Page 106 of Every Shade of Shadow

I eye the others first, before shifting my gaze back to Ava. “Wait, wait, you’ve got evidence of this?”

“Evidence? No,” Ava replies, confidence still high in her tone. “Just my grandparents told me. According to them, a practitioner reaches the peak of their powers in time. If someone wants that particular practitioner dead, they take them out early. Look around you, people. What is Lumina fucking full of?”

It's like the air has been sucked right out of the room. Leo is staring at Ava, while Lily gnaws at her bottom lip, at a total loss for words. I try to process this, offering her a short, simple answer.

“Young witches and wizards.”

“Exactly,” Ava gives an emphatic nod. “And two of the most promising prospects have already turned up dead in a matter of, what? Days? This means our so-called ‘Mortis’ is keeping an eye on things here. Maybe that’s all Lumina is—somewhere to assess potential threats and eliminate them before they get too powerful.”

“Kind of dark,” says Leo, “though it does make sense in a fucked-up way.”

I bring my fingers to my temple to think. My coat begins to split open, about to give everyone a nice eyeful of vagina before I bring my hands back and tug it closed.

“Okay, screw what we were thinking before, traps and all that,” I tell everyone, urgency speeding up my tone. “We train. We work our respective disciplines so we’re powerful enough to take out this fucker when the time comes. Mortis or not, offense is the best defense, right?”

“Not what I think George Washington had in mind when he said that, but I’m on board,” Lily agrees, breaking her silence. “We have to be ready for anything, stay vigilant and shit.”

“Well said,” Leo nods in appreciation, holding out his hand, fist clenched. “We stand together. Whoever the fuck this guy is, we give him hell—united.”

“Strength in numbers,” Ava goes on, awkwardly extending her own fist. “If one of us is in danger…”

“We notify each other,” I finish.

“How?” Leo asks.

“There’s a spell for telepathy,” says Ava, “Mumur mentis. My mother taught me.”

“I don’t know if I want you in my head,” laughs Leo.

“You and me both,” replies Ava, a look of disgust on her face.

“For emergencies only,” I tell the group, extending my own fist into the middle.

Lily nods, bringing her fist in. “It’s settled then. We learn Ava’s spell, menstrual murmur or whatever, and we train, and we fuck this shit up.”

“Hear, hear,” nods Leo.

We fist-bump, which is totally, completely cheesy in a poor-Avengers kind of way, but fuck me sideways if it doesn’t feel good to be part of something for once.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I’m thankful for classes today.

I sit in Metamagic and drum my fingers against my notes.

Testing. Testing.

I bolt upwards so hard and fast I almost fall out of my chair, enough for the professor at the front of the room to raise an eyebrow. “Ms. Fairchild?”

“I’m fine,” I smile.

But the voice comes again inside my head, as loud and clear as if it were my own.

Testing.

Another voice comes through. It’s Leo. It works, Ava. Now piss off.

Lily’s voice next. Working for me.

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