The Awakening Read online

  I dared a glance behind me and nearly fell flat on my face except for the fact that Agnes gripped my arm and kept me upright.

  “Wraiths,” Agnes panted, answering my unspoken question.

  “Wraiths? How…?

  “I…don’t…know.”

  I risked one more look back, and immediately regretted it. My heart did a standstill in my chest before hammering into overtime. The creatures following us were ghastly, with sunken in faces and eyeless orbits. Their mouths were wide and agape, as though they were in the middle of a perpetual scream. Their clothing was dark gray and hung in drooping tatters around their ethereal bodies. Rather than walking or running, they floated toward us, the tips of their boney toes dragging against the cold stone floor.

  And that whistling. If it was loud before, it was deafening now, like standing in the center of a screaming windstorm.

  My glance also told me something else—they were gaining on us.

  “What do they want?” I gasped out to Agnes as we continued tearing down the hallway.

  “Who knows?” she replied.

  Glancing over at her, I saw that she was having a hard time keeping up, and I supposed I should stop being so hateful to Raz the Spaz for all that running he’d been making me do during our morning trainings.

  I grabbed Agnes’s arm in an attempt to pull her along faster. She yanked it out of my grasp, stumbling as she did so.

  The stumble was all it took.

  The wraiths reached out with their skeletal fingers, grasping at the back of Agnes’s cloak, mouths stretching impossibly wider, eyeless faces filling with anticipation.

  Magic surged through me, a feeling I had become oddly familiar with over such a short period of time, and I did not attempt to rein it in. Instead, I lifted my hands and let it fly from my fingertips.

  The same swirling orb of light that I’d produced at the Peculiar Cemetery to fight off the lycans appeared now, only there was not just one orb, there were several. They left my hands one after another, each bit taking a piece of my energy.

  The orbs exploded on the wraiths who were grabbing at Agnes, and the creatures let out a shrieking howl that was ear-piercing.

  Ahead, a door loomed, and I could only hope that it wasn’t locked, because the wraiths had already recovered behind us, and were gaining ground again.

  We barreled toward the door, chests heaving, blood rushing in our ears, wraiths on our tails.

  “Open the door!” Agnes shouted at me as we drew near.

  “I don’t know how!” I shouted back. Every time I’d used magic before it had been through reflexes and instinct, and at that moment, my brain was locking up with terror.

  Agnes cursed, then snatched up my hand in a vice grip. I felt my magic surge through my fingers and into hers, and the door at the end of the hall flew open.

  There was no time to question whatever she’d just done. Instead, we burst through the door. Agnes slammed it shut behind us, throwing all her weight against it in order to do so. One skeletal hand reached through the crack, clawing and searching. I threw my body against the door as well, closing it the last couple inches. The wraith whose hand we’d crushed yanked the appendage back, shrieking in pain and anger.

  BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

  The creatures threw themselves at the door, trying with all their might to break through.

  “We have to seal it,” Agnes said.

  “How?” I asked.

  “With magic, genius!”

  Leave it to Agnes to throw in a barb while we were running for our lives. With a huff, she gripped my hand again, and I felt the same pull—no, the same draining—that I had felt when she’d grabbed my hand before opening the door.

  The urge to yank my hand away was strong, but I resisted, allowing Agnes to finish her spell and seal the door with magic. Once it was sealed, she released me, and though I knew she’d done what needed to be done, there was a part of me that was angry, that felt violated.

  But the banging stopped, the seal apparently having done its work. We slumped against the door, panting. Sweat dripped down my back and brow. There were a few moments of heavy silence before I could find my voice again.

  “What in the world is going on?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Agnes replied. “But whatever it is, it’s nothing good.”

  “So that wasn’t normal? Getting chased by wraiths is not a normal part of the Hunt?”

  Agnes shook her head.

  I considered this. Now that we’d stopped running, all of the energy seemed to have left me. I felt like a deflated balloon. “When you took my hand,” I said, “you used my magic.”

