Institute of Magic

by Linsey Hall

  Crap.

  There was no way to sneak across that.

  The three had already started walking through the field, which was a dormant vineyard. In the distance, a large manor house sat on a hill.

  They were headed there. Maybe I needed to give them some time to make it all the way across, then I could sneak in?

  But what if—

  Pain exploded in the back of my skull, and I staggered forward, going to my knees.

  “The boss won’t be happy about this,” a voice grumbled.

  Stars floated in front of my eyes, and my head felt like it’d been split in two. Groggy, I rolled over and looked upward. There were four figures surrounding me, all of them demons. They were blurry though.

  One poked me with his toe. And by poke, I meant kicked.

  I grunted and squeezed my eyes shut. When I finally opened them, the four figures coalesced into two. Okay, so I had double vision.

  That wasn’t good.

  In fact, everything about this scenario wasn’t good.

  “We’ll just have to bring her to him,” one of the demons said.

  They were both a dark gray color, with large horns and fangs that extended past their chins. Ragged leather vests covered their wide chests, but no weapons hung from them.

  Smoke demons, I had to bet.

  I tried to scramble to my feet, but one of them kicked me again, right in the stomach.

  Pain flared and I curled in on myself. Before I could straighten and try again, one of the demons picked me up and slammed me over his shoulder. Agony flared again, and I nearly puked on him.

  I almost wished I had.

  They carted me off through the vineyards, running at a slow jog that was misery on my stomach. I tried to take in the details around me, but it was just leafless vines and piles of dirt.

  Would my friends be able to track me? Or was I screwed?

  13

  By the time we made it to the manor house, I was pretty sure I’d take death over another ten minutes over this demon’s shoulder.

  Where were the Cats of Catastrophe when I needed them?

  From far away, I hadn’t seen that the manor house was surrounded by a wall. It was at least twenty feet tall and seven feet thick—more suited to a castle than a winery. The demons carried me through the massive iron gate into a beautiful courtyard. It was all upside down from my perspective, but it was pretty.

  Fountains burbled in the moonlight, and a carefully planned garden bloomed with flowers. That had to take some serious magic, since it was the middle of the winter.

  For fates’ sake, that really wasn’t important right now.

  I already knew these folks were mega-powerful. But all the blood rushing to my head seemed to make me stupid.

  The demons carried me around the back of the manor, which had to contain twenty rooms, at least. Maybe more. I wasn’t good at judging size on large houses. We went through a heavy door and down some stairs. I caught sight of some enormous wine barrels, right before they chucked me into a cell and slammed the door.

  “I hope we get a reward for her,” one of the demons said as he ambled away.

  I scrambled up and grabbed the bars of my cell, peering out.

  The cellar was dark and silent. Rows of enormous barrels watched me, silent sentries. There were no guards, at least that I could see, but my cell was locked tight.

  I tugged on the bars anyway, because hope springs eternal, right?

  Of course it didn’t work.

  I sat back on my butt. “Shit.”

  There had to be a way out of here. But first, I needed to know how my sisters were doing. I touched my comms charm. “Bree? Rowan?”

  Silence.

  Shit.

  My stomach sank to the bottom of the earth as worry crawled over my skin like a spider. I sucked in a deep breath, trying to keep the tears at bay.

  This cell was no problem.

  Being captive was no problem.

  My sisters not picking up their comms charms—even just to scream at me that they were busy?—that was a possible problem.

  I sucked in another ragged breath and muttered, “Suck it up, buttercup.”

  The sound of a fight echoed from somewhere else in the building. Then a muffled scream.

  I surged upright, grabbing the bars and trying to get a peek. My heart thundered.

  What was going on?

  Then the Cats of Catastrophe strolled into view. Princess Snowflake III had blood streaked from her mouth all the way down her white chest. The diamond nestled in her fur looked more like a ruby.

  Whoever had just been screaming had clearly gotten on the wrong side of her.

