Furious Flames (Elemental Book 3) (19 page)

“
What did he say?
” I asked.

“
He said that Keigan had the key. How are your
instincts feeling?”

“Fine. Why?”

“Because the two most powerful wizards have just
left the entire council alone with Watson. If Watson is trying to take out the
council, I can’t see a better chance.”

“Remy, would you mind escorting Devon and Darwin back
to their room so we can talk in private?” Watson asked kindly.

My instincts fired up; danger was coming.

The torches on the wall all simultaneously died,
bathing the room in darkness. Fire came alive on the floor, spreading in a thin
line to surround the table and all the wizards sitting at it. I pushed Darwin
towards the door and away from the circle of fire. The fire formed symbols
inside the circle, scattering the wizards like roaches from the light.

“I’ve seen this before in one of Langril’s books,”
Darwin said. “It’s a trap.”

I recognized the symbols when he said it. “It’s to
drain the powers of whoever is inside it. I know how to break it… sort of.”

Before I could explain, Remy started shouting
profanities. The reason for it was Len standing two feet in front of her. His
eyes were solid black and his skin was charred as he reached slowly, rigidly,
for her throat. In an instant, she had a gun in hand and shot him in the
shoulder. Like a zombie, he didn’t even notice. So, like anyone who knew how to
kill a zombie, she shot him right between the eyes. He faltered from the force
of the bullet and reached for her again.

Watson pulled her away, picked her up, and calmly
walked through the wall of fire. When he set her down, his shirt was burning,
but Remy was fine. He absentmindedly patted the flame out as if brushing off a
little dirt and considered the wizards trapped in the circle thoughtfully.

Because of the pattern of the burn, I noticed he wore
a talisman of some kind under his shirt like Vincent did. “Why didn’t the fire
burn you?” I asked him.

“I can handle it,” he said evasively.

I saw his back as he turned and realized I spoke too
soon. Part of his dress robe was burned through and I saw a patch of burnt
flesh. He could burn. “Do you know how to break this circle?” I asked.

He nodded. “I do, but it takes two people.”

“I’ll help,” Remy volunteered instantly.

“I need a potion from Keigan. Tell him what happened
and he’ll know which one. Hurry, or they could all die.” He was lying to get
her out of the room, and for good reason. If anything happened to Remington, her
father would be out for blood. The spell did take two people, but Remy was
everything to Hunt and she would be protected whether she liked it or not.

She hesitated only for a second before running to do
as he asked. Len grabbed Kale by the throat and lifted him until his feet
dangled. It probably wasn’t the strength of the dead wizard’s grip that caused
Kale to thrash and choke out a scream, but the fact that his skin was burning.
From Len’s grip spread a severe burn. I couldn’t imagine the pain. Even though
Kale was a deplorable ass, nobody deserved to die that way.

“I know how to break the circle,” I said. “Can you
get back in there?”

He nodded. “You know it must be done in perfect
sync?”

“Yes. Let me and Darwin in your head and we’ll do it
from this side.”

Without responding, he walked right back into the
circle and pulled Len off Kale. His hand burned on contact, but he didn’t seem
to care. He shoved Len on the ground and stepped on Len’s chest, presumably to
hold the dead wizard down. “Ready,” he said evenly.

“Darwin, use the amulet,”
I said through our
link that was still open. As he prepared himself, I reached out for the most
powerful mind in the circle. Although the circle was difficult to penetrate, it
was the man’s mind that was an obstacle.

Maybe he wasn’t a dragon, but he sure as hell wasn’t
human. His brain was like a cave that was too hot, too cold, too wet, and too
dry. No memories or stray thoughts met my consciousness, only the exact
instructions on what we were about to do. His was a mind that would be both
very fun and terribly dangerous to try to control and I was fortunate I didn’t
have to.

I sensed when Darwin was ready. “
We have to do
this at the exact same time, so make sure we do,”
I told my young roommate.
Since I was also in Watson’s mind, he heard the plan as well. It was actually a
pretty basic spell; doing it simultaneously with someone else was the difficult
part.

