Chapter Twenty-Two
I didn’t have time to think about what Keller had said; the morning of the exams came all too soon. I was confident in most of my subjects, even the class with Professor Zervos. What worried me was Professor Anania’s class, where I was actually expected to perform magic. I knew that could be my downfall, because despite what had happened with Keller the night before, I couldn’t perform magic on command. It was a relief to know that it was inside me somewhere, lurking, but the problem was bringing it out. I couldn’t do that, and that’s exactly what Professor Anania expected me to do. Meanwhile, I was more afraid than ever of what had happened with the artifacts that first Saturday morning in Astra. It seemed more and more likely, as time passed and I reflected on what I could and couldn’t do, that there was something really wrong with me.
Since the exam schedule was not the same as our regular class schedule, I had to find out when each test was. All I hoped was that Professor Anania’s exam wasn’t the last on the schedule, because I wanted to get it out of the way. But of course, it was. Saturday afternoon the Airlee students were expected on the Dash field to perform what we’d learned in magic class. Even worse, since Dash wasn’t happening that Saturday, and since a lot of students didn’t have an exam time for that afternoon, there was likely to be a crowd watching us perform.
“How awful,” said Sip. “I don’t think other students were allowed to watch in years past.”
“They’re getting more sadistic,” I commented drily.
“My respect for them increases daily,” said Lisabelle. We were in our room on Friday night, studying. I was in a chair while Lisabelle and Sip were sprawled on the beds.
“They are not,” Sip protested. “Maybe they’re just learning exactly what they need to teach us.”
“How to Withstand Public Humiliation 101,” Lisabelle joked, flipping through the pages of a book without really looking at it.
Tired of pretending to read the book, Lisabelle reached for the last cookie at the same time as Sip. Both grabbed it.
“Lisabelle, let’s just compromise,” said Sip when Lisabelle wouldn’t let the cookie go. “We can each eat half.”
“But then neither of us gets what she wants,” Lisabelle pointed out. “It’d be best if you just gave in and let me win. Then at least one of us is happy.”
The next day was bright and sunny, but even the sun couldn’t warm my mood. I was sure that when I tried to perform magic, the clouds would gather and there would be a rainstorm: a perfect day to forecast my doom.
At this point I just hoped that I wouldn’t embarrass myself. I didn’t want to embarrass Keller either, since he was the only person on campus who believed in me. But his friends probably wouldn’t blame him if I failed, they would just say it hadn’t been his fault he was stuck tutoring the Probationer. And he never mentioned what had happened at the dance.
All I hoped was that he’d have the decency not to show up to watch me. That would make me extra nervous, and I didn’t need the added pressure. In fact, I told myself, probably no one was going to show up. Why would they? Starters were at the bottom of the social ladder, so why should anyone care how we did on the exams?
When I reached the Dash field, the spectacle took my breath away along with my forlorn hopes. The seats were full. Admittedly not like they were for Dash, with students standing, sitting on each other’s laps, and sitting in the grass, but they were definitely crowded. A lot of students had come out to watch the Starters perform. My heart sank.
Even if I could repeat what I had done the day before, which I seriously doubted, it wouldn’t be nearly as impressive as anything Lisabelle, Sip, or the other Starters had planned.
I didn’t dare look for Keller in the crowd, but I knew he was there. Worse, professors, and the President herself, were also there. I remembered that the President was a powerful mage, though I’d only seen her perform that one time at the start of Dash. She didn’t look like she was about to perform magic, though. Instead, she was sitting with a group of professors in the front row, just watching. Professor Anania stalked back and forth across the field. Periodically her hand would swipe out and she’d shove her glasses higher onto her nose again.
Every bone in my body told me to run, and to run as long and hard and as fast and far away as I could. I shouldn’t be here. I couldn’t do this. There was no way. Wasn’t there a calculus exam I should be taking somewhere? Only Lisabelle slipping her arm around my shoulder kept me walking forward. Even with that reassurance, I found it hard to breathe.
“Good afternoon,” announced Professor Anania as we joined the assembled Starters. “Today marks the end of midterms. Most of you have already passed the Starter test, and for you this should be pretty simple. For the rest of you….” She merely shrugged, as if she couldn’t care less what happened to us. “Today is an important exam, perhaps the only other chance you will have to exhibit your skills before your final chance to pass the Starter test.”
I remembered the President telling me that I had until the end of the first semester to get a handle on my magic, because that was the deadline for taking the Starter test. At the time, in all my ignorance, I had been sure I would get a handle on my magic. Well, that hadn’t happened. I was still failing, in spectacular fashion. I sighed. Today was going to be yet another hopeless humiliation, just with more witnesses than usual.
