Page 1 of Bonds of Magic
1
NOAH
“What the hell did you do?”
Cory still hadn’t spoken since I’d found him in the clearing. He’d gone mute. And sure, he was pretty beat up, so maybe that was to be expected. But he was in the best shape of anyone in that clearing, and he wasn’t talking.
My mind reeled, remembering what I’d seen. Erika Martinez dead. Seb collapsed on his side, hands pressed to his stomach, his blood staining the snow black. Cory, wavering on the point of collapse. And the fourth body in the clearing.
Jude Ingram.
His face was seared into my memory. He was the one Argus had sent to hound me into joining them. He’d been impossible to get rid of. I’d had to leave in the middle of the night, just to get away. The man had been dogged, stubborn, and coldly cruel.
And Cory had been standing next to Jude’s body in the snow.
Whathadhe done?
“Noah,” Isaac chided. “I think a little less accusation might be in order.”
I rounded on him. “Two people are dead. Sebastian’s bleeding his guts out in the infirmary. At the very least, Cory saw what happened. At worst—”
I broke off, still trying to make sense of it all. Could I have been so wrong? I’d thought Cory was vulnerable.Weak.
But weakness didn’t kill two people.
Or did it?
I turned back to Cory and snapped, “What. Happened.”
He still said nothing. I wanted to shake him.
“Stop standing there like a post andspeak,” I commanded. But Cory refused to open his mouth. I worked to keep my rage in check.
I’d demanded to know what Cory had done from the moment I’d seen him in the woods, but he’d stayed mute. I’d made a round of the clearing, ascertaining that Erika and Jude were dead, and discovering that Sebwasn’t, when he moaned softly as my fingers touched his pulse.
“Not…fault…” Seb had gasped, before lapsing into delirium.
I’d cursed my lack of healing ability, my lack of magic entirely. Seb’s hands fell away from his wound, weak with blood loss, and I’d taken over applying pressure, wondering how the hell I was supposed to save him. My knees were freezing as I knelt in the pool of blood congealing around his body.
I’d looked over my shoulder and yelled at Cory again. “What happened here? Who did this? Was this you?”
But he’d just stood there numbly in the snow.
How long had I stayed there, trying to keep Seb’s insidesinsidehis body? It felt like ages, but it might have only been a few minutes. At some point, Isaac had shown up, along with Orlando Moyano, the head of Heal, and Hye-Soo Chun, a professor in Harvest.
Orlando had enough skill to fix much of the damage right there in the snow. Still, he and Hye-Soo had brought Seb back to the infirmary to consult with Cinda. Isaac ordered me to take Cory back to his office and wait while he dealt with the bodies.
The bodies.
I had no idea what Issac had done with them. What would he tell Erika’s family? I didn’t want to think about how that conversation would go. I knew the pain of losing a child all too well.
Did Cory have something to do with all of this? He couldn’t have killed Jude, surely. But Erika?
I’d been worried about Cory at first, racing through the trees, hoping only to find him alive. But if hedidn’thave anything to do with Erika’s death, then why didn’t he say something to defend himself?
Maybe hedidneed shaking. Without stopping to think about it, I stepped forward and put my hands on Cory’s arms.
“Noah.” Isaac’s voice cracked like a whip, gentle chiding gone. “Can’t you see that he’s in shock?”
