“They’ll be sent back to their families until they reach seventeen. And then they’ll automatically be invited to Superno too,” said Safi, not meeting my eyes.
“Good,” I said. The unspoken unfairness of it hung in the air but neither of us called it out. “What do you think will happen at this hearing?” I said rapidly changing the subject.
“No idea, my mom wouldn’t tell me. I think even she’s in the dark this time. It’s way above her head too.” Suddenly we were both made aware of Pearl and Aviar’s approaching presence by their two bright holograms that lit up next to Safi.
We went back to not talking and Safi smiled at me, sympathetically. Pearl Quartz entered the room, followed closely by her son, Safi’s older brother, Aviar. She saw me and barely showed any recognition whereas Aviar looked at me and nodded. A slightly cheeky smile played across his lips as he took a seat next to Safi. His crisp, blue eyes twinkled. The last time I’d seen him had been that fateful night, when he’d accompanied his mother and members of the S.L.A. into St Louis Cemetery to rescue Lorna. He’d helped me save Natalie’s life while his mother had blinked herself, her entourage, and Lorna away without a second thought for the vampire and werewolf who’d been on the side of light magic.
Pearl glanced around the room restlessly, gazing everywhere but in my direction. Screw you then, I thought, not wanting to let her get to me. More holograms arose next to the empty seats and before I could really take them in, the door opened. It felt greatly intimidating as a whole room of witches walked in and up to their reserved seats. I counted eleven. That left only the regal seat at the head of the table, vacant.
The witches were an assortment of magic from different Crystal Covens and I instantly picked up that the ones nearest to me were from the Amethyst, Citrine, Ruby and Emerald Covens. These were powerful women with strong lineages. And they were all staring at me.
The Ruby Witch looked like she was about thirty years old, though it was impossible to tell accurately as she could’ve been double that age. Or even triple. She was the only one who smiled at me, while the others unashamedly stared on, their expressions a mix of everything from curiosity to mild disgust.
Duquette and Devin still hadn’t arrived. I assumed they were waiting to be assessed by the S.L.A.’s security team to either be cleared, which was highly doubtful, or be granted some kind of a temporary pass by way of a time-limited spell. There was also the stronger possibility that they’d be denied entry to the building altogether and made to wait outside while the Witches Council conducted its’ hearing. I could only imagine how pissed Duquette would be if that happened. And while I hated to admit it, there was a part of me that was beginning to feel uneasy about being there totally unaccompanied.
Chapter 2
The door opened again making me jump. I turned to look and saw Jade. As she entered, all the other witches stood to greet her. Or rather, they stood to attention for who came after her. I stood up too, just to conform with the rest of them. A woman whose age was indiscernible, walked behind her.
She was a witch like no other I’d ever seen or met. Her hair reminded me of a raven’s plume. It thickly ran all the way down her back and reached past her knees. Any colour in her eyes was overcome by the sheen and strength of her powers that made her appear like she had only two white orbs to look out of.
As she made her way to the throne that awaited her, I felt her look into each one of us that was there. Whatever she did, I got a sensation throughout my body, just under my skin and although it wasn’t overtly negative, it didn’t immediately comfort me either. I also realized that Lorna was missing. I tried to telepath the message to Safi, who received it and just gave me a look that said she had no idea where our former High Priestess was either.
“Please allow me to present, the esteemed Head of the Witches Council, and key member of the Supernatural Light Alliance: Grand High Witch, Sister Isadora Onyx,” announced Angel, the Jade Witch.
“Please be seated,” said Isadora Onyx, waving a hand as she took her rightful place at the head of the table. Angel Jade sat down at an innocuous spot behind and to the right of the Isadora Onyx. I could see her opening up a small book that looked like a magical version of a lockable diary. She pulled a scribe from thin air and sat, poised to take notes.
