by Avery Cross
“Murdered,” Briar whispered. “The general was murdered?”
I nodded, still numb to the news. When was the last time a general was murdered? In his office? Decades at least. They were well-protected and highly trained. Taking on one alone usually meant the attacker wound up dead. Who would attack General Addie?
“Did you know him?” she asked me.
I half-shrugged. “I knew of him, anyone with a military background would. He’s a great leader… was, I mean. His men were loyal to a fault, and most men tried to be under his command. I can’t think of anyone who would want him dead.”
It was a stretch to think this had any connection to what we found out in the archives, but I couldn’t shake the gut feeling I had that we were getting ourselves in deep, very deep, with whatever Ivan and that Dresden guy were up to.
“What’s that?” Briar asked, nodding to the parchment in my hand.
“The reason I came up here. Come with me,” I said and tugged on her hand.
I led her through the mass of students and headed upstairs to my apartment where we might have a bit more privacy. What I wanted to show her was dangerous, and with the news of General Addie’s death, my paranoia shot up a few more notches. After unlocking the door to my quarters, I ushered her in to find Hunter still up and walking around in the kitchen, his cell pressed to his ear.
“Did you hear?” he asked, stopping short when he saw Briar behind me. “Oh, hi.”
“Hi,” she replied.
“And yeah, we heard,” I muttered.
“Ah, uh, and why are you bringing your mentoring student here?” Hunter asked, giving me a very telling look that made me want to sock him in the face.
“I know the girl,” Briar said from behind me and sniffed hard, wiping the smile right off Hunter’s face. “She, um, she told us all about him, and I just feel so bad for her and all. And I never knew my own dad, and it’s just bringing up a lot of shit, you know? Zach was kind enough to offer to let me talk to him for a while, until I calm down.”
She had tears in her eyes when I turned around, and it took everything I had not to smile at her acting skills. “Yeah, so do you mind not being a grade A asshole?” I snapped at Hunter, then guided Briar back to my room, closing the door behind me. “Nice cover.”
“Thanks,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “Is there something I should know by the way?”
I frowned as I set the parchment on my desk and flipped on the light. “About?”
“About why Hunter was staring at me and you like he was about to win a bet with himself?”
I sputtered nervously, not daring to meet her gaze. “No, it’s nothing.”
“Sure, right, nothing at all,” she murmured, and I heard the smile in her words.
“Can we focus on this right now, please?”
“Fine, fine, what is it?”
I unfurled it, and she leaned over excitedly.
“The tattoos. You found them.”
“Don’t sound too happy, it’s not exactly good news.”
“What do you mean, why not?”
I pointed to the parchment near the bottom.
She stared at me confused. “Necromancy? We learned about that a week ago. I thought it was illegal, forbidden.”
I nodded, pacing around my room. “It is. One of the few violations punishable by death.”
“But that man, he had these tattoos all over him. How is he just walking around?”
“I don’t know, but I’m starting to think those students who disappeared aren’t dead, or not exactly.” There were two possibilities rolling around in my head right then, and both were equally disturbing.
Either the students who disappeared became necromancers like Dresden. Or they had been killed and raised, to serve necromancers like Dresden.
We’d found five so far in that year, but how many more? We had at least three more boxes to go through, not counting all the years in between then and 1987. And what about Ivan? What were the chances that he was a necromancer and Hooke never knew?
“I’m going to guess I don’t want to know what you’re thinking,” Briar said, sitting on the edge of my bed.
“Not unless you want nightmares for a while.”
“What do we do? We can’t just keep this to ourselves, right? I mean we have to tell someone.”
“Who exactly? For all we know Hooke’s in on it.”
“Then not him. Who else do you trust, someone not at Academy?”
My brothers. They were the only ones I thought might believe me, but I needed more proof, a lot more. We had to find the rest of the students and then start tracking them down, see if we could find any trace of them alive—or dead. It was going to take time, and with one general dead, I heard a clock ticking loudly in my head telling me we were poking a sleeping monster with a stick and any second, all hell was going to break loose.
“I knew you were going to be trouble,” I said with a teasing smile when I faced her again.
She opened her mouth to probably yell at me.
“But,” I added quickly when “I never said it wasn’t worth it.”
She hopped to her feet and bounded toward me, standing on her toes. “At least I keep your life interesting, right?”
Though the rest of Academy that night was mourning General Addie, I found myself drawn in by those unbelievably dark eyes and golden flecks.
I wrapped one arm around her waist and drew her up to kiss her, softly at first, but the heat between us grew.
I wanted to push the rest of the world and that robed necromancer out of my reality with Briar.
Then the heat grew a bit too real, and I pulled back, grinning at Briar’s fiery eyes… until I indicated the floor with a nod.
“Shit. Sorry, sorry.”
We stomped out the flames that had sprouted at her feet, both laughing as we caught our breaths. “It’s fine. Not every day I get literally caught on fire by a girl I kiss.” I held her in my arms, content just like that, but I knew, eventually Hunter would come snooping.
