Everlasting (Night Watchmen, #1) (24 page)

I freeze in place. The hurt from our fight is still so prevalent. It rushes forward, turning my emotions back on. I could vomit right here. Or cry. Either is an emotion I don’t want. I try to turn it back off, but my hands are shaking and my thoughts are flooding, and it’s too much to stop all at once.

It takes me a minute to realize what all the chatter is about. Katie and Chett. They’re talking about her being a traitor and a weakling. A few Witches call out her name as she walks down the hall, making faces, and then turning and laughing with their friends. “Karma left you without your powers. Serves you right!” It’s one of the girls from the locker room; the one who knew about the Gramm curse.

My heart races, flushing my face. I focus my gaze on the Witches following Katie. They need to pay for running their mouths. They need a dose of their own medicine. I can’t think of anything else but that. Out of nowhere, they fall, their faces smacking against the tile. I almost scream in surprise, and then I realize what I just did.

Something I wasn’t supposed to do. Something that would surely ruin me this time around.

Katie and her friends stop and look behind them. The three Witches that had fallen sit up. Blood pours from their noses. “You bitch!” one of them yells at Katie. “You did this! You made us fall! I’m going to report you!”

“She didn’t do anything, you half-wit!” Todd yells. “She has no powers without Chett here.”

“She…she must’ve found a way! She hangs with that one freak. I bet that’s how!”

“She can’t use magic on another novice,” one of the other blonder Witches yells behind the first. I recognize her from the locker room. “You will be expelled for this!”

“I didn’t do it,” Katie says, shrinking further under Todd’s arm and hiding behind the hair that has fallen in her face.

“Even if she didn’t do it, I’m still going to say she did. We all are. We don’t need a traitorous, weak Witch here, especially not on our team.” They get off the ground, gathering their things.

Katie is backtracking, looking panicked. I have to do something. I can’t let her take the fall for this, even if it means giving up my training. I can’t hide behind her.

My mind turns to stone. “I did it!” I yell out, my fists clenched at my sides. Every eye in the hallway turns in my direction. I walk toward the three girls, furious and flushed. “And I would do it again and again, just to keep you from bullying her.” My voice is not my own. It sounds too filled with hate, too bitter to be mine.

The fear that registers in the three girls’ eyes gives me pleasure; too much pleasure, in fact. When they realize who I am, a mixture of awe and hate and greed passes over their faces. “You’re the freak from the dining hall. The one the Elders tried to pass off as a dormant,” the blonde girl says, moving toward me.

I stand my ground, unafraid.

“What are you, by the way? I hear both. I hear you broke the Culling quartz. I hear you’re going to be sentenced to testing in Ethryeal City. I hear…”

“NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU HEAR!” I scream out. My words alone send her flying backwards. She slams into her friends, and they all fall to the ground.

Cassie grabs my arm and spins me to face her. “What the hell, Faye.” Danger flashes in her eyes. My heart is no longer my own. It’s a beating animal rattling against my chest.

The girls pick themselves up. The one I threw backwards looks over at Katie, still clutching her nose. Blood drips between her fingers. “I guess I wouldn’t fight my own battles either if I was as weak as you and had someone like her in my corner.” She shoves past Katie, the other two following her with hateful stares.

Katie spins back around, glaring at me.

“Katie, I’m sor…”

“You just don’t learn, do you?” she says icily, her voice shaking and on the verge of free-falling into a fit of tears. She shoves past me. Todd and Jia offer sympathy in their expression, sympathy that I don’t want, and then follow after her.

“Ruined another relationship, have you?” Jezi taunts. “Seems to be your talent. Guess you got it wrong, Cass.” She looks pleased at my expense and it burns.

“Will you shut up already,” Cassie snaps. “Go wait in the classroom for us.”

“Whatever,” Jezi says with a shrug. She disappears up the stairs.

“That wasn’t smart,” Cassie says after Jezi disappears. “Mack and Jaxen are in Ethryeal City trying to resolve what happened in the dining hall. Do you think this is going to help your case? Do you think this will help keep the Priesthood from requesting your presence? If they report this, you can count on being booted from this Academy. Mack can only do so much. And Jaxen, well…”

I glare at her. “Honestly, I don’t care anymore,” I snap, and then head up the stairs.

