by Leigh Kelsey
Kati’s mouth went dry, and she dug her fingers into the arms banded around her waist, throwing every bit of strength into moving Iain even an inch as wraiths descended on them. They were exactly like the one that had attacked her in the hallway, swarms of shadow and midnight, with a wide mouth full of teeth. But there wasn’t one this time. There were ten.
“Let Kati go,” Theo said quickly, taking a step closer to LaVoire. “She’s got nothing to do with this.”
“She’s powerful,” Lady LaVoire replied, barely sparing him a glance. “She’ll serve me the same purpose you will.”
“She won’t,” he replied, his voice like steel. Kati stared at him, her attention stolen from the wraiths for the moment. She’d never heard him sound like that before. “We agreed that if I helped you, you’d leave my family out of this.”
LaVoire shrugged carelessly. “I lied, love.”
Theo’s expression fell. He seemed conflicted, but then decisiveness settled across his freckled face and he lurched across the ceiling to grab Kati. To free her of Iain’s hold? To help her to safety? Kati never found out, because an arc of royal blue magic lashed out and snared his hands, locking his arms to his sides and spiralling around his body from throat to ankle. He fell face-first onto the mossy ground, and Kati let out a cry.
He might have been evil, a complete traitorous bastard, but he was still her brother. She wanted him locked up, not killed by a dark lady.
“Don’t kill him,” Kati breathed. “Please, he’s just an idiot. He never knows when to shut up.”
Lady LaVoire laughed and nodded, no sign of evil in her expression. “I’d noticed that about him.”
“What are the wraiths for?” Kati asked breathlessly.
Mr Prise snorted. “What do you think they’re for?”
Kati shook her head; she didn’t know. She was too scared to get her mind to work. She stared in horror as the wraiths paused in a ring around them, sealing them into the clearing. And this close, without them trying to suck her magic or steal her body, Kati was able to get a closer look at them. Each of them wore a luminous key around their throats, despite the fact they didn’t seem to have a humanoid form or—you know—a neck.
Moonstone keys. The keys that allowed people entry to SBA’s grounds. That was how they’d entered, how they’d subverted the wards that had held for a decade. It must be how Theo and Lady LaVoire were here right now; now that she was looking, she spotted identical keys around their necks too.
“Courtesy of your brother,” Lady LaVoire said, Frida Juneau’s face crinkled with amusement and a touch of pride. “He stole them for me while everyone was distracted by the wraiths near the lake.”
Kati went cold all over, ice in her veins. Her brother really was a monster.
“What are you going to do?” Because if Lady LaVoire had come here for the book … she had it. If she wanted Iain? She had full control of him. Kati, too.
What was she waiting for?
“Patience,” LaVoire coached, rolling her eyes. “Kids these days, always in such a rush.”
Kati dug her heels into the hard earth under her boots and shoved backwards, trying to get Iain to move. They needed to get the hell out of the clearing before whatever LaVoire was waiting for turned up.
She got the answer to her question two minutes later, frantically re-establishing the violet shield around herself and Iain, ice cold inside thanks to the wraith’s presence filling her with terror. And maybe thanks to Ingrid’s soul trapped inside her body.
The trees to their right rustled and another familiar face stepped through. This time all Kati did was narrow her eyes.
“Why does this not surprise me at all?” Kati muttered. “You piece of shit.”
Jacob Alders snorted, the pompous, entitled twat brushing leaves off his crisp white shirt. “Nothing personal, Wilson.”
He handed something to Lady LaVoire, who gave him an indulgent smile, and said, “Would you like to do the honours, dear boy?”
Jacob grinned. “It would be an honour.”
Kati pulled her shield tighter around her and Iain, strands falling over Theo where he laid helplessly on the floor, but the attack didn’t come for them. Instead, when Jacob cast a deep green spell, a deafening explosion tore through the heavy silence, and Kati cried out, flinching automatically.
The explosion … it had come from outside the forest. It had come from the academy building.
“No,” she gasped, horror dropping her temperature to sub-zero. “You just … you blew up the academy?” she asked in a breathless voice, digging her fingernails into Iain’s arm banded around her middle.