“I should get back to my room,” she said, as though reading my mind.
“Take that parchment with you, keep it with the files.”
I rolled it back up for her and walked her to my bedroom door. I was about to open it when she grabbed me by my shirt front and pulled me down to steal one more kiss.
Then she was gone, and I was left standing there with an idiotic grin on my face until Hunter appeared in the hall. He winked, and I shut my door in his face.
“Oh come on, man, where’s the love. Details.”
“Good night, Hunter,” I yelled through the door, leaning my back against it. I dragged a hand down my face, shaking my head.
Yep, Briar Shroud was trouble.
Trouble that was going to get me burned one day.
Chapter Fourteen
Briar
Campus over the next week was quieter, and the magical sunlight seemed drearier. Everyone mourned the loss of General Addie. Black banners hung from every tower and wall. His photograph in the library and history wing were covered, too. I admitted, I might not have taken this whole military life thing seriously, but it was clear how many had respected this man. I couldn’t go anywhere without hearing something about him.
But it wasn’t just his good deeds they talked about.
News spread like wildfire the second Patricia texted her friend, who in turn told everyone else. General Addie had been murdered. Somehow, she managed to get more details, and by the end of that first day, I’d heard it all. Whoever killed the man hadn’t done it with a knife or a gun. No, they’d torn him to shreds and the worst part? Half his organs were missing.
I’d asked Zach about it, and his face had paled, mumbling something about necromancer rituals using human organs. I’d asked him what ritual, but he refused to talk about it.
Nyala and I walked everywhere together after that. She shook all the time, and though I was freaked out by it, too, I was better at hiding my fear that h
is death was connected to the necromancer we saw in Silent Heights.
I was dying to tell Nyala what I knew, but Zach and I discussed that the only people we would eventually tell were his brothers, as soon as we dug out every last file we could find. Then and only then, would they leave my quarters and be handed over straight to his brothers.
There was one shining bright light in all of this darkness though, and that was Zach.
After our first, finally, successful kiss, finding a way to sneak another one was almost always on my mind. He’d find me walking between classes and ask if he could talk to me then pull me into an alcove out of sight to steal a moment that was always too short.
The late nights in the catacombs together, poring over the boxes of files was the worst. We sat side by side the first night we found ourselves back there and after five minutes, wound up kissing and laughing before he got up and sat on the opposite side. At first, I thought the crazy attraction I felt with him would wear off, but it didn’t. And this wasn’t butterflies in my stomach feeling with Zach. It was so much more. And I had no real way to describe it. Maybe because we trained together for spirit summoning, but there was definitely a deeper connection to him than I’d ever felt with another person. I was comfortable around him, able to be myself without worrying. He wasn’t clingy either, and neither was I. We agreed to keep our newfound relationship quiet, not wanting to stir up any more trouble with any of the students.
Like Carter, who still shot me annoyed looks every time I passed him in the hall. He and any girls hanging around him.
A few days later, after another night in the catacombs, and turning up ten more files, I was in my fire training session with Carter. Over the past few days, I’d finally learned to truly find that one happy thought to focus on in order to center my mind, and in terms of ability, I was quickly approaching the top first-year student in class. I was even catching up to some of the later years.
“You’ve gotten pretty good lately,” Carter commented, as I directed the swirling stream of fire around my body, then pulled it back into myself. “Not too shabby.”
“All about emotions, right?” I said, sensing another set of eyes watching me.
I turned as if to reposition myself, and saw Zach leaning under the shade of an apple tree across the lawn. He grinned, and those azure eyes shone with pride before he bobbed his head and left. When I came back to face Carter for our next maneuver, he was glaring over my shoulder.
“You know, Carter, if you keep glaring like that, your face will freeze.”
He shot that look to me, but I just smiled.
“Why him?” he blurted out.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean why him? He’s a Pierce, none of them are very interesting, and Zach is nothing but a glorified bookworm who takes the rules too seriously.”
I laughed inside; I’d received my fair share of lectures from Zach, but I was pretty sure I deserved some of them. No, not some. All. “There’s more to him than you think. Just like there’s more to me than you seem to think.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I know that look on your face, just like I know it on lots of other people’s faces. You never expected me to get this good at summoning,” I explained, not angrily, just bluntly. “You thought you were going to be my knight in shining armor and that’s not what I needed.”
His mouth fell open, and he looked like a smacked fish before he collected himself. “Then what did you need?” he asked, a bit softer.
“I needed someone to trust me to find my own way, and maybe give me a swift kick in the ass,” I admitted. “So can we put this behind us and just be friends and all that crap?”
I held out my hand and waited.
He started to reach out and take it until two of the girls working as partners beside us sniggered at me. God, it was like we were still in high school.
Carter scoffed at my hand, and I let it drop.
“No, not even close,” he muttered and stalked away.
“Fine, keep being an arrogant jerk,” I yelled after him, not caring who watched.
A few of the girls shot me dirty looks, and I glared at them fiercely.
