Page 52 of Bonds of Magic (Vesperwood Academy: Incubus #3)

CORY

S moke and shadows drifted past me as I ran through a smoldering landscape.

Occasional flares of bright red light illuminated the night before sputtering out, leaving me in semi-twilight again.

It was hard to see where to put my feet, and I needed to move faster, or the thing behind me was going to catch up.

I darted around a mountain of flame and ash, ducking as tongues of fire leapt out to catch me. My skin tingled with heat. That was close. Any closer and my clothes would have caught—

Wait a second. I stumbled to a stop. I wasn’t wearing clothes. Christ, why was I naked?

A roar filled the darkness behind me, and I started running again. I could worry about being naked later. Right now, I needed to get away.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been running. It felt like my whole life. I was tired, so tired, and my breath rasped in my throat, my lungs filling with soot and smoke. Every inhale felt like a knife scraping my insides.

Another roar rose in the night, and I looked over my shoulder, trying to gauge how close the thing behind me was. I still hadn’t seen it, just heard it. But I needed to know.

Pain blossomed through my foot, and I looked down to see that I’d stepped in a puddle of flame. Fuck. I stumbled out of it, but my leg looked charred black. I was afraid to touch it, in case it crumbled away beneath me. But I had to keep running, had to keep—

“Stay,” said a voice in front of me.

I looked up. My eyes widened. I screamed, but no sound came out.

The creature in front of me was huge. Eight feet tall, maybe more.

Shoulders as broad as three of me in a line.

And his face was terrifying. Eyes with huge pupils in slits like a cat’s.

A broad nose that looked as much like a bull’s nose as a human’s.

A mouth that opened to display rows of sharp, spiked teeth.

And then there were his arms. He had four of them, two sets stacked on top of each other. Each hand was the size of my head, with wicked black claws that curled threateningly.

“Cory,” the thing rumbled.

Thing? Demon. He had to be a demon. But how did he know my name? And how had he gotten in front of me so fast? He was behind me a second ago.

Dream .

The word floated into my mind, and the moment it registered, I knew it was true. This was a dream— just a dream. With dream logic. Of course the demon could move in front of me if he wanted.

If this were a dream, though, shouldn’t I have been able to control it? I tried to gather my will, gather a sense of calm, but my heart was pumping so hard, I felt like I might pass out. All I felt was fear.

And then the demon reached a hand out towards me, his claws extended. I steeled myself. Maybe I couldn’t control this, but I could at least take what was coming like a man.

A single claw landed on my face and traced its way down my cheek.

My mouth dropped open in surprise, and the claw rubbed along my lower lip. The demon’s touch was shockingly gentle, for so terrifying a creature.

“Stay,” he whispered again. His voice was the sound of gears grinding, of a death groan, of an avalanche. But he was talking to me. And he… wanted me?

You know that , whispered a voice in the back of my mind. You’ve been here before. Countless times .

And I knew, suddenly, that it was true. I’d seen this monster before. Or, at least, been seen by him. Been touched by him.

A roar sounded behind me in the flame-licked dark, and my heart leapt into my throat. My chest tightened so much, I could hardly draw breath. The demon snarled and drew a sword, then pushed me behind him and charged forward. From my new position, I could see that he had a tail.

Oh, God. That tail had touched me before. Wrapped around me. Pushed inside me. And each time, I’d liked it.

And now the demon was protecting me?

But what creature was chasing me, if it wasn’t this demon? Who did I need protecting from? I had no idea, and there was no one I could ask.

Noah might know .

My heart skipped a beat. Noah, who was back in the real world. Noah, who knew more about dreams and dreaming than I did. Noah, who I’d pushed away.

I’d fucked everything up. My stomach twisted. I closed my eyes against the memory—and when I opened them, I was back at Vesperwood, dawn light gently suffusing my room.

My heart thumped, and my breath slowed. It really had been a dream. Even if it was exceptionally vivid, that didn’t make it mean anything. It was something my mind had conjured up—and then conjured me out of, once my emotions were strong enough.

Then I remember what had pulled me out of the dream, and sadness rolled over me like fog.

Noah. I felt heartsick and lost. Noah had sat here on my blanket last night. He’d lain on top of me. He’d wanted me—and then I’d acted like a child and kicked him out.

