This time she didn’t hang around on the floor. She jumped up, showing her agility and athleticism. She brought her hands up in a defensive position. “I’ll be ready.”

  “You need to be ready now.” He came at her again. This time he used a faint few charges of magic. They curled around his fingers, leaped over his wrists, and circled his shoulders like a loving embrace.

  He paused, then came at her from both angles. That was no misnomer. His body suddenly split, and he attacked her in a pincer move.

  She tried to fight the real him – or what she thought was the real him – but she got halfway through smashing her magic laced fist into his face when he just disappeared in a puff of smoke.

  “Too slow,” he spat as he elbowed her hard in the back of the neck.

  She went down like a sack of bricks. Again he pinned her, but this time from behind. He drove his knee into the small of her back. As her face was ground into the floor, she tried to flatten her hands on it and push up, but he was stronger. He was no longer just using a little magic – it was practically raging off him in a torrent.

  “You can’t hold back during your fight with Magnum Optimus,” he snapped. “It’s clear that the school wants you for blood contracts. But if you’re not strong enough,” he hissed, “it’ll think nothing of bleeding you dry and killing you.”

  She screamed, shoved into him, and finally pushed him off.

  He jumped at the right moment, and rather than her move shoving him off-kilter, he used it as momentum as he twisted to the side. He grabbed her arm just as she pushed to her feet. He twisted her and flipped her right back onto her back. This time she struck the floor of her room with such an echoing crack, the windows shook.

  The air was pushed from her lungs. She still managed to jump up.

  By that time, Jake had already put several meters of distance between them. He thumbed his nose. The magic on his hands transferred onto his face. It crackled around his cheeks and narrowed eyes before dissipating in faint wisps of smoke. “Do you know what the school has planned for you, Felicity?” he began as he circled her, his hands clenched into tight fists.

  “You already told me. It wants to make a blood contract with me.”

  “Yeah, but do you know what that entails?”

  “I’m understanding blood contracts more and more every day.”

  “That’s not my point, Felicity. Do you have any clue what kind of plan they have for you, specifically?” His voice underlined the word you. It practically carved it out of the air and shoved it down her throat.

  She was forced to mutter a quick, “No.”

  “They’re going to use you to find more people like you.”

  “You mean blood witches?”

  “Yeah, of course I mean blood witches. If they can’t find more like you, they’ll start to try to create more. A blood witch is worth more than her weight in gold. She’s worth it in magic,” he snarled.

  “What do you mean create?”

  Jake wasn’t content to just stand there and talk. He came at her again.

  This time she got just enough warning that she dodged back. But his body split apart again. She tried to track which one was really him, but once more, she got it wrong. Her fist smashed into what should have been his face, but it struck nothing but smoke. The smoke didn’t just dissipate around the move. It curled over her hand then grabbed it. It yanked her to the side. At the same time, the real Jake came at her and locked her in a headlock. As his strong bicep tightened around her throat, she started to gag.

  He brought his head right down close to her ear. “They’ll make a contract with your blood. Then they’ll try to figure out how it works, and they’ll use you to create more blood witches. Do you know what will happen then, Felicity?” As he spat his impassioned words, his chest rocked against her back.

  She finally gripped his wrist tight enough and gathered enough magic to flip him. He didn’t stay down for long. He rolled and jumped up. He looked right at her unflinchingly, and he said, “Then they’ll take over the world.”

  That comment did just as you would expect. It made her screw her nose up and splutter in indignation. “The world? You’re mad. The magical community—”

  He was right beside her. She hadn’t even seen him move. He sunk his elbow into her gut. She was thrown back onto Abigail’s bed. She tumbled off it, pillows and cushions striking the floor beside her. She rose, her messy hair fanning around her.

  “If you were about to say that the magical community isn’t interested in the rest of the world, wake up. They weren’t for a long time – because what could ordinary humans give us? Nothing. Over the years,” he gesticulated wide, “we’ve had the power to ignore them, and where we haven’t been able to ignore them, we’ve controlled them. We’ve lived alongside humanity without getting too involved. But what’s the number one lesson of the magical community? We follow power,” his voice boomed out.

  He went to hit her again, but Felicity was starting to learn how he moved.

  She dodged back, spun, and managed to put several meters between them before he came at her again.

  He smiled. “You’re learning how I fight. Good. I didn’t think it would take long to teach you. Now, where was I? Oh yes, our evil overlords. For years, the magical community hasn’t been interested in humans. But we follow power. We follow blood.”

  She hated the way he said that. She swore it made her heart shrivel.

  “With the right blood,” he nodded at her again as he spun to the side and tried to grab her but failed, “my father thinks that we should be able to do the impossible. We should be able to make the mundane magical.”

  That statement was so shocking that Felicity momentarily forgot that she was in a fight.

  A big mistake. Jake capitalized on her distraction again. He rugby tackled her. She smashed into Jane’s old bed. She tried to shove up, but Jake locked his arms around her back and started to cast strong magical spells. They were the equivalent of chains. But rather than wrap around her muscles, they wrapped through them.

