“There’s only one way to find out.” I studied the photos on my screen, wrinkling my nose as I scowled at the fuzzy edges. “They’re not the best quality, but it’s better than nothing. I don’t think dropping the dome so I can gather snapshots is a good idea.”
“If you drop this dome I’ll kick you in the butt,” Kelsey hissed. “I’m not kidding. I don’t care if you fry me or not. You’ll deserve it.”
“I’m not going to drop the dome,” I assured her. “Trust me. It’s going to be okay.”
“It had better be,” Kelsey gritted out. “This feels so strange and … unnatural.”
I turned my attention back to Martin. There was something about him that was almost familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. I should know him. Perhaps I did. I studied his features again, trying to gauge his age. He could pass for thirty, I realized, but the wrinkles around his eyes put him closer to forty. There was a very good chance he was at Covenant College at the same time Aric and I were. That means I could know him, maybe even have met him during my brief tenure with The Academy.
“But why are some of the creatures good and some evil?” Christy asked. She seemed annoyingly naïve and sincere. That wouldn’t stop me from killing her should it become necessary. She was a sponge and she wanted Martin to fill her with knowledge. She didn’t care if the knowledge was true because she merely needed someone to point in a direction so she could follow. She reminded me of Brittany, which was a completely depressing realization. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
“It all comes down to having a soul,” Martin explained. “That’s why we can consider the shifters allies. They retain their souls. Vampires don’t, however. The creatures with souls can be saved, brought into the light, so to speak. Those without souls are already lost.”
“And what does that mean about the mage?” Alan asked.
I sucked in a breath at the question, eagerly leaning forward so I could hear Martin’s answer. The mage. They were talking about me.
“Well, as the literary materials I sent to you upon your acceptance layout, Professor Blake ultimately failed because of a mage,” Martin said. “He thought she had a soul when she didn’t. That was ultimately his mistake. He thought she would fight for good, but she fought for evil.”
“Oh, what a load of hogwash,” I complained, flipping Martin the finger even though he couldn’t see it. “I’m so annoyed with this moron I can’t even tell you.”
“Shh.” Paris shot me a nasty look and pressed her finger to her lips. “I’m trying to hear what they say. This is important.”
“It’s a load of crap,” I argued.
“That doesn’t mean it’s not important crap.”
I rolled my eyes as I turned my attention to the wall behind Martin’s head, briefly wondering if I should end the threat right now. Sure, the kids were arguably innocent, but there was a chance that I could stop The Academy’s return right here.
“Mages are supposed to straddle a line between good and evil,” Martin went on. “They were designed by God to be his avengers on Earth.”
“Is that true?” Kelsey asked, shifting her eyes to me.
I shrugged. “That’s not the story I heard, but I can’t muster the energy to care about whatever fairytale they’re tossing around. It’s all a load of crap.”
“The thing to remember about mages is that they were never supposed to mate,” Martin continued. “They were supposed to live their lives as pure spirits. The mage that attended Covenant College was not a pure mage. She was a born mage because her parents strayed from the cause and brought an abomination into being.”
“I’m totally going to kick him in the nuts,” I announced. “I don’t feel bad about it at all either.”
“I’m going to help you,” Kelsey murmured.
“The born mage did not have a soul, like I said,” Martin said, adopting a theatrical tone as he spun his web of lies. “She was believed to be a force of good, but she protected the enemy instead. She made the enemy stronger, and that tipped the scales of good and evil in the wrong direction.”
“So, will we kill her?” Alan asked, blasé.
“She’s too strong for us to face right now, but that’s the plan eventually,” Martin replied. “To do that, we need a warrior of our own. We need a mage of our own.”
I knit my eyebrows as I clenched my hand into a fist at my side. I knew where he was going before he even said the words and my urge to kill him grew.
“The mage had a child,” Martin offered. “The child is a hybrid. She’s half mage and half shifter. That means she has half a soul. We might be able to turn her to our advantage.”
“And that’s the ultimate goal?” Christy asked. “We want to gain the younger mage as an ally and unleash her to kill the mother?”
“That is the plan,” Martin confirmed, nodding his head. “The child is twelve now. She will be ready for her indoctrination in six years. That means we have six years to fulfill the promise of The Academy, to finish what Professor Blake started.”
“But what about the mother?” Alan asked. “Do you think she’ll just allow you to take the daughter?”
“The mother made her own way, and I expect she’ll allow the daughter to do the same,” Martin answered. “The child grows powerful, but she’s not as strong as her mother … yet. We hope that we’ll be able to grab her before too much time passes – we’ve sent out several emissaries who have failed, but we’ve learned from each attempt – and when we have the younger mage we will be able to mold her into the fighter we need.”
“So the child will kill the mother,” Christy mused. “It’s almost poetic, isn’t it?”
“If it works, it will most certainly be poetic,” Martin agreed. “The older mage is troublesome. She has no problem killing humans to protect monsters. Hopefully the child will be different, will see that the monsters are a threat to humans. Once we get the mother out of the way the daughter will be able to tilt the scales back in favor of good.”
