Page 67 of Phoenix Academy: Madness

Before we can get into the details, though, there's a shout from the corridor. I hear a girl scream. And something inside me goes off: an alarm that screams at medanger, danger, danger.It's my witch senses come to life, telling me something is deeply wrong, just like my mother's senses used to warn her when the Heretic found us.

Which must mean he's here to kill me.

My heart leaps up into my throat and kicks around like a frightened bunny rabbit. I thought I'd prepared myself for this inevitability; I thought that all the classes I took and scenarios I ran in my head would at least take the edge off. But I feel just like I did in that clearing when he caught us.

Despite all my fear, I find myself drawn to the door, wanting to go out to finally meet him again. If I'm going to go out, I'll do it facing my end, even as terrified as I am.

"Stay here," Reggie says, suddenly turning serious as he holds up a hand to beckon me away from the door. "We don't know what's going on out there, but if it's bad you should let us handle it."

"Flames come out of my hands," I point out, irritated at him even though just a moment ago I was scared shitless. "I think I can handle myself."

"If you say so. Just know that our number one Grim fighter, the Black Phoenix herself, went off campus today. So if it's one of those bastards don't even try to fight them."

I appreciate Reggie's protectiveness, but somehow I doubt this is going to be a Grim. I have no doubt it's my father-by-blood himself, come back to fetch me up and do experiments on me after all. Just when I thought I got away from him, here we are at the beginning again: he chases me, I run, and nothing ever gets solved.

"We'll be back," Xavier says, reaching out to squeeze my shoulder as he and his brother step carefully towards the door. "Just stay safe in here."

David gives me a glare that verges on protective and hostile at the same time. "If you come out there and get yourself all hypnotized and the heart taken out of your chest..."

"I make no promises. Stay safe."

He nods sharply, and together the three of them head out into the hallway to figure out what's going on.

Which is the exact moment when all the lights shut off at once, and the temperature around us drops to what can only be described asfucking cold.Every hair on my body stands on end, and my witch senses whisper to me.Spirits,the air around me says.The spirit realm has split open and spit the dead out. Beware!

Eyes wide, I realize that I'm the only one who can handle this. The guys aren't prepared at all—a spirit is going to tear them to pieces. Grabbing the doorknob, I yank open the door and rush out into the hallway, hoping I'm not too late.

The screams begin at once.

Chapter 32

It'sa cacophony of pain in the darkness. The spirit's angry fingers rake through the living flesh of the shifters who've run out into the hallway to face it.

I see no sign of the Heretic, and don't feel his soullessness in the air. Only the spirit floating at the end of the hallway, slashing at the air around it in anger, zipping back and forth at a mile a minute. Its anger and pain are lamentations it screams with a wide-open, inhuman mouth.

At my feet, two black panthers crouch and growl, their tails twitching in the air. Ahead of them, a wolf cowers and licks his muzzle, pain and fear written in every line of his body; I wince at the sight of David so undone by the spirit's presence. Its overwhelming emotions have tainted the air, filling it with anger and pain that the shifters feel more than anyone.

And outlining its form, giving strength to its powers, keeping it here on the mortal plane, is a familiar blue magic. My powers did this, I realize; I don't know how, but I inadvertently drew the spirit here and gave it the ability to hurt mortal flesh. Which means I really am the only person who can undo this—not just because I'm a witch who's used spirit magic her whole life, but because I'm responsible.

"Spirit." Its eyes—what little it has that pass for eyes on a face mangled by years in the afterlife, a face whose details it has forgotten—flick to me as I step forward to speak to it. "I know that you're in pain. And I summoned you, so—"

There's an otherworldly scream so loud I fall to my knees and clap my hands over my ears, pain ringing from one side of my head to another, unable to eventhinkmuch less remember what I was about to say. The spirit, apparently, isn't in a talkative mood. That leaves me with nothing but my powers to use against it.

The only thing is, I'm not sure the thing can burn. And while I've sent plenty of spirits on their way using just my witch powers, none of them were this angry—or this powerful. I'll have to drain my blue magic away from the thing in order to weaken it enough to hopefully convince it to move back to the Great Beyond.

I just have no idea if I can drain that magic without touching it. I'll have to try, though. Reaching towards Xavier's black panther, which is crouching to my left, I wince as the screams assault my left ear. But I manage to push through enough to grab onto his thickly furred ruff and create a channel for the magic to go through.

Reaching out my hand, I try to draw on the feral magic making the spirit so powerful. It'smymagic, so it should respond to me, leap to my hand and obey my will. But for some reason it's stuck—tied up in the spirit's anger and hatred that has drawn it here instead of bringing it to the other side where it can rest.

My ears can't take much more of its scream. The sound of it is hurting every living thing in the hallway, and dozens of shifter students in the rooms beyond. It sinks into my skull like talons digging into bone, rending and tearing at me.

I can't think right with that scream drilling into my head. I want to stand up, to face the spirit, to take it down somehow, but I can barely move, much less fight. The pain is excruciating. The scream doesn't just invade my eardrums or rattle around inside my skull; it also drags me down to the ground, makes me feel low and incapable. I can tell the shifters feel the same. Their animal spirits practicallykeenwith the force of the ghoul's wild, uncontrollable anger.

Long moments pass as we writhe on the ground in pain together. My mind blacks out for a moment as the pain overwhelms me. Something trickles against the hands I hold to my ears; pulling them back, I see blood, and know that my phoenix regeneration skills are struggling to keep up with the damage being done to my body. The trio have to be far worse off, even with their own strength and healing abilities.

I start to wonder if this is how it ends.

If so, there are so many things I haven't done, and so many words I haven't said. I still haven't kissed Reggie, or gotten to go out with any of the guys on a real date. My revenge still awaits me, as does putting Lizzy's soul to rest. I want to see my mother's spirit again. I want to learn more about my powers, and go out to meet the witch covens, to write down what they know and preserve what little history we have left.

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