by Leigh Kelsey
Hale’s eyes narrowed. “Like I said, this term focuses on practical methods.”
In other words, she was going to leave Kati to figure it out by herself. Good thing she’d done all that book reading.
“I’m sorry about her,” Kati whispered to Mr Argyle, who was looking more and more terrified with every moment. “I’ll do a good job, I swear.”
His watery blue eyes met Kati’s and he gave her a weak smile. “Not like it can get much worse. I’ve only got a few weeks if I’m lucky. And I’ve never been that.”
You and me both, Kati thought.
Dolly? She reached for her familiar, who’d slunk under Naia’s desk and was curled up on her bag. I might need you as back up, or to lend me your strength again.
Dolly lifted her head off her paws long enough to say, you know where to find me. And then she went back to sleep. Clearly Kati’s familiar was sick with worry over this.
“Alright,” Kati said quietly, taking a steadying breath. “I don’t suppose you’re going to guide me through this?” she tried, glancing at Hale.
“Do I need to remind you—”
“Practical lessons, got it.” Which equated to zero lessons. Why had Kati hoped this term would be better? As far as she was concerned, it was worse.
“You should probably close your eyes,” Kati told Mr Argyle, trying to seem calm and in control. “And don’t worry, I won’t let this go wrong.”
He gave her a dubious look. “You expect me to trust you, with everything your brother’s done?”
Kati held his gaze, letting her own harden. “I’m not my brother.”
He didn’t say anything else, just closed his eyes, and Kati lifted her athame, took a deep breath, and sent up a prayer to whatever soul had led her to put on black trousers and a dark vest today since blood was about to get everywhere.
She blocked out every memory of stabbing Ingrid and set the blade to Mr Argyle’s throat, hating his scared intake of breath, hating her own fear as it crystallised in front of her, goosebumps sweeping her spine. She pushed until blood began to bead beneath the tip of her athame and then, with the swift, decisive slash she’d read about in one of Naia’s books, she cut his throat from edge to edge.
As blood pooled at her feet, Kati closed her eyes and let her innate sense of death take over. He was definitely dead, so that bit had gone right at least. A commotion and scuffle sounded behind her, followed by, “Mrs Hale, Marigold’s fainted,” but Kati blocked out all sounds. She had to get this right. Not just because Hale wanted to make a fool out of her and Kati was determined to prove her wrong, but because a man’s life was literally in her hands.
The athame cooled in her grip and Kati’s shoulders sagged in relief. The hardest part of necromancy was keeping hold of a person’s soul so you were able to follow them into the underworld.
Kati opened her eyes again, letting that part of her that sensed the dead take hold as she faced away from the class full of horrified, awed, and panicking faces. Using the chalkboard as a backdrop, Kati drew her wand, pricked her thumb, and began sketching a circle of runes and symbols in the air, one after the other, each one tiny but precise, with a meaning all its own. They hung in the air in front of the chalkboard, glowing violet, and when Kati drew the final symbol, closing the circle she’d traced in the air, the spell pulsed. As if it had a heartbeat.
It felt like the air was sucked from her lungs as the runes pulsed, and Kati inhaled an awful, desperate gasp, dying for oxygen as icy shivers rushed over her body until she was shivering. But she didn’t let go of her athame; she gritted her teeth and endured it. She’d survived the Venom Chamber and Ingrid the fucking Terrible. She could bear this.
It felt to take an eternity but in reality it was only two seconds before the air slammed back into her lungs and a ripple of magic punched out from her magic circle.
The window she’d opened into the underworld hovered in the middle of the sigils.
Okay. That part worked. She was dizzy as hell and short of breath, but it had worked. All those hours spent scribbling with pen and paper, perfecting each symbol, had been worth it.
Kati let her wand hand fall to her side as she lifted the athame instead, the chill of the soul bound to it pricking her fingertips like frostbite. She wavered but refused to stumble, sheer stubbornness setting in as she braced her feet shoulder-width apart and held onto the knife, feeling a pressure pulling at it like magnets calling to each other.
