Page 35 of The First Trial
We heard their screams before we saw them.
Bodies fell from the ceiling, dropping through the rock like it was nothing but an illusion, and I wondered if it was just that: a spell to mask the real way out. Perhaps it was, but I didn’t have time to think about it when we were scrambling to get out of the way. Some of us snapped out of our frozen stupor with enough time to catch them with our magic before they hit the floor. Telekinetics threw up their hands, but strain was quickly visible as more and more weight was added to their invisible net. I didn’t know how far they’d fallen, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that many wouldn’t have survived, and those who did would have been left nothing more than a broken shell.
I rushed to help before their magic gave way. At first, I reached for my Air Affinity, but when I touched it, it receded back into my body and escaped my attempts to grasp it. Concerned but knowing there wasn’t time to dwell when lives hung in the balance, I quickly switched to my Earth Affinity and wove a tangled web of soft vines to catch them before they hit the floor. It wasn’t the gentlest choice, since they bounced and rolled into one another, but it was better than nothing. Other Witches and Warlocks with an Affinity for Earth joined me, merging our magic to reinforce the latticework of vines, using my larger and stronger ones for structural integrity.
I could hear the other races muttering at our display, but it was the silence from my fellow Humans that worried me. Many were staring down at their hands as if they’d betrayed them, andI knew I wasn’t the only one who was suffering from an inability to access my other Affinities.
Most people didn’t even know I had an Affinity for all four. My love of gardening was well known, so they assumed I was connected solely with Earth. I never corrected them, choosing to keep the true extent of my abilities to myself. And Oz. He was the only person alive who knew everything there was to know about me.
I hadn’t even told Mother, afraid of what she would do if she found out. She was already overbearingly overprotective, but if she found out the full extent of my abilities, she would have locked me in an ivory tower and claimed it was ‘for my own good’. Fear and prejudices ran deep within our community. Those with less power always wanted more, and those with more were constantly under threat. It was safer for everyone if I kept it to myself, so my inability to connect to my Air Affinity was a blessing in disguise.
At least, that was what I was telling myself.
Finally, no more people fell through the ceiling, though we all waited with bated breath just in case. Just as I was about to gently lower them all to the ground and retract my vines, another body fell. This one was a large, purple Daemon that landed on top of the pile where they had all rolled. I heard a few bones crack and some moans of pain, but otherwise, everyone still seemed to be alive.
One more followed after, his scream preceding him, and my heart both dropped in dismay that he was here and elated that I wasn’t alone. Oz fell on top of the Daemon, who seemed to catch him to prevent further injuries to both him and those beneath him.
‘Ozzie?’I called out to him in our new mental link.
His head snapped up, and his eyes scoured the crowd of us below as he searched for me. ‘Junie? Oh, thank fuck…’
‘Ozzie, what happened? How did you just fall through the damn ceiling?’
‘Ceiling?’he asked while carefully extricating himself from the tangle of bodies to reach the edge of the net. ‘We didn’t fall through the ceiling, Junie. We woke up in a meadow surrounded by trees, then the trees woke up and attacked. They threw us in a pit and we fell forages.I was beginning to think there would never be a bottom, and I’d fall forever...’
I winced, my palms turning clammy at the mere thought of a drop like that, and I hadn’t even been the one to fall. ‘Shit, Ozzie. That’s a nightmare. Are you okay? You’re not injured, are you?’
‘No more than a few cuts and bruises from the battle at the academy. Can you let us down now, please?’
I absentmindedly retracted my vines, my thoughts a jumbled mess. When the warmth of my magic returned to me, I realised I’d been shivering and goosebumps covered every inch of my skin, but his words distracted me from it anyway.
‘Battle? What battle? Is everyone okay?’
Everyone else fell the last distance to the floor, and I cringed. ‘Oops. Sorry,’ I muttered over the groans of pain, and I tried to ignore the scathing looks sent my way.
‘The academy was under attack, though now that I think about it, I don’t thinkwewere the target. The portal hypnotised a bunch of you, and everyone still in control of their mind and bodies just sort of panicked.’
‘And panic leads to violence,’I surmised, and his head dipped infinitesimally in response.
I watched him rise to his feet and wished I could run over and hug him. I needed one, and I knew he’d be craving one, too, but we weren’t alone, and a prickling on the back of my neck proved that more than one eye was on me, though I felt multiple from opposing directions staring with a little more intensity than the others. I already knew one was the snake dude. He thought hewas so clever hiding in the shadows and following me in his shifted form, but the rest of the Shifters weren’t so discreet. I clocked him earlier when I sent out my magic to case the area again, and although he was in his animal form, I could sense the signature of his magic, so I knew it was him. Plus, he had a habit of hissing, and his onyx scales rubbed against the rocks louder than he probably realised. He’d have been better off in sand, or even a forest where other animals and sounds could have masked his.
I decided to leave him be to see what he was up to. He would reveal himself eventually, and I’d be ready when he did.
‘June! Oh, my gods. I’m so happy to see you!’ A pair of skinny arms wrapped around my neck and squeezed so hard I felt like my head was about to pop right off, but it was the owner of those arms that had me pushing them away, and not as gently as I might have for anyone else.
‘Kendra, what are you doing?’ I asked, my tone harsher than I usually let it be as the small smile I had scrounged together for Oz’s sake dropped from my face.
The bitch had the audacity to look confused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The last time I saw you, you were throwing around accusations like confetti at a damn wedding,’ I reminded her. If we were back on campus, I would have smiled and played nice, but I simply didn’t feel like it down here in the dark. She had shown me her true colours, and there was no place for fake shit in these trials. Unity didn’t happen by stabbing people in the back. Or the front in her case, since she’d accused me to my face. I could give her props for that, at least.
Qarinah, who must have sensed the change in me since she wouldn’t have been able to understand our verbal exchange, stepped up to my side with a menacing aura that made me kindof fall in love with her a little bit. She was best friend material for sure, and I was keeping her.
‘Who the fuck is this whore?’ Kendra sniped, sneering at my new friend. Qarinah’s killer curves were almost on full display beneath the thin material of her dress, and, combined with her innate sensuality, it wasn’t hard to guess that Kendra was threatened by her.
I introduced them, perhaps with a little more glee than I should’ve had. I quite enjoyed the little slice of pettiness I felt at having the Daemoness at my back to defend me against the woman I’d once thought was my friend. A shallow friendship it may have been, but it was still a friendship until proven otherwise, and Kendra had done so in abundance this past… day? Days, plural? I didn’t even know how long it had been since that uncalled-for showdown in the courtyard.
Kendra stormed off in a huff, but then her eyes immediately lit up with a gleam I did not want to decipher when she spotted Oz. She hustled over to where he stood, and that purple Daemon who had caught him was by his side. Another Daemon that could have been his twin if he shaved off a few pounds of muscle was behind him, and I failed to hide my pleased grin when all three of them ignored her. She tried to sidle up next to Oz, but he merely pushed her away and kept his attention on me. That wasn’t going to help the rumours, but in that moment, I didn’t care. His mere presence was a balm to my soul when everything else was turning to chaos.
