Chapter Ten

When I got back to my room, I found Seph still tied up, but later that night, she began whispering, “Okay. Okay. Okay.”

Like someone was telling her to do something and she was agreeing.

But no one was in our room. I’d flung black salt everywhere to check.

I didn’t sleep at all since my nerves were too frayed, so I got out of bed early the next morning to worry. As soon as Seph blinked her eyes open, I pounced.

“Do you remember anything from last night?” I demanded.

Her eyes grew wide and panicked, and I instantly regretted not easing into it a little smoother.

“No. Why?” She bolted upright out of Nebbles’s cuddle-fest with her face. “What about Ramsey?”

I explained everything and hated the agonized look on her face afterward. Her whispering to herself was probably nothing, I’d told her, but neither of us believed it.

Down in the Gathering Room, Seph and I sat for breakfast underneath an unlit skull chandelier. No torches floated in midair, but some were secured to the mica walls. Right behind the flames, the soot had colored the walls even blacker, so the mica no longer glittered. They definitely weren’t lit by magic.

Just then, Headmistress Millington took to the stage. Dark circles hung underneath her eyes, and she looked haggard instead of her usual put-together appearance. Thankfully, the bruise on her face from last night had been healed. She pinched her lips as she cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, which wasn’t necessary. The place was practically empty.

“As I’m sure you’re aware, the magic dampener that was stolen from White Magic Academy has entered our school and been activated,” she began.

A few students scattered around the tables muttered in low voices.

“Several of you have arranged to leave before the snowstorm is supposed to hit later today, and I’m urging the rest of you to do the same. Without magic, we have no academy here. But we aren’t defenseless, and we will find and destroy the dampener in order to give you back what is rightfully yours. With that said, you will see many strangers here, expert mages I’ve called to help seek the dampener and restore some of the school’s magic. If you’d like to stay and help, I won’t stop you, but it would be in your best interest to leave. Now before the storm hits. If you do decide to stay, P.P.E is the only class still in session for the day.” She opened her mouth to say more, but her words seemed to have gotten lost for a moment. “I’m gravely sorry this has happened on my watch.”

She spun around and left the stage in a hurry, whisking away her tears.

My heart broke. I wished there was more I could do. At the very, very least, though, I didn’t blame myself for bringing the dampener inside any longer. But if it wasn’t in Vickie’s diary, then where was it?

“What she didn’t say is written all over everyone’s faces,” Seph murmured as she scanned the room. “Everyone knows about the onyx’s protections being gone. The last stone to be activated.”

“We have to stop that from happening. You should go though.” I took hold of her arm with both my hands as if to drag her out of here myself.

She sighed and shook her head. “Go where? Home is too far away, and there’s only one boat that goes there once a week.”

“Then go to my house. My parents would love you.”

“Go there without you?” she asked and shook her head sadly. “Roommates stick together, or at least the two of us do. You can tie me up with rope again if you want to, but I’m not leaving your side.”

At that, a guy from the sophomore table looked over at us, his interest obviously piqued.

“Oh, turn around,” I snapped and almost threw my bread at him before I remembered that was a carbohydrate sin.

He turned back with a chuckle. Behind him, I didn’t see any sign of Ramsey. He was probably on guard duty. After we’d found the headmistress last night to tell her about Vickie’s dog, we’d made plans to meet in the library later today for more research. Hopefully we wouldn’t see any more signs of Vickie’s dog, Max, even if he was a Very Good Boy. Even so, I wore the bell from the graveyard around my neck.

Jon scooted down the bench toward Seph, and I knew without a doubt he wouldn’t be going anywhere unless his princess did.

“Hey,” he said.

Seph looked up at him and smiled, effectively turning him to mush, zero magic needed. “Hey.”

"So maybe we can help find the dampener. I've gotten quite good at osteomancy."

"Osteomancy?" I asked.

"Bone divination. We covered it in Divination class last— Oh.” He cast me a glance. “I forgot you weren't there."

Since I wasn't Seph, he often forgot about me, which I didn't take personally. "Do you need magic?"

