Page 48 of Spellcaster (Weatherstone College #1)

I took a step back, and Logan shook his head, chuckling with less force. “Not tonight. You’re safe tonight. What do you want

to ask me?”

Safe tonight wasn’t exactly reassuring, but he wasn’t attacking, so I decided to plow ahead.

“Did your dad get mine suspended?”

The tilt of his lips was all smirk, and I fucking hated when he was all sharp edges and broken pieces. “He did not. He’s pretty

upset that wasn’t his doing. I think you’ll find the culprit for that is a little closer to home.”

Blinking at him, I tried to understand what he meant. “Who?”

“I can’t give you all the answers, but it’s worth checking in with the ones you trust. Someone told their daddy about the

party, and he’s decided that the Hallistars need to go.”

Someone. The headmaster said it was a powerful and influential family, and there was only one option for that amongst those I considered

friend. Belle. Belle who was bonding with her asshole of a father.

Breathing deeply, I pushed that anger aside and got to my next question.

“Okay, so what is it that ties you and me together? I mean, we’re clearly enemies.”

Despite wanting to remain calm, I found myself getting more and more fired up. Belle’s betrayal, while unintentional— I had absolutely no doubt of that —set off the panic and worry over my father once more. Then this stupid reaction to Logan, all while the energy ramped up

my magic until I wanted to burst.

The crystals burned against my chest, and I had the feeling it had been a mistake to wear them outside on a night like this. A night when Weatherstone was bathed in the energy of All Hallows’ Eve.

“Logan!” I snapped. “It can’t be that fucking hard of a question. What happened when I was four and you were six?”

He stepped into me. “Your dreams haven’t told you?”

All my dreams had told me was how many positions this warlock could twist my body into, each more pleasurable than the last.

“I remember falling in the rain. I remember you standing over me.” My words were short. Blunt.

“Do you remember the ceremo—?”

A scraping sound cut him off, and I spun to find a monster emerging from behind a huge tree.

For the first time, it wasn’t panic that held me immobile, it was anger. I’d almost had a real answer from Logan, I’d seen

that in his eyes, and here we were, interrupted again by someone else’s magic.

“Who the fuck are you?” I shouted, staring into the darkened spaces around the graves. “Come out and show yourself. Don’t

hide behind your beasts.”

The monster scraped closer, and I couldn’t miss how spiderlike this one was, but with far more legs than it should have, and

a much larger body. For all its legs, though, it found it difficult to navigate the narrow paths, and I’d have laughed as

it tripped if I weren’t so angry.

Even with a monster closing in, I was once again looking at Logan, and he hadn’t taken his eyes off me. “You’re a coward,”

I continued, and I pointed my finger violently, even though there was no one in sight except Logan. “A fucking coward.”

As I pointed, another monster popped into view, this one appearing twenty feet away, and completely out of nowhere. It was

one of the single-eyed versions, with a huge bulbous body and tusks out of either side of its mouth.

“Another ridiculous creation,” I shouted into the night. “You’re a joke!”

My energy burned as I fought the urge to set it all on fire. I’d never been able to create my own fire, at least not in any

classes, but the way I felt now, there was an inferno desperately seeking an exit from my power.

Another monster arrived, closer than the others, just behind Logan, who never even turned to stare at the alligator-headed

beast. He just continued to watch me closely, expressionless and unblinking. “Do you see them?” I snarled. “Tell me you see

or at least feel them with your spellcaster abilities? Who is doing this?”

Logan took a step closer to me, shaking his head, but not in a way that spoke of confusion. More as in he was confirming a

thought he’d already had. “I think it’s you, Precious.”

My next shout died off as I gasped. “Impossible.”

Logan had lost his mind and was trying to blame me. How the fuck would I be conjuring monsters? “I’ve not cast one spell since

we entered the graveyard.” And there I went, jabbing my finger in his face again.

With each jab, another beast appeared until we were surrounded. Completely surrounded by monsters, and I was forced to acknowledge

that the only enemy I faced here tonight was... myself?

Letting my hand fall, my head spun as I tried to comprehend what I’d just learned.

All year I’d been the one calling the monsters. With my magic. With my energy.

And with no idea how to get rid of them, we were going to die. They did not hold any sentimental value toward the witch who

created them. My ribs could attest to that.

With a curse, Logan stepped into me, his grip tight on my hips as he used air to shoot us above them.

My brain was functioning at the pace of a snail as I pieced the information together with new knowledge, like my desperate pull for energy when I’d been in the lake, and how that monster hadn’t quite been in this world until I caught a flash of it.

I could tie emotional upheaval to almost all the creatures’ appearances.

Logan landed us outside the graveyard and stepped in front of me. “Connect your power to mine,” he ground out.

My head still a mess, I moved on autopilot, pressing my hands to his spine. I’d never been the one to initiate our connection,

but there was really nothing to it. Our power knew each other, intimately. More intimately than the witch and warlock containing

it, and that said something considering my relationship with Logan.

Electricity sparked around Logan, zapping across my skin, and with the power of All Hallows’ rolling across the lands, I couldn’t

imagine anything in this world as powerful as Logan Kingston felt beneath my touch.

If our energies weren’t connected, I’d be dead, just from standing this close to him.

He didn’t release his magic for many long moments, and if he didn’t hurry, he would call everyone to us. This was a beacon

of power in a school of magic. Everyone would want in on it.

Including the monsters, apparently, as they all came into view, scurrying, sliding, and raging toward us.

In a line, they almost looked like an army, charging into battle, most of them standing ten feet or taller, and filled with

dark rage. “Use our energy, Paisley,” Logan said. “Send them away.”

