Insidious Winds (31 page)

“No!” Astrid said. “Dothra is dangerous even for the
most powerful wizards! You can’t---”

I opened my mouth to interrupt her. What I was going
to say exactly, I have no idea, because a hand clamped over my mouth before I
could. Blackness swirled around me and the last thing I saw was pain in
Astrid’s eyes.

Then the blackness cleared and I was in the tunnel
with Vincent, Heather, and the five young vampires. “Take me back to her!” I
yelled. Vincent’s expression was of sympathy as he shook his head. I punched
him. “She needs me, bastard!”

Before I could fight him off, he pushed me into the
black abyss of the tower.

I landed hard on the ground.
It was easier to feel anger than the heavy depression trying to overthrow me.
The five vampires, Heather, and Vincent followed. The door closed behind him.
“How could you leave her?” I asked.

“I am not a hero,” he answered. “Nor am I selfless.
Astrid means nothing to me, whereas you’re important, so I am
not
going
to let you sacrifice your soul.”

“You don’t get to decide my fate.”

“I do, because I’m more powerful than you.” He looked
at Heather and she froze. “I am going to make a deal with you. You’re going to
bring Astrid here and send me to Dothra to destroy the tower. Then Devon’s soul
will be free. Until the moment I die, you will do everything Devon says so long
as it doesn’t endanger him or his soul.”

She looked stunned. “I’ve never heard of making a
deal for someone else before, but I can do it.”

“His soul will never go to Dothra.”

“I can make it so that he is unable to ever step
through that door again.”

I reached for Vincent’s arm, not sure if I was going
to try to stop him or thank him for agreeing to save Astrid, but the tingle in
my palm stopped me. I turned my hand over to see that the symbol was glowing
white. “What the hell is wrong now?”

Vincent held up his hand to show that his, too, was
glowing. “I have no idea. This has never happened before.”

“It’s because three of the four keys are together,”
Langril said, appearing out of the darkness.

“I heard you were killed,” I said.

“Oh, from Bedrel? She hatessss my gutssss,” he said,
drawing out the “s” like the snake monster had. “She always tells everyone I’m
dead.” He hugged Heather and kissed her forehead. “You need a bath,” he told
her, then turned back to us. “If Logan was here, we would have a big problem.”
He pointed to the tower. Three of the four doors were opening slowly.

“Why would that be a problem?”

“Because Krechea is here. He disguised himself as
Vincent and tried to convince Logan to be here at this moment. Fortunately, you
and Remy had your little conversation and she told her father that Vincent was with
you. Otherwise, he would be here and we would all be doomed.”

“Then it would make sense for us to not be together
here anymore,” I said, putting my hand on the smallest vampire girl’s back to
guide her over to her companions. I figured Vincent and Langril could get the
nine of us out in one go.

“You’re right,” Langril said. “We can’t risk Krechea
getting all four keys.”

I didn’t like the tone of his voice. “Did you find
something out?”

“Yes, I did. We must never let Krechea get his hands
on all four keys, no matter what.” He made a wide sweep motion with his hand
and I suddenly couldn’t move a muscle. Well, I could move my eyes, but my arms
and legs were locked in place. I couldn’t speak. Langril calmly kissed his
daughter’s forehead again and approached Vincent. “I always knew you were a
better man than Logan,” he told my uncle as he took Vincent’s arm.

Vincent was apparently unable to move of his own
accord, but his legs walked him after Langril… right into one of the doors of
the tower. As soon as they both vanished, the three doors slammed closed and I
could move again. I pretty much stared motionless with my mouth open.

“What just happened?” Heather asked, sounding
panicked.

“Do you know what world that was?”

“No idea. Check the seal on your hand.”

I did, and it was the exact same as the one engraved
onto the door they disappeared through. I held out my hand to the door and the
edges lit up. I could feel that it was opening. I was going to go in after
Vincent. This was my fault; it wouldn’t have been open if it weren’t for me. It
was also Langril’s fault; I was going to kill the bastard once and for all.

A hand wrapped around my arm and pulled it down. I
turned to punch whoever was stopping me from saving my uncle… and stopped
myself from hitting Vincent. I gaped. “How?”

