Chapter Twenty-Two

"Sounds good to me. That's pretty fucking cool," I reply.

"How long does it last for?" Jax asks, which is probably something that we should know.

"About two days," Kysen replies.

"Okay, so you can secure them and get them out of the way. It doesn't give us long to try and figure out another way to protect it because if we aren't killing them, then they're just going to move it again, and we can't keep stopping them because they'll just up their game." Levi muses, sounding stressed.

"Two days is better than nothing. We'll just have to step it up," Cole suggests.

"Which is going to be difficult while the Enforcers are here," Damon points out.

"Guys, we really need to go. It sounded like it would take them a while to figure it out, but it"s not going to take them that long," I point out as I head toward the door, and the others follow.

"Keep in touch," Maverick calls after us.

"We're already on edge. Thanks to Kai, Asher and Jett being gone, we don't need to lose contact with you four as well," Kyle adds.

"Are you sure we should be splitting up?" Nate asks, looking worriedly at Erin, "I don't like it."

She skips back over to him and kisses him before saying, "We don't really have a choice. We need to go and deal with this, and we need to leave as many of you here so that if the guys need you, then you're ready. I will leave the Bond Lines open for you, so you'll know the second that something goes wrong."

"Okay," Nate replies, not sounding much more convinced by the situation.

Levi looks at me, "I want you to do the same."

"Of course," I reply, "now let"s go."

"Stay out of view of the Enforcers. It's quite late, and you don't need to be questioned as well." Hunter reminds us.

"Got it," Jax replies.

"Shall I shield us?" Erin asks.

I pause and resist the urge to smack myself on the forehead, "I was so excited to get going that it didn't even occur to me that we could do that."

"Me neither," Kysen chuckles and then turns to Erin with a smile, "Yeah, that might be a good idea; as Hunt said, we want to stay out of view of the Enforcers."

"You got it," Erin grins.

With very little effort and far easier than she was finding it a few weeks ago, I feel her magic surround us, and then when she gives us a nod to say that we're completely covered, we all head off again.

As we're walking down our hallway, Kysen hands us each some of the ties so that we can bind the teachers when we get there. I've got to admit that I'm looking forward to a bit more of a fight—a real one. Although, as we stealthily race in the direction of the temple, the Darkness within my magic writhes, its wound tight like a coiled snake ready to strike, my fear over Kai and the others is clearly fuelling it. I don't sense anything untoward about it, but it does feel exceptionally powerful, and I almost instinctively know that I won't be able to control it if it breaks through my magic, which is only barely surrounding it now.

In all honesty, I don't even know if it is mine. I don't know if it's my magic to control or if it's something that wants out, some unknown entity or something and that probably terrifies me even more.

Thankfully, the temple comes into view, and I'm reminded of the here and now. I make the decision to try not to use my magic at all; I don't want to risk it.

Besides, it makes it more interesting that way, like a challenge, not that I want to tempt fate or underestimate them. They are the teachers of this prestigious academy for a reason; they're powerful in their own right and have honed their magic. Not only that, but they could be getting a boost of power from Kronos through the object.

No, it would be very unwise to underestimate them. However, I still hope that I can last as long as possible without using my magic. As we get to the door, we share a look, grinning. Oh yeah, I think we all needed this. I take a moment to check and see if I can reach Kai yet, and when I can't, I take a deep breath instead and focus on the task ahead.

We all sneak through the door, and I'm grateful for its silent hinges. When we get through the lobby to the door that leads into the central part of the temple, Kysen peeks through the door, opening it just enough to see through.

He closes it again and then turns back to us, "We've got lucky; they're all facing away from the door and appear to be having quite a heated discussion, although I couldn't quite make out what it was about. There are four standing and one kneeling down, and I'm guessing she's the one that's drawn the short straw and is responsible for removing the object."

I nod, keeping my voice low like his, "Alright, let's do this. Remember, knock them out and secure them; don't kill them unless you have no choice; they are all being controlled."

Erin tilts her head, "Or at least we think they are."

"True," Jax replies.

"Let's go in before we lose the element of surprise," Kysen reminds us, "we're getting rusty."

The rest of us chose not to respond to that, mainly because he didn't wait for us and just slowly slipped through the door, forcing us to follow him quickly or leave him to face them himself, and none of us were willing to miss out.

"Damn it, he's gone too far from my reach, and I was expecting it, so my magic snapped back," Erin curses, "none of us are covered."

