‘Arianell!’ Sebastian shakes me, grabbing my shoulders.
I finally look at him.Reallylook at him, at the apprehension in his eyes. ‘You need to leave, I don’t want you to watch what I’m about to do. I need you to run and find Nicks. Everyone will return soon, if they’re not already on their way. Youcannotbe found here, do you understand?’
‘W-what are you going to do? Is he dying?’ I ask, breathless. My eyes dart past him to find Achates dropping to his knees. Coughing blood onto the stone.
Sebastian grabs my face in his palms. ‘Look at me!’ He pulls my attention back to him. ‘Listen to me, sweetheart. Your brother was found in this room, on a night like this and look at what happened to him. I cannot let you walk the same path as him. I won’t survive it.’
My chest twinges in pain.
‘Please, as soon as I say – I need you to run, and don’t stop until you’re in the Training Centre. Once you’re there, you wait for Nicks. Lock yourself in his office and donotanswer to anyone but him. Got it?’
I nod, reluctantly. Even though every part of me screams at me in protest. Telling me not to leave him, to stay by his side and not turn away from whatever he’s about to do. I don’t care if it’s ugly or horrific. I’ve seen it all anyway and what I haven’t seen, I’ve imagined in my own mind. I’m not afraid of him, or any of the darkness he might want to shield me from. But I see the fear in his eyes – fearforme. For what might happen if I’m found covered in blood with a dead headmaster on the cold ground.
Sebastian lowers his lips to mine; a trembling breath skitters along the seam of my mouth before he kisses me. Soft and desperate. I kiss him back, pouring my heart into it, hoping he can feel how scared I was to lose him.
The kiss isn’t rushed or feverish. It’s gentle. Loving. His large hands reach up and tenderly touch my jaw. His thumbs sweep beneath my eyes, over the swells of my cheeks until he lowers his forehead to mine.
His lashes flutter as he holds his eyes closed, breathing with me in this shadowy enclave.
Suddenly the stone at my back seems to tremble faintly, and a muffled humming vibrates against my skin. My brows furrow. Sebastian pulls back. He must feel it too.
It feels … it feels like it’s coming from behind me – from within the wall.
When I suddenly get tugged backward an inch, I gasp loudly.
Everything next seems to happen in slow motion. The confused look in Sebastian’s eyes. The tugging sensation behind me that suddenly growsstronger as Sebastian wraps his fingers around my biceps, holding onto me. It too, wraps itself around me like hands are reaching through the wall to pull me into it. Away fromhim. The sensation pulsates, digging into the wound on my shoulder, eliciting a new flow of blood that seeps against the wall. It yanks and yanks, until I feel myself being sucked inside the wall and ripped out of Sebastian’s hands. His eyes, like green embers, are the last thing I see before I scream his name and fall.
My body tumbles through darkness. I can’t decipher which way is up and eerily, this feels just like when I first went through Malachite’s gate. Although, this falling sensation lasts so much longer.
I see nothing. I hear nothing.
Black emptiness curls around me until finally, my back slams against a hard surface, eliciting a cough from my lips. Pain erupts in every fibre of my being as I blink black spots away to reveal warm light. It blurs my vision, making it harder to see. There’s a litany of surprised gasps that reach my ears from somewhere off to my right. And then a shadow looms over me, blocking the light that stings at my eyelids. The scent of warm amber and dark spice invades my nostrils as the shadow looms closer.
Slowly, my eyes adjust as I blink blearily up at the shadow, which turns out to be not a shadow at all, but a man standing over me. His sleek black hair reaches past his shoulders, like silk that seems to bleed into the black coat he’s wearing, embroidered with silver swirls. His sharp eyes look down at me with feline-like curiosity, intense and breathtakingly terrifying.
‘Hello, Arianell Nocthare.’ His accent rolls in a smooth wave, melodic and rich. ‘I’ve been waiting a long time for you.’
My brows rise, confused as I come to the realisation that I have no idea where I am, or how I got here. But I don’t think I’m in Valmora anymore.
‘Now,’ the man continues. ‘How about we make a little deal?’
FIFTY-SIX
Sebastian
Grief is not unfamiliar to me. It’s a sombre companion that waits in the corners of my mind until I’m alone. It strikes in the quiet moments. For years, it consumed me. Swallowed me whole until I felt like I was not only mourning my parents, but also the boy I once was. He died alongside them that night. Grief became me, stuck inside an empty house. Forced to walk hollow hallways and rooms barren of life. All the finery that I passed, touched, slept beside meant nothing. Not when all I wanted wasthem.
As I grew older, I found things to distract myself from the loneliness. Such as weaponry. I practised with knives and swords then moved onto staves; I picked up a bow and arrow too. Anything my grandfather had in his armoury I pulled down and practised with. And then came my magic.
Fire – just like my mother. The day it manifested I cried for hours, not only because I’d burnt a wall of books in my grandfather’s library, but because the flames that burst from my hands were tinged in green. Amber with licks of emerald. They reminded me so much ofher, and at first, I thought it was punishment. Even my magic wanted to remind me what I’d lost. I hated it.
Nicks was the one who shifted my perception, knocking sense into me in my first few weeks at ValAc. I owe a lot to him, my fidelity, mylife. He’s the one who pulls me away from the wall now – the wall I just watched Arianell get sucked inside of. Her blood still stains the stone; our kiss still lingers on my lips.
‘Let me fucking go!’ I roar, shoving an elbow into Nicks’ side, grappling to get free of his hold. I leap forward and slam my hands against the stone, my palms smearing Arianell’s blood as I attempt to force my way inside. I pour my almost depleted magic at it; I can feel the fire burning out inside me.
‘Fuck!’ I scream, enraged at my inability to break through.
Nicks yanks me back again, then spins me around and shoves at my shoulders. I stumble back and all but snarl at my mentor. How the hell did she do that? The shadows – I saw them. They seeped out from behind her back. They latched onto her and stole her from me.They took her!That familiar ache of grief threatens to take me under, to steal the breath from my lungs and drop me to my knees. Not her. Fuck!Not her.Something in the centre of my chest starts to burn with pain as I hear her voice scream my name again.
