Insidious Winds (22 page)

“And we’ll stop him. First we have to free his
sacrifices. How do we stop the storm without bloodshed?”

“Since you killed Gale, the Shadow Master hasn’t had
the strength to bond with another familiar. Instead, he’s gaining power through
the manipulation of powerful kids. He sent me here to convince Grayson to summon
him. Controlling the sylphs takes a combination of magic from me, the Shadow
Master, and Grayson. The first step you’ve already taken; cutting the Shadow
Master’s connection to me. You can’t, however, cut all his connections— he has
too many.”

“So what’s the next step?”

“There are five crystals buried in a circle around
each of the schools that are binding our magic to the sylphs. If you can
disrupt them, you’ll break his control over them. They’re in the path of the
storm, though. The easier way out would be to stop Grayson from completing the
ritual. If the ritual is incomplete, the sylphs will break away without help in
a few days.”

“And the students?”

“Well, their energy will be drawn into the crystals
until they die. But I highly doubt you can break the circle.”

“I know how we can do it,” Vincent said. “I met a
friend a few years back who can make it through that storm without a scratch.”

I sensed Henry pushing the rarely-used link between
us open. Since he wasn’t as good at it as Darwin, I felt a flood of emotions
instead of words. I sensed self-loathing, panic, and anger. If it hadn’t been
so serious, I would have congratulated him on his range of emotion outside the
full moon. “
What’s wrong
?” I asked him instead.

“
I couldn’t get to him in time
.”

Darwin
.

“
I thought they were going after you each time,
but it was him
.”

“
I’ll be right there
,” I assured him.
“Vincent, we need to go. They got Darwin.” Darkness swarmed around us, for
Vincent wasn’t playing around. In seconds, the shadows consumed us and
relented, leaving us in the field between the university and dormitory. Vincent
was breathing heavy, as if the process had taken a lot of his energy.

Several students gasped in shock. The majority of the
student body and staff surrounded us, all preparing for the battle. Henry found
me quickly. “We’ll get him back. Felicity and Grayson were going to sacrifice
them, but they can’t do it now. The sylphs are going to try to take one more.”

“Do you know how to stop it?”

“Yes.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“We’re too late,” Vincent said, his voice weird. He
sounded afraid. Before I could even turn to him, the darkness surrounded him
and he vanished.

“Shit. Not again. Why can’t I have a fucking reliable
relative?”

“What did he mean by too late?”

“Nothing. He’s wrong. It’s up to us now.” I drew my
sword from its harness and raised the blade into the air. When my instincts
fired back up, I swung the blade and buried it into the ground. The ground
instantly began rumbling and a deep cracking sound emanated from the sword. I
tried to pull the blade out, but it had turned to stone again and was stuck
firmly.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Henry said,
grabbing my arm and pulling me away from it.

“I haven’t a clue.” I pushed my power into everyone
around me. I wasn’t trying to control them, so I didn’t face any resistance
except from several teachers who naturally blocked their minds. “
Everyone,
move away
,” I said, still not controlling them. Mostly out of shock,
everyone obeyed.

That kind of authority could become addictive.

My heart started speeding up, but I ignored it when
the ground started squirming. It was obvious what was happening; something was
rising from the dirt.

“Jackson was right! Zombies are attacking!” one of
the students screamed.

But this wasn’t zombies. The creatures were slow to
emerge from the ground, so it was a very sinister and exaggerated moment, which
was somewhat called for because they actually were pretty strange. Gnomes, the
elementals of earth, were much creepier than the ceramic ones found in gardens.
My only experience with them was the one time one of them helped me, and I was
pretty sure the elemental would have preferred to eat me and be done with it.

There were about thirty gnomes by the time the ground
settled down, and every damn one of them looked pissed. “You dare summon us,
Devon Sanders,” the one closest to me asked.

It took me a moment to respond because I was a little
focused on the fact that they were all male, despite earth being a female
element. “This storm is caused by the sylphs, who are being controlled by dark
magic. There are five crystals underground, inside each of the tornadoes. We
can’t get them because the storm is too strong. If you take the crystals, it’ll
break the spell.”