"Don't worry about it," I say as I head toward the door, "it would be too difficult to keep us covered while we're dealing with them anyway. It's not like they're going to go down easily."

There's no time for more talk as I make it through the door just in time to see Kysen knock one of them out, which, of course, instantly alerts the others that we're here. Jax calls his water to him and then shoots it toward the teacher, who's readying some sort of magic to shoot at Kysen. Jax's water wraps around his ankles and pulls his feet from underneath him.

Erin throws up a shield, something that she's been refining in our late night classes with Cain, and the four who were charging toward us hit and fall backward. Unfortunately, none of them hit it hard enough to knock them out. If it had, it would've helped us out immensely and meant that we had less to fight, not that I think any of us really mind.

The knocked over teachers recover quickly, but it's given the rest of us enough time to get to them and Kysen. A woman teacher, whom I have no idea what her name is, shoots a stream of fire in my direction, and I duck, pushing down my magic, and the Darkness and my usual magic both rise to try and help me. I dodge and weave the various streams of fire that head my way until I get within striking distance of her and punch her in the stomach, causing her to double over. She recovers quickly and lashes out, aiming for my head.

Ducking out of the way with plenty of time to spare, I swing my leg around and knock her feet from under her, as I go to follow her down and hopefully get a good headshot in to knock her out, she surprises me by using a blast of air magic to shoot me into the air, I fly backward, and resign myself to using a small slither of my magic to cushion my fall unfortunately, I'm so reluctant to use my magic that I pull it out a second too late and while it does cushion my fall enough that I don't break anything it doesn't do much more than that and I land hard enough that it knocks the wind out of me.

She storms toward me, weaving magic between her hands in a way that lets me know that it"s deadly, and she either doesn't know or doesn't care about the Fae Realm's wrath if she kills a Centre. I struggle to get up, my body recovering too slowly from the brute force of hitting the wall, just before she can get to me, Ghost and Knot swoop down from the rafters and attack her using some of their own magic and the distraction of their wings so effectively that the spell she was building dissipates before it can be launched my way.

I finally manage to stand, but as I do, flying debris from one of the other fights heads my way, and I once again move slightly too late. Fortunately, the wood splinter only slices my cheek on its way past instead of ending up embedded in it. I'll call that a win.

Wasting no more time and sensing that Ghost and Knot are getting tired, I send them a brief picture of my plan and then race toward the woman, just as I asked. As soon as I'm in striking distance, they soar toward the roof, and I pull back my fist, striking her as hard as I can in her temple. Her eyes widen before they roll back into her head, and she slumps to the floor. I have no idea how long a non magical hit is going to take her to recover from, especially since I'm not one hundred percent sure whatsure that what kind of supernatural she is; because of this, I quickly pull out the tie that Kysen gave me, and wrap it around her wrists.

Once I'm done, I look around and see that everyone has either secured their teacher that they were fighting or is in the process of doing it, and I'm pretty proud that I managed to fight with very little magic, although I did have the help of my familiars, I know I wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise.

"Is everyone okay?" Kysen asks.

"I'm good; I"m going to have a giant bruise on my thigh. The fucker got me good," Erin replies, clearly not happy.

"I'm fine," Jax says.

I nod as everyone looks at me, "I'm good. I just got caught by flying debris, but it's not bad.

"Sage," Jax asks, watching me closely.

"Yeah? Are you sure you're okay?" I ask.

"I'm fine, but are you?"

I frown slightly, and it tugs at my cheek making it sting, "Oh, yeah, it's only a small scratch. It probably looks worse than it is."

"I don't think that's what he meant," Kysen says.

"Oh?" I question as I stroke Ghost and Knot, giving them praise for helping. "What do you mean then? I'm fine."

"You didn't use magic like at all," Erin points out.

Well, fuck they noticed. I shrug, "I didn't? I guess I went back to my default and just fought like hell, besides it made it more interesting and more of a challenge. I kind of needed it to distract myself."

They all look at me like they don't quite believe what I'm saying but, thankfully, choose not to question it.

"We should probably find somewhere out of the way to store these five," Jax suggests, changing the subject.

"Yes, but where?" Kysen asks. "Also, I'm glad the temple agreed that this was a good reason for a fight."

My eyes widen, "I completely forgot about that!"

"Me too," Erin agrees, looking around like something is going to jump out and get her. It's amusing because she looks more nervous now than she did fighting against the teachers.