"It doesn't rely on magic so much as your connection with the world of Amaria." He shrugged. "It's more spiritual, I guess. It should work, but it does require a certain balance and a wide-open space. Like the gym?"

"Not the gym." Seph shook her head hard.

Jon's eyebrows shot up. "O…kay."

"Sorry, the gym and I have a history…I just…" She shook her head again, so her hoop earrings clinked together.

I touched her elbow lightly for comfort. "How about the library?"

"That should work,” Jon said. “We'll also need another male. Two females, two males." He smiled at Seph. "Almost like a double date."

Real suave, this one. I liked him a lot.

Seph's cheeks turned rosy. 

"But we'll need another guy. I suppose I can ask someone on my floor—"

"Oh, that's okay,” I said with a shrug. “I'm meeting Ramsey in the library anyway. He can do it."

Seph slowly turned her head to me and blinked. "What did you say?"

"Ramsey can do it. We're doing research there before we shovel today, which we’re doing after breakfast to beat the snowstorm." Yes, we were to shovel before the snowstorm. That had been Headmistress Millington’s idea so the mages arriving to help had an easier time getting to the academy. We were also supposed to do it again at our normal time during the storm, which was just lovely.

"Oh, are you now," Seph said, enunciating each word melodramatically.

"What?"

"You're spending an awful lot of time with him, Dawn. And now you want to go out on a double date with him?"

"Let's not get crazy here," I said, holding up my hand. "He'll be there anyway and will offer his assistance. That's all."

"Are you sure about him though? Really sure?"

That was a loaded question. In one sense, I would never forget his face while he stood across from me with Leo's blood seeping toward both of us. In another sense…the more I got to know him, the more he didn't seem like a killer. Or a liar. Or anything other than someone who'd given me my knife back after I'd tried to kill him with it because he knew how much it meant to me.

"He'll be there," I said, because that was the only thing I knew for sure.

After breakfast, when the headmistress held the door open for Ramsey and me, and the wind and blowing snow lashed against my face, I leaned in close so Ramsey could hear.

"Go fast today. We've got a little bit more to do than research in the library."

"Like what?"

"Jon's going to do some bone divination. He doesn't need magic, but he needs us. And he needs Seph, too, a lot more than he needs us. Will you do it?"

"Yeah, okay.” His flinty eyes narrowed as he studied my face. “No magic equals no dolls with my hair and pins poking out of them, thank gods."

"That hurt, huh?" I grinned, maybe a little too triumphantly.

"Like she was trying to rip my spine out so she could wear it."

"Sorry."

"No, you’re not, but it's okay." He casually brushed my fingertips and squeezed them in his before starting up the path. "Stay warm."

Why had he done that? Just as an excuse to touch me? It hadn't seemed like he'd really thought about it, like it was automatic. How was it so easy for him to forgive both Seph and me? If I were in his shoes, I couldn't do that. I held grudges for years though. Or at least I thought I did.

The snow had piled up nearly to my knees since yesterday. It was lightly snowing now, but the air felt heavy, and the wind snapped angrily like we were about to get dumped on. Working quickly so we could get finished early broke me out in a sweat despite my numb nose and cheeks. By the time I finished, I was panting.

"Damn," Ramsey said behind me. He stood next to his shovel, somehow not out of breath, while I sucked in enough air to fill five hundred balloons. He wiped the sweat off his brow with the arm of his cloak. "You really want to get to the library."

"Always," I said between gasps. "Let's go."

But the magic of the library had taken a dark turn when the two of us stepped inside. I should've known it would with the dampener's power in the school, but I'd had no idea it would look like a nightmare hellscape. A library without magic was a terrifying place. The live trees that made up the tables and chairs in the middle were all dead and black. The circular shelves that towered four stories high twisted in on themselves so that some books appeared to be shelved upside down on top of others and crammed in too tight. Some had already spilled to the floor. The spiral staircase that wound up to the top leaned to one side at a dangerous angle. There weren't any sparkling leaves that fell from above and softened our footsteps, but there were plenty of raven droppings. 

"This is horrible," I said.

"Yeah,” Ramsey sighed. “I saw Mrs. Tentorville crying earlier because there’s nothing she can do."