  “You don’t want to believe that, do you? But it’s true. With the right blood,” he looked at her so hard, his eyes could have drilled through her body and kept going through the rest of the school, “they think they’ll be able to make anyone magical. And do you know what’s so great about being able to create witches and wizards? You can use them like livestock. You can farm their magic,” Jake said. His voice did a tour of horror on the word farm.

  Felicity didn’t need to close her eyes for horrifying visions to encompass her.

  Judging by what she’d seen back at the Magical Council, if Jake was telling the truth, the world would become apocalyptic. People would be given magic, only to have it ripped right out of their blood.

  “I don’t…” she began.

  “What?” Jake tried to tighten his grip around her middle. “Want to believe it?”

  With a grunt, she managed to throw him off.

  He rolled onto his back, flipped, and stood. He pressed one knee into the floor and looked up at her. “Regardless of what you want to believe, it’s true.”

  “You can’t make someone magical,” she stammered. “That’s just impossible.”

  “Are you repeating something you learned in class? Do you know how many lies they taught us? In some ways, I’ve got to hand it to Brown. At least under her reign students at Broadstone will understand exactly how dark this magical world is. We’ve been living like cloistered nuns until now.”

  “You can’t make someone magical,” Felicity tried, her voice hardening with impassioned reason. “You have to be born with it. It has to be—”

  He reached her again. This time, he tried to put her in a headlock while facing her. That meant her face was driven into his chest. She felt his chest vibrating as he snapped, “It’s in your blood? Yeah, magic is in your blood. That’s the point. It’s how you make people a resource.”

  For a split second, she didn’t want to push away. Yeah, Jake reminded her of Damien again – but there was more to her hesitation.

  Being this close to Jake brought up memories of Lucifer. And that brought up something she hadn’t felt in two damn days. Safety.

  There was too much she didn’t know. The situation was building so quickly, it was like dirt that was being mounted on her as she was being buried underground.

  “Trust me, Felicity,” he said, his chest vibrating against her as his voice dipped down real low, “I know what my father is planning.”

  She shoved him off. She didn’t bring her hands up in self-defense. She just stared at him. “You’re not lying to me, are you?”

  He spluttered. If he meant the move to be emotional, it wasn’t. If anything, it was bored. “You’ve gotta stop doubting me, Felicity. Look at everything I’m showing you.” He gestured wide. “Look at everything I revealed. And look at everything you’re becoming.”

  He rounded a hand and tried to punch her, but she got there first. She capitalized on a single moment of distraction, and she smashed her fist into his jaw. She didn’t put all of her force behind it, but it was enough that it made him stagger back. He immediately gripped his mouth then grinned. “You’re learning more quickly than I expected. Bravo.” He tried to come at her again.

  This was one of the least showy magical fights she’d ever had. Sparks weren’t flying everywhere. The ground wasn’t shaking, and the air wasn’t filling with magical smoke.

  Unlike most of the other students at Broadstone, Jake was combining the two skills Lucifer had always taught Felicity to use – physicality and magic.

  They were a lethal combination in his expert hands.

  He came at her. She tried to dodge back, but he just upped the ante. Just as it looked as if he would try to grab her again, he settled for kneeing her hard in the hip. As pain jolted through her, she crunched down onto the floor, rolled, and came up beside him. She wasted no time in collecting her foot around his knee and yanking him hard to the left. He was pushed off balance, but he wasn’t about to go down alone. He hooked an arm around her waist and dragged her with him. She fell hard onto his chest.

  Damien. Damien. Damien. From his scent to his heat to the feel of his muscles – it was him. Except it wasn’t.

  Felicity pushed up. Her hair scattered around Jake’s face.

  She wouldn’t look into his eyes – she didn’t need to know the way he was staring at her.

  She jumped up and pushed her hair in front of her face, not out of her eyes. She hid behind it like a curtain.

  Jake stayed where he was for several seconds, then flipped up with a grunt. He thumbed his nose again, then danced back lithely and rounded his hands into magic-encased fists. “Now you know the stakes, hopefully you’ve realized that it’s more important than ever to win. No matter what they throw at you,” he added.

  “Why, what are they going to throw at me?”

  “I already told you. They’re going to use whatever they’ve got in the Broadstone arsenal. Do you remember before how you mentioned that Bethany was led away by a teacher who looked like he was dead?”

  “Yeah, and you told me that he was probably dead.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about, Felicity. Broadstone holds onto its history. Literally.”

  Felicity was suddenly reminded of something that Jane had said back when they’d had their class down in the basement. She’d pointed out that there were true history spells down there.

  Could that be what Jake was getting at now?

  “You know anyone who dies on campus – as long as they die in a specific way to the blood spell – can be brought back?”

  “What—”

  “Or at least an imprint of them can be brought back. You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next person you’re pitted against is the old principal.”

  “You mean anyone who dies—” Hope began to arc through her voice.

  “Not Damien,” Jake added, all of the bluster disappearing from his tone. “Not Damien,” he added, his voice becoming even emptier. “But the principal – absolutely. I know for a fact he was fed to the blood spell.”

