All these fae, injured, dying, some of them already dead.
So many of them. Hundreds, like the nymph that despite the gooey substance smeared on her green skin still looked lovely, and the many fae male with strong, bare chests who appeared capable of battling a freight train and yet were twisting in agony on the ground.
Why? What had happened to them?
Five minutes ago when we’d arrived, Disha and Bridget had jumped right into action. Disha was teleporting in and out of the infirmary, helping people, taking them to Nurse Taishi. Bridget was helping, too, except she was levitating the injured into the building, then running back out.
Per Nurse Taishi’s instructions, they were taking in the ones who were in the worst shape and wearing surgical masks and latex gloves to avoid touching the black substance.
My friends rushed around, haggard and disheveled, but busy, helping, while all I could do was stare at my useless stump and my other traitorous hand that, while whole, created no magic. I couldn’t help like Disha and Bridget. I was as useless as the freshmen who stood off to the side.
I shook my head, refusing to get mired in a pity party. People were suffering.
Come on, Charlie. Do something. Help!
My eyes roved around all the fallen bodies, trying to find someone I could aid, someone who still could be healed. It felt wrong to think this way. They all should be saved, but there weren't enough of us, and most students couldn’t really do anything. But maybe there were some who could…
I faced the ogling students who lingered at the edges of the chaos. Some of them were upperclassman. They knew healing spells! I ran off to the side where Nurse Taishi had left a box of gloves and masks, then addressed the crowd.
“Hey, seniors and juniors, the people who know healing spells… come help!” I gestured toward the wounded with my good hand.
They hesitated, looking at each other, unsure.
“C’mon!” I urged.
A tall guy in the rumpled T-shirt and basketball shorts stepped forward. He raised his hand as if he were in class, looking afraid and doubtful. Just moments ago, he’d probably been hanging out in the common area, flirting with girls.
“It’s okay. Come here. What’s your name?” I asked.
“Kevin,” he said from under a mop of brown hair.
“I can’t do any magic.” I held the stump of my right hand up. “I can’t help, but you can. Here…”
I directed him toward someone who was lying on the ground, a young fae boy dressed in an outfit that seem to be made out of leaves. His long, blond hair, matted with black tar, was spread over the grass. A green tattoo in the shape of vines went from his forehead down his face and neck and snaked under his shirt. He was twisting, screaming, his arms wrapped around his chest.
I knelt next to him and encouraged Kevin to do the same.
“Here, take this.” I offered him gloves and a mask. He slipped them on, his hands shaking. I put on a mask, but couldn’t manage the glove one-handed.
“Do a healing spell, a general one,” I said. “We don’t know what’s wrong with him, but it can’t hurt.”
Hesitantly, Kevin pressed gloved hands to the little boy’s chest. The boy squirmed and tried to fight Kevin off, but he was too weak.
Kevin closed his eyes and chanted a basic healing spell under his breath. The boy twisted harder, screaming in agony. Kevin hesitated as if he would stop.
“Don't,” I said. “Keep going.”
Kevin did, his face etched with worry and fear. After a long minute, the boy stopped squirming. His face relaxed as he exhaled.
Kevin’s shoulders slumped in relief. A small smile started to spread over his lips, but then the little boy started coughing violently, his back arching, his hands jerking to his throat.
“Oh, God,” Kevin said. “Oh God, what did I do?”
The little boy kept coughing, then at last, gave a violent bark and stopped. Collapsing in on himself, the boy exhaled through his half-open mouth. Something black spilled past his lips and clouded the air like a puff of hot breath steaming into the cold. It rose up, reaching, spreading.
Oh, God. What was that thing?
Kevin and I jumped to our feet and took a step back as the blackness dissipated. Instinctively, I covered my mouth and nose with my hand. Kevin did the same. After the dark, pollen-like dust cleared, the little boy went still. He breathed laboriously but seemed better.
I stared at Kevin and gave him a single nod of approval. The other students watched in astonishment. I faced them again.
“C’mon, any who can heal, please help these people. They’re dying. They need us.”
A few more of the older students stepped forward and cautiously approached some of the fallen fae after getting their protective implements.
Maybe I couldn't do magic, but I had helped. I was helping. I could still be useful.
Disha popped back into existence several yards away from me. Her hair was wild and her clothes were smeared with black. Eyes darting all around, she searched for someone else to take inside the infirmary.
I ran up to her. “How can I help?” I asked.
