Page 9 of Immortal Consequences (The Souls of Blackwood Academy #1)

“Great,” Wren groaned. “Did all of Blackwood manage to findus?”

Irene shot Wren a poisonous glare. “Just the ones capable of intelligent thought. Which begs the question…why are youhere?”

“August invited me,” Wren shot back.

Irene scoffed. “Yeah. Right. ”

“It’s true,” August admitted. “I asked her to come with me.”

He didn’t miss the flicker of jealousy behind Irene’s eyes.

Despite the fact that it had been decades since they had agreed to end their…

well, he wasn’t entirely sure what to call their time together.

It hadn’t been a relationship, not a real one, anyway.

Relationships were born from love, from a place of mutual respect and adoration.

What they had created between them was born of pure desperation and loneliness.

Of a primal need to fill the gaping emptiness inside them with anything that would make them feel remotely alive.

Either way, Irene resented him. And even though they had ended things a couple of years before Wren’s arrival, Irene still chose to blame her, rather than admit that the two of them had been terrible for each other.

“Are you two finally screwing?” Masika asked with an uninterested sigh.

“No!” August and Wren shouted in unison, which August could admit didn’t do them any favors. Wren must have been thinking the same thing, because she quickly averted her gaze and bit the inside of her cheek.

“Right,” Masika muttered, clearly amused. “So we’re still pretending that you two hate one another. Got it.”

“I have an idea.” Olivier sauntered over to where Irene stood, snaking his arm around her shoulder. “How about we reconvene this little party in a more suitable location. Perhaps my bedroom ?”

“I’d rather douse myself with gasoline and set myself on fire,” Irene sneered.

“Charming.” Olivier slithered away from her and skipped back toward Emilio. “Would someone care to enlighten me on why we are here, then?”

“Ask them.” Masika motioned toward August and Wren. “They’re the ones who led us here.”

“I’m afraid it’s confidential,” August replied. “Loughty and I have some business to attend to.”

“How sweet.” Irene made a show of mockingly gagging into her hand.

Olivier chuckled. “Jealousy doesn’t suit you.”

“I’m not jealous. ” Irene practically spat the word in disgust. “What on earth would I have to be jealous of? If anything, she did me a favor by making August her little pet.”

Wren tilted her head in confusion. “Little pet?”

“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t have him wrapped around your finger.”

August stepped forward. “That’s enough.”

“What? It’s the truth,” Irene replied defensively. “You’ve been trailing after her like some lovesick puppy dog ever since she first arrived.”

“Irene…,” Masika muttered with a giggle. “If this is you trying to prove you’re not jealous…I’m afraid you’re not doing the best job.”

“Excuse me?” Irene turned to her friend in surprise. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Oh, don’t be so sensitive. I’m only teasing you.”

Flames burst from Irene’s fingertips. “I…am not… sensitive. ”

“Weird…” Olivier eyed Masika with a teasing glint. “Isn’t that exactly the kind of reaction a sensitive person would have?”

“I don’t mean to interrupt.” Emilio’s voice wavered as he cleared his throat. “But…uh…I think you might all want to see this.”

He stood with his back to them, eyes glued on the main gates. They all turned, following his gaze.

August saw it instantly. The shimmering light breaking open the black sky. It glowed just behind the opaque clouds, glittering and brilliant. A heavy silence fell upon the group as a collective sense of awe reverberated among them.

Wren was the first to speak. “Is it starting?”

“I think so,” August whispered.

“Is what starting?” Olivier asked breathlessly.

“Another student is entering Blackwood,” Irene muttered under her breath. “That’s why you two were coming up here. To get a good look.”

“Smart girl,” August mused aloud.

“A new student…” Emilio shook his head. “That’s not possible. There shouldn’t be a new student for at least another—”

The earth began to rumble, cutting Emilio’s words short. It was soft at first, the faintest tremor, and then the ground cracked and split with a violent lurch. The movement was so sudden, so abrupt, that none of them had time to brace themselves.

Wren stumbled toward the edge of the rooftop, clearly taken by surprise. Her eyes went wide as she lost her balance, leaning back, closer and closer—

It happened so fast that August almost didn’t grab her in time.

But he did.

He reached out and grabbed a fistful of Wren’s coat, pulling her in toward him before she could stumble over the edge. It was an instinct. A primal reflex that took over his body without warning.

He had known Wren was about to fall and had decided to saveher.

She gasped as her chest collided with his. Every nerve ending in August’s body came to life. Every inch of his skin burned with an uncontrollable warmth. For a moment, neither of them said a word, their eyes locked like two opposing magnets.

“Are you…” The words died on his lips. He couldn’t bring himself to ask.

Wren nodded. “I’m fine.”

A piercing sound interrupted them. And then a blinding white light poured out of the sky like a tunnel, a perfect cylinder sprouting from the black clouds and funneling toward the ground right outside the Blackwood gates.

The light grew in intensity as a figure began to descend from the sky.

Two arms. Two legs. A head. A body. It was a person.

A soul. Just like them. And as the figure slowly made its way to the ground, their limp and lifeless body haloed by the shimmering light, August couldn’t help but bite back a swell of unwanted emotions.

The new student lay sprawled right outside the iron gates of Blackwood, their body enveloped by the tall grass. They all waited. They knew what would happen next. The student would wake up, disoriented and confused, and the gates of Blackwood would slowly open, welcoming them home.

It was what happened to all of them. The same routine. The same inevitable outcome.

But then something changed.

A flicker of smoke lifted from the body. An undulating darkness.

Shadows.

Olivier stumbled forward, closer to the edge of the rooftop. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know…” Emilio cautiously joined him. “This isn’t normal.”

“Is that—” Irene let out a manic snort of laughter. “I think that’s shadow magic.”

“That’s impossible,” Masika muttered in disbelief.

Wren’s face contorted into pure terror. “No…that can’t…it can’t…”

“Is she a Demien?” Olivier asked in bewilderment.

“She can’t be a Demien, for Christ’s sake.” Irene’s tone was sharp and commanding, though August could hear a slight waver in her words. “We just saw her cross into Blackwood. It’s…it’s not possible.”

“M-maybe it’s an illusion,” Emilio offered sheepishly. “Maybe none of this is real.”

Masika shook her head. “We would smell it. And look—” She lifted her hand and summoned the familiar violet runes associated with illusionary magic, but they quickly fizzled out, like a flame being extinguished by a sharp breeze. “Nothing. It’s not an illusion.”

The realization dawned on them at the same time. The truth no one wanted to say out loud.

But August would.

“Those shadows,” he whispered, “are coming from her.”

It was at that moment that Louise jerked awake, eyes jolting open as a terrified shriek escaped her lips.

Even from where he stood, August could feel the pressure of her scream, the sound of it reverberating at a supersonic level.

And then the shadows dancing against her skin erupted into towering heights, black and opaque and endless, sprouting from her body like a mycelium of darkness.

A figure materialized outside the gates. They parted the shadows using a counterspell and approached Louise’s convulsing body. When they whispered something into her ear, everything stilled.

The shadows vanished. Her cries subsided.

Silence.

And then the six of them watched as the figure lifted Louise from the ground, carrying her toward the main entrance of Blackwood, and vanished into thin air.