Spell Casting 101 is the
door I stand in front of while waiting for Cassie. Her footsteps are behind me, slow because she’s on the phone with Gavin, spilling every detail of what just happened. I tune her out, not wanting a play-by-play of my latest mistake. Even if it was the wrong thing to do, I would do it again if it meant stopping someone from being a bully.

I sense Jezi on the other side of the door, probably waiting to get more digs in. I can’t say I don’t deserve them. Cassie was right about one thing; if those girls turn me in, then all of this is for nothing.

I blink. For a moment, I want to be who I was before the Culling; the girl who hid from her problems, the girl who accepted her fate as a Defect and was okay with being a nobody, the girl who didn’t cause trouble.

But I’m not that girl anymore.

I open the door and find Jezi’s taunting smile. She starts to open her mouth, but I cut her off before she has the chance to run it.

“Unless you’re interested in following through with training me, I think you should leave.” My hands are on my hips, digging into my flesh for control.

Her eyes narrow. “I’m only here because of Jaxen, because he’s
my
partner, therefore, whatever he’s assigned to, I am too,” she says, the acid in her words burning through my composure. She hops off a desk in the middle of the room and strolls over to me. “Believe me when I say, I’m in no way interested in helping your sorry life.”

Cassie walks in behind us. “Really?” she says in angered disbelief. She’s by my side in no time. “When is this going to end between you two?”

“When she backs off Jaxen,” Jezi says, her face inches from mine. She’s slightly taller than I am and uses that fact to glare down at me. I stiffen my shoulders and push back.

“Consider it already done,” I say. But even having said it out loud, I still don’t feel like I can follow through, like I can give up on him.

She rolls her eyes. “I can see your aura, Faye, the conflicting emotions, the growing love. You’re lying. You’re not going to back off. You have no intention of it,” Jezi says. Her eyes are so dark now that there’s no hint of color. The hair on my arm begins to rise as the magic in her grows. She’s itching to use it on me.

Cassie stands between us. “This stops now.” She jerks her head to Jezi. “Because I’m your best friend, I can say this- Jaxen was never really yours. You know that. Holding it against Faye is childish and unlike you. You’re better than that.” She turns to me. “And you, going around this campus without caring about your reputation is not only dumb, but selfish. We’re putting our asses out on the line for you, and you should show a little more appreciation and respect.”

The guilt that swarms me almost chokes me. I’m being selfish. And childish.

Jezi huffs. “You don’t know…”

Cassie spins back around, cutting her off. “Yes I do, Jezi. I know. I know you care for him because I care for Gavin. It’s the same. But unlike you, I also know what it feels like to be loved by a Gramm. You want the truth? It’s not roses and sunshine. I’m going to pay the price, not him. Is that really what you want? Do you want to die?”

Jezi looks away, tears in her eyes. “I’m not discussing this in front of her.” She walks past us and storms out of the room.

Cassie heaves a sigh, putting her head in her hands. “This just keeps getting worse. You have to promise you’re going to try to contain your outbursts in this Academy, or I’m walking right now. I know part of you is a Witch, and I know that our emotions get a little out of control at times, but I also know there is a lot at stake here. Including your life.”

I wince at the reminder. “I’m sorry, Cassie. You’ve shown me nothing but kindness, and I haven’t returned the favor.”

She looks at me, her eyes raised. “No, you haven’t.”

“There’s no excuse for it. All I can do is promise to try.” I hold my pinky finger out.

“What’s that?” she asks, her head jerked back in question.

“A pinky promise.”

She laughs. “Uh-no. Witches don’t pinky promise. Here’s your first life lesson.” She reaches in her back pocket and pulls out a small knife. She flicks it open and pulls my pinky finger closer to her. She pricks the end. A dot of blood bubbles up, and I think I might throw up. “Witches make promises in blood, Faye. It’s the only way we can be sure.” She pricks her pinky, and then touches it to mine. “Bound by blood, a promise is made, linked now until death, or your heart shall fade.”

The blood lights up, and then fades. “What does that mean?”

“It means you better keep your promise that you’re going to refrain from having emotional outbursts on campus, or you’ll die. No cross my heart crap. Now let’s get to work.”

I want to ask more questions, starting with why she would bind my life over something so silly, but don’t bother because she dives right into the lesson on my Grimoire.

“Have you used your Grimoire yet?” I shake my head. “All right, we’ll start with that. You need to connect with it before you can really tap into the Witch side of you. Summon it to you.”

“How do I do that?”