She shook her head as if she couldn’t think of anything, and kept searching for someone else to teleport in. She was about to step aside when there was another pop and Dean Lynnsa Macintosh and Yuri Fedorov materialized out of nowhere. They both had two injured fae with them. Weaving their hands, they gently deposited them on the ground.
Their clothes were covered in tar. There was something around their mouths and noses, some sort of shimmering spell that protected them from from whatever that black stuff was.
“Everyone, to me,” the dean boomed, gesturing to the students. With a flick of her wrist she sent a spell out among the crowd. Magic tingled on my lips and chin as the same shimmering protection covered our mouths and noses. I discarded the surgical mask.
“We’ve figured out what’s making them sick,” she said, running a hand through her salt and pepper hair. “Everyone needs a magical mask. Make sure they all get them,” she said to Fedorov, who nodded and sprinted out toward another cluster of students.
Lynssa turned tired eyes on the scene around us. “There are too many of them,” she said, her frustration palpable.
I could tell she wished to be able to bring all of them back in one fell swoop, but traveling through portals was hard. Not everyone could do it. If only I still had my cuffs.
“We need more people,” she said, knowing full-well there weren’t many others who could lend a hand. Every teacher was occupied and the older students too and yet there was still not enough help. We couldn’t save them all. They were dying. Some lay on the ground, motionless and I suspected the worst had happened.
My hatred for Ponomarenko redoubled. I hadn’t thought that would be possible, but there it was.
“Disha,” Lynssa said. “You know how to teleport, correct?”
“Yes, Dean,” Disha answered.
“Then come with me.” She extended a hand towards Disha, who took it and nodded to indicate she was ready. There was a pop, and they were gone.
The hole in my chest—the one that had been gnawing at me since Ponomarenko stole my hand and, with it, my ability to do magic—grew bigger.
I was useless. Totally useless.
One of the fae Lynssa had just brought back started to moan. I glanced down and frowned. Her face was terribly familiar. Dropping to my knees, I pushed two-toned white and violet hair out of her face.
It was Phraan’s daughter. Kiana’s niece. The girl I’d met when I’d traveled to the fae realm on Nyquist’s bidding several months ago. So much had happened since then. Nyquist was dead. Ponomarenko’s power had doubled. I’d lost my hand.
“Tallyndra,” I said, as her big, violet eyes darted back and forth in some sort of delirium.
She seemed to be lost in whatever had happened back in her realm. Her tall, athletic body jerked. Her smooth, white arms were wrapped around her chest, the way the litt
le boy’s had been.
I turned and searched for Kevin. He was helping someone, then stepping aside as blackness poured out of his patient’s mouth.
“Kevin, here!” I called.
He ran toward us without hesitation and knelt to the other side of Tallyndra. Wasting no time, he placed his hands on her chest, more confidently this time. He had healed a few people by now and knew that his spell would help.
He muttered the incantation. Magic flowed into Tallyndra. She jerked more violently, thrashing like a trapped snake. It wasn't easy to watch but knowing that we were helping made it a little easier.
The coughing started, wracking her, making it look as if she were about to expel her lungs. The black stuff came out, wisping into the air like dandelion seeds floating toward a new home.
Kevin and I moved back and warily watched it dissipate. Tallyndra went still. Her eyes stared straight up at the blue sky. She breathed through her mouth, her chest rising and falling visibly.
Then she screamed and bucked, kicking with her left foot, speaking words I couldn't understand.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked.
She glanced up and frowned as if noticing me for the first time. She frowned, vague recognition crossing her features.
“Take it off, take it off!” she urged, shaking her foot again.
“There’s something on her boot. It’s moving,” Kevin said, pointing and grimacing at whatever it was he saw.
I leaned closer and finally saw it. There was something black at the tip of her boot, something that made a squelching sound and moved like oozing lava.
What the hell?
“Take it off!” Tallyndra demanded. “It hurts.”
I swiveled positions and started clumsily unbuckling the straps or her tall boot. Realizing my struggle, Kevin undid most of them, then, careful not to touch the stuff despite our protective spell from the dean, we jerked the boot off her foot and threw it as far away as we could.
We stared at Tallyndra’s big toe. It was stained black, as if it had been dipped it ink, except the ink seem to be spreading toward the rest of her foot. The horror of what was happening stole over me. It was some sort of awful infection or worse, alive.
She screamed, scrambling back on the grass as if there was a way to escape the stuff.