He looked down at himself. “I don’t know. I was there
and then I was back. I’m okay.” He hugged me, like a father would. It didn’t
matter that I was thirty-one or that I was bigger than him. What mattered was
that I had a very bad day and this was the most human Vincent had ever acted.

That was what I needed to be; not a hero like Cody or
a selfish coward like John. I could just be human.

“We’ll figure out a way to save Astrid that doesn’t
include anyone getting trapped in Dothra,” Vincent said, pulling away.

I nodded. “Okay. We have a couple of days.”

*          *          *

Vincent dropped me off in Hunt’s office, where Hunt
and Flagstone were waiting, and took the others to the infirmary. Heather was
in a state of panic over her father. Less than a minute after I appeared in the
office, Darwin and Henry barged in without knocking. Apparently, they had
sensed my presence.

I had only been gone half a day.

When Vincent returned, I explained to all of them
what had happened on Dothra. “How is this possible? How could I be gone six
months there… or Astrid was… and then be back here on the same day. Please tell
me this isn’t time travel.”

“Not time travel, no,” Hunt said. “Such is a myth.
However, there is no time between the barriers of the worlds. I suspect that
you lost six months when you entered Dothra and gained it back when you
returned.”

“So… Astrid is safe for the moment? We have six
months to stop this from happening?”

“We have six months from our perspective before
Astrid experiences what you did and you get your message that she is ready to
close the door. From her perspective, she has not yet met up with you again and
has no idea what is to come.”

“Then I can save her.”

“I am afraid not. Until the point in which your paths
crossed in both worlds, you will not be able to contact her. Instead, you will
have six months to come up with a
plan
to save her; a plan which must
take a matter of hours to carry out.”

“But she was alone for six months!”

“I understand. However, if you attempt to contact
her, you risk a paradox that will destroy both worlds. You must let her live
out the timeline you saw.”

All I could see at the moment was the heartbreak in
her eyes.

*          *          *

Darwin threw a roll that hit Scott in the head. When
Scott looked up and glared at Darwin, Darwin pointed to me. Scott rolled his eyes
and went back to eating. Then, a few seconds later, Henry tossed a roll that
hit Darwin in the head. When Darwin looked up in shock, Henry pointed at
Addison.

One thing very certain about Quintessence was that
life moved on. No student had died this year and that made the students rather
festive. It was April, a month after my trip to Dothra, so there was only a
month left of school and everyone figured that anyone who was going to die
would have already.

I wasn’t so sure.

One potion was all it took to heal my shoulder and
then I returned to my classes and my training with Vincent and Hunt. The first
month sped by. I was constantly aware of every shadow, certain that it was
Krechea or one of his men poised to attack. It wasn’t with fear that I faced
these shadows. I wanted to kill Krechea, knowing that would solve Astrid’s
problems. It had to.

My training was no longer about the air element,
which Vincent told me I passed. Instead, Hunt and Vincent focused on teaching
me to use my magic against Krechea. Apparently, getting the key tested my
elemental
powers, such as wisdom (air), bravery (fire), endurance (earth), and healing
(water). The choice I had at the end was the final element— spirit.

My gargoyle didn’t return except for the one time I
asked him to attend my familiar class to prove to the professor that I had
successfully called him. Other than that, he was too busy doing whatever
gargoyles did and I never summoned him. Occasionally, I would have a vision
that was important enough for him to go somewhere himself and have a look. I
figured he would be very handy in my investigations, particularly in stakeouts,
because it didn’t bother him at all to sit in one spot motionless for days at a
time.

The glass sphere Hunt gave me didn’t return. I fully
expected it to materialize exactly when I needed it most and no sooner. One
other thing I never figured out was what Ghost’s problem was, since Vincent
didn’t know and the cat hadn’t shown up again.

With Dr. Martin’s help, Heather was able to create a
potion that could expel any shadow walker who tried to possess someone, but it
wasn’t powerful enough to work against Krechea and it was a one-time fix. She
insisted that only her father would be able to create a permanent means of
keeping another soul out of someone’s body. Hunt had a reasonably reliable
method, which involved a tattoo made with some very rare oils. However, since
these oils were deadly to nine out of ten people, it wasn’t anyone’s first
choice. I would stick with Heather’s potion for the time being.

