Page 8 of The Spell Caster

“Understood,” Costi said.

“Good. I can’t spare a vehicle for you—we have just enough to get the children and elders out. Don’t call for a rideshare. I don’t want non-magical humans anywhere near here. Walk out to town and rent a car.” Councilor Luna’s phone dinged again insistently. “I don’t need to tell you to be extremely careful, especially on the bridge. Watch the skies.”

Costi gave a single nod. “I got her.”

The councilor returned his nod. “Fate go with you.”

She was already picking up her phone and asking for updates from the witch on the line before she was even past the curtain.

Costi slid off his stool, not betraying any pain from his injuries. I stared at him in bewilderment.

The infirmary sounded less chaotic now—the shouts had quieted to snatches of conversations. The alarming bangs from outside the building had tapered off.

Had we beaten them?

Costi leaned over me, peering into my eyes. “How are you feeling?”

I swung my bare feet over the side of the bed. “I think I’m okay.”

“Okay enough to walk out to town?”

“I can if you can,” I said, but I wasn’t entirely sure.

The corner of his lips twitched upward. It was an old joke between us from our childhood, me, younger and smaller, trying to keep up with him through countless adventures. He would tell me he wasn’t going to slow down and then slow down anyway.

Costi called the medic over, and I shivered in the chilly air as he removed my IV.

“Normally, I’d never let you leave the infirmary this soon, but this situation…” The medic blew out a breath. “All right, guardian, your turn.”

While the medic tended to Costi’s forehead, I dragged myself into the nearby bathroom. Looking in the mirror was painful—my skin was sallow, and my eyes were wide and glassy. My hair was a tangled mess. The infirmary gown, as bad as I had thought, wasn’t doing me any favors. It was a shame that witches couldn’t just wiggle our noses and do healing spells like the outsiders showed on TV. We had to heal with time and medicine the way all humans did.

My clothes were ruined, but I found a cupboard that was stocked with a pile of folded nursing scrubs. My shower was awkward as I tried to wash my hair with one hand while not getting my shoulder bandage wet, but I emerged clean and dressed.

“Ready?” Costi’s face had been wiped clean, his wound bound with neat stitches. “I gotta stop by my place and grab my gear and weapons.” He looked me over, rubbing his chin. “You’ll need some better clothes too.”

“I… left a bag with some clothes in your tree. The tree in front of your apartment, that is.”

Costi’s gaze sharpened. “That was before the attack,” he put together immediately.

I pulled in a breath.

“Were you—” He stopped speaking and glanced to the hall, pulling me protectively out of the doorway.

I heard the voices that had alerted him as two witches turned the corner. It was Aura, one of our older spell casters, and her guardian. The two witches were still in sleeping clothes, the guardian with her sword strapped over flannel pants. They’d been pulled out of bed for the emergency.

Aura’s demon familiar trailed behind her, a pale creature that looked like a child. Albeit a child with huge black eyes, sharp teeth, and pointed ears. The pair didn’t notice us, but the little familiar turned and glared with a sulky hiss.

“You think someone in the community sold us out, you mean,” Aura was saying.

“That has to be it,” the guardian said. She was a tall witch with close-shaved hair who had been a few years above me in school.

“One of the mission teams could have led them here by mistake,” Aura pointed out.

“This is just like what happened in Greece,” the guardian insisted.

My eyes flitted to Costi in alarm.

He looked back at me steadily. If he had a reaction to their words, he kept it to himself. It wasn’t something we talked a lot about as children, so I had no adult reference for his feelings about the Greek incident. It made my heart twist. I’d never considered it before.

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