“It’s a blood spell. The blood is consumed every time you trigger it.”
“The blood really is disappearing from the smiley face.”
“Yeah.” My hands tremble as I settle back against the headboard. It takes everything in me not to throw something. But I don’t want to make the pain worse.
A job. Of course.
“What kind of job is he talking about?”
I roll my head toward his direction. “You know so much about me and you don’t know that?”
He tosses the letter down on my bed. “Don’t tell me then.”
My amusement drains away. I’m not supposed to tell anyone. But why not? Why should I listen to Dad when his only interest is in how much money and resources he can get from using me? Didn’t he get enough from selling me to the school? My jaw clenches. “I find missing people.”
“How?”
“I communicate with ghosts and spirits. Death magic, like you said.”
He leans forward; the intense and brooding expression from before is back in full swing. “What kind of job requires you to do that?”
“The ones where I have to find dead bodies. None of the missing people I find ever make it back alive.” I push the tray down my legs. With Lacey here, maybe I can try to manipulate her like I did Grayson. “I’m getting tired now. Will you ask Doc to give me a few hours rest before he visits?”
“No problem.” He picks up the tray and sets it on the side table.
“Thank you.”
He nods. “I’ll find Rendall before the headmistress finds me. Don’t forget to beg for my assistance so I get light punishment.”
“Does it hurt?”
His gaze locks with mine. The aura around him is calm and easy like he wasn’t facing the likelihood of having his powers stripped tomorrow. Does he trust me that much? “Will what hurt?”
“The absolute restriction spell.”
His smile lights up the room. Bright and without a single worry. “I’ll be fine. If anything, I’ll be bored out of my mind. Promise that you’ll come visit so I don’t go crazy.”
“Alright.” I laugh.
“I’ll take care of everything before she finds me. You just focus on recovery.”
“Thanks for not killing me.”
His aura pulses. “Thanks for not dying.”
Lacey glares at him as he leaves and then back at me. The door closes and I shrug. “It would take too long to explain. Why didn’t you tell me you had so many enemies?”
Her expression changes to embarrassment and I focus on the glow around her. It’s similar to Grayson’s. The color is a soft green, light and translucent. It flows around her smoothly, not jittery like his smoke.
She floats to my side and puts her hand on my bandages. I grin at her. “It doesn’t hurt.” Much. “I’m not strong like you are, so it takes me longer to learn how to defend myself.”
Her ghostly aura fluctuates. Her hand covers mine, leaching the heat from them and making the cuts ache worse. “If you’re trying to speak to me, I can’t hear you right now.” I sigh and lean back against the headboard. “I learned something new. At least I think I did. Do you want me to show you?” I bite my lip, wondering if she’ll actually try it.
She nods.
A spike of enthusiasm and nervous excitement shoots through me. “I think it will affect you. Are you sure?”
She nods again, this time with a bit of hesitation. I force myself to sit up. “Okay, let me see if I can do this.”
I look at Lacey and will her to spread her cold. At first, nothing happens. I narrow my gaze at her and then glance at her aura. My vision focuses on the fluctuations there and something snaps inside me. Heat floods my mind and pours down the nerves in my spine like warm honey. Her eyes widen as the area around me drops to a frigid level. My breath comes in a cold mist and the soup on my tray ices over.
Pain explodes through my temples and I let go of her power, collapsing against the pillows and moaning in agony. I force my eyes open and see Lacey glaring at me.
My hope disappears, along with the belief that I could use my ability in a new way. Her eyes are bright green flames, reminiscent of Grayson’s loss of control. “That sucked, didn’t it?”
She disappears, leaving me alone in the room.
“Lacey? Come back. Did it hurt?”
The only response is the icy chill of her anger. She’s still with me then, just not visible. And not willing to hurt me.
“Lacey, come on. I didn’t mean to. I thought it was a new way to use my power. What happened?”
A bone deep chill hits my spine and the heat is sucked from my body, making my teeth chatter. I shudder under the blanket, wrapping my arms around my body.
“O-okay. Y-you’re more p-powerful than m-m-me,” I chatter. “I-I’m s-sorry.”
The temperature immediately returns to normal and she appears in front of me, still angry.
Trembling from the sudden change in temperature, my already sore body has new aches and pains from muscle spasms.
She hovers close to me, warmer than the room, and I lean closer to her. A touch to my forehead and warmth floods back in slowly, less painful than before. Realization hits me. She’s not making things cold; she’s stealing the heat and absorbing it.
I look into her eyes, slightly disoriented by the fact that I can see through her to the wall beyond. “Did it hurt when I did that?”
She hesitates and shakes her head no.
“Did it scare you?”
A firm nod and she folds her legs in a demure fashion and props on an arm to recline on the foot of the bed. Her weight doesn’t sink in, but she looks like she’s actually perched on it.
“It’s so frustrating that we can’t talk anymore.” She nods her head in agreement. “I can do something like that to Grayson, too. I found out when we fought earlier.”