In the cool light of dawn, hours of sleep separating me from the incident, I could see how immature I’d been. Which probably only made Noah like me less. He was already freaked out by our age gap.

Why did I have to lose my temper? I closed my eyes against the tears that threatened to spill. Why did Noah have to bring up my dad?

I wrapped my arms around myself to ward off the early morning chill. I was so ashamed. I’d tried to tell Noah what I wanted, and he’d turned it into some fucked up coping mechanism. A referendum on how broken I was. In case I didn’t feel fucked up enough already.

I liked Noah for so many reasons. He was strong, and kind, and smart, and caring, and so many other good things.

But he also made me feel whole. He made me feel like there was nothing wrong with me, when I was with him.

With Noah, I could push away the voice in the back of my mind that told me how damaged I was. For a little while, anyway.

My dad was dead, and never coming back, and that was a good thing. But that didn’t mean I wanted to think about him. That didn’t mean I needed Noah playing therapist, even if it was in some misguided attempt to help me.

But I’d been too unraveled to explain any of that last night. So I’d lashed out, and Noah had finally done what I’d asked him to. He’d left.

I got dressed and headed down to breakfast mechanically. I looked across the refectory for Noah, not sure if I wanted him to be there or not. He wasn’t.

Ash was talking to Min about some TV show neither of them had been able to watch since coming to Vesperwood, hypothesizing about what might be happening this season. Felix and Keelan were going over a homework assignment for Environmental Magic. I ate in silence.

I didn’t want to go to class. Didn’t want to do anything except go back in time and undo last night. To keep my stupid mouth shut about what I wanted. To make everything okay.

But time travel wasn’t an option, even for witches. So when the bell rang, I bused my tray with everyone else and followed my friends to Spellwork.

***

Today, Kazansky gave a lecture about the inverse relationship between the power used in a spell and the witch’s ability to control it.

Then she made all the witches stand in a circle around the edges of the room.

We’d moved beyond passing a light back and forth.

Today, we had to pass a light around the circle, but each person added more power to the light, thus making it more difficult for the next one to control.

I joined the circle reluctantly. I’d thought I would feel happy to finally be able to do magic, but with everything that had happened with Noah, it was the last thing on my mind.

Plus, there was the fact that my magic was inextricably linked to my dad, and I wanted as little to do with him as possible.

I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to do anything today.

Felix gave me an encouraging smile as I stood, and Ash flashed me a gleeful grin as I took my place in the circle.

They’d taken the magic revelation in stride.

Felix had said, ‘ I knew there was something going on with that raven ,’ and Ash had just laughed and called me an overachiever.

But I still worried about a rift opening between us.

All the Hunters and paranormal students in Spellwork had to take notes on the lectures, but they were excluded from exercises like this. They sat in the middle of the circle, cut off and on display.

I longed to be with them.

By the time the light made its way to me, it was as big as a cantaloupe. Ruben Whitaker was standing to my right and balanced the light above his palm with ease. He waited for me to hold my hand out before he said, “ Release .” Then he cupped his hand and tossed the light to me.

I was supposed to say, ‘ Catch ,’ and grab the threads of magic already coming loose from the ball, ready to dissipate back into the ether.

I said it, fully expecting the light to continue to unravel, but instead, it transferred neatly to my control, hovering above my palm. I stared at it in surprise.

I could feel the magic. Feel all the energy that had been called up and formed into this shape. I could feel the hum of more magic in the air, waiting to be added. I could feel it all.

The night in the library with Rekha wasn’t a fluke. I could do magic. I was a witch.

I looked at Professor Kazanasky in shock, but she smiled encouragingly, like she’d never had any doubts.

“Um, are you going to pass it to me or just stand there?” asked Meredith on my other side. I blinked, and wondered how long I’d stood staring, doing nothing. I shook my head to clear it and was about to pass the light over when I remembered I was supposed to make it bigger first.

I bit my lip, trying to remember what I’d done in the library. I opened myself to the magic around me and called it forward, picturing what I wanted it to do. Then I waved my free hand above the light in the motion Kazansky had taught us, and said, “ Grow .”