Chapter 24

24

Iused every bit of my returning strength to throw a cognitive manipulation over my body the moment I heard the hinges creak, hoping I was fast enough to avoid detection.

You see nothing. No one is here. I am invisible. Hidden from your eyes.

The magic settled over me as the door opened and one of the chaperones walked inside, her gaze traveling the room. Jesus, it was the same woman who had found me the first time around. Professor Arlena.

She was nothing if not persistent.

I didn’t know if she was patrolling to make sure the Augundae Imperium was safe, or if something inside the room set off their alarms. I couldn’t take any chances. She clearly had good senses if she knew something was up tonight and decided to investigate.

Staying still beneath my glamour, I watched her step closer. Her nostrils widened as her gaze raked the floor. Too close to me. How did she know? My heart began to beat hard enough to split my ribs open, panic tightening my chest and making it difficult to draw air into my lungs.

My manipulation was good for eyesight. I knew that much because it had been the subject of my first test—the desk “lions.” Yet I knew the true power of my gift lay in the ability to manipulate all five senses. Touch, taste, smell, all of it. I had to make sure she really believed me to the point where even if she physically ran into me, she would think she felt nothing at all. Heaven help me. Tonight was not the night for this kind of trial.

If Professor Arlena knocked into me now, I feared the spell would crash and burn and I’d be caught. I could do nothing to hide my physical presence, invisible or not, and she would feel me there instantly. Just my luck she’d sense my magic and catch me in the act.

I held my breath as she continued to circle the room, her black hair slicked back and her gaze narrowed.

Howhad she known the room was compromised?

A final look around the Augundae Imperium assured her everything remained the way she’d left it, and she walked back out the door, closing and locking it behind her. I felt a push of magic seal it with a warding spell and at last I let out a breath. Dropping the manipulation immediately and flexing my fingers to make sure I could still feel them.

A shiver ran through me. Wow, another close one. It seemed I lived on adrenaline these days. A constant diet would sooner leave silver streaks in my hair than sustain me.

At least now I felt better physically, my shifter side giving me vigor and working to fix whatever the transfiguration had done to my insides. Blood stained my clothing because I’d worked hard to not leave a trail behind me. A probe against my nostrils assured me the bleeding had finally stopped.

With the spell to keep me hidden dropped entirely, I approached the Imperium, sending my senses out to seek. To see what kind of enchantments protected the artifact.

Surely our friends from Canada thought whatever Fae magic they put in place would keep the would-be thieves from leaving the room with the Augundae Imperium.

They’d never met me before.

I smiled to myself. I wasn’t one of the top five students for nothing.

The first layer included a ward designed to burn whoever tried to break it. A tricky little spell, but I knew there had to be a backdoor, a secret way to unravel the magic without suffering the consequences. Every spell could be undone if only you found a way around the wording.

This one had been taught to us in charms class. My smile grew when I located the chink in the spell, a tiny little knot of energy like a maker’s signature. Someone had gotten cocky. They’d left a mark on the magic and I unraveled it with only a tiny flash of heat in my fingertips.

The second layer was a little trickier. I sensed rather than knew for certain it had an element of time attached to the spell. Any mistake on the first try and it would send up a screeching alarm to alert anyone in the vicinity of the thievery. I considered it for a moment, letting my magic probe. Look for the weakness not in the spell itself but in whoever had cast it.

My wolf bared her teeth. The Fae were masterminds when it came to spells and charms, their magic inherent and tied to the earth itself. I had extra power on my side. Wolves, for the most part, had their own built-in defenses against this type of magic. It put me in a unique position to break through spells as well as cast them, if I chose.

I got through the second spell and into a spider’s web of pure crap.

The various other spells were a pain in the ass to get through, frankly. Luckily, I had Melia as a mentor. She’d taught me ways of working around even the most complicated magic, and my study sessions with Mike made sure I got in extra practice time. I never claimed to be the best. But damn good? Yeah, I’d take it.

My first few tries didn’t go so well, and I ended up burning my palm, growing a tail, and losing an eyebrow. Not permanently, but enough to give me a zap of pain and have me seriously rethinking the direction of my life. The pain did not compare to going through the wall, I told myself, and pushed on, unraveling the defensive wards one by one.

Words of power left my lips as I unraveled and tore out chunks of my own magic along with them. I didn’t care. I sank every last bit of energy I possessed into breaking those shields. I worked. I pushed through. I sweated and strained.

After a few false starts, the last spell faded away and I reached out to take the Augundae Imperium, relief like a warm balm. Finally I’d made it.

About the size of a Rubik’s cube, the Augundae Imperium was made entirely of an amalgam of metals, mostly gold. Runes and symbols decorated the exterior. It looked like some chic objet d’art and hardly like some ancient artifact. One would never have guessed the power it contained just seeing it across the room.

How is this thing part of some big prophecy?

There was no way for me to answer the question, and I wondered if anyone actually knew the answer.

The moment my palm came into contact with it, I was stunned. I recognized the sheer scope of magic contained within the metal. Sensed the deep well of potential. The waiting. Waiting for more power, more magic. More.

