I reached a hand toward Dani. “Help me figure out who did this to you. If you give me their name, I promise it won’t get back to you. We can get you out of here—”
“Now,” Maritza said, forcefully pushing me out of the way. I fell back into the sharp corner of the table and opened my mouth in protest. They couldn’t treat students like this, like chattel. They couldn’t abuse people, this wasn’t right—
But then I saw the look Dani shot Maritza. It was the cruelest look I’d ever seen, eyebrows angled down, mouth twisted into a gruesome snarl.
I hadn’t even noticed she’d gotten a hand out of her restraints. The bloody thing swiped at Maritza, fingers outstretched like claws. I took a step back in shock.
“I’ll kill you, you fucking bitch—”
Then, apparently remembering she had an audience, Dani turned back to me, her face slipping back into its innocent expression. “Cella,” she said, voice sugary sweet. “Cella. Cella, please,” she pleaded as my footsteps slid backward. My eyes widened.
“Cella, Cella, Cella, Cella!” She screamed and shook the restraints, beating her limbs wildly. Her spine jostled up and down, rattling the bindings. With her free hand, she reached for the binding over the other wrist.
With a tug, I felt a rush of Magic leave me. Max was holding onto his rein object with eyes closed. A soft wind circled his ankles. I could smell fresh grass on the wind, hear a horse whinny in the distance. And I realized what he was doing. The leather binding lifted itself, snaking back over Dani’s wrists.
She snarled.
“Your Magic, Cella!” Max hissed.
I frantically reached for my leather cord and the small jar of water in my other pocket. I let the Magic brush up against me. When I accessed Magic, I went somewhere else, in my mind, at least. I always landed in different bodies of water—lakes (the worst were in Florida, the alligators were as big as sedans), community pools, the Mediterranean Sea at midnight. More often than not, I was just dropped somewhere in the Pacific.* The first few times I was terrified I was going to drown or get dragged under or eaten, but I got used to it after a while.
This time, I plunged into water circling me, deep as the Mariana Trench and just as cold.
Magic swirled and sucked around me, drawing me into a vortex. I gargled water, my lungs tightening in my chest, and felt myself sinking farther down. With a gasping breath, I wrenched myself from it.
“I can’t,” I gasped, shaking. “I can’t.”
Dani smacked the leather snaking over her hand away.
Dani roared, then turned back to Maritza. She started writhing, her hips beating against the straps, moaning and panting like a dog. “You’ll fucking pay for this, you whore. I’ll fuck you like a dog. I’ll wrap my hands around your throat until you feel the life seep from your veins—”
Max grabbed me by the waist and dragged me to the door.
His back was shoved against the door, trying to pull me out and open it at the same time, but my feet were planted to the floor. My heart shrieked in my ears, telling me to move, get out, before she wrapped those bloody fingers around my throat and squeezed. But I was in utter shock about what I was seeing, about how quickly things had turned.
About what might have happened if I had removed her restraints, as I’d wanted to.
Maritza shoved her sleeves up and furrowed her brow in determination, speaking the words of a powerful sleeping spell. Even as Dani fought it, I saw the first of its effects crash into her. Something to knock her out and calm her.
“Go,” Maritza shouted at us, angry now.
My voice seemed to regain its sound. “Can you—will you be able to hold it on your own?”
“Yes,” she said furiously. “You’ve done enough damage. Nowgo.”
Dani looked at me one last time, her eyes heavy with sleep that she could no longer resist. I saw her mouth try one last time—“Cel—”—before my name died on her lips.
Max threw his hands up once we were outside. “Well, that was just about the stupidest thing we’ve ever done!”
“It was necessary,” I said rotating the studs in my ears. I paced back and forth, rubbing the sweat off my palms and onto my jeans.
“Necessary?” he balked. “In case you forgot, she murdered someone not too long ago. Was it necessary for us to nearly get maimed, too?” His voice went high. “I don’t know, Cel, I think that’s debatable—”
But I needed to see what had happened to her, and whatever he said, I’d made up my own mind about the situation. For better or worse, I felt a connection to this girl. Someone had done this to her, had hurt her, had made her hurt other people. And now I had the sinking feeling that no one else cared to make sure she was okay. Sure, they wanted to know who was responsible, but did they really care about fixing Dani?
The council had brought me here, but it was more than the promise of money in my pocket that was making me stay. She needed someone. She needed my help.
And I needed to be ready. I’d been too afraid in there, unwilling to face my Magic head-on, too terrified to try, and it had nearly drowned me.
