Page 28

W hen I woke up the next morning, for just a few, blissful seconds, I thought it was all just a dream. But I wasn’t so lucky.

I covered my face with a pillow and groaned as every little detail of the night before came back in a crystal-clear rush that made me want to vomit.

One of the teachers at Neverthorn had basically tried to kill me, the person I loved most in the world hated my guts.

Once Tarquinius had been apprised of the situation, he’d decreed that, starting tonight, we would all be moved into one massive dorm room, since “Harlow can’t be trusted not to sneak out.”

Like my situation hadn’t been bad enough before. I’d managed to take things from pretty frucking awful to ten times worse.

“Sorry, buddy. Last night was pretty brutal,” Bandit murmured, his husky voice barely audible through the down feather pillow I had my head buried in. “But there’s no point in dwelling.”

He scrabbled his claws against the pillow until I tossed it aside and met his gaze.

“You know, one time, in my youth, I had a terrible crush on this sow. She was fluffy, and cute, and had this amazing stripe down her tail. I was sure we were going to mate for life. Turned out she was a skunk, and since I had a nose, it didn’t work out.

” He shrugged. “It was a bad time, I was heartbroken, but that didn’t stop me from getting out there and trying again. ”

I blinked up at him and cocked my head. “Do you have a mate now?”

“Nope.”

He opened his little mouth to speak and then snapped it shut and shrugged. “Okay, maybe I’m not the best at pep talks. Let’s go eat. Food makes everything seem less terrible.”

I couldn’t disagree with him there, so I rolled off the side of the bed and stood, grunting as my muscles quivered in protest. But the truth was, he wasn’t entirely wrong. I had to dust myself off and try again.

For Opie, if for no one else.

“Why does my whole body hurt?” I demanded as I padded toward the bathroom to brush my teeth.

“Could’ve been toppling down a well and nearly getting murdered by a sea witch.”

I turned on the light and stared at my reflection in the mirror. A picture was worth exactly two words in this case:

Hammered sheet.

My hair stuck out in all directions and my skin was as pale as the underbelly of a flounder.

Once Typhon had deposited me outside my room with a growled warning not to leave until morning, I’d taken a long, hot shower, but had forgotten to braid or dry my hair, and had gone to bed with it wet.

Add that to a horrible night’s sleep and the results were less than stellar.

I made quick work of stuffing my hair into a ponytail and finished getting ready when there was a sharp rap on my dormitory door.

“Let’s go, Daygon!”

Nikita.

“I don’t have time for your dilly-dallying today,” she called.

“Be right out.”

Part of me wondered if she was going to pretend to be apologetic after what she’d put me through, but when I opened the door, she didn’t even spare me a glance.

“Tarquinius has suspended House Phoenix’s regular class schedule for this morning. He wants to see you in the armory.”

I winced. Me? Or all of us?

“Excellent.”

In silence, she led me to a massive room in the basement and I found myself surrounded by the rest of my housemates, who seemed as anxious as I did.

“I thought we had hand-to-hand combat this morning?”

So far that had been my favorite class.

“What’s going on?” I looked around the room at the others from my house. But it was Doyen Bob – our only human teacher – who spoke up.

“We have new information that leads us to believe Nocta will be waging war on Neverthorn sooner rather than later.” I tried to look as surprised as the others. Liam hadn’t been wrong then. All that stuff about the moons, he’d been on the mark.

Doyen Bob shook his head. “We need to beef up your skillset faster if we can. Because of this ...”

Doyen Bob pulled a remote control out of his back pocket and pressed a button. A section of the wall slid to the right and an oversized screen was revealed.

He clicked the remote again, and the screen blinked to life.

At first, I wasn’t sure what we were looking at. A drone image maybe? Yes, that was it. A drone was capturing footage of what could only be described as a war zone from maybe fifty feet above the chaos.

“That’s Central Park,” Fable whispered.

I blinked and sucked in a sharp breath. She was right, it was Central Park ... just blocks from my own home in the city.

And it was on fire.

The camera zoomed in on franken-creatures that looked all too familiar.

“What are they doing there?” I barely asked the question when a cloaked figure stepped into view.

Everyone in the room gasped as Nocta strode, almost casually, forward.

As if he were there, in the park, on recreation.

