Suddenly, running footsteps sound in the upstairs hallway, and we’ve got company. No doubt they were summoned by Bella’s screams. Bella Lu and Bella Goodwin are in the middle of a full-on screaming match now, with Brunette Bella adding random, unhelpful comments at every opportunity.
I look up just in time to see a handful of people arriving, though I have no idea who they are. The only one I recognize is the headmaster.
Cleo promptly transforms into a gun. This bitch wants to commit murder in the worst way.
“Professor Darius,” Orville thunders from the top of the stairs. “What on earth is going on?”
Suddenly, Elowen appears at my elbow. “Come on,” she whispers, cutting her eyes toward a darkened doorway to our left. “Let’s sneak out while they’re busy fighting and see if the basement has any windows.”
“I’ll distract them,” Thorn says before turning and crossing the lobby toward the group at the bottom of the stairs.
I don’t wait to see how he’ll pull it off. I know we only have seconds at best before someone spots us slipping away. I grab Elowen’s hand, and we dart through the doorway.
“You think they saw us?” she whispers. I hold a finger to my lips, then turn to the darkened dining room. I can just make out a long wooden table lined with chairs. I motion for Elowen, then start forward across the room. Behind us, I hear a commotion start. People shout and weapons clang. I run faster, through the dining room and into a kitchen.
“There’s always an exit in the kitchen,” I mutter, searching for the door. I find it, grab Elowen’s hand, and tear out the door. We emerge onto a concrete walkway lined with small stones and ferns. Without a word, we creep around the house, searching for low windows. At last, we find a row of three small squares set at ground level along the back of the house.
“Jackpot,” I say, grinning at Elowen. “Good call.”
“It’s the least I can do,” she says, peering warily at them. “But I don’t know if we’ll fit through.”
“We definitely will.” There’s no way I’m coming this close and giving up. “If I’m too big, at least you can go in and untie him.”
“I don’t know…” she says, chewing at her lip frantically. Her face has gone as pale as a moon in the night.
“Elowen? What’s wrong?”
“I… I don’t do well in small spaces,” she says. “If I get stuck…”
“You won’t.”
“What if it’s a trap?” she asks. “What if there’s someone down there who grabs me, too? If they tie me up…”
“Then I’ll get you out.”
“You don’t understand,” she says, her voice quavering. “Jade, if they trap me in there…”
“What?”
“I’ll panic,” she says. “I can’t help it. I have claustrophobia so bad I’ll do anything to get out. Use dark magic, betray my friends…”
“Okay, okay,” I say, holding up a hand. “Calm down. I’ll go in.”
“I’m sorry,” she says, her eyes brimming with tears.
“It’s okay,” I say. “I was going to try, anyway. And if I can’t fit, well… I don’t know. We’ll figure out something.”
She nods, pulls back a foot, and kicks in the window.
“Damn,” I say. “I was going to use Cleo, but okay.”
“Hey!” a voice yells from a short distance away. “Stop right there!”
I look up in time to see a guard with a flashlight hurrying toward us from maybe a hundred feet away. So much for figuring out if the window’s big enough to fit through. Guess I’ll find out the hard way.
“Go,” Elowen hisses. “I’ll keep him out as long as I can.”
“Thanks,” I say. There’s no time to say more. I kick out the last shards of glass from the window and dive through. My top half slides in easily, but my hips get wedged in the opening. I squirm frantically when I hear the guard yelling, his footsteps hammering on the path as he breaks into a run.
Just as his footfalls reach us, I give a giant heave, but there’s something holding me back. I brace my hands on either side of my hips, wrenching and kicking with all my might. Behind me, I hear Elowen making panicked excuses to the guard.
“Fuckity fuck,” I mutter, flailing as hard as I can. I vow to cut back on the snacks, and like magic, something gives way, and I slide through. As my body plunges through into the darkness, I realize what it was. It wasn’t magic. It was my jeans ripping. Cleo was caught on the sill. And now she’s out there, and I’m in here.
