Insidious Winds (18 page)

It was silent for a moment before my instincts told
me to hide. I couldn’t risk crossing the doorway to hide on the other side and
there was no way I could make it up the ladder before someone came out of the
room. Out of options, I hid in the dark corner beside the ladder. Just a few
seconds later, two members of the council walked out. I recognized them from
the one time I had seen the entire board gathered to hear Darwin’s case, but I
didn’t remember their names. Obviously, they were better men than Kale.

The first one headed up the ladder without incident.
The second reached the third step before he noticed me. I knew he saw me
because he stopped and stared, as if he wasn’t sure what to do. I put my finger
to my lips. After a moment, he looked forward and headed up the ladder without
a word. I returned to the door.

“… will be tomorrow evening. We will start setting up
in the morning. That way, Grayson won’t have a chance to warn Logan.”

“What if he goes there tonight?”

“He won’t; he’s going to see his girlfriend tonight.”

“How are we going to get in? That storm is powerful.”

“We have an artifact in the vault that can bind our
magic for about three minutes. It should be enough time for us to bring Logan’s
storm down. We’ll surround the school and have wards in place. We have weapons
to stop the fae and shifters from crossing the border we’re going to make
around the castle. We’ll have to overwhelm the wizards with magic and magical
weapons. The vampires will be easy pickings; shoot the windows out when the
others are defeated.”

I heard rustling as the wizards prepared to depart,
so I turned off my recorder and hightailed out of there. I reached the original
room I had entered into, which was a service entrance and mud-room off of an
old kitchen, without incident.

I searched for my friends’ minds and sensed them
quickly. “
How is it going
?” I asked.

Darwin, who was better at responding mentally,
answered. “
Well, we had a spot of bother with one of the council members
spotting us, but the dude just turned and walked away without a word. We
thought he might have been going to rat us out, but no one else has come in.
We’re heading your way now
.”

I started to get worried when they still hadn’t
arrived after fifteen minutes. I was just about to go out into the hallway to
look for them when the door opened and they entered. Henry radiated irritation,
which he usually only did during the full moon. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Pea-bladder here insisted on going to the bathroom,
after which we immediately ran into Kale.”

“Did you realize how much Kale and Gale are alike?”
Darwin asked. “Aside from their given names, Gale was human who killed for
power while Kale is a wizard who kills for power, they’re both less than they
think they are, and they’re both douchecanoes.”

I sighed. “Focus, Darwin. What happened?”

“I punched him and we left,” Henry said.

“He didn’t call for help?”

“He started to, which was why I punched him.
Afterwards, he was just crying on the floor with a broken jaw. Should we feel
sorry for him?”

“You might be sorry you didn’t break his nose as well
when you hear what I caught on tape.”

I checked on Scott again when
we got back in the truck and found him to be sleeping peacefully in the
abandoned cabin. Darwin showed me what all they took from the vault as Henry
drove us back to the university. Other than the power-neutralizing cuffs that
Darwin had told me about before, he only recognized a few of the artifacts.
Along with some cursed jewelry, there was a hollow, glass globe full of fire,
some peculiar tarot cards, a set of iron chains, silver bullets, and a
collection of well-used silver stakes. Knowing the council could have been
looking into poisons, Darwin and Henry had also grabbed every bottle of blood,
vial of oil, sack of herbs, and potion they could find.

If a police officer pulled us over, we probably would
have been arrested just on suspicion.

Henry parked in the car lot when we got back to the
school and I retrieved the sword before we faced the storm. Because facing a
tornado was a brilliant idea.

I raised the sword up into the air with the blade
pointed towards the sky. Just like before, wind swirled around it and grew to
surround me. When the blade started glowing faintly, I released my power into
the storm, effectively letting it inside. The only thing weirder than having a
storm in my mind was having a
living
storm inside my mind.

The situation had gotten worse. This storm was an
affront to nature. I put my priorities aside this time and let the storm reveal
its secrets. The wind pushed against the sword until it was downward. Allowing
the wind its way, I sunk the blade into the ground.

“What are you doing?” Darwin asked, almost having to
yell to be heard over the wind.

The ground rumbled and a split formed in the dead
grass before the sword. “Oh, shit.” I tried to pull the sword out, but it
wouldn’t budge. The ground trembled with a very small earthquake. I pulled with
all my strength and only managed to wiggle it. “It’s stuck on something!”

“They’re going to kill us if we cause another
earthquake that brings down the new dorms!” Darwin said.

Henry took hold of the handle and twisted it. I heard
rock crumble before he pulled it out. To our shock, the blade had changed from
finely crafted metal to bulky, crudely chiseled, gray stone.

“What the hell?” Darwin asked.

“No clue,” I answered. When his mouth dropped open in
shock, I turned to see Adesra floating about a foot away from me at eye level.
Henry started to attack, but I waved him off and he froze. She gave him a scowl
before turning back to me.