A whimper escaped my lips, and true fear curdled in my stomach like old milk. “I—I don’t know h-how.”

Logan’s rumble was darker than the beasts we faced as they came scurrying out of the graveyard perimeter. “Seems we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way, then.”

I had no idea what he meant, until his power ramped up, and I realized that he’d been holding back. There was a tugging sensation

in my gut, and it wasn’t until my back arched and I cried out that I felt Logan draw from my energy as well as his own.

Which was impossible. We could connect and elevate power, but he couldn’t steal mine unless I freely gave it to him—I didn’t

remember anyone asking permission.

“Use your fucking crystals,” Logan grit out, sending forth a wave of power that knocked the monsters back. It didn’t disappear

this time, and it seemed that even Logan had a limit to what he could explode with magic alone. I managed to reach up with

one hand, while keeping the other firmly on Logan, and grasp my necklaces. Closing my eyes, I prayed to Selene that we would

make it out of here alive. Not just us, but every other student who walked the grounds.

The swirls in my gut grew, and if I wasn’t locked in a power strong enough to shake the lands, I would have cried out. Just

as Gran’s photos had suggested, there was an immediate boost to my magical essence as soon as the crystals touched my skin.

They’d been resting against my jacket, but on bare skin it was akin to plugging into that spellcaster energy.

Logan sent out another wave, and this one did what the others hadn’t been able to, disintegrating the creatures into misty

dust, and then we were alone once more.

Or so I thought.

A face appeared on the other side of the graveyard, one that was so familiar my heart clenched.

“Mom . . .” I sobbed my relief, releasing Logan’s shirt. I’d been holding him so tightly my knuckles ached. “Mom!” I said again, stumbling toward her. “You were in there with them?”

Her arms wrapped around me, that familiar hug I’d felt a million times in my life, and would have called the most comforting

embrace in the world. Only this time it felt different.

Pulling back, I looked her over. “What were you doing with the monsters, Mom?”

Her face was drawn as she sucked in a deep breath, and I noticed how disheveled she looked, as if she’d been pulled from bed

into this spot. She even wore flannel pajamas and had bare feet.

“You called me, sweetheart,” she whispered, her lips trembling. “And we have a lot to talk about.”

I felt him at my back, his power along with the heat and chemistry that had drawn me to Logan all year. “Demon-witch,” Logan

murmured, and Mom’s gaze snapped to him.

Stepping out from the two of them, I wondered why I was once again unable to catch my breath. “Demon-witch,” I murmured. Demon-witch. I knew that term. I knew that fucking term. Witch massacre. From their own kind.

“You stay away from my daughter,” Mom snarled.

Logan’s smile wasn’t nice. “Paisley belongs to me. You know that, and I’ll kill anyone that takes her from me.”

I waited for Mom to fight him, to hit back and refute his claim, but there was only a skitter of fear over her face. “Give

me the rest of the year,” she breathed. “Please. She needs to learn before they come for her.”

Goddess of the damn moon. What was happening here?

A sniffle escaped me as I pressed my hand against my chest, the shock too much to process. Logan’s gaze snapped to me, and he examined me in a burning sweep. “One month,” he countered. “I’ll give you one month and then I’m coming for you, Precious.”

I burned and died under his gaze in that moment, before it was all over, and he disappeared into the air once more. “Mom,”

I breathed, shaking uncontrollably. Even as I continued to stare at the spot Logan had just vacated.

“I’ll explain everything,” she whispered, bundling me up into her arms. “I promise. But we need to get out of here now.”

She used air to lift us above the land, just as Logan had done, and then we were outside the barriers. A portal was already

set up there, and when she dragged me through, we were back home. On the porch. Like I’d done a million times. I was so shocked

I didn’t stop to think how she’d managed to get through the securities of Weatherstone in the first place, or use the air

element when it wasn’t her affinity.

There was no time to ask either, as Dad was already waiting for us, his expression wreathed in agony, which eased when Mom

fell into his arms. “I got her, Tom,” she sobbed. “I got her in time.”

“What is happening?” I said in a huff, my body still vibrating from the power and... Logan.

Paisley belongs to me. The burning intensified, until I was in real danger of setting our house on fire. I couldn’t think about that. I couldn’t

think about Logan. Not until I had other answers.

When my parents pulled apart, I got a front-row view to the panic, fear, and rage in their expressions, and I braced myself

for what was to come. “Paisley, I need to tell you everything,” Mom whispered, her face begging me for forgiveness. It terrified

me that I didn’t know what she’d done to warrant such forgiveness. “I need you to understand.”

Dad stepped forward. “Not tonight, Beth. You’re both exhausted and terrified. I’ll let the others know Paisley is here. We can deal with the rest in the morning.” He reached back to pick up a book from the ledge near the door, as if it had been sitting there waiting for my return.

He held it out to me, and I took it without thought, looking down to find the title: The Reapers of Purgatory . I jerked my head up. “How did you know I was searching for this book?”

“Read it,” Dad said gruffly. “Read it first, and then in the morning we’ll talk.”

Mom hadn’t moved her focus from my face. She looked absolutely devastated. As badly as I needed answers tonight, I would wait

for morning. “Okay, we will discuss everything in the morning,” I agreed. “But from here on out, no more secrets or lies.

No more.”

They both nodded, without hesitation, before shuffling me inside.

As I clutched the book to my chest, I had the real sense that I might have survived my first year at Weatherstone and made

it through graduation, but it was clear that this year wasn’t done with me yet. And neither was Logan Kingston.

I’ll kill anyone that takes her from me.

He’d given us one month, and I was determined that by then I’d know everything I needed to know about demon-witches.

Demon-witches and the monsters they called.

* * * * *