“Close your eyes and think about the book. Keep that image in your mind, and then call it to you with these words: From my mind, you must see, bring this object straight to me.”

I hold the image of my mother’s Grimoire in my head and repeat what she says. Nothing happens at first. I can sense the magic inside of me, spreading to every limb and every fingertip, filling me with warmth.

“You have to focus all of your intent into the words,” she says, walking around me. I nod and repeat the words, this time feeling something manifesting in my palms. I keep repeating the words, somehow knowing it’s needed, and then crack an eye open. There the Grimoire sits. My first real spell casted and it was successful. Cassie wears a big, proud grin. “That was quick for a first-timer, especially with a summoning spell. You don’t learn those until your second year here.”

I run my hands over the cover, feeling grateful and proud. There’s a pull I can’t describe coming from the Grimoire, almost like it’s speaking to me, but not with words. It’s more like a feeling, a sense deep in the center of me. “I think it’s calling to me,” I say, looking away from the book and back up at her.

“If you haven’t connected with it, then it probably is. Did your mother ever tell you anything about it?”

I clear my throat. “I don’t think she wanted to rub in the fact that I’d never be able to use it, so no.”

She tucks her hair behind her ear. “Okay, well, let’s start with the basics. A Grimoire records every spell casted in your bloodline. It’s also a place to store wisdom that should be passed down through the generations. After you connect with it, you can ask anything of it, and it will show it to you. So long as it’s in there, of course. Sometimes, it will show you things you need without even asking. I guess, in a way you can say it’s a living thing, kept alive by the blood you give to it.”

“Blood?”

“To connect with your Grimoire, you have to give it your blood. It’s what links you to the magic.” She pulls her dagger out again and hands it to me. “You only need a little blood.” She flips my hand over and traces a line down the center of my palm. “Once you cut, place your palm on the inside of the cover.”

I take in a breath and slice a thin line across my palm, watching as crimson follows its wake. I flip the cover open and press my palm against it. The book almost vibrates in recognition, filling me with knowledge and secrets. When I pull my hand away, the book lifts up a little into the air, hovering before me. My blood absorbs into the cover and disappears. The pages flip wildly in front of us, and each time, my mind absorbs another spell. When the book is finished, it falls back into my lap and shuts. I gasp for breath. My palm is healed.

“Now,” Cassie says, “the real fun of being a Witch can begin.”

The rest of the week
and on into the fourth week moves rather quickly. I can feel myself growing stronger, better, faster. My chicken legs fill out a little more. My mind has more control over my magic and my emotions. By the end of the fifth week, I manage to put Jaxen far from my thoughts. He left for a reason, and a large part of me doesn’t believe it’s because Mack wanted him to. If he’s looking to end whatever was blooming between us, distance is the best remedy.

But even with knowing this, it still doesn’t make it any easier to swallow, and that bothers me the most. Why him? Out of all the men in the world to be drawn to, why am I drawn to the one I can never be with? Maybe because nothing I ever do is done the easy way, at least, that’s what Katie would say if we were still on speaking terms, but that’s a whole other batch of issues I don’t feel like dealing with.

The jog I take every morning gets easier with every day that passes. I welcome the run, losing myself in my counted footsteps and the rising sun. Gavin keeps me focused on fight training, since that’s my most needed ability when I’m out in the real world.

Yesterday, I managed to make him cry uncle.

It’s the only part of the week I actually enjoyed.

Jezi keeps her distance from me during my time in the Witches Quarters. Cassie walks me through the basics of summoning elements, writing basic spells, and tapping into the gift of sight to predict pieces of the future. The gift of sight came in handy when live fighting Gavin.

He calls it cheating. I call it being sensible and resourceful.

The three of them think it’s best that I remain in my room the remainder of my time during the day to keep me out of the public eye, and out of trouble. I can’t say it bothers me. It gives me time to focus on reading the books Gavin gave me and my Grimoire.

But even reading that has its limitations. There’s a whole section written in by my mother about the benefits of using herb magic versus elemental magic. Although it’s interesting to read about that side of her, to see her passion written in full force, it still hurts to look at. It hurts to think about her being stuck somewhere, held by God knows what.

I shut my mother’s Grimoire and set it back on the desk in my room. Tomorrow, Gavin wants me to watch the other novices while they practice for their quarter trials. I tried to get out of it. I don’t want to see Katie, but he told me to stop whining and suck it up. So sucking it up, I am.

