“You’re traitors,” he snaps. He glances toward the white wolf, who sits guarding the body of Sterling. “And everything you say is treason, Beaufort Lincoln.”
The way the two men scowl at each other – their magic prickling in the air – tells me just how personal the animosity between them is.
And yeah, it’s damn obvious. There’s no way the shadow weavers in the academy are going to let us leave without a fight.
Chapter Sixteen
Beaufort
“I don’t want to waste my time fighting you, Kratos,” I say. “I don’t even particularly want to hurt you. So why don’t you do the smart thing for the first time in your life, follow the example of those soldiers, and disappear the fuck off.”
“I wonder what the reward will be,” Kratos says, cracking his knuckles like an oversized gorilla, “when I hand you over to your mother.”
There are shocked gasps across the crowd of ordinary students. My parentage is not common knowledge. I’m surprised even Kratos himself knows. He certainly knows it’s a crime to share that information, but I guess it shows just how confident he’s feeling in this situation. All that dream rot he’s been snorting has addled his already incompetent brain, giving him a sense of bravado, and made him believe he could be as powerful as I am.
I look out towards the shadow weavers that stand behind him. There are his bond brothers, Prentice and Nathan. My friends: Elaine, Dahlia, Dallan, and Ashleigh. Plus several ofthe other shadow weaver students too. And there, right at the back, Henrietta and Lynette, lingering a little way away from the others as if they’re waiting to see how things play out – as if they don’t want to commit too early either way. It almost has me smiling. The twins may be unhinged, but they’re far smarter than anyone else.
“You really want to fight me?” I say, squaring my shoulders.
“Yeah,” Kratos says. “I want to fight you. I want to defeat you. I want you to watch in chains as I fuck your thrall. I want to march you into the palace and see your head roll.”
The white wolf prowls to the edge of the stage, growling, snarling, and snapping its bloody jaws. Kratos jolts a little but holds his ground.
“You’re a fool,” Tudor mutters, shaking his head.
“You’re the fools,” Kratos says. “You really think you can start some kind of fucking revolution? You’ve had your head turned and your senses warped, all for a piece of shit slut from Slate Quarter.”
I know his words are designed to rile me. I know they’re designed to provoke a reaction – one I should suppress. I win this situation easily if I keep my senses and my wits about me. But his last words overstep a line, and the temptation to make him hurt is far too great.
I go to fire my shadows at him just as he does the same, and Briony cries out from the edge of the stage.
“Stop! Stop!”
It’s too late, though – our magic is already crashing into each other. Several of the other shadow weavers – Kratos’s bond brothers, some of the ones I don’t know so well, even one or two of my friends – fire magic at us too. The others look around in desperation, unsure how to react.
Soon, shadow magic is shooting in all directions. Trees splinter, the ground pocks, fire roars, and the stage crumblesbeneath my feet. I hit Kratos in the shoulder as shadow magic skims over my own. I smack someone in the arm; someone whacks me on the thigh. I roar in anger and agony, flinging the force of my magic forward. I hit Kratos again, searing his ear, but he retaliates, sending fire my way, and then, out of nowhere, a blinding beam of light roars up from the ground, up into the sky, ten times more powerful than any bolt of lightning.
“Stop!” Briony screeches at the top of her lungs.
And everybody halts and stares.
I’ve seen Briony’s magic plenty of times now. I know how powerful she is. But none of the rest of them have. And they stare in complete awe and stunned silence.
“You can’t beat us,” Briony roars. “We’re too powerful. We survived the demon realm. We destroyed scores and scores of demons. We brought down the wall that stands between our realm and the demons’ realm. You can’t win against us. And I don’t want any bloodshed, not here, not now. So either join us and right the wrongs your people have done to us, help us find a better way to live together… or get the hell out of here.”
Kratos really looks like he might be stupid enough to strike again. But before he gets the chance, I let my shadows fly toward Briony’s light. In front of me, Dray transforms to his human self and does the same thing, and Thorne and the Professor follow after. Our magic combines, amplifying, dancing with light and shadow. Darkness and brightness. It is really like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
And when I turn my gaze away from the impressive display of magic back toward Kratos, I find he’s gone. His bond brothers too, along with several of the other shadow weavers. It’s just a handful of my friends now, and Henny and Linny lurking in the background, whispering to one another.
“How about you, Henny?” I call over the noise of everyone chattering away.
She stands there, and I can almost see those discombobulated wheels spinning and grinding in her mind.
“Why would we help you, Beaufort?” she calls back, and the crowd falls silent, obviously keen to listen in to our exchange. “Kratos isn’t wrong. What you’re talking about is treason.” She giggles. “You’ve killed the head of the academy and, by your own admission, destroyed the barrier that protects us from the demons.”
This has the crowd whispering once more. For a moment they’d been swept away in the display of our magic. Now the reality is hitting again.
“Why would we risk our lives to help you?” she says.