Kati focussed on that pulling sensation, not allowing the swirling magic of the window to distract her, even if she could glimpse shadows and shafts of light within it, even if a part of her was terrified that a soulwraith would come hurtling out of it and devour her magic.
Focus, Dolly chided. Don’t lose your nerve, Kati.
Kati nodded, words beyond her as she tunnelled into herself, sensing only that pull on her athame—and she sent her own tug back, urging the tiny part of Mr Argyle’s soul in her knife to reel in the bulk of his spirit. If Kati didn’t bring his soul safely over—and just his soul, no others—he’d never become an Eternal. He’d just be dead. And Kati would have killed him.
Which was probably what Hale wanted, that bitch.
Kati gritted her teeth even as a new wave of icy dizziness swept over her, but the force pulling on her athame was growing. The spirit was getting closer. Kati yanked harder, panting, and her arm began to shake at the magnetic force between her athame and Mr Argyle’s soul.
Darkness blurred into Kati’s vision and for a panicked second she thought it was a wraith, but no, it was just unconsciousness creeping up on her. But then the soul was there, rushing through the swirling window of purple magic, as bright and blue as Ingrid had been.
It’s not her, Dolly said urgently. Kati, don’t let go of that athame, okay? You need to put the guy’s soul back in his body.
Kati was shaking. She wasn’t sure she could move, let alone return Mr Argyle’s soul and close the portal, but she had to. That was all she knew—she had to.
With jerky movements, weakness and dizziness gripping her tight, Kati reared her hand back and thrust her athame deep into the dead man’s shoulder. She shook hard as the spirit rushed past her and back into his body, the reanimation complete.
Kati meant to pull her athame out of Mr Argyle’s shoulder. She meant to close the window to the underworld. But the classroom tilted and her head hit the floor. Blackness crushed her vision until she could see nothing but shadows.
Minor Anger Issues
“I’m going to kill her,” a voice seethed, so low and growling that Kati, only partly conscious, didn’t recognise it. “I don’t give a shit if she’s been teaching here for twenty years, I’m going to kill her.”
“No, you’re not,” a calm voice replied. Madam Hawkness? Kati frowned, or tried to, but her face was unresponsive. Was she even awake? “I’ll deal with her. You calm down.”
“I can’t.” So, so furious, that voice. “Kati should never have been put in that position. To create an Eternal, unassisted—”
“Breached three rules and skirted one law. Which gives me ample ammunition to make sure she never teaches again. Calm. Down.”
A growl was the only response.
A weight jumped up beside Kati, jostling her slightly, and then a warm, furry heaviness settled against her side. Something cool nudged her chin, leaving an oval of wetness, and Kati started to float away, comforted.
“Subtle,” Madam Hawkness remarked. “Are you sure getting close is a good idea? If she finds out…”
“Don’t,” the voice snapped, and Kati finally realised it was Iain talking. Her heart leapt, and a sense of safety curled around her until she relaxed, drifting back into unconsciousness.
“That should do it,” said a gruff woman, and Kati shot upright with a gasp, her eyes flying open as electricity poured through her. Or at least that was how it felt—like ten thousand volts passed through her body. She half expected someone nearby to crow, ‘it’s alive!’
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She could see nothing, just complete blank whiteness.
“Might have overdone the dosage slightly,” the woman added, and light pressure met Kati’s forehead, followed by a cool touch she knew was a wand even though her vision was empty, as if snow had coated the whole room.
“There, how’s that?” the woman asked, and Kati fell back to the creaky bed as the electricity released her, her vision creeping in as she gasped hard.
A woman leant over her, a furrow between her brows. Black hair was tied in a long braid that hung down her back and she wore an apron over a long, brown dress. A square jaw, well-worn face, and flat mouth gave her the appearance of a woman who’d had a hard life. Or someone who’d smoked and drank for a good forty years.
“What,” Kati panted, “is wrong—with you?”
“Oh, charming,” Nurse Gardner muttered. “That’s what I get for giving you my full attention.”
Kati huffed a weak laugh. “If that’s—what it feels like—not sure I want it.”
