Insidious Winds (11 page)

“Probably, yes.”

“Then we’ll need to plan our defense ahead of time.”

“Right. Darwin, you’re on rumor duty. Find out who is
for and who is against the council. Make sure there’s no outside contact; we
don’t want the council supporters getting word to them that we’re all okay.
Make sure nobody is trying to get themselves or each other killed. If you have
to, spread the word that this is a scare prank and virtually harmless.”

“Would I be lying?”

“Yes. This is definitely dangerous and people are
probably going to start dying if we can’t stop it, but we don’t want anyone
panicking. Misty vanished, but there was no blood and no body, so we can’t be
sure she’s dead.”

“But Grayson is Becky’s father. He wouldn’t try
something on the school with her here, would he?” Amelia asked.

“He tried to stop her from coming this semester. That
makes it more likely that they did this. Amy, help Darwin by making sure no one
is panicking and send them to Addison if they are.”

“I don’t have to lie, do I?” she asked.

“No. Addison, use your counseling to watch for any
shifters who are trying to take the storm for an excuse to get higher in the
food chain. You’d better put a revolving door on your… wait, did you even get
an office? I don’t want to tell you to put a revolving door on your bedroom.”

Henry made a grumble of agreement as Addie rolled her
eyes. “Yes, I have an office. I’m not a teacher, but I’m still staff.”

“Have you been to it yet?” Darwin asked. “You spend
more time in our room than we do.”

“Lay off her,” Henry said. “What do I do?”

“Make sure no one goes outside alone and set up
monitors to stand guard during their breaks. Students are still going to have
to get from class to the dormitory.”

“Headmaster Hunt hasn’t cancelled the classes?”
Amelia asked.

“If he shut down the classes every time his students
were murdered…” I let the sentence die because I really didn’t want to finish
the thought. “Alpha Flagstone is going to be gone for a few days. Don’t let it
be known that he can go in and out.”

“What are you going to do?” Addie asked.

“The best guess we have right now is that this is the
council’s doing. I’m going to go talk to Becky.”

I left the room and started on a hunt for Becky.
After checking her room, Brian’s room, the dining room, and the den, I came
across one of Becky’s roommates and asked the young cheetah shifter.

“Ask Alpha Watson.”

I would have pushed for a better answer, but there
was a hint of nervousness in her eyes that told me she really didn’t want to
know. That I could understand; Becky was the daughter of a council member.
Either the council was involved and Grayson was using her as a spy, or they
weren’t involved and Grayson was going to unleash hell on the school when he
found out his daughter was in danger.

I made my way cautiously across the deserted field
between the castle and dormitories. I knew that in the next couple of days,
some of the younger wizards who had more bravery than common sense would
venture outside to tempt fate.

Professor Watson’s classroom was empty, so I went to
his office. I knocked, received no answer, and started to leave, when the door
cracked open. I pushed it open and saw the office was empty, but I couldn’t
bring myself to leave. With no possible reason for entering the room, I did so
and shut the door behind me. The air seemed to vibrate, Watson appeared behind
his desk, and Becky appeared in the seat across from him.

“How can I help you, Devon,” Watson asked.

Becky was holding out her arm, where her new tattoo
was displayed on her wrist. It was the same one Li Na had. “Vive la
résistance?” I asked.

She grinned. “Yep. Did you think I would side with
the council?”

“PETA doesn’t have a tat?”

“It’s on my butt. Want to see?”

“Of course.” Professor Watson cleared his throat.
“I’m not here to get in the way of your club,” I told him. “I just need to talk
to Becky.”

“You want to know if the council did this?” she
asked. I nodded. “I don’t know. They haven’t said anything, but they never
would. I know my father is the only halfway powerful wizard on the council— the
rest are just politicians with magic tricks.”

“Is he powerful enough to do this?”

“On his own, no, but the woman he’s been having an
affair with is a pretty powerful bitch. Maybe he got her to help. I mean, she
doesn’t look too bright, but she seems like someone who enjoys making others
suffer.”

Once again, my instincts pushed me to ask more. “How
does she seem?”

