Page 59 of Immortal Consequences (The Souls of Blackwood Academy #1)

Wren

August was kneeling. Shoulders hunched and hands pressed against the floor.

He had positioned himself in front of the pile of letters, as though he had been combing through them.

As Wren closed the door and stepped inside, he made no indication that he heard her.

But she knew he was aware of her presence.

She could feel it. That inexorable thread tethering the two of them together.

He slipped his thoughts into her mind, calling out her name once again.

Loughty.

“I’m here,” she said out loud.

The sound of her voice echoing throughout the hall seemed to be enough to break the spell. August glanced up, peering over his shoulder. He looked so tired. Deep bruises stained the skin beneath his eyes. A heaviness pressed upon his shoulders, as if he were being weighed down by an unseen force.

“You found me,” he whispered, the slightest hint of a smirk on his face. It was that same crooked grin she knew so well—that coy and mischievous look. But it was dimmer than usual, his eyes still clouded by a strained anguish.

She took another step closer.

“Of course.” She matched his smirk. “I always will.”

He returned his gaze to the letters. Wren crossed the hall until she was standing beside him.

“Did you know one of them?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No…well. No one who would have left behind a letter. The person I lost simply…left.”

Wren knelt down beside him.

“You never told me you lost someone to the Demien Order.”

August slipped one of the letters between his fingers, letting it fall soundlessly to the floor.

“It was a long time ago.”

Wren bit the inside of her cheek, contemplating whether or not she should pry.

The truth was—she wanted to know about his past. She was desperate to finally chip away at that wall between them.

If she could get him to open up to her, maybe she could get him to recognize that they weren’t so different after all.

That all of that darkness, all of that anger and pain he was bottling up inside him, also lived inside her.

“You know…you can talk to me about these things.” She placed her hand upon his.

“I know what it’s like to lose someone. To live with that gaping hole in your chest…

that broken feeling that never really goes away.

Some days I wake up so angry…it scares me.

How could one person hold so much anger?

” His fingers had begun to tremble, but she didn’t let go.

She only held on tighter. “I know you want to run from it, to pretend it doesn’t exist…

but that won’t make it go away, August. Grief isn’t the villain.

It just wants to help you remember that despite losing someone, despite the sadness and heartache and pain… there was also once love.”

The silence rang out between them as August inhaled a long and quivering breath. She hoped it would be enough, that it would be the final push. But then he simply slipped his hand away from hers. As if her words had meant nothing. As if she meant nothing.

When he spoke, his voice was a cold and empty sound.

“What do you want from me, Loughty?”

Each word was like a slap in the face. A bitter, cruel reminder of what she had always been too afraid to accept. This was who Augustine Hughes really was. He was cruel. Cold. The monster of Blackwood. And maybe it was simply time she accepted that there was no changing him.

She cleared her throat and swallowed the tears threatening to escape. He didn’t deserve the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

“I need you to come back to the ball with me.”

He grimaced as he stood up. “I really can’t stomach another second of it.”

“Well, you don’t have much of a choice,” Wren said curtly. “I told Masika about the eliminated nominees. We’re going to regroup with the others and try to figure out who’s responsiblefor—”

“I don’t believe that will be necessary.”

They hadn’t heard him enter. Nothing. Not a sound. Not until he had spoken, his voice reverberating in the air, deep and menacing.

Headmaster Silas stood at the center of the main hall, directly between the pews. The dark cloak strewn over his shoulders made him appear less human and more like a specter, like a phantom swathed in shadows.

“Headmaster Silas.” Wren’s voice shook with apprehension. “I’m sorry. We were…were just about to go back to the ball. August needed some air, and I—”

“Did you not find it odd that we were willing to change a tradition carved into the very seams of the afterlife?” Silas began to walk forward, his boots pounding the floorboards.

“That we would simply forgo that sacred process without a second thought? I suppose I shouldn’t be all that surprised…

everybody thinks they’re special, don’t they? That they truly are unprecedented. ”

Next to her, August tensed. He took a step forward, protectively angling his arm in front of her.

“I’m sorry, Headmaster.” Wren shook her head. “I don’t…I don’t understand.”

“What if I told you that we hadn’t changed tradition?

” Silas dragged the edge of his walking stick against the floor, a horrible scraping sound piercing the air.

“That the truth is… every Decennial has been a competition. Every Decennial has always involved twelve nominees. Twelve students competing. And that only one of them has ever returned to claim their rightful place among the Ascended.”

“That’s…impossible,” Wren choked out. “We would—we would know that. We would—”

“Psyche magic can be quite a powerful thing.” Silas broke out into a sinister smile.

“I know students can access a tiny fraction of it, but if accessed in its full power…some say it’s the most dangerous magic of all.

It can make you believe things that were never true.

Make you see things that were never there.

It can make you forget things…forget people. ”

The realization sank into Wren’s chest and spilled through her like an unforgiving tide.

“It was you,” she whispered, unable to hide the terror in her voice. “ You erased the eliminated nominees from everyone’s memories.”

Silas took another step forward, but this time, August moved with him.

He darted forward, planting himself in front of Wren, separating her from Silas.

Bright flames burst from his exposed fingertips, traveling up his forearms. Wren could feel the heat radiating from his body. The fury burning in his eyes.

