Page 108 of The Warlock's Trial

Tate squeezed her back. “I was hoping you’d say that. You and Miles can decide what to do with the Seer Wand together.”

“You should keep the Seer Wand, Tal,” Miles voted. “It chose you—you deserve it. And I agree we should have access to the Wands’ powers at all times, in case something bad happens…”

He trailed off and glanced toward Onyx, like the two of them knew something we didn’t. Something was definitely up. We could all feel it.

“What’s going on?” Talia asked slowly.

Onyx twisted her hands together. “There’s something you guys need to see.”

Footsteps came from down the hall. Professor Warren stopped in his tracks when he saw the worried looks on our faces.

“Clarice is in bed,” he said. “Is everything okay?”

Miles shifted his weight between his feet. “Not really, Professor. We ran across bodies on our way back, after Lucas portaled us home. We didn’t want to touch them or move them until you guys returned. You should all come see.”

Onyx and Miles led us out the front door. Mandy followed, but Tate stayed back, like she knew whatever they had to show us was awful.

They led us through the trees. Miles was silent for several minutes, until we got closer to the border of our ward. “Onyx cast some spells to see if she could figure out what happened to them. What’d you call it? A magical autopsy.”

“Yes. I made a potion I learned in my nursing classes,” Onyx said. “I sprinkled it around the scene. It’s supposed to show the areas of injury, but we didn’t find any injuries. We don’t know how they died.”

They hadn’t exactly said what kind of bodies they found. I thought maybe they’d found dead animals or something. Then I saw where they were leading us. Ahead of us in the forest, not far beyond the boundary of our ward, two corpses lay motionless on the ground. The two men were dressed in identical black uniforms.

“Executors?” Nadine stopped in her tracks. She steadied herself against a tree, while Professor Warren stepped forward cautiously.

“We figure the priestesses sent more Executors looking for us, after the others we killed didn’t report back,” Onyx said.

“But they were dead by the time we got here,” Miles added. “We don’t know what killed them. It looks like they just collapsed."

Talia stepped closer. “We’re at the border of our ward. If they came much closer, they would’ve found it. Nadine, can our ward kill them?”

Nadine shook her head. “No. Our ward keeps us concealed, but it isn’t deadly.”

I stepped closer to inspect the bodies. Something about this was very strange. Usually I could feel the emptiness of death permeating the air, but this was different. I felt less than empty.

I felt… nothing.

“Lucas, what did you hear when they died?” Nadine asked. “It might give us clues as to what happened.”

I shook my head. “I can’t be sure. I hear multiple thoughts every day. I can’t identify whose thoughts they are if I don’t know them personally. I’ve learned how to handle it so it’s more like background noise. We were fighting Executors and then escaped to Malovia when this all happened. I wasn’t paying attention, so I’m not sure what they said.”

“Any idea how long they’ve been out here?” Chloe asked Professor Warren.

He waved his hand over the bodies, using his Death magic to assess the scene. “They haven’t been here long. They must’ve died right before Miles and Onyx found them.”

I looked at Miles. “Were you able to sense their ghosts when you found them?”

He shook his head. “No. I tried, but they must’ve already moved on by the time we got here.”

Chloe turned to Talia. “Can you see into the past and find out what happened here?”

“I can try.” Talia held up the Seer Wand, which began to glow at the end. She closed her eyes, and her lids began to flicker.

The Wand glowed brighter until Talia’s knees gave out. Grant rushed to catch her, then gently lowered her to the ground.

Talia shook her head as she came to. “That was intense, but the details are fuzzy.”

Mandy narrowed her eyes. “You have all the power of the Seer Cast with that Wand. Can’t you see everything?”

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