She shrugged. “Well, she’s pretty hot on the outside.
If she wasn’t my father’s floozy, I probably would have… never mind. She’s
tall, petite, kind of Victoria Secret model-ish with that disheveled, fallen
angel look. She’s got really red hair, but her eyebrows were red, too, so I’m
pretty sure the carpets match the drapes.”

I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach.
No fucking
way. You can’t be serious
. “Her name isn’t Felicity is it?”

She blinked in surprise. “How did you know?”

I went to find my uncle and,
not surprisingly, he was in the north tower library. “I need to have a vision
of the council,” I said as I shut the door behind me.

He folded his hands across his book. “And you have
come to ask for my permission?”

“I need something of theirs to focus my vision on.
You must have something after being a council member for so long.”

He sighed. “Devon, some days, I wonder if you have
ever listened to a word I said. If you
need
to have a vision of the
council, you will. You can use objects to encourage your magic, but your
visions are designed in the same way your instincts are. I lack the instincts,
which is why I will never reach the potential you have. Your instincts will tie
your visions and mind control powers together. You must see all three as one,
and only then can you be the man you were meant to be.”

“But the mind control powers are---”

“No magic is evil. John’s magic made him insane
because he didn’t have your instincts. I am not innocent either. I have killed
people and used my magic for personal gain.”

“I killed John and Gale.”

“And for each, you have paid a price. I will never be
able to do enough good to make up for my sins. Furthermore, I will commit more
sins before I die. Learn from my mistakes. I thought that you being John’s son
meant that you were the same as him. I wanted you to be, because I wanted to
hate you. You are the man I could never be; whole. But I couldn’t hate you.”

“Because I remind you of my mother?”

“Because you are the light of her life and because
you should have been my son. Even more than that, you have taught me that you
are not the sum of your parents. It doesn’t matter that it’s John’s blood
inside you; you are not him. You are whoever you want to be. Put your ring on
and you will see what you need to.”

I tried to shake off the chills. Vincent really
believed I wasn’t his son. He also believed I was a good person despite that. I
slipped the ring on and my vision morphed. It wasn’t the wizard’s council or
Felicity that I saw, however. Instead, I saw a little boy sitting in a closet.
His face was visible from the light streaming in through a crack in the door.

His black hair and gold eyes were familiar, but his
skin was pale and only blemished by pinkness on his cheeks. Although he wasn’t
crying, he had been recently. He shook, terrified by what he heard, and pulled
his blue jacket tighter around him. I heard a woman scream and glass shatter.
He put his hands over his eyes and tried not to cry.

Something crashed into the door of the closet and
caused the door to spring open. Almost faster than my eyes could see, he
shifted from a tiny boy to a young, black jaguar and attacked. In the decimated
living room, three men were dressed in black uniforms with big guns, a
middle-aged couple was dead, and a little girl cowered beside the couch. The
little jaguar lunged at the first attacker before the black-clad man could even
scream and bit into his shoulder.

Although it was not a mortal wound, it sure as hell
hurt.

The two remaining assailants shot at the little
jaguar, but he was far too fast. He pounced on the second one and slashed the
stranger’s face with his claws. The man dropped to the ground and cowered.
Covered in the blood of two of his foes, the jaguar turned to face the final
opponent. Sleek, thin, bat-like wings spread open from his spinal column.

Realizing how very dead he was about to be, the
attacker dropped his gun and dived out the window, breaking the glass in the
process. Meanwhile, the little girl got out from behind the couch, grabbed a
bat from the closet, and tried to swing it at the young jaguar. She apparently
didn’t realize he had just saved her life.

After easily avoiding the hit, the jaguar leapt out
the broken window.

I took the ring off and the vision slipped away. “Did
you see the council?” Vincent asked.

I shook my head. “I saw something much more
important. Henry’s son needs help.”

*          *          *

“You saw my baby?” Henry asked breathlessly.

“Actually,” I stopped packing my backpack. “I’m very
sorry to tell you this, but he’s a little bit bigger than when you last saw
him. I can tell you he has your talent. The kid might actually be even stronger
and faster than you.”

The relief literally choked him. Fortunately, Darwin,
Henry, Marcus, and I were in our room. I didn’t think Henry told Addison about
his son and this wasn’t the time for it.

