Shadow Weaver: The Nightwatch Academy book 2

by Cassidy, Debbie

  “Maybe I can help?” Kash said. “This is a supernatural virus, but any virus uses host cells to reproduce, and reproduction requires energy. If I can siphon enough energy from Hyde, maybe I can make the virus leave.”

  “What if you siphon the virus?” Joti asked.

  “It only affects those with the fomorian gene,” Madam Brunner said. “Do it.”

  “Everyone back up,” Kash said. “I don’t want to siphon from you.”

  Hyde arched his back and bellowed.

  Kash stepped forward, and a wave of awareness skimmed over my skin. He was doing something.

  Hyde yelled one more time and then went silent. The air crackled as grainy black shit rose up into the air. It swirled and pulsed erratically as if battling an unseen force.

  The wards. The power in the wards was tearing at the virus, and then with a flash of white fire, the black stuff was gone.

  The wards were weaver magic. They employed power from the weave … An idea formed in my mind.

  “We need to find a way to extend the ward. Even if it’s for a few minutes. If we can send out a pulse across the mist, we can incapacitate the virus.”

  “And then what?” Madam Garnet said. “That would kill the knights that are infected.”

  Kash locked gazes with me, cottoning on to my idea. “Not if I siphon the energy from all the infected.”

  “Can you do that?”

  I looked to Joti. “The rune you told me about …”

  Joti sat up straighter. “The magnify rune! Yes. We can use the magnifying rune.”

  She pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and unfolded it to reveal the symbol she’d shown me a few days ago. “We need to put this on your skin. I need some Gentile herb and ink.”

  Payne walked over and studied the rune. “This could work on an inanimate object that was charged with energy?”

  Joti’s eyes grew wide with excitement. “Yes! We can paint it onto the Academy walls and boost the ward.”

  “That’s all very well,” Brunner said. “But Mr. Raj … can you hold that much energy?”

  He looked worried. “I … I don’t know, but we have no choice. We have to try.”

  “Mr. Raj—”

  He held up a hand. “It’s our only hope.”

  Brunner looked torn, but then she pressed her lips together and nodded. “Let’s get to work.”

  Twenty-Two

  The symbols had been painted on the building, but the herbs had yet to be smeared on to activate the symbol. Kash had been inked, but once again, the herb hadn’t been put onto his skin.

  We got only one shot at this, and Kash needed to be in the thick of the mist for it to work. Although regular supernaturals couldn’t survive beyond the mist, they could still go into the mist. He just needed feytech armor, and the surviving knight had handed over his. It was a tad on the large side, but it would have to do.

  “We’ll give you five minutes, and then we’ll magnify the ward,” Brunner said.

  “It won’t last long,” Joti reminded us. “A minute and a half, two if you’re lucky, so you need to be quick.”

  Kash clutched the small pot that contained the crushed herb. “And I just put this on the symbol?” He pointed at his cheek, one of the only exposed spots on his body with the armor covering him.

  “Yes,” Joti said. “It’ll feel warm, and you’ll know it’s activated.”

  He nodded curtly, his face somber and pale.

  Joti threw her arms around him. “Be careful. Please, come back to me.”

  He grinned, and his eyes lit up with warmth and love. “Always.” He hugged her once more, then let her go. “Come on,” he said to me. “Let’s get this over with.”

  I walked over to Athos.

  “Whoa, wait a minute.” Kash backed up. “We’re riding that?”

  Athos glared at him, and his snout wrinkled in warning.

  “He didn’t mean offense, Athos.” I looked over my shoulder at Kash. “Did you?”

  Kash made an “o” with his mouth. “Hell, no, I didn’t.”

  I climbed up. “Get on and hold on to me. Do not let go. Athos is fast, and falling off hurts.”

  Kash climbed up and wound his arms around my waist. His breastplate clinked against my back shield.

  I hooked my hands into the ridges and held on tight.

  “Everyone to your positions,” Brunner shouted.