I get back into bed and snuggle back against the pillow, staring over at my acceptance letter.
You control your own destiny
.

I shut my eyes when a loud bang goes off outside the Elder’s wing. I sit straight up, looking toward the window where the sound came from. Pushing my covers aside, I walk over and peek out the side of the curtains. I barely have time to take it all in before my door bursts open.

“Faye!”

I look up. It’s Gavin. Sweat drips down his paled face and fear etches lines into his forehead. “Come on. We’re under attack.”

“Attack? By who?”

“I…I don’t know. I think it’s Darkyn Rebels. Somehow they’ve broken through our security.” He shoves a hand through his hair.

“Gavin...”

His eyes flash with lightning right before his head snaps past my door down the hall. He puts his hand up to shush me. “Someone’s here,” he whispers, his body tensing all over. “Wait here.”

A chill runs down my spine. I sense dark magic in the air, sparking like tiny bits of electricity as he walks away. The hairs on my body rise from the static. This can’t be happening. The Darkyn Coven was put down right along with Mourdyn.

I
suck in a brave breath, grab my father’s flux, and tip-toe to the window. I almost jump back. Darkyn Rebels swarm the grounds below, forming armed lines outside of every building as far as I can see. They wear the ouroboros patch, the snake eating its tail, on their black robes. Mourdyn’s Coven symbol.

How in the hell is there that many of them?

Gavin comes back in and meets me at the window. Volation sparks down his forearms and on into his flux. “There were two Darkyn Rebel Witches at the end of the hallway.” He peeks out the window. “Shit! How are there so freaking many of them?”

“I wondered the same thing,” I say, gripping the handle of my flux tighter. “Why are they here?” I can barely get the question out. I can barely hear the next words that come out of his mouth. I can barely keep my legs from buckling beneath me.

His face drops, and fear lingers around his pupils. “I think they’re here for you, Faye.” He reaches for the phone in his back pocket. “Cass and Jezi better get their asses here.” He types something into the phone and puts it back in his pocket. He starts for the door, but before he makes it one step he shouts, “Get down!”

He throws me to the floor, dropping his body over top of mine as the windows across from us shatter, blowing inward. Shards of glass crash to the floor and skid in our direction, slicing and biting at our skin. I barely catch my breath as I scramble to my feet, grabbing the flux that has fallen out of my hand in front of me.

Two men, hanging from nylon ropes and dressed in all black, swing through the open windows. Gavin has me by the back of my shirt, lifting me to my feet the moment the glass settles, and pushes me ahead of him for the door. I turn back just as they climb over the windowsill.

A dagger flies past me, barely missing Gavin’s ear. “Shit!” he yells as we slide across the shards of glass that dig into the bottom of my bare feet. He shoves me off to the side and whirls around, swinging the flux out in front of him. One of the black suited Witches lunges for Gavin, dark magic encircling his arms. Gavin ducks and clips the Witch’s legs out from under him.

In a sweeping motion, Gavin’s flux plunges through the Witch’s back with deadly precision. Lightning courses from Gavin’s body and into the first Witch as the other one stalks toward me with a dangerous gleam in his eye. Magic builds around his hands, charged with an evil I can smell. The door slams shut behind us. Everything is happening so fast. Too fast.

I falter back against the wall, my heart slamming again and again against my chest.
Think
, I tell myself, trying to steady my thoughts enough to keep me out of trouble. As if I’ve done it a million times, I force all of my power into the flux that so greedily accepts it.

The Witch freezes inches in front of me. Every light in my room goes out as I continue to pull on the electricity around me. It’s an urge I can’t resist. I want it all, all the power around me, filling me.

Though the Witch’s wide eyes are hidden behind a ski mask, his fear is prevalent. Slowly, he puts his hands in the air. In a flash, Gavin is behind him with his palm wrapped around the Witch’s forehead, exposing his pale throat. Gavin’s eyes lock on mine as the Witch struggles against his solid frame. The storm in Gavin’s eyes rages as he methodically slits the man’s throat. Sparks of lightning enter through the slit, rushing toward the Witch’s heart.

Gavin drops him without a second thought and reaches for my hand, pulling me over to him. His rough hands cup my face, forcing me to look up at him. “We’re going
to be fine,” he says calmly, his blue eyes anchoring me. He grins at me, full of confidence and excitement, like he’s made for this moment, like it’s an ordinary thing to be attacked by Darkyn Witches, and like he didn’t just kill someone.