Two shifters stood guarding – or blocking – both exits in the room. One was behind me where we’d entered from and another, I hadn’t noticed until the shifter guarding it had used it to come in. If I’d have guessed, they were definitely shifters within the big cat family – tigers or lions. They had an air of pride that was unmistakable as well as stealth and agility in every step they’d taken.
“Benedictus Dominus viam magia lucem!” said the Grand High Witch
“Benedictus lucem!” answered all the other witches in the room, including Safi.
“This hearing is now in session,” said Angel Jade.
“On the night with which this hearing is concerned, Sister Lorna Quartz was kidnapped from her coven by a group of three Sanguine vampires and one Black Bane werewolf who then attempted to murder her. Are you in agreement with me, Sister Katrina Quartz?” The Grand High Witch looked at me. Our eyes met and hers were so powerful, it felt like I was staring directly into the sun. I looked away, down at the table in front of me.
“Yes,” I said, “that’s correct.”
“And these perpetrators, are fellow students of yours at St. Erzsebet’s Academy, is that right?”
“They were,” I replied.
“Why are you using past tense?” Isadora Onyx looked at me, with a slight frown on her ageless forehead. It was starting to feel more like a trial than a hearing.
“Because they’re not there anymore,” I cleared my throat.
“Then where are they?”
“I don’t know. The werewolf has been missing since shortly after it all happened.”
“And the others? The vampires?”
“I don’t know. All I’ve heard, from the principal at Bloodline – sorry, I mean St Erzsebet’s Academy – is that they’re no longer students there anymore.” I wanted to say more. That I presumed they were dead but instead, I remained silent.
“Through the course of the night in question, the perpetrators of this violent act brought Sister Lorna Quartz to your academy and hid her there as they drained her blood,” stated the Onyx witch, looking for my agreement. I nodded. “And that was where you found her.”
“Yes.”
“If I may,” said Pearl Quartz raising her hand like she was back in a classroom.
“You may,” replied Isadora, “if it adds something pertinent.”
“Of course, I just wanted to say that it was with the help and guidance of Saffron Quartz.”
“Katrina Quartz is half vampire. I understand how difficult that is for so many of you. For that reason, for this hearing, we’re not relying on pure testimony. Who helped whom will be apparent in but a few, short moments. We are going to do a Revelation. I think it’s fitting, don’t you?”
I had no clue what a Revelation was but Pearl clearly did. She immediately stiffened and shot a contemptuous glance at me. “Would you let Saffron be the one to do it?” she asked.
“No, Katrina was the one who went and retrieved Sister Lorna from certain death. She’s the one who saw everything so I think it’s her who should do it,” answered Isadora Onyx, leaving no room for negotiation. Pearl stared down while Safi sent me a silent thought that said, “I’m sorry, my mom can be the worst.”
Just then the door behind Isadora and Angel, slowly opened. It was Duquette and Devin, escorted by another shifter from the big cat family. Judging by her locks which were a wild mingle of orange and black, there was little guessing about which feline the woman transformed into. Her lemon-toned eyes surveyed the room with a boldness that didn’t fit with having just disturbed the Grand High Witch in the middle of a hearing.
“I was told to bring these two here, ma’am,” said Tiger Woman huskily.
If only I could have carried myself like her, completely unphased, life would have been so much easier.
“Thanks Felicity. They’ll have to stand by the other end, behind Sister Katrina,” said Angel Jade. Isadora gestured at Duquette and Devin to take their places as if she were commanding a couple of peasants. I couldn’t help but smile at how seething Duquette must have been under her cool-as-a-cucumber demeanour, which was icy. Felicity walked across the room with my professors and stood with them, so they were flanked on each side by a security guard.
“Let’s continue,” urged the Grand High Witch, “Katrina, come up please.” I obeyed, literally feeling the energy of curios witches and the two vamps as I stepped towards her, clueless of what to expect. Once I was next to her, Isadora Onyx stood up from her seat. So close up, I realized what a dainty woman she was, a good couple of inches shorter than me.
