Page 5 of We Hunt the Night

Mentor Parker claps his hands, and slowly everyone goes silent. “That is a secret not known much outside these walls, but she began here, and she was and forever will be our greatest failure. One day, she will be nothing but dust because we will win. We will take back the world, but to do this, we need powerful witches and shifters to fight with us. There are many witches who side with her, many shifters too, because she’s very good at speaking lies about anyone who doesn’t side with her.”

“Wouldn’t that make her over a hundred years old?” I ask.

Mentor Parker looks at me. “I will allow it this once, but raise your hand to speak. Yes, she is that age, but she looks no older than I. The enchantress made her own forbidden spells and used them to make the Mindless as well as immortal life and other terrible things.”

Well, I’m not telling them I like making up my own spells, then.

“Tell me next, how do we kill one of the Mindless?” Mentor Parker questions. “We all know spells and magic do not touch them. If we cannot use our magic, what is our move?” He waits, but no one says anything. “They are physically stronger than us. They move faster, and they can see us even in the dark. They hunt in packs and it’s rare to come across one alone. All this is true, so what is the witch’s move?”

Wini puts her hand up. “The changeling shifters’ magic is their weakness. Our bonds are sacred because we connect our souls with our bonded, becoming one. Their magic connects with ours, and then our magic works on the Mindless.Changeling’s magic is wild and untamed, but weak. Without the bond, they cannot do spells, control the base magic or use it. There have been many reports of untamed shifter magic accidently hurting their own people.”

“Correct, Miss. When you head to the forest, you will see bloodstones on the ground. There are seventy-seven bloodstones, huge stone platforms, within the forest. You will find a shifter, bring them to the bloodstone, and cut your hand. One drop of blood seals the bond on the bloodstone. The shifter doesn’t have to bleed; they just have to be standing on it. After you enter the forest, do not leave it without a bond—you will be killed on sight by us.” My mouth dries. No pressure then. “After this, your magic is shared as one and your lives, too. They become connected to your very soul, and when you meet the goddess, it will be together.” He touches Sookie’s head affectionately. “If they die, you die. If you die, they die. There is no end to your bond. It has never been undone. Now, they, their magic, it’s weak in comparison to ours, and ours does not work against the Mindless. This changes with the bond.”

He walks to the edge of the stage and sits down on it. “There are, of course, weaknesses that come with the bond. If, say, you bond with more than one shifter, you become the weak point for them. This isn’t something to worry about. Shifters are known to hate sharing, and in our history, there are only a handful of bonds with more than one. Anyone who attacks you will go for you first. Your death would end both of the shifters; therefore, we will teach you to tone your body, to defend yourself without magic.”

My stomach feels like jelly. Wait, what? Defend myself without magic? No one said anything about physically training. I thought I’d have to do running or something equally bad, but this is garbage. I want to be at the top of every class I take, and self-defense is going to leave me right at the bottom. “You willlearn healing spells to be able to heal your shifter, and powerful shielding spells, too. They learn similarly in other classes when they are of age, and together you will leave this academy as one unit, strong and unbroken. Any unbonded return to the forest for breeding. Witches? There is only one way out of Bloodstone.”

A girl at the back puts her hand up. “So we’re not going to learn any attacking spells?”

“Yes, of course you are.” He waves her off. “You will attend five classes. One on the histories. Being well-versed in the mind is important. A class based on self-defense of your bodies without magic. I will let your mentor explain that to you when you get there. The third class is on defensive spells. The fourth class will be on healing. And your fifth and most important class will be on strengthening your bond between you and your shifter. It does not come easy. It is not a natural bond; therefore, it sometimes becomes very difficult to bond together. But by the end of the three years, you will be as one.” He points at the door. “You will be shown to your rooms. Males to the right, females to the left. Tomorrow night, when the sun sets, you will go into the Bloodstone Forest of your own accord from your room. The academy will show you the way.”

The doors open behind us, and the hooded man is gone. I stand up, only for Mentor Parker to clap his hands and catch everyone’s attention again. “One more rule.” We all turn around. “It shouldn’t need to be said, but having relations with the shifter that you’re bonded to is against the rules. Pregnancies do not happen between witches and shifters, that much we know. But relationships complicate the bond, and it is not favored. Possessiveness and jealousy is a problem with shifter males in particular, and we found it is easier to make sure the relationship becomes like they are family to you, nothing more, nothing less. You are all witches who chose this future instead ofstaying in your safe towns and choosing a husband or wife. Love is second to the academy—to the war. Do not be a fool.”

Wini stays at my side, behind two girls who are talking far too loudly. “Ew, like we would fall in love with one of them? You know why they’re stuck in the Bloodstone Forest, right? Why they’re bound here? It’s because they sided with the enchantress in the war, well, not them, but their parents did or their grandparents. They are all rebel blood and they are sworn to fight with us until the war is over.”

