Page 66 of Shattered Darkness
“Well, I know one thing: I’m staying here. I suddenly feel like we’re vulnerable if we split up,” Cole points out as he takes a seat.
“Yeah, me too,” Erin agrees and then says quieter, “I really don’t like this; my magic is on edge.”
I breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that someone else’s magic is playing up in this situation and not just mine. Although I highly doubt that she has an issue with the Darkness like I do.
“I agree; we can all stay here while we wait,” Levi replies, and then adds, “We may need to move quickly if something does go wrong.”
“I really fucking hope that nothing goes wrong,” Kysen says. He’s not sitting down like almost all of the rest of us but is instead pacing, giving away just how worried he is.
“I’m going to make some hot drinks,” I say when the room stays silent for a while, everyone stuck in their own heads and worrying.
There’s a slight murmur of agreement, but no one really says anything, and I’m grateful when the sound of the water boiling and the clinking of the cups fills the space.
Unfortunately, making drinks does not take nearly as much time as I was hoping it would and therefore, doesn’t really provide me with much of a distraction. I could go back to reading, but I’m so worried about Kai, Asher, and Jett that I know I’ll just end up reading the same sentence over and over again and not absorbing anything, so there really isn’t much point.
Time drags on, and as it does, we each get more and more concerned that something might have gone wrong.
I’m just about to throw in the towel and suggest that we go and see them to ensure that they really are okay when my vision suddenly changes. I panic, thinking that something has happened to Kai, and this is the Bond’s way of telling me. But as my vision clears, I realize that Ghost is sharing his sight with me.
This can’t be good.
Sure enough, I watch through Ghost, a group of teachers that I barely recognize make their way into the building. They’re walking with purpose, and when they head straight toward where we know the object is, it’s clear that’s what they’re here for.
Fuck.
I carry on watching and become even more curious when they don’t immediately pick it up and instead stand around talking like they have all the time in the world.
“They’ll be occupied with some of their precious members being taken in for questioning,” one of them says.
“Great, I hate moving this thing. It takes far too long and is far too,” she pauses, “What’s the word, oh yes, deadly.”
“I know, but if he says he wants it moved then we move it,” a third one replies.
“Where exactly are we moving it to this time?” yet another teacher asks.
“I think there are going to be more spells put on it to make it even more deadly, and then it’s being put in the headmaster's high security safe. There’s no way that anyone can gain access to it, even if they knew that the little gem was in there.” Someone says.
I think it's interesting that none of them have questioned the reason that it's so well protected or what it does. One thing is abundantly clear though: I cannot let them move the object; they’ve said to themselves how impossible it will be to get to it, and we can’t risk it. We will never get the teachers out from under the Order and Kronos’s control if they put the object in a place as guarded as they’re suggesting.
I feel Knot enquiring whether I want her and Ghost to do something, but I shake my head before remembering that, of course, she can’t see me and is asking me although she’s looking at Ghost.
“No, it’s okay. Tell her that we’ll be right there, keep watch, and let me know if they manage to get it out of the wall. They made it sound like it was quite a process to get it out and move it, so hopefully, that will give us enough time to get there.”
She nods her agreement, and then my vision is suddenly my own, and the whole room is staring at me curiously, like they know that something just happened. To be fair to them, they might. I have no idea what I look like when I see through Ghost’s eyes. For all I know, I could start glowing or something.
“What happened?” Levi asks, “Are the guys okay?”
“I have no idea. That wasn’t about them,” I explain as I get up, “there are five teachers trying to move the green gemstone that’s controlling them, but where they’re moving to is going to make it absolutely impossible to get to it and break the spells.”
“Okay, so we need to go and stop them then?” Erin grins, standing up and starting to stretch. She knows where this is going, and she wants to be involved. Like me, she needs to be doing something, especially when she’s worried, and she is extremely worried about Jett and the others.
“Yes, but I don’t think it will take too many of us, and I think it would be better if the majority of us stayed here in case the guys need us,” I reply, checking that I’ve got all the weapons I need.
“Yes, I agree,” Levi says and then looks around at all the eager faces in the room. I think all of them would like to be involved, if only to distract themselves from what’s happening with the guys. Levi sighs, “Okay, Kysen and Jax, you go with Erin and Sage. Remember that you are not killing them, just rendering them useless so that they can’t move the stone.”
“I can help with that. I’ve got these,” Kysen says as he pulls something that looks like rubber bands out of his pocket but bigger, “so you put these around their wrists, kind of like handcuffs, and then you say, magicae madefacit, that will dampen their magic so that they can’t use it for a short period of time.”
Chapter Twenty-Two