Chapter Thirteen
CHARLIE
Kallie portaled us from Kinpago to the edge of the Institute’s grounds. The air was cold on Darke Island, and the cloud cover blocked any warmth from the setting sun. An eerie silence had settled over the land. The only sound I could detect was the whistling of the wind through the abandoned wasteland that was Shade Hills. I’d become so used to the persistent screech of the sirens in the lake that without it, this felt like a different place entirely.
I never wanted to come back here. I’d left this place behind me, but it seemed like all roads led back to the Institute, no matter what we did.
My Air magic searched the landscape for the familiar Gothic turrets of the asylum and the towers of the old cathedral that once stood here, but my powers met only debris of the crumbled Institute remains.
I switched tactics and used my Elf magic to scan for any signs of life. If there was a supernatural being here, my power to siphon their magic would be able to detect them.
I felt nothing, not even the remnants of magic from the Warden’s sick experiments. Everything had been destroyed in the fire that had consumed the Institute the night we broke free— everything but his inferichite. I was the one who’d sent my Associates to dig up the crystals and turn them into that damned antidemigod net, which meant the inferichite was gone from the property now, too.
Not a day went by that I didn’t regret my descent into villainy. It had cost me my humanity, my self-respect, and everything I had to get these keys, and we were mere steps away from uniting all seven. We had to keep moving forward.
The silence confirmed what I’d already suspected, that Darke Island had been completely deserted after the Institute burned. Not only had the Warden destroyed the island when he brought hell to Darke Island that night, but most of Shade Hills’ residents had fled with him and The Mission afterward. It appeared the rest had left in the months following, once Shade Hills could no longer sustain itself.
We approached the gates that surrounded the Institute, though they were no longer standing. The fence had toppled over, and the twisted metal clanged beneath our feet as we walked over it.
Marcus shuddered from beside me. “I should be relieved to see this place in ruins. I didn’t expect to feel so…”
“Devastated?” Kallie finished for him in a hollow tone. “I feel it, too. This was our home for years, and now it’s just… gone.”
“Weren’t you tortured here?” Danny asked, sounding confused.
“Well, yeah,” Marcus admitted. “But being chained up isn’t all bad.”
I had so many memories of this place. So many forbidden moments stolen in hidden alcoves, cherished recollections of my friends in our secret hideout in the woods we called the Criminal Lair. We’d spent so much time investigating mysteries, partying down in Ivy’s club, running through the halls and committing mischief whenever we could get away with it. It had been the best of times, and the worst.
The Institute had been decimated. But unlike Marcus, I was happy to see it gone. This place would never be the same again, never be as it once was. Everything that had been good about the Institute was gone now. My only regret is that the Warden didn’t go down in the flames with it.
As we approached the front of the Institute, my magic hit a wall. I realized the building hadn’t been completely leveled. There was a singular crumbling tower still standing. None of us could step a foot into this structure without it collapsing completely. This tower was at the entrance of the Institute and housed the entry foyer behind its doors, which were creaking on their hinges in the wind.
Kallie stopped just before the doors and tilted her head upward. “There it is. The Institute’s sigil. The design matches the drawings left with Yuto’s fleet.”
“Let’s get a closer look,” I said.
I commanded my Air magic to swirl beneath mine and Danny’s feet, lifting the two of us high above the entrance doors. Marcus used his warlock telekinesis to fly him and Kallie up, while our animal companions observed from the ground.
I ran my hands over the stone. The carving was nearly as wide as my arm span, and the details of the snake wrapped around a key had been expertly crafted. I searched with my fingers for any clues that could only be found up close, but it felt exactly as Kallie had described.
“Yuto must’ve left something here,” I noted. “Are there any words or clues?”
Kallie ran her hands along the stone as well, as if searching for hidden crevices. “I’m not finding anything.”
“Me, either,” Marcus said.
“Danny?” I asked.
He’d remained quiet, which was unusual for the vampire, because he never fucking shut up. But the Divinity Keys were serious business, and Danny was taking his role in this seriously for once.
“I’m just thinking,” Danny said. “The rest of the Institute has been completely destroyed. Isn’t it a bit convenient that the one piece you need is still standing?”
“You think it’s a trap?” Marcus asked.
“I’m saying that perhaps what you’re looking at is a clue itself,” Danny suggested. “Take a look at the scorch marks on the stone.”
Kallie snapped her fingers. “There aren’t any scorch marks on the sigil! It’s like the fire couldn’t touch it.”