“Line up,” Professor Anania yelled. In the rush of students to get in line, I found myself pushed to the back. The more time I could put between myself and an exam I was sure to fail, the better. It was an odd feeling for me. In my old life I had been confident, but at Public, this uncertainty had shaken my confidence to the core.
I took comfort in knowing that I had passed every other exam. I wasn’t perfect, that was up to Sip, but I wasn’t a failure either. My professors knew that I was trying, even though what I was trying most at, what should have been easiest for me, the magic, wouldn’t come.
I watched my fellow Starters perform as one by one they went through the steps of their powers. Lough was first, and though I didn’t understand what he was doing, Professor Anania looked impressed.
Next, Evan, the blond vampire, stepped forward. He raised his arm as his fangs came out. He must have been wearing the special concoction that allowed him to be out for a short period in daylight, because he looked extra pale.
Suddenly a strix came flying through the air. I had no idea how Evan had done that, since strix were normally out only at night. But the flying creature came and landed comfortably on Evan’s arm, and all the vampires in the audience clapped.
Lisabelle performed flawlessly, as usual. Also as usual, she scared everyone present. She puffed a massive cloud of darkness, allowing it to get bigger and bigger until Professor Anania was forced to tell her to stop. There was only a smattering of claps.
Finally it was my turn. By that time I had forgotten that I was supposed to participate in the performance, instead of just sitting back and watching, and I wished I could tell Professor Anania that I preferred watching. But instead, summoning what courage I had left, I stepped forward.
Everything I had been working for the past two months had come down to this moment. All that time with Keller, all the taunts I’d endured from the pixies, it all came down to now. If I couldn’t perform now, then I would go home. There was no other option, because I didn’t think I could live with the shame any more. I would just have to tell the President that she was wrong about me. I would be sad to leave my friends, and I was worried about Lisabelle and what the paranormals would do to her if they kept thinking that she was a traitor. But Sip would keep me up to date, I was sure. Or at least, I hoped she would.
I took a deep breath and walked into the middle of the field. The silence was broken only once, when someone – probably a pixie – called out, “It’s a waste of time, send the Probationer home now.” I don’t know what happened, but the person shut up after that.
I concentrated, j
ust like I’d been taught, focusing on finding my magic inside. I could feel it there, cool, strong, ready. I called to it, and with amazement I felt it start to rise. I refused to get excited; I refused to stop concentrating on the power surging upward. I knew what I wanted to do with it. As a mage I could create illusions, conjure what wasn’t there, defend against attack. I would have been happy with the simplest illusion, but the magic raced through me until it started to pour out and I felt my control slip.
Pain split my head as my magic exploded upwards. I had no control over it; the power controlled itself. I tried to direct it, I tried at least to keep it away from the stands filled with people, but it had a mind of its own.
Fortunately, the magic shot straight downward, into the ground. Just like the night before, I managed to force it downward, even though I couldn’t seem to make it do anything else. I felt the ground shift in front of me, groaning from the strain of power flooding into it.
My body went limp. Why, I wondered, was it so hard to perform spells? Then I remembered that I wasn’t even managing to perform a spell, but I was still bone tired. Opening my eyes was a struggle; all I could see when I tried was a blinding light. My eyes started to close again, drooping with tiredness. The power was slowing down. It had stopped racing out of me and instead was retreating. I felt my knees buckle and tried to catch myself, but it was too late. My legs had turned to mush, and I fell to the ground. I didn’t even have the energy to listen to the crowd, cheering wildly.
Slowly I came awake. The familiar eyes of Tabby, the nurse, looked down on me with silent disdain.
“I thought I told you not to come back here,” she said. Her lips puckered as if I’d somehow personally offended her. I tried to sit up, but she pushed me back down. “I don’t think so. You’ve had a large shock, and used a terrible lot of your magic. Now you require rest.” I tried to nod, but I barely even had the energy for that.
“What happened?” I croaked. I wasn’t in pain. My limbs felt like they had been pummeled, but I didn’t remember being in a fight. I could feel the familiar white Infirmary blankets coming up to my chin, but I didn’t even have the strength to lift my arm and push them back down.
“You fainted, that’s what. Used almost all of your magic,” Tabby scoffed. “I haven’t figured out why, though. There’s something off about your magic. You weren’t even doing anything hard.”
“Maybe I’m just not very good.”
Tabby said, “It’s a distinct possibility.”
I tried to nod, but found myself having to fight off sleep instead.
“Did I pass?” I asked. My head felt fuzzy, like it was wrapped in a warm blanket.
“Oh, you passed,” said Tabby. I think I heard a bit of pride in her voice. “No one has ever passed with such drama before. I could hear the cheering from here.”
