I hated being a kinda-sorta-maybe prisoner.
It would have almost been better if they’d just thrown us in the dungeon—at least then we would have come to an agreement about what we were doing at the Academy. But no, they paired us up in nice-ish rooms and let us roam around a part—a really small part—of the Academy, in one of the wings set apart from the rest of the student dorms.
The next morning during my fifth time pacing up and down the short hallway between the meager storeroom and common area, I’d spotted Reuben and a couple of his cohorts. They’d probably been heading toward the dining area. I couldn’t follow, thanks to a pair of stone trolls guarding the only way into the rest of the Academy. I’d thought they were fake but found out quickly they were very much alive when one nearly squashed me as I tried to sneak past.
Reuben had noticed me, but he didn’t sneer or smirk at my predicament like I expected. He looked exhausted, his clothes charred and stained with blood I’d really hoped wasn’t from him or anybody he knew.
“I don’t blame them, you know,” Mia said. It was just the two of us in the common room. Asher and Colson had used our unexpected forced break time to offset the jet lag. Only after Asher had spent the better part of the last couple hours trying to send a message to Lucien. It hadn’t been able to penetrate the thick Academy charms.
I’d found a board game called Go inside a crumbling cardboard box. Neither Mia nor I knew how to play, so we were just taking turns moving the black and white pieces across the grid.
“You don’t blame the Academy?” I said as I moved a piece. “Why not? I understand they’re concerned, but keeping us hostage is extreme.”
“Yes,” Mia agreed, as though our current situation was a minor annoyance. “But I think they’re doing it for the right reasons. What they feel are the right reasons,” she quickly added before I could add that their “right reasons” were oh-so-wrong. “Headmaster Wendell is just watching out for his students. I think that’s admirable.”
“Mia, no offense, but if a lion tried to eat you, you’d probably warn it to not choke on your bones as it swallowed.”
“Well it was probably just hungry…”
I shook my head as she grinned. I picked up another black piece.
“I know you were lying to me about Colson,” Mia said.
My hand hovered over the board for a fraction of a second before I placed the piece down. “How do you know that?”
“Skylar, we’ve known each other for how many years? Subtlety…isn’t exactly your strongest suit. At least not when you’re talking to me.” She picked up her own white piece. “Also, your left cheek twitches when you’re stretching the truth.”
Stupid tell. I hope it wasn’t that obvious to everyone. I always felt like total scum when I had to lie to Mia, so that didn’t help.
“It was just a misunderstanding,” I said.
“Yes, a misunderstanding as in: there’s a giant with you, let’s attack him.”
“Something like that,” I muttered. “Really, it was—”
“I know how people see him.” She was smiling softly down at the board. “And I know you were lying to protect me, but that’s not going to help Colson.”
I rubbed my sleeve uncomfortably. “I know. And yes, they attacked him because he’s half-giant. They didn’t even try to listen to an explanation.”
“That’s not their fault.”
I scoffed. “Come on, Mia, I know you have the patience of a saint, but for once can’t we just blame somebody for something?”
“I blame people for things!” Mia said indignantly.
“Tell me you didn’t try to justify why Kasia kidnapped you.”
“Of course I didn’t,” Mia said, without much conviction. I shook my head. Sweet to the core. Sweet like the flippin’ queen of Candyland.
“Think about it from their perspective,” Mia said. “The Academies in Europe don’t deal with giants the same way we do. They have a more…violent history with them. They were also a lot harder hit back when Maladias attacked thirty years ago. They’re still recovering and can’t risk being caught off guard.”
“Still.” I put down the black piece harder than I needed to, scattering some of the others. “Doesn’t matter what he is. I mean…” I lowered my voice, even though there was no chance another student would be in this part of their school. “Their headmaster is a Vamp! Remember when we didn’t have the best relationship with them? I do. But they’re okay with him, aren’t they?”
“I know, Skylar. I get it.”
I let out a seething breath. “Sorry I lied.”
“It’s okay.” Her hand hovered above the board.
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” I said.
“Colson went back to visit his Cousin Ricky.”
“Wait, the bouncer who works at the Bone Yard?”
Mia nodded. “A few weeks ago. He told Colson that Kasia had been there. She’d been looking for the Cursed One.”
My skin went cold. The Duke, owner of the Bone Yard, had been the annoying, dangerous informant we’d learned the Society’s whereabouts from back when Mia had been kidnapped. The wraith was well-connected with Supes of both the clean and shady variety.