“Why should we care?” another gnome sneered.

“People are going to die if you don’t and you don’t
want the sylphs to be harmed.”

“We care nothing for sylphs.”

“What happens to the balance if they keep this up?
Just do it.”

“Do not presume to command us, mortal!”

“Fine, you clay-brained bastards. Do it, or I’ll kill
every fucking sylph that gets in my way and your precious balance be damned.”

The sneer weakened on a few of the masculine, bearded
little faces for a moment before all of them collectively scowled harder. “We
might be willing to make a deal,” another said.

“What do you want?”

“The crystals you speak of will contain powerful
magic. We will keep them for ourselves.”

I sighed, knowing Darwin was going to call me an
idiot when we got him back, but since he wasn’t here to explain the
consequences to me, I wasn’t going to dwell on it. “Fine. Okay, just do it fast
before anyone else gets taken.” All of them started digging and returned to the
ground. “I guess that meant they’d do it.”

“Where is Hunt?” Henry asked.

“No clue.” I glanced around the field of startled
students and teachers alike. “Alpha Flagstone, Vincent, and Langril are all
missing, too.” I almost missed the furious, gorgeous Remy approaching, but
nobody else did; everyone got out of her way fast.

“You’d better have an explanation,” she growled.

“Well, you see, there’s this tornado.”

“Not that, idiot! Where is Rosin?” she interrupted,
short-tempered as always.

“How the hell would I know? He’s your boyfriend, not
mine.”

“He was looking for you! He overheard a damn
conversation between my father and your uncle, and apparently it was bad enough
that he would betray my father to tell you.”

“When did he overhear this conversation?”

“Half an hour ago.”

A chill ran down my spine. “That’s not possible.
Vincent was with me until fifteen minutes ago.”

Fear added to the anger in her eyes, but before she
could argue, the atmosphere changed. The wind started to settle and the
lightning stopped lighting the sky. Fortunately, it was dusk, because the
vampires would have been in big trouble otherwise. It only took about five
minutes for the tornado to completely subside. It left a thousand-foot thick
ring of damage around the campus, including a new clearing in our forest.

And on the other side of that path was the wizard
council, who had no idea what we just went through. Darwin, Misty, and two
others appeared in a circle around the sword. Henry pulled it from the ground
and smacked Darwin in the back of the head. “If you ever worry me like that
again, I will lock you in the dungeon until you graduate.”

“How can I graduate if I can’t go to class?”

“Shut up and agree,” the jaguar snarled.

“Did I miss something?” Remy asked.

Amelia found us at that moment and, obviously knowing
Darwin had been missing, was too relieved to see him to stop herself. She
hugged him and hid her face in his neck. Since he was facing me, I saw the
shock on his face before Henry pulled her away from him.

“I’m sorry!” she gasped.

Darwin’s eyes were huge with shock and he touched his
throat gingerly. Then he checked his fingers, probably looking for blood.

“Darwin?” I asked.

He reached out, slowly, and touched her cheek very
softly with his bare hand. “It doesn’t hurt,” he whispered. He moved his hand
and reached for Henry, but the jaguar stepped back. Amelia took his hand
instead and threaded her fingers through his. It didn’t look like he was
physically capable of saying anything at the moment.

A shout made me turn my attention to the oncoming
battle. Once again, I let out my magic. “
Distance attackers, prepare to fire
!”

It only took a couple of seconds for the students to
get over the shock of hearing my voice in their heads. All of the students and
teachers got into position, some of them with bows and arrows. Everyone who
preferred defense and close range battle moved behind the long-range fighters.
It was mostly shifters and vampires behind the wizards and fae.

It occurred to me for the first time that our
teachers weren’t crazy at all. Most of our classes involved using magic for
battle and survival against opponents and nature itself. We had defense
classes, martial arts, and classes that actually required strategic thinking.
For this reason, everyone came together naturally, even the C-One newbies.