I drew the Augundae Imperium to me, knowing I stood at a crossroads because of what I’d done. I was stealing something ancient, something meant for a king. The king of the very land I was desperate to escape to, no less.

But I had what I’d come for. Now to deliver it to Barbara.

She’d left me a note with instructions on how to proceed once I succeeded. I’d found the piece of paper curled among my vials of potions on my bunk, and I didn’t know whether she had personally delivered it or got it through the castle wards to have it appear out of nowhere. I didn’t put any kind of sneaky behavior past her.

Keeping the Imperium close to my chest, ignoring the way my own energy radiated and pulsed from its nearness, I raised a hand and set a replica in place using cognitive manipulation.

Anyone who comes close will see the Augundae Imperium in place. They will have no doubts about what they see. If they reach out to touch it or take it, they will feel the replica there. A physical entity. Solid, unyielding. They will recognize no difference between the real artifact and the fake one.

A push, an intention. Letting my magic do my will.

I watched an identical box solidify in the same spot where I’d taken the original.

Not for the first time I felt a blanket of dread fall over me at the extent of my power. I was good. Better than I would have thought considering the lack of training for most of my life. The power of my mind made objects appear out of thin air simply because I believed they were there. And I wanted others to believe it, too.

No one should have this kind of power.

My shoulders sagged. It didn’t matter. I’d gotten what I came here for. And now I had a rendezvous with a witch. Hopefully my final encounter with her.

I knew from experience I couldn’t use my power to force the doors open—oddly enough—which would have been easier. But now I also knew I had the ability to cast a glamour over myself, my own version of an invisibility cloak. No way I wanted to go through the walls again. I wouldn’t survive.

I brought myself and the Imperium out through the door and this time it cost me little in terms of magic, no matter how the others said the artifact messed with their powers. With my shifter side working overtime to sustain me, I used it to cast the glamour. Now I didn’t care who I came into contact with in the hallway, they wouldn’t see me, wouldn’t smell me, wouldn’t sense me at all.

Staring down at the box cradled in my hand, I had a split second where I wondered if I should never have touched it in the first place. Wasn’t it supposed to draw magic to it? Syphoning, I believe was the word used. Was I risking the loss of my own magic just by possessing it?

Too late to turn backnow.

It was only a matter of time before I made it out of the exchange students’ quarters. In the open castle hallway, I kept the invisibility manipulation over me, my glamour still broken, striding down the spiral staircase toward the back door. Cutting through the grand ball room with the huge oil painting of Mike and his family. Their eyes bored judgmental holes in me.

Don’t look at me, okay? I’m doing what I have to do.

Mike would surely loathe me if he knew I’d stolen the Augundae Imperium. And the reason why…

Nope, I couldn’t worry about that. The secret would go to the grave with me.

Barbara waited for me in the woods outside of the school. The moonlight caressed my skin as I bolted for the forest line, faster than a normal Fae. It was the same forest I had never quite been able to make myself explore because it was too close to the outside wards for me to feel comfortable going there. Too close to the area where Kendrick and his wolves might prowl the line until they found a way to break through.

There, lingering just inside the wards like she didn’t even feel them, with her arms crossed over her chest and wearing a ratty pair of stained overalls, waited the witch. And despite the manipulation hiding me from others’ view, her eyes fell on me unerringly. She clucked her tongue.

“You’d better have my artifact,” she said by way of greeting.

The deep rasp of her smoker’s voice grated on my nerves. A weird reaction. Like I needed more to worry about right now.

Dropping the manipulation, I stopped right in front of her, cradling the Augundae Imperium. “Why do you think I’m here?” I snapped. I couldn’t help myself. The night had worn me down to the bone.

Instead of getting mad, Barbara laughed. Tipped her head back and let out a big-bellied guffaw. “You have some spine, girl, I’ll give you credit. You’ve always been one to stand up to me even when I had a rifle leveled at your face. You remember? Too funny. Although you almost peed yourself.”

I highly doubted she wanted to stand there and chat with me. Did this line of teasing have a purpose? Probably to knock me off my guard.

“Give it here.”

I flinched at her sharp tongue. Barbara took the Augundae Imperium greedily, almost snatching it out of my hands. She stared at it for a long moment. Caressing it with gnarled and arthritic fingers like a woman with a long-lost letter from a lover.

“What are you going to do with it?” I asked her.

She shoved it down the front of her overalls and shrugged. “Whatever I feel like,” she said. “There is a world of possibilities. It all depends on what direction I decide to take.”

“I’m free from your debt now. Right?”

I needed to hear it from her. Needed the assurance that after tonight, we were done.

Barbara waved a hand and I felt something unchain inside of me. A tension I hadn’t been aware of, a bond keeping the two of us connected.

“There you are, kid. You’re free. But it was such a pleasure doing business with you.” Her tone dripped with honeyed sarcasm. “I’d do it again. Come see me.”

Then she vanished on a cackle, leaving behind the scent of stale cigarettes.

I stared at the spot where she’d stood. Feeling like I’d just made a very, very big mistake.