Page 2 of Bonds of Magic (Vesperwood Academy: Incubus #3)

“She made this door, or hole, or something, in the air. A big rectangle, floating a foot off the ground. And as soon as it was open, this man—”

He broke off, and I watched him swallow a sob. I had the strongest urge to cross to where he sat and take his hand, touch his shoulder, pull him into a hug. To tell him it was all okay. But, of course, it wasn’t

“This man came through. In an overcoat. And he had a gun?” Cory looked up at Isaac. “Why did he have a gun, if he was magic? Why didn’t he use a spell?”

This time, Isaac looked at me. I nodded in response to his silent question. It was Jude, alright. He couldn’t do magic any more than I could. That wasn’t an incubus’s gift.

Cory seemed to realize he wasn’t going to get an answer. “I was still in the trees at that point,” he continued, “but when he pointed the gun at her, I tried to get to her. Tried to help.”

He shook his head and closed his eyes against a memory only he could see. His fingers tightened around the glass in his hands. He inhaled, but it was half-sob.

“I fought him,” he said, his eyes still closed. “I tried to get the gun. I tried . But I couldn’t, and he—he—”

He stopped there, another sob wrenching from his chest. He hunched over, crying openly now. I bit the inside of my cheek, forcing myself to keep still. I ached to hold him. But now was not the time. It would never be the time.

“He shot her?” Isaac filled in for Cory. I was pretty sure Cory nodded, but it was hard to tell with the way his body was shaking, wracked with sobs.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I crossed to his chair and put one hand on his back, pulling the water glass free with the other. As soon as I’d plucked it from Cory’s grasp, he hunched over farther, hugging his arms to his chest.

Without thought, I began rubbing slow circles on his back, trying to soothe him. Until Isaac caught my eye, that was, and raised a single eyebrow. I stopped dead. Not because of his look, but because I’d just realized what I was doing.

I used to rub Ben’s back that way when he was crying, or when he couldn’t sleep.

A rush of cold flooded my body with that realization, except for my hand, which burned where it rested now between Cory’s shoulder blades. I wanted to pull it away, wanted to howl, but I didn’t want to make Cory feel worse. I forced myself to keep it there, my chest filled with unutterable sadness.

“What happened next?” Isaac asked, when Cory’s sobs had subsided into quiet weeping.

Cory looked up at Isaac. He didn’t seem to realize I was there, let alone touching him. Good. I wished I could fade into nothingness, rather than having to make a thing of it when I walked away.

“He tried to—” Cory hiccuped around another sob. “To kill me,” he finished.

Isaac’s brows drew down. “To kill you? Are you certain?”

Cory looked at him blankly. With the mask of blood drying on his face, it was disturbing. The presence of that blood, and those bruises on his neck, should have been proof enough. But Isaac waited.

Finally, Cory said, “He tried to strangle me. I don’t know what else that could mean.”

I frowned. After Isaac had brought Cory here, after he’d tried to get me to teach him, he’d told me of his suspicions.

He feared that Argus would try to turn Cory to his side.

I’d agreed that seemed likely. And even if I couldn’t teach Cory myself, I’d known that building up his abilities was the best way to keep him safe from Argus.

I’d never expected Argus to kill him outright.

Argus liked power and control. I doubted he’d turn down a chance to at least attempt to turn Cory.

Jude might have been trying to make Cory pass out, to make transport easier.

But there was no guarantee that choking wouldn’t have caused permanent damage anyway.

“Did he say anything to you?” Isaac asked.

“When he tried to kill me?” Cory said. “Yeah, he said, ‘ Why are you making this harder than it needs to be ?’”

“That’s all? Did he say anything else to you, in that entire time?”

“He didn’t say—” Cory began, but then he stopped abruptly. I heard him inhale. “He acted like he knew me. Not at first. But then he looked at me and said, ‘ You ,’ like he knew me. He said he thought he’d have to search for me for weeks.”

Cory looked at Isaac, then up at me, his eyes wide. The movement pulled him out of contact with my hand, and I took the excuse to walk back to my post by Isaac’s chair.

“What did he mean?” Cory asked, looking between the two of us. “He said something right before he died. He said, ‘ I don’t care how badly he wants you. I’m not dying for you .’ Right before Professor Romero hit him with his second spell.”

Isaac didn’t answer Cory. Instead, he turned to me. “The man whose body you saw. Are you sure it was—”

“Positive,” I said. “He hounded me for months. And there was always a hint of—” I caught myself right before saying Argus’s name. Cory was safer the less he knew about that. “I’m sure,” I said with finality.