“Don’t…” His voice was practically a growl. “Not anotherstep.”

“Of course, Mr.Hughes.” Silas lifted his hands in feigned innocence. “I have no intention of harming either of you. In fact, I am still quite fond of your dear Wren. She is a remarkable student and a fearsome competitor.”

“Explain yourself,” Wren demanded, pushing August out of the way. She didn’t need him defending her—especially not after he had completely disregarded her only moments earlier.

“Of course. As you wish.” Silas slowly slipped his leather gloves off as he spoke.

“It’s quite simple. Every Decennial I make the same announcement.

I make the surprising revelation that the sacred Decennial Festival has been made into a competition.

And as the trials go on, I wipe the eliminated students from everybody’s memory.

You forget they ever existed. Each and every one of them.

And all you remember is the winner…the nominee. ”

A sharp ringing echoed in Wren’s ears. She fought against the panic, willing her face to remain neutral.

“Why?”

“The Ether has always required balance,” Silas explained calmly.

“It has always needed to consume Corrupted Souls in order to function. However, in the past few hundred years or so…something changed. It began to fight us. Have you not noticed it? The way it retaliates when you attempt to cross through it?”

Of course she did. The Ether was constantly fighting them. But she’d assumed it was normal. That it was just part of the way their world worked. She had never thought, not even for a moment, that something like this could be true.

He continued. “We’re not certain what changed within the Ether, but it became evident that it needed…

more. That Corrupted Souls weren’t enough.

And Blackwood students…well, there’s something about your souls that satiates the Ether.

At least for ten years. So the Decennial offered us the opportunity to make that necessary sacrifice.

To hand over a select group of students in exchange for order and balance within the afterlife. ”

August cursed furiously beneath his breath, running a hand over his face. “Order and balance? Is that what you truly believe?”

“It’s what I know,” Silas replied.

“You’re a monster, ” Wren choked out.

Silas’s lips twitched. “I gave you what you wanted.”

“ This, ” she seethed, hands clenched, “is not what I wanted.”

“Is it not? You wanted the nomination. The chance to become an Ascended. Part of the academic elite. And I gave it to you.”

“But if I had known—”

“You would have changed your mind?” The words hit her like a punch in the gut. A breathless feeling that made her knees buckle beneath her. “Don’t lie to yourself, Wren. The truth doesn’t change anything. You would still have wanted the nomination.”

“You’re wrong.” But as the words left her lips, a part of her faltered. Would she have changed her mind? Would it have changed anything at all? She’d always been ambitious, maybe even to a fault.

He must have read the doubt on her face, because he stepped closer, lips pulled into a twisted smile.

“There’s no running from what lives inside you.” His voice traveled across her skin, venomous and cold. “In fact, you remind me a lot of myself. That desire to be the best. To reach your full potential. It’s why I chose you.”

Wren let her eyes bore into his. She refused to look away.

“I’m nothing like you.”

He tilted his head and narrowed his gaze. “Then what about Maeve?”

For a split second, everything froze. It was like the world around her had completely ceased to exist, nothing but the two of them still in focus. She watched the darkness pass over Silas’s eyes, the cruelty still lingering from the words he had spoken.

He had opened that sealed box inside her and destroyed it.

With one simple word.

One name.

“How?” Wren choked out.

“Your sister shouldn’t have been in the car with you. You let her drive even though you knew she had been drinking. Not to mention that your mother had specifically told you not to take her to the party. But you’d been angry at your mother. Wanted to defy her wishes just to prove a point.”

The world tilted. The air soured.

“Stop.”

He didn’t. “But it wasn’t just that night.

You lived your life focused only on yourself.

On how to make others around you bend to your wishes.

You thrived on being better than others.

It was your addiction. And you would rather have condemned your sister to an early grave than simply conform to the rules around you.

” His voice dipped lower. “I am the only one who won’t judge you, Wren.

I won’t judge you because I understand. The rules of the world sometimes need to be changed.

Sometimes sacrifice is necessary in order for you to reach your true potential. ”

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, burning mercilessly.

She could feel August watching her. The mere thought of him standing there, listening, made her want to keel over.

But now there was no more running. No more pretending.

August would finally understand the ugly truth hidden inside her, the darkest parts of her stripped bare for him to see.

“You’re—you’re wrong.” Wren shook her head. “Changing the rules is one thing. You’re sacrificing innocent souls, you’re destroying —”

“Enough.”

The single word was like a hand constricting around her throat, silencing her.

“Now…” Silas approached them, the outline of his shadow stretching menacingly over the floor. “If I’m not mistaken…I believe we are needed in the garden.”

Wren’s eyes widened in shock. “How did you—”

“Best not to keep them waiting.”

Silas snapped his fingers before Wren could wrap her head around what he was about to do. One second the three of them were standing in Memorium, shrouded in darkness, and the next they were in the garden, bathed in the silver glow of night and standing among the other nominees.

Masika, who had been talking to the others, stopped midsentence. Her eyes snapped toward Wren in confusion.

“What…what is this—”

“Hello, nominees,” Silas interjected. “I apologize for the intrusion…but I believe it is time I share something with you all.”