The Arch Stone: Foxway Academy: Book 1

by Adam Faulkner

“You can’t just attack. We need to hold out for a plan. He doesn’t seem to have any interest in anyone right now, so as long as no one else tries to attack, we’re all safe. We just need to be patient…”

  Elijah Blake clearly wasn’t in the mood for patience.

  “You two, you know who I’m looking for, don’t you?” he shouted across the room. He flicked his wrist and a blast of shadow slid across the wall, before settling just in front of Matt and August. “One of you is going to contact our… mutual friends… Make them come back.”

  “Like hell…” Matt grunted. Elijah sighed.

  “Oh, you people do like to be dramatic, don’t you…? So cliché…” he flicked his wrist and the shadow moved, stopping just in front of August’s neck. “Give me your phone, or she dies.”

  Matt clenched his fist.

  “We can’t bring them back here, Matt… We need to give them time to work out a plan…” Matt reached into his suit jacket and pulled out his phone. “Matt, don’t…”

  “He’s already taken one person I care about… I’m not letting him take you as well…”

  The shadow slid underneath Matt’s hand, lifting his phone and pulling it over to him. He flicked through the phone, until he found what he was looking for.

  *

  We were getting ready to leave when my phone went off.

  “It’s Matt…” I scrambled to answer the call. “Matt! Are you guys alright? What’s going on there?” I bombarded him with questions the second the call connected.

  “Hello, Miss George.”

  I dropped the phone when I heard the voice on the other side. Raven picked the phone straight up and put the call on speaker.

  “Elijah… If you’ve hurt them, I swear I’m-”

  “Oh, please, stop with the threats, sister dear. You can be so sharp sometimes…”

  “What do you want?” I interrogated.

  “Oh, there’s a lot of things I want, Emilie. Foxway Academy holds more secrets than either of us could imagine... But there isn’t time to take the school right now. So, I want you, Emilie George, and I want the Arch Stone. If you give me it, I’ll leave, simple as that.”

  “If you’ve hurt Matt…”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry. He’s fine. I simply gave him some incentive to give me this phone… Young love is so nice to see, isn’t it? And don’t worry, she’s fine as well. The young man was so chivalrous. I was quite impressed,” he laughed. “So, can I expect to see you soon? I really do need to get this over with quickly, and I’d hate to have to finish off the clever little Illusionist who let you escape…”

  Raven looked at me.

  “Mary…” I clenched my fist. “Meet me in the main courtyard, in front of the school. Bring Matt, August and Mary, let everyone else go… and I’ll give you what you want.”

  “You can’t!” Raven protested.

  “It’s the only choice.” I held my hand to stop her. “So, will you be there?”

  The faint static of the phone was all we heard for the next few seconds, as Elijah considered my offer.

  “I believe we have a deal…” he eventually decided. “Ten minutes. The main courtyard. And bring my sister. I do miss her,” he added before he hung up the phone.

  “What are you doing!” Raven shouted. “You’re giving him everything he wants!”

  “Of course I’m not!” I shouted in response. Raven stopped. “This gives us everything we need. He’ll let everyone else go, and we can get him out in the open.”

  Raven calmed down a little, but she still looked uneasy.

  “It’s going to be more difficult using your Luxomancy in the dark like that. Will you be able to manage it?” Greyford asked.

  “Yes, she will,” Raven replied. “She’s put even more work into this than me.” She looked over at me. “You can do it, Emilie. I know you can.”

  “I’ll do it. I don’t have a choice,” I agreed. “Now come on. We’ve got ten minutes to get to the courtyard, and I want to beat Elijah there.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay…” I breathed, pulling myself together, pushing any doubts to the back of my mind. I exhaled and opened my eyes. “Let’s go.”

  48

  Elijah Blake smiled menacingly as he made his final request over the phone.

  “…And bring my sister. I do miss her…” He hung up the phone and laughed. “It looks like our friend is playing me for a fool…” He looked over at Matt, August and the still unconscious Mary. “You three, you’re coming with me,” he shouted across the room. “The rest of you… Go home!”