I smiled at that. I hadn’t realized anyone would cheer for me, let alone bleachers full of students. I’m sure the pixies didn’t, but maybe the rest of them did. If Camilla wasn’t there, Cale might even have cheered for me. I couldn’t wait to see my friends and hear what they had to say about it.
“I’m just relieved the exams are over,” I told her.
Tabby pointed out that every Starter felt that way.
“If only it counted for my Starter test,” I said sadly.
“When the time comes you’ll pass it,” said Tabby.
“How do you know?”
“Because you do what you have to,” was all she said. I started to ask another question, but she shushed me. “You may not pass in the way you think, but you’ll pass.”
I didn’t need to be told twice to go to sleep. My body was already insisting on it. With my last thought I wondered if Keller had really been there after all, and if he was one of the ones cheering.
Note to self, walking home alone at night is not a good idea. I knew this before I did it, but I really knew it by the end of that night. The problem was that I had no choice. I knew my friends would have come to get me from the Infirmary, but we were still on lockdown from the hellhound sighting.
As I stepped outside I released my hair from its ponytail and let it fall around my shoulders. It was the best chance I had of keeping my ears warm. I remembered when Keller had walked me back to my dorm a few weeks before and we’d run into a demon. I hadn’t been able to fight it on my own.
I walked faster. Airlee wasn’t far away.
I was a little tired, but whatever nurse Tabby had done to me, my limbs were feeling better. My legs felt stronger and less like Jell-O.
Soon I was almost running. Unfortunately, it wasn’t fast enough. Instead of demons or pixies materializing out of the darkness to attack me, it was a more menacing sight: vampires.
And I was alone, too far away from Airlee or any other help. I thought about turning and running back to the Infirmary, but I would never make it. Instead, I planted my feet and waited.
Strictly speaking, they were the only ones who were supposed to be walking the paths this late at night; this was their time. None of the other students dared to wonder what the vampires did when they had the campus to themselves. At one point I had wanted to ask Professor Lambros, but Sip had turned pale and insisted I promise not to. I had, because Sip had looked so scared.
Floating toward me was Lanca, the senior vampire princess. Her hair was so dark it blended with the night around her, in stark contrast to her pale arms. She wasn’t wearing a coat. She wasn’t shivering. I had thought she looked menacing at the best of times, but now she looked downright dangerous. I tried to take a breath, but the cold hurt my throat. Her glittering black eyes caught mine and held. I stopped trying to breathe. A smile spread slowly across her thin lips.
“Good evening, Charlotte,” she said, stepping toward me. “I was wondering when we would catch you alone.”
We?
Out of the shadows stepped Tale, Lanca’s constant larger shadow, and several other vampires I recognized for the simple fact that none of them were Starters – meaning they were all already trained in magic and brutality, just in case they had come to Public without those charming qualities.
I tried to take a step back, but I should have known better. Of course the vampires were behind me as well. They swirled around me, their black clothing contrasting with their pale features. I wasn’t sure where the vampires landed on hating other paranormals. They were unfriendly at the best of times.
“Evening Lanca,” I said. “Nice night for a stroll.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “You are too forward, Charlotte. Until now it may have served you well, but until now it wasn’t so critical that you be careful,” she informed me. I had no idea what she was talking about.
I felt like I was getting a lecture from a professor, not talking to a fellow student.
“How did you know I would be out here alone?” I asked. “Why are you all out here?” Whenever I am scared out of my wits – like right then – I tend to do the worst thing possible: I go on the offensive. This was one of those times.
“We’re here to look after you,” she said. I couldn’t look away from those glittering eyes. “Don’t you know?” she asked softly. “Don’t you even suspect?”
“Lanca,” I started, but changed my tone when one of the male vampires surrounding me growled. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“We realize that,” she said. “Look, Charlotte, you are new to the paranormal social scene, but it’s clear you aren’t stupid. So, let me be clear. You’ve seen that the paranormals don’t get along,” she said, and smiled. It only made her look more threatening, and more beautiful. “We,” she inclined her head to include the other vampires, “understand this. The demons destroyed any trust we could have in each other.” She paused. With every sentence she seemed to be considering each word more carefully.
“But the vampires aren’t as hostile to the other paranormals as you might think.” She was looking at me like she wanted me to
understand, but I still didn’t.
She sighed. “We are better with subtlety. We are out here to protect you. When the time comes we will stand with you. All the vampires will. You should know.”
At first I wanted to laugh. I didn’t realize that vampires had a sense of humor, but judging from Lanca’s face, she wasn’t kidding. “What do I need protection from, and why are you the one doing it? And, stand to do what?” The only thing I could think of was protecting Lisabelle, but I couldn’t believe that the vampires would care about a wronged darkness mage.
