Page 90 of Shadowed Fate

I push harder and my shadows start to make small cracks in the barrier. The lengths wrapped around the students' throats start to loosen as my shadows break through.

One by one, they are freed from their confinement. They fall to the ground gasping for air but safe and alive.

Lochan and Callen rush towards them, helping them up and away from danger.

I continue to push against the barrier until finally there is nothing left but my own darkness surrounding us. I open my eyes slowly, feeling drained but also exhilarated by what just happened.

Lochan turns towards me with a look I can’t interpret in his eyes.

Turning my attention back to our surroundings, I see the academy is still in disarray but it looks like things are starting to calm down.

"So, what's the plan?" Rory asks, his usual joking tone made serious by the gravity of our situation.

"We need to find out what breached the defenses. And fast." Lochan says.

As they strategize, I’m distracted.

"Brigid?" Callen's voice cuts through my spiraling thoughts. "You with us?"

I nod, forcing myself to focus. "Yeah, I'm here."

But am I? Really? The Raven King was a monster, a force of destruction that nearly tore the supernatural world apart. If I'm connected to him—

"Brigid?" Tiernan's gentle touch on my arm startles me. "Your thoughts are practically screaming. What's wrong?"

I open my mouth to respond, but I’m standing beside a window, and movement in the periphery of my vision snags my attention. A cloaked figure stands at the edge of the forest, unnaturally still. As I watch, its head turns towards me.

"Brigid, what is it?" Callen's hand is on my shoulder.

I try to point, to draw their attention to the figure, but my arm feels leaden. "There's someone—"

In the blink of an eye, the figure vanishes, leaving nothing but a wisp of shadow in its wake. My heart drums against my ribs like a caged bird.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?" Lochan's eyes narrow, scanning the area. "There's nothing there."

But there was. I know it.

Chapter 38

Lochan

I trace the magical wards etched into the stone, searching for any sign of breach or weakness.

Nothing.

The defenses feel as impenetrable as ever, yet something's off. I can feel it in the air, a wrongness that sets my teeth on edge.

I press my hand flat against the wall, reaching out with my magic. There has to be something I'm missing. Some trace of how they got in, how they managed to get past the Council’s defenses.

A new thought occurs to me. What if there was no breach? What if—

No. I shake my head. But it stays, a poisonous seed taking root.

I think back to the night I overhead the dean in the abandoned wing. I still don’t know who it was the dean was talking with or what it was all about, but it wasn’t anything good—that I do know.

An inside job. It's the only thing that makes sense.

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