Page 64

Small rivers of blood followed the seams in the plank wood flooring and moved around the mounds of white that were littered throughout the area, that were miraculously unblemished by the carnage. Splinters and decent-sized shards of wood were scattered throughout the area, and the larger chunks were embedded in the walls and ceiling, with another busting through the windows and landing four stories to the courtyard below.

I was in the living room, just outside my room, sitting on the floor where I was slowly rocking with a polished wooden box in my hands. I kept it up next to my ear, listening as something slid back and forth inside it.

I could hear the contents now, but I didn't know what was inside or how to open the box.

And I don't know where I found it, which would normally be troubling.

But it wasn't at the moment.

And I don't know how I ended up sitting outside my room covered in blood either.

What I did know was there was a haunting, maddening echoing in my mind that was the shadow echo of the methodically taunting, paradoxical laughter that I couldn't stop.

It was a clouding that went beyond the mind; it clouded the senses and the light of the soul and caused an overwhelming sense of indifference that wasn't like me in the least. And what little I knew of psyche assaults and warfare; I knew my indifference would cause listlessness that would kill me in the slowest way possible.

"I left her alone for ten minutes!" Riven argued. "The door was locked, I checked."

Yes, it was, but somehow someone was able to gain entry into a locked, warded, and heavily protected suite.

That was concerning.

And whoever helped them was holding the handle from the outside so I couldn't get out of my room.

That was even more concerning.

"I swept the suite, double-checked it even to be thorough," Riven promised. "This, I do not know what in the hell this is or where it came from!" he said, stomping on a green vine that started to slither out from my bedroom, causing it to recoil.

Azrael crouched down next to me, and when he did, it caused the mounds of snow to pick up and float through the air, following the movements his overly long jacket made when it fluttered away from his body as he went.

I looked from him to the feathers that were floating through the air, and he looked to where I was and it registered with him.

"Snow," he whispered, picking the feathers from my hair. "Miss Li, Child, can you hear me?"

I continued to slowly rock from side to side, tilting the box in my hands next to my ear, listening to whatever was inside slide from one end to the other and back again.

"Let us through," Harper demanded.

Azrael nodded once, never bothering to look to the doorway.

"What happened?" Slevin asked, hurrying to us then slid to a stop. "Holy hell. What kind of unholy horticulturist-Little Shop of Horrors' shit is that?" he demanded.

That was one of the million-dollar questions that need to be answered, I suppose.

"Why are you not with Master Li?" Azrael demanded.

Slevin snorted. "With that many Architects and Synergists regarding the little motor mouth as 'Nephew', he couldn't be safer," he promised.

The moody wizard had a point.

Nothing would happen to Zane as long as he was with Uncle Keithen.

"Why haven't you taken care of the vegetation?" Jolyn asked as if that was the most pressing concern at the moment. "It's easy enough to burn away without damaging whatever it is concealing beneath."

Azrael continued to look at me.

My mouth wouldn't move.

I couldn't talk, couldn't form a simplistic monosyllabic word, and I think that was the point.

Besides the unimaginable indifference I was plagued with, my body was already starting to suffer from torpor.

"It is covering the sides of the building and filling the courtyard," Jolyn said. "We saw it when we got here. The Sentinels are keeping it contained by brute force though. Why?"

"Shut up!" Harper snapped at her. "Why are you not remotely concerned with Ari? She is sitting there nearly naked and covered in blood, completely unresponsive, and you are more concerned with vines?!"

Azrael raised his hand to silence them. "Freeze the vegetation and relay my orders to the Guardians to do the same. That will preserve the evidence and whatever is under the moving mound of vegetation. Make sure the dormitory is cleared of all staff and students."

Jolyn looked from me to Azrael. "Of course," she said, stepping closer to us as if to appraise me then stepped back. "What is in that box?" she demanded.

That was a good question, but not one I cared to find the answer to at the moment.

"Leave us," Azrael said. "Riven, locate Keithen and the one pestering him he calls nephew, and the former roommate of said pestering nephew. Go in haste," he warned, speaking in code for reasons I cared very little to figure out.

Riven bowed then headed for the door, pulling his hands through the air as he went before disappearing completely.

Slevin looked from where Riven had disappeared to me. "The tea on that one has to be unimaginable," he whispered.

Yeah, sure. I guess.

Harper and Jolyn started to head from the suite to do as ordered.

"Harper, stay," Azrael ordered. "Miss Li needs your strength and familiarity to keep from going into shock."

I wasn't sure what that meant, but I also didn't care.

Harper closed the door behind Jolyn then hurried back over to us, and in two strides he turned into a large, russet fur-covered Vyras with such fluidity that it would have shocked me if I wasn't suffering from an overabundance of indifference. He joined me on the floor, and protectively Harper wrapped around me, but I didn't acknowledge him.

"I hate agreeing with a bitchy bible thumper that has lost her mind, but Jo makes a good point. Why not fire, Sir?" Slevin asked.

Azrael headed to the kitchenette and opened the freezer then grabbed a handful of ice cubes before returning. "Miss Li is not the only one that had top honors in Botany and Principles of Ensorceling Horticulture," he informed them, standing in the doorway to my bedroom. He arranged the ice cubes in a stack on his open palm then rubbed his fingers on his other hand together.

A soft, frozen mist started to rise from the ice cubes stacked on the palm of his hand before it solidified into a thickened icicle that stretched over to his free hand. He curled his fingers before pulling his hands apart, causing a curtain of shimmering ice to appear between them before he hurled it at the swarming mound of vegetation in the middle of my room.

The ice instantly consumed everything it touched and it spread out from the point of contact to each slithering tendril and froze them solid. The ice raced along each of the vines that were creeping out from the window and covering the outside of the dormitory and the courtyard below, freezing them in mid-slither.

Slevin huffed with a pout. "I could have done that," he reminded everyone.

"Not without the risk of a spark," Azrael said, breaking away the remaining ice from his hands before shaking them out. "Cogon grass is highly combustible, even static electricity can cause it to ignite. Master Li nearly caught half of Florida on fire when he was a boy. Riven is lucky he did not blow up the dormitory exiting the way he did."

"What is going on?" Slevin asked, waving his hand in front of my face to get my attention, but it didn't register with me. "What is wrong with Ari?"

Azrael squatted down in front of me, blocking my view of my frozen bedroom. "The Sybil vision never showed her this," he said, his eyes moving over me many times. "Something happened, something changed, or perhaps she was pulled from the vision before she saw all that was to come to pass."

Slevin looked from me to Harper. "How do you know about that?"

"Miss Li told me," Azrael said as if it were obvious. "We went over her notes and discussed all of the potential scenarios and probabilities from the limited information she had from the vision. But the smell stood out to her. We both deduced that something so specific would solely be used for rooting. The only grass that would be accessible in this part of the world to use as a rooting means for controlling of the mind hex would be cogon grass."

Slevin groaned. "Which is highly flammable and invasive," he said. "Do you know what was under the pulsing mound on what remains of her bed?"

No, I don't.

But I do, I think.

Azrael nodded with much reluctance. "That is why I pray Riven returns with the Soul Anchor, otherwise Miss Li and our world will truly be lost to us forever," he whispered, ignoring the tear that rolled down his cheek.