Called by Darkness

by Sean Fletcher

  It seemed Lucien could sense my semi-unrepentance. The bed sank as he sat beside me.

  “What do you mean they’re mostly okay?” I said.

  “Frankie—Mrs. Rochester—has checked Mia over. She’s sleeping now. There doesn’t seem to be any lasting damage, but we’ll know more when she wakes up. To think, all of you coming back unscathed when I thought we’d lost you.”

  I looked over at him. At his kind, usually cheerful face I’d grown up knowing almost as well as my parents’, a face that’d watched me grow up. The face of a man who thought he’d lost me and Asher for good. It was only then that I got the faintest inkling of how scared he’d been for us.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. Then, feeling a little bolder, “But…you know we’ll have to do stuff like that eventually, so it’s not really a big deal—”

  “Don’t try to justify what you did, young lady.”

  “I’m not! But advanced students do practical hours all the time!”

  “Practical hours that do not include chasing unknown assailants into off limits parts of the city. No, Skylar.”

  His angry aura was back as he raised a hand to cut off my argument. “Give it up. You were wrong. Admit it, accept it, grow from it.”

  I bit my bottom lip hard, biting off any potential retorts.

  Lucien squeezed my hand. “Even though I’m upset, I’m glad you’re all back safe. After all, your mother would kill me if I let something bad happen to you.”

  I smiled at his joke. Then frowned. “Wait, does she know yet?”

  “Her job in Australia is taking longer than expected. I haven’t contacted her yet.”

  I breathed out. Thank goodness for small miracles, at least. I hoped she was staying safe, but the longer I could hold off telling her, the better.

  “Now,” Lucien stood and swept around to face me. “Asher and Colson have told me what happened. I want it from you.”

  After taking a moment to collect my thoughts, I recalled as much as I could, Lucien nodding at everything, like that matched exactly what he already knew. Right up until I got to meeting Kasia Armani.

  “I’m afraid I’ve never heard of her before,” Lucien said.

  “She…” I tried to think how best to approach this. “She seemed to know my mom. She blamed her for something in the past. Do you—”

  “I don’t know that either,” Lucien said. “We can ask your mother when she returns. She—”

  “Made lots of enemies, yeah, I know.”

  Lucien looked wryly at me. “That’s what happens when one gets as famous as she is. With great fame comes a great price.”

  I glanced up at him, trying to see if he was insinuating something, but he’d already turned away, thinking.

  “I don’t know anything about the Society, either, but that’s not surprising. There’s always some new group or another to watch out for. I’ll let the Coalition know and keep an eye out for them myself. Meanwhile, you and the others will go back to class.” He pointed a finger at my face. “And you’ll toe the line. With this little stunt outside of sanctioned practical hours, I don’t think I need to emphasize how close you are to expulsion.”

  My mouth dropped open. I mean, I knew we’d broken like, two dozen rules, some probably not written yet, but I was thinking some lost privileges, maybe a detention or ten, but getting kicked out?

  “You mean I might be—”

  “Yes, even you,” Lucien said.

  My spirits sank. Well, this stunk more than baby dragon poop. “Just to be clear, I’m assuming the others got a tongue lashing, too?”

  “You bet your butt, Brunhilde. And as I said, keep your nose out of any more trouble. But for now…”

  He pushed his robes back with a flourish, his normal cheery demeanor and brilliant white smile returning. “We won’t forget this little excursion, but we’ll move forward.”

  “Does that mean I can finally go see Mia?”

  “She’s not awake, but yes.”

  He pulled the curtains aside, pausing before he stepped out. “I’m glad you and Asher didn’t kill each other. You really must be getting along again.”

  He left before I could argue. I swore I heard him chuckling on his way out.

  Asher and Colson looked up when I entered the other ward. Both were seated at the foot of Mia’s bed.

  “Don’t stay too long now,” Mrs. Rochester said, bustling past as she attended to a kid with a pixie latched onto the end of his finger. “No use lingering if all she’s going to do is snooze.”

