I was already shoving Colson aside, my adrenaline dialed so high I could have moved a horse, not to mention a half-giant. Still, I only managed to stagger him, Colson falling to his knees just before a cluster of spells barely grazed the top of his head.
“Are you crazy?” I shrieked as the students tried to circle us. “We’re on your side!”
“They think I’m the enemy!” Colson said.
He summoned an invisible shield that quickly enclosed us. “Help me,” he grunted as numerous spells splashed across it. I added my magic to his, until the shield completely encased us in a cocoon, muffling some of the sound from the outside, but still allowing us to see the students attacking. A pummeling spell slammed against my shielded side, cracking it.
“What do you mean they think you’re the enemy,” I grunted as another spell hit us. They were closing in fast, seemingly intent on finishing what the Society couldn’t. “You don’t look anything like the acolytes!”
“Exactly. I look like a giant.”
I was temporarily dumbstruck. “That’s why they’re attacking us?”
Colson quickly dropped his part of the shield, launched a spell that immobilized a druid trying to break apart the earth beneath our feet, then encased us again. “I’m guessing they don’t have much interaction with friendly giants in this part of the world. Not even half ones.”
The way he said it, not angrily but resigned to the fact that this was how some people treated him…something about it set me off. I knew he had struggles with how people saw him, but I’d never really paid attention, mostly because nobody in the Academy cared. We knew Colson, not what he looked like or whether he was part-something or not.
But here they didn’t care. Here they’d judged him simply on what he might be rather than what he was.
If my blood could physically boil it would have. A growl crawled its way up my throat, my vision getting a tinge darker at the edges.
Yes…the Prince coaxed. Yes…
“You stay out of it,” I bit out. But I’d slipped. A bit of his power had unintentionally leaked into me and I found myself letting the anger take over as new strength filled me.
Now I just had to use it.
“Sklyar?” Colson said as I dropped my part of the shield. “What are you—”
I launched myself at the nearest student—an elf—my fist cracking across his perfect face before he had time to block. He dropped like a sack of flour, but I was already moving to the next, my spells forgotten, my sword forgotten, wanting nothing more than to hurt them with my bare hands.
A witch was next. Her stun spell burned across my right arm, but whatever part of the Prince’s power I’d temporarily accepted soaked it up. I grabbed her hand before she could cast another. She yelped as I began to squeeze.
Break it. Break it and then go for the kill…
The witch’s eyes pleaded with me to stop as I twisted further. I wanted to. I wanted to hurt her so bad the way they’d tried to hurt my friend.
The girl’s squeal of pain stopped me and I regained my sanity. The Prince had clouded my mind, but I was still partly in control. Until I completely lost it, nobody would be dying.
I shoved the Prince’s influence away and let the witch’s hand go. She cradled it, scooting away from me as I took deep breaths.
I’d screwed up. I’d hurt people who were supposed to be my allies, even if they hadn’t treated us that way. I couldn’t let myself lose control again.
“Ramt hende! Ramt hende!” The leader was pointing a finger at me, then at Colson, trying to encourage his remaining friends to finish us off.
“Stop!” I stepped in front of him as he pointed at Colson again. Part of me expected him to cast a spell immediately—it hadn’t stopped him before. But something in my expression—maybe the ‘Son, you just goofed big time’ look I gave him—made him hesitate.
“He,” —I pointed back at Colson— “and I,” —to myself— “are friends. Friends! Amigos! Compadres!”
Man, I wished I’d grabbed Danish for Dummies before we’d left.
The boy continued giving me that deer-in-the-headlights stare. Then his eyes narrowed. I felt magic build around him. I prepared to deflect his spell.
“Det er nok!”
I blinked and another man stood there, hair black as night and slicked back, skin so pale he might have been a snowman. He grabbed the student’s hand and shoved it away from me. “De er ikke vores fjender. De er her for at hjælpe os.”
I held my breath, waiting. After another moment’s pause, the boy backed off. He cast one last glare at Colson and me before helping to shepherd the students I’d hurt toward the school.
The man—the Vamp, I realized as his blood-red eyes fixated on me—let out a sigh. “Are you all right?”
My mouth dropped open. “You can speak English?”
“Of course. We all can.”
I looked over the Vamp’s shoulder to glare at the guy who’d led the other students against us. “All of you? Seriously?”
“And so does the Society,” the boy called back. “It doesn’t mean you’re not our enemy.” His eyes flicked to Colson again. I had another strong urge to clobber him.
“You still should have checked before you gave us such a crappy welcome,” I said.
