15. ~Xavier~

15

~Xavier~

Three hours.

Three fucking hours I’d spent sitting in a colorless concrete room in the Exemplar compound being debriefed about what had happened at the Academy.

Fortunately, I’d seen the possibility coming the moment my dad had shown up and witnessed the insanity that had taken place.

So I’d hidden the mark that one of the sorcerers had left on my chest, a mark that had fortunately healed and disappeared on its own within a couple of hours anyway.

There was no way I could explain that to him.

That sorcerer had taken a sliver of my magic and teleported it to Constantine. It had happened when Talon and I had rushed into the main building to evacuate the beings still stuck inside, or too hurt to make their own way out. Fortunately, as Talon had been focusing on calming the fire, I’d managed to fight off the sorcerer, but not without him managing to steal my magic first.

If I’d told my dad about it, the hunting I’d been doing with Alena would have come up, the fact that we’d tracked some of Constantine’s acolytes. And he would have locked me down so fast.

I couldn’t risk it.

Not with the way things currently were.

I couldn’t fucking believe it, but it had happened again—Alena had been attacked and taken.

Fuck, at least the taken part had been by Orpheus this time.

The way she’d disappeared from view like that pointed toward an illusion being perpetrated. He’d obviously removed her from the dicey situation.

That situation being that she’d outed her ability to destroy dark magic.

Word had already spread across the supernatural world within the last few hours. And it wasn’t going over well at all. Exemplar was on edge, expecting Saryan Hart himself to show up throwing threats and demands all over the place.

Not just him either.

The Dragon Empire was full of beings wielding dark magic also.

Then there were the many magic-wielders in the human realm here who were dark magical beings, many belonging to covens, who were gathering in protest and slated to head to the compound and raise all kinds of hell.

What I didn’t understand about Orpheus spiriting her away was why he hadn’t yet reached out to let me and Talon know where he’d taken her, or what his longer term plan was to safeguard her now the truth was out there about her. What was he playing at?

As if that wasn’t bad enough, during the debriefing, my dad had popped in to make sure I was doing okay, and it had come up that Orpheus hadn’t been in the DFR when the attack had happened. In fact, my dad had no idea where he was. Apparently, Orpheus had even disabled the tracker in his IC Watch. It seemed like he’d gone off the grid.

Without telling us?

How could he do that?

And why?

That also begged the question as to how he’d known to swoop on in and remove Alena from that volatile situation.

I looked up from the bench I was sitting on in the courtyard of the compound as Talon finally emerged after finishing his debriefing.

“Fucking finally,” he muttered as he walked to me, looking exhausted, that tight black and orange tank of his shredded across the torso, his clothes covered in soot and his hair and skin too.

He shoved his hand over his head and more soot was dispelled.

“That was a magically-induced fire caused by those sorcerers,” I told him. “More devastating and with the ability to spread faster too. If it hadn’t been for your efforts, the whole building would have been destroyed. You saved it, firebird.”

“It was a team effort. You saved a load of students. A couple of faculty members too.”

“It’s a shame it was all a distraction so Constantine could take some of my magic.”

“Not just that. The way those sorcerers of his went at Alena, it’s like they wanted her to unleash her ability to destroy dark magic like that.”

“I know,” I murmured. I’d thought the exact same thing when we’d rushed down and taken in the scene out there.

“Shit, any word from Ore yet? I didn’t get anything from him while I was in there with those Exemplar members breathing down my neck.”

“No, nothing on my end either.”

“Have you tried mind-linking him? It’s probably the only thing I haven’t attempted.”

“No. Not yet.”

“Why not?”

“Whatever he’s up to with spiriting Alena away like that, I wanted to give him time, I guess.”

“Well, he’s had time and he still hasn’t reached out to us. It’s not like him.”

I sat forward on the bench as he stood in front of it, shifting his weight back and forth, clearly agitated. “He wasn’t in the DFR when the attack went down, Tal.”

“What? Why not? No, he would’ve told us if he’d gone somewhere else. He knows I need to be informed of where he is at any given moment. Him taking Alena away from that shitshow is only an exception because of the severity of the situation.”

“I don’t know why he left there, but my dad is certain that Ore wasn’t in the DFR. He actually has no clue where he is. Now or during the attack.”

“You’re telling me he’s off the grid? Without us? ” He started pacing and shoving his hand over his bright orange head. “No. He wouldn’t do that to us. Shit, something must’ve happened to him. Maybe he was attacked when he left there? Maybe some of Constantine’s acolytes were lying in wait? Hey, that could be how he knew to rush in to the Academy and get Alena, how he knew that was happening… he defeated the attack then got that intel out of them, maybe.”

“That’s… one hell of a story. Maybe you should be the writer.”

“Why, you think he’s up to something nefarious? Fuck, X, I thought you were past that with him. After what he did for you, how he helped you, the two of you growing closer with the feeding and all that.”

“I am past it, but you can’t deny that this sort of thing is Ore’s M.O.”

“Not according to you claiming he’s been shaken and not himself.”

“Well, maybe being in the DFR helped him to get past that.” I shoved a hand through my hair and rose to my feet. “Either way, there’s too many unknowns right now. My dad said that Exemplar has tried to track Alena but she’s cloaked. The same for Ore. So, I say we head to Saryan and ask him to seek Ore out through their familial blood link, get some answers from there.”

“The Academy is on lockdown after what happened. Big time now. Your dad ordered us to head to his estate where he can keep us safe, to stay there for the time being with us not being able to go back to Electi Academy now.”

“And you’re okay with doing that when Ore and Alena are out there without us, when Constantine just fucking attacked us through his sorcerers, when the Academy is fucked?”

“Of course I’m not okay going along with those orders, but I’m surprised that you’re fighting it. More often than not, you do whatever Elliot says and support him in everything.”

“The way things are, that’s altered. Not because of him and who he is, because there’s nothing wrong there, he’s the greatest, but because of Exemplar as an organization and how it’s handling—or not handling—the Constantine threat.”

“Look who’s growing up.”

“Shut it, baby bird.”

He chuckled. “Just trying to lighten the mood.”

“It’s definitely needed.”

Purple smoke erupted just feet from us, startling the hell out of us.

And then Orpheus materialized, looking anxious as hell.

“I just got word about what happened at Electi Academy,” he spoke anxiously, rushing to us and looking us over. “Are you all right? Were you hurt?”

Tal and I exchanged a look full of a fuck-ton of confusion.

“You just got word?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he murmured, looking all around. “Where’s Alena?”

“What the shit are you talking about?” Talon cried. “You pulled her out after she exposed her dark magic extinguishing ability.”

Ore’s eyes shot wide. “She did what? No. No, no, no.”

I grasped his shoulder. “Orpheus, we thought you took her to safety.”

“What are you talking about? I wasn’t there. Nowhere near.”

“Then… but… how…” Talon stumbled. “Holy shit. She’s gone.”

Ore held up his hand before Tal went into a full-on panic. “Hold on, why did you think it was me?”

“One second she was there, the next she blinked out of sight,” I told him. “It had the mark of an illusion being used.”

“And you said she exposed her special ability?”

“Yeah,” Tal confirmed.

“Fuck,” Ore choked. “I know who has her. I know who took her.”