“Gaze, take the students and regroup! Use the hallways!” ordered Lintz, shouting to his colleague above the rumble of exploding bombs. He seemed to have an endless stash stored about his person, and as he turned back to the fight, he spun his satchel around to the front of his body and flipped open the leather flap. Inside, to Alex’s awe, the satchel was full to the brim with mechanical, magical bombs and traps. Clockwork animals, too—a tiny mechanical army within the battered leather bag.
Lintz delved into the depths of the satchel and pulled out the owl Alex had seen him working on what seemed like years ago. The professor launched the winged creature into the air. It flapped vigorously as it weaved around flying spells and hurled projectiles, stopping above the Head’s hood, where it circled and dived, dropping tiny explosions of magic onto the target below.
“I shall stay with you,” said Natalie, standing beside Lintz.
“Me too,” agreed Alex.
“Students, with me!” roared Gaze with startling volume. She beckoned for the students to follow her as she sent a rippling barrier of fierce, white-hot energy in the Head’s direction. It seemed to pour from the very core of her body, her arms raised outward to the sky as it surged in a violent blast that seemed to skip the students, destined only for its one victim. With a crackle, it wrapped around the Head, incapacitating him for the briefest of moments as Gaze rallied her students to her.
She nodded at Alex, Natalie, and Lintz, tipping the frayed rim of her hat to them before darting off into the darkness of the manor, the rest of the students running behind. Gaze was a powerful wizard; they were in the best hands they could be, Alex knew.
He hoped fervently they wouldn’t run into Renmark and Esmerelda on their journey back through the manor. They hadn’t followed Lintz and Gaze, but Alex knew the blast they had sent at the other two professors wouldn’t have kept them knocked out for long. He pictured them like beetles scuttling through the hallways, sending their brand of nasty, lashing magic at the backs of any students unfortunate enough to encounter them.
Gaze can handle them, if it comes to it, thought Alex quietly, praying he was right.
As the sheet of white magic wore off, Lintz hurled his bombs, each one crackling and exploding in a different, more elaborately destructive way, and Natalie forged the intense spells of her ill-learned dark arts, her golden light tinged pink and dark blue in succession. Alex knew it was time for him to use what he had learned, to keep the Head at bay.
“I’ve been waiting decades to do this!” bellowed Lintz with a broad grin on his face, his moustache twitching with excitement as he launched bomb after bomb, his arm never seeming to grow tired. It was like watching a machine—one hand reaching for a bomb as the other threw it with impressive speed.
Conjuring the familiar black and silver beneath his hands, Alex sent a shivering stream of anti-magic at the Head. It swirled, snaking between the galactic mist of the magical remnants that still glimmered in dust-like particles in the atmosphere. The whole front of the manor was drenched in a fine golden fog, and the anti-magic cut through it easily.
Alex noticed Lintz looking at him oddly with an expression of interest and understanding, his gaze moving from Alex to follow the snaking dark ripple of the conjured anti-magic. The professor smiled, casting a conspiratorial wink in Alex’s direction as he returned, with satisfaction, to his bombs. Twisting his hands with swift dexterity, Alex launched some of the spells he had read in the notebook. A spell of anti-magical incapacitation, designed to make one’s opponent freeze solid. He saw the spell hit the Head, but frowned as it seemed to do very little. It annoyed the Head, but no more than that. Alex sent another new one—a corkscrew of energy that was supposed to burn the skin and inflict intense pain on the victim. Again, it didn’t seem to do more than irritate the Head, like a minor itch or a bug-bite. Alex knew it should have done far more than that, but it wasn’t reacting the way it would on an ordinary magical individual. Perhaps it didn’t work as well on more powerful beings, thought Alex with a twist of annoyance and panic.
Frustrated, he conjured the sparkling silver shape of a longbow and filled the center with dark energy that solidified the weapon. He held it tightly in one hand and manifested arrow after arrow with his other as he touched it to the glittering black string. Leander had been right—the bow was difficult and tricky, but the arrows were worth the effort. They fired at the Head with deadly accuracy, hitting him hard in the shoulder and arm, jerking his body with each impact. They didn’t seem to hurt him much, but they knocked him back time and time again.