I thought she was going to explain what I’d need to do but instead, she simply held out her hands, palms facing upwards. Within a few seconds and with ease, she materialized two crystals, a clear quartz one in her left palm and a black onyx in her right. “Put your hands on mine,” she instructed and I saw Pearl wince again and a flash of red emanated from the back of the room where Duquette glared at us unapologetically. Devin looked slightly intrigued, as did Safi, Aviar and a few of the other witches.
I could feel the witch’s magic in my body and for a minute I hesitated, wondering if her intensity would cause my own powers to react in an unpredictable way. In a way that was fully out of my control. Isadora Onyx looked at me and I could tell she was losing her patience. I placed my hands on hers.
At first, I felt like I was instantly blinded, feeling light-headed by the powerful glow that came from between us. “It’s alright, keep the connection. Do not pull away,” she said sensing my urge.
As my eyes got used to the magic and its potency dimmed a little, the room seemed to fall away. I was back at Bloodline Academy and it was night. Only I knew I wasn’t really because the image wasn’t solid. It had a dreamlike consistency as there were borders to it that melted into whiteness.
I was with Natalie and I watched myself as I ran to Ulric – knowing he was in distress. Then things moved forward and on the other side of the gates, there was Safi timidly coming towards us. In that second, I knew two things. One was that this was a replay of everything that happened the night of Lorna’s kidnapping. The second was that everyone in the room would now be privy to all the details of exactly what happened. This included the Sanguine vampire professors, whom I’d tried as much as possible, to keep in the dark about how actively I’d helped my coven and the S.L.A. And even more than that, the true extent of my emerging powers.
***
I wanted to pull away. I wanted to scream and challenge her Grand Highness as to how by any stretch of the imagination, it was cool to go rooting around in someone else’s head without permission or even warning and to broadcast it to a bunch of others.
Instead, I just stood by and watched my life play out on that night that had happened a couple of months ago. I watched as an outsider, seeing myself talk and panic, think and act. Summon up magic I hadn’t known was within me. I watched, as dumb-founded as everyone else, when Lorna and I blinked into invisibility on the third floor of the academy. I saw us stumble as we made it out into the courtyard and became visible once more so that Safi could take Lorna and prepare to re-apparate into the cemetery where S.L.A. members, including Pearl Quartz, were waiting to whisk them away.
And, as it happened, not only could everyone in the room see and hear what had happened on that night but they could access my thoughts and through them, the telepathic connections I’d had with Safi and Ulric.
Finally, we got to the part where Natalie was staked whilst Ulric and I were intimately snuggled up in a corner on the ground just after I’d healed his wound. I wanted to curl up and die. As if what they were seeing wasn’t as dangerous as it got for me, Natalie and Ulric, they had ringside seats to my romantic moments too.
It clicked for me, why Pearl had been desperate for Safi to do the Revelation instead of me. Aviar, her son, was the one who’d helped me find a way to raise Natalie from the literal dust she’d crumbled to. And now in front of the S.L.A., he was officially implicated in doing one of the things frowned upon for those with light magic – saving a dark-blooded being and that too, a vampire.
After the Revelation ended, Isadora Onyx pulled her hands back and the two crystals vanished as quickly as they’d been summoned. She gestured for me to go back to my seat and she sat back down on her throne. The room was so silent, that for a few excruciating minutes, it felt like life no longer resided there. But that was on the surface. The energy and thought-streams were palpable without even trying to catch anything. I could feel both of my professors staring a hole into me and was thankful that I was sitting with my back to them. The energy that came from them wasn’t really an energy but more like a pulling sensation. Energy being sucked away from me, true to their fully vampire nature.
“I’ve been around longer than all of you. I’ve never seen anything quite like that,” remarked the Grand High Witch, in a matter-of-factly way. Her face was disaffected but her eyes told a different story. Angel Jade just gawked at her boss. I guessed nothing she wrote down after what she’d seen would really do much in terms of expanding upon things.
