Page 159 of Every Shade of Shadow

The Headmistress laughs, seeing my reaction. “I thought you’d enjoy that. I hear you two have had your…difficulties.”

I steel myself. "Let her go, you sick bitch."

I lunge toward the Headmistress, determined to end this quickly, but shadows erupt from the ground, wrapping around my body and pinning my arms to my sides. I struggle against their embrace, pulse racing.

The shadows within me fight back, dark eels twisting and turning inside me.

Those whites glow with malice as Mortis comes forward. “My mother and her mother before, rest their souls, they wanted this, you know. My mother and I, we worked for it, together. When she knew she wasn’t going to make it, she passed it onto me, this legacy. And cancer?” she laughs. “Can you believe it? One of the most powerful sorceresses to ever live and she’s taken by fucking cancer?” The Headmistress shakes her head. “But it’s time to eliminate a cancer of a different type. It’s time we moved beyond the shadows, showed the greater world our strength.”

It's official. She’s lost it. This woman is out of her fucking mind.

Whatever bonds are holding me are released. I let my limbs go loose.

Cloaked figures emerge from the darkness at the back of the room—shadow minions, summoned from the depths of darkness itself. Tendrils of black mist cling to their forms, seeping across the floor toward us. The air grows cold and heavy, saturated and thick with evil. I feel it in the back of my throat, the smog and tar of it.

I hear Lily swallow next to me.

There’s a snap of air as the portal reopens behind us. I turn to see Damien and Ava step through.

Lily's hand reaches out and tightens around mine. I had almost forgotten she was there. We stand firm, shoulder to shoulder with the others. Ava lifts her wand, magic sparking at the tip, while Darkwood materializes a curved dagger, the obsidian blade etched with ancient runes. I remember this dagger from my time with the guillotine. I remember the kiss of it against my sex.

"So it’s a party," Mortis rasps. “Very well.”

The Professor's eyes narrow. "We’re not going to make this easy, Isadora.”

“No, Damien,” she says, “I don’t imagine you will.”

Mortis spreads his arms, and the shadows stir. "Come, then. Face me. Let’s see what you have learned.”

The minions surge forward with an unearthly shriek, tendrils of black mist lashing toward us. Magic flares as Ava hurls a blast of light, dispelling the initial rush of shadows, but more take their place. The Professor is a flurry of motion, dagger flashing, as the minions descend upon us.

Black shadows and bright spells collide. I blast a surge of Luminara Ruptura at the nearest wraith, dissipating its smoky form.

Beside me, Darkwood hurls a writhing rope of shadows at a group of Mortis's acolytes. They scream as the dark tendrils ensnare them, siphoning their life away.

This is the most forbidden kind of magic. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel some thrill seeing it used for real, a hunger awakening I've only ever felt in Darkwood's presence, but this is life and death, and I’d rather not end up on a slab tonight.

I steal a glance at him. His eyes glow with feral intensity, features taut and predatory. In this moment he is the embodiment of shadow itself—beautiful and terrible.

Our gazes meet for a heartbeat. A silent understanding passes between us.

I remember the final trial on the rooftop. Perhaps we can do this, if I can channel that kind of raw, immense power.

Umbrarum Tegumen does away with the next, faltering on the shadow after it and forcing me to use Bomardeum Prismatis to buy us some time.

But these minions are coming thick and fast. They’re like a storm of locusts—unrelenting and numerous, trying to defeat us with sheer numbers and speed.

Enough holding back.

I reach into the shadows and brace.

Lily screams somewhere to my left, blood erupting from her arm, but I can’t stop.

I throw myself into the fray with renewed vigor, dark pulses of magic bursting from my outstretched hands. The shadows bend to my will, making short work of the acolytes.

All the while, Damien fights at my side. Our powers feed into each other, an endless feedback loop of shadow and light.

I crave more. More power, more intensity...more of him. I step closer, heartbeat quickening as his eyes lock onto mine, dark and fathomless.

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