When we finally materialised on the other side, Evan was visibly shaken. We landed in the middle of the quad. The other students were already disappearing.
“Did you see that?” I asked him.
“See what?”
“There was something in there with us.”
His expression was tired but blank. “Isn’t that why you’re so exhausted all of a sudden?”
He gave me a small smile. “I’m exhausted because I tried to get you to lower your circle and couldn’t get through. It was like history repeating itself.”
I knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but it missed the mark. The second warning bell rang. “Thanks for having my back,” I said.
“No problem.” He paused. “It was just a compulsion. Don’t let it get to you.”
That was exactly what Professor McKenna said to me in the middle of Potions and Alchemy. The fact that she of all people had heard about it meant that it had spread through the Academy like wildfire.
The only thing I was grateful for was that Sophie wasn’t in this Potions class anymore. I couldn’t deal with her right now. How could I look my best friend in the eye and explain that in a prophetic vision, I had killed the man she loved.
That was all well and good except the victim himself cornered me on my way to meet Giselle. Max ambled past the newly relocated kitchen garden. He whistled to get my attention. My legs immediately redirected me around the walled garden and through the path towards the infirmary. I should have known better than to try and outrun a predator. For a second, I thought maybe I had lost him. When I turned the corner towards the building where we had Weaponry and Combat, I ran straight into his overly muscled chest.
The sound of his rumbling laughter was not at all comforting. Everything about him was suddenly too viscerally real.
“I hear you’re going to be the source of my untimely demise,” he said. He leaned against the white stones of the walled garden. I felt my vision blur.
“Aww. C’mon, Lex. It was a joke.” He hauled me against his chest. It was every teenage girl’s wet dream. But it was the last place I wanted to be. My mind continued to play tricks on me. It told me he wasn’t breathing when in fact I could feel his chest expanding.
“What the hell are you doing?” Kai’s voice bit out from behind me. I shoved away from Max and swiped at my face. I swallowed hard. Both of them were stunned into deadly silence when I lowered my head and burrowed into Kai’s side. I tried my best to stifle the tears. It resulted in my jaw clicking. Kai wrapped his arms around me, his voice soothing.
“It’s okay, Blue,” he said. “It’ll take more than that little stick of yours to pierce his thick hide. His skull alone could be used as a wrecking ball.”
“I can give you a demonstration if you’d like,” Max said. He imitated pawing the ground like a raging bull. He turned his head towards the wall and huffed. Steam actually puffed from his nostrils which had reshaped into a furry nose in front of my eyes. For a second there, I thought he might actually charge at the wall.
“Don’t,” I said.
Kai pressed me to his side. Now that I was past the point of breaking down, I flinched. His lips flatlined. “I guess she’s back,” Max said. He gave me a quick hug. The only acceptable kind with Kai present. “Next time just stake the bloody vampire. Nobody would care if you take out a criminal.”
I swallowed as he left. Kai brushed the last of the moisture from my cheek. “Are you okay?”
I nodded. “It was so real.”
“Compulsions normally are. That’s why they’re so dangerous.”
I screwed up my face. “If it was a compulsion, why did everybody else see it?”
“He’s a criminal, remember? Did you think he’d play fair? If you weren’t inside the circle, who knows which of those mages might have tried to stop you.”
Right then I knew Evan had lied to me. He hadn’t tried to stop me from building the circle. He’d been stopping anyone outside from trying to kill me.
All of a sudden, I was so weary I didn’t even react when Kai grabbed me again. He kissed the top of my head as the prophecy attempted to tell me that I would one day kill both him and Max. A shimmer of green fluttered over my skin. It burned away the lingering doubt inside me.
“Anyone who knows you would never in a million years believe that you would betray us like that,” he said. “Sophie’s already tried to punch one of the girls in your class for spreading the rumour.” And just like that, he cut through to my innermost fear. I could handle being the freak for everybody else, but I couldn’t be the one to hurt Sophie.
“Really?”
“How do you think Max found out?” He trailed his thumb along my cheek where my tears had dried. “Still, the next time I turn a corner and he’s touching you, I might kill him myself.”
I laughed aloud. “You’re an idiot.”
He grinned at me and my heart just about stopped. I knew then that he was wrong. Chanelle might spout all kinds of rubbish about the blood vow, but beneath it all, she definitely had feelings for him. How could she not?
“I’ve got training,” I told him as I tried to walk away. He followed me.
“If you can call it that,” he said.
“Why aren’t you leaving?”
He peered down at me while we walked. “Did you think I’d just leave you there with Giselle after what she’s done?”
It would have been sweet if I didn’t think he was really just there
