It sucked feeling powerless.
I know, I know, dramatic much. But when two of my friends were just attacked and the most I could do was pace around outside the medical wing, it was kind of hard not to go all mopey.
I reached the end of the corridor and did an about-face. My hands clenched and unclenched, my fingers itching to hold onto Valkyrie’s hilt that dangled from my belt loop. The second I’d brought Jen and Penny to the medical wing and made sure Mrs. Rochester was taking care of them, I’d rushed back to my room and gotten suited up. I’d also probably scared the crap out of Mia and the others as I banged around, not really explaining much, but I wasn’t particularly worried about that. How could I be? The Society was out there, right now, and they had just attacked us.
I stopped in front of the ward Jen and Penny were in. I let out a deep breath, trying to re-center myself.
“Hey.”
I hadn’t heard Asher approach. His hair was still a bit disheveled from rolling out of bed, his clothes a bit ruffled, but he also had his Academy sword strapped to his side and a determined expression on his face. He looked ready to go.
“You read my mind,” I said, nodding to his clothes.
“I figured it’d be a good day to skip class. Sounds like we’ve got some more important things to worry about.” He jerked his head toward the ward’s closed door. “They okay?”
“They’ll be fine. Mrs. Rochester’s with them right now.”
Asher hooked his thumbs in his pockets and let out a relieved breath. “What happened?”
I filled him in with what I knew, and what I’d been able to get out of Penny before Mrs. Rochester shooed me away. Compared to Jen, Penny had been relatively unharmed, which kind of made sense. As a succubus, she was a lot stronger than her timid demeanor made her appear.
“I’m glad you found them,” Asher said. “But what were you doing up so late?”
I tried not to look him in the eye. I…kind of hadn’t thought about a good excuse for why I’d been up.
“Taking a walk. I couldn’t sleep.”
Asher’s presence filled the space in front of me. My skin tingled as his warm hands took mine. In a completely platonic way, of course. Like any good partner would do. And that was how any girl who had no growing romantic feelings whatsoever would see it. Obviously.
“Is that really it?”
For not the first time since our last battle with Kasia, the words I wanted to say nearly broke through the wall of my lips: You see, there’s this other hot guy inside me. Except he’s a curse. And really, really evil. And I think he might someday turn me evil, too. Surprise!
“I just couldn’t sleep. Promise.”
“Would you tell me if that wasn’t the case?”
This time I did look up at him, my hands tingling where his still covered mine. He looked expectant, but not like he was rushing me. He trusted that I’d tell him when the time was right.
I only wished that were true.
“I’m fine, Asher. Geez, not everything has to be sinister. Sometimes a girl can just have a lot on her mind.”
I pulled my hands from his, but he didn’t move. “I’m going in to check on them. Maybe Jen’s awake.”
Asher was quiet for a moment, probably trying to see if he could revitalize the dying threads of the last conversation. Then he grinned. “Good luck getting past Mrs. Rochester.”
I grimaced in agreement as I opened the door and slipped inside the ward.
Clean, white beds lined either side, each enclosed with privacy curtains. I heard faint muttering as Mrs. Rochester’s latest patients tossed and turned in their sleep. One bed had an unusually foul smell emanating from it, like sewer water. A slender, scaly tail slipped from beneath the curtain of another. I spotted Mrs. Rochester—cherry-colored hair in a tight bun, lips in her seemingly perpetual frown—slipping out from between one of the bed’s curtains.
“Mrs. Roch—”
“Shh!”
She finished closing the curtain and waggled a finger at me. “What do you think you’re doing, disturbing the patients like this? I want quiet, and if you—”
She must have finally registered that it was me, because her eyes narrowed even further. She grabbed my arm and held it out, poking and prodding. “Back again, I see. Decided to tell me you were hurt after all, eh? Where is it this time? Let this at least be a class-inflicted wound and not a result of you running off to heaven knows where and getting into squabbles.”
“Uh, no, not squabbles. And I’m not hurt.” I gently extracted my arm from her probing. “How are Jen and Penny?”
“They’re doing just fine because you’re not disturbing them.”
“But can I just see—”
“You cannot!” She spun me around. “Now march—”
“Skylar?”
Penny’s head was poking out of one of the curtains. Her brown curls spilled across her shoulder, her wide, purple eyes glinting. “Can I speak to Skylar?”
“You most certainly cannot!” Mrs. Rochester said. “You need rest, and there’s no way you’ll get it chit-chatting—”
“Please?” Penny said, and this time I felt a strange pull in my gut, the strength of her succubus’ persuasion. I was aware of my thoughts as they began to want nothing more than to obey Penny’s every command.
Mrs. Rochester hesitated as the magic hit her. “I…suppose it can’t hurt. Only for a minute, though. And stay quiet.”
I gave a hurried nod and slipped in through the curtains after Penny.
“I do not like doing that,” Penny said in her thick accent. “It…does not feel good.”
I could imagine. Penny had only recently started trying to use magic again after her stasis. I’d only witnessed it one other time, when she’d wanted the last piece of a particularly delicious cake.
This time must have been at least that serious.
“How’re you feeling?” I asked.
