Resummon: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 6)

by Shawn Knightley

  I let him kiss me but I didn’t kiss him back this time. I stood there full of shame and determination, breathing him in one last time and letting my hands reach up for his arms as he embraced me. Then the second he lifted his lips from mine, I pushed him away and dislodged his grip over me.

  Lothar was a man who didn’t have much. Not a family and perhaps no siblings. But he had the Vontex. He was determined to maintain it and keep it strong. And that’s where we differed. The future of the Vontex and my place in it was his priority. Mine was my family. At least the family that I still had left. And I was willing to give my life to fight for it.

  I turned away from him and opened the door. He moved to stop me, reaching for my arm with more force than I appreciated and giving it a tight squeeze.

  “Riley, stop for just a second,” he demanded. “Think about this.”

  ‘You mean think about you.’

  “I already have.”

  I yanked my arm away from him. “If you can’t see how grateful I am for getting me this far you are a fool, Lothar. I will always be in your debt. But I will never be in anyone’s possession. I’ve made my choice. I choose my brother.”

  His jaw tightened. He wanted to say something more but he knew it was hopeless. I circled about him in a dance of death the night we met over the body of a grave keeper that I ruthlessly killed. I was a survivor. My mother taught me how to hide, my father taught me how to stand firm, and Lothar had taught me how to fight. Now it was time to put the gifts others had given me to good use.

  “Be in the Bloody Tower dungeon with Jake once we leave,” I told him. “We’ll need you to help restrain Dirk if we manage to capture him. Just like you did with Margaux. Alexei will be there to provide extra muscle if you need it.”

  I walked through the door and shut it behind me, leaving him with nothing more than the sound of my boots hitting the stone steps. He didn’t come after me. And to my surprise, I didn’t want him to. That didn’t stop him from watching me from the window as I walked away without looking back.

  I let my hands rest on the daggers sheathed to my belt, grateful that Lothar and Jake seemingly hadn’t noticed that I never returned them to the Vontex weaponry room. Something about having them on my belt and feeling the blue jewels encrusted on the sides filled me with a sense of confidence. A sort of confidence I only seemed to have when it was absolutely necessary.

  Not anymore. Not this night. This was the night all my reservations needed to end. It was the night I would finally have the opportunity to save Dirk.

  I marched into the Falcon wing as students watched like I was some sort of pariah. Which was a feat considering I was already a lycan, and therefore a supernatural being that lived in the shadows unless among my own kind. Now I was an outsider even to my own. And not because I had managed to do something terrible or even great. It was because I had nearly been killed by a vixra in front of the entire student body. I was some sort of bacteria that might infect them if they got too close. Everyone seemed to know the weight angering the vixra carried because they cleared a path for me the moment I entered the common room and headed up the stairs.

  The door to Adeline and Margaux’s room opened before I even reached it.

  “We’ve been expecting you,” Alexei said with an eager voice.

  ‘What? You think you’re getting rid of me tonight?’

  I walked inside to see Margaux standing over the countless candles covering the table to the corner where Adeline, Margaux, and I shared a few glasses of champagne before she tortured me with a little too much enthusiasm.

  Rodrick made eye contact with me from the far corner the moment I walked in. I couldn’t decipher his emotions. Was he still angry at me? Or was he just glad that perhaps this nightmare might come to an end soon? Regardless of how he felt, he chose to keep his cards hidden.

  Adeline was transfixed on Margaux as she held her hands over the curling gold and blue flames from the tall tapered candlesticks, chanting words I didn’t recognize. The flicker of the blue flames weaved over her skin but didn’t burn her. I assumed she was doing something beyond my capacity to understand and looked away. The ways of luxra magic were still a mystery to me.

  I stood over to Adeline’s side, knowing full and well that Rodrick was watching me. We didn’t get a chance to speak since Ellinor and the vixra guard showed up. He looked as though he had something to say. Only this wasn’t the time or the place. But the more he stared, the more I got the feeling that whatever was on his mind, it was bothering him more and more that he might not get the opportunity to speak. Or maybe that was just me. I had more to say. More to ask. And we both knew after tonight I might not get that chance.