The door opened behind us, and there stood Seph in the light from a wall torch with a little yellow flower behind her ear. Jon held the door wide for her like a gentleman and a large cloth bag slung over one shoulder.

He waved her through. "After you."

"Thanks." With a shy smile, she stepped inside and hurried toward me, a strange mix of relief and panic on her face. "He really thinks this is a date. He gave me this flower and even got me chocolates."

"A date?" Ramsey's elevated eyebrow rose farther as he smiled down at me. "So that's why you wanted me to come."

"No. It isn't. We agreed to meet here anyway, remember?" But despite the truth, my cheeks warmed.

"If you say so. But if I'd known this was a date, I would've at least bathed. Maybe even with soap."

"It's not, and you smell fine."

"Ah." He grinned, flashing his dimple. "I'm taking that as a compliment, just so you know."

"Can you just…" Flustered at both him and his dimple, I hauled Seph far away from him and Jon.

"Seph, enjoy it. Jon likes you, and I like him, which is really saying something these days. Just…have fun. You deserve it."

"Uh-huh. Well, you deserve it too." She flicked her dark eyes over my shoulder where Ramsey was probably watching us. I could feel the heated prickle of his gaze skimming down my spine. "He likes you, which makes him freaky since you tried to kill him. I think you should stay away from him, Dawn, because that's not normal."

A laugh bubbled up out of me. I couldn't help it.

"Neither is trying to kill someone, so let's just go play with Jon's bones, all right?"

Seph threw her head back and laughed as she stepped in to hug me. "You're delightfully weird, you know that?"

I hugged her right back. "Well, it says an awful lot about you that I can be my normal weird self around you and tell you all my darkest secrets. Thanks for not running away screaming."

"Wouldn't dream of it." She pulled back and patted her flower back into place.  "Now let's go bone."

I linked my arm with hers. "Your use of nouns as verbs is disturbing sometimes."

She chuckled. "Oh, it's meant to be."

We joined Jon and Ramsey who stood over several different kinds of bones Jon had already spread out on the floor. Given that we were here, at this academy, no one bothered to ask where he got them from.

"So," Jon said, holding out one of them, "each of these has a rune derived from Hecate herself etched into them, and the rune is something simple like up, down, et cetera. I think one of the reasons why osteomancy is often overlooked is because it is so simple, but simple doesn't mean bad."

"What do we do?" I asked.

"Picture what you're looking for in your mind. It can be anything, but just one thing each. Then choose four bones each and go sit in a big circle."

"What if I have three things I want to find?"

Jon frowned. "Well, I could take one of them. What is it?"

"Where's Professor Wadluck?" 

"I've already tried with him, but we can try again." Jon looked to Ramsey. "Can you take Dawn's other question?"

"Sorry, no." His gaze flickered toward me, and then he turned away to gather his four bones from the floor, his brows drawn low.

And then I remembered—he was looking for something himself and felt he needed to learn to shadow-walk in order to find it. It had seemed like he'd already combed the whole school. Whatever it was, he didn't seem too keen on sharing what it was.

"I'll take your other one, Dawn." Seph gave Ramsey a hard look as he sat on the floor with his bones, probably imagining puncturing him with pins.

I wasn't though. 

“Everyone's searching for something, Biscuit,” Leo had once told me. “And the journey to find it makes you who you are.”

“Did you just make that up?” I'd asked.

"That's actually from Dad. He was trying to find the chocolate-drizzled strawberries Mom hid from him.”

I laughed and then immediately blinked back tears. That was the thing with memories—they could fill you up and then cut you down in the same breath.

"You all right?" Seph asked, watching me closely.

Ramsey gazed at me, too, his expression troubled as he likely read every thought I’d ever had from my face.

I cleared my throat, reminding myself to save my emotional breakdowns for when I was alone. "Yes. Sorry. You can ask about the dampener, Seph."

Nodding, she gathered her four bones, and Jon and I did the same and joined them in a circle on the floor.

"Everyone has the thing you're looking for in your head?" Jon asked. "Good, so throw your bones into the center of our circle."

We tossed them together where they landed with a loud clatter. 