“We would not normally give you that sort of welcome,” the Vamp replied with another sigh. “You have come at a most inopportune time. I am Headmaster Wendell. And you must be the students Headmaster Lucien told me of.”
“Skylar! Colson!”
Mia and Asher were rushing across the courtyard toward us. Relief flooded through me at the sight of them. I crushed Mia in a hug. Asher gave Colson a solid pat on the shoulder. “Glad to see you’re both in one piece,” he said.
“It was just a summoner and a couple dozen arakens,” I said. “Nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Asher smirked. “I could say the same about our ten summoners and four squads of trolls. Nearly got me twice but I was too quick.”
Mia rolled her eyes. “They were pixies, not trolls,” she whispered.
“Now is not the time for chit-chatting,” Wendell said, looking disapprovingly between us. “The Society has just attacked the safest magical structure in Denmark. Clearly they are getting most bold or desperate. I need to ensure the rest of my students are okay.”
“We can help you,” Asher said immediately.
I glanced at Colson. Based on our earlier reception, I wasn’t quite sure ‘helping’ was the best thing we could do.
Wendell saved me from needing to say anything. “That will not be necessary. You four will go to the Academy. You will stay there.”
The remaining students closed in on us, subtly directing us toward the steps of the Academy. I tried ignoring how it felt more like they were guarding rather than escorting us.
Asher must have sensed it too. His normally cheerful grin wilted slightly. “Ah. I see. No problem. We’ll wait until you get back.”
Wendell gave a jerky nod then seemed to vanish again as his enhanced Vamp speed blurred him out of sight.
“A Vamp that can perform spells,” Colson muttered, barely loud enough for the four of us to hear. “Very rare. Very powerful.”
It was. Which made me nervous that I had to second-guess whether he was really our ally. Lucien told us Wendell was passionate about his students’ safety. I wondered how passionate.
“You will go with us to the Academy,” a boy instructed. The same boy, I noted, who had led the other students against Colson.
“Just as long as you don’t attack my friends again, we’ll be good,” I said, glaring at him.
“Wait, attack?” Mia said.
“It’s nothing,” Colson said. “Forget it.”
Mia’s dumbfounded expression said she wanted to do anything except forget it, but Colson was already striding past us to the Academy. Asher hesitated, clearly wanting to know more, before following. Mia looked to me for explanation, but if Colson wasn’t going to fill her in then I would wait until he was ready. At this point I didn’t think explaining would help much.
But I didn’t miss the glance Colson shot me before he went up the stairs and inside. A look filled with curiosity, and more than a little fear.
The Denmark Academy of Magic was everything the New York Academy of Magic wasn’t. The inside—magically set apart and concealed within the Nimb Hotel—was full of swooping arches, walls of immense dirty-gray granite, windows that seemed double-paned as though to let in as little of the outside world as possible. The interior was coated in varying shades of dim, the only light from the magically floating candelabras that came to life in whichever room we entered. Instead of the broad, grand halls of our Academy, everything here seemed cramped and confined, like they only wanted to use the absolute minimum amount of space to survive. We were led across a dining hall, through a winding network of student dormitories that at least appeared a bit more hospitable, and into a sitting room I was happy to see felt slightly more cheerful than attending a funeral for a puppy.
“Headmaster Wendell will speak to you when he returns,” the boy said. He let the other students out first and then followed them, closing the door firmly after. I didn’t hear a key turn in a lock, but I didn’t have to guess that we wouldn’t be simply walking out of here.
“Okay, I wasn’t sure before, but I think they don’t trust us,” Mia said.
“Seconded,” Colson said. He nudged his head toward a table covered in a white tablecloth. Various pastries and a jug of water sat beside four glasses. “At least they left something to eat.”
“Wonderful. A step above being treated like prisoner,” Mia said.
Asher went over to the door and tried the handle.
“Locked?” I guessed when it didn’t open.
“And charmed,” he agreed.
“I thought Lucien told him we were coming. This doesn’t make any sense!”
Asher shrugged, slightly frustrating me that he didn’t seem as concerned about this as I was. “Headmaster Wendell’s Academy was just attacked,” he said. “And we just so happened to arrive right after. It’s a loose connection, but for someone who’s trying to keep things as safe as possible, he probably wants to double-check all possibilities.”
Mia silently folded a leg across the arm of her chair. She peered around the room with the air of someone who was calmly trying to evaluate their situation. In a distant part of the Academy, I heard the long, droning toll of a clock strike a late hour. I felt wide awake. Jet lag would probably pop up its ugly little head eventually, but until then I was going to ride that sleep-deprivation high.