Instead of chiding her, Nurse Gardner chuckled. “Fair enough. How do you feel?”
“Shit,” Kati muttered, blinking until she could see the infirmary around her, the hospital beds spread out on the mezzanine level at the very top of the academy, and the multicoloured Diamond Rotunda just above them, glittering in the moonlight. At least it was still night and she hadn’t been out for hours.
“I’m not surprised,” Nurse Gardner said, tutting. “What were you thinking, trying to open a doorway all by yourself?”
“I was thinking it was a lesson so I should have been safe. I was thinking I’d be kicked out of necromancy class if I refused. I was thinking I knew the teacher was incompetent but I didn’t realise she’d try to kill me.” Kati was breathing hard and fast, and she realised her hands were shaking.
“Getting worked up won’t help you recover,” Nurse Gardner said with a sigh, pushing Kati back into the pillows and ignoring the glare she got for her manhandling. “Even if you are right and that woman recklessly endangered your life. She’s been suspended, just so you know.”
“Perfect,” Kati muttered, glancing around for her wand. She found it on the bedside table, along with her phone and athame, Dolly and her bag on the floor beside it.
“I go from having a useless teacher to no teacher.”
Nurse Gardner shrugged, picking up a tray from a nearby table and beginning to lay out an arsenal of little potion bottles beside Kati’s phone. “Make sure you take all of these. And I’ve got a set of healing tonics for you to take to your dorm with you when I deem you safe to discharge—which I don’t right now,” she added, seeing Kati’s expression brighten. “Plus, I’ll expect you to come to daily check ups.”
“Fine,” Kati mumbled. This was the last thing she needed after the wraith attack. “What happened to me? Why did I pass out?”
Nurse Gardner’s mouth thinned and she crossed her arms over her broad chest. “No necromancer has ever been able to hold a window open long enough to reanimate someone on their first attempt. It’s why there’s rules and academies like this to ease you in—it’s usually done in teams at first until you get the hang of it. To do it alone is a big drain on your power, and if you don’t manage your output properly—as you didn’t—you can use far too much at once. Not to mention sensing a soul as closely as necromancers and reapers have to takes a toll. It can be harrowing. Hence, rules, academies, and teams. Don’t do anything as stupid as this again, you hear?”
“Fine,” Kati agreed. “I didn’t have much choice the first time. A teacher tells you to do something, you do it. You trust them to not let you die.” So much bitterness leaked out of Kati’s voice it was astounding.
Nurse Gardner’s expression darkened. “I’ve been advised not to go around saying that Mrs Hale is a nasty waste of space again. So I’m not going to say it. Again.”
Kati smirked. “I didn’t hear anything.”
Nurse Gardner chuckled. “I knew I liked you. Alright, down all those vials and then try to stand. We’ll see about getting you home to your room.”
Thank souls. Kati liked it up here—it was quiet and calm and full of bustling plant life—but it was lonely without anyone except Nurse Gardner with her.
“If Hale’s gone, who’s supposed to teach us necromancy?” Kati asked, taking the stopper out of a deep pink potion.
Nurse Gardner snorted. “Million dollar question, love.”
Wonderful. Kati’s chances of passing necromancy this term just went from slim to none-existent.
Alone Time
Kati could have gone to her own room when Nurse Gardner discharged her. She could have. But instead, drawing on the strength draught she’d just taken, she pricked her thumb with her wand and cast an invisibility spell, skulking down SBA’s halls until she reached the north tower where most teachers rooms were situated.
It was a familiar routine, creeping up the winding stairs until she reached the bottom most door. Hoping it was late enough for Iain to be in his room but early enough that no one else would be using the staircase, she tapped gently on the heavy wooden door.
It wrenched open instantly, revealing Iain—frantic and wide-eyed behind his narrow-framed glasses. Well used to her invisibility by now, he reached out and caught her around the waist, pulling her into his room and closing the door as Kati released her spell.
