Everyone that came here with you will leave alive.
Of course, I was lying to myself, coming up with a mantra that would never manifest. But if I’d learned one thing over the years, it was that if I didn’t put it out there, I didn’t stand a chance of it coming true. So I would think positively, up until the moment I couldn’t any longer.
At the head of our group, just a few yards in front of Dasha and her mates, Headmaster Ezra slowed. Begrudgingly riding on his back, Headmistress Wake pointed to the right, and he diverted a few feet before coming to a stop.
The wolves changed course and joined them. When we arrived, Headmistress Wake was already standing on her own two feet, and brushing herself off to look more dignified. Not like somebody who had just piggybacked through the woods.
“Is this it, Mother?” asked Diana curiously, as she dismounted from Simone’s back.
It had come as a shock to me that Diana had known nothing of the magical back gate that prevented entrance from the woods and contained students on the property. Then again, it probably shouldn’t have surprised me. Her mother always tried to keep Diana on a level playing field with the rest of the students so as not to incite claims of nepotism. So the secret gate had come as a surprise to everyone, Headmistress Wake excluded.
The leader of Spellcasters assured us that the secret gate was only to be opened in the most dire of circumstances. Of course, the gate and the fence that extended from it kept students inside academy grounds, but it had primarily been created in case those inside the school ever needed a hidden escape route. According to Headmistress Wake this would be the first time it was ever used. And we would be using it for the opposite reason.
Not to escape a school under siege, but to infiltrate Spellcasters.
Headmistress Wake nodded in answer to her daughter’s question. “It’s somewhere very close by, I can feel it.”
She closed her eyes and reached her hand out, feeling along an invisible line. “Miss Iris’ father showed it to me the day before I took over his position. It’s been many years, but this area hasn’t changed that much. The enchantment around it assures this, so the head of Spellcasters might always find it easily.”
It took her a few more moments of searching before she stopped suddenly. “Here we are.”
Headmistress Wake’s eyes drifted away from the invisible fence that no one else could see, scanning the large crowd behind it. Almost everyone had arrived—or at least it seemed that way, because I couldn’t see any more streaks of shifters or vampires running through the woods. Nor could I hear the fluttering wings of fae overhead.
Headmistress Wake’s gaze cut to me. “Are you ready, Odette? Alex? Eva?” Although she did not say his name, she looked at Hunter too.
Simultaneously, we nodded, as the weight of what was about to happen crashed down around us.
Without another word, the headmistress turned her back to us, and pressed her hands forward. Blue magic, the same color that guarded the gate at the front of the school, poured from her, illuminating an invisible fence set a few feet back from the real, iron fence that we would have to scale in just moments.
The headmistress began muttering words, pausing for only a breath before issuing a spell.
“Dominum princeps!”
There was aclicklike a latch unlocking, a shimmering of the air. Then a gate glowing blue with magic swung toward us.
Headmistress Wake twisted to face the crowd behind her.“If you’ve never been here before, welcome to Spellcasters Spy Academy.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-NINE
Our army advanced through the thick, dark woods, until the leaders motioned for them to split. We’d divided into six large battalions, intent on attacking Spellcasters from all four tower entrances as well as the front and back doors. Diana was in charge of leading our team to the back left corner of the school—the staff wing—while the more seasoned spies, like Headmistress Wake and my parents, took the primary entrances alongside a large contingent of fae soldiers.
As the night was relatively young, the older spies assumed the demons would still be celebrating their demonic holiday in one of the larger gathering halls, which were more accessible through the primary doors. Our parents had chosen their attack points in an effort to protect us, but I wished that they hadn’t.
The thought was nice, but I wasn’t getting out of battle tonight without facing Ishtar. Trying to protect me wasn’t really doing me any favors. It was just drawing out the inevitable.
“How many people mastered the druid spells?” I asked Hunter, who had been in charge of teaching them to as many people as he could in Faerie, then later at Nightdwellers, and for a few minutes in Wandstown.
He shook his head. “Maybe three dozen? All generally older witches.”
Alex swore under his breath.
“Guys, just because a spell is more potent doesn’t mean it’s the be-all and end-all,” Eva reasoned correctly. “We still havenexfor lesser demons, andmorsultimusfor greater and royal demons.”
Her voice trailed off; she knew the last spell was the most difficult of all.
“And we have us, too,” I said, feeling the need for positivity.
“Shhh!” Diana shushed us and pressed her finger to her lips. “We’re almost there.”