This was the paranormal community. This was four
factions of magical people who came together for common peace. Some of them
were barely eighteen, while some of the professors probably didn’t even
remember when they were born. It wasn’t an army and not everyone wanted to
fight. In fact, I knew many people standing in the sidelines were waiting to
heal anyone who was injured. There were those who were just here for support,
those who were here to help, and those who were prepared to fight for our
freedom and safety. Vampires were prepared to risk their lives for wizards, and
vice versa. There was no prejudice now; everyone here was a part of the
university.

Quintessence was exactly what our world needed.

I just wished the headmaster was here.

I changed my focus from the minds of my fellow
students and the staff to single out the council members. It was easier than I
had expected. “
You’re not welcome here. Back down while you have a chance
.”
I felt their surprise before they put up their defenses to push me out of their
minds. I could have fought them, but that wouldn’t have accomplished anything
because my power wasn’t infinite.

The university could be, however.

There were only eight members of the council who
faced us, since Grayson was missing. I would have to keep an eye out for him.
Four of them created a waved of fire, which was easily countered by a wall of
water from our lake. There went our water supply.

The other four wizards created extremely bright
spheres of light between their hands. I had a moment to wonder what the hell
they were trying to do before every vampire panicked, dived to the ground, and
tried to cover their faces.
Sunlight. Bastards
. “
Long-range, fire
!”

Arrows, fireballs, lightning, and even hail filled
the air, all creating a spectacular display. Unfortunately, they were met with
energy shields. The last attempt of the long-range attacks was a miniature tornado,
which was a minute behind the other attacks. It was enough; the spheres of
sunlight were extinguished and two of the council members were thrown a good
twenty feet. One was tossed away from the campus while the other landed in the
path that the storm had cleared.

That was enough to set the shifters off, as most of
them shifted and prepared to attack. Big cats, wolves, and other predators all
working together and focused on their prey was an impressive force. Even more
so was Professor Nightshade. Nobody had seen her shift, but in her dragon form,
nobody could miss her.

Henry looked at me and I nodded, giving him the cue
to shift. Darwin fidgeted. “I don’t know if I should shift. What if I attack
another student?”

“Trust your wolf. If he
wants
to attack other
students, don’t shift. If he wants to join the pack, we could use his help.”

He nodded and took off his hoodie before shifting
into his lithe wolf form. Dominance emanated from him easily, but he sat on his
haunches and studied me expectantly. Henry and I had spent many, many hours in
the company of Darwin’s wolf, but the beast was still unpredictable. After
being repressed for more than twenty years, I couldn’t really blame him.

Amelia kneeled in front of the wolf and hugged him.
“Don’t get hurt, Darwin.”

The wolf melted. His eyes closed and he nuzzled his
muzzle into her neck, making her giggle. Then he licked her ear, stood, and
joined Henry. Whereas Henry was still, poised, and solemn, Darwin wiggled
excitedly, obviously looking forward to the upcoming activity. It was very
likely a game to the wolf.

The long-range fighters were still using their
attacks, and the council was tiring of it. Three of them unleashed another
blast of fire, two created sunlight spheres, and Kale raised his hands unto the
air dramatically and directed lightning over the students. At least a dozen of
us were injured by the lightning alone while everyone on defense was focused on
stopping the fire.

“
Don’t cross the storm path no matter what they
do! They have traps on their side
!” I said to the students and teachers.
The attack began in earnest as the council crossed over to our side of the
path. One of the council members stepped on one of
our
traps and
collapsed into a deep pit. Four of the wolves converged on him. “
Maim and
disable them, but don’t kill unless you have no other choice! We want them to
surrender, not die
!”

Eight of them against hundreds of us sounded like a
cake walk, but they were trying to kill us and that was quite a bit easier than
not
killing. Although Kale’s lightning took out dozens of us at a time,
he couldn’t strike repeatedly. Most of the healers were fae, and they were
easily able to weave into the fight, gather up the injured, and get out without
injury. It helped that our defensive students all turned their attention to
protecting the healers who were in the thick of things.