“What? You have something you’d like to say?”
Without a word, they hurried away from me.
I rolled my head on my shoulders and tried to get back to my happy place. If I was going to astral project today, I couldn’t have any distractions, or I risked messing it up.
Zach had told me the risks several different times, and I had no doubt, today he’d do it all over again. Thinking of him helped calm me, though, and soon I had a small flame back in my hands, twirled it around my fingers, before I shot it toward one of the targets. It hit dead center, and a few others in my fire training class clapped for me.
At least a few people here liked me.
When our session ended, I headed right across the lawn to the stone circle to mentally prepare myself for what I was about to do. Zach wasn’t there yet, so I settled into my meditative pose and worked to clear my mind.
Except, all I could think of now was Zach and the kiss we shared late last night when we’d left the library. It’d been after midnight, so no one had been around, and we’d taken a nightly stroll across the lawns.
I missed seeing the moon and stars, and though he’d asked me what was up, I hadn’t wanted to admit what was wrong. Not when we were finally onto something with the missing students, as well as who the tattoo covered guy was.
I hadn’t said anything, and we found ourselves by the willow trees, watching them sway lazily in the night wind. I’d leaned against his chest as his back hit the trunk of a tree, and we’d shared another intense kiss that left me debating if this was just because I’d never had a boyfriend before, or because Zach and I were oddly meant to be.
Both thoughts had me worrying, and I decided I’d deal with all that nonsense later. The kiss lingered, and warmth rose up within me.
“Shroud?” Zach said sharply.
My eyes shot open.
My mouth dropped open in shock. I was staring at Zach through a wall of fire. He stood outside the circle of stones, torn between amusement, worry, and annoyance.
I cleared my throat, feeling my cheeks burn, as I pulled the fire back into me with a few deep breaths.
“Should I ask what you were thinking about so hard?”
“Uh, no. No, that’s alright.”
“Really?”
“It’s nothing. Besides, we need to get started, right? Astral projection today.”
He didn’t seem so sure after what he’d just seen, and I sagged.
“We’ll give it a go,” he promised me, “but no guarantees.”
He sat down, and we started our session the same way we always did, with deep meditation. I listened to his breathing more than my own and frowned, struggling to forget about everything going on between me and him. All that did was make me think about it more, and when I opened my eyes, flames had sprouted all around me again. I quickly patted them out with my hands, cursing under my breath as Zach watched me closely.
“What’s going on with you today?” he asked. “Something happen?”
“No. Maybe,” I mumbled, and held my face in my hands. “I just can’t stop thinking about what’s going on here and… and other things.”
He grinned briefly before falling back into mentor mode. “If you can’t clear your head today, then we can try again on a day you can. You’re sure there’s nothing bothering you? Last night you seemed a bit off.”
“It’s stupid, and that’s not really mentor conversation,” I whispered.
“Fine then, for the next five minutes, I’m not your mentor.”
“Oh no? Then what are you?” I asked, teasing, not expecting him to come up with an answer.
But what he said next made me wish we were back in our secluded little spot in the catacombs.
“The guy falling for the crazy girl with fire in her eye
s.”
We might not have been in the center of the lawns, but there were still students around, and tackling him to the grass was probably not the best idea. I held back, and merely stared at him intently as those blue eyes of his darkened even more.
“So, tell me, what’s going on with you, Shroud?”
I picked at my nails until he reached over and subtly pulled my hands apart before quickly returning his to his lap.
“When I was a kid and shit was bad,” I started, “I would go to the window and stare up at the moon. It was like the friend I never had, and here, there’s no moon. I just… I miss seeing it, is all.”
I waited for him to laugh and call me a child, but he said nothing. Instead, I saw the gears turning his head and wondered what he was up to.
“Well, how about for today we work on simply manifesting the spirit element,” he said, and we were back to the lesson. He got to his feet, and I followed. “Now, like I told you before, spirit is not like fire. You can’t see it when you use it, you have to feel it.”
I nodded, I firmly planting my feet in the grass.
“Shields are the most effective, as I’m sure you remember,” he said with a smirk.
“Yeah, I do,” I mumbled, remembering how he’d stopped me from hitting him that first day. A shield would certainly come in handy.
“You have to see it in your mind’s eye, imagine exactly what you want to happen and then push it out of you like a breath,” he explained.
We’d tried this earlier in the week, and I’d managed to create a very weak shield that he simply pushed through to tap my forehead.
Today, I was going to ensure I created one that would stand up to him.
“Focus, see it in your mind and will it into existence. Use it to protect you.”
He walked around me as I breathed deeply in through my nose and out through my mouth, picturing what I wanted.
When I summoned fire, I was filled with an intense warmth that felt like I was going to burn up if I lost control of it. With spirit, it was a completely different sensation, as if water was being poured over my body starting at the top of my head. I had no other way to describe it, and when I’d asked Zach, he’d said something along the same lines. At first, it freaked me out, but now it was comforting.