I took a turn around the room, trying to process everything that’d happened. I noticed there was more than one horrid bust of a half-naked goblin leering down at us from each corner. A couple paintings of fantasy-looking battles were hung on each wall. I swore the eyes from the figures within them followed me as I passed.
“Let me get this straight,” Mia said, finally breaking the silence. “The students attacked you?”
“They—” I started.
“It was nothing,” Colson interrupted. I turned to find him and Mia locked in something like a staring contest. Mia, who at the beginning of our first year of advanced studies could barely be in the same room as Colson without breaking down in a fit of stuttering and head-hanging, now stared unflinchingly at him, as though doing so would coax out what she desperately wanted to know.
“Why did they attack you, Colson?”
“We were surrounded. There was a lot of confusion and we got caught in the crossfire. That’s it.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it. Honest mistake.”
Each of them held their stare for a moment longer.
“Is that true, Skylar?” Mia said.
“It’s…”
Colson’s gaze turned to me and my stomach dropped. Not because I was going to tell the truth—it was clear he wanted what really happened to stay between me and him—but because now I completely understood the look he’d given me back on the Academy steps. The one of confusion. The one of fear.
Now that things had calmed down, I was able to fully recall the entire battle. What had happened became crystal clear: the Prince had come out. Somehow, some way, he’d lent me a small taste of his power without me striking a deal with him. And Colson had seen the result. The Denmark Academy students didn’t know what I was capable of. To them, I could be part Vamp or even a shifter, more than capable of extreme feats of speed and strength.
But not Colson. Colson had seen me fight before. He knew what I was—and wasn’t—able to do.
He, like me, knew there wasn’t something quite right with each of us.
“Skylar?” Mia asked again when I merely stood there like an idiot with my mouth hanging open.
“That’s…what happened,” I finished lamely.
Mia frowned.
“Whatever may or may not have happened isn’t important right now,” Asher said. “I’m just glad we all got out in one piece. I’m more worried that we had to get out at all.”
He looked at each of us, and now I could see the same tension in him that I felt radiating throughout my entire body. “Like Wendell said, the Society attacking here means they’re getting bold. It means we’re running out of time.”
Jet lag finally got the best of me. Tricky devil.
Since we still weren’t allowed to leave the room, I commandeered one of the chairs beside the fireplace and, once I got my head clear of all the craziness of the last few hours, nodded off.
I awoke to loud bangs in the corridor outside, followed by hushed voices.
“Whazzat?” Mia said sleepily from the chair across from me. I stood, my hand trailing to Valkyrie. Asher and Colson were already up and facing the door.
“You think the Society…?” I started, not sure I wanted to finish that thought.
“I guess we’ll find out in a second,” Asher said.
We all held our breath as footsteps drew closer. There was a light tap on the door. My ears popped as whatever seal or locking charm they’d used to make sure we stayed put was lowered and the door swung open.
Headmaster Wendell strode inside. He eyed each of us standing at the ready and grunted.
“Put the weapons away. There are no enemies. Not anymore, now that you’re here.”
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but at least we weren’t facing down a whole horde of arakens and a summoner with a severely elevated ego.
The annoying boy from earlier followed Headmaster Wendell inside and closed the door. I cocked an eyebrow. Only the two of them? For a guy who seemed like he didn’t trust us all that much, Headmaster Wendell sure seemed to think we weren’t much of a threat. Either that or he knew he could take us all on by himself if he needed to.
Wendell snapped his fingers. The pitcher of water filled one of the untouched glasses and flew into his hand. He took a long sip. The boy was still eyeing each of us, as though trying to decide which one he wanted to start interrogating first.
“Is the Society—” I began.
“Gone,” Wendell said. “For now.”
“Now that you’re not out there,” the boy piped up. “If you had never come—”
“Reuben.” Headmaster Wendell didn’t need to raise his voice for Reuben to go silent.
“Are you saying we’re to blame for the Society being here?” Colson said. Reuben flinched when he spoke, raising my hackles all over again. Were they really that ignorant? Or had the problems with the giants gotten so out of hand that there was still bad blood on both sides?
Wendell let out a weary sigh. I didn’t think it possible for any Vamp to get tired (or to interact with humans without attempting to eat or act more superior than them), but he sure looked the part of the exhausted headmaster. The bags under his eyes were tinged the color of bruises. His sharpened incisors had receded back into his mouth until they were nothing but tiny nubs. “This Society…it is headed by a woman named Kasia Armani, correct?”
Asher and I shared a look. Where exactly was this going? And why didn’t the Academies of Europe not already know this?
“Yeah,” I finally said.
“She is an American?”
“Yes…” Mia said warily.
