Page 36 of Shattered Darkness
“Do you need us to do anything?” Levi asks Maria.
She shakes her head with a smile and looks like she is in her element, and completely at ease. She closes her eyes, and I feel the buzz of her magic grow in the air. I have to admit that I’m quite surprised at the strength of it and pretty fucking impressed too. She mutters the spell under her breath and then tilts her head as if she’s listening to something, and for all I know, she could be. I don’t know how the spell works, and it might actually be talking to her and telling her where to go.
I don’t think I’ll ever get over magic and the many forms that it takes. It amazes me all the time, and I actually genuinely hope that it doesn’t just become the norm for me.
She frowns as she opens her eyes and looks at all of us watching her, “It’s weird. I can't really lock onto it still, but I do have a vague direction which is more than what I had last time I did the spell, so at least that’s an improvement, but I still can’t tell you exactly what the object is, it’s like something is blocking me.”
“Well, that makes sense really. Whoever put it here in the first place won’t want it to be traced by any spell, so it probably has protections on it,” Asher points out.
“Yeah, that’s very true,” Kyle agrees, and then adds, “so, lead the way in the vague direction, at least then we can see if anything pops out at us as a potential object that’s controlling them.”
“It's leading me this way,” Maria replies with a smile as we follow her further into the library.
I take a deep breath, loving that the simple smell of the books is enough to calm my nerves and just ground me in a way that only books can. I haven’t got much hope that we’ll just be able to find the object and that will be it, mostly because it’s obvious that the whatever the object is, it has a protection spell on it to stop it from being located at least, and although it is just occurring to me, it would be stupid if it didn’t have more spells protecting it. Ones that I imagine are quite nasty; we already know that Magistrate Godfrey was behind the object being here, or at least he made out that he was pretty fucking convincingly and we all know that he’s ruthless and bloodthirsty.
This means that if he was involved with the object, then the spells that are most likely protecting it are deadly. I suddenly feel a bit sick that Maria has been messing with it and what it could’ve done to her.
“Guys,” I say as we venture further into the books and, unsurprisingly, toward where I know one of the artifact displays is.
“Everything okay?” Dash asks and then looks worryingly at Erin, “Shit, you’re not about to be pulled into another vision, are you?”
Erin shakes her head but looks at me in confirmation anyway.
“No, no vision,” I confirm before I get back to my original point and add, “but I just wanted to remind everyone not to touch anything that could potentially be the object that is controlling the teachers. It very likely has some high level spells on it that are probably very nasty.”
“Fuck, yeah, that’s true,” Maverick agrees, “Don’t touch anything. If you get a weird vibe about something, tell us; do not touch it.”
Asher frowns as he adds, “Yeah, and if you suddenly find yourself desperately wanting to touch something, definitely speak it because some really fucking nasty spells have that built in so they can guarantee that any threat to whatever they are is taken care of, and definitely no longer a threat because it’s dead.”
I feel my eyebrows rise, “Well, that’s delightful.”
“Fucked up,” Jax comments.
“You should all be somewhat safer now that you’re aware that it’s a possibility. It gives you a slight level of protection that you wouldn’t have had if you hadn’t known about it.” Asher starts to explain, “It sort of relies on you not knowing that it’s a possibility so that it can catch you unaware and capture control of your mind easier.”
“Got it,” Damon replies gruffly as he checks that we’re all taking the warning seriously, he worries like a mother hen, but in this instance, it’s definitely fucking justified.
“Yeah, I definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end of one of those spells,” Dean adds, shaking his head and looking truly disturbed.
We stopped while we were discussing the spell, and I’m glad that I brought it up; I don’t want to risk losing any of these people.
“Okay, well, now that we’re properly prepared, or at least as prepared as we can be, the area the spell is leading me to is pretty much just around the corner after this giant bookshelf,” Maria says.
“Okay,” I reply, and then when my instinct twinges slightly, I add, “Do me a favor and disconnect completely from the spell before we go around that corner. I don’t know for sure that something bad will happen, but I can tell you that I do know that something will happen, and knowing what we know, I don’t want to risk it.”
Maria nods, “You got it. Hell, if your instincts are twitching, then I’m not going to go up against them. That just wouldn’t be worth the risk.”
“I knew I liked you,” I reply. My nerves settle again now that I know that she’s listening to me, and I become even more sure that I’ve done the right thing by stopping her.
“Alright, I’m completely disconnected. Let's go check this out,” she grins, not seeming nervous or unsure as she moves ahead of me to follow the others around the corner.
“That was smart,” Hunter says quietly, and I have to admit that I’m so lost in my own thoughts and checking with my magic that we’re not doing something like walking into a trap, that I didn’t realise that he was still here and it makes me jump when he speaks.
“Shit, you made me jump,” I chuckle as I turn to face him.
I take a moment just to admire him. I feel so off-kilter at the moment. We’re not safe here, we’re training hard, and we’re trying not to let on that we’re aware that there is anything wrong; we’re with each other all of the time, and yet I feel like we’re worlds a-fucking-part, and I hate it.
I miss them all, and I’m craving the time that we managed to spend together while dealing with all the shit that got thrown at us before. I don’t like it and I don’t like being here.