I needed to get back there.
I needed to check on my family.
I should’ve never left them.
Oh, Mother Mage, I prayed.Please let them be okay!
My mind was a scattered mess, my thoughts too jumbled to concentrate enough to create a portal. So I ran.
Out of the castle and across the quad.
I raced all the way to the library where I blasted the giant wooden double doors open with my air element.
The wood splintered inward, and I strode through the rubble to the black onyx door.
Then, I pushed it open…
And was greeted by the screams of pandemonium.
Oh, Mother Mage, give me strength.
I advanced down the corridor and froze as dozens … no, a hundred advanced mages blasted their magic at an innumerable host of blood mages. Behind the mage citizens of High Mage Island were a wall of men and women with black hair and pale skin. Swirling tattoos like I’d seen on Surlama, danced across their faces and arms.
This was a war.
While I’d slept in my mate’s bed, the blood mages had declared war.
How were there this many of them?
My mind couldn’t fathom what was happening, and I stood there in shock.
I spotted Snade with his hands extended, fire blasting out from his palms, igniting several blood mages’ robes. Heath and his earth element heir, Carson, flung stones and made the ground shake, all in an attempt to slow the tide of monsters rushing the library. A giant crack ripped through the library floor, and books shook from their shelves.
The women and young children of High Mage Island poured toward me, to the narrow corridor of escape through the Alpha Academy library. I pushed through the tide to get to the fight—to get to my family—but I was careful to leave the portal door open so that they could escape.
My mind reeled with what I was seeing. The way Kian had first spoken to the other high mages about the blood mages, it almost made it sound like they were on the same side. But this was definitely not that. This was a full-on attack against both the shifters and the mages.
I darted toward the door marked with spirit, ready to run to Grandpa’s office, when Sariah, Donovan, and Annette stepped through. Relief slammed into me at the sight of them. My eyes darted past them, looking for more people.
“Where’s Grandpa?” I shouted at them as I raced toward them. Reyna was missing too.
My voice was lost in the screams and panic around us.
I crashed into Sariah, scanning her for any injuries. Her eyes were wide, and I noticed blood on her hands.
“Where’s Grandpa?” I bellowed. She shook her head and looked back at the door in shock. “They … killed the dogs,” she mumbled. “Drained them.”
My stomach fell to my feet.
“Go,” I shouted, pointing toward the portal to Shifter Island, where a river of mages flowed toward their only escape. Some of the high mages were holding the blood mages back at the entrance to the library to buy everyone time to leave. “I’ll get Gramps and Reyna and meet you at Alpha Academy in a minute.”
She looked too shocked to move, so I pushed her, Donovan, and Annette in the general direction they needed to go. “GO!”
“Nai!” Rage bellowed from behind me, but I couldn’t wait for him. Not when seconds could mean life or death for my grandfather.
‘Get Sariah and Donovan to safety!’I told him without looking back.‘Please!’
‘I can’t reach you! This is insanity.’Rage sounded as in shock as I felt.