We all start to look around the room, trying to find somewhere that could hold the five of them. Right in the back corner, a part of the wall suddenly pops open, and we all ready ourselves for whatever is about to come through. When, after five minutes or so, nothing does, I cautiously move forward, the others on my heels. Peering through the door cautiously, I breathe a sigh of relief when I see that it"sits just an empty room.

"There's nothing in here," I state, "we can put the teachers in here though. It's plenty big enough."

"I guess the temple decided to help us out," Jax adds.

"Or a God did," Erin adds.

"Yeah, I think I'll focus on the least terrifying of the two options and say that it's the temple. I don't know if I can handle another God or Goddess knowing about our existence," Kysen jokes.

"Fair point, actually," Jax replies. "Let's start moving them in here before they start waking up, and we have to knock them out all over again."

It takes us a while to shift all of the teachers from where they fell when we fought to in the weird cupboard, but thankfully, I was right, and it does fit them all in.

"Erm, guys, something has just occurred to me," Erin states as she dusts her hands off and stands back up, looking over all of the teachers now securely put in the room.

"Yeah?" Jax asks, curiously, shutting the door behind the group of bound and knocked out teachers.

I really hope that no one finds them and raises the alarm. We've got to try and figure out what we're going to do with them before the magic wears off. At least we have a couple of days to figure it out, hopefully.

"Well, Sage, Cole, and I spent ages trying to find that spell that would incapacitate them without actually hurting them, so why didn't we use it? And also, why didn't Kysen mention the bands when we were looking for something that would incapacitate them," Erin asks.

"Well, the first thing I can, I answer, at least for myself," I reply, "with everything that's been going on, I forgot that we actually managed to find it."

"Fair enough. I mean, I forgot too, and I was there," Erin agrees with a smile.

"Your turn," Jax says to Kysen as we start to look around the temple and make sure that there's no sign that we've been there. Ghost and Knot use their sharp vision to help as well.

Kysen shrugs, "You said that you wanted something that wouldn't hurt them; in order to get the bands on their wrists, you have to fight them, which means hurting them, and depending on how good they are, that more than likely ends in them getting severely hurt if not worse, we actually got lucky this time that they were relatively okay."

"Yeah, okay. That's a good point," Jax concedes, "although it might have been nice to know that it was an option in case we got desperate and needed it."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Kysen agrees with a frown and then adds, "But, I wouldn't have known where to get them before a few days ago when the Enforcers arrived, Harry's Enforcer friend sent them with one of the Enforcers that arrived and said that a friend of his told him that we'd need them."

"Oh, gift of premonition?" I ask curiously, wanting to meet Harry's Enforcer friend now.

"Actually, I think it"s more than that. Harry said he didn't know much about this friend but that he was extremely powerful," Kysen replies.

"I'd like to meet them," I say, feeling a swirl of importance.

"We're out," Kai's voice suddenly comes through the still open Bond Lines, and my heart, which has been steady this entire time, starts beating double time.

"We'll meet you back at the room," I reply, "I love you."

"I love you too. What do you mean back at the room? Where are you? What happened?" he fires back rapidly, worry in his tone.

"I'll fill you in when we get back. Everything is fine, don't worry," I reply.

"Hurry back, both of you and be careful," Levi orders.

I'm already running, and judging from the fact that the others are running with me, I know that Jett and Asher have been in contact too. I feel Erin's shield rapidly cover us all but none of us slow down as we race into the castle. I'm aware that if we were visible and the Enforcers saw us, then we'd look highly suspicious, and I'm once again incredibly grateful for Erin and her gift. It's helped us out more times than we can count.

Fortunately for us, it's late enough that there isn't anyone else around, which means we don't have to worry about accidentally running into someone and freaking them out or making them suspicious. We may be invisible, but that doesn't mean that we can walk through things. We can still affect the world around us.

As soon as we get through our door, I look around the room expectantly, my shoulders slumping when I don't see Kai, Jett, or Asher anywhere.

"They aren't here yet," Maverick tells me as he looks over me with concern, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. It's just a scratch," I reply, having completely forgotten about the wound on my face. It really isn't that big of a deal.

Knot and Ghost go around the room and give love to those that they think need it, and then Knot curls up on Cole, and Ghost perches on Kyle's shoulder seeming to settle in for the long haul. They must be tired after helping me like they did. I know that at some point, the others, or at least Jax, are going to question me on why I didn't use my magic. It is probably time that I told them about it anyway.