Standardized Testing

by Ivy Hearne

  I wanted to offer my condolences. I could only imagine what it would be like to train with somebody for years and then have them decide to go a different direction entirely. I would fall apart without Souji, and we’d been working together for less than a full year. But I didn’t have the right words for it, and then the moment passed.

  “So what’s the crisis that I needed to return for?” I could tell Reo wanted to make a joke out of it but didn’t quite dare, given the fact that it probably really was an emergency.

  “Let’s head back to the dorm,” I said. “We can talk about most of it on the way, but there is another piece I need to tell you two in private.”

  I waited to speak until we were in the middle of the quad with no one else around.

  “We did a spell with several of the students and the para-biology professor,” I began.

  Reo frowned. “You guys have a para-biology professor?”

  I rolled my eyes. I knew for sure that Reo had met her at least three times.

  “She’s a wraith,” I explained. “Hardly anybody can remember her when they’re not looking straight at her.”

  Souji frowned. “Wait. That’s right. Why can I remember her?”

  Reo glanced back and forth between us. We weren’t holding hands anymore, but his eyes narrowed. “It’s because Kacie can see her and remember her.”

  I nodded, having assumed as much, too.

  “Anyway,” Souji continued, “Kacie almost got dragged under. The darkness had hold of her, and no one in the circle could reach her. But I heard her calling all the way from the dorm. When I got over there, though, I couldn’t feel her anywhere.” His voice was shaking. “Her body was just...empty. And then I felt her again, could sense her presence. So I just...yanked her out.” His hand crept back into mine.

  “Are you okay?” Reo asked. I nodded.

  “She coughed up about a metric ton of whatever the darkness left behind,” Souji said.

  “And then Dr. Novak stabbed it and killed it, and yes, that’s all important, but there’s more,” I said in a rush as both brothers stared at me, stunned.

  By then we were at the dorm where Souji and I both lived. “Let’s go up to your room,” I said to Souji. “I don’t know when Erin will be back, and I need this to be completely private.”

  The brothers nodded and followed me upstairs.

  UNTIL I HAD FINISHED explaining to them about Jolie’s message sent through the darkness, I had never imagined the potential impact of two panther shifters staring at me in horrified disbelief.

  But there they were, Souji and Reo, both breathing through their mouths, just like cats taking in the scent of something distasteful, as they considered my words.

  “You have got to be kidding,” Reo finally said. “The Council and the Lusus Naturae leadership only meet on the rarest of occasions, and only to negotiate treaties. The last time they tried, talks broke down and three-fourths of the current Council was slaughtered.”

  “To be fair, the hunters took out a lot of the Lusus Naturae, too,” Souji added.

  “We’re not talking about the Council meeting up with the leadership of the Lusus Naturae.” I clenched my teeth and drew in a deep breath, trying to keep my calm. “We’re talking about one girl who says she has something that can help us. A weapon.”

  “One that’s designed only for gorgons to use?” Reo frowned and shook his head. “I don’t buy it.” He stood up and began pacing back and forth in the room Souji had to himself. “How would she end up with a stone like that just when we need it? A weapon that we’ve never heard of? It’s too convenient.”

  I rose and planted myself in front of him, forcing him to stop moving. “No more convenient than me showing up at the Hunters’ Academy just in time to face off with whatever is coming for us.”

  From his place on the round cushion that served as a bed when he was in his panther form, Souji said, “We have to meet her. We cannot risk taking the chance that she’s for real. We can’t just blow her off.”

  Reo swore, low and fluently. “You think I don’t know that?” He scowled at his brother. “But I still think it is a terrible idea.”

  “You’re coming with me, then?” I asked them.

  “Of course,” Souji said.

  “Wouldn’t miss it,” Reo added.

  “Good. Because I don’t want to do this without you two.”

  They glanced at each other than stood up and each took one of my hands.

  “We wouldn’t leave you alone in this,” Reo said.

  “We’re hunting partners,” Souji reminded me, as simply as if that said everything I needed to know.

  And in some ways, it did.

  “Then meet me on the road to town at midnight tonight.” Swiftly, I leaned in and gave them each a kiss on the cheek.

  As I left to go back down to my own room, I prayed that we were making the right decision to do this alone.

  Just the three of us.

  Chapter 7

  A few minutes before midnight, I hovered on the edge of the road that led down into town. I had slipped out the dorm without being noticed. Or so I hoped.

  My hair was tucked up under a dark knit cap, and I wore equally dark clothing, all designed to keep me from being easily seen in the dark.

  Most of the snow had melted away from the edges of the road, though there was still had some the woods that surrounded the school. My breath misted in the cold air, and I wrapped my coat around me tightly.

  I didn’t hear Souji and Reo coming, but they slipped up beside me, appearing as if out of nowhere, both in their panther forms.

  I was glad I was able to tell them apart. I didn’t know how, exactly, because they looked almost identical. But as I reached down to rest my hands on the fur at the ruffs of their necks, I knew that Souji was on my left and Reo on my right.

