds, they’re in. The wards are designed to keep out the dark elementals, no
t kick them out if they make it past the barrier.”
“Is that how Jules passed back and forth? She masked her powers?”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe she was truly dark until the Ides of March. If she were to try to come onto school grounds now, she wouldn’t be able to. Her powers were never that strong. It wasn’t until she chose to side with Alec and tried to kill everyone trapped in the ruins that night that she truly went dark.”
Made sense. I thought of Jess. Did Stace know of Dean Carter’s request? I decided to test the waters. “I worry about Jess going dark.” I watched her reaction.
“As do I.” She grabbed a dry-erase pen and started writing on the board, setting up the curriculum for today’s Arts & Crafts class. “She is so lost without her sister that she’s starving for someone to follow, for someone to tell her what to do. Jules was the dominant twin. That’s probably why she’s attached herself to Spencer. He’s definitely got an air of authority about him.”
“He’s changing her. She stopped wearing makeup. She got rid of all the pink in the room. She doesn’t even smile anymore.”
“I don’t have her in any of my classes, but now that you mention it, she has been rather…” She paused as she lifted her gaze to the ceiling, “…subdued this year.”
“Do you think she might go dark like her sister?”
“I think she’ll do just about anything to be with her sister.” She wrote another line on the board. “That might include going dark. That might be the line she’s not willing to cross. Only she can be the one to answer that.”
“Do you think losing Spencer will push her over the edge?”
She stopped writing and glanced at me over her shoulder. “Is he going somewhere?”
“Not right away, but he’s not here past the Ides of March. Losing your sister one year, then your guy the next… That’s got to suck.” Much like losing your mom at sixteen and having your dad check out after that.
“Katy, I want you to do something for me.” She capped the pen and returned it to the holder. “Keep an eye on Jess. She’s been through an awful lot this past year.”
I laughed bitterly. I’d survived countless attacks by Alec von Leer and nearly died in the process. I didn’t see anyone keeping an eye on me. “You’re the second person to ask me to do that.”
“Oh?”
“Dean Carter put us in the same room this year so I could keep my eye on her and, I guess, keep her from going dark or something.” At least I thought it was the headmaster’s idea. “Unless you had a hand in it.”
“I had a hand in getting you out of Aquae,” she clarified. “It was Dean Carter’s decision to place you in Ventus. I had no idea he’d put you in the same room as Jessica Bailey and would have told him no if he’d asked me. I would think forcing the two of you to live together would result in the same outcome as it did with you and Vanessa.”
“Pretty much,” I agreed. We fell silent, giving me a chance to read the board. My pulse jumped at the lesson listed. “Are magic wards exactly what they sound like?”
“If they sound like wards to protect against magic, then yes. Just as wards to protect against dark elementals must be created and sustained by the elements, wards to protect against dark magic must be created and sustained by magic. Today we’ll work on creating a magic ward.”
I thought of a TV show I caught sometimes about two brothers driving around the country to hunt ghosts, vamps, and the like. They each had a tattoo that stopped the demons from possessing them. At least I think that was what the ink did. “Can a person ward themselves? Like get a tattoo or something?”
“Absolutely, but it’s tricky. If you get it wrong, you’ve got a useless and permanent reminder of how not to do something. There are several hunters working for the Council with wards all over their bodies to protect themselves from the dark magic they encounter while on patrol.”
My first thought was of Rob. I’d insist on inking his entire beautiful body if it meant protecting him. I didn’t want to think about any alternatives. It just depressed me. “Can objects be warded?”
“I don’t see why not. Why? What’s on your mind?”
It was only a theory and a weak one at best. Until I had solid proof that Spencer had caused my injury and somehow imbedded dark magic inside me, I’d keep working on it. He didn’t know my hand had healed, so I might be able to trick him into thinking he’d still weakened me. “I want to test my theory that Spencer caused the cut on my hand. If I bring a pair of gloves to class, can we ward them against dark magic?”
“Are you going to tell me what’s really on your mind?”
Could I trust her? The guys, I trusted. With my life. With my heart. We were all family. Did that extend to Stace since she’d stepped into the mentor role? A warmth enveloped me, helping me with my decision. It had to be Cressida guiding me once again toward Stacey Layden.
“I don’t want Spencer to know the dark magic is out of my system and my cut is healed. I also don’t want him to be able to do something like that again.” I shrugged. “Warded gloves.”
She remained silent for an awkwardly long time. “What have we got to lose?”
