“Where have you been all this time?” Francis asked.
Where hadn’t I been? I might rattle off a dozen places and times, but I knew what he meant.
“My totem helped us timewalk to the era of Morgan Le Fay and Merlin.”
Both vampires drew in sharp breaths. “That’s before both our times. Wicked,” Francis said, clearly impressed.
I spared him a small smile. “We stayed with them, Morgan is my ancestor, and Merlin is one of Alex’s. They trained us in ways lost to witches over the centuries.”
“Like?” Simone prompted.
“I learned how to use demon magic. And a few druid spells.”
The vampires’ eyebrows shot up.
“Demon magic?” Francis hissed. “Like the same magic the royals use?”
I nodded. Then, I remembered something I’d wanted to ask when I first saw the vampires. “Hey, where are the shifters? Are they—”
“Alive,” Simone said. “Dasha wanted to come to Faerie too. We all figured this would be the first place you’d return to when you realized your parents had to abandon their house. But Alpha Conon pulled rank. He did it with all his students, and their families.”
“Pulled rank?”
“Alpha rank. The shifter headmaster is what you would call an alpha’s alpha. He’s one of the top dogs, no pun intended, in their society. And he’s using his influence to build an army of shifters,” Francis explained. “That’s what headmaster Ezra is doing, too, with vamps, of course. And the fae headmistress with her kind. They’re reaching out to all of their most trusted acquaintances and best ex-students, telling them what happened, and seeing if they will fight with us.” Francis’ eyebrows arched. “Basically, we’ve been amassing people for your return. We figured that once you came back, you’d know how to finish this shit. Do you?”
I snorted, unable to help myself. That was the question of the century, wasn’t it?
“Well, we’re getting closer every day,” I said noncommittally. “I think it’s good that they’re building armies, we’ll need all the help we can get. We should also consider a base in the human world. The fae academy could be a good one. It seems more secure than most.”
“More secure than Spellcasters,” Francis jabbed. “I assume that you heard what happened there?”
“Yeah, the demons made it their palace.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’m not sentimental, but I feel for your peers there. Who knows what kind of torture the demons are subjecting them to.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “Wait. Students are still there? They didn’t get them out in time?”
Francis and Simone shared a surprised look before she replied.
“No. Spellcasters was the first place the demons hit. A few parents tried to break their kids out later . . . it didn’t go well.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me that?” My voice was tight, laced with fury.
I thought back to when Sam had told us the school was under the demons’ control, how the guys had blown up. We’d spent the next half-hour convincing them they couldn’t just leave for Faerie. Which sort of explained why it hadn’t come up then.
“I’m not sure,” Francis said carefully. “For us, it happened months ago. And no one likes thinking about it much. Have you spoken with your headmistress yet?”
I shook my head. “Not one on one. That seems to be something I need to rectify.”
After twenty minutes of searching, I found Headmistress Wake sitting with my parents in one of the three castle solariums. This one had an excellent view of the wide, raging river that ran right beside the castle and through the capital city of the Riverlands Court. Normally, I would have found the water and greenery calming, but I was wound too tight. Ready to burst. So many scenarios had been running through my mind while I searched for the headmistress that now the view was merely a blip on my radar.
I entered the room and stopped right in front of their table, which was covered in sheets of paper. “Was anyone ever going to tell me that the demons have taken over Spellcastersandare holding students hostage?!” My hands flew to my hips as my gaze traveled between my parents and landed on the headmistress.
She took in my body language with unimpressed, arched eyebrows. “I’m so sorry that we didn’t get right on that when you showed up out of the blue after having gone missing for months, Miss Dane. I suppose it slipped my mind in between reconnecting with mydaughterand the queen of the Riverlands calling a meeting in the dead of night.” Headmistress Wake’s tone dripped with sarcasm.
My cheeks heated as the truth of her words sank in. “Fine. I’m sorry that I’m being a bit of a ball-buster,” I said, my tone much more level. “It’s just that we’ve been talking about coming back and finishing this fight since we escaped London. It’s practically all I can think about day and night. I hated discovering that the demons took Spellcasters. And now I hear that my peers are hostages? How did it happen?”
“They arrived at Spellcasters the same night you went missing, and took the academy right away. Of course, many wished to fight, but we were too late to get the children out. Many who tried to liberate the students were injured or died.”
