Page 85 of Every Shade of Shadow

The pressure on my throat increases.

Think, I whisper to myself, the words barely audible as the shadow tightens its grip on my throat.

There’s got to be another spell…

My lips move, forming the words despite the tightening pressure around my neck. One by one, they spill from my lips, forming the spell that had been eluding me from the very beginning of this ordeal.

"Per potentiam noctis, per arcanum diutius, protege me ab umbris," I choke out.

I don’t even know where this comes from. It’s not a spell I should be bringing to mind.

At once, the shadows recoil, their mish-mash forms dissolving as the ancient spell takes effect. They retreat, scurrying away.

I roll to my side, gasping for breath as Lily hobbles over.

"Fuck, you okay?" she asks, her eyes scanning my body for injuries. "Did it work?"

I nod weakly, my throat aching and my body trembling with residual fear. "Yeah...yeah, it worked," I manage to rasp out.

“Do you want me to get help?”

I shake my head, still wheezing. “No, I’m good. We’ll report it tomorrow. Let’s just get the hell out of here, okay?”

“What was that spell?” Lily asks, her curiosity clear.

I shrug. “I don’t know.”

I look back to where the shadows came from, but they’re gone.

*

A sleepless night follows, because that? That shit was scary. I consider going to the Professor, but this isn’t an allocated night, nor have I been invited. The thought of being turned away from his door is unbearable.

I toss around in bed instead, thankful when morning arrives, or so sayeth my phone at least.

A long, long morning follows.

The acrid stench of herbs clings to my clothes as I collapse into the worn velvet couch in the corner of the common room, kicking off my boots.

"Fucking Professor Hawthorn and his sadistic pleasure in torturing us." Ava groans, examining her fingers. It’s unlike her to be so blunt.

"At least he didn't make you repot the venomous tentacula on your own this time." Lily winces, nursing her own bandaged hands.

"I swear that bastard gets off on seeing us suffer." Ava scowls, her eyes shadowed with exhaustion. “The whole faculty is a bunch of sadists.”

I consider the Professor—his hand, the whip.

The rack.

"That's nothing." Leo exhales a cloud of smoke, offering me the joint he’s holding. "You didn’t hear? Rogue shadows. You should've seen what they did to the Charms classroom."

I take a hit, the joint slightly sweet and grassy.

I glance at Ava, whose face has gone pale.

"Apparently they were everywhere." Her voice drops to a whisper. "Swarming across the walls. Too many to contain.”

It occurs to me then that maybe these shadows are behind the murders. It’s abstract, of course, but nothing about Lumina is straightforward. If something from the shadows could become corporeal, maybe?

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