by Ben Reeder
“Nowhere left to go, warlock,” the girl said. “Except down.” I looked over my shoulder at the gaping hole in the wall, then back at her as I grabbed the skull and crossbones amulet around my neck. “Percutiens malleo,” she said, and an invisible bus hit me.
I was briefly aware of the magickal backlash as the massive blow shattered my shield spell and the world went white. Wood splintered and more glass shattered as I became weightless.
“Scutum sphaeram,” I choked out as I felt myself tumble through the air, and white flared across my vision again like a nuclear blast as I forced more magick through my already overloaded energy centers, using the amulet to create a simple shield all around me. A spike of pain seemed to go through me from my forehead to my fingertips. Then something hit me across the back and my body was tumbling as I figured out what had just hit me: this little thing called the planet. My ears were ringing, and the world kept tilting around me. Finally, the spell gave out and dumped me onto the grass. I staggered to my feet, then the world went sideways on me as the ground kicked me in the ribs with swift follow-up to the side of the head.
“Chance!” Ren yelled from somewhere nearby. I heard the buzz of his wings in the whitewash that was my world.
“Junkyard!” I called. “Junkyard, get my backpack, and get the hell out of here!” In the distance, I heard Junkyard’s bark and a whine.
“I’ll be okay, buddy,” I said. “Now, go!” I struggled to my knees and pulled the cloak off, then wadded it into the smallest bundle I could.
“Get this back where it belongs,” I said as I held the cloak out blindly.
“You’re all messed up,” Ren said. “People are coming.”
“Do it!” I snapped. “Now!” The cloak was lifted from my grasp in a clatter of wings, and I was suddenly alone again. I heard footsteps from one direction, and the sounds of crickets and frogs in the other. I swayed to my feet and stumbled towards the sounds of wildlife. With the backlash ripping through me, I was down to two basic concepts: cover good, people bad. Wildlife meant trees and brush, and trees and brush meant cover. My body barely did what I wanted it to as I tried to make my way to the woods, my arms flailing in the general direction I intended, my feet only hitting the ground because gravity said so. But for all I knew, I was heading straight into the arms of the people who wanted to kill me. Then, the ground dipped away from me, and I ended up barely avoiding a total faceplant. Something sharp scraped at my forearms and cheeks when I tried to sit up, then someone had me under the arms.
“Easy, gothi,” a rumbling voice said as they dragged me along.
“Who…who are you?” I asked as my body started to shake from the magick overload. Some of the attack must have leaked through and started to damage my nervous system.
“My name is Roland,” he said. He stopped and hoisted me like a rag doll. “I am champion of Sable’s clan. Your alpha asked us to watch over your school after the last attack.”
“A-a-a-asked?” I managed through chattering teeth.
“Well, she threatened to reveal Sable’s negligence if he didn’t.” He made a noise that sounded like an amused avalanche, then came to a stop. Nearby, I could hear the sound of water rushing over rocks.
“S-s-sounds…right,” I said.
“Take a deep breath and hold it,” Roland said as he shifted his weight. “This is going to be a little jarring.”
The next thing I knew I was under water. Cold water that kept pounding me and twisting me around. I hit something firm. My legs straightened and pushed against whatever I’d hit, and suddenly my head was clear of the water. I took a gasping breath as more water pounded down on my shoulders. My vision went from white to clear with painful swiftness, and the spike of pain in my head subsided to a dull fire.
“Gah!” I yelled as I tried to step free of the cascade. My feet dragged against the bottom, but I managed to get clear and turn around. In the moonlight, I found myself facing a waterfall, and on the bank, a werewolf in its hybrid form. The amused rockslide sound came again, and I waded toward the shore. I flicked my hands to get some of the excess water off before I pushed the sopping strands of my hair away from my face. I shifted to the Sight and watched as my aura slowly reasserted itself after being dowsed with water. As it did, it felt like someone was taking sandpaper and scrubbing every square inch of skin along the way.