Alders snorted, slipping his wand back up his sleeve. “Don’t be dramatic, Wilson. I just took out the catacombs. Oh, and everything above it I suppose.”
A loud shattering sounded, and Kati’s heart plummeted into her boots, nausea twisting her stomach.
The Diamond Rotunda…
“Why?” she spat at Jacob, at Lady LaVoire. “What’s the point?”
LaVoire shook her head, exasperated. She closed the little black book in her hands and stashed it in her coat pocket. “That place is full of powerful objects and old magic they would use against me. It makes perfect sense to take it from them.”
“The catacombs are right below the boys dorms,” Kati pointed out, bile in her throat. “People could die because of this.”
Lady LaVoire held her gaze with Juneau’s deep brown eyes, sad but unflinching. “There are always sacrifices in battles of good and evil.”
Kati blinked, gripping Iain’s arm harder. “And you’re on the side of good?”
“I don’t see where else I’d be,” LaVoire replied, baffled. She gestured at the wraiths, who blurred into motion, most of them peeling off to go to the academy, but three staying. As a threat, or because she really planned to turn them on Kati and her own nephew? “The Congregation of Paranormals push us into obscurity and darkness. I’ll reveal us to the world. No more hiding or cowering. Just freedom.”
“And you on a throne,” Kati replied dryly, but she wished she’d kept her mouth shut when LaVoire’s gaze sharpened on her. The sense of her power pressed on Kati until her head was pounding, her lungs barely allowing scraps of air through.
“Someone has to lead us into brighter days,” the dark lady replied patiently. “Prise, Alders, take Theo with you. I’ll bring my nephew and his paramour.”
“You’re not taking my sister anywhere,” Theo said angrily, thrashing as Prise batted Kati’s shield away as if it was nothing and grabbed hold of Theo, still bound head to toe in deep blue ropes, and dragged him to his feet. “I swear to souls, Alida.”
Kati inhaled sharply. Theo was on first name basis with this tyrant? Fuck, this was a mess.
Lady LaVoire gave him a sharp look and Theo’s mouth snapped shut so hard he bit his tongue. It didn’t look voluntary. “You were a source of such joy for me when you joined my Brooms,” she said mournfully.
Kati was going to be sick. Theo was a Black Broom? A loyal follower of this woman? Part of the group who’d burned houses, tortured people, kidnapped children, and made them into blood puppets during the Black Years?
“But you’re disappointing me,” LaVoire went on. “We’ll talk later.”
“No,” Kati gasped, wrenching against Iain’s ironclad hold as Prise and Jacob Bastard Alders dragged her brother into the trees and out of sight. She heard him struggling for a few seconds, and then they were too far away to hear anything else.
“If you hurt him, I swear to souls, I don’t care what I have to do, I’ll fucking kill you,” Kati seethed.
Lady LaVoire blinked. “Ambitious. I can appreciate a girl with aspirations.” She smiled, seeming charmed by Kati’s threat. “I’m going to enjoy spending time with you, Katriona Wilson. Although I am sad that you didn’t join me sooner. I gave you a perfect opportunity last term.”
Kati wrenched harder against Iain, fighting for breath as Lady LaVoire’s power made her
head swim with dizziness. “Oh, you mean when your psycho ghost followers tried to kill me and my friends?”
“They weren’t going to kill you.” LaVoire tutted. “That Harley girl made everyone think you were killing people so you’d be more open to my friendship. You should have allied with the ghosts and come to me.”
Friendship? Souls, that was what she called being manipulated and compelled? Friendship? And speaking of compulsion, why wasn’t LaVoire controlling Kati the way she was Iain? Did she need to hook her claws into her subconscious like she had in Iain’s dreams? Or did she need Kati weak and begging? That was clearly what she’d wanted when she made Harley trick everyone into thinking Kati was a murderer. And shit, it had nearly worked. If it hadn’t been for Naia, Rahmi, and Iain, Kati could have fallen under her spell.
“You’re insane,” Kati breathed, no longer sure if the arms around her were trapping her or keeping her upright as she wavered, dizzy.