  ‘Focus on Dirk. I have to do as Adeline said and focus on Dirk.’

  I looked away from him and watched as Margaux continued to manipulate the flames. They danced around the tabletop and curled over her skin. The large room would have been completely dark if not for her spell maneuvering about and swirling through the air. The atmosphere around us crackled and popped as I watched on with acute fascination. The only times I had witnessed luxra magic was when it was being used against me or when Daniella evaporated into a vapor-like smoke only to disappear right before my eyes at Musée D’Orsay. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. She looked as though she was communicating with another force. Something potentially dark and not of this world. The entire atmosphere in the room shifted. The hairs on my arms stood up straight, threatening to send goosebumps trailing up and down my skin.

  There was a flash across the room that nearly blinded me. No one else reacted so I decided not to either. But I couldn’t resist. I was desperate to know what the hell she was doing.

  The flames eased down. The sparks of blue dissipated. The room was covered in darkness. My lycan eyesight nearly adjusted to it before Rodrick flipped a switch to his right and filled the room with electrical light.

  “Is it done?” he asked sternly.

  “Oui,” Margaux answered.

  I peered over at Alexei. He looked downright gleeful as a strange smile crossed his already somewhat frightening features. It was as if he was even more entranced than we were by Margaux’s skills.

  “Then let’s get this over with,” Rodrick grumbled. His voice was gruff. Rigid. Tough. It was the same tone of voice he used with me the day I arrived at the academy and he drilled me for information on how I was changed into a werewolf. Was he putting on a show for everyone else or was he genuinely tired of having to do things he didn’t want to do? Did he grow tired of helping me just like Lothar had? Or did he secretly fear what was to come if we failed? I had little time to make peace with the fact that I might never know.

  “What did you do?” I asked Margaux.

  “I sent a message to the grandmaster telling him that I captured you outside the lycan realm hunting werewolves with the Vontex. He’s expecting me to bring you directly to him at the Old Town Square in Prague.”

  Adeline shook her head. “No, that’s far too public. He can’t really expect a hand-off there.”

  “The grandmaster knows many spells he can use to his advantage.” Margaux leaned into the table. I only hoped she wouldn’t toss it across the room like she did the one in the cottage. “He’s possessed many bodies with powerful magic and knows how to use it better than most witchlings.”

  “So he plans to use a shadow charm and potentially bring it down in case he needs to make a quick escape,” Adeline said.

  “Exactly,” Margaux responded. “I wasn’t in a place to argue. But I was in a place to influence him. He agreed that Prague was well-suited given the Dolch Erbe’s history. If not symbolic."

  Adeline groaned. “I read in my grandfather’s journals that he suspected the grandmaster of being somewhat sentimental.”

  “How could he not be given his dedication to bringing our kind down?”

  Rodrick turned to me and pulled back the length of my trench coat at the waist. His hands were dangerously close
to my thigh.

  I leaned away from him. “Hey, what are you-”

  He silenced me with the sound of metal scraping across the leather sheath to my side. He removed one of the daggers from my belt and handed it to Adeline.

  For a second I thought he might have recognized it and I was about to get a lecture on taking things that weren’t mine again.

  Not this time.

  Adeline took the tip of the blade and punctured a hold right in the center of her palm. Only she did it with a flare of her emerald green light dazzling over the trickle of blood coming from her skin. She let her other hand waft over her palm. Her blood formed into three droplets levitating in the air between both her hands. Enough for a single dose of vixra blood. Only this time it wasn’t on a piece of paper.

  “Take it,” she said.

  “Directly from the vein?” Margaux said with a tilt of her head and a smirk. “Don’t give Alexei such a temptation.”

  I couldn’t help but physically cringe at the sound of her words.