A hoarse cry erupted from the Head’s throat as an arrow hit him in the heart, the pain evident in the pitch of his scream. From that moment, Alex aimed for the heart, but the Head was ready for it.
Dropping the bow and arrows, Alex forged a hefty spear, crafted from the purest energy. It buzzed and thrummed as Alex swiftly shaped the weapon to a razor-sharp point and poured his focused power into the very center, instilling the spearhead with an added layer of anti-magic that would explode on impact. Launching the spear, Alex watched its glittering, streamlined body as it glided along with thrilling speed. He was certain this was the thing to cause some real damage to the Head. As it neared, however, the Head snatched it and gripped it frozen in mid-air, before turning it around and sending it straight back toward Alex.
Alex ducked just in time, the spear shattering against the doorframe behind him, but he was hit in the shoulder by the stream of golden energy that quickly followed from the Head’s other hand. The magic didn’t harm Alex, though, as a flurry of frosty flakes drifted down from the small tear in Alex’s pullover and a scorch mark tainted his skin beneath.
Alex stood, a deep frown furrowing his forehead as he brushed off the burn. Two weaving tendrils rippled along the Head’s hands, so starkly contrasted, and yet moving in perfect harmony across the paper-thin skin of the hooded figure’s fingers.
Black and silver still surged beneath Alex’s palms. The Head eyed Alex with a curious glint in his inhuman eyes. It was as if they were frozen within the battle, focusing only on one another.
Alex held his breath. He was beginning to understand what the Head was. A mix of light and dark, gold and black. An impossible thing.
“We should run,” whispered Natalie. She looked drained of all energy.
Alex nodded. They were overpowered. At this rate, they’d be dead in minutes.
“You go!” shouted Lintz defiantly, with a look of heroic resignation on his face.
“We can’t leave you,” insisted Alex, but Lintz batted him away.
“Go!” he repeated, as he turned to face the Head with a roar that boomed like overhead thunder. “I should have done this years ago!” he cried as he began to throw two bombs at a time while skidding magical traps along the floor to snatch at the Head’s feet. His hands moved so quickly they were a blur.
Alex faltered, but Lintz shoved him and Natalie roughly toward the manor doors during a brief few seconds of quiet in the middle of a particularly brutal barrage.
“I said go,” Professor Lintz whispered with a bittersweet smile.
Reluctantly, Alex and Natalie did as he asked and sprinted back inside the manor with the sound of exploding bombs echoing in their ears. They tore through the hallways, Alex shouting his call-to-arms at the top of his lungs as they ran.
“WE MUST FIGHT! JOIN US! THE TIME IS NOW!” His voice rang through the corridors, imploring any and all remaining students to come out of their rooms and join him.
The Head was back. Lines had been drawn. Sides had been taken.
The war had begun.
Chapter 30
A large group of students had gathered at the entrance to the Head’s quarters, students who hadn’t been out on the front lawn, but Alex frowned as he counted the number of people present. There weren’t as many as he had expected from his rallying cries, and yet no one else seemed to be arriving. The last few stragglers had trickled into the ranks.
“Is this everyone from the manor?” he asked.
Ellabell stepped forward from the group, her sparkling blue eyes prickling with the glitter of held-back tears.
“This is everyone,” she said firmly.
“How can this be everyone?” whispered Alex in disbelief.
Ellabell sighed heavily, a hand raised to her heart as if she were physically trying to stop it from breaking. “A big group of us were hiding in the library when Renmark and Esmerelda came,” she began. “We weren’t expecting them, and they ambushed us. It didn’t matter that we begged and pleaded for our lives. They were… merciless. Only a few made it out.”
“You were there the whole time?” asked Alex, his stomach twisting in knots.
She nodded, wiping away tears with the palm of her hand.