  It wasn’t a question, but Agnes answered, anyway. “I had to. My affinity is fire. I’m not powerful enough to unlock and move a big door, nor to seal one from wraiths… And you have more than enough power to share.”

  When I just looked at her, she shifted uncomfortably and stood up straight from where she’d been leaning against the door. “I had to,” she repeated.

  “I know,” I said, pushing off the door as well. “But don’t ever do it again.”

  “I think we should call it quits and go tell Headmistress Talia what just happened,” I said.

  Agnes nodded. “We will tell her—after we find our box and open it. I told you, I need that extra ten percent on final exams.”

  I considered arguing, but was kind of tired after running for my life and using so much magic, so instead, I pulled out the scroll and looked down at it. The ink of the old riddle written there faded and disappeared, as if swallowed by the parchment. Rather than words, this time, a single arrow appeared in its place.

  “Well, that’s helpful.” I mumbled as I looked up and saw that the arrow pointed directly at a solid wall.

  Agnes started down the hallway to the right of it. “Come on. We’ll look at it again when we get a little further along. There has to be an alternate route. The Academy is all intersections and hidden passages.

  We pulled out the scroll again a little further along, and found the arrow pointing at another solid wall. Or at least, what seemed like a solid wall. I checked my watch, stifling a yawn.

  “I hope we’re close,” I said. “Because I’m over this.”

  Agnes grunted in response and held out her hand. With a sigh, I placed mine in hers. Together, we laid our free hands against the wall.

  A moment later, the wall swung open, revealing a darkened chamber. A puff of stale air floated out, making me wrinkle my nose. I took a step inside, and jolted when torches affixed to the walls flared to life, illuminating the space in glowing emerald. I sucked in a breath as I took in the room, Agnes doing the same beside me.

  The room was cavernous, with a beamed ceiling and a wide-open floor space. Enormous tapestries hung upon the walls, depicting witches in various settings, doing various things. In the center of the room was a small table. Atop that table was a little black box.

  My heart leapt, and I started toward it, but Agnes caught my arm, holding me back. I was about to snap at her when she tipped her chin up, eyes going to the shadows screening the ceiling.

  Another set of eyes, diamond in shape, stared back at me, unblinking.

  A lump formed in my throat, my stomach dropping as I craned my head back, suddenly too afraid to move. Agnes’s grip on my arm tightened, but I thought it was unintentional, a result of her fear.

  My voice sounded terribly small when I managed to find words. “What…is…?”

  “A firedrake,” Agnes answered, her eyes also locked on the beast poised above us.

  A low rumbling sounded above us, like thunder, but somehow more menacing. The firedrake began to move, its enormous, scaled body almost hypnotizing in its grace. Claws the size of small cars slipped into view, sharp and deadly, along with a winged, muscled body, and a long, barbed tail.

  It moved through the rafters, massive claws gripping the wood, which groaned under its weight. Lowering its head so that it could get a better look at us, the
firedrake’s dreadful maw spread wide, revealing multiple rows of curved, razor-sharp fangs that were nearly as long as I was tall.

  My bladder squeezed, but I managed to hold it in. All I could see were those fangs, the back of that throat, which was as dark and deep as an abyss.

  Until a ball of burning flame began to form there.

  Agnes let out a curse that echoed in my head. I dove to the side out of instinct, and so did she, both of us barely missing the column of flame that erupted from the firedrake’s mouth.

  The heat of it made instant sweat break out on my forehead, singed the hair on my arms. I’d barely regained my footing when the firedrake blasted at us again. This time, the fire came so close it was mildly painful.

  I turned toward the door through which we’d come, ready to bolt. “We have to get out of here! Forget the box!” I shouted at Agnes.

  But Agnes either didn’t hear me, or wasn’t listening, because she darted to the other side of the room, taking the firedrake’s attention with her.