  When I saw Mia, sweet face softened by sleep, all the air seemed to whoosh out of me. She was here. She was back and safe. I’d believed Lucien, of course, but there was a difference seeing her in person.

  “Glad you’re okay,” Colson said as I took a chair.

  “You too.”

  Asher didn’t say anything. He continued looking at Mia, hands intertwined in his lap, as though I’d never come in.

  I leaned closer to Mia, brushing aside a strand of hair that’d gotten stuck to her lip. Her eyes flickered behind her lids. “What’d Mrs. Rochester say?”

  “She’ll sleep it off and be fine,” Colson said.

  “Thank you for carrying her out,” I said. “How’d you guys escape?”

  The chair groaned as Colson re-crossed his legs. “Those ghosts you pointed out. We woke up a whole herd of them and slipped away while the Society dealt with them.”

  I smiled at that. Great minds…

  “And how’d you get away, Skylar?”

  Asher was staring at me, eyes locked on mine, lips jammed in a straight line. “How’d you get away, Skylar?” he repeated.

  “Same way you guys did,” I said, stumbling over my words a little. What was his deal? “I used the ghosts to distract her.” No way was I telling them about the Dark Prince. It was crazy enough when I’d found out; I feared what they’d think about it.

  “You used the ghosts,” Asher echoed. “Same as us,” he said to Colson.

  Colson sighed. “I told you it wasn’t her—”

  “Is there a problem?” I said. Asher continued staring intensely at me, and I was reminded of the same quiet fury Lucien had. “If you have something to say—”

  “You left us!” Asher exploded.

  “Quiet, or I’ll throw you all out!” Mrs. Rochester hissed.

  I gaped at Asher in disbelief. “What are you talking about. I didn’t leave you!”

  “Oh yeah? The second danger showed up, you went running right toward it. One minute you were right beside us, the next you were gone. You didn’t think about us, only about yourself and how cool you’d look if you took the big bad guy down.”

  I could only stare at him, a million indignant responses tumbling around in my head. “Are you freaking—”

  “Quiet!” Mrs. Rochester snapped.

  I painfully swallowed my outburst, even though I wanted nothing more than to yell in Asher’s perfect, furious face. He thought I had been selfish?

  “I was cut off,” I said through gritted teeth. “I couldn’t get to you.”

  “Couldn’t, or didn’t want to?”

  “I was fighting Kasia Armani,” I bit out.

  Colson gave me a quizzical look. Asher glanced at him, then back at me. “Who?”

  I filled them in with as much as I’d told Lucien. When I’d finished, Colson nudged Asher.

  “I told you, I thought she’d been held up.”

  “I’ll accept my apology in compliments or cash,” I said.

  “Even still,” Asher said, ignoring me, “would any of us be surprised if you ran toward danger? You’re not exactly known for being a team player.”

  I merely gaped at him. That slimy little—

  “What kind of powers did she have?” Colson said, clearly trying to head us both off at the pass before this argument spiraled out of control.

  I continued staring at Asher until Colson leaned forward. “Skylar.”

  “I don’t know,” I said, choosing
to take the high road and ignore Asher and his stupid comments. “She didn’t use elemental magic, at least I don’t think so. It was more…she was weaving shadows, if that makes sense.”

  “Maybe an advanced form of elemental magic, then,” Colson said.

  “Doesn’t tell us what she is,” Asher said.

  “Some Supes can disguise themselves as humans,” I said to Colson, still ignoring Asher. “So I don’t know if she was anything other than a spellslinger.”

  “You said she wanted you specifically?” Colson said.

  “She—yeah, she seemed to know my mom. But that’s not really a surprise, is it? We already kind of guessed the Society wanted us to get to our parents.”

  “One group went after Asher, one went after you. It’d explain why Kasia cut you off from us. Right, Asher?”

  Asher grunted, but it was clear he’d closed off the possibility of being convinced by any other argument I might have. We sat in silence for a moment, only the sound of Mrs. Rochester bustling back and forth between beds entering our little bubble.