“What’d he tell her?” I asked, not sure I wanted to know.
“Nothing. According to Ricky, he barely knew anything.”
I felt a small bit of relief at that. “And…what happened to him after a run-in with her?”
“She didn’t completely destroy him. That’s all I know.” Her voice trembled slightly on the last part. “But Colson…he told me Ricky wasn’t happy. After what happened to his boss, and the fact that the giants see Colson as betraying his own kind…”
Mia trailed off. She rubbed the corner of her eye. “It was apparently the final straw. His family kicked him out. They don’t want to see him again.”
My mouth fell open. I hadn’t expected that. Sure, I’d only recently learned the full extent of Colson’s family history. I’d known the giants who called the Brindle’s Spire borough home hadn’t exactly welcomed him back for frequent visits. But banish him? No wonder he’d been in a bad mood lately. No wonder Mia had been reluctant to talk about it. That wasn’t something you went around sharing.
“Don’t tell him I told you,” Mia said. “He wouldn’t want anybody to know. Not yet, anyway. Just try to understand.”
“I will,” I said, resisting ranting about the unfairness of it all. “Trust me, I will.”
I was pretty sick of waiting, so I decided to do a little digging of my own.
Fortunately, I had aaaallll the time in the world. It was our second day here, and there’d been no sign of either Headmaster Dracula or I-was-named-after-a-delicious-sandwich Reuben.
Unfortunately, I was confined to searching the common area (nothing), and the back room I was pretty sure hadn’t been cleaned out since the Academy was built. It most likely didn’t contain anything but broken furniture and stashes of failed tests students tossed in there, but I was determined to check anyway.
I shoved aside a cracked mirror—triple-checking it wasn’t secretly a portal or something—and waded further into the room. I nearly stumbled over parts I was pretty sure had come off the Ferris wheel. I spied a rusting old sign, Christmas lights with half the bulbs missing. Nothing in here that would even come close to helping me find…something. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. The only thing I knew was that we were wasting time staying here, and I couldn’t bear sitting around any longer. I’d already tried three times to slip past the stone trolls. By the third attempt, when one of them slammed his club down a little too close to my foot, I gave up.
So…I’d turned to digging through ancient Christmas decorations.
“Is this how you have fun where you’re from?”
I whirled to find Reuben standing at the doorway, arms crossed. I held my breath, waiting for him to rat me out. I wasn’t doing anything illicit, but I was pretty sure this wasn’t what they wanted us doing while we were in confinement. Maybe he’d call over the stone trolls and this time they wouldn’t miss.
Instead he just stood there, like he expected me to have any clue how to start this conversation.
“What are you doing here?” I finally said.
Reuben shrugged. “Checking on you all. Everyone else, they are asleep. But not you.”
“Strangely enough, being held prisoner doesn’t exactly make it easy to visit dreamland.”
I might have mistaken it, but I thought Reuben winced. “You are not a prisoner. We are merely…”
“Subjugating us? Holding us against our will?”
“Heavily suggesting you stay here?”
I smirked. Touché.
He took another step inside the room. With one half of my body obscured from his sight, I slowly reached for the broken end of a piece of wood, heavy enough to knock someone out. Reuben was kind of the head student around here, wasn’t he? And if I had him alone, that meant I could take him down and then…do something. Maybe use him to get past the trolls. Maybe get help.
I held my breath, grip tightening on my chosen weapon.
“The only interesting things are behind the equipment.”
And then Reuben was brushing past me. With a flick of his hand he moved a pile of brooms, balls about the size of a grapefruit, and a noisy collection of hoops. I faltered, mind racing with what I should do. But Reuben continued digging through the junk. He seemed like he really wanted to help me.
I let out a long sigh and silently dropped the piece of wood. I nodded to the hoops. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that’s a game.”
“It was, yes.” He pushed more brooms away to reveal a lone bookshelf. “We used to have sports teams here. That was before Maladias. We lost over half our students. We do not have time for games anymore. Not when new enemies are still out there.”
I didn’t have anything to say to that. Seems Mia had been right about Europe still recovering. “Has Headmaster Wendell returned from where the other students were attacked?”
“No,” Reuben said curtly. He averted his eyes, digging more furiously through the junk.
“I’m sure everyone’s fine. You have some strong magic users.”