Penny pulled her black, jean-clad legs up to her chest. I was glad Sylvia had gotten the girl some more modern clothes, but right now she seemed like she would have been more comfortable in her normal Victorian dresses. She looked scared. Totally out of her depth.
“I am fine. And Jen will be fine, says Mrs. Rochester. She is in…bobble? A water bobble?”
“Water bubble. To help her heal.”
Penny’s eyes dropped to the bed. “I saw it…” she said, voice soft. “I see the house, the one people have talked about.”
I leaned in closer. I’d suspected they had, but hadn’t wanted to press them. “It was still a house?”
“Yes. With tiny figure inside. It was in window, but I could not see more because we had to go. One minute it was just us, then the next…”
“The Society attacked,” I finished. Penny nodded.
Not good. I mean, we suspected the Society would go after it, but this just confirmed they were getting closer. It might have been a coincidence that they were at the same place that the Cursed One showed up. But if not, then they were able to track it. Or at least predict where it might end up next. If that were the case, then it was only a matter of time before they got their hands on it. We might already be too late.
“Penny, did you happen to see a woman named Kasia there? Platinum blond hair, scar on her face, completely and totally sadistic?”
Penny cocked her head, thinking. “I…did not. You have met her?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Skylar.” Penny straightened her legs, face growing serious. “You are going to seek this Cursed One?”
“That’s the plan.” I hoped.
“You must.” Penny nodded fiercely. “You must. And I think I know how.”
My ears perked up. Say what now?
“You know my family is—was—ancient and powerful,” Penny said. “They were, how you say, well-connected with other Supes. For long time there’s been legend about this Cursed One. I know what finding it could mean. You must find it.”
“But how? We have no way of knowing where it’s going to show up next.” Other than, supposedly, areas of high magical concentration, but that was a guess at best.
“There are…pockets—yes, that is the term, I believe. Places of magic that you can find if you know. I know someone, very old someone, who knows the ways of this. He is Fae.”
A lead weight settled in my gut. Fae were powerful. Fae were problems. Fae were bad news. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Penny.”
“He knows way to the Cursed One, I’m sure,” Penny insisted. “He is not like other Fae. He will not hurt you.” She paused to consider this. “Maybe.”
A glowing five out of five-star rating from Penny. Wonderful.
“He will help you. He lives in Black Forest. You look and he will find you.”
“That’s…really helpful. Thank you.”
In truth, it wasn’t exactly what I’d been hoping for. Not that I had any other ideas. But looking for a random guy in a random forest that would lead us to a random place where we could find the Cursed One…I was, randomly, not having a lot of faith in that plan.
I felt Penny’s cold hand rest on my arm. “Be careful, Skylar. The Society, they…they are doing anything to get it. Be careful.”
I nodded, not sure what else to say except, “Get better soon.”
Lucien was waiting for me when I left the medical ward.
“There she is,” he said, turning from Asher, Mia, and Colson. Mia and Colson looked a little bleary-eyed, but they also were dressed to kill.
“It appears we have a situation,” Lucien said, nodding behind me to the ward. “The Society?”
“Who else?”
Lucien’s lips pursed tighter. “I was afraid of that, but not terribly surprised. Mrs. Rochester has already informed me Penny and Jen will be all right. Though that the Society has now injured two of our students has me more worried than I can say. I’m almost tempted to—”
“You can’t keep us all here,” I interrupted before I could stop myself. “Cowering behind the Academy walls isn’t going to do anything except give Kasia the chance she needs to keep looking.”
Lucien raised one eyebrow at the same time Asher and Colson both rolled their eyes. Okay, so I may have a problem with impulse control when it comes to speaking my mind.
“By all means, tell me what you really think!” Lucien said, chuckling. “And I understand how upset you might be, but believe it or not I have many things to consider when making a decision, the lives of the students under my care being the most paramount.”
I bit my lip. “Sorry.”
“Because of this attack and the growing danger, I am stopping all current practical hours for the time being. No students will be leaving the Academy until either Kasia is stopped or this Cursed One is found.”
“But—”
“That does not include you four,” Lucien finished.
Now we were talking.
“Really?” Colson rumbled.
“Really. My resources are already stretched thin with other Masters out helping. You four have had far more experience than anyone else in your grade—dare I say almost any other students in this school. You’re intimately aware of the threat you’re up against. You could help bring this to a close sooner.”
A pleasantly warm feeling bubbled in my chest, like the cap had been pulled from a shaken bottle of soda. Not only was I getting to fight for the Academy, I was getting to do it with permission. What a weird world we lived in.
“Supervised, of course,” Lucien added, probably reading my elated expression. “I’m not that stupid.”
“Never said you were, Dad,” Asher said, though the corner of his mouth twitched.
“You really think we can find it?” Mia said. “The Cursed One, I mean?”
“I certainly hope not,” Lucien said. He swept his robes aside and gestured for us to follow him up the stairs back toward the Masters’ Wing. “That’s why I’ve sent out other Masters to look. You four will be assisting the Denmark Academy of Magic in Copenhagen stave off any potential threats from the Society.”
“Fun!” Mia said.
We all looked at her.