“Those guys looked too official to have just been
breaking into a random house. I can’t say who or what they were after, but I’m
not willing to take any chances. Darwin, use your research skills to track the
boy’s orphanages. Henry, do whatever it is you do and help Darwin. I’ll use my
instincts.”

“Maybe…” Henry hesitated. “Maybe he’s safer out
there.”

“Henry, I know you grew up thinking you’re a monster,
but if there is anything I learned since coming here, it’s that nothing is that
black and white. I saw that little boy. He’s alone, afraid, and probably has no
idea what he is. He needs his father. Monster or not, Scott needs you.”

Henry nodded, but grabbed my arm before I could turn
away. “Show me what he looks like. I’ve drawn him thousands of times, but all
from imagination. Does he look like his mother?”

I shook my head. “I could show you what he looked
like in my vision, but you need to see him in person. We’ll find him. Trust
me.”

“So, not to burst any bubbles or anything, but how
are we supposed to get out of here?” Darwin asked.

“We’ll go through the shadow…” I stopped. Darwin and
Marcus had never killed anyone, so they couldn’t go through the shadow pass.
“We’ll go talk to Hunt. Maybe there’s an underground passage or something.”

I was about to grab the doorknob when Henry grunted.
I turned to him just as he stumbled and pressed his hand to his forehead. When
I reached for him to try to catch him, Marcus passed out beside me.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“Tired…” Henry said.

Darwin collapsed. I couldn’t touch Darwin, so I
checked Marcus’s pulse. It was strong. Henry fell to his knees for a moment
before passing out. I slapped Henry’s face lightly and shook him, but he didn’t
stir. I reached into his mind and found nothing suspicious. He wasn’t having a
vision, a magically induced nightmare, or even dreaming. I reached for Darwin’s
mind and found exactly the same thing. Neither of them responded to me.

I jumped up, jerked open the top drawer of my desk,
and pulled out one of my healing potions. Just as I turned back to my friends,
I heard, “Hello, Devon Sanders.” I jumped out of my skin and turned back to see
Adesra sitting on my desk.

Adesra was an undine— a water elemental. She was
actually my first introduction to the elementals. So far, she was my favorite.
Her voice was young and warm, like a child’s. She looked to be in her early
twenties, but the fact that she was only six inches tall made it difficult to
be sure. Her eyes were light blue, as was her waist-length hair. Her face was
rounded and youthful. She wore a dress made of some kind of ethereal,
translucent, sparkling material that changed shades of blue with her movement.
Large, blue-tented iridescent wings fluttered slowly behind her.

I sighed. “You did this?” I gestured to my roommates
and Marcus.

She didn’t even look at them. “They will sleep. I
helped you once, Devon Sanders, and now I need you.”

“Now isn’t a good time.”

“Time means nothing to us. Only the balance is
important, and it has been threatened.”

“I thought that’s why the fire elementals wanted me
to destroy the tower; to keep the balance from… going unbalanced.”

“The sylphs have been turned against the balance.”

“How can I help? I haven’t even met them yet.
Seriously, why are you coming to me of all people?”

“You are the only one who can stop them.”

“Bullshit. I don’t buy that for a second. I’m not the
most powerful, the kindest, the smartest, or the bravest wizard. My heart is
damaged so I can’t take as many risks as others. Plus, saving Astrid is more
important to me than fixing your problems.”

“If you do not stop the sylphs, you will never have
the chance.”

“Help me save Henry’s son and I’ll help you.”

She sighed, her face filled with sorrow. “You must be
quick, Devon Sanders.”

“There’s a magical storm surrounding the university
and something inside of it is taking people. How do I get out of the school?”

“The sword of the balance will call a beast to you
who can control the storm long enough for you to get through. Please help us,
Devon Sanders.”

“I’ll do what I can, but only after I help Henry with
his son. Can you help me find him?”

“You have everything you need.”

Yeah, that’s about what I expected. “Wake up my
friends and come back when we have Scott.”

She nodded gravely and vanished. Marcus and my
roommates immediately started stirring, but it took a few minutes before they
could gather their wits. “What happened?” Darwin asked.

