Page 223 of The Demon's Spell

“What happened?” I demanded as I ripped a piece of fabric off my t-shirt.

“The Tarantulas,” Samantha sneered. “They didn’t have any magic, but they came after us. They said we caused this, and that we’d suffer for it. They can’t be far behind!”

I pressed the fabric to Darcy’s wound, and she winced. “Let me guess,” I said. “Avery was with them?”

Darcy sobbed. “Sh—she went after F—Felicia.”

My stomach dropped to think of Felicia and Stacey—of all the lives we lost tonight. All because our people had turned against one another, all because they were afraid.

A pair of double doors across the room blasted open. Students screamed and scattered as something heavy flew through the doorway and skidded across the floor. A woman whimpered, and I realized it had been a person.

I shot to my feet, and as the crowd parted, I realized the person who had been thrown was Rosemary, the librarian. She cowered as a group of Executors followed her into the room.

“Apostates like you will pay!” James sneered as he marched into the room.

He was closely followed by all five members of the Treacherous Tarantulas. They each carried some sort of makeshift weapon. Ryan held a candlestick, and Nolan carried a statuette. Finn had a thick tome in his hands he must’ve grabbed from the library. Funny, since I hadn’t seen that kid read a book a day in his life. Declan and Corbin both carried rope, which they’d fashioned into nooses.

None of them had magic right now. We could defeat them.

“Leave her alone!” I shouted.

James and the Tarantulas paid me no attention. James looked to the crowd of terrified students and shouted, “All you apostates will pay for what you’ve done! This is your fault!”

He locked eyes with a group of girls near him—Gwen, Camille, and Valerie. The girls cowered together, then quickly raised their wrists to show they bore the mark of Miriam’s Chosen. James smirked, then turned away from them.

He pointed to Rosemary, who was scrambling backward while the Executors approached her. “This one’s going to suffer first.”

Professor Blackbird threw himself between Rosemary and the Executors. “You’ll do no such thing!”

“Out of my way, old man,” James snarled, shoving the professor aside.

I sprinted across the room, but James pulled a knife out of his pocket. He drew his arm back as he knelt to Rosemary’s level, then shoved the blade toward her stomach. I reached him a split second before the blade touched her, and I tackled him to the ground. The knife clattered across the floor. The crowd gasped as I slammed my fist into James’s face over and over again.

The Tarantulas surrounded me, and one of them smashed a weapon into the back of my head. My head spun, and I landed on the ground beside James. I didn’t get a chance to steady myself before someone wrapped a noose around my neck and yanked backward, cutting off my airways. People began shouting protests, and others egged them on.

“Hey!” someone shouted. It sounded like Gregory. “He was trying to save her! Let him go or I’ll—I’ll—”

Behind me, Corbin gasped, and the pressure on my throat loosened as he dropped the noose. I yanked it off my head and scrambled to my feet. Nadine reached me then, and I grabbed her to pull her back from the others. When I turned to look at what happened, my heart lurched.

James’s knife stuck out of Corbin’s back, and blood oozed onto the carpet below him. Gregory took a few cautious steps backward, like he couldn’t believe what he’d done. Brayden looked horrified, but he approached Gregory and gently took his hand—showing he was by his side no matter what.

“I—I was trying to save…” Gregory stammered.

“Save the apostates!?” Ryan roared. “You may bear the mark of Miriam’s Chosen, but you are an apostate as well! Get ‘em!”

The room erupted into chaos. Magic whizzed overhead from students and professors who had been spared from the Waning. People found whatever objects they could and used them as weapons or shields. It didn’t seem to matter what side people were on—everyone was a target. Students fled out one set of doors, only to appear back inside the room through another entrance.

Nadine threw her hands up to create a shield around us, but a rogue spell hit her in the side before she could cast the spell. I caught her before she crashed to the ground, but the sound of voices in my head brought me to my knees.

Shadows surrounded us, and people began attacking us from all angles. I threw myself over top of Nadine, taking the blows for myself. It was like the night in the town square all over again—fists, magic, and weapons pounding down upon us. We’d been beat down so much over the past week, I didn’t know how much fight we had left in us.

“Lucas!” Nadine protested. She tried to push me off of her. She knew I’d be beaten to death if I took it all for her, but I wasn’t going to let her get hurt.

Over the sound of the whispering voices in my mind, cats screeched so loud, my ears rang. I heard Grant and Talia screaming. I wanted to get to them, to save them, but I couldn’t move. There was no one coming to our rescue.

Nadine tried to create a shield, but the Executors and other members of Miriam’s Chosen stomped her hands down, preventing her from casting. Each time she shot off a defensive spell, someone else would come in to hurt her again. She couldn’t cast fast enough.

I heard the chilling sound of Avery Mitchel’s laugh. “Let’s see how well you cast magic without fingers!”

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