Page 80 of Hellfire

How could it possibly get any worse?

I paced a few steps to reduce the urge to greet my breakfast. Bitter tears stung my eyes. White noise rushed in my ears at the surge of my pulse. The ice in my veins reached my heart, a dagger piercing it.

Talon caught me by the shoulders, holding me steady, preparing to deliver the kick in the gut. “She claims she ran into Blaze in the hallway on Saturday and he asked her to take your mind map.”

“What?” My eyes burned black holes into the side of Blaze’s face. “Why would she say that? You were with us at the festival three hours away!” None of this made sense, and my head ached with greater confusion.

Talon let go of one shoulder to scrub at his jaw. “I checked the security footage. Blaze portalled into the Academy at 11:32AM and spoke to Astra.”

I turned all my attention to my teacher, who remained stricken and pale. “What’s going on, Blaze?”

“I don’t know.” The urgent scratching motion reddened his skin. He’d dig a bloody groove in his skin if he didn’t stop. “I have no memory of this encounter.”

I caught his hand, brushing my fingers along his marking. “Could it have something to do with this?”

“Maybe.” Blaze tugged his arm away, grazing so hard he drew blood, a man on a mission to remove the mark by any means. “Gable thought I blacked out in the bathroom stall. That might explain everything.”

What in the absolute fuck?

Talon’s expression said he was about to kick his boot into my gut harder. “Blaze’s snake branding glowed red the entire time he appeared on camera.”

There it was. My grandfather’s influence.

“What do you think that means?” I voiced.

“Your mind map vanished into another portal,” Talon advised, low and dire, “which leads me to believe that Camus may have something to do with it.”

I pressed a hand to my forehead. “So Blaze is a Manchurian candidate for my grandfather. Is that what you’re saying?”

“Possibly,” Talon agreed.

“How can we stop it from happening again?” I didn’t want to think what else my grandfather might do. “Will Blaze be suspended again?”

My teacher finally spoke again. “I already am, sweetness.”

“I’m so sorry, Blaze.” I wrapped him in my arms, holding him tight, his body cold and hard. “This is all my fault.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Luna.” He stroked my lower back.

How could I not? My grandfather sought the information stored inside me, and now he had it.

The insides of my wrists began to burn, the skin pinching and warping. Something pierced from my skin and crawled over my wrist, and I leaped back from Blaze, expecting a spider or bug on my skin. Tiny snakes slithered over them, dividing into two and multiplying in numbers.

“What the fuck is this?!?!” I shook my hands, but they didn’t come off.

“Luna!” The dread in Talon’s voice matched my own. He grabbed my shoulder, and I shook him off, terrified I’d contaminate him.

Brimstone squawked and flapped onto my arm, pecking at the crawlies, their scales sizzling and shriveling. He wasn’t fast enough, and they kept proliferating until rows of serpents covered my entire arm

“Don’t!” Blaze caught Talon’s electrified baton and lowered it. “You blast them, and you’ll hurt her.”

“I can’t get them off!” I shrieked, flicking some, yanking off others with the help of Brimstone.

“Calm down, Princess,” Talon tried to reason. “Command them off.”

Right. Use my powers. My brain scrambled for the snake tongue, but all that came out was broken fragments.

The snakes hissed and released a dark mist that circled me, tugging at my will, dragging me away from them into a dark tunnel that breached the room.

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