LaVoire sighed. “I really do want us to be friends, Kati. You’ll come around, with enough time.”
She flicked her bronze fingers at the remaining three wraiths and by some unspoken signal, they rushed at Kati, a swarm of shadows and teeth.
Kati’s skin broke out in goosebumps, a shiver wracking her full body as she bucked and kicked to get free, surely bruising Iain as she fought with all her strength. Would LaVoire really let the wraiths possess Kati? Would she let them drain her magic and energy, when she’d made no secret of wanting to use it to bring herself back to full power?
Kati didn’t know, but she couldn’t take the risk. And while her demon power refused to rush out of her in horns and glowing scarlet eyes, the frost of her connection to Ingrid was right there. Probably because of the proximity of the soulwraiths, who were spirits too, just totally warped and fucked up by their time in the underworld.
Iain jerked behind her, going as tense as a rod, but Kati couldn’t allow herself to get distracted by worry or hope that he was regaining control. A wraith was right in front of her, tendrils of blackness reaching for her and its many-fanged mouth open wide.
Kati gave the ice in her veins free reign, encouraging the frost to spread, and magic exploded from her body in a miasma of frostbitten air and deadly icicle spikes.
The soulwraith recoiled inches away from her, screeching an ear-splitting, inhuman scream. Kati flinched, her eardrums bursting, and behind her Iain sucked in a gasping breath.
Kati’s legs gave out as the pain in her ears and head built, but Iain’s arm flexed around her waist and he wrenched back, tugging her with him as he retreated a step.
“Iain?” Kati pleaded, but she didn’t hear her own voice, her ears full of that ringing wraith scream.
His fingers curled around her hip, almost in answer, and Kati made to turn to him, to scan his face. But his grip tightened, and Kati cried out as she was suddenly spun away from him. Knives of ice shot from her hands, her ghost magic completely out of her control as she landed—
Outside the forest. On the banks of the silver lake. Alone.
No.
No, no, no, what had he done?
You Have The Right To Remain Immobile
The scream of the wraith and the pain of that piercing sound … it must have been enough to disrupt Lady LaVoire’s compulsion of Iain. The split second her control had slipped, Iain had taken advantage of it to send Kati away. To save her. But Kati had only been there in the first place to save him.
What was his aunt going to do to him? Kati’s breathing shattered as she dug her fingers into the damp grass beside the lake, trying to get her weak body to move.
“Wilson!” a sharp voice yelled, and Kati realised her hearing had returned as bony fingers grabbed her around the shoulders, pulling her upright and leaning her against a slim female body. Kati’s eyes blurred, dizziness rippling through her in waves. She recognised the woman’s scent but couldn’t place it.
“Shit,” the woman breathed. “Light storm!”
Silver light burst around them and Kati slammed her eyes shut even as she tried to get to her feet again. Iain needed her.
“Stay down. For fuck’s sake, are you completely stupid? There are wraiths everywhere, and someone blew up the back of the academy.”
Kati slumped against her, groaning and dizzy with relief when she finally realised who held her up. Alexandra.
“Lady LaVoire is in the forest,” she told the reaper, gripping the lapel of Alexandra’s coat in a tight hold as she focussed on her breathing until she could inhale more than tight wisps. “She’s going to kidnap Mr Worth, and I need to save him. I need to.”
“Someone will be coming. I’ve sent up a flare.”
“It’ll be too late.” Kati blinked until she could see in blurs—better than nothing—and stumbled to her feet. “I need to save him. She’ll hurt him, she’ll drain his magic—”
Whatever Kati had done with her icy ghost power, it had emptied her of all strength. The second she stood up, her legs went out from under her, but Chen caught her in a tight grip. “Leave it to the teachers. And the gentry are on their way.”
Kati had somehow kept hold of her wand during the relocation; she whipped it up now and pointed it at Alexandra. Her eyes had begun to clear, but the dizziness wasn’t going anywhere, and she was still annoyingly reliant on Chen for stability. “I’m going into that forest, and you’re not going to stop me.”
“Fine,” Alexandra snapped, her dark eyes hard as she made a gesture with her hand. With a flash of ruby magic, a tall scythe appeared, and Alexandra wielded it with scary grace. “Then I’m coming with you.”