  Bojangles was gallivanting around, while Muffin strode straight to the cell, Snowflake following at his heels. He meowed loudly, and Bojangles’s head jerked up. He followed Muffin into my cell, all three cats slipping through the bars.

  Quickly, they took up position. Princess Snowflake III stood near the door’s lock, then Bojangles jumped on her back. Muffin completed the pyramid by jumping onto Bojangles. He then stuck his skinny, hairless tail into the large keyhole and wiggled it around some.

  The lock clicked, and the door swung open.

  “Wow. Thanks, guys.”

  They meowed.

  “Is this how you run your jewel heists?”

  Princess Snowflake III shot me a look to suggest that those were much more sophisticated operations.

  Muffin meowed. This is child’s play.

  “Sorry.” I held up my hands. “Didn’t mean to offend.”

  I peered out. “You guys have any idea where the spell is? Or another prisoner?”

  All three shook their heads.

  “Then let’s get searching.”

  I stuck to the shadows in the wine cellar, hiding behind barrels and large, unrecognizable machines. I had to assume they made wine, and that the operation was pretty enormous, given the size of this place. I was about to search a smaller room when my comms charm blared to life.

  “Ana?” a voice whispered.

  “Bree! Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, little beat up. But okay.”

  “Rowan?”

  “Good too. And Lachlan.”

  How had she known that I was about to ask about him? Sister intuition, no doubt.

  “There were no casualties, though there were some mean injuries,” she continued. “Ali will be out for a while, but he’ll recover. Now where are you?”

  “You can’t find me using the tracking charms?” It’d helped her rescue me before, when I’d been abducted by a miserable mob boss out to steal my blood for some kind of horrible spell.

  “There’s a shield where you are. Powerful magic. It’s totally blocking the tracking charm.”

  No surprise. Should have thought of that when I jumped through that portal.

  “Damn it, Ana. It was too dangerous!” Rowan’s voice piped in.

  “I’m fine, guys. They caught me, but I escaped.”

  “Damn right you did,” Bree said. “That’s what Blackwoods do.”

  “And now we’re going to rescue you,” Rowan said. “Where are you?”

  “A massive vineyard with a very big manor house on a hill.”

  “Tuscany, perhaps,” Lachlan said. He must’ve been speaking very close to the charm around someone’s neck.

  “I’ll find a way to tell you more precisely,” I said.

  “This is one of those times where it’d be handy if you had a cell phone,” Bree said.

  “True.” We’d never been able to afford the things, and now that we had jobs with real salaries—even trainees at the Academy got a little stipend—I found I didn’t want a cell. Buuuut it’d be real handy to pop open the GPS on one of those babies right about now. “I’ll find one. Then I’ll look for Lachlan’s friend and the spell.”

  “Give us your location first.” Worry sounded in Lachlan’s voice. “You’ll never manage alone.”

  “Burn,” I muttered.

/>   “Just be careful,” he said.

  I still thought I detected a bit of worry, but that wasn’t something I should even care about anyway.

  “Bye, guys,” I said. “I’ll get you coordinates soon.”

  I touched the charm to disengage the magic, then re-scouted my surroundings. Still quiet, thank fates. Bojangles was trying to break into a cask of wine, and it looked like he was about to be successful. As soon as he pulled that massive cork out of the side of the barrel, he’d go flying when the wine shot out.

  “Bojangles, quit!”

  At that second, he managed to dislodge the cork. As expected, a powerful stream of red wine came gushing out. Still clinging to the giant cork, Bojangles went flying across the room.

  Crap!

  Princess Snowflake III and Muffin rushed over to the wine and began lapping it up. Muffin looked like a regular at a shady bar, and Princess Snowflake III was a real sight with her bloodstained chest and red-wine-covered face.

  “No getting wasted!” I hissed. “We have a job to do.”

  Princess Snowflake III gave me an annoyed look, but Muffin stopped drinking. On the other side of the room, Bojangles was covered in red wine, but he didn’t look like he minded.