Reuben gave me a shallow nod of thanks. “Until the headmaster returns…” He drew himself up to his only-slightly-taller-than-me height. “I will do what is necessary to keep this Academy safe.”
“Like…keeping us here?”
“Headmaster Wendell seemed to think it was for the best.”
It was my turn to shrug. “Can’t fault you for that, I guess. A shoot first, ask questions later mentality.”
“Shoot first? Is that an American saying?”
I wasn’t going to answer that.
I crouched in front of the bookcase and ran my finger across the spines. The faint tingle of old magic trilled up my arms, but nothing more called out to me. Almost all of the texts were in Danish, anyway, and unless I figured out how to work a visual translation spell, I wasn’t reading them anytime soon.
“Your mother, she is Aspen Rivest, is she not?”
“Sure is,” I said, standing again.
Reuben dipped his head, like he was confirming something he’d already known. “She is a great woman. A great magic user. She helped defeat Maladias.”
“Yep. I…kind of knew that already.”
“And she helped many of the European Councils and Academies rebuild after Maladias left destruction in his wake.”
“I also knew that. I’m her daughter, remember?”
Reuben’s eyes narrowed. “Yet I don’t see the same spirit in you.”
I bristled. I wasn’t going to pretend like my famous mother’s shadow still didn’t shade me, but I’d gotten over hearing things like that. For the most part. “I’m not like her.”
“Which is why, maybe, Headmaster Wendell doesn’t trust you. This woman, this Kasia who leads the Society, she has a vendetta against your mother. With that same logic, she might have a vendetta against you.”
“Wait, are you saying I’m the reason Wendell’s keeping us here?”
“Why does Kasia hate her so much?”
I threw up my hands. “Search me. I’ve never asked my mom, and nobody’s ever told me.”
“Kasia clearly has something against her, something that’s driving her to attack in this way. Wendell does not want that anger and conflict to spill over here.”
“It already has!” I exploded, in my fury toppling over a line of old trophies. I stared at the faded gold plastic, chest heaving, trying to calm down before Mr. Dark and Nosy stuck his head up to have a chat. “She’s already here, Reuben. I’m sorry whatever is between her and my mother drew you guys in, but it has. And us being kept here isn’t helping that.”
Reuben scrutinized me. I’ll admit, I hadn’t given the guy enough credit earlier. He could hold his own in battle, and against me in an argument. “If you go out there, she’ll try to kill you, won’t she?”
“Probably. Yes.” How could I lie without actually lying? “Her…relationship with me is a little different.”
“She hates you more.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
“She might tear apart all of Europe looking for the Cursed One. But she also might do it to get to you,” Reuben added.
I hadn’t really thought about that. Kasia had made it clear that I’d come to her when the time was right. But I was also sure, if the opportunity presented itself, she wouldn’t hesitate to try to hurt me or the ones closest to me in the worst way possible.
“She might,” I admitted. “Reuben,” I went on, trying to implore him without coming off as desperate. Even though I totally was. “We have to leave. It doesn’t matter what Wendell thinks, if Kasia gets her hands on the Cursed One, then we’re all in big trouble.”
“Why? What will she do with it?”
“She’ll…” I had a brief flash of Kasia, her eyes filled with black as she manipulated the shadows. Her cold laugh echoing after me as I fled. “She’ll do bad things. Just…really bad things.”
Reuben’s steady gaze didn’t leave mine. “I believe you,” he finally said.
Then he left without another word.
“We’re leaving here. Tonight.”
I looked over, surprised. Asher continued eating his sandwich as though nothing was amiss. I double-checked the common area, where food magically appeared three times daily, to check if there was anyone else around. There wasn’t. Of course.
I scooted closer to Asher. “And how do you suppose we do that?”
Asher munched away a moment longer. “Somehow.”
“Give me a second, I think my confidence in you just swooned.”
“We have to leave, Skylar. Every second we spend here is one more Kasia could be using to get closer to the Cursed One.”
“I know that! What I don’t know—” I thrust my sandwich toward the door, casting some lettuce across the floor “—is how you expect to get past those trolls. And the students. And find a way out of the Academy.”
“I’ll think of something.” I watched Asher mull over our options. I could practically see his mind racing with possibilities of escape, but unless he’d found some method more effective than downright attacking our stone guards (which I’ll admit might have crossed my mind more than once) then we weren’t going anywhere.
“It doesn’t make sense, the Society attacking the way they are,” he muttered. “It seems random. They’re usually more coordinated than this.”
