by Rain Oxford
“Everyone, take cover inside.” Teachers outside or helping Darwin with his experiments scrambled to get inside, but Darwin kept working.
“I’m almost done,” he responded in my mind.
I could see him on the field, measuring out potions into a beaker. He had a little lab set up, which he probably got from Dr. Martin.
“I’m serious. Get inside.”
“Breaking this curse is serious, too.”
“Something is coming.”
“Something is always coming. I’ll be done in less than a minute.”
My intuition suddenly ramped up, warning me of immediate danger. I took off across the grass at the same time as a tornado formed in the dead forest. The heavy winds swept up ash and glowing salamanders. Two thoughts occurred to me at the same time Darwin spotted it. The first was that it seemed like the elementals were fighting each other. The second was that I wouldn’t make it to Darwin before the tornado did.
It went straight for him.
I was halfway to him when a black blur shot past me. Darwin shouted as the blur crashed into him. I stopped running and was filled with relief when I recognized the black jaguar. His shape was the same as any jaguar’s, except for his saber fangs and the fact that he was the size of a horse this time. He picked Darwin up by the hoodie and raced back to me with the same incredible speed. I wasn’t stupid; I took off for the West with them close on my heels.
The tornado was fucking relentless. Not only was it charging right for us, but it was shooting amphibious fireballs at us. Remington opened the door and shut it behind us, inches from the worst part of the tornado. The salamanders hit the door like rocks.
Several students screamed at the sight of Henry, so he shifted back. Panting, he said, “I need to get to Scott.”
“You’re not going back out there,” Remington said, bolting the door.
Henry snarled at her. “My cub needs me!”
“Is he in the North?”
“Yes.”
“Then he’s safe. If you go out there, there’s a good chance he’ll lose his father. Do you want that?”
Still panting, he took a moment to calm himself. “No,” he finally said. He turned to Darwin, who was shaking. “Are you okay?”
“Physically, yeah, thanks to you.”
“I wouldn’t have seen you if it weren’t for Devon.”
Darwin nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen. I will next time.”
“I didn’t know what was going to happen until it started.” Glass shattered upstairs, drawing my attention back to the danger at hand. “Everyone is down here, right?”
“They should be, but some prefer to eat in their rooms,” Remington said.
“I suggest you get them all down in the basement while Henry, Darwin, and I search upstairs. Will everyone fit in the basement?”
“It’ll be tight, but yes.”
She returned to the dining room and had the students go to the basement through a murphy door under the stairs that doubled as a bookcase.
Darwin, Henry, and I got to work searching the bedrooms for students. Unlike the teachers, the students couldn’t lock their doors from the outside, and there were no anti-magic locks from the inside. We each found about a dozen students, mostly hiding under their beds from the storm. By the time we had checked every room and got the stragglers into the basement, the tornado was starting to wane.
It was a typical basement that would have been more than enough room for the entire population of the children’s school if it weren’t half full of wooden crates. Students sat on crates because there wasn’t enough floor space.
Remington called attendance and found four students missing; Mandy Roland, Benny Rower, Leesa Dupree, and Nancy Frahn. I didn’t recognize Leesa or Nancy by name.
“I saw Mandy and Nancy come down here,” Mr. Grant said.
“I saw Benny just a minute ago,” Nito said.
“Leesa was comforting Benny because his sister is in the North,” Rose said.
I spotted stains on the floor in a peculiar pattern. “What happened here?”
Remington frowned. “It looks like a couple of crates are missing.”
“Is that strange?” I asked.
“Yeah, but it’s more important to find the students.”
My intuition told me that it was important, though. I reached out with my magic as Remington suggested they must have snuck upstairs. “Wait,” I said. I sensed four minds getting further away, but they weren’t above us. “They didn’t go upstairs. They’re heading towards the North.”
“Then we need to stop them,” Remington said.
“They’re underground.”
Students and teachers started touching every stone in the wall, stepping on every stone in the floor, and tugging on every lamp.
“I wasn’t told about any secret passageways,” Remington said, checking anyway.
“There’s a crack here,” a student called.
Other kids cleared a path as best as they could so that Remington and I could get to it. There was a five-millimeter-wide, centimeter-long slot in the wall. Remy and I both looked at Henry, who shook his head. “I don’t carry my lock picking kit with me anymore.”
Someone handed me a pen and I fiddled with the hole until I felt something give and heard a click. The wall slid apart, giving us a narrow opening. Darwin slipped through easily. Remington slipped through without much trouble, despite being well-endowed. Henry pulled against the wall with all his strength to widen the opening, but it wouldn’t budge. He was definitely too big.
“I guess I’ll stay and make sure the door doesn’t close on you,” he said, not happy about it.
I nodded. “I’ll bring your son if this goes all the way to the North.”
“Thank you.”