I hit the floor and roll across concrete. Leaping to my feet, I grasp frantically at my waist, though I know she’s not there. The feeling is horrible, like panic and loss at once. I almost cry out, but I hold it back.
Fuck. I can’t reach out, and I can’t tell Elowen to get it. Not without distracting her from the guard or letting the guard know who I am. For a minute, I stand there, my heart being ripped in two. I can go back for Cleo, or I can go forward and find my father. I’m ashamed of how hard the choice is. Forcing away my selfishness, I turn away from the window, even though I can feel Cleo calling to me like I’m leaving my very soul behind.
Ignoring the anguish inside me, I turn away from the window. I grab the only thing I have, the ancient little phone that gives off barely enough light to see two steps in front of me, and I aim it around the room. I make out a figure, and my heart nearly stops.
“Dad,” I cry, rushing over. He’s slumped in a chair, his head hanging forward on his chest and his arms taped to the armrests with duct tape. I drop my phone on the floor face-up to give me a scant bit of light as I begin to yank at the tape.
Dad groans and moves his head, and I see that he has duct tape across his mouth, too.
“I’m going to fucking kill her,” I mutter as I reach up and gently peel the tape away. He groans again, and tears sting my eyes. I finish uncovering his mouth and reach for his arms. Cleo would be really fucking helpful right now, but I can’t regret leaving her. Not when it means getting Dad back. I find the end of the tape at last and quickly unwind it, yanking it free as fast as I can.
“Jade?” Dad asks, staring at me without comprehension.
“Yeah, Dad,” I say, swallowing the ache in my throat. “I’m getting you out of here.”
I make quick work of his other hand and then move down to his legs, which are also taped to the chair.
“Jade, don’t,” he mutters. “Get out. It’s dangerous here.”
“Shut up, Dad,” I say. “I’m not leaving without you. I made that mistake by leaving you at Silas’s. I knew better, but I left you anyway. Not this time.”
“He’s dangerous,” he repeats.
“I know,” I say, peeling the last of the duct tape free. I slide an arm around my dad’s middle, feeling how frail and slight he is. I wonder if they’re even feeding him. Rage explodes inside me at the thought of them starving him. But right now, I can’t worry about that. All I can do is get him out of here and make sure he gets plenty of good meals from here on.
“Put your arm over my shoulders,” I coax. “I’m going to lift you up now.”
With his arm over me, I hoist him to his feet. “Jade,” he says. “You need to get out now. Before he hurts you.”
“I’m getting out,” I say. “And I’m taking you with me. So, let’s get out of here.”
I shine the light around the room, holding it high to cast as much light as I can. That’s when I see the man standing between me and the stairs.
“Not so fast,” Headmaster Orville says, stepping forward out of the darkness with his weapon raised.
“No,” I cry, lurching forward.
“Oh, yes,” he says, a gleeful grin stretching across his thin lips. In his gnarled old hand, he holds a small, unimpressive metal spork.
Chapter Nineteen
“You bastard,” I cry, struggling forward with my dad’s weight leaning heavily on me. “Give me back my spork!”
“But it’s so much more than that, isn’t it?”
Orville says, turning the spork over in his hand to read the inscription. I’ve tried a hundred times, but the words aren’t in English or any other language I’ve found on the internet.
“Give it to me,” I growl. “She won’t obey you, anyway.”
“Ah, but she’ll obey you, won’t she?” Orville says with a delighted grin, holding Cleo aloft.
“What do you want?” I demand.
“The same thing we all want,” Orville says. “Don’t think too badly of me for luring you here to get it. I couldn’t very well ask for it. Not from someone so young and naïve. You wouldn’t understand.”
Ew. He better not be thinking what it sounds like. There’s no way that crusty old dick is coming anywhere near me.
“You kidnapped my father and lured me here to get… What? Sex magic?”