“How will we get the child?” Alan asked. “Why can’t we track her down now and take her?”
“The child has powers of her own, but she is protected well by her parents,” Martin explained. “We’ve tried several times over the past few months, and each time we’ve been met with the defeat. The older mage is almost impossible to defeat. That’s why we must be patient and pick our next plan of attack with great care.
“The older mage has adopted something of a no-tolerance policy,” he continued. “Anyone who goes after the child is killed – and sometimes in horrible fashion. That limits our option for hunters. When we first broached the idea we had people lining up for the job. Now? Well, not so much.”
That made me feel better. I wasn’t ashamed to admit it. All of the killing I’d done over the past few months worked. It made others think of their own safety before attacking. It kept Sami safe.
“So when will you move on the younger mage again?” Alan asked. “Will it be soon?”
“Very soon,” Martin confirmed. “We have a plan in place, and this one should actually work. We’ve run through all the permutations … and we’re convinced it will work.”
“Why?”
“Because this time the mage is here,” Martin answered. “She’s on this campus. She came to us, to our place of strength. We will not lose again. I can guarantee that.”
“We’ll see about that,” I muttered, grabbing Kelsey’s arm and shoving her toward the door. “I’ve heard enough. I’m not listening to another second of this.”
Twenty
I kept Aric in the dark for the ride back to the apartment, waving off Kelsey and Paris when they offered to stay. I knew they were trying to help, but this was a conversation that belonged only to us until we chose a path to follow.
Aric picked up takeout from a diner, leaving Sami and me in the Explorer. I could tell the curiosity was eating at her, but she was smart enough to recognize my mood and wisely remained silent
. Once we hit the apartment, she took her fish and chips to the couch and flipped on the television. The cable wasn’t hooked up, but Aric managed to run his laptop through it so she could watch Netflix.
Aric was silent, grim, as he sat next to me at the table, his patience present but wearing thin. Finally he couldn’t take it one second longer and practically exploded.
“What did you find down there?”
Sami jerked her head in our direction. She recognized the tone. Unlike at home, though, there was nowhere for her to escape.
“You’re frightening Sami,” I said, keeping my voice low.
Aric had the grace to look abashed, and shot Sami an apologetic look. “It’s okay, sweetie. We’re just talking. No one is going to fight.”
“It doesn’t sound that way to me,” Sami said. “I want to know what she found, too, but she’s mad. You shouldn’t jump on her when she’s mad.”
Aric dragged a restless hand through his hair. “I’m not jumping on her.”
“It sounds like you’re jumping on her.” Sami waffles when it comes to family loyalty. Most of the time she’s eager to be Aric’s sidekick, always agreeing with him in an argument. On very rare occasions she takes my side. This was one of those times. “Let her eat. She’s tired and hungry.”
I pursed my lips, amused despite myself. The kid was a master at playing both of us when the opportunity arose. “It’s okay,” I said after a beat. “I was angry earlier, confused, and I didn’t want to talk in case I lost control of my emotions. I’m better now.”
Sami clearly wasn’t convinced. “You don’t look better.”
“Oh, yeah? What do I look like?”
“Like you’re going to start kicking people in the nuts and blowing up houses.”
“Huh. Well … .” I wasn’t adverse to the idea of burning down the athletic center. In fact, it seemed a viable solution considering what I’d heard. Instead, I heaved a sigh and patted the open spot to my right. “You should probably come over here. We need to talk about a few things.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Sami muttered, flipping off the television. “Are you going to kill someone?”
“I’m considering it.”
Sami’s eyes were wide when she joined me, grabbing an onion ring from my takeout container as she got comfortable. “Who are you going to kill?”
“I think I’m going to have to kill more than one person, but the name at the top of my list right now is Martin.”
Aric furrowed his brow as he uncapped the ketchup and doused his French fries. “Should I know that name?”
“It’s doubtful. I have no idea who he is, although there is something familiar about him I can’t quite shake. I think he’s about our age so, he might’ve gone to school with us.”
“You didn’t recognize him?”
I shook my head and fished my cell phone from my pocket. “I took this from inside the dome so it’s a little warped at the edges. I didn’t know that would be a thing. You can kind of see his face, though.”
Aric took the phone and studied the screen, squinting as he absorbed what he was looking at. “This looks like one of the old Academy classrooms. I recognize it from that time you took me there.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” I supplied. “The front of the athletic center is new. It’s either been completely refurbished or replaced. There are scanners by the doors leading to the back of the building. The basement doesn’t look any different, other than a coat of paint here and there.”
“Okay.” Aric licked his lips as he handed the phone back, paying little heed when Sami intercepted it to study the photograph. “What happened while you were down there?”
“It was empty when we first arrived so we had time to look around,” I replied. “The workout room was empty and I’d almost convinced myself that nothing was going on down there when Paris found something.