Kati nodded. She didn’t have time to argue.
She leant on Alexandra and they started towards the tree line at a run. She didn’t dare look behind her at the academy, even though she could hear screams and sounds of destruction, fixing her eyes on the trees and only the trees.
Kati didn’t stop putting one foot in front of the other until they reached the clearing where Lady LaVoire had unleashed her wraiths.
Now, it was empty.
Kati brought a fist to her mouth as a sob tore free. Hot tears traced down her cheeks, and the surge of adrenaline that had carried her here left her body. She collapsed to her knees in the grass, trembling all over. “They’re gone.”
“She took Mr Worth?” Alexandra asked in confusion, prowling around the clearing with a scanning spell Kati didn’t recognise. “I can sense the remnants of her power and yours, and an alarming number of wraiths. Plus three others—Mr Worth’s I think, and someone else.”
“My brother,” Kati said in a small voice.
Alexandra sighed. Kati couldn’t tell if it was with exasperation or pity.
“We need to find a teacher. Preferably Balham, since she’s the one who put me on patrol.”
Kati frowned, unable to tear her eyes from the empty space in front of her. “Why?”
Alexandra shrugged. “I needed something. A purpose or whatever. This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Kati didn’t reply for a long time. When she did, it was to say, “Mr Prise is working for her. Jacob Alders, too. And I think Marigold was, but she changed her mind.”
“Marigold’s dead,” Alexandra replied quietly, her boots crunching grass as she came closer. “Someone found her in the hall outside her dorm after the explosion. Your friends are worried about you, by the way. They couldn’t find you.”
Kati’s tears came harder; she pulled her knees to her chest as hugged them. “We have to get him back.”
“Your brother?” Chen asked quietly, crouching beside her.
Kati shook her head. “He made his bed. I don’t think he’d leave Lady LaVoire even if I asked.”
Alexandra paused, scanning Kati’s face. “Mr Worth, then.”
Kati nodded jerkily. She took one last look at the clearing and pushed up from the grass, her body weak but her legs holding her up. For now. “I need to find Madam Hawkness. She knows … she just knows.”
She was
n’t about to out Iain as a gentry to a woman she only halfway trusted. Although, Alexandra had found her at the lake and probably saved her from a wraith attack. “Thanks,” she said, hesitating at the edge of the clearing. “For finding me.”
Alexandra shrugged, her expression worried as she met Kati’s gaze. “Figured you’d be in trouble. Or causing it. Your necklace is glowing, by the way.”
“What?” Kati looked down at her necklace. It had torn free of its usual place tucked beneath her clothes, and it was pulsing with faint amber magic.
Her bottom lip wobbled. Even in danger, even kidnapped, Iain was still protecting her. She closed her fingers around the charm he’d given her and squeezed, wishing she could protect him too, wherever LaVoire had taken him.
“Are you okay?” Alexandra asked quietly, touching Kati’s shoulder. “I don’t usually make this offer to people I consider my enemies, but do you want a hug?”
Kati let out a weak laugh. “I could stab you.”
Alexandra shrugged. “I’ll take the risk. You look like you need it.”
Kati didn’t protest as Alexandra twirled her scythe, the long blade vanishing in a whoosh of ruby magic, and wrapped her arms tentatively around Kati. Kati’s head fell onto Alexandra’s shoulders, and the torrent of emotion she’d been holding back rushed out of her without warning.
She shook hard, sobbing brokenly and gasping for breath, unable to erase Iain’s vacant expression from her mind. The single moment of clarity he’d had, the only second of control over his body and his magic … he’d used it to get her to safety.
Protective to the end. Self-sacrificing to the end.
Kati’s heart hurt so much she felt sure it had cracked.
“What are you gonna do?” Alexandra asked quietly, her chin resting atop Kati’s head.
Kati pulled away, mostly because she felt too comfortable in Alexandra’s arms, and scrubbed her face. “I don’t know. I need to find him.”
“Finding him means finding Lady LaVoire,” Alexandra pointed out, fixing Kati with a dubious look. “You know that, right?”