  Adeline threw a glare over at Alexei smiling to her right. “Don’t even think about it.”

  ‘I take it Margaux lets Alexei drink from her. Yuck.’

  Adeline handed me the dagger and I sheathed it back to my belt.

  The single droplets of blood floated through the air until they were right before the three of us. I opened my mouth. It glided right in and settled on my tongue. Rodrick didn’t look particularly comfortable with the form of exchange but he accepted it without question, as did Margaux. I didn’t bother asking why Adeline was giving us her blood. We were about to embark on an extremely dangerous mission. We needed all the help we could get.

  “Now?” Rodrick asked, looking to Adeline for approval.

  “Better than later I suppose.”

  Rodrick let out a long breath and dug into his inner trench coat pocket. When he brought his hand out, he was holding a sapphire tinted crystal filled with blue light. The same crystal holding the luxra spirit that once possessed Margaux.

  “What are you doing with that?” I asked.

  He handed the crystal to Margaux as Adeline watched with apprehension crossing her face. It was easy to see she didn’t entirely approve. Regardless, she kept her mouth shut. Margaux took it into her hands with a seething expression glistening in her eyes. Then she tucked it into one of the deep pockets of her long black skirt.

  “The grandmaster must believe I’m still being possessed. He will sense her spirit but not where it resides.”

  I looked back at her with skepticism. Then I reminded myself that Adeline trusted her enough to be alright with this plan. If Adeline thought it was necessary, I needed to go along with it.

  “As we go through the tunnel, take your places before we arrive in the Old Town Square,” Adeline instructed. “The moment I set foot there I will spread a shadow charm over Rodrick and myself to keep the two of us hidden. Then I’ll cast a spell to neutralize our scents. The grandmaster will have control of Dirk’s lycan abilities to smell. He won’t show up if he senses a vixra or another Blackatter in the area.

  “Riley, you stay in front of Margaux,” she said. “Behave as though you’re her prisoner. You’ve been tortured into submission and don’t have much fight left in you.”

  I nodded to let her know I understood. I had experienced being tortured once or twice. I could pull it off.

  Adeline lifted her hand toward her mouth as though she was going to blow me a kiss. Only she did the gesture without the sound. I heard a stiff breeze move over my body. She was doing something with the air surrounding me. I looked over my clothes to see them in tatters and my hair in a tangled mess. Even my hands were smudged with dirt.

  “What the-?”

  “You need to look the part.” Adeline examined my appearance, making sure I looked like I had been through hell before moving on. I didn’t even want to see myself in a mirror. I was getting sick and tired of always looking like a train wreck. “Are you ready for this?” she asked me.

  I wasn’t about to back down now. I was so close. “Absolutely,” I stood firm.

  “Give me your weapons,” Margaux said.

  I nearly argued with her only to realize that it was necessary. I needed to play the role of her prisoner. “Just have them where I can get to them if I need to.”

  I begrudgingly handed her the daggers, feeling as if I was letting go of the only thing that was keeping me safe. Margaux and I might have had similar goals but she still had a long way to go before I truly trusted her. Not that it mattered. I wasn’t in a position to choose who I was working with.

  “Let’s do this,” Rodrick said gruffly. He didn’t mind letting me know just how particularly displeased he was by the whole thing. But unlike Lothar, he wasn’t trying to talk me out of it. He was coming along with us. And I was secretly thrilled.

  We walked out of the Falcon wing and down the student corridor. Then onto the main courtyard and out the front entrance where the guards had their weapons at ready. They moved aside just before we walked through. Alexei pulled Margaux in close. I turned away to give them a moment of privacy. And also because I didn’t want to see the two of them exchange any more affection than I was already forced to imagine after seeing them in the cottage.

  Rodrick placed his hand over my shoulder and led me away once the two of them were done. The heat from his hand went straight through my torn up trench coat. He let it fall away once Alexei was gone and we were headed out of the fortress.

