Kat
We’ve been under lockdown for nearly one week so far and, surprisingly, the school doesn’t feel that different from normal, other than the tension that seems to wrap around the campus and the fear and strain on everyone’s faces.Those things were always there, I just don’t think anyone was aware of it until now.
Normally I wouldn’t have felt the urge to leave at all—I wasn’t about to have supper at my mother’s again—but I had wanted to head into Sleepy Hollow, Pleasantville, and Tarrytown to talk to the police.I think Leona suspected that was what Daniels had wanted to do (and anyone else who started to think that there was more to the institute than what meets the eye).
But even if the students and teachers could leave, they wouldn’t remember why they were fleeing from the school.They wouldn’t remember any of the deaths, or the missing teachers, or strange goings-on.Though I suppose the sisters don’t want to take thatchance.If Brom, Crane, and I can recall, there’s a chance others can too.
“Are you all right?Have you eaten?”Crane asks, putting his hand on my cheek.Despite the lockdown, service at the dining hall has remained the same, and the school’s food supplies haven’t been cut off—yet.
I close my eyes and press against his palm for comfort.“I haven’t been hungry,” I tell him.“And I have a feeling that I shouldn’t eat before the ritual.”
It’s the late afternoon on the day of the full moon, and we’re sitting in the library with Brom, trying to do some last-minute preparations.We’re the only ones in here.Even the librarian is gone, though we don’t know if she’s disappeared or if she’s just given up.Everyone is acting like they’re walking on a tightrope.I’m amazed that classes are still in session during the lockdown, especially as no one is paying attention in them.
Unless they’re in Crane’s class, of course.This last week he has been turning every one of his classes into seminars on self-defense.All of us students have learned how to take someone else’s power from them and use it for our own, how to block our magic and energy from being used by others, and how to deepen the skills we already have.
For me, I was able to dive deeper into shadow magic, rendering myself invisible when in the dark, and I was also able to turn my ability to conjure flames into a weapon I can throw, which was quite fun, and resulted in setting one student’s homework on fire.Even Brom, with his lack of magical ability, was able to borrow Crane’s voice, just for a moment.
But despite all the work spent on mastering our magic in the name of self-defense, I still feel woefully unprepared for tonight.
Brom looks up from his book and stares out the large windows.“Sun will set in an hour.When should we head to the lake?”
My nerves dance inside my chest, my pulse quickening at the thought.I need to be able to keep it together or I’ll be a complete wreck by the time the moon comes out.
“As soon as it gets dark,” Crane says.“Dark enough that we can’t see anything—and others can’t see us.We’ll go to the lakeside and set up.As soon as the moon rises enough that it’s reflected on the lake’s surface, then we start.”
Crane then gives me a long, searching look, rubbing his lips together, and I can tell what he wants to ask me.He wants to ask me if I want to go through with it again, he wants to tell me it’s not too late to back out.But he can’t bring himself to say it because itistoo late to back out.
If I don’t do this, we lose Brom to the horseman.
If I don’t do this, we all lose our lives.
So I just give him a nod, letting him know that I’m in it until the end.
We stay in the library for another hour, until the sun turns gold, choked out by the mist, and twilight descends.Then we gather up our books and swing by Crane’s room, where he grabs the sterile knives; the vials of sunflower oil, healing poultice, and the elixirs; a dozen crystal towers; plus the bottle of laudanum.I shouldn’t be shocked that the bottle is half-finished already.
“You should take a bath,” Crane says to me.
I frown and press my nose to my shoulder, inhaling.I had taken one this morning.“Why, do I stink?”
He gives me an adorable grin.“No.But I think a clarifying bath might help prep your body for the ritual.Allow me.”
He goes into the washroom and starts drawing a bath.He brings out a couple of jars filled with salt and dried herbs and flower petals and dumps them in the water, then gathers up a few quartz and tourmaline palm stones and tosses them in the water too, where they land with a splash.
I want to conserve my energy so I don’t heat the bath further with my magic, so I take off my clothes and step into the lukewarm water.It still feels like heaven, the salt invigorating me, the floating rose and hydrangea petals and various herbs swirling around me like a watercolor painting.
Brom and Crane are staring at me with desire burning in their eyes.They’re already in their robes, naked underneath, and I can see how visibly aroused they are, even though both of them know they can’t touch me until the ceremony.But I won’t let them leave the bathroom since I don’t want to be alone in here, not after what Marie did.
“You do enjoy torturing us,” Crane murmurs as I seductively run the soap over my breasts, my nipples hardening under my touch and under their gaze.
I grin at him, teasing, and for a moment it feels like it’s just me and the two people most important to me, that there’s nothing outside these walls, that there’s no ritual to perform, no coven of witches who want to use and destroy us, no imminent threat of death.
But I can’t pretend for long.Once I feel cleansed and invigorated, I get out of the bath, both men toweling me off like I’m some goddess or queen in the ancient times, and I step into the robe.
We all look at each other and nod.
It is time.
Crane grabs his kit, and we head out into the hall and into the night, the grass cool on our bare feet.