"Right. I'll go first to show you how it's done." Jon rubbed his palms down his cloak and squared his shoulders. "Where is Professor Wadluck?" He closed his eyes, waved a hand over the pile of bones, and chose one, part of a leg from the looks of it. After flipping it over, he found the rune. "Outside. Well, I suppose that narrows it down some?"

"Sure…" I said, but where outside? Vickie knew, but she wasn't telling. "Me next?"

Jon nodded.

"Where is the person who killed my brother?" I asked, squeezing my eyes shut. Then I chose a bone. When I opened my eyes, I turned the bone—a pelvis from the looks of it—over and over but didn't find a rune. "Uh, Jon, I think you forgot one."

"No, I didn't. Let me see." Frowning, he reached across the circle for the bone. "I…Maybe I did forget this one."

Ramsey caught my eye, his expression blank, while Seph glared daggers into Ramsey.

"I swear I did all of them,” Jon grumbled. "Either I'm a dumbass, or I don't think the bones want you to know that quite yet. Can you ask another question?"

"You're not a dumbass, Jon," I said, but inside, my nerves were rubbing together. I didn't care what the bones wanted—I wanted to find out who murdered Leo. But thankfully, I guess, I had a hundred more questions. "Seph, I’ll just steal yours if you don’t mind. Where is the dampener that was stolen from White Magic Academy?" This time the bone I chose did have a rune, so I handed it to Jon. 

"Inside," he read.

"Well, that's obvi—" Seph bit her tongue when she turned to Jon and then smiled and patted his knee. "That's obviously really helpful."

He beamed and touched the spot where her hand had been. My gods, they were adorable.

"My turn." Ramsey took a deep breath and closed his eyes, his long lashes fanning his cheeks. "Where is the Staff of Sullivan?"

Sullivan. That was his last name. Why did he think it was here?

He chose a bone and handed it to Jon.

"Down," he read, and Ramsey sucked in a breath like he'd just been hit hard in the stomach.

"Hey," I said softly, leaning toward him. It was the natural healer in me to make sure he was okay. That's all it was.

He nodded sharply and exhaled. "I'm fine."

Seph and I shared a confused look.

"Okay, Seph, your turn," Jon said.

"Um, I was going to ask Dawn's second question, so…what if I'm not really looking for anything important?"

"You are,” I told her. "I'm sure of it. Everyone is."

"Okay." She sat up straighter and closed her eyes. "Where will I find myself in the future?"

Jon read her chosen bone. "Up."

She grinned. "Well, that's the only way to go. I'll take it."

"I like your optimism," Jon said with a dreamy smile on his face.

"Thanks," she said, beaming.

"All right, well, Dawn and I need to do some research so…" Ramsey let that not-so-subtle hint dangle in the air, a good thing since I wanted to ask him about the Staff of Sullivan, and I doubted he'd tell me in front of an audience, if at all.

Seph stood at the same time he did. "We're researching too."

"We are?" Jon asked as he pushed to his feet. "I thought we could walk up to the Green Floor. The plants are dead, but some things are nice when they're dead."

"Spoken like a real necromancer," I said, smiling at him as I stood too.

He ignored me, as usual.

Ramsey frowned at Seph, who looked like she wanted to gut him. "You can trust me with Dawn."

She cocked her bald head, studying him while the nearby torches flickered over her face tattoo. "I really can't though."

"Suit yourself." With a glance at me, he waved down a raven.

"We should do this again sometime,” Jon said. “We can get more people, more bones. Vickie Sloane once showed me this familiars' cemetery that everyone forgot about, so I…can…" He stopped when he caught both Ramsey and me staring at him.

"What do you know about Vickie and that cemetery?" I asked, stalking closer.

He quickly stepped back, his gaze bouncing between Seph and me. "I…just that she showed me where it was the first week of school."

"Did she do anything strange? Say anything about...anything?" I demanded.

"She seemed distracted. Agitated, I guess. I don't even know if she knew I was there with her half the time while I dug up bones. I think she went to that cemetery a lot to be alone. It sounded like she was having trouble with someone."

"Who?"

"She didn't say."

ME. Whoever that was.