“Adesra, the water elemental from my first semester,
was here. She said we needed a sword of the balance.”

“You didn’t make another deal, did you?”

I explained everything that transpired while they
slept.

“The sword of the balance? Was she referring to the
flaming sword?”

“Probably. At the very least, we can use it in
protecting Scott.”

*          *          *

Five minutes later, we were making our way cautiously
across the yard to get to the castle. Halfway there, Henry jerked me backwards
a split second before I sensed something moving in front of me. “Can you see what’s
attacking us?”

“No. I can smell something and I can see their
movement, but not their physical forms. They’re all around us, but only a few
are making the dives.” The words were barely out of his mouth before he was
shoved forward by something invisible. We ran the rest of the way.

“Why didn’t it get you?” Darwin asked when I shut the
main door of the castle behind us. Because the glass door was not exactly
protective, I pushed him to hurry down the hallway.

“I don’t know. It could have easily,” Henry answered
calmly. As he led the way, we saw deep cuts down his back through his shredded
shirt.

We went down to the underground level and entered the
morgue, which was right across from the infirmary. I could hear Dr. Martin
chatting to himself in German before I shut the door. The lights came on
automatically. “We’re in a morgue?” Marcus asked. “You have a morgue in your
school?!”

“It’s not my school; I’m just a student here.” I
pulled open the bottom door to the cubby furthest from the door. Darwin crawled
into it.

“What are you doing?” Marcus asked.

“Well, there are hundreds of secret passages and
compartments here, but we don’t know how many other people know about them. So,
we made our own,” I explained. I heard Darwin kick loose one of the metal
panels. “Only Darwin is small enough to fit inside and maneuver the sword out.”

Henry grabbed the sword handle when Darwin pushed it
out, then my youngest roommate slid out and dusted himself off. I took the
sword gently, studied the shining, double-edged blade and simple black handle,
and thought of fire as I swung the sword slowly. The blade glowed red, then
faded when it stilled.

“We need a scabbard for it. What do we do with it?” I
asked, looking at Darwin.

He shrugged. “I definitely wouldn’t set it aflame and
stick it in the windstorm. The history of the paranormal world suggests we
would end up with a fire storm on our hands. She said we could summon a
creature that could control the storm, so I’d think we need a beast of the air
element.”

“Which is?”

“Anything that flies. Now, if we narrow it down to
real-world mythical creatures, we’ve got sixteen beasts that are at least a
likely possibility. Of those sixteen, only five have the magic to control the
storm. Only one of these exists for sure without being created.”

“Which is?” I repeated.

He grimaced. “You really need to see for yourself.
These guys can only be controlled by very powerful wizards. They’re more likely
to eat you than help.”

I nodded. “Of course they are. How could anything be
easy? So how can we call this creature?”

“You’re the wizard.”

“Yes, but you’re the one who reads all the books.” I
grinned at his scowl.

He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Use your instincts.”
He walked out then, so we followed.

“We will get expelled if we leave without
permission,” Henry said.

“Your son is more important,” I said.

Darwin scoffed. “Hunt’ll never expel us. He loves us!
We keep the place jumping.”

Marcus stopped. “Wouldn’t it make more sense for you
guys to ask his permission? That way, if he agrees, you won’t get in trouble.
If he says no, then you sneak out anyway.”

My roommates glanced at each other. “Your human has a
point,” Darwin said.

“Don’t start,” I told him. We went to the
headmaster’s office, which was not far from the underground floor, especially
when I could actually make the trip shorter by concentrating on finding him.
When we reached his office, I knocked.

“Come in, Devon,” the headmaster answered.

I opened the door, but didn’t enter. Hunt was
standing behind his desk and reading out of a book while ingredients prepped
themselves on his desk. There was a knife cutting roots and bottles pouring out
into measuring tools, all without his touch. “Holy shit,” Marcus commented.

“We’re going to save Henry’s son,” I said. “Is that
going to be a problem?”

Instead of answering, he waved his hands at the
ingredients, which all assembled into a fist-sized, brass sphere that had a
tiny hole in the top. The levitating sphere suddenly burst into white-hot
flames. This light show went on for nearly a minute before the fire died and
the sphere cracked right down the middle.