The circle was created to protect a person from the
entity inside it. Of course, the entity wasn’t supposed to be able to walk out
like Watson had; it was meant to contain something as powerful as a demon.

Don’t think about that.
I pictured the release
enchantment and felt the professor picturing it too. Darwin was making sure
there was no back-and-forth between us; we had to think the exact same thing at
the exact same time.

Fire built up inside me, unbelievably powerful. It
was my magic brought on by the counter-spell. This time, it wasn’t only symbols
that appeared in my head; chanting of some foreign language filled my mind, as
well as the fierce desire to free the magic created in the circle. It was fire
just as mine was, but it was created from vastly different intentions.

New symbols of fire formed inside and around the
circle… but this new fire was blue.

I felt a strange release of tension, which wasn’t
right. The magic wasn’t released like it was supposed to be; it was absorbed.
My power along with Watson’s and the energy already inside the circle was
absorbed by some entity so powerful I couldn’t even feel it, let alone read its
mind.

The fire died, the link between Watson and me broke,
and the councilmen scattered. Len, however, stumbled to his feet. He reached
for Watson’s throat. Watson held his hand flat towards Len and a bright red
ball of light shot at the dead wizard, hit him in the chest, and vanished. Len
was thrown back several feet.

He didn’t get back up again.

“What the hell was that?” Remy screeched from the
door behind us. Langril was nowhere to be seen.

“That,” Watson patted imaginary dirt off his shirt,
“was Darwin using his magic to save everyone.” All eyes turned to Darwin, who
made a weird, half-cough, half squeak. “Still think he is a throwback?”

They were too stunned to agree or disagree. I picked
up and pocketed the amulet that Darwin dropped to hide it from the council.
“Well, we have a lot of studying to do.” Darwin followed me out and once the
door closed behind me, I pulled the amulet from my pocket. After a moment of
running my fingers over the engraved metal, I scoffed. “Huh. Interesting.”

“What is?” he asked.

I handed it to him. “Interesting as in this is a
fake.”

*          *          *

Instead of returning to our room, we went to Hunt’s
office. On the way, I felt the sudden need to stop and go in a different
direction. Darwin sighed as I did so without a word, but he followed me anyway.

We were in a particular hallway when my instincts
stopped pushing. “Maybe it was a false alarm,” Darwin suggested as I looked
around.

“Yeah, that must be it,” I answered, reaching for the
nearest light sconce. Instead of turning the gas off, I pressed the knob in and
heard a soft sound of metal sliding against metal. “Oh, it’s this again. Ghost
led me here before.” I pushed against the wall to the left of the sconce. A
two-foot wide section gave, forming a narrow doorway into a dark passage.

I reached for my penlight and found my pocket empty.
Damn.
I had left it on my desk.

“I got it, bro,” Darwin said, holding up the one I
gave him.

I went first and Darwin followed behind, although it
was considerably easier for him to get through. It was about twenty minutes
later that my instincts told me to stop. Low to the ground on our right was a
wooden, flexible panel and a thin metal handle. Darwin clicked off the light I
pulled the panel open.

Dark glass separated us from the room we looked into
from the fireplace, just like before. In fact, it was the same office and the
same people. Only this time, Dr. Martin was pacing and Professor Langril was
sitting in a high-back chair in front of the fireplace. Fortunately, the fire
wasn’t going, or the scene would have been impossible to make out.

“We may have to kill Logan,” Langril said.

Dr. Martin sighed. “I refuse to kill anyone. I like
this place. I like this life. He does need to shut down the school, though.”

Langril scoffed. “He never will. Not after losing half
the last semester.”

“Then we’ll lose a lot more students.”

“He is blinded without Rosin, and the fastest way to
get Rosin to come back is to kill Logan. Whether Rosin saves him or not, it
sounds like a win-win to me.”

“I thought you wanted Rosin out of the way.”

“Out of
my
way, not Logan’s. Rosin is the only
one keeping Logan from becoming just as bad as Krechea. It starts with an
obsession; for Krechea, it was to destroy me, for Logan, it is to destroy the
tower. The next step is a major loss, which will only drive him deeper into his
obsession.”

“Are you not afraid of going down that very path?”