  Several students ran off around the building carrying herbs. The plan was for them to smear it onto the runes at the same time, activating the magnification of the wards that were woven into the building.

  I nodded in Brunner’s direction and then leaned into Athos. “Get us into the mist, please. It’s time to end this.”

  His muscles bunched, and then he leaped forward and fell into a sprint back into the mist.

  * * *

  “Now!” I pulled on the ridges, and Athos slowed and came to a halt. We were in the thick of it, shrouded by the mist.

  Kash held me tight. “Motherfucker. Oh, God. Is this it? You have to work in this?”

  “Focus.”

  “Right.” He climbed off Athos, and I joined him.

  “I can’t control this,” Kash said. “Once I start siphoning, it will get everyone in my radius.”

  The Academy was prepared for it. The students had been told to either sit or lie down to avoid injury if they lost consciousness.

  “I know.” I sat on the ground. “I’m ready.”

  Athos lowered himself beside me. I swear he understood every word coming out of my mouth.

  Kash looked at his watch. “It’s time.”

  Dark shapes materialized around us, running toward us.

  The infected. They were headed this way.

  A hulking figure raced out of the mist toward me. I threw up my hands instinctively, but a dark blur intercepted it.

  I recognized the back of that dark tousled head.

  Aidan.

  Carlo appeared beside him. They fought off the infected.

  “Justice.” Devon hauled me to my feet. “You okay?”

  I shook my head. “We need to get down. All of us.”

  “What?”

  I tugged him to the ground as a blast of energy skimmed over us, ruffling the air.

  The rune on the wards was active.

  The mist filled with bloodcurdling screams and angry, pain-filled roars that tore at my ears. The black-veined cadets who’d been fighting Carlo and Aidan fell to the ground and began to convulse.

  I looked to Kash. “Now!”

  He scooped the herb from the pot and slapped it onto his cheek. “Fuck. Shit, it burns.”

  “Carlo, Aidan, get down.”

  The guys hit the dirt.

  Kash closed his eyes, and the screams intensified.

  It was working. Black shit began to rise into the air. Kash’s body began to shake, and my vision began to dim. He was taking … He was draining, and then I was floating in the darkness, and the weave was pulsing faster and faster as if in warning.

  Kash.

  Kash was in danger. The siphoning was going to kill him. I didn’t know how I knew. I just did. The knowledge unfurled in my mind, and the answer to helping him followed.

  I had to find him. There, the red thread. I had to touch it. I needed to connect with it. With every ounce of will, I drew myself along my own dull thread toward the bright red one.

  Danger, it said.

  Death.

  But I had to touch it. It was the only way to save him.

  My phantom hands grazed the crimson thread, and then my fingers wrapped around it. Pain tore through me, and I almost let go.

  No. Hold on.

  I had to relieve the burden. Act as a valve to release the pressure of energy building inside him. Energy that was too much for his body to use or store. It had to flow through me … back to the weave.

  Open.

  Something inside me snapped, and then power was flooding through me, energies, images, mem
ories. They flooded into me and then out of me, down my thread toward the weave. I was feeding the weave energy. I was siphoning from Kash. My thread began to grow brighter, power rushing up and down it—running both ways. Oh, God. I was feeding the weave and drawing from it. I was connected. Really connected, and the crimson of Kash’s thread had dulled and turned white.

  “Indigo?” Kash said.

  “Kash?”

  “What’s happening?” His voice echoed around me.

  “I … I don’t know.”

  Our threads touched, and a shock rocked through me. The weave lit up so bright it was blinding, and then a pulse shot out of it, knocking me into spiraling darkness.

  “Indigo?”

  I opened my eyes to the mist, and to Kash’s face filled with questions. “What did you do?”

  “I don’t know.” I struggled to sit up with his help. My pulse was sluggish. Aidan, Carlo, and Devon were unconscious on the ground around me. Athos had his eyes closed; the only sign he was alive was the steady rise and fall of his back.