“We went into that room, which was the farthest down the hallway on the right,” I continued. “There were some magic books inside – Paris stole those, by the way, and she’s going through them tonight – and there was a symbol painted on the wall.”
“Did you recognize the symbol?”
I nodded. “It’s the symbol from the Ouija board.”
“And the house in the woods?” Sami asked. “The house where they were trying to trap me?”
I nodded again. “Yes, Sami. It’s the same symbol.”
Sami swallowed hard, her dinner forgotten. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know yet, but I don’t think it means anything good.” I tapped the edge of her container. “You need to eat your dinner and keep your strength up. You’re perfectly safe right now, and your father and I are going to keep you that way.”
“We absolutely are going to keep you that way,” Aric agreed, his voice grave. “What happened next, Zoe?”
“I took some photos of the symbol, they’re on the phone, and then we heard voices and a door shutting,” I answered. “I thought about confronting whoever it was, but Paris and Kelsey weren’t keen on that idea, so I put up another dome and we hid in the corner of the room.
“That’s when Martin came in with two of his students,” I continued. “They’re new recruits. They had to pass some sort of screening process, although I have no idea what that entails. They were given a packet of information once that happened.
“I obviously couldn’t question them, but I found out a few things,” I said. “Martin is heralding Professor Blake as some sort of hero who failed because I basically turned against him and ruined the movement.”
“Well, that is kind of what happened,” Aric hedged.
“Yes, but to hear Martin tell the story, they’re the good guys and everyone else is bad,” I supplied. “Martin told those kids – their names are Christy and Alan – that some paranormal beings were okay because they have souls. They included shifters in that mix.”
“Oh, well, at least I make the cut,” Aric said dryly.
“He basically admitted that they’re out to end anyone or anything that doesn’t have a soul, and they include me in that mix.”
Aric’s face shifted from vaguely annoyed to dangerous. “Excuse me?”
“They don’t believe I have a soul. They said I’m an abomination.”
“And you didn’t kill them right there?”
I shrugged. “I wanted to hear more of the conversation.”
“Fine,” Aric gritted out, resting his palms on the table. “What else did they say?”
I slid a sidelong look at Sami, but she was apparently more interested in the photographs than our conversation. “They said that I was a threat to everything because I tipped the balance of power to evil monsters. There was some nonsense about how mages were essentially avenging angels, and then they mentioned they needed a weapon to end me.”
“A weapon? What kind of a weapon?”
This time I let my gaze linger on Sami. It didn’t take Aric long to realize what I was getting at.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Aric muttered, jumping to his feet and kicking his chair across the room. “You cannot be serious!”
“What did I miss?” Sami asked, her voice shaking.
I rested my hand on her shoulder. Aric’s burst of temper was enough to unnerve her. She was used to me freaking out. Aric was another story.
“Martin believes that Sami has half of a soul,” I volunteered, fighting to remain calm even though I wanted to join Aric in his attempt to tear apart the room. “He also believes that if they can get her on their side, she’ll be the one to destroy me.”
“Kill you?” Sami swallowed hard. “I … no way.”
“It’s okay.” I stroked the back of her head. “I’m not worried about you killing me.”
“Not because he wants me to kill you,” Sami said. “I might kill you if you don’t stop embarrassing me in public, but that’s a different thing entirely.”
It was a lame attempt at humor, but I flashed a smile, hoping i
t would make her feel better. “They said a lot of things in that basement, and some of them don’t exactly line up. At first they said they wanted to wait for Sami to turn eighteen to approach her. Then Martin let a little something different slip, and I think that’s really his plan.”
“Which is?” Aric practically growled as he gripped his hands together.
“Which is that they’ve been trying to grab her for months.” There was no sense turning back now. Sami and Aric both had to know the entire scope of Martin’s plan if they expected to prepare for what was to come. “Martin said that they had a lot of volunteers when they first came up with the idea to grab Sami.
“My understanding is that they want to indoctrinate her in some fashion,” I continued. “That’s how it sounded to me, at least. They want to grab her, indoctrinate her and then use her to kill me.”
“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Aric seethed, his chest heaving. “They’re the ones behind the shades at the house?”
“I don’t know if that’s true,” I cautioned. “I think that they’ve been working with other factions, and I think one of those factions is the local witches. Honestly, if I had to guess, I’d wager that the witches in the woods planned to double-cross Martin and take Sami for themselves. They’d been preparing for her coming for a long time. They probably lied and got his financial backing.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Aric muttered, his hand busy as it roamed his chin. “What about the wolves at the retreat?”
“It sounded to me like they were part of Martin’s faction,” I answered. “Martin mentioned that I’d adopted a no-tolerance party and started killing anyone who came after Sami. He admitted that had become something of a deterrent, and no one wanted to go after her any longer.”
“That’s good, right?” Sami looked hopeful.
“Yes, and no,” I replied. “Martin knows we’re here. He has something planned because we came to Covenant College. He said we were playing on his turf, or something like that. He made it sound like they’re about to mount a final attempt to grab Sami.”
Dying Covenant: The Complete Series Page 70