  Of all the things I’d done lately, this was the craziest yet.

  As the firedrake fixed on Agnes, I set my sights on the box, saying a quick, silent prayer before bolting toward it.

  I made it all the way to the table upon which the box sat before the firedrake realized what was happening, and spun around to face me. Agnes jumped up and down, shouting and waving her arms in an attempt to regain the beast’s attention.

  This proved futile. I was the one about to steal from it, after all.

  Grabbing the box, I tried to run around it, but the drake was fast, and it snapped its tail around like a whip.

  The impact was blinding, the pain instant. I flew through the air, distantly aware of what was happening.

  I struck the far wall and landed in a heap, groaning as I blinked back the tears that wanted to spring to my eyes.

  Just as my vision was clearing, I saw that the drake was stalking toward me, diamond eyes fixed on me as though I was a gourmet meal.

  And, to the drake, I supposed, I probably was. Cooked to order and everything.

  The little black box was still gripped in my hands, the evidence of my crime, and I was too frozen with terror to do anything other than hold it up to the beast, offering it in exchange for my life.

  The drake’s mouth stretched wide, revealing all those terrible teeth, the blinding light of its fire building and swirling in the back of its cavernous throat.

  I was going to die.

  And that sucked major balls.

  16

  Had I the time, I might have tried to put up a defensive shield, as I’d done that day in brews class. But the magic was still so new to me, still unreliable, and my mind locked up due to the impending doom I was facing.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, sucking in a final breath.

  And…

  Nothing happened.

  Slowly, wondering if I’d died without knowing it, I peeled one eye open, and then the other.

  Agnes had jumped on the drake’s back, and was holding on for dear life as it whipped its long neck to and fro. If not for the seriousness of the situation, the sight might have been funny. As it was, I knew Agnes was in real danger, and I wracked my mind to come up with a solution.

  Using my magic, of course, would make sense, if I could just grab a hold of it and bend it to my will.

  “Do…something,” Agnes gritted out, barely keeping her hold on the firedrake.

  I drew a deep breath, feeling my magic stir within me. I wished we hadn’t used so much of it getting here, because I could feel that it needed to recharge, that it wasn’t at maximum capacity.

  Nonetheless, Agnes had put her life on the line to help me, so it wasn’t like I could just run out of there, even if that was exactly what I wanted to do.

  In a stroke of true genius, I took off one of my shoes, and launched it at the poor beast.

  The shoes struck its hide with a thud, drawing its attention the same way as might a fly buzzing about its head. From atop its back, Agnes looked at me like I was the dumbest creature to ever live.

  But I already had my other shoe in hand, and when the drake turned toward me, mouth opening wide to swallow me whole, I threw that shoe right into its gaping maw.

  Shocked, the beast began to choke on my shoe.

  I stood there wide-eyed for a moment before shouting at Agnes. “Get down from there!” I said, already hurrying over to the door. “Hurry!”

  Agnes slid off the firedrake’s back, an expression on her face that surely matched my own. I held the door aloft for her, and she went skidding through. Once on the other side, she turned to face me, mouth agape as if to say something, but I tossed the little black box at her before she could.

  “Go,” I said, and shut the door in her face.

  Then I turned back to the still-choking beast, wondering if I’d just made the last mistake I’d ever get to make.

  The firedrake whipped its head back and forth, diamond eyes bulging, tail snapping.

  I should’ve just left it be. I should have been on my way back to the headmistress with Agnes right now, getting ready to hand over our black box in exchange for our victory.

  But I couldn’t just let the firedrake die. It was panicking with my shoe caught in its throat, and for whatever reason, I couldn’t bring myself to leave it.

  Pushing away the fear rising in me as I approached it, I swallowed hard, holding my hands up and out.

  “Whoa,” I said. “Easy!”

  The drake paid me no mind, still thrashing about, a terrible wheeze emitting from its throat. At first, I thought I’d have to climb into its mouth and dislodge the stupid shoe, but then, I realized how simple the solution might be, and hoped the drake was capable of thought beyond just instinct.