I struggled to get through, but once I made it past the opening, the passageway was plenty wide. I pulled out my penlight and clicked it on. Darwin and Remington were waiting. The straight walls were made of cut stone, so it was obviously man-made. It was four feet wide with seven-foot-tall ceilings. Ten feet ahead, the tunnel curved to the right, so I couldn’t see into the distance.
She waved her hand over my light and it turned blue. “What was that?”
“I made it so that only you can see it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to chase off the students or draw something to us. We have no idea what’s down here.”
“How will you see where you’re going?”
“We’ll just walk and you can guide us.”
“Hang on. I’ll go in fur and let my nose lead me. That way I don’t have to worry about being touched and I can chase down the buggers if I have to.”
“Don’t call them that,” Remington scolded.
He made a face at her, but she didn’t see it. He undressed quickly, tossed his clothes out the hole towards Henry, and shifted. Since he didn’t need any help finding his way, I took Remington’s hand to guide her.
We walked in silence for ten minutes until we heard the footsteps of four teenagers. They heard ours, as well.
“Stop, stop,” a girl hissed. “I heard something.”
“Nothing is going to get us down here, Leesa,” Mandy said.
Darwin approached, completely silent. Remington and I stopped when I saw four students, who had halted to listen. Nancy was fifteen, tall, and thin with long, light brown hair. Leesa, on the other hand, was blond, five-one, and stout.
Darwin, being the shithead that he was, snuck up to them and deliberately stepped on Mandy’s foot.
“Fuck! That’s my foot!” Mandy shouted. The sound echoed.
“It wasn’t me,” Benny said.
“Leesa?”
“No, I’m standing still,” Leesa said.
“It wasn’t me, either,” Nancy insisted.
“Well, somebody stepped on my foot!”
“Maybe it was a rat,” Nancy suggested.
Darwin was doing a ridiculous, silent wolf laugh, which
was not pleasant to witness.
“There aren’t any rats down here; they’d starve,” Leesa insisted.
“A fully grown mouse can fit through a dime-sized hole,” Benny said. “A mouse goes where he wants. Now let’s get my sister so we can stop playing this stupid game.”
Even though she couldn’t see me, Remington looked at me and tugged on her ear. I connected to her mind. “Any idea what they mean?” she asked.
“No clue.” I wrapped my power around the kids’ minds and stopped again.
“What’s wrong?”
Their minds were normal. Suspiciously normal. I detected worry from Benny over his sister, but other than that, I saw a load of school work and a slight crush on Willow. The other three each had a favorite sport, a small crush on a boy, and worries over their grades. It was strange as hell.
Or maybe that’s all that they care about. How is that all that they care about? Even human teenagers care about more than crushes, sports, and schoolwork. I withdrew my magic, more suspicious now than if their minds were blocked.
However, when I told this to Remington, she frowned. “Yes, that’s strange, but not enough to call them out. As far as we know, all they’re doing is going after Benny’s sister.” We followed the students as they continued on their way to the North.
“If they are false thoughts, then someone is either messing with my magic or their minds.”
“Maybe your power is being affected by the curse like everyone else’s.”
“That’s not how it would screw up.”
“Are you sure? This has never happened before. Look, I absolutely trust you… but you also said the lake had dried up. I need you to come up with proof before I can do anything.”
As much as I hated to admit it, she had a point.
We let the students reach the North and open the door before we busted them, mostly because we didn’t know how to open the door from the inside. Nancy knocked on the wall lightly until she touched a section that resonated differently. She pressed it and it popped out. It was a wooden panel disguised as a block of rock. Behind the panel was a lever, which she pulled.
The wall separated just like the other hidden entrance had. Not surprisingly, it opened into the North’s basement, which was identical to the basement of the West. However, it was empty.
After we filed out of the tunnel, Remy waved her hand over my light and it turned white. All four students spun around and saw us. Mandy and Benny screamed, Remy shushed them, and Darwin darted past them to find Scott. There was a pressure plate on the basement door so that shifters could get out in their animal form.
“Are we in trouble?” Leesa asked.
“We were just trying to make sure Benny’s sister is safe,” Nancy insisted.
“I know,” Remington said, her voice scolding. “And yes, you’re in trouble. Once the storm is over, you will each have three hours of cleaning duty. When we don’t know where you are, you worry us, and that means we have to stop protecting the other students to protect you four.”
“But we’re perfectly safe,” Mandy said. She looked heartbroken that her “never get in trouble” record was broken.
“I wouldn’t push for more right now,” I said.
“The students should still be in here,” Remington said.
“Maybe the storm wasn’t as bad here. I think it hit the West directly.”
“It’s still policy to keep the students in the basement during a storm until I’ve cleared them.” Remington ascended the steps and stepped out into the common room of the north. “Benny, get your sister.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “Devon, go with him. Girls, you’re going to stay here.”
The trio knew better than to argue. I followed Benny out into the commons and to the bedrooms. There were two boys’ rooms and two girls’ rooms. He went straight to his sister’s room and knocked. A moment later, the room leader answered.