Lacey’s expression darkens.
“No, I mean he was trying to teach me magical defense, but I was more interested in asking questions…” My voice trails off when I see Lacey’s eye roll. Okay, so maybe all the letters I sent her were peppered with thousands of questions and long paragraphs about new things I learned. I can’t help it. My curiosity has always outweighed my common sense.
“Anyway.” I roll my eyes back at her. “He’s sort of like you. I can force him to move the way I want.”
Her body sits up and her expression darkens. She points to the stitched wound still on my collarbone.
I touch it and then tilt my head in confusion. “He did this, but it was after he was enraged.”
She huffs in frustration and stares at me for a moment.
Suddenly, she holds out both hands and makes a calming gesture. I watch her as she soothes her irritation until her aura fully stabilizes around her. Lacey holds her index finger straight up and thrusts it toward me with emphasis.
“One?”
She nods and does it one more time. Then, she moves her body into a mime’s marionette pose.
“A puppet?”
A nod and then she holds up two fingers and emphasizes with them.
“Two?”
A nod and then she mimics holding a knife and stabbing toward me.
“When he hurt me?”
She nods again.
“The fight happened first and then I—”
She waves her hands at me in irritation and emphatically points at my collarbone.
“Ah. Yes. I manipulated him and then he lost control.” She thrusts her hand toward me and jerks her head, telling me to make the connection. I suck in a breath.
“You mean that doing it to you also caused you to go out of control?”
A firm nod.
“You wanted to hurt me?”
Another, more hesitant, affirmation.
“Wow.” I run a hand over my face. “What a useless power if everything I do makes you guys try to kill me in the process.” Now I’m right back where I started, and if that woman in my vision is to be believed, I’v
e got less than two weeks to find something better.
18
The morning was as painful and obnoxious as I expected. After spending all night trying to figure out a way to use my power without making them hurt me, I came up with a big fat goose egg. Nothing.
Lacey faded away before I remembered to ask her about the amulet, and Doc’s lack of patience when the bandages were changed made everything so much worse. By the time he finished his last slap of medical tape on my arm, I was a shivering, pain-filled mess.
Pulling on my uniform took twice as long. At the end of it all, I just wanted another shower and to climb back into bed.
The headmistress, however, had other ideas.
“You mean to tell me that you and Grayson Davis snuck into a place closed off during the break in order to practice building your magic defense away from prying eyes.”
We are both standing in her office, me still impersonating a mummy, him sweating it out under her piercing gaze.
“Yes, ma’am.” I nod.
“Why there?”
“I have death magic and that’s a place that’s supposed to amplify it. We started battling and I’m not experienced enough to know my limits.” It’s all true. I’m not even hedging on the facts.
She glares at Grayson. “And you didn’t realize she was so close to bleeding to death?”
He hesitates and then glances at me.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you.”
He snaps his gaze back to her. “I was angry that she was pushing herself too hard and wanted her to recognize her own limits.”
“Where did you fail as her trainer?”
“When I miscalculated her stubbornness and lack of common sense.”
“Hey...”
“Quiet,” she snaps at me, and my mouth shuts on her command.
I hate this ability of hers.
“I can hear that.”
I can’t stop thinking it.
She sighs and sits at her desk. A wave of a hand and both of us relax, the hold she has on us broken. “I see what you mean. She’s going to get herself ripped to pieces in the arena.” She puts her elbows on the desk and rubs her temples with her fingers. “You obviously can’t teach her magic defense, so we’ll keep Rendall as her tutor, but none of the other students Courtney selected will work. They will eat her alive the moment she walks through the door.”
My jaw clenches. I’m right here.
“You will be punished with three days of absolute restriction. I’ll allow her to visit your dorm for four hours a day. During that time, you will tutor her in herbology, basic magic, and everything else she’s lacking. Doctor Reese wants her in his herbology one and two and some other class. Talk to him to get the specifics. We can limit her classes to four this coming semester since Lacey’s rank is so far ahead of others in her grade.” She sighs and eyes me with disdain. “I’ll give you until the fall semester to get back on track or you’ll be moved to a different Academy under your actual identity.”
I hesitantly raise my hand.
“Just ask. It’s hard on my brain when you ask a question in your mind over and over when you’re nervous.”
My cheeks heat up as embarrassment flows through me. So what if I get nervous? She’s scary, okay? “What if we find out who killed my sister before then?”
Her lips lift in a small smirk. Is it from the question or because I think she’s scary?
“Both. To answer your thoughts and your real question. They both amuse me. If we find the killer, we’ll see where you are at the time.”
I almost raised my hand again, but stopped it. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life as someone else, even if she is my twin sister.” All the things she’s done, the people she’s hurt. I don’t want to keep fixing her mistakes.
Headmistress Nightborne sits back in her chair and crosses her arms. “What you call mistakes, we call progress. The Nightborne is more than a school or a system. It’s an entire culture. An underground society that rules your world and ours. If you don’t understand how to play the game, your chances of survival are virtually nil no matter whose identity you hold at the time. Your sister’s death would leave a gap in our system. One that would rampage through the ranks as students try to kill for the number one spot.”
