Page 47 of Cry of the Damned
“Are you all right?” I asked.
She gave a quick nod, looking a bit annoyed by my question. She had assured everyone she could handle all that would be required of her tonight when we’d carefully reviewed our plan. I had to trust she knew her own capabilities.
Hot, red melted metal dripped down to the stoop. Tentatively, I pushed on the door, and it creaked open.
I placed a hand on Bethel’s shoulder. “You’ve done it.”
She blinked and shook herself, then nodded, taking a big inhale. Before moving on, I allowed her to rest for a few beats. She breathed in and out, her eyes closed, and gave me a nod to indicate she was ready to go. Besides maintaining the concealment spell, there were only two more things she would need to do. Hopefully, nothing would come up that we wouldn’t be able to handle without magic.
I eased the door closed behind us, and we crept forward down the dim corridor, which led us to an ample kitchen. There, a low fire burned in a huge fireplace. The Academy had been built a long time ago, and the massive kitchen still kept its original bones and structure. However, it had been refitted with modern appliances and stainless steel preparation surfaces. It was an interesting combination of state-of-the-art equipment and old-world charm—all wasted on the evil endeavors of crooked men and women.
Despite all my years in the Academy, I had never been here. So many areas were out of limits for the students. If anyone was caught breaking the rules, the punishment was terrible. I had been such an exemplary student that it never occurred to me to disrespect the tenets. If I had, maybe I would’ve figured out much sooner that something was terribly wrong.
We moved past the kitchen, weaving through out-of-the-way corridors that I knew to be less traveled. It took longer to get to the passage that led to the hot spring, but we made it there unscathed.
Hiding around the corner, Bethel peered at the guards that stood at either side of the winding staircase that led to our final destination. We’d been right to expect and be prepared for tighter security. After she marked their exact positions, she closed her eyes and quickly began murmuring a spell under her breath. As she stood there, she clenched her fists, trembling slightly. I wished I could lend her some of my strength, but apparently, she was only able to do that when she was healing someone, the way she did the time she drew power from my sister to heal my burns. She said she was only able to channel power into someone else, not really use it to fuel her own magic.
After a moment, I heard two simultaneousthuds, and when I peered around the corner, I found the two guards laying flat on the floor, completely unconscious.
“You did it!”
She smiled weakly and needed a couple of minutes to recover, then she nodded. In unison, we both breathed deeply as if to draw strength from the air, straightened our shoulders, and went around the bend.
We took the stone steps one at a time, waiting to listen after each of them. My fine-tuned ears heard only the trickle of the hot spring and nothing else. I’d feared that after the last time I was here, they might place additional guards at the bottom, but it seemed they hadn’t.
We pressed forward, each step careful and silent under the torchlight. The smell of sulfur was strong in the air, and the steam created a light haze close to the ground. We inched closer to the edge of the hot spring. Bethel’s eyes focused forward, while I glanced all around, head jerking from side to side. I had a bad feeling that I couldn’t shake off, no matter how quiet and deserted everything looked.
Bethel stopped, the tips of her shoes aligned with the edge of the stream. The heat that rose from the water seemed to clog my nostrils and my lungs. A place like this should be enjoyable, but to me, it would always conjure nightmares.
Feeling a wave of nausea, I stared at the spot where Magistrate Sonticus had died. I had killed someone else, and I still hadn’t fully processed how I felt about it. The man deserved to die, no doubt about it. Like every magistrate in the Academy, he was responsible for murdering who knew how many students. None of them deserved to go on living, and though I would gladly end all their lives, having blood on my hands was still something I needed to deal with.
Bethel reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the potion she’d carefully concocted for days on the suite’s stove. Wasting no time, she handed it over, raised her hands, palms down over the water, and began murmuring a new spell under her breath. Her eyes were closed and her lips moved at a hurried pace.
I held my breath as the spell crescendoed, her voice getting slightly louder. My heart pounded against my ribs, making it hard to breathe. We were close, so close. After this, the hot spring would be useless to the magistrates. Bethel’s spell was basically a curse that would make it impossible for anyone to use its waters to bathe. After this, the magistrates would grow weaker until their magic completely disappeared. They would not be able to renew their powers, no matter how many initiates spilled their blood into the water.
Eyes still closed, Bethel put a hand out, requesting the potion. I grabbed the cork between my thumb and forefinger and started rocking it from side to side to carefully remove it. I was so focused on not spilling a drop of the precious liquid that I didn’t notice the shadows that peeled away from the wall and slowly surrounded us until it was too late.
A hand reached for the potion and snatched it out of my hand. I gasped in surprise, and before I had a moment to get my bearings, guards were yanking us away from the spring, their hands gripping tightly around our arms. There were two at each side, viciously jerking us away. Our feet dragged over the ground as we struggled. A circle formed around us, and the guards dumped Bethel and me in the middle. We crashed with a heavythud.My teeth snapped close as my entire skeleton seemed to rattle on the stone ground.
The circle opened to let Magistrate Novus step inside and hover over us.
“Hello, Jaz and…” She regarded Bethel with distaste, her mouth turning downward. “A filthy witch, I presume. So nice of you to make things easy for us. I was honestly tired of…” she waved a hand in a vague direction, “traipsing through the woods, looking for you. You certainly have proved bothersome, though not necessarily very smart.”
I bared my teeth and called on my wolf.
Novus pulled out a dagger, lifted Bethel by the hair, and pressed the sharp weapon against her throat. “Shift and your friend dies, little wolf.”
It took all of my willpower, but I managed to hold my wolf back. I met Bethel’s dark eyes and immediately knew she was too weak to use her magic and attack. Novus pushed the witch toward one of the guards, who pressed his own dagger at the witch’s neck.
Magistrate Novus grinned and held up the flask that contained Bethel’s potion. She examined it against the light of one of the torches.
“Magnus was right, for once,” she said. “He thought you would prove dangerous, that you knew too much.”
She slipped the bottle into the pocket of her pants. I tightened my fists, feeling impotent. We had failed, and now… now… I glanced sideways at Bethel. Her usual bravado was gone, and she was staring up at Novus with undisguised fear.
“What exactly were you trying to do? Pray tell,” Novus asked.
I pressed my mouth into a tight split and glowered at Novus, letting her know how much I hated her. She would get no answer from me. In the end, she would kill me anyway.