“What are the next steps, Your Grandness?” asked Pearl, looking peaky but trying to remain as indifferent as she could, under the circumstances. I glanced across at Aviar, feeling Pearl’s anxiety. I really hoped he wouldn’t be punished for what he’d done. Yet, I couldn’t regret that he’d helped us because if it weren’t for him Natalie would no longer have existed.
“Whatever your decision, it better involve her coming back with us,” Duquette interrupted before Isadora Onyx delivered her verdict. Everyone stared in her direction, including Devin whose dark eyes too watched with a flicker.
“Don’t forget where you are and why you’re here,” said the Grand High Witch. Her voice was soft and firm but her luminous eyes were piercing.
“She’s our student,” said Duquette, unprepared to back down.
“Which is why you’re here at all. Vampires haven’t entered our spaces – and lived – for a very long time. If you and your friend would like to change that, you’ll appreciate that your role here is purely as a spectator. And she might be your student but Katrina is a Crystal Witch as well.”
“How convenient that you’ve suddenly remembered,” said Duquette, “you witches were a little too quick to disown her when it suited you.”
“The High Priestesses of her coven took those actions. That’s a separate matter, one which holds no real meaning going forward as that particular coven is no longer in existence. Now I have some business to attend to so if you have more to say, my security team will be happy to escort you outside where you can discuss it amongst yourselves all you want,” replied Isadora Onyx.
That shut Duquette up. Something I hadn’t known possible. However, it left me feeling like I was nothing more than property for both sides. And I couldn’t deny what was true, Crystal Witches had dropped me the second something had changed. For some reason, one that I couldn’t fathom but knew had to be big, even seeing what they had, my vampire profs still wanted me back at the academy. Probably to pay me back for rescuing Lorna and going against other vampires.
“Sisters of the Sacred Light Circles and Crystal Covens, I turn to you. What are we to do with what we just witnessed?” asked Isadora Onyx.
“We should recognize how big a threat the dark side is becoming to us,” said the Citrine Witch, staring in my professors’ direction, “they’re everywhere. And whatever they might spin to us, each of their assaults is part of a much larger plan.”
“We already knew that. Anyone with some real advice?” asked Isadora Onyx, looking around the table.
“We should acknowledge who acted out of duress that night,” Pearl chimed in for th
e sake of both of her children.
“Brother Aviar and Sister Saffron are talented in their magic. You can stop worrying that they’ll be punished…despite some of what I’ve seen tonight,” assured Isadora Onyx, much to Pearl’s relief, “it would be foolish to punish such promise.”
“But what Kat did, goes beyond what either Aviar or I could do – ever,” said Safi, looking at me and nodding in solidarity.
“Hush!” whispered Pearl.
“But it doesn’t change that she’s part Sanguine,” said the Amethyst Witch, getting too many nods from both sides of the table.
“Yes, that’s our dilemma,” said the Ruby Witch, “there’s little doubt about the strength of her magic.”
“I say we forsake her,” replied the Amethyst Witch. I wanted to punch her right between her beady, little, violet eyes and I didn’t care if she read my mind. If anything, I hoped she had.
“I’m afraid I’m inclined to agree,” said the Grand High Witch, “let’s take a vote. Those in favour of expelling Katrina from ever having ties with any of us or our magic, raise your hands.”
Slowly all the fully-fledged witches raised their hands. I could see Safi’s tears prick her eyes and she looked at me, while her brother stared down at the table. Once the vote was unanimous, Isadora Onyx too raised her hand, sitting all high and mighty, never knowing what it would feel like to be an outcast like me.
Chapter 3
By the time we got back to Bloodline Academy, the sun had started falling away. Neither of my professors had yet questioned me about my efforts to save Lorna’s life. As usual, Duquette had behaved like she was relieved another inane obligation had finally come to end as we’d gotten back into our limo and left the premises.
Dark Spark: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Novel (Bloodline Academy Book 2) Page 2