“Maybe Kasia isn’t in charge of everyone.” Because I knew, if she was, these attacks would be anything but random.
I had another thought. “Then again, maybe they’re not.”
Asher waited for me to collect my thoughts.
“Master Deltroy,” I started. “And Lucien, both of them said the Cursed One is showing up in areas of high magical concentration. Maybe not showing up on purpose, but being drawn to it.”
“So?”
“So…that’s what the Society’s doing, isn’t it? They have some magic users of their own, but maybe not enough. They’re attacking, hoping to draw other Supes to them—”
“And with the concentration of magic maybe the house will appear,” Asher said, nodding. “That makes sense. But we would have heard if she’d succeeded by now. Something else doesn’t make sense,” he added. “Why did the house show up near us?”
“Greece. Magic. I don’t know.”
“Mia and Colson were in a magical swamp. With us, it was just us.”
His expression was calculating in that way I knew meant he’d latched onto an idea and was trying to follow it to its terminus. I had a sinking feeling in my gut as he said, “What kind of magic around us was strong enough to pull it to that spot?”
Not around. Within.
“No clue,” I said, my voice coming out higher than usual. “Like you said, the house just kind of shows up. Who knows why?”
I could feel Asher’s eyes on me, my skin prickling from the intensity of his gaze. “You can’t think of anything? Nothing at all?”
Right then, the secret threatened to burst from me. It was all-consuming, a fiery sun inside whose only desire was to break free and share the burden of keeping it hidden. It was just then I realized the toll hiding it had taken. Asher, who I’d learned to trust with the deepest parts of me, who trusted me to have his back in everything, didn’t know who I truly was. The most important thing.
I stood so fast I bumped the table. I tossed the remains of my sandwich into the fire. “No, I can’t think of anything. I’ll go get Mia and Colson. You’re right. We have to get out of here.”
Like the super stealthy agents we were, we waited until after the third and final meal of the day had been served before attempting our great escape.
“Ready?” I said to the others as we gathered in one of the bedrooms. Mia nodded. Colson hefted his hammer like he was ready to run out of here, swinging all the way. I looked to Asher who, after checking he had everything, nodded too. He still hadn’t mentioned how we were going to pull this off, but we were doing it anyway.
“Long live stupidity,” I muttered.
I made sure Valkyrie was securely attached to my side and confidently strode out into the hallway—
Straight into Reuben.
“Going somewhere?” he said.
The others skittered to a stop behind me. Reuben looked between me, my sword, and then the others fully armed and ready to go behind me. My entire body tensed, mind racing through a dozen spells I could use to immobilize him without raising the alarm.
Reuben jerked his head backwards. “Follow me. And stay quiet.”
He took off toward the stone trolls.
“Is this a trap?” Colson said. “I feel like this is a trap.”
“I don’t think so,” I said slowly. I thought back to Reuben in the storeroom. The defeated way he’d spoken. Maybe he, like us, had realized that getting us out of here was the only way to actually help.
All the same, my heart double-timed as we approached the stone trolls. They stood imposingly, their immense shapes silhouetted against the darkness. Doubts immediately crowded my mind. There was no way we were getting past them, even with Reuben. We’d be stopped here, sent back, or crushed, or…
Reuben held up a hand, then walked forward and pressed a loose stone at the base of each troll’s feet. They let out low grumbles, then slumped over, filling the corridor with rumbling snores.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Asher said. “It was that easy?”
“Only if you know,” Reuben said. He smirked at us. “And only if you’re me.”
So much for my worry.
The rest of the Academy was silent as we stole our way across the dining area and into the network of hallways I assumed made up the classrooms and student dorms; if they had that sort of thing here instead of crypts or blank stone rooms. We’d guessed right on the timing; the few times I was able to see outside showed it blanketed in night, the gardens lit up by sporadic lights.
“You won’t make it very far if you take off into the city,” Reuben whispered as we walked. “There are other students watching for the Society there, as well as on the grounds. We’ve had another attack and everybody is still on very high alert.”
My ears perked. “Another one?”
“Yes. Not as big, but big enough.”
I shared a look with Asher. “They’re trying to bring the Cursed One to them,” I said. I briefly explained what we’d puzzled out. Reuben gave a grudging nod, face grim.
“Be that as it may, that does not mean we can stop helping. The Society, they will keep attacking until they are defeated.”