  Felicity didn’t ask how he knew that for a fact. She honestly didn’t want to know. Though it didn’t sound as if Jake had been the one to feed the principal directly to the blood spell, it was clear he was involved somehow.

  “Where are you going to be when I’m going to be fighting Broadstone’s things?” she said pointedly.

  “I can’t give you a hand, Felicity – no matter how much I want to. Now that you’ve risen through the ranks in Magnum Optimus, you’re going to be fighting deeper and deeper in the school. I likely won’t even be able to reach you.”

  She shivered at that promise. “Just how far down in the basement are we talking here?”

  “As far as I’m aware, there are 100 different levels to the basements of Broadstone.”

  “What?” Her voice rocketed up loudly.

  “Yeah. You know, honestly, it could be more. It all depends on how powerful you are and what you can access. Now, defend,” he snapped.

  As she’d already said, Jake hadn’t used that much magic thus far. Now he did. Now he lit up like a candle on a dark night.

  He surged toward her. She had no choice but to let her own magic encase her body. Though she tried just to cast a simple spell, simple it was not. Her forbidden magic rose to the fore. It encased her, feeling like a second skin.

  They met in the middle of the room. So did their magic. His yellow-gold energy smashed up against her black-red force. The whole room started to shake. As he tried to elbow her in the throat but she managed to dodge, she stared pointedly at the door. “What if the surveillance spells realize what we’re doing?”

  “If there’s one thing I’m still good for, it’s dodging those damn spells. Don’t worry, no one is going to interrupt us.” His voice became particularly gravelly on that promise. He also tried to grab her from behind.

  Felicity pivoted hard on her foot, her shoes squeaking. Jake tried to grab her by the wrist, but she broke his grip. Now she was relying on her forbidden magic, it was a heck of a lot easier.

  When he came at her again, and he slashed magic toward her like a sword, rather than push it away, she just grabbed it right out of the air.

  It shattered, and the whole room shook with a boom.

  Jake took the time to lean back and clap. “Damn, Felicity, look at you? I thought you’d need more training with your forbidden magic, but that is clearly far from the case. Please don’t kill me,” he added playfully.

  He came at her again.

  This time it was the easiest thing in the world to shove him back. All she had to do was tick her finger to the left, and he was thrown sideways. It was his turn to fall face-first onto Abigail’s bed.

  He grunted and pushed up. He transferred sweat all over Abigail’s already rumpled sheets. A few charges of his magic even blasted up the headboard and burned it.

  This time when he got up, he did so slowly.

  He thumbed his nose, which was, apparently, his go-to move during a fight. His hand was unsteady, and his broken thumbnail scratched the tip of his nose. “I’m not a doll for you to throw around, Felicity. Watch yourself.”

  He cast a spell she’d never felt before. When you’d never encountered a spell, it was almost impossible to track what it would do until it did it.

  Or at least, that was a problem Felicity had once had. For as Jake came at her, either time slowed down, or her senses sped up. On fast forward, she tracked the various strands of the spell as they filtered through the air. It was like she could see a tree growing on fast forward. All she had to do was watch a little longer, and she could discern what kind of tree it would one day become.

  It was a speed spell. He was seconds from coming to a stop right beside her, and judging by the tension growing in his elbow, he would shove it hard into her neck.

  Felicity jolted back, brought her hand up, and grabbed his elbow just in time.

  Jake was so surprised that she’d been able to track the move, he gasped like she’d kicked him in the throat. “What?”

  Felicity pushed into Jake. It was her turn to drive him into the floor. She pinned one knee against his chest and brought her face down close until she stared into his eyes. Once more, her hair fanned around his face.

  This time, she didn’t hesitate at staring down at him, so this time, she noted his every expression. Surprise quickly gave way to pride, then something a heck of a lot more intimate.

  Felicity still didn’t push off his chest until she’d made her point. “Is my training over yet? I feel I’ve outgrown you.”

  “Kind of hard to outgrow someone you’ve never had,” he muttered.

  That pointed comment was enough to push her off his chest. She rose sharply. She patted down her pants then stared at him. “Thanks for the lesson,” she muttered.

  He rose, shrugged, then checked his body for injuries. When he didn’t find anything more significant than a few bruises, he nodded. “I feel you’re going to use this lesson sooner rather than later.” He turned and stared out of the window, and the quality of his gaze was unmistakable. He was like a soldier standing on some parapet waiting for the enemy to arrive. “The rules of Magnum Optimus are pretty clear. You get one encounter per day. I wouldn’t bother going to sleep tonight until it arrives.” He turned to walk away.

  Felicity should just let him go, so why did she reach a hand out to him suddenly, her fingers spreading wide?

  Jake somehow noted it, despite the fact his back was to her. He slowly arched his head over his shoulder. A playful smile spread his lips. She was done just thinking he looked like Damien – he felt like him on every level. The more time she was in Jake’s presence, the more she was stupidly fooling herself into thinking that Damien was back by her side and the last three years had been nothing but a terrible nightmare.

 

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