"I already told all this to the headmistress after Vickie died, but…” He swallowed hard. “I saw Vickie pull out a death charm from her pocket while in the familiars’ cemetery."

I took a step backward, my mind spinning. A death charm in her pocket…Was it one of mine? Was a death charm with her initials on it the real cause of her death? If someone was slipping death charms to the both of us, why? Why us?

"From her reaction, I don't think she put it there," Jon continued. "Shortly after that, she asked me to leave. Well, more like threatened, so I left. The next day, she…you know."

The air seemed to harden in my lungs. Ramsey and Seph watched me closely and their mouths moved, but I had no idea what they were saying. Vickie and I were linked…somehow. Just as Seph and Leo were linked in their sleepwalking and in their pure, good hearts. Vickie and I…We must have had more in common than I thought, which turned my stomach. Vickie wasn't a good person, but then again, neither was I. But Vickie wasn't terrible. She loved her dog. She seemed to love her parents. She was capable of love, just as I was. We were neutral. We were—

I gasped. "Gray."

"What's gray?" Seph asked.

"I am. My magic is. Was Vickie’s?"

"Yes," Ramsey said. “Hers was.” 

"Seph or Leo was needed to activate the stone. Vickie or I…I don't know." I was missing something here, something vital, and it seemed to dangle just out of my reach.

"But Vickie did know,” Ramsey said, nodding. "She knew who ME was and where Professor Wadluck was."

"So, she was killed before she gave that info away." I stared down at the raven flapping around Ramsey's boots, waiting impatiently.

After an uncomfortable pause, Jon nudged Seph.

“Want to get out of here now?” he asked.

“Fine.” Seph narrowed her eyes at Ramsey. “I don’t need magic to do harm with needles. You’ll do well to think about that hard while I leave you alone with my favorite roommate.”

Ramsey smiled. “Noted. I swear on my life I’ll behave myself.”

Lies, but I kept my mouth shut.

Once they were gone, I turned toward him. "Today is twelve-twelve, December twelfth, and whatever is supposed to happen, Vickie knew about that too."

"What's the significance of December twelfth?" Ramsey asked the raven.

It took to the air toward the second story. A dark, warped hollow in the trunk of the tree shelves spilled books and loose pages, and the raven pecked at a red book lying on its side.

Ramsey followed, and without even pausing to search for the best way to climb, he leaped up onto the distorted bookshelves and hauled himself up like his limbs were that of a spider's. He plucked the book out, and leaped back to the ground, his cloak whipping around him like shadows.

"How do you do that?" I asked. "Make it look so easy?"

"What?" A flash of those dimples. "Moving?"

"Yes," I said, waving my hand. "All of that."

He sauntered closer as he opened the book. "Practice. Why? Jealous? Impressed?"

"Of course not," I snapped even though I was a little of both. "You just seem to float like you're made of air."

"I can assure you I'm made up of a lot more than air." He pressed in close, too close, as he held out the book for me to see, his gaze staying on mine. I could feel what else he was made up of—overwhelming heat and solid muscle.

I tore my eyes from his but didn't take the book from him and run. But I sure didn't stop and analyze why either.

It took a long moment for my focus to sharpen on the book, but when I did, I found pictures of the different phases of the moon. "Did you get the right book?"

"That's the one." His voice came out rougher than usual, and I peered up at him to find him staring at me. He didn't even try to hide his strange interest in my face while a knowing smile crept over his mouth. "You were expecting history dates or something?"

"Well…yeah." I flipped through the book and tried to find a reference to December twelfth. "This would go a lot faster if you helped me look."

"You could’ve just asked me to go out on a date with you, you know."

"I have no interest in dating.” I shot him a death glare. “But I have a ton of interest in the Staff of Sullivan. Why is it here, and why can't you find it?"

As expected, that shut him down fast. He moved away a few steps and seemed to find the floor a fascinating subject of study.

"It was stolen about forty years ago," he finally admitted. "If it stays gone for too much longer, my whole family will be cursed."

"With what?"

He looked up, his expression pained. "With death."

"And the staff will save you."

He nodded, the angles of his face set in determination.

"Well, now you know where to look," I said, flipping a few more pages. "Down."