  He gestured to the people at the door to move and the students who had been trapped inside stampeded out of the building. Elijah sighed as he watched the last students disappear out of the auditorium.

  “Shame, really. Hostages really are so much fun…” he remarked as he jumped down off the stage and walked over the corner of the room. “So, are you going to come with me easily?”

  “Like hell…” August grunted.

  “We’ll come,” Matt interrupted. August moved to argue but Matt held her back.

  Elijah smiled again.

  “Wonderful…”

  *

  “Why the hell did you agree to come with him?” August asked as they shuffled behind Elijah. Mary was still unconscious, so Matt was carrying her to the courtyard, and it was slowing them down considerably.

  “Because Emilie’s got a better chance of being able to take him if we’re all together. Besides, we couldn’t just stay there, not with Mary like this.”

  “Still, I’m not sure who put you in charge…”

  “I wasn’t trying to be ‘in charge’.”

  “Strange way of showing it…”

  “It was the right call. We’re in a better position now than when we were in there. We’ve got to think about this logically, August. We’ve seen what he’s done to people who tried to argue with him. We can’t just throw out attacks and hope for the best this time. Blake’s dangerous. Really dangerous.”

  “What, and you think I don’t know that? We were all there for the last attack. We all saw what he did.”

  “And I don’t want that to happen again!” Matt stopped walking. “I’m not having him take anything else away from me!”

  August stopped.

  “I… I…”

  “Hey, don’t trail behind!” Elijah snapped as he noticed they had fallen behind. “I’m not in the mood for your relationship drama…”

  “You’re not in the mood…” Matt muttered under his breath as he picked up his speed, at least as much as he could, still being weighed down by the unconscious Mary.

  “How is she?” Matt checked Mary’s pulse.

  “Hanging in there, still… I think the bleeding’s slowed down a lot. But we really need to get her somewhere safer…” he replied for the fiftieth time. He knew that the reality wasn’t going to change, unless it got worse, but it was making August feel better.

  Not that it was making Matt feel any calmer about the situation. Her pulse was there, but it was definitely weak. She’d lost a lot of blood, and though he would never have told August this, he wasn’t altogether sure she’d make it.

  “So, what’s your plan then? What happens when we find Emilie?” Matt asked.

  “Oh, that would just be spoiling the surprise…” Elijah brushed him off. “And I’d consider not pushing me too much further. I am not a man of my word, and I have every intention of quietening you two down if you don’t do it yourselves…” he threatened. “Children are such a pain…”

  *

  “So, you good with the plan?” I asked Raven as we walked down the stairs of Umbra dorm. Greyford and Artemis were staying up in Raven and Mary’s room; it was going to be a lot safer, especially once the lockdown went into place.

  “We meet Elijah, he gives us Matt, August and Mary, and then…”

  “Then I try and hit him with my spell to slow him down, to give us time to get the others to safety?”

  �
�You get the others to safety. I’m gonna keep him distracted.”

  “You’re not doing that on your own!”

  “I’ve been learning magic specifically to fight him. I’ve been training for a plan like this.”

  “And what if you get hurt?”

  “As long as you guys get to safety, it doesn’t matter. I’ve taken enough shit this year. I can put up with one more fight.”

  “And what if you can’t? What if he’s just too strong?”

  “Then I’ll… I’ll do what I can to get away. But you can’t worry about me. I think Mary’s hurt, badly. You need to make sure she gets treated. That’s the priority here”

  “We’ve got a better chance of fighting him if we’re all there. He can’t fight four of us at once.”

  “He’s done it before. And there were five of us then.”

  “We’re stronger now. We can overpower him.”

  “It’s not worth the risk.”

  “You can’t beat him alone.”

  “I don’t have to beat him. I just need to hold him enough until you can get away.”

  “What’s gotten into you? For the whole time I’ve known you, you’re the one who’s stopped me from doing things like this. The one telling me to trust in you, and Matt, and August. The one telling me not to go off on my own without a proper plan, because it’s just going to get me hurt.”

  “But that’s… It’s different…”

  “How?”

  “I… I… I…”

  “It isn’t. This is where we need to trust each other. Where we need to stay together. Fight together. Why can’t you see that?”

