Once my eyes adjusted, I spotted the ashes where the fire had once been burning hot and bright. The benches surrounding the firepit were gone as well. It was as if the coven had never been here.
“How’d she do that?”
Bryan took my hand. “She’s a witch. They have powers way beyond ours. Come on, let’s teleport back to the academy.”
“Okay.” I gripped his hand tight and closed my eyes. The teleport pulled my insides through my bellybutton and had them battling with my outsides. We landed seconds later.
“Uh, Katy?”
I opened my eyes and dropped the mother of all curse words.
Virgil Graves, along with several other members of the Council, were waiting for us.
7
“Ms. Reed.” Virgil Graves stepped forward. “May I ask where you’ve been?”
I spotted Stacey Layden within the mix of the Council members dressed in fancy black suits. She had her head down, her expression hidden. Good thing. If our eyes met at that point, I would have stabbed her with the daggers shooting from my glare.
How could she betray me like this? Betray Renee? Just whose side was she on?
“I was off to see my grandmother. You know, over the river and through the woods and all that. Looks like the big bad wolf found me.”
“Now is not the time for jokes.”
No one appreciated my witty sense of humor. Sure, my timing sucked, but my jokes were spot-on, man.
“Perhaps Mr. Gunderson would like to tell us so we won’t assume his entire family has given in to the dark side we all know is lurking within them. It could save those closest to him.”
Bryan tensed and clenched his fists. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Your mother is a Gunderson, is she not? If one Gunderson is dark, well then, the rest must be.” He adjusted his tie as he nailed him with a piercing and icy glare. “I wonder how long your mother would last in Carcerem.”
“You leave her out of this.” He took a step forward in challenge.
“And Syd Franklin,” Graves went on, oh so brave with an entire army of Council members behind him. “Anyone associating with a Gunderson must be dark as well.”
This time, I stepped forward to defend my employer. “The hell you say.”
“Then tell me what I want to know.” He clasped his hands behind him and paced back and forth. “Were you with the coven of witches living just outside these grounds?”
Bryan and I exchanged glances. How’d he know about them and where they lived? Again, I glared at Stace. Did she give them up to save her own ass?
“As you know, witchcraft has been outlawed. Therefore, meeting with witches is also illegal. Anyone caught associating with those considered enemies of our world will be labeled enemies themselves.” He stopped pacing long enough to study us. “Tell us where they are, and we’ll let it go this time. Refuse to do the right thing, and you’ll wind up like Stacey Layden, ex-headmistress of Clearwater Academy.”
I jerked my gaze to her, my assumptions shattered. When she lifted her head and rested bloodshot swollen eyes on me, I spotted the elemutus around her neck. They’d muted her powers. She brought up her hands to show off the cuffs binding her wrists. My heart imploded as tears burned behind my eyes.
This was the Council business she’d had to tend to? They’d arrested her for fraternizing with the so-called enemy? The only enemy I saw in our midst was the icy-eyed devil smirking triumphantly as he wielded his power like a weapon.
Until the true devil emerged from the crowd. Alec von Freakin’ Leer, in all his grand poohbah glory. He’d cleaned up, replacing the raggedy leather duster for a fancy black suit. He’d even cut his hair and taken a shower. The scar bisecting the right side of his face still made him look ominous, untrustworthy. Then again, that was probably just him and had nothing to do with the scar.
“Hello, qu—uh, Katy.” Saying my name looked as if it caused him physical pain. He regarded Bryan. “I understand you’re an alchemist.”
“I’m an intern,” he corrected. “Merle is the alchemist.”
“Not anymore. Alchemy has been declared a form of witchcraft. He wisely stopped practicing. If you continue to practice, you will be arrested. Alchemy is hereby banned in our world.”
“You can’t do that!”
“Can’t I? Challenging me challenges the Council. You wouldn’t want to do that and risk prison for you and those who stand with you, now would you?” Alec’s gravelly voice scraped across my senses like nails on a chalkboard. Uncomfortable chills ripped up my spine and raced across my skin, lifting my arm hairs. Something was wrong. I tuned in to my insight, opening my eyes and listening for the signs.
My instincts screamed at me to look to the left, so I did. There, erupting from the shadows, marched one Spencer Dalton onto the scene. Behind him were a flurry of men and women I didn’t recognize. There had to be at least fifty of them. None of them belonged at this school. I didn’t sense a single element among them.
“Leechers.” I shook my head in disappointment and swept my gaze across the crowd of Council members as betrayal hit the back of my throat like burning bile. “This is how you plan to merge the two sides? You had a leecher take over 3C. Now you allow him to bring his kind onto campus. What’s next? Having a leecher take over Clearwater?”
“No,” Alec responded and grinned wide. “That would be my job.”
Was he shitting me right now? How in the blankity blank did Alec go from public enemy number one and constantly trying to kill the one destined to save our world, to the head of the very academy that’d trained the one he’d been trying to defeat? None of this made any sense.
“Leechers have no loyalty,”
