Enchanter Witch Academy

by Paige Stonebank

  He didn’t have that same fear when it came to me. He didn’t have that same fear when it came to my feelings, to our friendship. He was out for himself and himself alone. Perhaps, all those times he’d stood up for me, defended me, was done with a hidden agenda. Perhaps he’d wanted me to feel obligated to him, to give him whatever he wanted. He was my hero, after all. Why wouldn’t I want to be with my hero?

  He never did it because he cared. He didn’t do it because he was a nice guy. No, he had fooled all of us. He had fooled me. He was not a nice guy. He was just a very smart guy who was good at pretending to be something he most definitely was not.

  “What the hell happened in here?” Sebastian asked. I hadn’t even noticed him slipping in through the window.

  “Her boyfriend got mad when she broke up with him,” the ballerina teased, and I glared at her. She wasn’t helping the situation, and yet she was grinning. Why was she trying to make this harder than it already was?

  No, that wasn’t what she was trying to do. She was trying to lighten the mood, to see how I would react. By the way she was studying Sebastian, I could tell she wanted to know how he would react over the mention of my so-called boyfriend. The little minx was always up to something. I turned to her before Sebastian even had time to reply, snuffing out her flame before she could even get the satisfaction of hearing a reply from him.

  “He was not my boyfriend and I did not break up with him. He wanted something more and I told him I couldn’t, not with everything going on,” I said as I waved my hands in the air, motioning at everything and nothing at the same time. “The asshole freaked out and nearly set the whole place on fire.”

  “Shit,” Sebastian breathed, crossing his arms. The bastard didn’t even offer to help us clean up.

  He just stood there, with that infuriating smug look plastered on his face. But, alas, this was all I could really expect from Sebastian. He’d much rather make a snarky comment than be helpful. At least where small things were concerned. I had no doubt he was reliable in a life or death situation.

  Still, it wouldn’t have killed him to grab a broom.

  “He sounds like the type of guy who used to burn ants with a magnifying glass as a child,” he added.

  I sighed. Under any normal circumstances, I would have laughed at his joke, but right now I was not in the mood. The sad part was that I could actually see him doing it as a kid, now. He seemed like the sort of child who would drown crickets for sport. There was a sort of twistedness about him that I never saw before, and now… Now, I couldn’t believe that I had been so blind all these years. He was willing to give up our friendship because he hadn’t gotten what he wanted. I’d just lost my best friend because he was being a jerk. Even if we did manage to make peace in the future, things were never going to be the same again. It just showed me how little he actually cared about our friendship. It didn’t really matter to him at all, not if it was this easy for him to walk away from it.

  I heard whispering, then looked up to see Aodh’s beak moving close to Sebastian’s ear. Whatever it said, Sebastian didn’t move a muscle in his face. It was as if he wasn’t even listening. When he saw me staring at him, he smiled and shrugged nonchalantly. “Seeing as your evening just cleared up.” He motioned to the desk and the textbooks that were scattered on the floor. I groaned, I’d forgotten about that. “You and I are going out.”

  “Sebastian, I really don’t feel like—”

  “I have news, but I can’t tell you here,” he offered, pointing at the door. He was right. Talking here was dangerous. Especially since there was a certain ghost who had made it her business to interfere with mine. If she heard something interesting, I had no doubt that she would take it to the headmistress, and they would want to step in and stop us.

  They wouldn’t like any plan we managed to come up with, and although they had no power over us—nothing nearly strong enough to keep Sebastian and me from doing whatever we wanted—I chose not to get violent at all. Tonight was enough violence for me with people that I held dear to my heart. I didn’t want to go through what I had experienced tonight with anyone else I loved. Especially not the headmistress. She was the only family I had. I didn’t think I could stomach even thinking about harming her. No, we had to play it safe. We had to stay as quiet as possible and we had to steer clear of anything that might prove an obstacle for us. The less any of them knew about what we were planning or doing, the better. They wouldn’t understand, anyway.

  “Now will you please put down the broom and come with me?”