  “Come on!” I raced away from the scene of destruction, hoping that no one had heard the barrel pop.

  About forty feet away, I found another hiding spot behind a giant machine of unexplainable usage. The cats followed me over.

  “I need to find a cell phone,” I whispered. “You guys are thieves. Can you sniff one out?”

  Muffin gave me a disdainful look. Sniff out a cell phone?

  “Is that not how it works?”

  We’re not bloodhounds. We’re internationally acclaimed jewel thieves.

  I frowned. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  I crept between the barrels, searching for a guard or a demon or anyone, really. The wine cellar was an ancient, stone-lined labyrinth, and a few times I found other cells built into nooks and crannies in the wall.

  “Multipurpose, huh?” I muttered to the cats as we snuck around a section of smaller barrels. “Make some wine, torture some prisoners!”

  A few minutes later, I came to a door. There was a little window set into the wood. I didn’t dare stick my head up there, in case someone was looking. My head was way too big.

  I looked down at the cats, then grabbed Muffin and picked him up. “You look, okay?”

  He flattened his ears down, and I raised him up. He peeked briefly, then squirmed wildly. Demon!

  Oh crap!

  I drew my sword from the ether and yanked the door open. Princess Snowflake III leapt onto the demon’s belly, claws outstretched. Surprise flared in his eyes as he raised the blade clutched in his fist.

  Fast as I could, I stabbed my sword through his neck, ducking to avoid the blood spray. It splattered on the wall behind me. At this range, I’d have preferred a less messy chest shot, but he couldn’t be allowed to scream.

  He collapsed, Princess Snowflake III riding him down to the ground like he was a sinking ship. She leapt off at the last moment, clearly not wanting to eat him. Which I was grateful for.

  Eat him? Muffin looked at me like I was insane.

  Princess Snowflake III ignored me.

  There was no one else in the little room, thank fates. Small and stone-lined, it seemed to be some kind of storage space for special bottles.

  I dropped to my knees at the demon’s side and patted his pockets, praying that he’d been on earth a long time. Long enough to want a cell phone. Not that he could get one through the magical dealers, but the mage who hired him could. They often did, for those demons who worked for them long enough. Comms charms were hard to come by.

  When I patted a lump by his hip, I grinned, then stuck my hand into his pocket and yanked out a shiny black cell phone.

  “Jackpot!” I whispered.

  At my feet, the demon’s body began to disappear back to the underworld. With any luck, he’d be gone before anyone realized I’d killed him.

  I took my prize back to the shelter of some of the wine barrels and poked at the screen, swiping with my thumb. After a few seconds of fiddling, the thing turned on. It took longer to pull up the maps application since I was so unfamiliar, but eventually I got a latitude and longitude.

  “Bree? Rowan? I’ve got something.” I rattled off the coordinates.

  “Good. We should be there soon,” Rowan said.

  “There’s a huge wall. Call me when you arrive. I can meet you, and hopefully I’ll have found a good way in.”

  “Will do. Stay safe.”

  I cut the connection, then powered down the phone and stuck it between two loose stones in the ancient wall. I almost considered taking it, but the demon’s master could have tracked it. And I didn’t want a dead demon’s phone anyway.

  “Come on, guys. Let’s go find Lachlan’s friend Decker and retrieve the spell.” I set off, not sure if the cats were following me. They’d show up if I really needed them, I was starting to believe.

  I’d covered almost the entire enormous wine cellar when a voice sounded from about twenty feet away, back in the far corner.

  “Hey, lady, who are you?”

  I squinted into the dim light, catching sight of an arm sticking out of a cell door. I hurried forward, spotting a skinny young man with big dark eyes. A swash of dark hair flopped over his forehead in a trendy style, and his band T-shirt was dirty and ragged. He looked hungry and tired, and bruises speckled his jaw.

  His eyes widened when he saw me. “Ana?”