18
I skipped Primary, not having the brain power to deal with both Clay and Spencer at the same time. I needed to be honest and open with one and lie through my ass with the other. Until I could apologize to my air elemental in private, I’d avoid seeing him in public. Not because I worried about him doing something. I didn’t want anyone else to know what’d happened in the ruins last night.
Clay was weird about skipping Primary, so I texted Leo. He didn’t answer, not that I blamed him. I did try to boil his blood. I wouldn’t answer my texts either. I then texted Clay. Again, no answer. With a frustrated sigh, I blew the hair out of my eyes and left my dorm room. There was more than one way to reach my guys.
The sun hit me as I walked outside, reminding me it was midafternoon on the last day of August. The heat immediately sank into me, making me uncomfortable, so I made a beeline for the shade of the trees lining the grounds. The closer I got to the borders where the wards protected the academy grounds, the more the oppressive heat smothered me. I removed my sweater and slung it over my arm. Still, the warmth of the day made it hard to breathe. It had to be the humidity. We didn’t have much for humidity in Montana. Since this was my first August in Washington, I wrote it off as me needing to acclimate to my surroundings.
The bushes on the other side of the barrier shifted, catching my attention. They’d done the same thing my first day at the academy. Rob had thought it was me causing them to tremor restlessly. Back then, I had no idea how to control my powers and hadn’t argued. Now that I could, I knew for a fact it wasn’t me causing them to shake.
I glanced up, confirming the wards were in place. The ones I could see shone softly. I reached out, passing my hand through the invisible wall. It glowed and smoked where I disrupted the field and shot an uncomfortable burst of heat up my arm. I pulled back and checked my palm, panting in fear at the sight. A strange, pulsing yellow glow reappeared under my skin where the cut had been.
“Reed!”
I spun around and quickly tucked my arm under my sweater as Rob sprinted toward me in full school uniform. He never ran and rarely wore his entire uniform, so my guard shot straight up. “It’s Stacey Layden.”
Panic stopped my heart. “Stace?”
“She’s missing.”
“I just saw her this morning.”
“Come on.” He took my hand and immediately teleported us to the office in the main hall. Lulu paced one side of the office in a scarlet muumuu that matched her frizzy hair. The impeccably groomed Dean Carter paced the other side. They spotted me, and both stilled.
“What’s going on? Rob says Professor Layden is missing?”
The headmaster nodded. “She and I were supposed to meet for lunch. When she didn’t show and didn’t answer her phone, I asked Lulu to find her.”
She regard
ed me, the lines in her expression deep with worry. “No one’s seen her since 3C this morning.”
Under normal circumstances, I’d tell them all to relax, that a woman spending a few hours off the grid wasn’t anything to freak out about. But this was Stacey Layden, and the shit going on around us was anything but normal. I had some weird dark-ass magic happening inside my arm that burned and glowed when I pushed it through the protective barrier. I had a handler I was pretty sure used that same dark-ass magic to enhance his powers and—whether it was by accident or design—transferred that dark-ass magic to me. I was so going to use this to finally expose him for the dark elemental he was.
Holy chuck wagon, Katy. Way to make this all about you.
An alarm screeched from inside Rob’s pocket, scaring the bejebus out of me. He pulled out a phone I didn’t recognize and stared at the screen. “What the…”
“What is it?” I asked, my voice shaking as more panic raced through me. I nodded at the phone. “What is that?” Now I was the one freaking out.
“It’s an alert.”
No shit. “An alert for what?”
“I’m not sure. I just got this today as part of my new job with the Council.”
I was so going to kill him if he didn’t tell me what the hell was going on.
“It’s called an ECAD—Elemental Call Alert Device. Every member of the patrol is issued one to alert them when multiple scents are picked up. It usually indicates a battle. Let me see that.” Dean Carter accepted the phone from Rob and studied the screen.
And where the bleeping bloody hell was this handy little device all the times Alec had attacked me? Surely our battles triggered the alarms. I’d be asking that question once I knew Stace wasn’t in any danger.
The headmaster’s color faded as his mouth fell open. “Good Lord. It’s the cabin.”
Rob and I exchanged looks. Dean Carter’s voice pulled our attention back to him. He had his phone up to his ear. “Yes, I saw the alert. Get a patrol crew over to Stacey Layden’s cabin. There’s a really strong hit in the woods. It’s two different elementals. Yes, one is identified as hers. The other isn’t in the system. It’s got to be a battle in progress. I’m sending Rob Emmett.”