  “Fine,” I said, getting up to set the broom by the door before grabbing Sebastian’s hoodie. “But this had better be good.”

  “Your good or my good?” he asked with a grin. I fought the urge to set his hair on fire.

  “Good is good,” I said as I pulled the hoodie over my head.

  He nodded, curling his bottom lip as if he was impressed with my answer. “Fair point.”

  ***

  It didn’t take us very long to reach the clearing where we met up every night. Sure, he slept in my room, but privacy was an issue. Even if they knew he was in my room, the headmistress wasn’t above letting me think that I was getting away with it, only to let Fiona spy on our conversations.

  No, we continued to meet up in the clearing—we spent as much time there as we possibly could, then made our way back to my room in the morning hours when we decided it was time to sleep. I had asked Sebastian to help me with my magic, but after the incident with Fiona, I was too embarrassed to even show him what my magic had become. I refused every night he offered, claiming that it was too dangerous. He didn’t mention the fact that I was the one who’d asked him to help me in the first place, but it was a hole in my lie that we both chose to ignore.

  He knew that I was struggling, and he didn’t push me or call me out. I appreciated that. What he said next, though, I didn’t appreciate so much.

  “They’re coming.”

  “Wait, what?” I asked, turning around to face him. He was rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought we had at least another month. You said—”

  “I know what I said,” he snapped, pushing a hand through his hair. He rubbed his hands together, then pushed them into his front pockets. As if deciding that it wasn’t comfortable for him, he moved them to his back pockets. They were at his sides a moment later. I had never seen him so anxious, so restless. It made me uneasy. I hated it. He was the calm one, the collected one. He was the anchor in this relationship, and I was the rocking boat on the ocean. “Things must have changed while I was away.”

  It was my turn to push my hand through my hair, the ballerina scowling at me when I accidently knocked her with my hand. I cringed an apology before addressing Sebastian again. “How do you know they’re coming?”

  “I can feel it,” he said, looking up at the sky as if he could see something that I couldn’t. “I grew up with that tainted magic around me. I know how to sense it. I know what to look for.”

  I chewed on my thumbnail. I didn’t even know that I was pacing until I stopped to look at him. “How long do we have?”

  The look on his face told me a million truths, then—truths that I didn’t want to hear. His face flashed with sorrow, with pain and anger all at once. I wanted to hug him and hit him. I wanted to kiss him.

  No, not now.

  “They’re already here, aren’t they?” I asked, my voice so soft, I didn’t even think he was able to hear me. I couldn’t say it any louder, as if that would make it a reality. Perhaps, if I didn’t speak about it at all, it wouldn’t be real; it wouldn’t happen. It was stupid, I knew. But I was desperate.

  “Yes,” he admitted guiltily. “I just had to get you out. We can’t fight them. Not like this. Your power is still mostly dormant, and I don’t have enough magic on my own to take them on.”

  He looked at me, then at the familiar and back at me again. As if he sensed something that he didn’t before. “Your magic, it’s back to the way it was be
fore,” he said, and he didn’t seem excited about it. “Even with it being back, we can’t fight. We honestly don’t stand a chance. Not with our current pools of magic. We needed the time to dig deeper, to explore more. Everything happened too fast and we didn’t have time to prepare. I should have known this was going to happen. We need to leave.” He went to grab my arm, but I pulled away.

  “But the academy…”

  “The academy has defenses in place,” Sebastian said. “Once they realize that you aren’t there, they will leave. They have no business with the lesser sorcerers.”

  “My friends are there, Sebastian!” I turned to run back to the academy but was caught in his hands.

  “You’re not going back there until they’ve left.” His voice was final, stern. It was the voice I wouldn’t normally have fought against, but this was different.

  “Sebastian,” I raged, kicking the air. “They’re going to die.”

  “If you go there, you are going to die.”

  “It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make,” I said, meaning every single word. I was happy sacrificing myself for them, for my friends and for the only family I had.