  “Connor? What are you doing here?” I hadn’t seen him in a month. We didn’t know each other well, but we had mutual friends in Cass, Del, and Nix, the FireSouls who’d been too busy to help Lachlan because of an emergency.

  Holy crap, this had to be the emergency.

  “Well, you know. Just being a prisoner. The usual.” His English accent was strong despite the fact that he’d lived in Magic’s Bend, Oregon for about a decade. “It’s not as fun as making lattes and potions, but it’ll do.”

  I looked around for the cats and spotted them nearby, trying to pry a silver medallion off a large wine barrel. “Guys, you gotta get my friend out of here.”

  The cats ran over and got to work with their unlocking routine, and I looked back at Connor. He worked at Potions & Pastilles in Magic’s Bend, the coffee shop he and his sister owned. On the side, he made potions. “You’re friends with Lachlan, right? Abducted while helping him?”

  “I am.”

  “But why did he call you Decker?”

  “That’s my last name.”

  “So I didn’t know I was looking for you this whole time because of some cool-guy thing, like going by your last name?” I’d thought I was rescuing a stranger, when in reality I was rescuing my friend. I’d never known Connor’s full name. Apparently, I should have asked.

  Now I really had to get us out of here alive.

  He grinned. “Basically.”

  “Ugh. Dudes.”

  Muffin wiggled his tail in the lock, and it popped open. Connor stepped out. “Can you get a message to my sister and the FireSouls? I bet they’re worried sick. I don’t know why they haven’t found me yet.”

  “This place is blocked with powerful magic. Tracking charms don’t work, so I’m sure that the FireSouls’ tracking power is blocked too. It took the whole Protectorate to find this place.” I touched the comms charm at my neck. “Bree? Can you get a message to the FireSouls that Connor is here with me?”

  “Wait, what? Connor?” Shock sounded in her voice.

  “Apparently, he’s Decker. That’s his last name.”

  “Well, crap. Yeah, I’ll tell them. They’ll be good fire power.”

  “Thanks. See you soon. We’re off to look for the spell.”

  Bree and Rowan both spoke at the same time. “Be careful.”

  I cut the comms charm, and Connor grinned at me. “You’ve got backup coming?”

&nbs
p; “Soon. In the meantime, we need to find the ancientus spell that was stolen and also whatever magic is suppressing the power of the Protectorate members who are hunting it.”

  “I can help you with the second part,” he said. “I heard the guards talking about a huge dampening spell that the Creeper is running. It’s separate from the ancientus spell, but I think we can take it out.”

  “The Creeper?”

  “I don’t think that’s his real name. But I’ve heard mention of a lair down by the lake.”

  “Great, let’s go before any guards show up.”

  We set off through the cellar, looking for the door.

  “How’d you end up here if the ancientus spell only just arrived?” I asked. “Weren’t you captured while transporting it?”

  “Yeah. But the spell had to go to a sorcerer to be decrypted.”

  “Decrypted?”

  “Of course. Did you think that Lachlan was sloppy enough to let such a dangerous spell out into the wild?”

  “Um, maybe?”

  “Well, he’s not. He put a powerful encryption on it so that only the intended recipient could use it. There’s just a few sorcerers in the world powerful enough to break an encryption like that.”

  “And I suppose the evil mastermind who built this place knows a guy like that?”

  “Or can hire one. I don’t know the details—this is really just all assumption and bits and pieces I picked up.”

  “It makes sense, though.” I stopped in front of the door that I was pretty sure was the exit. Everything had looked different when I’d been hanging upside down over the shoulder of a demon. “Do you know where the lake is?”

  He shook his head. “I’ve only heard them talk about it.”

  “No problem. We’ll find it.” If we could manage it before my friends arrived, they’d have their magic back in time to help us retrieve the ancientus spell.

  Slowly, I pushed open the door and peeked outside. The moon hung high overhead, and fortunately it was just a sliver. There was only one guard patrolling—a demon, from the looks of those horns. He was about fifty yards away, pacing near the great wall that surrounded the manor. Almost out of range.