Page 48 of Cry of the Damned
Tiredly, she sighed and shrugged. “I don’t guess it matters since you have accomplished absolutely nothing.” She turned to leave, then glanced back. “How did you like that concealment spell?”
Concealment spell?!I struggled to process what she was saying, then understood that Novus was able to use her magic for more than fire and electricity. Maybe the magistrates had always possessed other magical skills that they’d never revealed to the students. Maybe they were learning how to do more. Either way, I should’ve known better.
“We’ve been waiting for you.” Novus sneered. “It was boring hiding in the shadows, no doubt. But I knew you would come, so it was worth the wait. Don’t you think?” she asked, glancing around.
The guards grunted their agreement.
“You can each come tomorrow to claim your vintage scotch, a nice prize for your effort.” She chuckled, and so did the guards.
They all looked pleased with themselves. Their prize for waiting to trap us was booze. We were worth that little to them.
“You bastards!” I spat, hatred vibrating in my voice. “You won’t be able to get away with this forever.”
“Who cares about forever?” Novus said. “As long asIhave what I want now, forever can go to hell.” She walked away, then threw an order over her shoulder. “Take them and put them in a cell with the traitor. For now, I want to rest, then I’ll decide what to do with them.”
Two guards hefted me to my feet and pushed me ahead.
“The slightest hint of fur, and I’ll decorate the walls with this witch’s blood,” the guard warned me, his words so cold I knew he meant it.
They shoved me ahead and guided me toward the same area where Magistrate Sonticus had appeared the other night. One of the guards pressed a protruding rock, and a slab no wider than a regular door slid out of the way. They pushed me in and we traveled through a narrow passage illuminated with more torches. The stone walls glistened with dampness, and a dank smell rode the air. When the passage forked in two, we went right and ended up in a wide circular area with four bar-covered openings carved into the stone wall.
A dungeon.
First, they pushed me into one of the cells, holding Bethel at knife point as they locked me in. Then they shoved Bethel into the cell next to mine.
“Don’t try anything funny. We’ll be standing right out here, and these cells… they’re magic-proof, little witch.” They walked away, laughing and leaving us behind bars.
Magic-proof?I’d never known there were places like this inside the Academy. I could only imagine how they’d created such an area. Probably by torturing a witch until she did her enemy’s bidding: a spell against magic. But what if they were bluffing?
I tried to shift. Nothing happened.
Damn!
“Bethel, can you do anything?” I whispered. She was weak from all the magic she’d performed so far, but she must have something left to try a minor spell.
“No,” she said after a minute. “He’s telling the truth.”
Shit!
“J-Jaz… is that you?” a raspy voice called.
“Rob?!” I walked up and clung to the bars, looking into the darkness of the cell across from mine to find a shape hobbling closer. When it reached the door and the torchlight illuminated it, my fears were confirmed. It was Rob.
His battered face pressed between two bars, and he looked at me from one half-shut eye. The other one was severely swollen, the skin bruised to a shade of almost black.
“They caught you, too,” he said, his voice giving a strange hiss. When he spoke next, I realized he was missing a front tooth.
“Rob, what did they do to you?” Bethel asked.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I tried to make sure they didn’t find out you were involved, but…”
“One of the other apprentices reported one of his jackets missing. They did a room inspection and found it in my wardrobe. I didn’t want to tell them that you were here. I tried, but I—”
“Rob, you don’t have to explain,” I interrupted him. “None of this is your fault. I shouldn’t have involved you.”
“I knew what I was doing,” he said, but his tone didn’t sound as sure as I would’ve liked. Holding his side, he limped back into his cell and disappeared into the darkness.
I paced back and forth, trying to think of how we could escape and coming up empty. Even if I could shift, my wolf form was useless inside the cell. I couldn’t bite or claw my way out of iron bars and stone walls, no matter how hard I tried. Bethel’s magic was really the only real option—if she were able to use it.