  Without a word, we set out toward town. Jolie had not mentioned a specific time or place, at least not in words. But somehow I knew that I could find her in the clearing by the town library. It was where the small village set up various festivals all year round.

  It was also where I had sent a demon Santa back to hell—with Souji’s help, and the help of several of my schoolmates.

  Part of me would have expected that space to be scarred, somehow tainted by the demon who had tried to consume the town’s children—and had almost consumed me.

  But it wasn’t. The earth had swallowed him up, sending him back to his own hell dimension. And then the ground had settled back into its accustomed form.

  Earth magic is deep and placid.

  I had read that somewhere in a textbook, or maybe heard it in a lesson or in a class. I wasn’t sure which.

  It seemed worth remembering.

  When my panther companions and I hit the edge of town, we skirted around some of the buildings to come at the clearing from a different angle.

  We stepped up to the edge of the clearing, all three of us standing in the shadow of the library building. On the other side of the field, a shadow detached itself from a gazebo that stood there year-round, right on the edge of the clearing.

  A shaft of moonlight illuminated the figure for a moment, flashing off a wave of blue hair.

  It was Jolie.

  Two other, larger figures followed her. Male. One of them had eyes that caught the moonlight and glowed like an animal’s.

  Possibly a shifter.

  His gaze was pointed directly at us, as if he could see us even in the dark.

  “Let’s move,” I whispered, almost inaudibly.

  But again, the three of us stepped out of the shadows in perfect sync, as if we had coordinated it.

  I moved about two steps ahead of my two panthers, just as Jolie moved a few paces ahead of her hunting partners.

  When we met in the middle of the field, I felt exposed, as if anyone could see us and attack at any moment.

  Souji and Reo dropped to their haunches, waiting for me to decide what was next. Until, that was, Jolie starte
d to move her hands in a conjuring motion.

  In a flash, both panthers stood up and growled deep in their throats. Jolie’s two companions took a step forward, as well, the one with the glowing eyes also growling.

  “I’m simply going to do a cloaking spell so no one can see us,” Jolie said, her voice sounding just like it had sounded when it had called to me in the darkness. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”

  I held my hands away from my body and down toward the ground, making a calming motion. My panthers seemed to understand it at least enough to allow her to finish the spell.

  When she was done casting, I couldn’t tell any difference. But Jolie said, “There. That should keep us from being noticed.” She turned to me. “I’m Jolie Macon,” she said. “And these are my two partners, Ranger and Logan.”

  The one with the glowing eyes was Ranger.

  Interesting name. I needed to figure out what other kinds of supernaturals were connected to the Lusus Naturae—the kinds who weren’t also connected to the Hunters’ Academy.

  “I’m Kacie Deluca.” I gestured from one side to the other. “Souji and his brother Reo.”

  She nodded. “It’s good to meet you in person. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  I frowned. “Can’t say the same. I’ve never even heard of the Lusus Naturae having a school.”

  “Not all members attend—not like your Hunters’ Academy. And those who do are put under a geas spell—graduates and former students can’t talk about the school. Not ever.”

  I wondered if Ms. Hush, a convert from the Lusus Naturae to our own side, had attended and simply couldn’t tell anyone.

  I eyed Jolie warily. “So why are you able to talk about it?”

  She shrugged slightly. “A combination of natural resistance to spells and a conflicting curse.”

  I frowned, wanting to ask her what she meant.

  But I sensed we didn’t have time.

  It was enough to know about the school. Now that I had the information, I could use it to our advantage.

  “You said you had a weapon for me?” My voice was tight and tense.

  “I do.” Jolie started to reach into a coat pocket but paused. “I need you to assure me that you will use this against the darkness. Not against my classmates or teachers. Not against the Lusus Naturae.”

  I frowned. “Why should I make a promise like that? The Lusus Naturae have been after me since I was twelve. They—you, your people—caused me to suffer horrific migraines for four years before the Hunters’ Academy ever found me. Why should I promise not to use the best weapon that we might have to protect ourselves from them?”

  Jolie let her hand settle into the pocket, where I could see her grasp something in a fist. “Then promise not to use it to go on the offensive against the Lusus Naturae. Only use it if they come after you.”

  I noted her use of the word they—but I wasn’t sure she did. She might think she was a member of the Lusus Naturae, but she was already beginning to separate herself from them.

  I knew somehow that I needed to stay in touch with this girl. It wouldn’t do to antagonize her. Not when she might prove a valuable ally within the ranks of the Lusus Naturae themselves.

  I nodded. “I can agree to that.”

  Slowly, Jolie withdrew a pendant from her pocket. It dangled at the end of a long chain, and held a polished green stone in the center, larger than was fashionable for a necklace.

  “Here,” she said. “It has an enormous power. I could only tap into the tiniest part of it—and yet I was able to reach through the darkness to talk to you.

  The green stone called to me as if it were my own. I found myself reaching out to grasp it without even realizing I had done so.

  “It wants to go to you,” Jolie said, a slight smile flashing across her face.

  I took the chain in my hands and draped it over my head.

  The stone settled against my chest, and I breathed out in a sigh of relief, letting go of a tension I had never realized existed in my body. “Yes,” I said. “It’s mine.”