As our classes got more in-depth throughout the
semester, the students stopped worrying about the magic I displayed at the battle
of the wizard council. It was still a big deal, but Darwin eased the rumors by
telling people I had used Hunt’s help to do what I did. Even so, there was one
huge, unexpected outcome; Professor Roswell acted like I single-handedly saved
the school, so there was no way he would flunk me for missing too many days.

Darnell never bothered me again after the battle,
although I didn’t think any of the students actually knew why, since none of
them had been paying attention when he attacked me.

Hunt and Vincent spent a lot of time away from the
school to get the wizard council back in working order. The two wizards who had
refused to attack the school were the only two who stayed on the council. The
eleven remaining positions in the inner circle were still open, but Hunt and
Vincent were working with other powerful leaders of the paranormal community to
make the council into what it had been originally designed to be. The new
council would have the power to protect wizard rights without limiting the
rights of any other paranormal or human. However, they wouldn’t have the power
to inflict terror and cause the paranormals to choose sides.

They were also in the process of undoing the damage
the council had already done. When Hunt personally brought Jackson’s son into
the dining room, Jackson cried. It was the first time he got to see the baby.
Unfortunately for him, he had to send the baby back home after only a few
hours. We were all surprised that the council had been able to take good care
of the newborn.

When Theo was overly enthusiastic about having me
back in class, I finally asked him why. Apparently, he nearly failed the
previous semester and decided to use my determination to force him to stay on
track by working next to me and partnering me as often as possible. Since he
always did his part, hadn’t said a disrespectful thing to me all semester, and
never tried to cheat, I didn’t have a problem with it. He was actually a good
person to discuss books and potions with.

I got another little shock when it came to building
wizard staffs in
Tools of Magic
. I tried to make a staff like the one I
had used during the test, but the woodwork was ridiculously difficult. Oddly
enough, I could remember every detail. I tied a crystal to the top of it, but
the crystal was just clear all the way through and I couldn’t figure out how to
burn it into the wood like the other one was.

I was carving it at the dining room table after my
last class of the day when my instincts fired up. It was more than just
intuition; I knew what was going to happen. This was my vision powers, just
without the vision.

I went outside with my unfinished staff, into the
courtyard, and looked up at the castle roof. Jackson was pounding away with a
hammer to fix several tiles. I figured he was in detention for something. He
set the hammer down to move a tile. When the hammer started to slide, he
scrambled to fix it… and started sliding down as well. With each second, he
gained momentum and lost traction. His hands grasped desperately for any
purchase until he ran out of roof to grasp at and was free-falling.

There was no epiphany or urgency as I raised my staff
up slightly. “Stop,” I said, as if I were controlling his mind.

And he did stop. He stopped five feet above the air.
Surprised, I studied my staff. Just like the one I used in the test, it had
changed. In fact, all of the symbols that had been carved on the original were
now on this one. The crystal at the top was seared to the wood and inside was a
blood-red spot. It was
lighter
red than before, but it was still almost
identical.

It had been my staff all along.

*          *          *

Everyone loved Scott to pieces. There were already
students, both women and men, who begged Henry to bring the kid back the next
semester. Everyone tried to teach him things like reading and math. Sometimes
he would shift, escape Addison’s watch, and explore the school. Everyone admired
and pet him as he would wander in and out of classes, in the dorms, outside, or
in the castle, and swim in the lake. The little cub loved water. He quickly
attained the nickname “Kitten” and was adored by students and teachers alike.
When Henry or Addison studied in the dining room, he would often wander around
the room and visit with everyone. Especially people who let him eat off their
plates.

Henry was adamant to stop that habit, saying, “Kitten
isn’t a dog and he can eat anything he wants from the buffet.” Henry himself
was pretty much cured of the full-moon’s control; he could now get angry at
anyone for any reason just like everyone else, and he seemed to really enjoy
kissing Addison…
everywhere
. There was still something annoyingly proper
about him, but he always mellowed out whenever he was around Addie or Scott.