“It seems strange that she is coming after us now, when we have nothing here that she could want.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Asher said. “Surely you’ve gotten word of what they’re looking for?”
“Yes, the Cursed One.” Wendell said it with a slight sneer, as though the entire premise was ridiculous. A bedtime story he told to his students to get them to shut up and go to sleep. “A legend.”
“A reality,” I insisted.
Wendell’s heavy gaze settled on me. “Is that so? Then surely this Society thinks the same. We are not the first magical Academy they have attacked in Europe. We heard of the chaos she caused over at your Academy, but until tonight we had no reason to fear her coming over here.”
“Not until you arrived,” Reuben said.
I gawked at him, suddenly realizing what he was implying. “You don’t seriously think we brought the Society here?”
“They did not attack until you decided to come ‘help’ us!”
“We arrived after they were already attacking! So unless we accidentally solved the mysteries of the space time continuum, then that’s not possible!”
I felt Asher’s hand rest gently on my back. It made me feel calmer, more in control, even though I still wanted to yell about how stupid they were acting.
“What do you know of this supposed ‘Cursed One?’” Wendell said. “What value does it hold that the Society desires it so?”
“We’re not exactly sure,” Colson said before I could answer. It was only after that I realized he’d saved me. Though I knew the true purpose of what the Cursed One could do thanks to the Prince, nobody else did. And if I revealed what I’d learned then there’d be a lot of explaining to do.
Reuben was giving me a funny look, like he’d caught on that I’d been moments away from giving them more. I casually stuck a hand in my pocket, trying to look as unflustered as possible.
“You’re not sure?” Wendell repeated.
“We know the Society wants it,” Mia said, trying to be helpful. Together, she and Colson filled Wendell in with all that we’d learned so far. Which wasn’t much, to be honest. And with me biting my tongue the entire time, I was almost next to useless. I’d have to let my friends know what we were facing eventually, how we’d have to be the ones to destroy the Cursed One if we found it. But part of me was still trying to figure out if there was a way to negate it without going to such extreme lengths. It couldn’t come down to that; we couldn’t have to sacrifice something in order to win.
“I see,” Wendell said when they’d finished. “Thank you for telling us. However, that doesn’t answer my other question: why was the Society here? I believe,” he went on before any of us could jump in, “I know the answer to that. She wanted you.”
There was a moment of awkward silence. Reuben looked between Wendell and us like this wasn’t something he’d been aware of.
“Headmaster? Why would the Society want…them?”
Well, you didn’t have to say it like that.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Wendell said. “The children of some of the world’s strongest magic users traveling together? I daresay that’s a prize anybody ambitious enough would be willing to risk getting.”
For just a moment, I thought I saw an appraising glint in his eyes, maybe a trick of the light that nevertheless slowed my heart. Then his expression returned to its normal weariness. But I hadn’t missed it. And judging by the way Asher sucked in a nearly silent, shallow breath, he hadn’t either.
“If you think the Society really wants us, then we should leave,” I said, picking my words carefully. “If not, then we were sent here to help you find the Cursed One. So that’s what we should be doing.”
“Right now—” Wendell started.
He was interrupted by the sound of more slamming doors outside. Mildly panicked shouts echoed down the corridor. Wendell pinched the bridge of his nose. “What now?”
“Headmaster?” Someone pounded on the door and Reuben opened it to let in a flush-faced kid, probably no older than a second year. “Headmaster we—”
The kid froze when he saw us. His eyes widened.
“Yes, Siphos, these are known as ‘guests’,” Wendell said in a clipped tone. “What is it?”
“A-Another attack,” Siphos said, finally pulling his gaze away from us. “The students who followed the Society to Glostrup—it was a trap, Headmaster. They were waiting for us.”
“A trap,” Reuben said. “Just like the others, Headmaster. They are drawing us out.”
“Gather your fellow students,” Wendell said to Reuben, sweeping toward the door. “I want the pegasi saddled and ready. We will waste no time.”
“They have pegasi?” Mia said.
“How can we help?” Asher said.
Wendell paused. “Help? No, you will do no more helping today, or tomorrow, or after that. You have brought trouble.”
“That isn’t our fault!” I protested. “You know it’s not. The Society is a problem for all of us. We know how to fight them!”
Wendell straightened up, red eyes flashing, and for a brief moment I remembered that I wasn’t just dealing with a normal headmaster; I was dealing with a predator, strong and savage.
“You have brought danger to my home, Skylar Rivest, and put those under my charge in danger as well. Until we deal with this Society, and find out what you four have to do with it, you will stay here.”
Then he swept out after Reuben and Siphos, the door slamming solidly shut behind him.