“Fun…?” Colson said.
Mia flushed red. “I’ve…always wanted to go to Denmark.”
“Excellent!” Lucien said. “Then grab your metaphorical passport because you’re getting the chance now. The Academy is magically entrenched within the Tivoli Gardens, fortunately closed for the season. Headmaster Wendell is expecting you to help his students on patrol and fill them in on what you know since two of you have already seen the Cursed One.”
Lucien paused, thinking over something. “I should mention that Headmaster Wendell is a wonderful headmaster, but he’s been around for a long, long, time. He’s powerful, proud, and takes the safety of his students seriously, almost to the point of paranoia.”
“That sounds…normal,” Colson said.
“I simply wanted you to be aware. Be nice and you all will get along famously!”
We entered the Masters’ Wing and turned off into a small side room. It was only a little bigger than a closet and completely bare. Asher and I used to play in here when we were kids, not knowing it was doubly-reinforced with charms for practicing with particularly dangerous magic. Oops.
Lucien made a complicated gesture with his hands. A Farcast portal slid open in front of us. With another move it widened until we were looking at the black beyond. I whistled. “You can open one of those without charged magic charms?”
“Um, he’s kind of the headmaster, Skylar,” Mia said.
“Yes, I’m kind of the headmaster, Skylar,” Lucien said.
“So what do we do if we find the Cursed One?” Colson said.
“That won’t happen,” Lucien said confidently.
“But if it does?”
I watched Colson cross his immense arms. On first glance, his posture appeared relaxed, but there was the barest hint of tension in every line of his body. He was right. That was a possibility, wasn’t it? For all my determination about finding the Cursed One, I hadn’t actually decided what we’d do if we actually found it.
You must find it first, and you must kill it.
“That won’t be an issue,” Lucien said. “I’ve crunched the odds of it appearing where you are, and it’s at least a really, really small chance.”
Unless we knew another way to find it.
“Sounds like a plan,” Asher said. “We go there and don’t find it.” He gestured to the portal. “Ladies first.”
I touched my hand to my chest. “Such a gentleman. Mia.”
I locked arms with her—it was always easier to enter a Farcast portal with someone, both to better stabilize you, and prevent getting separated before landing—and took a giant step into the portal.
There was a sudden moment of disorientation, like I’d stood up too fast and all the blood had drained from my brain. Then it felt like I was coming to the end of a roller coaster ride, a drag on my body right before everything jerked to a halt and Mia and I stumbled out into the crisp winter air. We’d entered a sparsely covered forest drenched in night. A light drizzle spat onto the canopy above and sprinkled our shoulders. Lights from what I assumed were the Tivoli Gardens blinked at us from across a small inlet of water.
“Oops! Sorry, I—watch your legs.” Mia untangled herself from my arms and we both stepped away from the portal. I threw up my jacket’s hood and glanced up at the sky.
“Good thing we dressed for the weather, right?”
“Brr!” Mia rubbed her arms.
“Most of us, anyway.”
“If your jacket goes mysteriously missing, I want you to know it wasn’t me.”
The portal flexed and snapped and a moment later the boys stepped through. The portal closed up without a sound behind them. Asher patted Colson on the arm. “I swear, I never have to worry about you getting lost in one of those things.”
“You’re just lucky I fit in one of those things,” Colson answered. He noticed where we were. “Why didn’t we arrive in the Academy?”
But something had caught my attention. Actually, it was that nothing had caught my attention. I realized the strange absence of anyone, or anything, around us.
“Wasn’t somebody supposed to meet us?” Mia said. “Didn’t Headmaster Wendell know we were coming?”
Asher stepped beside me, squinting into the lights covering the Japanese pagoda just across the water. “You feel something?”
My fingers closed around Valkyrie. Maybe I was being paranoid, but if there was one thing I’d learned, it was that being paranoid tended to get you out of more situations than not. “They should have been here. With the amount of magic a Farcast portal produces they would at least come to check it out—”
“Listen,” Colson said.
We did. Over the gentle drum of rain rose another sound. The dull explosions of spells being cast. The clang of metal on metal.
“Come on!”
I charged ahead, the others close at my heels. We rushed across the bridge, feet pounding on the wood. Now I could hear shouts. I could see the interspersed flash of spells as they lit up the sky.
I came to a stop. We’d arrived at an intersection at the center of the park. Since it was called Tivoli Gardens, I’d expected, you know, gardens. But at my back was a roller coaster. Across from me was some kind of glass concert hall and a Ferris wheel. Colored Christmas lights trimmed shops that lined wide, stone streets, the fronts of the stores dark.
I could now pick out dozens of people dashing back and forth between the streets, ducking and yelling. Some paused long enough to cast spells. I watched one take a stun spell to the chest. Magic exploded against the ground, kicking up chunks of concrete. The air smelled of ozone.
“Society acolytes,” Colson rumbled, pulling out his hammer as Mia’s hands glowed with magic.
Valkyrie blazed to life in my hand. “Then we’d better—”
I hadn’t taken a single step before movement flashed from the corner of my eye. Metal glinted, and suddenly the air was filled with spells as figures leapt from the top of the nearest building and were upon us.