Lanca nodded, as if I was finally getting it. “It is not a what, it’s a who, and we are doing it because the vampires care about the Power of Five.”
Maybe she does mean Lisabelle.
“Professor Zervos doesn’t care about it,” I shot back. I knew I shouldn’t have said it, since Professor Zervos was a vampire, but to give Lanca credit, she remained calm.
“Professor Zervos is a vampire, and yes he does care about it,” she told me. “That is not who I mean.”
Worry shot through me like a million little bullets. “You think it’s Lisabelle too?” I demanded. “Really, I would have expected better of you. It’s NOT Lisabelle. And if you think it is, why would you help me protect her? Both darkness mages and vampires have darkness magic. They could just as easily be accusing the vampires of letting in the hellhound as Lisabelle.”
Lanca nodded. “Now we’re getting somewhere,” she told me.
“It’s not Lisabelle,” I said again.
Lanca nodded. “I know that and you know that, but you have to think about why no one else knows that. Why aren’t the vampires the ones being accused?” she asked quietly.
“Because Professor Zervos wouldn’t cast suspicion on his own kind?” I asked. “Because somehow they think it has to be a darkness mage and there’s only one on campus?”
Lanca almost smiled at me. “Stubbornness is not always a virtue,” she told me. “It is not Professor Zervos.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “I have to go. You shouldn’t walk around alone.”
She started to drift away, the other vampires following her.
“Lanca?” I called.
She turned.
“Do you really think that the hellhound is after me?” I asked.
She didn’t answer, just kept floating away. I wanted her to reassure me that she didn’t think the traitor was Lisabelle, but that could only leave Zervos, and she didn’t agree with that either. If it was neither of them, then who could it be? For the briefest flash I hoped it was Camilla. That would give me a good excuse to fight her.
I watched Lanca fade into the darkness. She disappeared seamlessly like she was more dark than light. I guessed maybe she was.
After I passed my midterms, life improved. I still couldn’t do real magic, but I felt less worried that I was going to get kicked out of school. Pixies still harassed me, but not as much. There were no demon sightings, and the professors removed the school from lockdown. Keller and I continued to study together. He was polite but distant. I always wanted to draw more out of him than I got and would leave our meetings feeling frustrated. I was surprised when November turned into December and the last weeks of the semester approached. I was working hard. I just hoped it would be hard enough. After Lanca’s warning, she went back to pretending I wasn’t there most of the time. I started to wonder if I had dreamed it all.
The quiet time of comfort would not last.
It was late one night, a week before finals, when Sip came to get me from the library.
“How’s it going?” she asked when she found me. I was bent over a book, trying to decipher a pixie code Korba had given us.
I pushed the book away from me. “If I’d passed my Starter test I would say that I couldn’t wait for this semester to be over.”
Sip patted my forearm. She knew how conflicted I was. I had run out of time.
“Lisabelle’s waiting for us at Airlee,” she said. “She wants to play games or something. Lough’s in.”
“Alright,” I said. I was too tired to finish the cipher anyway. I gave Sip a hard look. She was paler than normal.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There was another attack,” said Sip, running a hand through her spiky blond hair. “Someone else saw the hellhound.”
“What happened? Where’s Lisabelle?” I demanded. I’d been holed up in the library all night, but now that I looked around I saw how quiet it was. There were no other students in sight.
“I think Lisabelle just wanted to stay in the dorm after we heard about the attack. She doesn’t want to get in trouble again.”
“That makes sense,” I said, “since the professors treat her like she’s already guilty.”
We were outside now, walking through the freezing night air. It hadn’t snowed it, but it was only a matter of time.
“Who saw the hound?” I asked.
“Some Starter walking alone. I guess a lot of pixies and vampires saw it and didn’t do anything. They hate Airlees that much, I guess, so it’s bad. I think they’re going to put us on lockdown again. The girl was too distraught to talk, but once she does I feel like the professors are going to freak out.”
“Did they call Lisabelle into the office again?” I asked. The professors had decided that it would be easier to blame Lisabelle for everything instead of finding who was behind letting the hellhound onto campus, and I couldn’t think of any reason why this time might be different.
We could see Airlee now, twinkling away in the night. Everything looked peaceful. Not just like a hellhound was running loose on campus and someone had betrayed the paranormals. We rounded a corner and were about to walk inside when I saw something moving on the lawn. My gut twisted.
Sip let out a scream.
Lisabelle was on the lawn, kneeling next to a motionless form. Sip and I ran closer and Lisabelle looked up at us. I couldn’t read her eyes, but I saw what was on her hands. Her hands, all the way up her arms, were covered in blood. With a sickening feeling I looked down.
The form she was knelling next to was a human being. A crumpled human being, with blood seeping out from under him. Lisabelle had killed a student.