Orville blinks at me before beginning to laugh. “You think I’m interested in sex? I’m nearly two hundred years old, Jade. I’ve had plenty of sex. What I need isn’t sex. It’s life.”
“Life?” I ask. “And you think you’re going to get that from my weapon?”
“Not from your weapon,” he says, taking a step toward me. “From you.”
“You’re going to kill me?” I stare at the spork in his hand, wondering if I can control Cleo from here. I know one thing for sure. She’s not going to kill me.
“That wasn’t the original plan,” he says. “I was content at my little school. But seeing this student with such power squandering it, not even appreciating it? That was too much. As they say, youth is wasted on the young. I wouldn’t waste it. I would use it for the good of the world.”
“Thanks for the offer, but I think I’d rather do that myself.”
“Such foolhardy notions,” he says. “You see, I wouldn’t have even considered such a thing at first. I was so busy thinking of how I could protect you, get you a proper teacher, it never crossed my mind what you could do for me. But then Lilith came to visit me.”
“Lilith?” I ask, glancing around. That bitch again.
“Oh, yes,” he says. “She was quite anxious to see you. You see, she wanted your magic so she could live again. Of course I told her no.”
“I want to say thank you, but I have a feeling your answer isn’t as nice as it sounds.”
“You see, after she left, I kept thinking, why should I let her go after you again and again, seeking your magic, when I have it right in front of me every day? I don’t know if you know this, Jade, but I have run short on magic.”
“I’m really sorry to hear that,” I say. “But that’s your issue to deal with.”
“And I have been,” he says. “At first, I thought it would be enough to release your guards from duty. I was sure that I could lure you here on my own. But you were never alone. That pierced and dyed little wizard was always with you.” He sounds disgusted by Asher, which only pisses me off more.
“Sorry I have friends,” I say, glaring at him. “Such an inconvenience for a psychopath.”
“I grew impatient,” Orville says, ignoring my snark. “I won’t live forever, you know. Not like this. But I just happened to have a very useful tool delivered right to me.”
“Bella,” I say. If I can keep him talking, someone is sure to get through that door to help us.
“Yes, Bella,” he says. “And luckily for us, she had a friend so desperate to contact her that she told her all about the gossip on campus, including when you were leaving for a date. It was nothing to get your father here. He came on his own, in fact. I simply told him who I was, and he got right into the car.”
“Is that why you tied him to a chair?” I ask. “Because that doesn’t look much like agreement.”
“Yes, well, things went badly when we arrived here,” he says with a dismissive wave. “But even so, it all worked out, didn’t it? I left you a card in his house, knowing you’d come right to the master.”
“You left that.”
“Of course,” he says, looking cross. “What other master do you have?”
“Arrogant much?” I mutter.
Orville goes on, obviously so pleased with himself that he has to brag about his success. “You came and found him, just as I hoped you would. I didn’t expect you to bring a small army with you, but I’ve compelled them to stay out of my basement. They’re all standing around up there like a bunch of geese!” He cackles at his own cleverness.
Okay, then. No rescue team for me. It’s up to me to take down this power-hungry psycho. I don’t even have Cleo.
Or do I?
Maybe I can get her to bite his hand off or something.
“So you think you’re going to kill me and steal my magic because you ran out?” I ask. “Is it really that simple?”
“Oh, I won’t kill you, dear,” he says. “I’m no murderer. I simply want what has gone from me. Killing you would be the worst possible solution. Then you couldn’t provide me with a steady supply of everything I desire.”
“That’s sick,” I growl. It’s bad enough that Silas was going to use me. Now this guy wants the same thing but for different purposes.”
“Not sick,” Orville says. “I suppose one might call it selfish. But anyone in my position would understand. You see, this happens sometimes to an old wizard. Much like impotence, since you brought up sex. Only this is magical impotence. I haven’t been able to hold onto my magic as well as I used to. It simply drains away. But you… You have magic in spades. And not just any magic. You have the magic of life. Not only can you fill me with magic, but you can make me able to hold onto it again. You, Jade, are going to give me back my youth.”