  “Is it over?”

  “Look.” Kash pointed up. “It’s working.”

  I tilted my head to look up into the mist and watched white fire burn away the darkness.

  Twenty-Three

  The fortress was a recovering place. Weakened. All of us recharging, but the threat was gone. Wiped out of existence as it should have been all those years ago. There was only one reason for the Tuatha having bound and hidden the virus … They’d planned on using it again someday. But on who? The thought sent a shiver down my spine. And then another tremor ran through me as I stopped outside the med bay.

  For the first time in a long time, Payne was inundated with patients suffering from chronic exhaustion. The nightbloods and moonkissed weren’t too bad. They’d fully recharge in a day, but the feyblood were hit hard.

  Many were laid up in their rooms, and the worst of them were here, in the med bay, including Hyde.

  It had been easier to bring him up here than take him to the fortress healer. Brady was being administered to there, and he still hadn’t woken. I’d sat with him for an hour, holding his hand, and now I was here.

  My pulse quickened as I pushed open the door and stepped into the foyer. The med bay door was open and Payne was visible inside administering to a patient, and a few beds down was Hyde.

  He lay propped up, eyes closed, skin pale. I took a step toward the room.

  “Indigo?”

  I turned to see Deana enter, clutching a flask.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. Then her gaze slid over my head into the med bay. “You came to see Hyde.” She studied me carefully. “That’s dedicated of you.” Her gaze was too knowing.

  “Yeah, well, that’s me. Dedication is my middle name.”

  She sighed. “Well, things make more sense now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Her smile was wry. “Archer’s sudden change of mind. His sudden invite for me to come here.” She looked me up and down. “I guess I was the buffer.”

  I didn’t know what to say.

  “I’ve known Hyde a long time. He’s a good person. He’s always done the right thing, but he’s also a passionate man, and he isn’t immune to temptation.” Her face hardened. “Stay away, Indigo. He’s not for you.” There was no malice in her tone. Just weariness.

  I shouldn’t have come. He wasn’t mine. Could never be mine. I nodded. “I know.”

  She brushed past me into the room.

  The main doors burst open, and Kash came rushing in. His hair looked windswept, and his eyes were bright. They latched on to me. “Justice, where’s Payne?”

  “What? He’s with patients.”

  “Shit. The weaver council has sent enforcers to bring him in. They’re headed over here now.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because of you.”

  For a moment, my mind was blank, and then the reality of the situation registered. Payne had procreated when he was forbidden to, and he’d created a nightblood child. Of course, there would be consequences. My heart squeezed in panic.

  I rushed into the sick room.

  “Payne!”

  He looked up with a warm smile. “Indigo. When did you get here?”

  I rushed over to him and wrapped my arms around him. He tensed, stunned, and then his body relaxed, and he hugged me back.

  It felt good. So bloody good and I didn’t want to let go. But he was in danger. I pulled away. “The weaver council has sent enforcers. You have to run.”

  His eyes grew sad, and then he smiled softly. “There is nowhere to run, Indigo. I knew this was coming. I just hoped I’d have a little more time with you before it happened.”

  “What? You knew they’d come to arrest you? Why did you stay? You could have run.”

  He gave me a duh look. “You think I was going to leave you and go? Every moment that we’ve spent together has been worth it. Don’t you forget that.”

  There were raised voices in the foyer, and then two hulking figures appeared in the doorway followed by Brunner.

  “Carter Payne,” one of the guys said. “We have a warrant for your arrest. Please come with us.”

  I stepped in front of Payne. “You’ll have to go through me to get to him.”

  The enforcers exchanged glances, thrown. They’d probably never been challenged before.

  Payne laid a hand on my shoulder. “It’s all right. I’ll be all right. I have to go with them now. But I’ll be back. It will probably be a slap on the wrist.”

  I looked up at him. “Really?”

  “Mr. Payne …” There was warning in the enforcer’s tone.