“You said you would help us, Devon Sanders.”

“I said I would help you with the sylphs. How does
causing an earthquake…? Wait. The air elementals are causing this?” I asked,
pointing at the offending tornado.

“They have been turned against the balance. You must
help us.”

“I will. How?”

“Omonus will seek all four keys. He will open the way
and destroy our balance.”

“Omonus? Who the hell is Omonus?”

“We do not speak the name of death. He hears his name
and sees all who speak it.”

Krechea
. “Omonus means death? How do we stop
him? He hasn’t been able to get the key yet.”

“To attain the key, you must have the balance on your
side. Omonus will use another to get the key.”

“Who?”

“She was unclean and sought purification. She will
win the key for Omonus and death will spill across the lands in a darkness that
is undefeatable.”

“Who?” I asked more forcefully.

“Heather Anne.”

“Not the sugar princess,” Darwin remarked.

I had learned after her death that Heather had a
reputation for being entirely innocent and selfless, but she had always seemed
a bit mysterious to me. Of course, I saw her more frequently after her death
than before it. “Actually, that makes sense. It was Langril’s intention that
Heather would get the key.”

“So Omonus is Professor Langril?”

“No, Omonus is the shadow man,” I said, purposely not
saying Krechea’s name. “Right?” I asked Adesra.

She nodded. “You are correct, Devon Sanders. The one
you call the shadow man will escape from Dothra, develop a following on this
world, and then force Heather Anne to attain the fourth key for him. Once he
has the key, he will kill the others and take their keys.”

“How do I stop him?”

“You must retrieve the last key before Heather Anne
does.”

“Can’t I just stop Heather?”

“The only way to stop Heather Anne is to kill her.”

“She’s already dead,” Darwin pointed out.

I rubbed my eyes. “Yeah, but I don’t think I could
kill her. If I could, Langril would kill me. If Heather and I both die, there’s
no way Kre… I mean, Omonus… there would be no way he could get the key, right?”

“That is incorrect. There are many children Omonus
can train to attain the key for him when they become strong enough.”

Train them
?
Like he tried to do to Astrid
?
“Can Astrid get the key?”

“As of now, no, she cannot.”

“Why not?”

“What is most precious to her cannot be sacrificed.”

What’s most precious to her
? I couldn’t make
the words come out of my mouth. I wanted to know, but not from Adesra. “You’re
sure of this? You’re sure that the only possible way for me to stop the shadow
man is to get the key?”

“Yes.”

“I’m supposed to be the one with visions of the
future. Why haven’t I had a vision warning me of this?”

“The fire elementals have determined that your
visions with Heather Anne endanger you. By purifying you of your unclean blood,
they are protecting you and---”

“My what?!” I interrupted, suddenly and unreasonably
angry.

Adesra was unconcerned. “Your blood was tainted by
the shadow realm. You have since returned to the shadow realm, so the effect of
the purification has already begun fading.”

“How do I help the sylphs so they’ll stop this damn
storm?”

“You must break the magic that controls the sylphs.”
With that, she vanished.

“Is she always that helpful?” Darwin asked
sarcastically.

“Pretty much.” Henry started to raise the sword when
the three griffins appeared. “Okay…” I said. We followed the griffins back through
the tornado. Once we reached the other side safety, I turned and saw all three
of them vanish.

“What’s the plan?” Darwin asked.

“We’ll go to bed tonight, wake up in the morning, and
get ready for battle.”

*          *          *

Instead of going back to our room, however, I went to
Langril’s room while my roommates went to bed. I listened for a moment before
knocking just in case I could overhear something.

But alas, it was quiet. “Come in,” Langril said when
I raised my hand to knock. I opened the door, entered, and shut it behind me.
Langril was in his bed on top of his covers, with a business shirt, dress
pants, and muddy boots. Without looking at me, he tossed his red ball up in the
air and caught it.

“How did you know I was there?” I asked.

“For the same reason you knew I was here.”

“I knew you were here because this is your bedroom
and you don’t teach night classes.”

“You knew I was here because you needed me to be
here. No matter how diluted your blood is, you are still a descendent of Dothra
and therefore a being of the shadows. For us, to understand something is to
control it. That’s why I can control you.”

“You don’t understand me at all.”

“Really? Then you’re not going to make a deal with
Heather to save Astrid?”

I didn’t answer, but it wasn’t because he had a
point. “One of the water elementals said that the storm was caused by the
sylphs. How can Krechea have enough power to control them after I killed Gale?”

“I find it very interesting that you come to me
instead of Vincent or Logan,” he said. “He has plenty of power in Dothra, but
he does not yet have the power to affect our world. If he was here, that would
be another story.”

“So Felicity is helping him.”

“Someone is, but if Felicity is involved, she’s not
alone. This is a summoning.”