“Unless we find what they’re looking for first.”
Reuben came to a halt. “No, you must go home.”
“We can’t just leave you guys to fight alone,” Asher said.
Reuben raised his chin proudly. “We have done it before, and we will do it again. We will be fine.”
“But if we can’t go into the city, what other choice do we have?” Mia said.
Reuben peeked around another corner, then waved us on. “I know where there’s a Farcast portal. You can go through that and send yourselves back home.”
“What about Headmaster Wendell?” Mia said. I knew she wasn’t asking for us. I was sure she was more worried about what would happen to Reuben.
“He’ll be…upset, at first,” Reuben admitted. “But he will see reason.”
He looked at us. “I’m sorry you got pulled into this. I was mistaken in my earlier actions, and for that I apologize. I know you are not the enemy, and he’ll see that too. With time.”
“Where’s the Farcast portal?” Colson said.
Reuben grimaced. “Ah…that would be Headmaster Wendall’s office.”
“Of course it is,” I sighed.
“It’s just up ahe—stop!” Reuben yanked me back a moment before I stepped into the next corridor. I heard heavy footsteps farther down the hall. The lurking shape of something enormous trudged past.
“More trolls?” Asher said.
“They make good guards, even if the students are scared of them,” Reuben explained. “This way.”
He stopped again in front of a tapestry so large the top of it disappeared up into the shadowed ceiling. In the faint light I could discern some sort of battle. A group of Supes charged as one toward a solitary figure, hurling hundreds of spells. The figure smiled eerily as he easily deflected every single one.
“A depiction of when Maladias destroyed our Council,” Reuben said. “A reminder of what we lost. And what could happen again.”
He ran his finger down one of the attacker’s swords and the entire tapestry shivered and shifted aside, revealing a spiraling staircase. At the top was a cramped study—perfect for someone who was used to the confines of a coffin—and a bedroom…with an actual coffin.
“Old school,” Asher said. “Where’s the portal?”
“In here.” Reuben pulled aside a third door to reveal another small room with a single glowing portal in the very center, almost exactly like Lucien’s. “It’s much easier to keep it open instead of casting a new one each time. He’ll know the minute you’ve crossed, so you must close it immediately once you’re through to the other side.”
“Thank you, Reuben,” I said, meaning it.
“Thank me by stopping them.” Reuben’s face darkened. “I’ve already had friends hurt by the Society. I fear it’s only going to get worse.”
“We’ll do our best,” Mia said, giving him a comforting smile.
Reuben ushered us toward the room, then slipped back down the stairs.
Colson immediately went to the door and checked he was truly gone. “We can’t head back. Not yet.”
“Where else can we go?” Mia said. “Headmaster Wendell was supposed to give us directions on how we could help.”
“I have a place,” I said.
All of them turned to me.
“You do?” Asher said.
“I talked to Penny before we left. She said there’s an old Fae somewhere in the Black Forest who can help us.”
“You just decided to tell us about this now?” Asher said.
“Oh, gee, I’m sorry. Would you like to have tried to use it earlier, when we couldn’t go anywhere?”
Asher ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Just…okay. So then what? We go to the Black Forest and stumble around until we find him…her…them?”
Mia picked at her sleeve. “Sounds like as good a plan as any. Colson’s right, if we go home now then we might not have another chance.”
“And we all know Kasia won’t stop looking,” I added. “I for one am not going to wait around for her to reach the Cursed One first.”
All of them nodded.
Colson brushed past us. “Let’s get out of here first, then we can debate this.”
Something creaked. All four of us turned, hands going to our weapons, waiting for Headmaster Wendell to come creeping up the stairs. A cold draft brushed across my skin, raising the hairs on the back of my neck. He might have already snuck up without us noticing. Or…
I noticed one of the windows had been left open. I shuddered. That was all it’d been. But Colson was right: this wasn’t the best place to decide the specifics of what to do next.
“When you step through the portal,” I said, my voice now nothing but a whisper, as though the walls were listening to us, “just think about a Fae in the Black Forest. That will probably get us within the general vicinity.”
They all nodded again, still focused on the door. I pushed Mia toward the portal. “Go!”
Mia took a step toward it.
“And where do you think you’re going?” said a familiar voice.
Headmaster Wendell dropped from the ceiling and blocked the portal. He snarled viciously, making it clear we weren’t talking our way out of this.
“You’re coming with me, right now.”