He lifted his right hand, and I could see the rune he cast so clearly, it was as if it imprinted on my brain.

A tornado ripped from his hands, causing a massive explosion to his right.

Explosion, though, was too tame a word. The earth ripped upward, trees were flung hundreds of feet, a crack ran north and south from the epicenter of the blow and he just ... kept walking. Like it was nothing to him.

“Chaos for the sake of chaos,” Doyen Bob said. “Central Park burned to the ground.”

I took a step closer to the screen, lifted my hand to do what, I don’t know. I shook my head. I wasn’t even there, and I felt traumatized by the attack of my hometown.

“Can ... can the Dims see them?”

In the far corners of the frame, people ran from the flames, like scurrying ants.

“No. He’s working between worlds so that my kind are shielded, but the destruction is very visible.”

I turned to see everyone’s faces pale, almost in tandem.

“Why? Why is he attacking the Unlit world now?” He’d never done it before. Fable reached over and grabbed my hand, gripping me hard.

“Heronius is gone, the Dwimmer defenses are weakened without him, and the prophecy is in play. I imagine he’s setting the stage for the end game. Taking control of the Unlit world, the Dwimmer world, and Everdark, and claiming ultimate power over all three.”

Tarquinius strode into the room, his aura one of determination. He shot me a long, hard look. I was too shaken by what I’d just seen to feel ashamed, though.

Doyen Bob clicked his remote and the wall panel closed over the screen.

Tarquinius came to a halt where the TV had been. “First things first, after your classes this evening, we’ll be moving you all into one dormitory room for your own safety. The threat level has been raised for several reasons that I will not be disclosing at this time.”

I kept my eyes pinned on the floor.

“There will also be some changes to the schedule. As you can see, today’s class will be held here, in the armory,” he boomed, waving us closer to where he stood in the center of the room.

“Doyen Bob has kindly agreed to allow me to stand in for this special demonstration.” He gestured to the short, stocky instructor in the corner, who nodded affably.

“But before I begin, I’d like to caution you to keep these lessons to yourselves.

This training is specifically designed for students in House Phoenix.

As you can see by the drone report, Nocta is only ramping up his campaign of terror.

We all need you to be ready to face him.

” He drew his wiry brows together in a warning frown as he paced in front of us.

“While today’s lesson is rather tame, as the weeks go by, they will get much more intense.

We’ll begin to employ weapons training and prepare you for the battles to come.

What you learn here is for your eyes only.

In unskilled hands, this information could prove deadly. ”

“Getting pretty real, huh?” Fable murmured just loud enough for me to hear.

It was. And thanks to Liam, I knew why. But apparently, Tarquinius and the powers that be were keeping that terrifying truth under wraps – that we had a deadline that was tied to the full moons.

“The true key to battle magic is speed,” the Sage continued.

His hand was nothing but a blur and, an instant later, swords that had previously been stored in a wooden barrel in the corner leapt from their sheaths and flew across the room.

Each found a different destination – one for every student – and each stopped just an inch short of plunging into our hearts.

It was a powerful display of speed and mastery that had the others gasping in a mix of shock and fear. Was it really necessary to scare the crap out of your students in order for them to learn something?

Weren’t we on edge enough after seeing Central Park get destroyed?

The swords hummed in the air for another moment and then swooped off, returning to their sheaths without drawing a drop of blood. Thank the goddess for small favors, I figured.

Tarquinius took a deep bow and then straightened as a few of the others clapped half-heartedly. Hard to work up the will to applaud when you’d just nearly been skewered, but Tarquinius was clearly not as skilled at reading the room as he was at throwing runes.

“Today, we’re going to start with the propelling rune, which we use to shove our opponents back. Easy enough, even for a group with questionable crafting skills. I’m sure you all probably remember from your first time around here at Neverthorn ... with the exception of you of course, Ms. Daygon.”

I didn’t respond to the dig, because fruck him.

“At times, buying yourself that extra moment or a little space to craft something more nefarious means the difference between life and death. The goal today is to do it so swiftly, so that it can’t be detected by the naked eye, giving us the element of surprise.

Line up in pairs and one of you practice propelling while the other blocks.

Ms. Daygon, come join me so I can show you how to throw the propelling rune. ”