“Another one?”

“I have seen this magic before; there must be
thirteen sacrifices in order to summon Krechea here completely, without a
contract or a key. Be glad; the missing students are still alive. They will
live until the sylphs have taken the twelfth sacrifice.”

“You said thirteen.”

“The thirteenth sacrifice doesn’t have to be
kidnapped; it’s a self-sacrifice.”

“So we have until the eleventh victim is taken. Why
don’t they have enough yet? There are three schools and they’ve only taken a
few people. And why is it only over the schools?”

“Someone chose to use Logan’s students as the
sacrifices, but the requirements are very specific. They can’t just take twelve
kids. If I had my old books, I could tell you who they’re going to go after,
but I’m a bit rusty. I remember that they have to have a child who has been
raped before puberty, someone who has hurt the person they love most, someone
who has witnessed absolute evil without letting it scar them, and a virgin. The
rest of them, I don’t remember.”

“Well, those are pretty specific requirements. We
might have enough time after all. How do I stop the sylphs?”

“The person who cast the magic will have something in
place to bond it. You’ll have to find the focus source.”

“I have to track down Felicity then. There’s also the
key to deal with. Adesra, the water elemental, also said Krechea was going to
use Heather to get the key. What’s most important to Heather?” If I couldn’t
get the key myself, maybe I could prevent her from getting it. He just smirked
at me until I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Don’t answer my question, but don’t expect
me to trust you.”

“If I gave you all the answers and only told you the
truth, I wouldn’t need you to trust me.” He tossed his ball up in the air
again.

I sighed. “Okay. You’ve never once made any attempt
to hide that you will do whatever is best for you. I trust that you will do
whatever you have to do to get your way. I also believe that you don’t want to
destroy Earth or enslave humans.”

“Well, a couple of human servants would be nice,” he
interrupted.

“My point is, I believe we have the same immediate
goal of preventing Krechea from making it to Earth. Is that correct?”

“Oversimplified, but essentially, yes.”

“So tell me what I need to know to do that.”

He sat up. “Now you’re getting it. What you need to
know is that there are two paths you can take. One is that of a hero, and the
other is that of a wizard. If you choose to be a hero, you’ll lose everything
important to you, struggle to figure out how to fix a broken world, and then
die from your curse. However, you will die knowing you did make the world a
better place. If you choose to be a wizard, you will have just as many enemies,
but fewer allies. You’ll live a life fighting not to become your father, toeing
your own moral boundaries, and eventually getting far more powerful than you
ever wanted to be. You will succeed in the end, though. Should you choose this
path, you will have everything you ever wanted, you’ll defeat the greatest
threats to the paranormal community, you will be feared, and you will die
peacefully and painlessly.”

“I don’t like either option.”

“Well, get over it, cupcake. This is life. If you
don’t like it, you can go to Dothra.”

“What choice can I make that will result in the least
deaths?” I asked.

“You’re the one with visions.” He tossed his ball to
me and I caught it instinctively.

*          *          *

A vision instantly came over me. I saw the castle
burning, heard the screams of powerless mortals, and smelled a sweet mixture of
blood, fire, and death. That was the tipoff that I was in another’s mind; I
could smell death. It wasn’t the scent of rot or dirt; it was entirely unique
and indescribable.

The vision changed to see Krechea standing in front
of the tower. His shape was humanoid, but it also made my skin crawl, as if
there was something subconsciously wrong, or twisted. I couldn’t really
describe him because the light would not reach him. Light was reflecting off of
everything around him as if my eyes weren’t meant to focus on inanimate
objects. From these eyes, I could see Krechea as a solid body of darkness.
These were not the same eyes I was seeing out of before; these were the eyes I
had seen Scott through.

My familiar.

Krechea held up his hands and all four doors opened
at once. When they did, it was light, not darkness that poured out of the
tower. At this point, it dawned on me what I was seeing; this was what would
happen if Krechea got the key.

What if I make a deal with Heather and have her
get the key
? That wouldn’t be the hero thing to do, but it wasn’t what John
would have done either.

My vision changed again. Now I saw through my own
eyes as Heather handed me a cloth sack. I could feel something like a large
coin inside it. “What did you have to sacrifice?” I heard myself asking. It was
a very odd sensation.

She smiled. “Don’t worry about me. I wanted to lose
what is most important to me. And with this deal, I’m free, right?”

“That was the contract.”

Even so, it’s wrong to make someone else give up
what is most important to them
. My vision changed again. This time, I saw
Astrid. I was still in my own mind, still feeling my real sensations and
thoughts. I felt cornered, like I had no options left to me. Astrid stood
facing me and we were surrounded by men who were all fading in and out,
tendrils of shadows wafting from them as if it were smoke. It was as if they
were made of darkness and only mimicking corporeal form.

“There’s no other way,” Astrid said.