“I…apologize for the shock,” the werewolf said. “It was the only way to get rid of the excess magick fast enough to prevent damage to your body.”
“Yeah, you just sound all broke up about it,” I said as I made it to the bank. “Damn. My wand is gone, my phone’s probably ruined.”
“I have your phone. The sprite grabbed your wand. You have other concerns though.”
“Like getting back to my dorm without getting caught,” I said. “And getting the info I found tonight to the right people without putting my own ass in a sling.”
“Among other things, yes. There are people searching the grounds. Your odds of making it back are…slim, to say the least.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know of an old chapel on the south side of the grounds, would you?”
“I would,” Roland said with an expression that might have been a smile on a human, but showed way too many teeth on a hybrid wolf’s face. Without a word, he turned and trotted into the brush again. I followed as best I could, and figured out really fast that I hurt in a lot of places. He made just enough noise that I could follow him, but no more.
In the distance, I could hear people moving around, calling out to each other, while sprites zipped around above them. Lights glowed among a group of people gathered by one of the buildings, and windows glowed as people turned on lights. Up ahead, Roland was waiting next to a small stone building.
“I smell a trail leading here,” he said, pointing at a thick wooden door set at an angle next to the building’s foundation. He held out a hand and dropped my cellphone and a crumpled bit of cloth into my waiting palm. I tucked the phone into my pocket, then shook out the cloth to reveal the Highwayman mask. A few seconds later, I was slightly more anonymous and shivering.
“Thank you,” I said. “I owe you big time.”
Roland shrugged. “Sable’s plan never sat well with me,” he said. “This is the kind of thing we should have been doing all along. Now, go. I’ll wait here for a bit, and if anyone comes near, I’ll lead them off.”
“Don’t wait too long on my account,” I said. “They’ll do their best to catch you.”
“They can try,” he said before he slipped into the brush nearby without another sound. I pulled the door open and made my way down the steps, descending into darkness at first. My cellphone screen lit the way well enough, and I found a corner a few feet in. I stepped around it to find myself facing a pair of sprites hovering at eye level. They took one look at me, then both looked away.
“Is the way safe, little brothers?” I asked, trying to sound serious and solemn.
“The way is safe, sir,” the one on the right said.
“Good,” I said. “I’m on business with the Shadow Regiment. No one must hear of my passage here.”
“Yes, sir,” the other sprite said. “No one will hear it from us.”
“Good work.” I slipped past them and opened the door. The tunnel went straight, and before too long, I was at the intersection where I’d seen the Sentinel and Professor Talbot earlier. And just a few yards away was the door to the basement of Jefferson Hall. I was in the right building, but now I had one more problem: explaining my wet sweats. I crept up the stairs and peeked out into the hallway. The lights were on, and the occasional person moved deeper in the hall, but this section seemed relatively quiet. Across the hall, I saw another door. The green plastic placard on the door read “Laundry.”
Before I could chicken out, I slipped out the door and across the hallway. The other door was unlocked, and I was inside before I could even think about regretting it. From there, it was a matter of finding my own mesh
bag and stripping down, then putting my slightly dirty but much dryer clothes on and replacing them with my wet sweats. I pulled the mask off and slipped it into my pocket, hoping no one noticed my hair was still damp and my shoes squished when I walked. Rather than put the shoes back on, I just carried them, and headed for the stairs at the far end of the hall.
When I made it to the third floor, the halls were clear, but I heard voices down in the main lounge. I tossed my shoes into my room with a wet sound and found Junkyard waiting for me. My backpack was at the end of my bed, and his tail thumped against it once before he came over and bounded up to lick my face.
“I’m glad you’re safe, too,” I said as I wrapped an arm around his neck and hugged him. “Come on, we need to see what everyone is up to.” We padded down the hallway to find Stanwicke at the door, looking stern.
“You’re late,” he said as I heard names being called out behind him. “Where were you?”