  Exhaling one final time, I stepped right up to it, grabbing its head between my hands, arms spread wide just to be able to do so, feet digging into the hard floor to keep from being whipped about, and met its eyes dead-on.

  “Listen!” I said. “Burn it. Burn the shoe and you’ll be able to breathe again.”

  For all of three heartbeats, the beast only stared at me, unblinking, thinking Goddess-knew-what. I was just getting ready to try to pry its jaws open, thinking how stupid I was for talking to a beast that I hadn’t even known existed until about ten minutes ago, when the drake lifted its head. My grip slipped free, and I dashed to the side of the room quickly enough to witness the column of fire that shot from its mouth a moment later.

  The heat and light had me shielding my face with my arm, but a moment later, the drake coughed a couple times, and ashes puffed out of its mouth—all that was left of my shoe.

  Before I could be turned into ashes myself, I slipped out the chamber door, closing it behind me and slumping back against it.

  “You’re alive,” said a familiar voice.

  I peeled my eyes open, not even having realized they’d slipped shut, to see Agnes standing before me.

  I shrugged, feeling my fatigue attempt to pull me back under. “Guess so,” I mumbled.

  “You’re also a dumbass,” she commented.

  Or, at least, I think she did. Because then the darkness stole me, and I was lost to the world and all its strange new wonders.

  The first thing that registered when I came to was the emerald glow of a flickering torch. I blinked slowly, trying to clear my vision, taking stock of my physicality.

  My mouth was a little dry, and my head a bit woozy, but other than that, I seemed to be all right.

  “Oh, thank the goddess,” said a voice I’d know anywhere.

  I turned my head and found Roo sitting beside me. I was lying on a small cot, clean white sheets and blanket pulled up to my chest. I pushed these down and sat up.

  “They’re lucky you woke up,” Roo whispered. “I would’ve burned this place and everyone in it to the ground if anything had happened to you.”

  Groaning, I rolled my neck before meeting my sister’s hazel eyes. “You shouldn�
�t say stuff like that out loud,” I said.

  Roo only looked at me, loosing a low sigh. “You okay?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah. I just feel like I could sleep for a week.”

  “Agnes said you expended quite a bit of magic…and a firedrake? You fought a firedrake?”

  I snorted. “I didn’t even know there were such things as firedrakes,” I said. “And ‘fought’ might be a bit of an exaggeration.”

  “I didn’t know, either,” Roo admitted, “but then again, I didn’t know there were sirens, either.”

  “Sirens?”

  “You had your beast to get around, and I had mine,” Roo explained. “Apparently everyone has to face one during the hunt, and they won’t actually kill you. But…” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a silver coin. “My partner and I won!”

  “Nice!” I said.

  “And so did we,” said another voice from across the room.

  Roo and I turned to see Agnes standing at the entrance to the infirmary—which I deduced was the room I was currently in. It consisted of two rows of identical cots and windows on the eastern wall that let in the morning sunlight.

  Agnes strode over to the bed, her eyes flicking from Roo back to me. She handed me a gold coin. “That’s yours.”

  I took the gold coin and looked down at it. On the face, there was the Academy’s insignia, and on the tail were the words: Scholae de Habentis Maleficia.

  “You’re crazy, you know that,” Agnes said. “How did you get away from the firedrake?”

  “Wait a second,” Roo said, eyes suddenly going dark. “You left her alone with the drake?”

  I held up my hands before the trouble brewing between the two of them could overflow, explaining to Roo what had happened.

  “A shoe?” she said. “You threw your shoe at it?”

  I shrugged. “It didn’t seem as stupid at the time.”

  Agnes cleared her throat. “Um, yes, it did.”

  “Hey, I tried to summon some magic, but I was all worn out after those dang wraiths attacked us. I was kind of drained.”