Langril frowned thoughtfully at the fireplace, his
eyes very nearly meeting mine. He grinned and I thought for a moment that he
saw me. “If Vincent or Logan get the last key, I’m going back home before they
can destroy the tower.”

“But… If Rosin is gone, they can’t destroy it.”

“He’ll be back. Right now, I think Devon is the only
one who can get the key before Krechea does. If Krechea gets it, then we’re all
dead, so I would rather Devon succeed. If that means I have to help Logan and
Vincent, so be it.” He stood and faced the doctor. “Logan should be back by
now.”

“Where did he go?”

“He and Vincent thought that I had the key.”

“Why would they think that?”

Instead of answering, Langril started for the door
and vanished halfway there.

*          *          *

It took Darwin and me half an hour to make it to
Hunt’s office. Not bothering to eavesdrop, I knocked and Hunt told us to come
in. Hunt was in the chair behind his desk, Vincent was sitting on the chair in
front of the fireplace, and Langril was on the couch.

“Has the council hurt Henry?” Darwin asked.

Vincent shook his head. “Not yet. They do consider
Ms. Scout’s word as proof, though. They voted to execute him if they don’t find
his parents dead or alive by Monday. I convinced them to push it back to the
end of the month.” He held up his hand before Darwin could protest. “I will
break him out before then. Right now, he is being very cooperative without
admitting anything, which is good because if we do find his parents, the
council will be too embarrassed to ever doubt him again.”

“Are they looking for his parents?”

“No. I do have someone tracking Ms. Scout, in case
she knows where they are.”

“One of Gale’s powers that he got from the amulet was
the vampire thrall,” I said. “Gale is probably doing this; he probably used it
on Holli to make her believe Henry killed them.”

He grimaced. “Actually, I met this girl when she came
to the council. It is more likely she’s lying for personal gain.”

“Maybe, but I still think we shouldn’t forget Gale.
He doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to give up. More importantly, we
need to worry about the students. Len, Kristen, and Conner are dead. Caleb and
Nathan are in critical condition.”

“What happened in the auditorium? Remy said Lenard
Newman attacked,” Hunt said.

“He did.”

“He is dead.”

“Does that ever stop anyone anymore?” I asked.
Professor Langril laughed. “So please tell me how a dead person goes for a
walk, because the only thing that comes to mind is a necromancer. I really
don’t like that.”

“I am afraid the answer may be worse than that.”

“Worse than a necromancer? Is there such a thing?”

“There are loads of things worse than necromancers,”
Darwin said. “Not all necromancers are all bad.”

“Last semester, your golems were possessed. Did
Krechea and the shadow walkers take it up a notch?”

Langril shook his head. “The longer the key is
missing, the stronger they get, but not this strong. There is absolutely no way
he has enough power to do this here.”

“Are you sure none of the shadow walkers are loyal to
you?” Hunt asked.

“My followers were all loyal to me once, but those
who didn’t bow to Krechea were killed when he took over.” He considered me for
a moment. “I was what you could call a priest.”

“To the shadow walkers?”

“Yes.”

“Who are they?”

“When they followed me, they were sort of guardians.
Now, they are my greatest enemy. When Krechea attacked Heather, I left them to
protect her. Krechea took over and used the magic I spent my entire life
learning.”

 “If Krechea isn’t powerful enough, who is?” None of
them had an answer. “What if he found a way to get stronger?”

“He would need someone here to help him, and they
would have to have a lot of power of their own.”

Darwin grasped my arm tightly. “Did you see that?”

“See what?” I asked.

“Movement in the shadows.”

“The more you know, the closer you are to getting the
key, the closer Krechea will be to killing you,” Hunt said, standing. “For your
own safety, you must leave this to us.”

“He never will,” Vincent told him.

“He isn’t ready,” Langril said, agreeing with Hunt.

“Yeah, talk about me like I’m not here; that is way
better than actually telling me what’s going on.”

“We are trying to protect you,” Vincent said.

Just then, the door opened and Nightshade stepped in.
“There’s a problem. Two, actually. The bodies of Len, Kristen and Conner are
gone, and the council just ordered the school to be quarantined.