I pointed down to Junkyard. “Had to take him downstairs. I didn’t think it was a good idea to let him go anywhere on his own right now. I came as soon as I heard.” He looked down at Junkyard, who favored him with an open mouthed canine grin and a wagging tail.
“All right, go on in,” Stanwicke said. He stepped aside and let me into the room. Almost everyone from our side of the hall was there, and Stewart was reading down a list of names. They were already in the K’s, which meant mine had probably already been called, and my absence noted. I stood there in my bare feet on the hardwood floor and shivered as I sent the files on my phone to Lucas with a message to get the pics to Sentinel Dearborn anonymously.
“And Fortunato,” he finished. “Better late than never. Okay, that’s everyone accounted for. Go back to your rooms. We’ll make sure everyone’s family knows that they’re safe.” As everyone filed toward the door, he gestured to me to wait for him. Hoshi winked as he walked past me.
“Junkyard, potty,” he whispered as he passed me.
“Yup,” I answered. Then he was out the door, leaving me alone with Head Boy.
“I’m not sure if I’m relieved or disappointed Hoshi was telling the truth,” he said.
“I’d be happier with relieved,” I said.
“Well, so far, you’ve been the only person who seemed to be able to get ahead of them. When I heard there was a magickal duel over in Lincoln Hall, I hoped you’d found something out, or maybe even caught them in the act. And if this was you, I need to know so I can cover for you.” I had a split second to make a decision. I wanted to trust Stewart, but something nagged at me and made me reluctant to add more people to the circle. And when in doubt, my tendency was to keep secrets instead of share them. I could reveal it later if I needed to.
“I wish,” I said. “I didn’t even know what had happened until you said something.”
“Officially, you still don’t.” He nodded toward the door, and I headed out. Halfway down the hall, I stopped, my heart in my throat, when I saw the Sentinel standing guard outside my door. Hoshi was facing him, looking up at the man’s unwavering chin. That could mean only one thing.
My room was being tossed. Again.
“Great,” I muttered under my breath. The Sentinel moved aside, saying something apologetic as I approached. Sure enough, my room looked like a grenade had gone off in my closet and a tornado had hit my desk. There was one other bomb waiting to go off in my room, as well.
Sentinel Dearborn.
Her normally bland expression had been replaced with a scowl that I felt like a physical impact, and her whole body looked smaller, like she was compressing herself to keep from exploding. “I assume you can account for your whereabouts for the past two hours or so?” Her voice crackled with anger, and I took a step back.
“Over there, by the bed, until all this started,” I said as I pointed. Technically, true. My starting point and her starting point just differed.
“Are you telling me you had nothing to do with this?”
“Depends on what you’re talking about,” I said. Again, total truth. “Am I supposed to have blown something up? Killed someone? Summoned a demon? Stolen important government secrets? You’ve tossed my room, what, three times? You’ve taken me in to question me every time something happens, and so far, I’ve been clean every time!” My voice rose as I went, unspoken frustrations suddenly carrying a lot of weight. “How do I convince you that I’m not the monster here?” For a moment, I felt the heat crawling up my face, and my heart started to pound, and then, as if getting it off my chest was enough, the feeling faded, leaving me feeling drained.
Dearborn looked around, then at me, and gave a short little laugh and a nod. “Guess you’re right about that. Truth is, this seemed more like your style than any of the other times. But…you’re here, no one saw you leave or come back. For that matter, no one seems to have seen much of anything.”
“What did happen?” I asked.
“Looks like someone got into a fight over in Lincoln Hall. In a room no one seems to remember being there. It started a small fire, blew out the power and blew out an entire wall, along with one of the people involved.”
“Well, that last part sounds like me,” I agreed. “But I don’t start small fires.”
“That’s true,” she agreed. “Anyway, I was kind of hoping it was you, and that you’d turned up something useful.”
“Believe me, if I had something useful, you’d have it as soon as I could get it to you.”
She gave me a level look, then smiled as she nodded again. “I’m sure I would. And I’d tear you a new one for interfering with my investigation.”