I look at the floor, the mosaic brown tiles. I remembered Kane, and he is a shifter…so how was he living in the same village as me all those years ago when he was meant to be in the Bloodstone Forest?

Chapter 4

This academy is a maze—and a spooky one at that. One minute, I’m walking down a corridor that could easily double as a not-so-friendly ghost’s living room with its giant fireplace, and the next, I’m going up black stone stairs that seem to spiral in three different directions. We are following a second-year with black hair and an attitude problem, because anytime anyone has asked her a question, she has told them to fuck off. Based on her attitude alone, I’m sure showing us to our rooms is a punishment for her.

Eventually she stops, waving at the staircase on the other side of the bare room we are in. Looking through the small windows, I can see we are high up. I’m guessing this is one of the many towers I saw. The girl leaves, slamming the door behind her. Wini leans into my ear to whisper, “She hates us.”

“Seems like it,” I mutter, walking through the crowd to the staircase. The staircase is a spiral with exits on each level, taking us to our rooms, I assume, black doors with names on each of them. “Our rooms. Time to find our name.” We head up, checking each door, and I groan the higher we climb without seeing our names yet. “At least I’m going to be fit climbing these steps every day,” I breathe out.

“My door. Looks like we are the top two and neighbors.” She grins at me. I’m still focused on the fact I have to climb up and down these stairs every single day for three years. “I’ll see you tomorrow night.” She stops. “We are friends, so I’m telling you the only warning I was given before coming here. I was told not to leave the room until nightfall tomorrow.”

“Why? How do we get food or drinks?” I question her. I’m not sure I can trust her yet. I really don’t know her that well, but she’s been kind so far.

“I don’t know, but you’ve seen how many of us were already drowned.”

“Okay, then.” I nod, leaving her to go into her room, and climb the final part of the steps to my door. My name is in bold white writing on the door, like someone drew it on with a marker, but I reach up and touch it, feeling it is pressed into the wood. The door clicks at my touch before slowly opening, and lights immediately flicker on, lanterns on the walls of the huge space. It’s much bigger than I thought it would be.

There’s a triangle window that looks over the forest, taking up the back wall, with a grid of black lines making the pattern of mountains. In front of the window and pushed up against it is a double bed with dark sheets that match the wooden frame. There are two chests of drawers on the other wall, next to a wardrobe that is open. My suitcase is inside, along with my new uniform. Rows of black cloaks with red stitching and lines, along with tight black uniforms, are hung up for me. A full-length mirror stands on the other side of the room, with a door next to it.

I glance inside, seeing a fully functioning bathroom, including a huge domed black bath, a toilet, and sink. The floor is all dark wood, complementing the dark purple wallpaper, and it’s gloomy in here in a cozy way. I love it. There are quite a few cobwebs on the ceilings, but it’s mine. It’s safe.

I jump on the bed and lie back, looking at the beautiful ceiling that’s slanted and all painted black, before I roll over and stare out of the window, watching the sky, watching the endless sea. Something silver catches my attention in the sky, in the far distance, and I sit up. What is that?

There are two sharp knocks on my door that make me jump. “Hey, it’s me! Your room is spelled to only let in who you want, so you need to tell me to come in.“

Rue. My foster sister. She’s here. I rush off the bed and across the room, opening the door for her. Rue looks like her mother, there is no denying that, with her long straight blonde hair and bright hazel eyes. She has the same body shape and face as her mother too, but she isn’t cruel. She isn’t her mother, and I always knew that. Yes, we argued sometimes, like all children, but never once did she make me feel worthless. “Rue, you look older! Come in!”

She steps in with relief shining in her eyes, and she pulls me into a tight hug. It’s strange to see her in the black academy clothes and how toned she is now. We’ve only ever hugged five, six times in our entire lives. Mostly when we fought like real siblings and neither one of us knew how to say sorry. We hugged instead. But it was never like this, not like she doesn’t want to let go. I hug her back just as tightly. “Okay, I know you didn’t reply to any of my letters, so you might hate me. Which is fair because I didn’t stop my mom from being…well, her. I just knew if I stepped in, she might throw you out, and I didn’t want that to happen. She hurt me too. I don’t know if you knew that, but she did. Anytime I did something wrong. Look, even if you hate me, please listen to what I said in the letters. I assume you knew about the bridge since you’re still here, so you must have read that one?—”

“Stop!” I cut her off, leaning back. “What letters? I didn’t know about the bridge until it started falling away!”

She stares at me for a long moment. “Mom never gave you the letters I sent every month, did she?”

---