“Thank souls,” he breathed, holding her close as Kati came back to full visibility. “I had to force myself through my second lesson; all I wanted was to sit by your bedside. I only came back to quickly change before going to visit you at the infirmary.” At that, Kati realised his shirt was unbuttoned, hanging open over his narrow chest. She trailed a hand from his stomach up to his collarbone and laid her hand over his fast-beating heart, a broad, comforting touch that made his stomach hollow as he exhaled a hard breath.
Kati held his gaze and said, “I’m fine. I’ll be weak and low on power for a few days, but Nurse Gardner says I’ll recover.”
Iain nodded, as if he’d expected as much. “I have something that will ease your recovery,” he said, but before she could reply, his hand slid into her red hair, tilting her head up, and he kissed her fiercely.
Kati sighed, a tension falling from her that she hadn’t even noticed, and she kissed him back hard.
“Here,” Iain said, guiding them across his small living room, pressure on the small of Kati’s back keeping them flush together. His lips returned to hers the second the word finished forming. Half-blind he reached for a crate of phials and jars on a table in front of a small, lead paned window, breaking from her mouth only to rifle through it and find a small bottle of clear green liquid. “This is potent,” he said, and Kati struggled to find meaning in the words, her mind hazy and her body buzzing with need. He unscrewed the lid and lifted out a dropper. “Two drops maximum dosage. I’ll give you one, and tell me how you feel. You can have another later if you need it.”
“Okay,” Kati agreed, glancing at the dropper. “What is it?”
A wry smile curled Iain’s mouth. “Something most death magicians and potioneers aren’t aware of. A highly effective restorative potion. Stick out your tongue.”
Kati wanted to ask how the hell he had something that most people weren’t even aware existed, but she was more interested in her headache going away and the weakness leaving her limbs. And maybe she wasn’t just dizzy from Iain’s kissing, but from her magic being depleted. She opened her mouth and Iain squeezed one drop of the crystal green liquid onto her tongue. It tasted like cinder toffee for no justifiable reason.
Kati made a face as she swallowed, watching Iain replace the bottle in his crate of potions. “I don’t feel any different—oh.” Her eyes flew wide as a rush of warmth and energy roared through her body. It faded within seconds but Kati was left feeling refreshed, like she’d had a good night’s sleep, a full meal, and a cup of coffee all at once. And her aches were gone. “Huh. That’s pretty cool.”
“Glad you think
so,” Iain replied with a lopsided smile as he cradled the back of her head, moving in for more kisses. Now that she wasn’t in pain and didn’t feel half dead, the burning hum of her desire became a roaring blaze of lust and need.
Stay here, she told Dolly. Interrupt us on pain of death.
Dolly snorted. Are mummy and daddy having some alone time?
Yes, she replied fiercely. We are.
Kati’s tongue traced Iain’s, his hand at her waist squeezing with delicious pressure, and she guided him, walking backwards and trusting that she wouldn’t walk into anything in his sparsely decorated front room, to the door to his bedroom.
“Tell Blaze to stay out here,” she said huskily, and when he grinned, she kissed him harder, determined to taste it, to feel it against her own smile. “If you’re ready…?” she added.
“More than,” Iain replied with a nod, his Caribbean eyes a darker shade of blue and his expression intent with need. “Are you?”
“Souls, yes,” Kati breathed with a laugh. “I’ve been ready for weeks. Months. I just didn’t want to pressure you if you weren’t.”
His smile grew, softness edging the urgent need. “I love you.”
Kati’s stomach did a backflip. For a second, she was sure she’d stopped breathing. “Seriously?”
He nodded, brushing her jaw with the back of a finger. “I have for a while.”
“Me, too,” she admitted, relieved to have it out there. And then because it really didn’t feel the same without saying the words, she took a fortifying breath and said, “I love you, too.”
Iain’s answering smile was blinding. He kicked the bedroom door shut and caught her face with both his hands, gazing at her with eyes that had gone impossibly soft. “Are you sure?”
“You already asked me that,” Kati pointed out with a smirk, running her hands down his bare chest.
“About me,” he pressed. “About loving me. Even knowing who I am—”