“Don’t count on it,” I growl.
“You’re the only person who can,” he says. “Even my grandniece can only give me a temporary fix. You can give me back all that I’ve lost.”
“Are you fucking serious?” I ask. “You did all this for some mythical fountain of youth?”
“It’s no myth,” he says, his eyes gleaming with greed as he steps closer still. I need to put my dad down, but there’s nothing around but the floor. Still, I don’t want him to get hurt, to be stuck between us if we fight. And I can’t very well fight with my hands full.
“The mistake people make is thinking it’s something out there, a place they can find. But it’s not a place. It’s a person. The High Priestess is the fountain of youth. And now, I shall drink.”
He leaps forward, quicker than I thought possible for such an elderly man.
“No,” I cry, swinging my dad’s body between us and smacking him against Orville. It’s the only weapon I’ve got. Dad groans, but it’s enough to knock Orville back.
“I’ve been taking some of his life every day,” Orville says, goading me. “It’s almost gone. Humans don’t have very much, but they have some. They don’t have magic, though. That’s why I had to get Bella to come home.”
“You’re siphoning magic from your own family?” I ask in disgust.
“That’s what is supposed to happen to a witch when she’s kicked out of the Academy,” he says. “In fact, if it wasn’t for you, this whole plan wouldn’t have come about. I didn’t know how I was going to keep running this school. My magic was so low, I’d grown desperate. But then you got my niece suspended, and the answer landed in my very lap.”
“I’m going to put you down, Dad,” I say. “Don’t worry. I won’t leave you. I just need to kick some grampa ass before we leave.”
I bend to set him down, and Orville darts in. He swipes my legs from under me, and I tumble to the concrete floor with Dad. I roll away from him, drawing Orville away in case he gets any ideas about grabbing Dad and using him to negotiate.
Fortunately, something goes my way at last, and Orville’s attention stays fixed on me. Not so fortunately, the old geezer attacks. He swipes at me, plunging the spork into my thigh. I scream in shock and pain, making a swipe for his hand. He jerks back, though, dancing out of my reach.
It gives me a second to spring to my feet, though. Ignoring the
pain ripping through my muscle and the blood running down my leg, I crouch and yank my knife from my boot. Even though I have Cleo, old habits die hard. Me and my switchblade go way back. I relied on it long before the spork came into my life, and I’m thankful I have it now. Apparently, Cleo’s not going to have my back tonight, after all.
“You’re a sick old bastard,” I say, wielding my knife. “You might have some of your niece’s psycho magic, but you’ll never take me down.”
“Such confidence,” he says. “Too bad it doesn’t come with the skill to back it up.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I say. “I took your niece down, didn’t I?”
“She’ll be a great witch one day,” he says. “But right now, she’s dumber than you. Don’t worry. I’ll give her some of your magic to replenish hers. I told her I was giving her some of mine, but all along, I was taking what I needed from her. Just enough that I’m strong tonight. Strong enough to defeat you.”
“Then come at me,” I say. “I’m ready.”
To my horror, Cleo springs to life in his hand, transforming into a long, gleaming sword. The traitorous bitch! Orville laughs and darts in, jabbing at me. I have no reach with my knife, so all I can do is dart aside. I back into a set of stairs, then have no choice but to step up or be impaled.
Orville grins with triumph and attempts to impale me again. I stumble backwards up another step, then another.
“Keep going,” Orville taunts. “I will drink your magic like the nectar it is, savoring every swallow. You don’t even know how to use it. You waste it and prattle on about the shame of it. I would never squander such treasure as you do.”
“It’s not yours to squander,” I yell, darting up to the top of the stairs. And then I’m at the top, backed against the door that was locked from the other side. But he must have come down these stairs. I reach behind me and grab the knob, sending out a prayer as I twist it.
Academy of Sorcery: Term 2: Fallen Master Page 17
