Page 9 of Obsidian and Frost

The Guardians jolted me forward and it had my frustration at the entire situation sparking again. “They would have torn that village apart if I hadn’t intervened!”

“Necromantic domination is outlawed,” one of them retorted.

“As is vigilante activity,” the other said.

“So I should have simply turned away when I happened upon those bloodsuckers ravaging innocent people? Was that the solution?”

Ryker strode up to me.

“You know very well what you should have done, Sylas. Reached out to the Guardian Movement. To me. I gave you my card and you know I can respond in seconds. However, you wished to be the one to handle it. And, worryingly, it wasn’t to play hero. It was to act as judge, punisher, and executioner.”

I smiled to myself.That last part had been true.

I wasn’t gonna deny it.

I didn’twantto deny it.

The people I went after deserved my wrath.

Unfortunately, the Guardian Movement hadn’t seen it that way, and that day I’d been given my marching orders:

“These two are goingto escort you to the Unity Council wherein you’ll sit with an Academy Induction Advisor andenroll in an academy that they determine will best suit you and your abilities.”

“A… what? You can’t be serious?”

“This is your fifth offense. Given the nature of it, you’re looking at several years in The Void. Or you can choose this.”

“An attempt to reel me in?”

“To guide you. To provide you purpose and direction. To help you, Sylas.”

I blew out a breath. “Fine. Fine. I’ll fucking… I’ll do it.”

“Good answer. Smart choice.”

Choice?

Not exactly.

Yeah, no. No fucking way on being locked up.

I mean, I was all for solitude. It was kind of my thing.

But being without my magic wasn’t an option.

My magicwasme.

I gritted my teeth. It was something this fucking infection ravaging my body now, thanks to that psychopath, Corvin Morvain, was threatening to take from me.

Speaking of said infection, I finished up packing my serum into one entire suitcase—fifty of them. Vials of milky liquid with vibrant red flecks of my magic, along with several syringes. That would last me for a while, just in case I couldn’t get back here as quickly as I wanted.

I had shit to do. Yes, my vigilante activities. And that would be on top of Wraeven and my role in Arcanum Order. I’d already set up a spell on this end that I just needed to anchor to my dorm room once I arrived that would allow me to bypass the lockdown protocol of the dorms in that place so that I could come and go as I pleased, unlike the other students.

I’d just closed that suitcase when the front door of my small log cabin blew open with a blast of rose-gold magic, cutting right through my ward in the process.

Very few people could manage that.

And then one such rarity stepped into view across the threshold.