  A strange sensation spread across my skin making me feel as if I had hot water running over my body. Lothar was watching us walk away from a window in the Bloody Tower with Jake behind him. I wasn’t sure how but I could sense it.

  The wind carried the whispers of students as I lifted the hood of my trenchcoat over my head, wondering why I was leaving with a luxra, a vixra, and the dean of the academy.

  “What makes her so special?”

  “Dean’s pet.”

  “Brown noser.”

  Their slanderous words meant nothing to me. None of them did. I wasn’t even sure completing my studies meant as much to me as it might have only mere weeks ago. There was only one focus on my mind. Getting Dirk back.

  Adeline cast her magic a safe distance away and opened up a vixra tunnel. She stopped just short of its luminous light as the wind picked up and soared through her white blond hair.

  “Riley, you go first,” she said. “Margaux will be close behind. Then Rodrick and me.”

  She took my wrist into her hand just before I stepped through, forcing my attention away from the tunnel. As I stopped and looked at her something passed between us. It wasn’t the time or place for a proper goodbye or any sort of affection. Even so, her face told me what she wanted me to know. That she cared about me, this could end badly, and to please be as careful as possible

  I gave her a faint smile to let her know I was alright. I was ready for this. And I wouldn’t let her down.

  She let go of my wrist and I walked directly into the tunnel with Margaux close behind me. The second Adeline and Rodrick entered the entire tunnel went dark. I had to squint my eyes from the change in light to see where I was going, gently reminding myself that it was a straight shot and I just needed to place one foot in front of the other.

  The end of the tunnel appeared like a beacon of vibrant sunlight bursting out of nowhere. My pace quickened and my heart hammered so hard that I could hear it in my ears.

  ‘This is it. All or nothing.’

  Margaux’s hands latched over my wrists. She brought them behind my back as if she had me in her clutches and I truly was her prisoner. The only problem was that her nails were digging directly into my skin.

  ‘I realize we’re acting but that’s taking it a bit far.’

  Clearly, she didn’t think so because she dug them deeper the closer we got to the end of the tunnel. My eyes tried to adjust as the world passed by below us. I kept my head up and focused on the exit, hoping for a clean landing.<
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  Margaux had other plans. She roughly shoved me forward and we both went stumbling out of the tunnel as if we were struggling against one another. I did my best to look weakened. Not a hard sell considering the spell Adeline cast over my less than perfect appearance.

  The second we were through the tunnel I thought I might fall to the cobblestones below my feet. My head dangled in front of me as if I was exhausted and far too tired to put up a fight. Margaux forced me to keep walking as I trudged along in front of her. She had me tight in her hands, searching everywhere with a scowl on her face.

  The first thing I noticed once my hair finally fell away from my face was the Old Town Square. I had never been to Prague but I knew enough about it to recognize what I was seeing. Even though the architecture was incredible, the overall atmosphere left me feeling spooked. I couldn’t gaze at the sights like a normal tourist. I could only look at the staggering towers and spires as though they might collapse and strike me dead.

  Adeline was right. Dirk cast some sort of spell over the entire square. It never mattered where I went in major tourist cities, there were almost always tourists about. Especially if there were restaurants or pubs close by. The Old Town Square, however, was entirely abandoned. Even the carriage with horses attached for people wanting to experience a taste of the old world was left empty. Not a single sound carried over the lightly snow-dusted square. Even the birds were silent. The tower of the Tyn church stood in the distance. Only the church bells weren’t ringing over the array of old Czech buildings. They were silent. The entire area was left behind as though every citizen of the city fled some terrible threat.

  “What’s going on?” I mumbled. Margaux had me tight in her grip and I was confused as hell. Not only because I wanted to appear weakened but because the square didn’t feel normal. The moon shined bright through the rolling clouds over the ivory-colored buildings with intricate engravings, striking down at the reddish-orange rooftops and making the square feel as if it had a ghostly presence.