  I knew she was right. I mean, she was right.

  “I just… I don’t want you guys to get hurt… because of me…”

  “And you think we want to see you get hurt? I have lost too much over the years to Elijah, to the people he works for… I’m not going to just turn and run away and let him take you as well.”

  “I...” I didn’t really know what to say. Eventually, I just sighed. “I know…” I admitted. I really couldn’t argue with her logic, even if I wanted to. “Fine. But we need to make sure Mary’s safe. Elijah made it sound like she was pretty badly hurt…” I didn’t want to think about what he could have done to her. We knew how far he was prepared to go… “If Matt and August are still good to fight, we’ll take him together. But if it looks bad, I still want you guys to get out before me…”

  “I’m not going to leave you…” Raven shook her head. “We don’t have time to argue about this. None of this is going to matter if we don’t get to Elijah in time.”

  “Okay.” I gave in. “We need to hurry though. I want to be there before he is.”

  *

  “Hurry up!” Elijah shouted back to Matt and August. “I want to be at your courtyard first...”

  “We’re moving as fast as we can…” Matt grunted as he shifted Mary’s weight around. It didn’t help that getting to the main courtyard involved clambering over a relatively steep hill, but the extra weight wasn’t making thing any easier for him. She wasn’t heavy, necessarily, but any fully-grown human was going to be awkward to carry, and Mary wasn’t an exception.

  “What’s your problem, anyway?” August asked. “What possible justification could you make for hurting kids?”

  Elijah tensed up.

  “It’s necessary.”

  “Necessary?” Matt bit his lip. “How was killing my sister necessary…”

  “I didn’t do anything that wasn’t going to help the cause.”

  “The cause? You people just want power. Nothing more!” August snapped.

  “We are fighting for all Magicals!” Elijah protested. “We’ve spent our entire history hiding from the human world. Pretending Magic’s something we should hide. And what happens when someone decides to break that? The Humans… They used to kill us! Even now, the humans treat us like jokes, like some freaks of nature, or worse, entertainment!” The bitterness in Elijah Blake’s voice took Matt back. “We can do things that they could only dream of… We should be like gods to them! All of us…”

  “Maybe… So… But do you really think this is the way to do it?” Matt asked

  “It’s the only way…”

  “That isn’t even how your leader looks at it, is it?” August asked. “I’ve done my research on the Syndicate, Blake. You’re not peaceful, not at all… but you’re supposed to be working in the background; controlling, manipulating. Not attacking…”

  “Our leader… He… He believes in our cause, but… he’s not willing to do what needs to be done. We’ve been ‘working in the background’ for years now, and we’re still no closer to our goals. So… I’ve taken matters into my own hands. With the Arch Stones, we could be in control of this planet in a week. Restart society by force. That’s the only way.”

  The conversation ended after there. Matt knew Elijah was wrong, but arguing was just going to put them in more danger. He looked at August. She looked like she was barely keeping herself under control. He knew that she had a past with the Syndicate, and though he didn’t know too much about the details, he knew that Elijah’s speech must have brought it all back to the front of her mind.

  “We’re going to be fine, August. Emilie’s got a plan, I know she has. We just need to go along with Blake for the time being, and everything’s going to work out, okay?” August exhaled and nodded. “Okay?”

  “Yeah…” she breathed. “Everything’s going to be fine…”

  *

  The air outside was cold, much colder than normal. It was almost as if the school’s weird little ecosystem knew shit was about to go down and was adjusting itself accordingly. Then again, for all I knew, that was exactly what was going on. It’s not like anything would have surprised me on that night. With everything that had happened, I wasn’t going to count anything out.

  I knew that Elijah probably figured out that I wasn’t just going to give over the Arch Stone pretty quickly. I’d known that from the beginning. I was counting on it. Elijah was arrogant, and I knew if I could tempt him with the opportunity to catch me off-guard with an attack he wouldn’t be able to resist it.

  The plan wasn’t perfect, not at all. We’d already seen students flooding past us, scrambling to get into the dorms before the lockdown activated, so we knew they were safe, but Matt, August and Mary were another story. We hadn’t heard from them since the last phone call, and I knew Elijah wouldn’t hesitate to hurt them if he thought he needed to.