  “But it’s not one I am willing to make.” His words hit me like a brick, and I stilled in his arms, letting it sink in. “And it’s not only because I need your help. Which is part of the reason, I must admit, but it’s not the whole reason.” He turned me around to face him. “Somehow, in these last couple of weeks, you’ve wormed your way into my heart and I can’t seem to get you out.

  “I’ve spent my whole life thinking that I was the only one of my kind. My father groomed me to be a weapon, to take over the Brotherhood one day, and I was alone for most of my life. But then I heard about another elemental that my father was keeping an eye on. He’d been watching you for years, assessing your powers once every month,” Sebastian explained.

  “Your magic just seemed to get stronger and stronger, and when I overheard him talking about you, about this great witch that had magic that could rival mine, I had to get to you. For so long, it has been my only mission in life. And then I found you, this beautiful woman with hair like fire and now I can’t see how to let go of you. I have this connection to you, and I know it’s weird, but it just feels like we are meant to be together. If not in a romantic sense, then in friendship. Although, I wouldn’t complain about the former.”

  That was when I reached up, stood on my tiptoes, and kissed him.

  I couldn’t tell you why I did it. I hadn’t noticed any feelings developing for him before that night. We were friends, friends who’d known each other for a very short period of time. But he was right. We had a connection.

  Everything about us being together felt right, and when our lips touched, there was fire around us. Our flames met, dancing, combining, teasing. It was as if I had found the missing piece to the puzzle that I didn’t even know I was building. It was the piece of the puzzle that I’d needed all this time—all this time that I felt like I didn’t belong, like I just wanted to be normal. With Sebastian, I was normal. With Sebastian I wasn’t a freak; I was the same as him. I was too powerful for my own good.

  His lips were soft against mine and he tasted like mint. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer into him. He held me tightly, as if I would disappear at any second.

  “You piece of shit liar!”

  “You piece of shit liar!”

  I pulled away from Sebastien as soon as I heard Damien’s voice echo through the clearing. My blood went cold and I turned around. Damien was storming toward us. I kept Sebastien behind me despite his best efforts to get in front of me to protect me from this maniac.

  “You gave me some bullshit excuse about not being ready for a relationship, and then you go off with this guy? Who even is he, huh?”

  “I’m the guy who’s going to kick your ass if you don’t cool the hell down,” Sebastian said, his chest rumbling with rage. I felt the fire behind me, felt the lava that was running through his veins. I could feel it in the same way I felt my own. The scent of his fire hung in the air, and then I sensed it, that crippling aura that he’d revealed the first time we met. It didn’t hit as hard this time, but I could feel it around me. It was comforting and warm, just like his flames. Damien didn’t seem to notice. Of course he wouldn’t have. He was immune.

  “Stay out of this, Abercrombie,” Damien hissed, his eyes not leaving my face. The ballerina and phoenix were beside me now, ready to attack at my command. Damien’s face was contorted in anger. He didn’t seem hurt… no, this was rage. This was pure and utter rage.

  “I told you I didn’t have a good feeling about him,” the ballerina whispered. “He’s obviously crazy.”

  “Hey, man, she doesn’t owe you anything,” Sebastian said, his hands on my shoulders. His head stuck out completely above my own. I didn’t realize exactly how tall he was until that moment.

  Damien’s footsteps didn’t slow as he got closer, and closer, and closer. It didn’t seem like he was ever going to stop.

  “Damien,” I said softly, tears stinging my eyes.

  “I followed the trail of your magic,” he said, shaking his head. “I came to apologize.”

  “I—”

  “But it seems like there is no need for me to apologize, now is there?”

  Anger burned the back of my throat. “Of course, you have to apologize!” I said, stepping forward. “You acted like a madman, and now what? What are you going to do?” I watched his fists clench. “Are you going to hit me? I did nothing wrong. I don’t owe you anything, Damien. I was telling the truth when I told you all those things.”