“But what if I can’t keep it?”
“That doesn’t matter. Gaining first place by effort is less destructive than warring over it. You only taking four classes means your average is more dependent on those classes. I can give you this chance only once. Don’t disappoint me.”
“What would you have done if I wasn’t here to replace my sister?”
She put her elbows on the arms of her chair. “You ask an annoying amount of questions.”
“I know, right?” Grayson interrupted.
I glare at him, but he stares straight at the headmistress.
“We would have sent her abroad for training, giving her class a chance to shift the balance. Then, once the semester ended and a new person is crowned, we would announce that she wasn’t coming back and chose to stay there.”
Wow. What lengths will they go to keep everything running smoothly?
“This isn’t a normal Academy and our students aren’t regular people. You see what Grayson did to you and he was trying to help. Think about that.”
The truth of her statement woke me from my arrogant assumptions. To the outside world, all of them, even me, would be called—
“Monsters. Yes.” She finishes my thought. “Even among our own kind, some of these students are true monsters. Without guilt. Without a conscience or empathy of any kind. Only a thirst for power and knowledge you can’t find anywhere else in the world. It is that thirst that keeps them here and not out there slaughtering others and wreaking havoc out of sheer boredom. You are competing against these Nightborne for supreme access to that knowledge and power. That is why your sister did everything she did. And why Grayson went so far to make you understand your limits. He’s not being punished for hurting you. He’s being punished for losing control of the situation and his own power.”
I rock back on my heels as my entire world is turned on its head.
“Have you been enlightened?”
I swallow back the tense knot in my throat. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good. You both may go. Oh, one more thing.” She smiles at me. “It’s important to keep up appearances. You’re required to spend two hours a day with Courtney. Make sure you bring her dinner. You are best friends, after all.”
“Don’t best friends have fights?”
“You don’t. Not until you fully convince me that you can take your sister’s place.”
“Then I’ll have to work hard.” I smirk and follow Grayson out the door.
Outside, Grayson bends over with his hands gripping his knees. He laughs so hard I think he’s going to fall over.
“What are you doing? What’s so funny?”
He stands up straight and comes close enough that his jacket brushes my arm. “You are the most reckless human being I have ever met in my life.”
“Why? What did I do?”
He throws up his hands and stalks toward the road. My body aches as I race up to his side. “There is no one in this world who would ever talk to her the way you do.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
He turns and stops in front of me, his gaze searching my face. For what, I’m not sure. “You’re being serious right now. You really have no idea that you barely survived.”
I stop walking and stare at him, an inkling of fear tickling down the back of my neck. “What do you mean?”
His smile dies as he seems to realize I’m not lying. I really have no idea what he’s talking about.
“If you ever do something like that to her in front of anyone else, you will find out why this is the most secure place for those monsters she mentioned earlier.” His jaw clenches and I finally notice the chaotic jumble of his smoke aura.
He’s really agit
ated. Or scared. Maybe both. “Tell me what you mean.”
“If you offend the heir of the Nightborne Academy, you will be put in absolute isolation. No magic. No physical or emotional interaction. Not even sunlight if you need it or moonlight if you crave it. Nothing.”
“Why do both your punishments and that one start with ‘absolute’?”
“You focus on the strangest things.” His grin is forced, but some of the tension leaves his body. “My punishment is actually called the omnis coercitio. It basically means general repression or restraint. It’s supposed to be used for reflection. Isolation, on the other hand, is called totus supplicium. Total or complete punishment. This punishment has also been used to execute violent offenders.”
“You mean I would be in isolation next to death row inmates?”
“You wouldn’t even notice if the school blew up around you. There is no sound, no change in light, nothing but you and your thoughts for days. And that’s not even the worst punishment.”
“There’s something worse?”
“Yes, it’s a seal against your entire bloodline. The totus sanguis. I’m probably butchering the Latin since we don’t use these phrases anymore. You should be able to find them in your history book on the Nightborne Academy, though.”
“What history book? And what do you mean by seal?”
“I mean that the criminal and their descendants will be stripped of power. Their properties seized and their abilities sealed to prevent them from ever using magic again. In my case, it would mean stuck in one form from birth. And it’s a crapshoot which one it’d be.”
“Wow.” I stare out over the lake and the snow dusting the landscape of the quiet Academy. My impression of the place is much different than what they keep warning me about. Even Grayson’s attack and loss of control hasn’t shattered my positive outlook.
We start walking again, each trapped in our own thoughts.
“You mentioned a history book.”
“You have it in your room. Nightborne Academy history, part two.”
“Did you snoop around my room again?”
“Nope. I’ve been wanting to check it out for six months, but Lacey kept it.”
Checking out a library book for six months? That’s kind of excessive. “Don’t they have a limit to how many times you can check out a book before it has to be returned?”
Nightborne Academy Page 12