  “A moment, please,” Brunner snapped. “Give the man a minute.”

  Payne cupped my face and kissed my forehead. “Really. And we still have our trip at the end of term.”

  “Yeah, we do.” But then why didn’t I want to let him go?

  “I want you to focus on your lessons. Get your powers under control and graduate to shadow knight. You have so much potential, Indigo. Don’t let anything hold you back. Promise me.”

  “Why are you saying all this? You’re coming back.”

  He smiled. “Of course I am.”

  Lie. It sounded like a lie, but he was already walking away toward the enforcers. He looked back over his shoulder as they led him away.

  No, this was wrong. This felt wrong. I rushed after them, but Brunner blocked me and shook her head.

  “No. We can’t interfere,” she said.

  And then they were gone.

  “It’ll be okay,” Kash said.

  But there was no conviction in his voice.

  * * *

  “And they took him.” I held Brady’s hand. “I don’t know what to do. I’m scared. For the first time in forever, I’m fucking terrified.”

  Brady had been given his own room in the fortress healer wing. Aside from his bed, there was a large window, a washbasin, and several chairs. I ran my gaze over his sleeping face. He looked so peaceful, but I wanted him to wake up and growl at me. To be grumpy until he got his coffee. I wanted to share cocoa with him and curl up with him under the stars.

  I’d wanted a family for so long. I’d wanted someone to love me unconditionally, and now I had those things, and they were being taken away. Payne was gone, and Brady still hadn’t woken up.

  I’d learned not to feel the loneliness, learned to embrace it as a friend, but for the first time in a long time, I felt the bite.

  “Brady, please, I need you.” My voice was a thick whisper. “I can’t be alone again.”

  A hand fell on my shoulder. “Who said you were alone?”

  I looked up into Lloyd’s icy-blue eyes and then around him to see the other guys enter the room. They fanned out, grabbing seats and pulling them close to the bed. They were all paler than usual. All still recovering. But they’d bounced back quicker than Brady.

  Why was that?

  The fortress healer believed it
was something to do with Brady’s genetic makeup. Maybe the fomorian was stronger in him than in the others.

  Either way, there was nothing to be done until he woke up.

  “He’ll be okay,” Carlo said with confidence.

  “The man’s a fighter,” Aidan said.

  Devon grunted in agreement.

  “You have us, Justice. All of us,” Lloyd said. “We’re a team.”

  My throat pinched.

  “Is it true you stole a fomorian hound?” Lloyd asked.

  “Damn straight, she did,” Carlo said. “I fucking saw it.”

  “Athos,” Devon said in his low, gravelly voice. “Brady’s hound. Athos let her ride him.”

  They exchanged glances.

  “What?”

  “You obviously have no idea how rare that is,” Aidan said. “Once hounds pick a rider, they stick to him. They don’t let anyone else ride them.”

  I absorbed this bit of information. “He knew Brady was in trouble.”

  “He knew?” Carlo’s brows went up. “You told him, and he understood?”

  I met his gaze. “Yeah. I asked for his help, and he understood me.”

  Brady’s fingers squeezed my hand. My heart skipped a beat, and my gaze flew up to his face.

  “Brady?”

  His eyelids fluttered open, and then his dark eyes focused on me. “Indigo.”

  A sob broke from my throat. “I’m here.”

  Lloyd pushed back his seat. “Let’s give them some space.”

  The door slammed open, and Thomas skidded in, almost falling over in his haste.

  “What the fuck, Carmichael?” Carlo said.

  Thomas took a deep breath. “They’re back,” he gasped.

  “What?” Lloyd asked.

  “Venerick and Harmon. They’re back.”

  To be continued…

  Indigo’s journey continues in Shadow Warrior book 3 in the Nightwatch Academy series.

  Grab it HERE now!

  Other books by Debbie Cassidy

  The Gatekeeper Chronicles

  Coauthored with Jasmine Walt

  Marked by Sin