  As if my words had triggered him, he pulled back his hand. I closed my eyes, waiting for the blow. Never in my life had I imagined that Damien would hurt me. Never had I thought that he had a single malicious bone in his body. But the ballerina had known, and she had warned me. I hadn’t listened, and now I was going to get punched in the face by my best friend—who might just have been a complete psychopath from the beginning.

  The blow never came and when I opened my eyes, Damien’s fist was caught in midair by Sebastian’s.

  I was yanked out of the way. I couldn’t tell if Sebastian pushed me or if the familiars were to blame. But I watched in horror as the two men went head to head, fists flying.

  I only realized after a moment why Sebastian wasn’t using his fire. It was useless against Damien. His magic, though underrated, was pretty powerful. Many people underestimated him because he didn’t have a physical power, but I always knew that, in a different way, Damien was more powerful than all other witches combined.

  Having the power to nullify any and all magic? Sometimes I wonder if Damien isn’t unfairly overpowered. He doesn’t have a burnout point, not like the rest of us. His magic is infinite.

  Sebastian had to rely on brute force and in this case, I was certain he had the upper hand. He landed punch after punch, but every now and then he grunted as Damien sucker-punched him.

  Damien fought dirty. I should have known he’d fight dirty. He was never one to play a fair game. He always wanted to show off, to beat another person. He didn’t care how he did it, so long as he won.

  I tried to step in, but the familiars held on tightly to each arm. I couldn’t move. All I could do was watch in horror as the two boys fought because of me. My stomach twisted with guilt, even though I knew that Damien was being unreasonable.

  An explosion came unexpectedly from the academy, and another wave of guilt crashed over me. They were here because of me. They were here, looking for me, and everyone at the academy was going to pay for it. Damien took advantage of the distraction and hit Sebastian square in the chin, and Sebastian stumbled backwards, clutching his jaw.

  His eyes lit up with fury as he pointed a finger to Damien. “You’re dead,” he mumbled.

  I caught the familiars off-guard when I broke free of their hold on me. Anger took over my body, and I was only half aware of what I was doing.

  I l
eapt onto Damien, screeching like a banshee.

  I attacked him, assaulted him with every weapon on my body. I punched him, slapped him, scratched a line down his face that would certainly scar. I was like a feral animal. Strong hands grabbed me around the waist and lifted me off Damien, but I fought against the grip and when he set me down, I was ready to leap again. I turned around to show Damien my wrath when Sebastian hit him one more time and my best friend fell to the floor, out cold.

  I found it funny, in a way. He had crumpled to the floor just like our friendship had.

  Chapter 26: What Happened Here?

  The academy was in shambles, debris and bodies everywhere. Some were still breathing, but to my horror, some were not. I never thought that it would come to this.

  I knew that they were going to come for me, and I knew they wouldn’t take pity on anyone who helped me. But these were kids, teenagers. I was still a teenager. Sebastian was nineteen; he was still a boy. He was still so young, and he had to go through all of this. And something told me that this was not the first massacre he had been forced to see. I hoped with every bone in my body that this would be my last, even though I knew there was still a war to come. This was only the first battle.

  The main structure of the academy still stood, but pieces of brick and stone had been blasted from the walls and had crushed some students and teachers. Still, that wasn’t as bad as what was around them—at least I couldn’t see the faces of the crushed victims, I couldn’t see the horror on their faces as they had breathed their last breath. Those faces were going to haunt me for years and years to come. That was, of course, If I lived long enough.

  The bodies of the dead that weren’t crushed were still mangled. Some were torn up, others had holes right through their chests. Some seemed to have no blood left in their bodies at all. They looked deflated, drained—as if someone had sucked the life right out of them. I wanted to cry, to scream, to mourn the dead, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to cry. Perhaps I was in shock. No, I was pretty sure that I was in shock. Everything felt too surreal to me, like I was watching a horrible movie. Imagining that it wasn’t happening was better than accepting the reality of what was actually going on. It was better than knowing it was my fault these people were dead. It was my fault that they’d died without even knowing why. They didn’t even know who the Dark Brotherhood was. That was the saddest part of it all.