"I've already searched the catacombs." He raked at his hair, so it stuck up in all directions. "But I haven't searched the shadows down there."

"So that's why you want to learn to shadow-walk." But searching for a staff probably wasn't a dark enough reason for a dead man's hand to lead him into the shadows. I doubted it would work, but for me, it might since I'd shadow-walked dozens of times already. If I decided to help him, that is. Like as a sorry-I-tried-to-kill you peace offering or something. Could I do that for someone whose face I still saw in my memories while standing over Leo's dead body? I honestly didn't know.

"Why is it up to you to find it?" I asked.

"Because I'm the only one who has the strength. The rest of my family is near death already. Two little sisters who should be running and playing, but instead, they're bed ridden. And my parents…they're…" He heaved a shaky breath. “They’re growing weaker by the day. The Staff of Sullivan is the source of my family’s power, so without it…we start to die off.”

I'd had no idea. I mean, how could I? But the fact that he shouldered all of that and didn't let it show how much of a burden it was until now told me a lot about him, that he would do anything for his family. Kind of like me. I thought back to his memory in the crystal ball of him asleep with a children’s book in his lap while slumped between two sickly little girls. His sisters. If anyone knew how deep and special that brother-sister bond was, it was me.

"I'm sorry," I told him. For a lot of things, so much that the thorns I'd created around my heart began to ache.

He held my gaze for a moment and then nodded briskly. "See anything about the twelfth in there?"

I looked back to the page I'd flipped to with more moon phases drawn above the text. The page had been marked with a torn paper that looked a lot like the pages in Vickie's diary. I took it and held it up for Ramsey to see.

He angled his body to look closer at the book. "You know, a good place to observe the phases of the moon is on top of a tower in the familiars' cemetery."

I skimmed the text, and then my heart pitched into my throat. There was a list of specific dates with years, some of which hadn't happened yet, including December twelfth.

"‘It is predicted that these dates,’" I read, pointing, "‘will coincide with the black moon, or in other words a new moon, the time when the darkest of magic can be performed. Magic of this kind can also be performed during the blood moon with slightly less powerful effects.'"

Ramsey jabbed his finger hard at the book. "Look. September sixteenth, a blood moon. That's the day Vickie was killed."

I gasped. "She knew something huge was going to happen then. Like the onyx stone would be activated…or worse?"

"That's why she was killed, then. To shut her up. That would explain the death charms Jon said she found."

I slammed the book closed. "Then we can't tell anyone about this. If word gets out that we know…I've already found a death charm in my pocket and been attacked by a shadow-walker."

"Shit." Ramsey stared up at the ceiling and rubbed his hand over his mouth. "But something big is happening tonight. Since it very likely has to do with the onyx—and it’s the only stone that hasn't been activated—I have to tell the Diabolicals since it's our job to protect it. We'll triple our numbers to guard it."

"And if they let it slip to someone else?"

He shook his head. "This is too big not to tell someone, especially if we can try to prevent it."

"We have to prevent it. Somehow, even with the dampener."

Guard stone, Leo had told me. With me as one of the few here who still had their magic, I had to try.

"This has all been building toward tonight, hasn't it?" I asked.

Ramsey sighed heavily. "Yes. It's all been carefully planned, and if someone gets in the way, they're killed."

Maybe even Leo. Maybe he'd asked too many questions about his sleepwalking and what it had to do with the stone, put pressure on the wrong people to find out why. And then murdered by a skin-walker.

"You don't have to tell the Diabolicals why,” I said. “Just tell them to triple their numbers for guarding the onyx."

"And the rest of the school? Headmistress Millington? Don't they have a right to know what might happen?"

"Of course, they do." I squeezed my eyes shut briefly to stop my mind from whirling so I could think. "Okay, we send a raven to Headmistress Millington asking her to meet us."

He nodded. "And to bring the note so we know it's really her."

"And then we explain it to her and make her swear she won't tell anyone else it was us who found this out. That way she can warn everyone."

"And if the shadow-walker is there when we meet? Or if someone else finds out we know?"

Then we might just find ourselves broken at the bottom of the stairs.