  “The eyes,” Asher said finally. “You said it felt like there were eyes on you.”

  I reluctantly nodded, somehow still feeling their gazes piercing into me.

  “She might be a demon-kin, maybe,” Asher said. “It doesn’t match exactly, but it’s a start. It’d explain her enhanced strength and speed. I’ll see if I can find anything in the library between classes.”

  He stood. I grabbed his arm. “You were wrong about me,” I said. “I wouldn’t leave you. I don’t leave my fri—my partners.”

  Asher looked down at me. “Maybe I was wrong this time. But one day you’ll go too far. You’ll try something you can’t handle all by yourself and nobody will be there to save you.”

  “But not this time. Apologize.”

  Asher smirked. He tugged his arm away. “Consider it back pay for all the other dumb things you’ve done.”

  He sauntered out. I continued staring at where he’d been. Then I grabbed one of Mia’s extra blankets and screamed into it.

  “Shh!” Mrs. Rochester chastised.

  Colson was chuckling when I emerged from my cotton-assisted therapy.

  “He was worried,” he said.

  “That was him being worried?”

  Colson gave a slow nod. “When he looked back and saw you weren’t there…I had to practically drag him the rest of the way out.”

  I looked again at where Asher had gone. Asher coming off cool to me was nothing new, but this was a new sort of intensity. Had he really reacted like that? Had he really cared that much?

  “Screw his worry.”

  Colson cocked an eyebrow. “He does somewhat have a point.”

  “Don’t you start on me too. I was cut off from you guys!”

  “And if you hadn’t been? Would you have stayed with us? Or would you have gone after the entire Society by yourself?”

  I didn’t answer, because I didn’t know.

  Colson’s chair scraped as he stood. He gave my shoulder a warm pat. “We’re all back safe. That’s all that matters…”

  I looked up as he trailed off. He was watching Mia, an unreadable expression on his face.

  “Don’t worry, Mrs. Rochester said she’ll be fine,” I assured him.

  “I know. And that’s just it. She’s fine. Even though the Society used her as bait they didn’t hurt her at all. You managed to escape with almost no problem…”

  Well, not exactly, but he didn’t need to know that.

  “And Asher and I…” His frown deepened. “Asher thinks it was a narrow escape.”

  “You don’t?”

  Colson pulled his eyes away from Mia. “I have a weird feeling they let us go. They made it easy.”

  “But…why would they do that?”

  “I don’t know. And that’s what has me worried.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Starting classes again was weird.

  And yeah, I know I was only gone for, like, a few days, but a lot can happen in that time. A lot did happen in that time.

  It also sucked that Mia wasn’t with me. I missed quietly joking with her during class, or staying up late talking about what we’d done that day. The plus was that Colson and I had grown closer. The minus was that he still hung with Asher, whom I was not talking to, and who wasn’t talking to me.

  Days passed. I went to class. I hung out with the others at the Smoking Lamp, and spent nights around the fireplace in our common area with my classmates. But even still, I didn’t feel quite like my old self, and not just because of Mia. Honestly, I was on edge. Ever since…whatever had happened with the Dark Prince I’d had this horrible feeling that he wasn’t finished with me. And how could it be? This power, this darkness, was inside me. There was no escaping it.

  I had more than one sleepless night. I avoided Asher whenever possible, even convincing Demarcus to temporarily switch partners with me in combat class. He about went into seizures of joy when he managed to disarm me. I’d been so focused on making sure the Dark Prince didn’t make an appearance again that I missed his easy deflection. Coach Newman made me run laps. Because why not? Just to pour a little more salt in the wound.

  Master Scalius, too, grumpy and grizzled as he was, called me out when I’d lost control of the sand cretin we were studying and it blasted a nearby group with grit.

  “Sorry! Sorry!” I said, trying to wrangle it under control. Colson swiftly stepped over and, with one quick tickle under the chin, managed to calm it down. I gave him a grateful smile. Asher didn’t even look at me.

