Page 67 of Elmwood Inclusive Magic Academy
“And,” his golden eyes twinkle. “We had someone on the inside.”
Maggie
I thought the broomstick fall was bad, but this is an entirely new level. And that time I had vampire blood inside of me, not the other way around.
I wake up to a loud, slow, scraping sound. My cheek is cold, resting against a stone floor. I blink a few times. The light is dim. There are no windows, only a single torch on the wall. The ceiling is low. Am I in thedungeon?
Oh goddess.Everything comes back to me. The mermaids in the library, Hallie’s warning, the vampire who attacked us. Where’s Orion? Is he ok? Did the others escape?
I hear hinges creaking and there’s a bright light from across the room. A door opening. I’m in the dungeon for sure. The door is heavy and has a single, iron-barred window within it.
It’s…June? She stumbles inside the dungeon cell, wearing a travel cloak. Her face is streaked with dirt and her hair is disheveled. Whatever happened, it looks like we were both on the same side of it.
She’s followed by Kaenan, the wolf shifter from Rae’s pack.
“Keep watch,” he says to a figure behind him. Through the window, I can see her face.
Rae.
She catches my eye, and her face darkens. I sit upright, trying to see her better.
Rae, what’s going on? For a second it’s as though I’ve said the words aloud, like I can feel her in my head. Then she narrows her gaze and looks away.
“And don’t you eventhinkof trying anything,” says Kaenan. He locks an iron manacle and chain to June’s wrist, then attaches it to a iron peg in the center of the room. I raise my own wrist, unexpectedly heavy…I’m shackled as well. “There are guards patrolling outside.”
“Someone will come for us!” June says. “You can’t just take over the academy like this!”
Kaenan grins and bends down close to June. She quivers. “Nobody escaped, and there were no signals sent out. It’s the middle of the solstice. By the time anyone realizes what’s happened, we’ll have fortified our position. Elmwood castle is our’s. You’ve lost.”
June hangs her head, a tear trickling down her cheek.
Kaenan checks the tension on the iron peg, then saunters out of the cell, slamming the heavy wooden door behind him. At least he left the torch on the wall behind him.
I raise my wrist and pull against the metal chain, but it’s pointless. June and I are completely trapped. My other wrist is throbbing. It’s bound with a makeshift bandage.
I guess it could be worse, at least that vampire didn’t suck me dry. Although it feels like she tried to.
Beside me, I can hear June sobbing loudly.
Never mind, things couldn’t be any worse.
Then a horrible thought grips me, and I feel guilty for not thinking of it earlier.
Nobody escaped…what have they done with my mother?
SOMETHING IS MISSING
Rae
This is what I want…
I can’t stay in the dungeon, I feel suffocated. I leave Kaenan to stand guard by the cells. There are about five of them, filled with the students and teachers who stayed behind during the solstice. Luckily almost everyone had gone home. But still…I try not to think about Maggie, about her mom and the others. I wander upstairs, trying to push the thoughts away.
I hate this part. I hate this part so much.
In my head, I can hear screaming, and smell ash and burning fur. The memories I keep stored away are threatening to burst out. But something in the present moment distracts me. A shout from down the hallway, near the entry rooms. Two familiar voices.
“Hallie, I don’t want to do this…”