  “You should be able to trace the spell I used with it back to me. I think we can use it as a communication conduit,” Jolie said. “If you need my help battling the darkness, call me. I will come to you.”

  “I will,” I said. It felt like a vow, albeit the strangest I had ever made— a vow to call upon and accept the help of the Lusus Naturae if I needed it when the time came to defeat the darkness.

  We held one another’s gazes for a moment, and then nodded simultaneously.

  “Thank you,” I said solemnly. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “Thank you for meeting with us,” Jolie responded.

  With a wave of her hand, she dropped the cloak from around us. We turned to go back our separate ways, when a shout echoed through the night, shattering the silence.

  We froze for a second—long enough for me to see what was going on.

  It was Tony, running across the field. “Stop! Traitors!”

  Chapter 8

  Jolie and I shared a quick glance.

  I wasn’t sure which of us Tony was yelling at. Maybe all of us. And as he ran toward our small group, the moonlight outlined his face in its mask of rage.

  He raised a two-handed sword above his head, its flashing steel beginning to glow with the fire of his anger as he made his way toward us.

  “You have to stop him,” Jolie said, her voice taking on a kind of dreamy cadence. “If he succeeds in his plan, we all will die. The hunters. The Lusus Naturae. All magic here and throughout the world. The darkness will swallow us all.” I looked at her again, stunned to discover her eyes had gone white, and then began to glow blue, matching her hair.

  Matching one of her partners’ eyes.

  I didn’t know what to do.

  Jolie’s voice made what she said sound like prophecy—or at least it sounded like what prophecy had been described as in the classes I’d taken.

  But I didn’t know her well enough to truly trust her.

  What if it was all a trick? What if she and Tony were working together?

  And then my schoolmate was upon us and I didn’t have any more time to think.

  When he was just out of reach, I felt the stone against my chest tug at the magic within me.

  This time, when I reached out to all the people I could sense, ready to take the magic I needed, the stone pendant I wore helped me. It channeled all that power through its green crystal matrix, shooting it back out in concentrated tendrils of green-tinted magic.

  They look like snakes, I realized.

  The tendrils waved around my head, swirling past my face before stretching out in all directions to do what needed to be done. The waving ropes of light reared back and struck everyone I could see simultaneously.

  Just like snakes biting their prey.

  Reo and Souji, having experienced this kind of power drain before, braced themselves, locking their knees and standing with all four legs splayed slightly out. They bowed their heads and endured it as I ripped their power away. Jolie’s companions, Ranger and Logan, on the other hand, were not prepared. They both cried out and fell to their knees.

  Beside me, Jolie gasped, but her jaw clenched, and she remained standing.

  The magic I pulled from Jolie and her guys was almost spicy, adding a heat to the power I had grown used to using in the Academy.

  All around us, in houses throughout the small Colorado town, people shifted in their sleep, perhaps imagining that they’d had a nightmare, maybe crying out in the dark as I tapped into everything regular humans could hold.

  And I had been wrong about the earth not being scarred. In the space where I had sent the Santa demon back to its own dimension, a thin trickle of trans-dimensional magic flowed out through a vent in the ground, a thin spot between worlds. I sucked it up, too, one of the snake tendrils pulling it into me.

  I even drew from the Academy.

  I had not intended to quest so far afield for magic, but the pendant d
id it without consulting me, and the power slammed into me in a sudden blaze of light.

  Eventually, I turned all that power on Tony. I had no idea what I intended to do. But when the magic hit him, his intentions came flowing back to me as clearly as if he had said them aloud.

  He planned to kill me and Reo and Souji, then blame it on the Lusus Naturae.

  Tony didn’t care which magical group he belonged to. He would join whichever side won. But in any case, he would be rid of the two guys he saw as his rivals and the girl he believed had spurned him.

  That won’t be happening.

  I held out one hand. “Stop.” My voice reverberated through the clearing, rolled through the town and crashed into everyone I had drawn magic from.

  Everything went utterly silent.

  The forest, the town, the people around me.

  And of course, Tony himself.

  In fact, I suspected that even time stopped.

  In that moment of perfect silence, I studied everything around me. Slowly, I stepped away from the group of people around me. I circled them, examining everyone in the stillness.

  As I moved around them, I knew that this was the moment that would change everything. It would hold for as long as I kept the spell in place. But the instant I let it go, everyone at both schools would know the kind of power I carried.

  I simply had to decide if that mattered.

  One by one, I began releasing people from my hold.

  Reo and Souji first.

  “Meet me on the other side of the library,” I said.

  They both nodded their heads and flicked their ears back toward me before they took off running, giving Tony a wide berth.

  Jolie was next.

  I clasped her hands. “Take your partners and go. I’ll deal with Tony. We can figure out the rest of it later. I’ll be in touch.” When I released Ranger and Logan, they all three jogged away. Jolie turned around and gave me a last way before they disappeared into the darkness—through a portal, I presumed, since I would have hoped that the Hunters’ Academy faculty would know if there were a Lusus Naturae school anywhere nearby.