The news of this attack stung Alex afresh, a wave of guilt washing over him as he looked toward the scared faces of those still with them. They had relied on him, and he had let them down. He hadn’t been there when they had needed him—but he knew who truly deserved the blame.
“Where are they?” he growled.
“Esmerelda is dead,” Ellabell said, the anger in her voice mirroring Alex’s own. “A second group came to our rescue with Professor Gaze, but it was already too late to save everyone. They took out Esmerelda, but Renmark was nowhere to be found. I think he had already escaped by the time we went searching for him.”
All too easily, Alex could imagine the bodies of his peers spread across the library floor, could picture their glassy stares and silenced screams. The grief and guilt and horror were overwhelming. Students were dead because they had followed his lead. They had been ambushed, and he hadn’t been there to save them. He should have known Renmark and Esmerelda couldn’t be trusted, with how they had teamed up after the Head’s disappearance. He should have done something to stop them, but he never thought they’d do something as evil as kill the students. He knew Renmark relished power, and Esmerelda seemed to look up to Renmark, but he had never thought them capable of cold-blooded murder. Injury and punishment, perhaps, but nothing as horrifying as what they had done.
The should haves and what ifs charged through his mind, deafening his thoughts to anything else. It was all he could think of, but there were eyes on him, begging him to lead them—to tell them what to do next. They were terrified and grief-stricken, and so was he.
Gaze sat at the side of the corridor, perched on the edge of a windowsill that showed a vast, exotic desert of shifting golden sand with a hot sun baking down on the dunes. Her head hung low between slumped shoulders, and there was sadness in her eyes.
Alex walked over to her. “Professor Gaze?”
She looked up with clarity in her expression, as if she already knew what Alex was going to say.
“I need you to take the rest of the students and put them somewhere safe. Myself, Natalie, and Jari will cause a diversion to lure the Head away,” he said softly, just out of earshot of the other students. He didn’t want them to argue. He wanted them away, where they would be safe. He didn’t want anyone else’s death on his conscience.
He understood now that they were too few and too weak, but there was a glimmer of hope left—they might stand a better chance if they tried to fight on the Head’s own turf, where the narrow corridors and darkened shadows could work to their advantage. Just himself, Jari, and Natalie. They could be enough, he hoped. They could be strong enough to overcome the Head at close quarters. He was just a man, after all. A powerful one, but still just a man beneath the cloaks and mystery.
Plus, Alex thought darkly, he could always use the essence within himself, if it came to it. He was prepared to make the sacrifice of creating a tear in the fabric of his soul. From what Alex had been able to garner from his brief brush with death magic knowledge in Leander’s notebook, the enormous pulse of pure destructive force was in the same style as the life magic used by Mages, just the opposite version—the inverted form of his people. It seemed a small price for their survival. If the fight called for it, he would use his death magic; he would deal with the pain and disjuncture in the aftermath.
Gaze reached out and took Alex’s hand. A silent moment of understanding passed between them. “I will take them, but I don’t wish to leave you here to fight alone,” she said, frowning. There was grief in her ancient eyes.
“I won’t have another death on my conscience,” he replied quietly. “It has to be this way. We know how to protect ourselves, and I’m… not exactly like the others.”
“I know what you are.” Gaze met his eye with a soft smile. “If I cannot dissuade you, then I will lead them to safety and do what I can. For them, I have one last trick up my sleeve.”
“Where will you take them?”
“I can move and scramble the hallways behind me so that none of them will lead to this section of the manor, and we’ll be harder to reach. Once I have done this, you will be on your own—I must know that you understand that?” she said hurriedly, her tone sorrowful.
Alex nodded. “I understand.”
“Then we will go,” she sighed, the weight of the world on her old shoulders. “And if I come across that snake Renmark, he will get what is coming to him. You mark my words,” she added bitterly, her eyes shining with angry, heartbroken tears for all the lives lost.