“You wouldn’t give me letter of commendation at the same time?” I asked.
“Not even if you blew the lid off the whole thing and delivered the culprit to me on a silver platter. This isn’t a Saturday morning cartoon or an action movie. You don’t get both at the same time. Now, clean up this mess.” She swept out of the room, leaving me to face the mess her people had made. I started grabbing clothes and throwing them in the general direction of the closet until Hoshi gave me the all clear from the door.
“Okay, how did they miss the files?” I said as I reached for my backpack.
A rustle of fabric came from over my head, and Ren shimmered into view on top of the curtains as he held out my chameleon charm. The file was bent into a tube under his other arm. He hopped off the curtain and drifted down, his wings a soft yellow.
“You’re welcome,” he said as he handed the folder over to me.
“Thanks, smart ass,” I said as I opened it. “But we can’t keep this. I need a photocopy of it, then we need to get this to the Sentinels pronto.”
“I’ll have it for you by morning,” Ren said. “They’ll close the admin office downstairs before long, and I can use the photocopier there. I can even send it to the Sentinels via intracampus mail. Who do you want to send it to him?”
“Make it Headmaster Caldecott,” I said. “That way she’ll open it fast.”
“You got it!” he said.
I turned to Hoshi. “Thanks for covering for me. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you, but I figured if you didn’t know about it ahead of time, you couldn’t get in trouble for not reporting me.”
“Like I don’t owe you big time for not telling anyone about me and Kiya breaking curfew all those times,” he said. I shrugged and grabbed a t-shirt off the floor. “Seriously, man, it’s not all...” he made a hip thrust and added a couple of moans. “She’s taking this really hard. And the counselor’s no freaking help. They want to send her home and have her see a certified psychic counselor. She doesn’t want anyone poking around in her mind. The only person she trusted that much is in a coma right now.”
“I might know someone she can talk to,” I said. “There’s a cambion Shade and I go talk to sometimes, when we’re really screwed up.”
“There’s not a lot of good options for her, man,” he said as he flopped onto his bed. “She lost all her friends from before because of he
r gift,” he said, using air quotes on the last word. “So going home isn’t really an option, but staying here is hell, too. I found her yesterday by the lake. She told me she kept on seeing herself wading into the water, that the water was calling to her. What if I’d gotten there a minute later?” I stopped and turned to face him.
“She said it was calling to her?” He nodded and I felt my face crease into something resembling a smile. “Your girlfriend might not be as cray-cray as she thinks she is,” I said.
Chapter 15
~ The bad guys always make it personal. ~ Caleb Renault, protagonist of the Blood and Honor series.
I usually hated waiting. It ground away on my nerves, and most days, while I could do it, I was Hell to get along with afterward. To make it seem less like waiting, I sat under the bare branches of an alder tree beside Jefferson Hall with my legs folded almost into the lotus position, and tried to finish visualizing the matrix for the new defensive spell in my head. Going to apprentice level casting was a huge change for me, since now I had to include hand gestures as well as the spell’s matrix, and learn to associate that matrix in my head with the complex design of it. That usually meant more words, with each word of the spell creating part of the matrix in the magick focused part of my brain. I almost had this one down, all that was missing was what I was doing right then: practice. The last sigil was always the hardest for me, since I had several others floating around in my mind’s eye. I carefully imagined it as if I was drawing the semi-circle with a pen, etching it out with infinite care in my mind, and hovering the imaginary pen over the exact center point inside the half-circle before carefully dropping it to make the last little mark to close the spell matrix. As the entire set of sigils glowed in my head, I heard the sound of paws on dry grass, then a growl and teeth closing on something hard.Sounds of disappointment and a couple of laughs and jeers reached my ears as I brought myself up out of the trance, holding the image as I recited the words of the spell. Finally, my eyes opened, and I saw a red disk incoming. With the spell complete in my head, I could reach up and catch it, then flip off the squad of upperclassmen who were looking disappointed. Junkyard dropped a bright green one at my feet.