  I tried to focus on the plan, focus on facts, but that wasn’t easy, especially when I had a constant murmuring in my head telling me that everything bad had happened. I could see the courtyard through the trees. Elijah wasn’t there yet, but we still had five minutes for him to get there before we got worried. The auditorium was on the other side of the campus, and in all honesty ten minutes was cutting it close, for them at least. I knew it wasn’t something to be worried about, at least not straight away, but it still didn’t do much for the pain in my chest.

  When we reached the courtyard, we started to put everything into position. Raven was hiding behind a tree to the west of the space, and I settled myself right in the middle. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down before everything kicked off.

  It took about three minutes to start hearing footsteps walking towards the courtyard. I tensed up. For a few seconds, I couldn’t move. I knew I had to try to stay strong, but that didn’t change the fact that, in all honesty, I was terrified. I had a plan, I had people to back me up. But when I heard him coming closer, I remembered everything he’d done last time we’d fought. I tried to control my breathing as Elijah Blake appeared around the side of the school. I relaxed a little when I saw Matt and August behind him. And I tensed up even more when I saw what Matt was carrying.

  “Mary…” I clenched my fist. “Elijah!” I shouted across the courtyard. “If she’s… If you…”

  I looked over at Matt.

  “She’s alive
,” he mouthed at me. I felt a bit of relief, for a split second. Then I saw Elijah moving closer to me, smiling. He definitely knew it was a trap; but how much had he predicted? He stopped about ten metres away from where I was standing.

  “So, Emilie George…” He stopped smiling. “Are you going to give me what I want?”

  49

  Me and Elijah stood looking at each other for a second, working out which one of us was going to make the first move. Both of us knew the answer to his question. Obviously, I wasn’t just going to give him the Arch Stone. But what was he going to do about it?

  I tried to glance over at Raven. She had started to piece together the Meridian Phoenix spell, but I needed to keep Elijah distracted.

  “Why do you need it?” I asked. “I mean, you clearly don’t need it.” I nodded at his own stone. That was something I always forgot. Somehow, for some reason, an Arch Stone had chosen him just like it had chosen me.

  “Oh, come on, you really don’t know?” he laughed. “Seriously? Good old Professor Greyford hasn’t actually told you what the Arch Stones are? That’s cute…”

  “What do you mean? What they are?”

  Elijah smiled.

  “I think it’s more fun if you don’t know, isn’t it? Yes, I think so,” he decided. “Now, are you going to give it to me, or was this all a trap? Because my dear sister over there seems to be constructing a spell…”

  I looked over at Raven. She was still trying to cast the spell. I could see sparks flying around her as she moved, but it still didn’t seem to be coming together. She had her eyes closed, doing everything she could to concentrate. I had to make sure Elijah couldn’t get to her before she could finish the spell. I activated my ice and sent a shower of shards flying towards him. A few of them hit him, but they really didn’t do much to slow him down.

  I nodded at Matt and August. I knew they wanted to help. They were just as ready to fight as me. August smiled as she flicked her fingers around the air. Sparks of electricity crackled around her body as she stepped forward. She flicked her hand forward, and bolts of lightning flew at Elijah. He tried to keep moving forward, but it was obvious from the moment it hit him that he was in pain. It had definitely slowed him down. But was it going to be enough? He flicked his hand up, bringing up a sheet of shadow, knocking the electricity away. August stepped back, barely avoiding being hit by her own reflected attack. I considered charging straight at Elijah at this point; anything to keep him away from Raven. But, in the end, it wasn’t needed. I didn’t see Matt move, or even put Mary down, but, as it turned out, the distraction had given him enough time to put together his own Geomancy spell, and Elijah was stopped in his tracks by a chunk of the floor rising up into a wall. I looked over at Matt. He looked strained; it was taking a lot for him to keep a structure that big active. I looked past the wall at Raven. She was tried to hold her hands steady, controlling the massive flames that were surrounding her body. The spell was ready. This was it.