“I think it’s safe to assume he was instructed to locate Cory and bring him into the dream world physically, once he was found,” Isaac said to me.

“That makes sense.” I nodded. “The door must have opened up to the dream world. But…how? I took away his ability to leave when we fought. That effect should have extended to his children too. Jude should have been trapped.”

I hoped Isaac understood who I meant with my pronoun.

During that last fight, Argus had taken away my ability to enter the dreamworld, but I’d turned the power of his blow back on him at the last instant, causing the reverse effect to ripple out through his body to the rest of his half-human, half-incubus children.

I could no longer enter the dreamworld, and they could no longer leave.

“I don’t know,” Isaac said, and he sounded troubled. “But I intend to find out.”

“Erika Martinez was a freshman,” I said. “She couldn’t have known how to open that door on her own. Or had the power for it, unless I’m totally off about how strong she was.”

Isaac pursed his lips. “She was a very intelligent student, with a high level of innate power. But no, opening a portal between worlds is beyond even the most accomplished freshman witch’s abilities.

He sounded grim, and I knew why. Cory had described Erika as being under some kind of a trance. I didn’t know a ton about magic, but I knew how much energy it cost Isaac to put me in a trance for twenty minutes, and all I did was sit there.

Ensorcelling a student and getting her to leave the safety of the manor, tramp through the woods at night, get to the very edge of campus, and open a door to another world without setting off the wards, would have required a great deal of power.

“Did the holiday help?” I asked, wondering suddenly if that was why the attempt had been made tonight.”

“The holiday? Oh.” Isaac pressed his lips together in thought. “I suspect it did, amplifying the strength Erika carried to do the spell. But still…”

He trailed off, and I couldn’t blame him. Someone at Vesperwood had put Erika in a trance for the specific purpose of opening that door. Which meant someone at Vesperwood truly was working with Argus.

I looked at Isaac, a thought occurring. “If Jude is dead, and he didn’t know who Cory was until he saw him, that means he doesn’t know who Cory is either. Right?”

I felt ridiculous dancing around saying Argus’s name. But I knew all too well that too much knowledge would make Cory even more vulnerable than he already was.

Isaac nodded, but he looked troubled. “For now. But how much longer can we count on that to last? We’ve been complacent— I’ve been complacent—and a student has died due to my hubris.

He looked at Cory, who was staring at both of us, looking lost.

“What are you—” he began, but Isaac cut him off.

“Cory, I need to apologize to you. You should not have gone through tonight’s disaster. I should have done more to prevent it. But you have my word that I will do my utmost to make sure that you are safe moving forward. You, and everyone else at Vesperwood.”

I shot Isaac a sharp look and said, “I told you we needed to question Sheridan.”

Cory looked at me in confusion, and I realized too late I probably shouldn’t have said Sheridan’s name either. But dammit, now wasn’t the time to nitpick. Cory was almost abducted. Forced to bend to Argus’s will. I’d warned Isaac, and all he’d done was tell me to wait.

My rage, which had quieted in the past few minutes, was boiling again.

“We need to find him, right now,” I said. “Before he can regroup. We need to question him before he can scuttle off or form a new plan.”

Isaac gave me a hard look. “This is neither the time nor the place to discuss this.”

“Then what is the time and place? Besides, Cory deserves to know. He’s the one who was almost taken.”

“The more Cory knows, the more danger he’s in,” Isaac snapped. “For all we know, Sheridan has nothing to do with tonight.”

“Then how the hell did Erika know how to do that spell?”

“You will recall that there are other faculty who could have played a role instead. We don’t even know if this was the doing of one person acting alone.”

Abruptly, I realized he was right. The files I’d found in Teresa’s rooms were almost as odd as the coin in Sheridan’s.

I hadn’t even told Isaac about the files, I’d been so angry about the coin.

But he was right. There could be more than one witch behind tonight.

Quickly, I brought Isaac up to date on my search of Teresa’s rooms.

“I fucked up,” I said when I was done. “I should have told you sooner. Tonight was my fault. I’m sorry.”

“Hmm,” Isaac said, ignoring my apology completely. “We’ll need to look into that.”

He didn’t take me to task, which annoyed me, because I knew I deserved it. But before I could say anything else, Cory spoke.

“It’s my fault,” he said quietly.

“What?” I said. It came out harsher than I intended.