  By the end of the week, I knew I had to do something. I couldn’t live walking on eggshells, having no clue what the Prince—AKA Mr. Tall, dark and why the heck did you kiss me?—was doing, or how he got there.

  “Miss Rivest? Miss Rivest?”

  My head snapped up from my notes. The entire Paranormal Politics class was staring at me. My face grew hot.

  “I swear I’m working.” I held up my notes to prove it.

  Master Briggs smiled. “For once, yes. However, you’re wanted in the medical wing.”

  In the—

  I was out of my seat before the thought could finish, rushing out of the classroom and nearly colliding with the wall that was Colson standing in the hall.

  “Easy,” he said. “Mia’s awake.”

  Relief flooded through me. “Then what are we standing around here for?”

  I sprinted ahead of him, my steps giddy, heart belting out a hallelujah in my chest.

  “I assume it’s pointless to say it, but be quiet,” Mrs. Rochester said when I practically burst into the ward where Mia was.

  She was sitting up in her bed, reading. She looked over when I came in. Her eyes grew wide.

  “Skyl—”

  I attacked her with a hug, squeezing so hard a little ‘eep!’ escaped her.

  “I’m happy to see you too!” Mia squeaked.

  “Enough!” Mrs. Rochester batted me away. “She’s awake and healthy but still shouldn’t push it.”

  “I promise I feel fine, Mrs. Rochester,” Mia said.

  “Hm…” Mrs. Rochester peered down her nose at her. “I’m still having you spend the night here. Then you may start classes again tomorrow. With a note excusing you from any excess physical activity for a week.”

  “She’s been a real treat to have around,” I whispered as Mrs. Rochester tottered off. Mia laughed quietly.

  My face already hurt from so much smiling. Mia looked…alive. And amazingly healthy. Her skin was a little paler than normal, but hey, getting kidnapped by an evil society would hurt anyone’s complexion.

  “Glad to see you’re up,” Colson said behind me.

  I waited for Mia’s reaction, preparing to coax her out of her quiet, reserved shell. Instead, she beamed up at him. “Thank you, Colson. Good to see you too.”

  Not a squeak. Not a stutter. I gaped at her, wondering if I’d somehow wound up in an alternate dimension. Colson, too, was lookin
g like our original Mia had been swapped with an alien.

  “I, uh, hope you’re feeling good,” Colson said.

  “Thanks,” Mia said. “I still feel a little weak, but I’m sure that’ll go away soon.”

  “Yeah. I mean, of course.”

  I looked between them both, Colson’s cheeks reddening slightly, Mia talking as easily as anything.

  Huh.

  I pestered Mia a little longer about how she was feeling, but she insisted she was fine. “I’m actually ready to get back to class. I’ve probably missed so much!”

  “Only a little more than we have,” I said.

  Mia nodded. “Thank you for coming after me. I thought…when I was taken, I thought…”

  She hugged herself, shuddering, and I had to quell a brief surge of anger.

  “They didn’t hurt you?” I asked again.

  “No, no. They cast a sleep spell on me, but when I was awake they didn’t really pay me much attention. One of them, I didn’t get a good look at him, but I think they called him Greubel, kind of made everyone nervous, but he never hurt me. They wanted…”

  Her eyes grew wide. “They wanted you, Skylar! That’s what I heard one of the women saying. They were using me to get to you!”

  “We know,” Colson said.

  “You—are you both all right?” Mia gasped, placing a tiny hand on Colson’s own and looking at each of us. “You fought them?”

  We replayed the events again. Mia listened silently, her eyes—if it was possible—growing even wider. By now, I had my story so down that telling it had turned into somewhat of a chore. But with Mia, it was like reliving it all over again; every worry and fear I’d had at almost losing her coming back fresh.

  “Did they say anything else when you were awake?” I said when I’d finished. I hated to make her relive the memories, but try as I might, Colson’s observation about our ‘narrow’ escape was still bugging me.

  “It’s hard to remember…” Mia picked at her sheets. “I went in and out. I thought I heard something about the Academy. Maybe a charm. But we knew they attacked the Academy already.”