She gathered the remaining students and explained what was about to happen. A murmur of confusion rippled through the group, but Gaze would not take no for an answer. It seemed she was not ready for any further losses either. As the news of the new plan settled, many of the students’ expressions shifted to anxious relief, clearly grateful for a way out of this mess. Alex was pleased to see that; at least he could grant them a faint flicker of hope.
Ellabell stepped up beside him.
“Alex?”
Alex turned with a sad smile. He wasn’t sure he’d see Ellabell again, and the thought made his heart ache. “What is it?” he asked kindly.
“I was wondering if I could help in any way? I can shield you and protect you, if you need,” she said slowly.
Alex shook his head. “No way.” She had just escaped an attack on her life; he wasn’t going to put her in harm’s way again. Memories of the cuts on her mouth and the bruise on her head came flooding back to him. She was in danger around him. There was no way he was going to let her come with him.
“Well, I’m not leaving,” she said with a stubborn smile as she reached out and took his hand in hers. She squeezed it lightly. “I’m staying right here. I’m going to fight with you. I’m not afraid anymore,” she stated, boldness in her blue eyes.
“Ellabell, you have to go with the others. It’s too dangerous where we’re headed,” Alex urged, gazing at her with concern.
“I don’t care. I want to help,” she replied, her face defiant.
“Please, Ellabell—”
“I can’t just run, knowing your life is on the line,” she murmured, holding his hand more tightly. “I’m staying, and you can’t change my mind.”
Seeing the stony expression in her shining eyes, Alex knew he wasn’t going to get her to budge. She was determined, and yet he wished she weren’t. If anything happened to her, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. At least, he thought grimly, he’d be able to see her and protect her if she was with them, but it didn’t mean he was happy about it. With Gaze, he was certain she’d be safe. With him, he was less certain.
“Why?” he asked, wanting to understand.
“I can’t hide while you fight. It’s not fair, and I don’t want to leave you,” she whispered softly.
“Are you staying?” Gaze interrupted, addressing Ellabell from the edge of the adjoining corridor as she ushered the last of the students through.
Ellabell nodded.
“Very well,” Professor Gaze said reluctantly. “Stay safe. I’ll be thinking of you all.” She tipped her hat one last time before disappearing into the hallway after her wards, leaving Alex, Natalie, and Ellabell alone in the vacant hallway.
The golden line that barred the way to the Head’s quarters was already broken, yet to be repaired after their last adventure into the forbidden zone, although it still buzzed where the line remained intact.
“Well, here goes nothing,” breathed Natalie, raising her eyebrow at Alex as she spoke the Americanism she had learned from him. She stepped toward what remained of the barrier line and touched it cautiously, wincing as she made contact. It wouldn’t be long, if the plan worked.
Moments later, there was a cold rush of air as the Head whipped his cloak around and appeared in the hallway before them, called by the touch of a student’s hand against the line. A menacing grin rested on the pale, skeletal features of his face—what was visible, anyway, beneath the hood.
“And where,” the Head growled, his voice rasping, menacing and unnatural, in the back of his throat, “do you think you’re going?” He stalked toward them with a smirk, already raising his hand to form a thread of energy between his fingers.
Thinking fast, Alex plucked the bladeless knife from his belt and wielded it at the Head. The blade shimmered to life as soon as Alex’s hand wrapped around it, crackling with metallic energy, the sharp edge ready to bite. The energy that pulsed through the arm wielding it was cold, pulling at the twisting tendrils of his anti-magic to draw into the blade. Alex’s gaze flashed toward the knife, wondering what powered it. It seemed to be using him—his anti-magic. Natalie and Ellabell fell in behind him with their palms raised, ready to fight. With a cry, Alex charged forward, brandishing the knife.
The Head hissed as the glowing blade swept the air close to his face, the light reflected in the deep, sinister pools of his eyes.
“How can you—hand me that knife at once!” he demanded, his voice pouring from an unnatural place deep beneath his cloak. “It does not belong to you. You should not be able to wield it! Give it to me!” The Head reached for the blade. Alex slashed a warning slice between them, stopping the Head in his tracks.