The room was decorated with pink walls, lacy white curtains, and feminine furniture. There were four bunk beds, each dressed with princess and Barbie blankets and sheets. There was a white work desk covered in hair accessories, bows, and cheap children’s jewelry. The bookshelf was filled with dolls, stuffed animals, and family photos. The closet was open and overflowing with clothes. Seven girls were crowded around a two-foot-tall, circular, white table centered in the room.
“Haylee,” Benny called, ignoring the girl who answered the door.
Haylee was seven and closely resembled her brother. She jumped into Benny’s arms. A moment later, Jamie and Jason emerged from another room.
“What’s going on?” Jason asked.
“It’s just a storm,” I said. “Are you okay in there?”
“Yeah.”
“No one took you to the basement?” The twins shook their heads. “Where are the adults?”
“We’ve been in our rooms since dinner. No one checked up on us.”
I checked the bedrooms to make sure all the kids were safe before returning to the ground floor. The dining room, office, and classrooms were all empty. “Remington, I think we have a problem,” I called down to her. After explaining the situation to her, I went looking for the adults. Every staff member of the North was missing, including Mr. Yuun.
I got the kids downstairs and through the tunnel. Many of them were afraid and confused, but they were cooperative. If anything, they were depressingly quiet, which gave the impression we were at war and trying to sneak them past the enemy.
The basement of the West was already crowded, but no one complained. Henry hugged his son tightly.
When the storm was finally over, the students had a sleepover in the dining rooms again, because several of their bedroom windows were busted. What was strange was that although the storm cleared up inside the ward, it started raining outside the ward.
* * *
Remington rested her head on my chest and I stroked her hair. We listened to the eerie silence, interrupted only with the sound of rain in the distance. After an hour, neither of us was any closer to sleep. Knowing I was awake, she quietly asked, “What would my father do?”
“I don’t think he would have any more answers than we do. We can’t even send the kids home to keep them safe.”
“Nothing can get through the ward, including fire and rain. We’ve got to assume that the only air we’ll get is what we have. How long before we suffocate?”
“You’ll have to ask Darwin that. The fire probably consumed a lot of oxygen.”
“That’s not encouraging.”
“You don’t want me to lie to you, so I won’t. We will come up with a solution.”
Chapter 7
Fat, cold raindrops splattering on my face woke me. I was on my back in icy mud. It took me a moment to get my bearings because there was no light. The rain fell harder and faster by the second. The mud was slick, so it took me a few minutes to get to my feet. Once I was standing, I started feeling my way around.
I encountered a wall of slick mud and sharp stones and followed it. Soon, I determined that I was in a pit, and as my eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, I saw that the wall was fifteen feet deep, and there was a metal grate at the top.
Why am I here? Why the room with no doors or windows? Why the house? Why the pit and the storm? Is someone trying to warn me or threaten me?
“Help us! Please!” The voice came from a teenage girl in the distance. I didn’t know if she was talking to me or just calling out for anyone. I didn’t know if she was in another pit or on the surface.
“Who are you? I’m trying to help you.”
“You have to stop her!”
“Stop who? Where are you?”
* * *
Thursday, November 24
I woke to Remy kissing my chest. It was a great way to wake, except there was an uncomfortable tightness in my chest. This wasn’t an emotion but a familiar pain. A pain I never expected to feel again.
When Gale used my blood to curse me, I required the use
of a magical amulet to keep my heart beating. It wasn’t actually strong enough to handle the stress my job put on my heart, however, so it looked like my days were numbered.
Then I summoned Rocky for the first time, and she took my weakness into her. Or rather, she gave me the strength of her stone heart. I was warned not to be away from her for more than six days. If she died, so would I. Even if we were on opposite sides of the world, the connection was still active, but if we were on separate worlds, I was in danger. It appeared that the ward was strong enough to disconnect us.
“Are you okay?” Remy asked.
I kissed her. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. She had enough to worry about, and I already knew there was no cure to the curse. Four of the most powerful wizards on Earth and Dothra had tried and failed to break it.
She patted my chest reassuringly. “Bullshit. You’d have to be crazy not to be bothered with everything going on.”
“Yeah, I’m worried, but I also know we’ll get through it.”
“How do you know?”
“Let’s just say that the headmistress is a tough and determined woman who would never let her students get hurt.”
A tentative knock on the door was met with our mutual groans. “It’s your turn. I got the last disaster,” Remy said, rolling over to go back to sleep.
I squeezed her shoulder. “Oh, but it’s your baby.”
“If the school is my baby, then you’re its baby-daddy, so deal with it.”
“Doesn’t that mean Yuun and Murphy are its baby-daddies, too?”
“I’m going to punch you in the dick.”
“Can you two please stop flirting, fucking, and fighting and answer the door?” Henry asked. “I don’t care which of you does the answering.”
I got up and made sure Remy was covered before answering the door. “What’s up?”
“Dani is here.”
I gave him my best blank stare for a moment before turning to Remy. “Did I just imagine the last few days where we were all trapped at the school?”