“Kevin, help her,” I said. “Do the spell.”
He grabbed Tallyndra’s ankle and issued the healing spell. We waited for it to do something, to expel the blackness the way it had done before, but it didn't do anything. It just kept spreading.
“It's not working,” he said. “I don't know what else to do.”
Tallyndra screamed again, pounding her fists against the ground.
“You need to calm down, Tallyndra.” I shook her, trying hard to retain my own calm. Her eyes focused on me. “You need to come with me. Stand up!”
Gaining some presence of mind, she clenched her teeth. Her features hardened as she reined in her desperation.
Kevin and I helped her to her feet, and with her arm draped over my shoulder, the two of us hobbled into the infirmary.
Inside, the chaos was dialed up even further. The wails and violent coughs were twice as loud within the confinement of the walls. I searched for Nurse Taishi and spotted him next to a bed. A couple of other nurses ran between patients, issuing healing spells that didn't seem to be quite enough.
Spotting a chair, I hurried Tallyndra toward it and helped her sit.
“Stay here.”
I ran towards Taishi. His head was drooping, his eyes downcast. The person on the bed was dead, blackness all the way up to his neck, crawling up his jaw. His eyes were black pits of spilled oil. I clenched my teeth to hold back the bile that rose up my throat and tore my eyes away from the gruesome sight.
“There's someone else you can help,” I said, putting a hand on Taishi’s shoulder.
He looked back at me, an expression of defeat stamped on his features.
“Please,” I said. “She’s the fae queen’s niece.”
Shaking himself, Taishi came with me and approached Tallyndra.
“It's her foot,” I said.
Taishi nodded, squatted in front of Tallyndra, and wrapped his hands around her ankle, the way Kevin had done.
His healing spell came quickly. It coursed through to Tallyndra in an instant. She stiffened and clenched her teeth, moaning in the back of her throat.
Then she went still as the blackness started oozing out of her skin. As the poison rose, Nurse Taishi weaved his hands in a spell that engulfed the pollen-like substance, then consumed it in a blast of cleansing fire.
Tallyndra and I both blinked at her toe, it wasn’t black anymore.
“Thank you,” she said, appearing astonished.
But her amazement only lasted for a second, because she jumped to her feet, head swiveling all around.
“How can I help?” she asked the same way I had.
But without knowing the spells Nurse Taishi knew or being able to weave them, there was nothing we could do, and even he couldn’t save everyone. Still, he was able to give us direction and show us a way to be useful.
“Find all of those whose eyes are clear,” he whispered, sadness in his eyes. “Those are the only ones we can save.”
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Suggested Reading Order
Freshman Witch
Rowan: A Supernatural Academy Novella
Sophomore Witch
Disha: A Supernatural Academy Novella
Junior Witch
Senior Witch, Fall Semester
Senior Witch, Spring Semester - Coming Soon
About the Author - Ingrid Seymour
Ingrid Seymour is a USA Today Bestselling young adult author. When she’s not writing books, she spends her time working as a software engineer, cooking exotic recipes, hanging out with her family and working out. She writes young adult in a variety of genres, including Sci-Fi, urban fantasy, romance, paranormal and horror.
Her favorite outings involve a trip to the library or bookstore where she immediately gravitates toward the YA section. She’s an avid reader and fangirl of many amazing books. Potterhead, anyone? She is a dreamer and a fighter who believes perseverance and hard work can make dreams come true.
Visit her online and get a free book at:
http://www.ingriseymour.com
Also by Ingrid Seymour
The Morphid Chronicles
Find the complete trilogy at
www.ingridseymour.com
About the Author - Katie French
Katie French is an author of Young Adult sci fi romance. Her book, The Breeders, has had over 100,000 downloads and counting and was a semi-finalist in the 2014 Kindle Book Awards. She also has a kids series starting with Portia Parrots and the Great Kitten Rescue for ages 5-9.
She works as a high school English teacher. In her free time, she writes manically, reads great books, and takes care of her three beautiful and crazy children. She aspires to spend as much time in yoga pants as possible.
You can join her mailing list at www.katiefrenchbooks.com and receive TWO FREE full-length novels.
Contact her at [email protected].
Also by Katie French
THE BREEDERS SEVEN PART COMPLETE SERIES AVAILABLE NOW
GET BOOK ONE FOR FREE AND MORE AT WWW.KATIEFRENCHBOOKS.COM.
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