He pulls my door open. Another Witch appears on the other side, blocking our escape. Before Gavin can react, the man’s fist shoots out, encompassed in dark magic, and catches Gavin square on the jaw. Black waves of magic ripple through the air from the impact. Gavin stumbles back into my arms.

“Gavin!” I shout as the Witch lifts his hand full of magic up for another round. Gavin shakes the hit off and retaliates with a spark-filled punch that slams the Witch into the wall, leaving a huge hole. He murderously stalks over to the Witch, forcefully yanking him out of the wall by the ears. He uses the momentum to knee the Witch in the face, and then tosses him down to the ground. The Witch collapses into an unconscious heap on the floor.

“Go!” He points to the cleared doorway. I don’t hesitate.

I run for it, my heart racing a mile a minute, with Gavin right on my heels. Heads of Elders peek out through cracks of open doors, but none of them offer us help. None of them try. I shove the front door open, only to stumble back. Two more men shove their way through. Long strips of dark magic shoot from one of the Witch’s hands and strikes Gavin in the face.

With a primitive growl, he charges them like a crazy man and hoists them up into the air. Rushing forward, he slams them through the wall and into another room. It’s an incredulous and frightening sight. I rush through the hole after him. He’s stabbing one of the Witches. The other is about to throw a spell at him. Without thinking, I aim and throw my flux, and it hits dead center of his heart. The Witch falls back and Gavin looks up. I rush over to Gavin and yank my flux from the Witch’s chest, trying not to think about the fact that I just killed someone.

Slowly, Gavin turns around and falls into a heap at my feet. He’s clutching his temples and groaning, rolling back and forth. I drop down to him, trying to steady him so I can see what’s wrong. The prospect of getting away is slipping through my fingers.

“Damn it!” he shouts through tight lips. “Bastards hit me with a curse,” he growls out. He shoves me off and pulls himself up using the wall, his arms flexing with strength. He tumbles back through the hole, nearly falling past me. I try to help him up but he says, “Keep going,” his voice constrained. Boils begin to appear on his cheeks and forehead, his face distorting from the dark magic.

“Gavin,” I say, trying to keep up with him as we make our way back to the front door. He doesn’t stop. I don’t even think he breathes.

He shoves the door open. A swarm of brightly colored magic strikes the air around us, and then a line of Darkyn Witches appear in front of us, all wearing black suits and horned masks.

“Give us the girl and we’ll relinquish the curse,” one of the Witches says with a sneer.

Gavin doesn’t even flinch. “Keep going,” he instructs, pulling me back around the side of the building. I don’t even notice the chill of the midnight air biting my skin. The
screams coming from the novices caught outside barely register. Katie pops into my head, and I pray that she’s in her room.

Witches run at our heels, dark magic flying past us. A spell clips me in my thigh and I scream out, the magic searing through the material of my pants and on into my skin. I’m too late to help Gavin by the time another rush of dark magic surges through the air.

“Ahhhh!” he shouts, dropping to his knees just outside the gymnasium.

“Gavin!” I cry out, dread releasing my pent up adrenaline. I stop and run back to him, feeling my own magic building within, and drag him the rest of the way through the gymnasium door. I pull him through the weight room and prop him up against the door. I touch the doorknob and spell it to only unlock under my command.

I call upon my Grimoire for something, anything that will help me heal him. A second later, the answer forms inside my mind. “Give me your hand,” I say confidently, reaching for him. I’m running on pure instinct, allowing it to get me through this. It’s all I have left.

He grabs a hold of my hand. His grip is weak. I have to hurry. My power connects to him the second we touch, merging our minds as one. The dark magic is spreading through him like a virus. Terror scratches at my resolve. He has but seconds until it reaches his heart. I can’t let that happen.

I focus on the curse, using the words from the spell the Grimoire gave me. “Curse of death, undo your bind, tether yourself to my light, and break from his mind.” The sparking tingle of magic grows within me until it explodes out of my hands, cleansing Gavin of the curse.

I yank him back to his feet. “You good?” I ask, searching his face. He nods. It’s enough to convince me. I quickly heal my leg, and then undo the lock on the door and peer down the hallway of the gymnasium. I don’t see anyone. “What now?” I ask him.

“We have to make it to the back of the building. There’s a hidden doorway to an underground safe house where we can stay until reinforcements get here and take them down. How does it look?”

“Clear.” I don’t sense anything either.